Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts

Friday, April 28, 2023

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

Thursday, April 27, 2023

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

Sunday, April 23, 2023

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


Saturday, April 22, 2023

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


Friday, April 21, 2023

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


Tuesday, April 11, 2023

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


Monday, April 10, 2023

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


Sunday, April 9, 2023

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


Sunday, April 2, 2023

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)


Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Fall Apart





"Fall Apart"
Poetic Form: Kyrielle

You cut your hands trying to hold
the hands of time. Trying to slow
the sun from turning to lost gold
You fall apart when you let go

Life lines, dull, cut across your eyes
with sweeping strokes the past bestowed
like dreams you didn’t see had died
You fall apart when you let go

You don’t need a map anymore
Because you know, like calypso,
that heartache whitecaps on love’s shores
You fall apart when you let go

Each moment burst like fireworks
blinding stars that have learned to show
you how the past can be artwork
You fall apart when you let go

So, you move quietly behind
the silver screen making shadows
in your story. Bleeding and blind.
You fall apart when you let go

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


Saturday, April 30, 2022

PAD 2022 Day 24: Hero Villain

 


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


PAD Prompt: Hero / Villain 

Poetic Form:  Cadralore


"Life in a Moment"


1. He doesn’t understand why he hates

the boy. He knows it’s wrong, yet

his hands burn with a fire flamed

by everyone at school who feeds his ego

that is physically beat down when he gets home


2. He stands in the April snow, decades from their

last kiss. Broken from the loss of his life,

he has wandered to her door, unsure of what

happens next. He knocks and knocks. She

can’t answer because she has a new name.


3. She hears his voice, like a cyclone circling

across the coast line ruining a family

vacation. A game she learned on the driveway

with his love, that now storms through

her skills to win a medal and his approval.


4. She rages against a love that she never felt before.

The burning from the glass releases the gates

of remorse. Another two count goes down

in one motion. She lets the bar hold her up

as she dances to a song she doesn’t like.


5. Every choice we have now is because of the 

choices we made. We follow our hearts one time,

then choose what our minds think the next. 

Our fantasies mix with reality until we don’t know

if we are the villain or the hero of the moment.


Friday, April 29, 2022

PAD 2022 Day 23: Conspiracy


 

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


PAD Prompt: Conspiracy 

Poetic Form:  Nonet


“Notification Conspiracy”


The notification says it’s time

to live life through other people’s

content. We feed ourselves by

consuming feeds through a

screen. Reality

no icon to

click. Life is

to feel

heart.


Thursday, April 28, 2022

PAD 2022 Day 22: Organism


 

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


PAD Prompt: Organism

Poetic Form: Mondo


"Untitled"


Can we finally

decide that the world is a

garden needing our tending?


Sadly, I think we
are too obsessed with concrete
and glass to know true beauty.


Tuesday, April 26, 2022

PAD 2022 Day 20: Six Words



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



PAD Prompt: Six Words 

Poetic Form:  Sestina


“What Happens Here, Stays Here”


The lights blind you from the dis-content 

of people’s lives. A grandma, pumping

a slot machine’s handle. Hoping to double

the jackpot of nickels. Desires guide

her to this moment when chance and fate meet.

But the owner is the one wearing a suit.


He holds the Jack in all suits.

He knows the hand should make him content.

Yet, the next draw could allow him to meet

the Joker. His veins pulse as hope pumps

through his thoughts. The dealer’s look guides

his voice while moving the chips to double.


The level of noise doubles

as a group, looking the nines, in suits.

The glasses and bottles in their hands guide

them across the crowded floor. Content

on ignoring those around them, fist pumps

ricochet as their lonesomeness meet.


They stand holding hands, waiting to meet

the witness, outside large pink double

doors. Even though doubt is pumping

through both of their hearts, he is in a suit

and her, a simple white dress. Life can be content

she hopes. He will let his insecurity be the guide.


He places his hands on the shoulder, guides

the wide eyed boy out a side door to meet

the supplier. Soon that boy will feel content

or so he believes. Not knowing the cost is double

after hit one. Addiction is not a simple suit

you remove when the ER performs a stomach pump.


She is wearing glitter and four inch pumps

Dreams of big screens and gold awards guide

her across the predatory stare of the suit

that promised a chance to shine and meet

her future behind the lens, but it is a double

exposure film. She’s shattered by the viewer’s content.


The lights burn with content, the neon pumps

through our double vision. Unhappiness guides

our troubles to meet the devil in a suit.



Saturday, April 23, 2022

PAD 2022 Day 18: We BLANK


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


PAD Prompt: We BLANK

Poetic Form: Free Verse


“Fate Hates Us, We Don’t Stand a Chance”


Tarot cards

And crystal balls

Tell different stories

But they agree

That Fate is a jealous lover


She makes you believe 

That this life is a choice

We can make with our hearts

Or minds

Or some combination of

But she has a choice already made for us

Only she won’t tell what it is


We have to pay the price 

As she gives us the silent treatment

Or changes the mood in the room

With a single glance

Or a casual, “It’s fine”


Just when we think we can’t take anymore

She snuggles close

With an unexpected kiss

That tempts us with its passion

Tempts us to believe

To believe that we are all right

We draw her near

Breathe in the scent of flowers

From her hair

Heart hurting from the joy of the moment


Then we make the mistake

We move

We ask if she wants anything

She turns her head silently

The look says we should know


We don’t


And the temperature drops 10 degrees

Suddenly, it feels like Fate hates us

We don’t stand a chance


Wednesday, April 20, 2022

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.


Sunday, April 17, 2022

PAD 2022 Day 12: Counting


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


PAD Prompt: Counting

Poetic Form: Descort


“Fall Sky”


am looking at the stars on a clear fall night. 

A thought, like a comet 

crosses my mind… then my heart. 

I was seeing more stars than I had days left to watch them. 

I rotate on 

a tilting axis. 

There will be a time that my children 

will gaze at the constellations 

without me 

Time, a meteorite that survives our desires, 

crashes 

through my mind, burning up all my beliefs of forever after.


Thursday, April 14, 2022

PAD 2022 Day 9: Breaking


 

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


PAD Prompt: Breaking 

Poetic Form:  Rondine


“Caught in a Breakdown”


Caught in a breakdown, everything goes gray

including the sun as it warms others

as they share the joy of living. Mothers

waiting at the bottom of slides. Driveways

decorated with chalk. Laughter of play

becomes a muffled hum, like ears covered.

Caught in a breakdown.


Even though I know the truth, I misplay

the moment, nothing can lift the cover

off of my heart. Emptiness a brother

to the retching sadness that always stays.

Caught in a breakdown.