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 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 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

PAD 2022 Day 15: Patience

 

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

PAD Prompt: Patience 

Poetic Form:  Acrostic

Untitled 

Passing intersections, each a moment,

Another chance to change direction

Til everything is right, nothing left

In the questions we ask only to ourselves.

Enough is a word we never use.

Notes of fear linger on our tongue after

Catching in our throats. We wonder how

Every road we travel never leads us home.

Poetic Form 51: The Blitz

Throat Not Cut

Wolves at the door

Wolves at my throat

Throat bleeding

Throat hurting

Hurting my lungs

Hurting my eyes

Eyes filled with tears

Eyes burning

Burning the past

Burning my future

Future filled with fear

Future falling to pieces

Pieces of paper

Pieces of poems

Poems of hate

Poems of love

Love lost

Love found

Found in a box

Found by time

Time spent

Time lost

Lost to another

Lost in prayers

Prayers of salvation

Prayers in silence

Silence of the heart

Silence that echos 

Echos of the past

Echos of words

Words not said

Words that stumble

Stumble through life

Stumble and fall

Fall for the lies

Fall into winter

Winter always comes

Winter nights

Nights filled with stars

Nights hold danger

Danger of death

Danger around the corner

Corners hide

Corners sharp

Sharp like knives

Sharp enough to cut

Cut to the heart

Cut out the pain

Pain…

heart...

Poetic Form #51: The Blitz

The Blitz is a form based on rapid fire short phrases, with a repetitive format. 

The first line is one short phrase or image. The second line uses the first word

from line one with another short phrase.  Lines three and four start with the last

word of line two. Then lines five and six start with the last word of line four.

Repeat this pattern through 48 lines. Line 49 is the last word of line 48 and line 50

is the last word of line 47. The title of the poem is three words long using this format:

first word of line three, preposition or conjunction and the first word of line 47.

There is no punctuation.

Poetic Form 27: Descort

Fatherhood

A father carries the weight 

    of his children’s 

hearts. 

Watches life 

    flow behind spectacles 

as hands, bones, and youth fade to memories. 

There comes a time when a father holds open the door 

    to his fear; 

    a world he has no control of. 

Each child passing him as they seek independence.

His heart breaking every minute they are gone. 

Poetic Form #27: Descort

The main rule for the descort form is that each line needs to be different
 from every other line in the poem. A descort poem has different line lengths, 
meters, avoids rhyming with other lines, no refrains, and that goes for the 
stanzas, too.

Poetic Form 19: Chant

Come Forward

Come forward

Out of the shadows of indifference

Come forward

Out of the doorways of the past

Come forward

Out of the waves of fear

Come forward

Out of the fog of grief

Come forward

Out of the pages already written

Come forward

Come forward into today

Poetic Form #19: Chant

Chant poems incorporate repetitive lines. You can repeat every line, a phrase, 

or every other line.

To the Teenage Boy Walking to School

It's been four years

since I've been in the classroom

but I still recognize the gait

    backpack slung low on the shoulders

earbuds in

    eyes on the sidewalk

head down, just a little

not gazing up at all

as if afraid to look the sun in the eye

I could tell from the look

I wonder what happens every day

    Do they taunt you

Is there someone who hates you

for no reason

Tearing up your homework between the bells

or breaking your pencils

    leaving you to take notes with a stub

or worse

    asking the teacher for a pencil

    bracing yourself for them to roll their eyes

    asking you why you never have a pencil

I speed by

    Life moves fast in the morning

    In my rearview mirror

    I watch you slowly shuffle along the sidewalk

    The school only two blocks away

    I say a small prayer

    that maybe today will be a good day

    for you

To A Young Poet

I feel your words

  The angst of youth crossing every T

  The deepest questions dotting the I’s

I once raged on the page as you do

         Now I envy you

It’s not that the words have abounded me

   They can flow like water at times

      Creating new rivers of discourse

      Through the landscape of life

But I find it harder to get the words to bleed

 To cut through the skin

 To pump through my aorta

But your words fill the poem with emotion

  Needle to vain

  Band-aid needed after reading

  Two cups of orange juice just to have enough

      Energy to get off the page

Maybe I have run out of blood

    Or have become too afraid

    Filled with fear and age

          To let my heart be seen by the world

Because I’ve learned that I might speak truth

But the reader always has their own connotation

And too many times they don’t match

She Believes in Me

She believes in me

That I can name the stars

Keep the moon in orbit

And heal all of her scars

She asks the questions

I supply the answers

Or at least come up with

Ideas that satisfy her

She cries when I drop

A harsh word in her ear

Wonders what she has done

For me to create this fear

But she will grab my hand

As her feet traverse the stairs

Jumping off the last

Taking a personal dare

She can see deeper than

Those moments when I fail

She believes in me

And that pierces me like a nail