A Good Egg

Photo Credit: Barbara Young

Sometimes a good egg,

Scrambled by life’s twists and turns,

Finds herself broken.

~~ Written for an ekphrastic prompt over at Poetic Bloomings.   Many thanks to Barbara Young for providing the photo for the prompt!

This Halloween

Tree and Moon by Lydia Martinez

Come follow me this Halloween
Into a world you've never seen,
Where goblins creep and zombies dance
And ghosts lurk just beyond your glance.
An old witch riding on her broom
Is silhouetted by the moon,
And from her perch she’s looking down
Upon the unsuspecting town
Where house to house the children go
Led by the jack o lantern’s glow.
They wander through the chilly night,
Those horrors hidden from their sight.
If you would like to join this scene,
Come follow me on Halloween.



Written for a prompt from Poetic Bloomings asking us to write a poem aimed toward children.

Devils and Angels

Image by Sabine Sauermaul

Eluding devils whisper in my ears,

Leading me down false paths

With no intention of help,

Those corrupt murmurs

Playing on my weaknesses,

Leaving me under the influence

Of my persistent doubts.

I cling to dead talismans

Of my faded faith,

Translating ancient truths

From obscure tongues

In search of a solution,

Wishing I had the courage

To climb the mountain

And seek the quiet counsel

Of angels who no longer

Fly through my world.

This was written for a prompt from Poetic Bloomings that gave us a list of words and asked us to use their antonyms in a poem.  The prompt words and my chosen opposites are listed below.

Angel - devil, impair - help, transparent - obscure, skullduggery - truths,  problem - solution, timidity - courage,  loudly - quiet, power - weaknesses, sober - under the influence, chaste - corrupt.

Sparrows

House Sparrow by Darren Lewis

Sparrows huddled against the cold,
Remembering the warmth of spring
While suffering the bitter sting
That wintry winds will surely hold.

Those sparrows are a welcome sight
To one whose heart is weak and lost,
The line between two worlds uncrossed
By birds bathed in angelic light.

The spirits of loved ones who passed
Return to keep watch over me
With loving eyes that still can see
The shrinking shadow that I cast.

On feathered wing they venture near,
Reminding me I have their love,
Small angels sent from up above,
Those sparrows holding hearts so dear.


Written for a prompt from Poetic Bloomings asking us to write about birds.

Self-Inflicted

Addiction by Susan Buck MS

Another day,
Another headline
Lamenting
Another early exit,
Another talent lost
In the darkness
Of addiction
And instability,
Another dreamer
Chasing greatness
On wax wings,
Flying too close
To the sun,
Ending in
Another crash landing.


This was written several weeks ago for the Poetic Bloomings prompt of writing a poem with a title taken from a magazine or newspaper headline.  Here is the one I picked:  Mindy McCready suicide: Reports say McCready dead from self-inflicted gunshot.

Birdsong of Destruction

Birds in a Tree by George Hodan

Where others see serenity in flight,
I see demons on the wing,
An airborne menace girded in razor talons,
Waiting for the perfect opportunity,
Screeching caws echoing
From the depths of Hell
To signal their wanton attacks.
Humans are ill-designed
To defend against
Predatory aeronautics
From such indiscriminate foes,
Beak and claw ready to disembowel
Perceived invaders to their turf.
Some say the world will end
In a hail of fire and brimstone,
But I know the apocalypse approaches
With feathers and birdsong.



Written for a prompt from Poetic Bloomings asking for poems about birds.  I found great inspiration in the work of Alfred Hitchcock (and by extension Daphne du Maurier) for this poem.

Chasing Copernicus

Sky and Stars - Consuelo Suarez

He charts a course through my stars, 

Seeking to find a glimmer of me 

In tandem transit with the sun in Taurus, 

Dancing with Venus through my eighth house,  

Lingering traces as Leo rises above my horizon.  

Gravity keeps me in his orbit 

With only the occasional period of retrograde… 

At least until the day he discovers 

That the center of my universe 

Looks nothing like him.

Written for a prompt from Poetic Bloomings asking for a poem about our astrological sign.

Marked

Dead Roses by George Hodan

Withered roses,
Blackened
By time and neglect,
Mark the spot
Where love once bloomed.

Written for a prompt from Poetic Bloomings asking us to find inspiration in a phrase from another poem posted on the site.  This was inspired by the phrase “where love once bloomed” from Jacqueline Casey’s poem “The Doves” from prompt 92, Gone to the Birds.

Green Days (a cento)

Image by Mary B. Mansfield

Melodramatic fool

Searching for that someone

At the end of another lost highway,

To live and not to breathe

As my memory rests.

Television dreams of tomorrow

Like graffiti on the walls 

Shuffle through my mind.

Pay attention to the cracked streets,

The drum pounding out of time,

Lost children with dirty faces…

I stand laughing on the corner of insignificance,

Speechless and redundant;

I once was lost but never was found...

Lines for this cento were found in the following Green Day songs: “Basket Case”,  “When I Come Around”,  “Jesus of Suburbia”, “Wake Me Up When September Ends”,  “American Idiot”, “Last of the American Girls”, “Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?”, “Welcome to Paradise”, “Holiday”, “Stuart and The Ave”, “Redundant”, “21st Century Breakdown”


Written for a prompt from Poetic Bloomings asking us to take inspiration from the color green.

In Case of Writer’s Block, Break This Poem

Word Help by Anna Langova

I collect words,
abandoned syllables
of overheard conversations
tucked away for a rainy day,
stashing “itinerant” and “furtive”
in empty pickle jars in the pantry,
“mercurial” carefully folded and slid
between boxes of winter clothes
in the top of my closet
next to “pedantic” and “demeanor,”
“serendipity” carried in my pockets
until threadbare and tatty,
files and notebooks overflowing until the day
I recycle those collected words into poetry,
something to touch the dreams of another’s soul
by exposing my own.


Written for the Poetic Asides Poem a Day Challenge Day 11 prompt, to write a poem with “In Case of (blank)” as the title.  Also written for the prompt from Poetry Jam asking about the contents of our pockets.

The Bells of Newtown

Bell Tower in Winter by Jana Illnerova

I heard the bells ring in the wintry air
And my thoughts trailed off,
Not to holiday cheer
But to innocence stolen
In a blizzard of bullets,
The carefully picked presents
Wrapped in red and green
Tucked away in closets
Never to be opened,
And the families who seek
Some semblance of comfort and joy
From angels who rest
Not atop the Christmas tree
But in the loving arms of God.


Written for the Poetic Asides Poem a Day Challenge Day 10 prompt, which asked us to write a suffering poem.

In Concrete

Photograph by Mary B. Mansfield

Looking back

On memories paved

In concrete,

Your footprints

Will always be found next to

The fragments of my heart.

Written for the Poetic Asides Poem a Day Challenge, Day 10 prompt of writing a suffering poem.

Measured

Decompose by zaldy icaonapo

Her life was measured in teardrops,
Ill-advised decisions
That left her hollow and broken,
Discarded burgundy kisses
On discount tissues…
Her spirit ragged and worn
Like a crumpled dollar bill
Stuffed into a lost and found wallet,
Her value forgotten
Until someone peered inside
And discovered her hidden worth.

Waiting

Coffee Cup by Peter Griffin

Coffee and cigarettes 

Rest by my dormant keyboard 

As I await the arrival 

Of a long-overdue muse

To help blow the dust 

Off of my soul.

Written for the Poetic Asides Poem a Day challenge, day 1 prompt of “arrival.”