Day 30 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“Again”

Surprise, you’re just not good enough - again.
The stage lights shine through the cracks
of your armor. The faults can’t be held back,
fear and doubt mix like a spring hurricane.
Surprise, you’re just not good enough - again.

You feel the rumbling of hope on the tracks.
Turn in anticipation, adjust the backpack
you carry your future in, to see a runaway train.
Surprise, you’re just not good enough - again.

A lucky step saves you, a flashback
whirls in your ears of times you unpacked
hope with trembling hands, but in vain.
Surprise, you’re just not good enough - again.

You feel the gravel in your sole, falling back
to here and now, the horizon turning black
as the dust on your coat of arms. Nothing but pain.
Surprise, you’re just not good enough - again.

Poetic Form: Dansa

Day 29 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“I am Here”

I watch my shadow move in front of me, the wind, still angry from winter, assaults my face. My stride is still as quick as my youth, just not as strong as my shadowed legs wobble with another burst from mother nature. For a second I feel my presence cutout of the air around me. I am here. The world is beneath my feet. The wind has to move around me. My gumline stings as I smile. My shadow reflects my existence on the concrete. I am the moment. But then my shadow moves without me, and now I am trying to catch back up with the day.


Poetic Form: Prose

Day 28 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

"You are Forgotten"

There are unnumbered days,
lost between pages not read.
It hurts when you are forgotten.

Chalked boxes on cracked driveways,
are as faded as a past lovers’ touch
There are unnumbered days

we keep in locked journals packed away.
Desires written with cursive initials,
lost between pages not read.

And you find that the world doesn't stop
spinning, no matter the number for today.
It hurts when you are forgotten.

Poetic Form: Cascade

Day 27 PAD 2023

 This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“When it rains…”

It pours forth second
chances to redeem our hearts.
If we would only
let the rain drench all that is,
instead of running away.

Poetic Form: Waka

Day 26 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“Used to Love”

After - Parachute’s “What I Know”

Every time the path turns, I'm
lost again. Returning to find another him in
your arms. You promise me it’s not love,
and I believe. Taping my heart with
the way you smile. Then you found someone
to walk down the aisle with. What else
could I do? You became a she
I used to love. But that’s not what my heart said.

Poetic Form: Golden Shovel

Day 25 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“Just a dream?”

The road is lonely at night
as the mind departs from life.
Rewriting the script from the
hours I spent trying to sift through the strife.

I walk on paths filled with stars.
Friends move in step as we walk
then they fade away into
trees, a forest rising around me. A hawk

gives me its feathers, strong and
beautiful. I run, take off,
finding flight to be just as
lonely as walking. I decide to cut-off

my wings, falling back to the
starry path, a crash landing.
Blood dripping from the old wounds.
The forest sways. I feel my fear expanding.

Poetic Form: Endecha

Day 24 PAD 2023

 

Poem for day 24 of the poem a day challenge. Prompts form Writer's Digest.

Day 23 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“Fear …”

Fear frames
Faith
For family
For friends

Fear freezes fortune
Falling feathers
Found
Frozen

Fear forges
Fangs
For feeding
For fading

Fear finds fame
Favorite
Fist
Falling

Forgiveness forgotten
Face facts
Fear…

Poetic Form: Tautogram

Day 22 PAD 2023

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“What of a Breath?”

What of a breath? The first - the last
and all the ones in between that
we forget to count as we live
without guarantee of the next?

Hands shaking, chest too tight to breathe.
What of a breath? The first - the last.
Years of sweat and tears coming due.
Sweet taste of air when dreams arrive.

The one held before the first kiss
then lost when she smiles goodnight.
What of a breath? The first - the last.
Moments that change your views of life.

Holding hands as life fades away.
Too many questions to ask but
knowing that all you have is now.
What of a breath? The first - the last.

Poetic Form: Quatern

Day 21 PAD 2023

 

Special challenge from prompt: write six six-word poems, each using one of the above words.

He
pulls back
love’s broken bow.

Nothing
leans like
a child’s eyes.

The
day breaks
on empty park.

Demons
saw free
our deepest fears.

She
tears a
poem for her.

Wounds
don’t heal.
They only change.

Poetic Form: Hay(na)ku

Day 20 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“A Fox’s Answer”

The sun draws back the blanket
of the night from a banquet
of flowers in a field still
with dew, until a bandit

robs the morning of silence.
A flash of red in violets’
purple, strikes a joyful chord.
A fox lord, in defiance

of the questions I have come
to ask the sun. An outcome
that is now in doubt. I’m lost
in the softness, yet still numb

from fate’s decisions for my
life. The fox stops, looks, its eyes
answers questions I do not
ask. It trots back toward the sky.

Poetic Form: Englyn Cyrch

Day 19 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“Back Home”

So this is what goodbye taste like, saline mixed
with what could have been. My eyes water, transfixed
by the way the sky is turning blue. It won’t fix

the darkness of questions that sit in my throat,
scratching my palate with history’s dust motes
stirred when we went searching for life’s anecdote.

Pictures of your love story, faded, vintage
moments of youth. Smiles, with salted glass ridges.
Photos of life lived, now a waning image.

We let laughter fall between the tears we share
with the knowledge that too soon one of these chairs
will be empty. We swallow tomorrow’s prayer.

Poetic Form: Stornello

Day 18 PAD 2023

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“Another Storm”

The night is filled with a thunder
that troubles my dreams. I wonder
if my sins are reaching
for my soul. Calling me to pay
for all the times I couldn’t stay.
The lightning beseeching

me to bend my knees to receive
retribution for hearts deceived.
I toss and turn under
the blanket of an ignorance,
of wanting more like Icarus.
Now my heart asunder.

The rain doesn’t care for my plea.
It only wants to share the debris
I left on the streets of
lovers’ hopes of life together.
A reminder, from this weather,
that I promised them love.

Poetic Form: Rime Couee

Day 17 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“The Night”

Ignite nerves.
Candles burn flames
dancing, reflecting curves.
Skin seeking
kisses
seeking skin.
Curves reflecting dancing.
Flames burn candles,
nerves ignite.


Poetic Form: Palindrome

Day 16 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“The Worth of a Memory”

The pictures were spread out
on the table we sat at for years.
Many of them faded, tinted like
a filter. We got lost in their history.

Seeing their love change with tears
of laughter. Hair and glasses revealing
the styles of the day. Her eyes started
to fill with the pain of this new mystery.

A question of why, that the photographs
would not answer for any of us. A heart
can only take so much, and her’s broke
as she grabbed a few photos swiftly,

“What good are,” as she tore them apart,
“memories now?” she asked through the fear.

Poetic Form: Bref Double

Day 15 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

"Shadow"

Memories flow across my heart
Like the shadow of a stratus cloud on
The foothills of Wyoming
Darkening the budding sage
And grass
Hiding the early spring sun
Until the winds of time pushes
The memory away
And for a moment
A short-horned lizard
Pauses on stone
Eyes closed
Feeling the change of the season
Scurrying away
As another memories’s shadow
Crosses the landscape.

Poetic Form: Free Verse

Day 14 PAD 2023

 

Poem for day 14 of the poem a day challenge. Prompts form Writer's Digest.

Day 13 PAD 2023

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“Don’t until Tomorrow”

Forgive and forget
Forgive but don’t forget
Don't forget the past
Don’t forget the pain
Pain of what could be
Pain of love not given
Given days of silence
Given nights of loneliness
Loneliness of self
Loneliness of family
Family name
Family gone
Gone from tomorrow
Gone from hope
Hope a small seed
Hope for better
Better chances to be
Better moments to see
See the flowers bloom
See the road ahead
Ahead of the game
Ahead of the chase
Chase to win
Chase a dream
Dream of hope
Dream a life
Life of my own
Life filled with more
More stars
More days of love
Love the moment
Love the growth
Growth of a family
Growth of a heart
Heart still trying
Heart still scarred
Scarred with memory
Scarred that fade
Fade to black
Fade from memory
Memory of a phone call
Memory of a bad goodbye
Goodbye to youth
Goodbye to yesterday
Yesterday haunts me
Yesterday taints tomorrow
Tomorrow is a gift
Tomorrow is not promised
Promised…
gift…

Poetic Form: The Blitz

Day 12 PAD 2023

 This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“Awashed in the Past”

The cascade of history
bruises my eardrums
    fills my lungs
    constricts my heart
        until I have to give in to the drenching
        rush of what might have been

Snippets of the past create a roar
against the stones of time
I catch a few drops
    traveling back
    into the stream of memories
        that pelt my skin
        sharp, then dissipating on my sense
        of who I should have been

I hear milestones of my past

Shotgun blast
Broken drywall
Drunken speech
Dead dial tone

But my heart drops me into a moment of possibilities
    I am your son
    sitting at your feet
    football in my hands
    Waiting to hear “I love you”
        in the spiral of a pass
        I catch on the run
            in the backyard
    I see your hands raised
        the air filled with “Touchdownnnnn!”

A wave crashes into my chest
    bringing me back to now
    my hands empty
    wondering what it sounds like
        to have your father’s voice
            cheer for you in real life

Day 11 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“Game”

They say this life is a game…
What are the rules?
I see too many broken hearts on good people,
like frazzled shoe laces
that
trip them
as they rush for coffee with a friend.
Waiting at the corner as another car runs a red light,
being pushed
as they try to tie their life together,
while so many others collect 200 dollars
then buy a home on Pacific avenue.
I’m tired of twisting fate’s spinner
just to move one space closer to the end of a game I didn’t know the rules to.


Poetic Form: Descort

Day 10 PAD 2023

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“How These Days”

Oh, how these days simply fall away
into moments we wish we could hold
onto. Smiles, even as stories told,
tainted with regret of passing days.

A truth we all ignore, as we pray
for the secret to change time; fool’s gold.
Oh, how these days simply fall away
into moments we wish we could hold.

We walk past pictures hung in hallways
as if we are wearing a blindfold
around our hearts, scared, a stronghold,
fear that we’ve only lived for someday.
Oh, how these days simply fall away.


Poetic Form: Rondel

Day 9 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

"How to Die on Social Media in 4 Steps"

One: Assume everyone actually cares
About the food you ate
The stairs you had to walk
Or that you are having a bad day

Two: Try to feel loved with each icon
That fills in on the screen
Rely on your ego to be fed
Be ready for the hunger to stay

Three: Smile in every reply
Even on the hard days
Your eyes have to shine
Remember your life is on display

Four: Hold your phone at all times
Notifications are all you need to feel
Those chimes will send chills
Better than reality you’ll say.


Poetic Form: Nonce

Day 8 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

Alone, I read the
stars. I feel your heart with me
between moon and Orion.

Sorry, you read those
constellations wrong. I am
lost in someone else’s arms.

Poetic Form: sedoka

Day 7 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“How to Fall in Love”

Interlock the fingers, touch palms.
Keep your heart calm.
Stay with her pace,
go anyplace.

Talk about the clouds, or just smile
and walk awhile.
Feel her presence,
this will be tense.

Find a moment to stop and gaze,
at her crossways,
then turn to see
what this can be.

Poetic Form: Minute Poem

Day 6 PAD 2023

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“Winter’s Exit”

The rot of winter folds into
the wind, warm and wet with renew.
My bones ache. Weight of dreams pulling muscles
like memories screaming.

The song of robins are not loud
enough to drown out the rain clouds.
My skin tingles from the lightning strike,
godlike in wrath and spite.

Burning of my sin fills the air
with the darkness found in nightmares.
The sun scratches the ground, a single stem,
a gem for spring’s new crown.


Poetic Form: Byr a Thoddaid

Day 5 PAD 2023

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised. 

“Lockdown in Nebraska”

A scheduled practice drill.
Lights. Locks. Out of Sight.
Stay silent to save us
from death on the other side of the door.

But the students can’t help whispering
about yesterday when a nearby
small town school didn’t have
a scheduled practice drill.

A stranger appeared on school grounds,
holding true to a threat they sent
on social media - the school went;
Lights, Locks, Out of Sight.

My administration pulls the fire alarm.
Someone knocks - pleads to come in.
I motion to the students with my hand,
stay silent to save us.

I can’t help but feel disheartened
in the darkness of my own classroom.
I do not know how to protect us
from death on the other side of the door.


Poetic Form: Cascade

Day 4 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised. 

“Her”

Her kiss tastes like strawberries - wild under the sun
I’m chasing my heart like clouds, playfully changing
shape across a blinding blue - fading to twilight
Darkness makes me lost, trembling - it was just a dream

Poetic Form imayo

Day 3 PAD 2023

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised. 

“Still the Same”

-after William Wordsworth

Over two hundred years ago the
weight of society felt heavy. A world
rushing away from traditions. Is
today just a republished history page, too?
The concrete rivals the mountains. Much
of our meaning lives in clouds with
passwords to protect our hearts. Us,
an idea we’ve discarded of late.
My faith shaken by disposable days and
glass touches. We need a mortal connection soon.

Poetic Form: Golden Shovel

Day 2 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised. 

"Ticket"

I had a ticket for a
blockbuster life, but they said
it was sold out. I watch this
b-movie alone.

Poetic Form: Kouta (7775)

Day 1 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised. 

"A Poem"
In a second, everything changes.
Nothing
turns the world like when the muse
believes
in rhyme and meter. Hope sitting
like a
dream’s aftertaste, flavored in
foolish
words, found through the pen of a
poet’s heart.

Poetic Form: Waltmarie