Thursday, May 5, 2022

PAD 2022 Day 30: Moving On


 This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2022 challenge and will be revised. 


PAD Prompt: Moving On

Poetic Form: Tanka


Untitled


I rest my palm on

a door I walked away from

so long ago.

I’ve lost the key to the lock,

yet I don’t want a new one.


PAD 2022 Day 29: The Last BLANK


 This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2022 challenge and will be revised. 


PAD Prompt: The Last BLANK

Poetic Form: 7 Syllable Lines


“The Last Goodbye”


The sun dances with the edge

of the world. They pause at a

rusted gate, wondering if

there is enough time left to

appreciate the garden

beyond. He pushes the gate

open, feeling as time gives

away in a screech. A stone 

path weaves through flora, wildly

and beautiful. Rose bushes

six feet tall. Yellow bursts from

giant sunflowers. A fox 

darts across their path. Its red

swallowed by the darkening 

green shrubbery. A granite

fountain, empty and stained by

passing days, is dressed in thick

ivy. Blue wild indigo 

stand guard with daylilies like

a wedding party waiting

for the ceremony to

begin. They walk hand in

hand, feeling the colorful

chaos eclipse them in sight

and fragrances - for now they

are happy. Shadows start to

fill the spaces between the

leaves. He spots a small patch of

Forget-Me-Not. Letting go

of her, he kneels to pick a

bouquet. He inhales the scent,

a hint of rain reflects the

goodbye he is forming for

her heart. He turns as he stands

placing the small blue flowers

in her hand. Kisses her cheek,

like a breeze. “Forget-Me-Nots,”

she says as she lifts them to

take in the moment. But the

hint of rain pierces her heart.

She looks up to find him gone,

like all the colors of the 

garden around her, fading

into the darkness of night.


Tuesday, May 3, 2022

PAD 2022 Day 28: Sight


 This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2022 challenge and will be revised. 


PAD Prompt: Sight

Poetic Form: Haibun


“The Ghost of Me”


7 a.m. bus trip on the back highways of Nebraska. A beautiful day for a track meet. Tilled farmland rolls across my window. Gray, with small rows of dirt. Every once and awhile a farmhouse breaks the horizon. A change in the sunlight reveals my reflection. I see a ghost of who I used to be. Cheeks heavy with decades. Eyes aided by glasses. And as the bus rumbles I feel the soft weight of a body that used to be athletic. I suddenly feel as sparse as the fields moving through my reflection. I have coached longer than my athletes have lived. The ghost of me frowns in jealousy as it fades away into another unplanted field.


Nestled on a hill

Sits a square cemetery

With the names of ghosts


PAD 2022 Day 27: Remix


 This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2022 challenge and will be revised. 


PAD Prompt: Remix

Poetic Form: Contrapuntal


“How to mend a Broken Heart- Follow”


Follow

The first step is to start.

Follow forever

Taste the pain, a flaky tart,

Follow friends

to inspire the muse of art.

Follow fables


Follow faith

Happiness will feel like a blink,

Follow fads

yet, the cracks will break the link

Follow fancy

to the tears that smudge the ink

Follow flames


Follow fantasy

you chisel into the heavy stones

Follow failure

of time. Stop. Listen to the tones

Follow future

your heartbeat creates for loved ones.

Follow forgotten


Follow fleeting

Tension between the beats will strain

Follow

the rails this pain uses to take us by train.

Follow fiction

At the next stop, taste the rain.


Monday, May 2, 2022

PAD 2022 Day 26: Anti-love


 This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2022 challenge and will be revised. 


PAD Prompt: Anti-love

Poetic Form:  Catena Rondo


“Let’s Be Honest”


Let’s finally be honest about this.

Love is an illusion we compose 

with recycled cliches no one knows.

Let’s finally be honest about this.


Love is an illusion we compose. 

Past moments quickly fade.

We color in loneliness. It never stays.

Love is an illusion we compose.


Past moments quickly fade

reminding us that love is already gone.

Every kiss ends, every person moves on.

Past moments quickly fade


reminding us that love is already gone.

We stand alone holding the aftershocks

from broken hearts now behind locks,

reminding us that love is already gone.


Let’s finally be honest about this.

Love is an illusion we compose 

with recycled cliches no one knows.

Let’s finally be honest about this.


Sunday, May 1, 2022

PAD 2022 Day 25: Response

 


This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2022 challenge and will be revised. 


PAD Prompt: Response

Poetic Form:  Golden Shovel

“The Last Note”

- after Marianas Trench “Ever After”


The last note is the hardest to let go, I 

lean my head into the final verse. We could 

sing this song as we run yellow lights. Be 

one heart, laughing until I get lost in your 

smile. Stealing kisses between the chords. A perfect 

note that strikes relentlessly, leaving me a disaster.