Just Call Me Alice – NaPoWriMo #30

I’m at a loss.

This world doesn’t make

sense to me.

Everyone is in a rush,

worried over being late,

and I can never quite catch up.

People hide behind false smiles,

bright and frightening.

And soon as I figure something out

it all changes.

Little things become big deals,

as easy as pie (or cake).

Everything I know

falls around me like a house of cards.

How do I wake from this nightmare?

Today’s prompt is to write a poem in which the speaker is identified with, or compared to, a character from myth or legend.

Blaze Quadrille – NaPoWriMo #29

You wax

I wane

your ecstasy

is my pain

my loss

is your gain

and your ease

becomes my strain

My silence

your phrase

you  curse

while I praise

Your clarity

is my haze

your map

my maze

and my ashes

ignite your blaze

The prompt for today is to write a quadrille, 44 words exactly, including the word blaze at dVerse Poets’ Pub: https://dversepoets.com/2024/04/29/quadrille-200/

Sijo – NaPoWriMo #28

 NaPoWriMo prompt for today:

Write a sijo which is a traditional Korean verse form with three lines of 14-16 syllables.  The first line introduces the poem’s theme, the second discusses it, and the third line, which is divided into two sentences or clauses, ends the poem – usually with some kind of twist or surprise.

I walk through streets of broken glass

              lined with empty buildings

In this vacant town even the ghosts

              have moved away

Here I will set up house

              with my memories of you

Crazy Cat Lady Problems – NaPoWriMo #27

I have a lalpful of cat this morning.

He’s large and orange and purring and

does not care one bit that I need to write today.

I suppose this is the crazy cat lady version of,

“the dog ate my homework”

Wind and Fire – NaPoWriMo #26

Somewhere a fire is burning,

dry leaves and unleavened loaves

turning to ash

with unabashed women

stirring, stirring,

until the flames regain their whirling heights

hungrily devouring all in their path

souring our ideas of power  

And the dry ash flies up

on the wind

independent of even gravity,

dancing and drifting with the depravity

of fiery demons

And somewhere winds are shrieking

blowing, billowing, and peaking

above the church’s spire

higher and wilder

catching up papers, leaves, rags, and sheaves.

Then lightning strikes, it sparks and starts a fire.  

Nothing Much to Say – NaPoWriMo #25

I can almost feel blood pulsing

through the capillaries that carry it

down

to my fingertips

as I press the computer keys

to type this drivel.

I have nothing much to say

but I need to say it for another five days,

because April is the month of

30 poems in 30 days,

and this is only number 25.

So if you stick with me, gentle reader,

you may learn more of my

very, very ordinary life

my cats, my dog,

my weird little hangups,

and weirder little random thoughts

that stroll through my head

mostly unbidden, and usually hidden from you and you and you.

In the Beginning – NaPoWriMo #24

Beginnings and endings can be tricky,

We mark beginnings in many ways,

A ball drop, a photograph, a toast

or an awkward introduction.

And there are all sorts of middles –

dramatic

disappointing

painful

suspenseful

incredible

satisfying

fulfilling

harrowing

crushing

or just… middling

With endings we often don’t know

when they are happening

a final goodbye or a last kiss,

Endings and beginnings can be tricky.

I started with the idea of palindromes, when I looked at today’s date, and that took me to the more general idea of beginnings and endings.

Listening – NaPoWriMo #23

I listen to the river

and wonder,

can I ever learn her language?

Or the deep, quiet lake,

or the restless, rushing waves of the ocean.

Can I learn the language of the trees

as they whisper to one another on the wind?

Or the slow language of the rocks,

and the earth and the sands?

I watch the clouds

and listen to the wind,

but there is so much more than I can grasp.  Still, I love to listen

Moving House

My husband and I are moving house,

sort of.  Maybe.  But maybe not.

For who can move away

from 35 years of living?

What crate do you pack all your memories in?

How many boxes does it take

to hold a life?

A marriage? 

A family?

This old house is only a place,

but it’s the place

where so much

of your life happened.

This new place does not have the spot

where your son took his first steps

or the spot where your daughter

lost her first tooth.

It doesn’t have the place on the stairs

where your children sat

when you overheard

your daughter asking your son to play Barbies

and your son answering

that he would,

for a quarter.

This new place does not have

 the hallway you walked

 all those nights

when the babies wouldn’t sleep,

or the spot where you stood

when you learned of

the attack on the World Trade Center,

or the door your husband walked through

when he brought home the stray dog

who became a part of the family.

It does not have the sunroom

where you slept every night

while recovering from knee surgery

and you couldn’t walk

up the stairs to the bedroom,

the sunroom where you sit

every morning

writing and reading

with your dog and your cat and your coffee.

And now you are old

and there isn’t enough of you left,

of your life left,

to make all the new memories

that will transform another house

into a home,

into your home.

Elemental – NaPoWriMo #21

Water, Earth, Air, and Fire,

Building blocks

and also, demolition tools.

Both the over-abundance

and the withholding

of these materials

can destroy

anything,

everything.

So why do we not take more care

of the ways we use  

them?

And, of course,

they often remind us

of the many ways they are

beyond our control.

“Humans,

you are not

Masters of the Universe or

Rulers of the Planet or

Lords of the Land,”

they seem to me to say.

We have our place,

along with all the other creatures

amid beautiful,

terrible,

wonderous,

grand, and humble mix of

Water, Earth, Air, and Fire