The Lost Love Playlist (a cento)

Stormy Sky by Alicia Dunavan

Woke up to the sound of pouring rain,
a bottle of vodka 
still lodged in my head.
There’s no comfort in the truth, 
full of broken thoughts,
lying naked on the floor.

What a wicked thing to do, 
to make me dream of you…



Lines for this cento borrowed from: I Remember You - Skid Row,  Bed of Roses - Bon Jovi, Careless Whisper - Wham!, Hurt - Johnny Cash, Torn - Natalie Imbruglia,  Wicked Game - Chris Isaak

Written for a prompt over at the Phoenix Rising Poetry Guild (the new incarnation of Poetic Bloomings), asking for poems about the sounds of love.

Flirting with Inspiration

Pen by Anna Langova

A poem is playing 

At the edges of my mind, 

A metered temptress enticing me 

With come-hither rhymes

And innuendos of alliteration 

That never quite spring to life.

The Girl Who Swallowed a Storm

Tree and Storm 2 by George Hodan

There was a girl who swallowed a storm.
Thunder echoed through her head 
and lightning crackled in her veins. 
She built her flood walls high and locked the gates, 
seeking protection from the deluge, 
but in her desperation she trapped the storm inside.
The tempest grew as the girl 
became a woman half-drowned in sorrow, 
too often swept off balance in the surge. 
With the last of her resolve and a frantic gasp, 
the woman took a pen and poked 
a poem-shaped hole in the wall, 
then another and another 
until a new world poured forth, 
a world where the rising waters 
never swamped her again.

Thinking

Pushing by Sabine Sauermaul

She’s thinking about things 

that don’t need thinking, 

the taboo white spaces 

of secrets held deep inside.  

just another silent voice 

screaming in the street, 

unheard and alone.

A Lesson Unlearned

A small sampling of what passes for writing in my notebooks...

I squint and sigh,
Attempting to decipher 
The random squiggles 
Drifting through my notebook, 
Scratchings that resemble 
Cuneiform translations
Of alien hieroglyphics,
Not the neat loops and lines 
Demanded in fourth grade penmanship.

Mrs. Brucker,
You have my humblest apologies…

Singing a Broken Song

Depression by Sabine Sauermaul

Music has been torn apart in my mind. 

My mood is dead, 

sacrificed to absent light and noise. 

I pray for numbness 

yet still seek something more, 

a file to smooth 

the rough edges of my life. 

I race forward 

into the holy tangle of shade, 

forever carrying 

the mistakes of yesterday, 

my memories lingering 

alongside the space 

of silent dread.

Cups of Seduction

Cup of Coffee by Tilen Hrovatic

Instinct guides me to him every morning, 
A bleary-eyed woman half in dream time.  
He greets me with a steamy caress 
And I lose myself in his depths, 
His aroma enticing me 
To indulge one more time, 
Warming my aging bones 
Strengthening my sanity, 
Bringing me back to life 
One sip at a time.  

End of Days

Apocalypse by Josee Holland Eclipse

Tribulation walks the land,
Our broken spirits braced
For the next catastrophe,
The land mine waiting 
To shatter our fragile illusions.
Do not linger in those sorrows,
For what seems to be
The beginning of the end
Is often just
The end of the beginning.