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Printed from https://webx1.writing.com/main/books/item_id/2222258-Promptly-Poetry/sort_by/entry_order DESC, entry_creation_time DESC/page/4
Rated: E · Book · Activity · #2222258

A poem a week for a year.

Anything to break the drought...
Previous ... 1 2 3 -4- 5 6 ... Next
November 24, 2020 at 9:54am
November 24, 2020 at 9:54am
#999017
The Joy of Symmetry

I wake in the night,
rise and don my bathrobe
for the trip down to the room
of much relief (oddly enough
it has a bath),
tie the ends of the cord
that serves as belt
and walk down to my destination.
Afterwards, I tie the cord again,
extending the ends before me
so I can ensure they’re equal
in length. Then, I make the knot,
checking again for equality.
Most times, I get very close
to perfection and there is some
satisfaction in that.
Far be it from me to walk around
in a bathrobe with unequal cords
hanging from a hasty knot.



Line Count: 19
Free Verse
For Promptly Poetry, Week 26
Prompt: Write about an everyday moment.

November 17, 2020 at 11:27am
November 17, 2020 at 11:27am
#998573
Acceleration

They say that time speeds up with age
and, when we’re close to an allotted span,
the years are swift and barely remembered,
as though we ride a runaway train
with throttle stuck and speed increasing,
decades flashing by in streamlined haste,
memories compressed to wafer thin,
bright instants of sudden understanding,
momentary islands in the general stream
of lives hurrying to a destination unknown,
and up ahead looms the final station,
last stop on the experiential line,
the period to the ultimate sentence
of the last chapter in this life's story.

They also say that it’s a journey,
that there’s more in the movement
than the indeterminate goal and so,
without regard for what lies beyond,
just sit back and enjoy the ride.



Line Count: 19
Free Verse
For Promptly Poetry, Week 25
Prompt: Include these words in your poem: chapter, time, regard.

November 9, 2020 at 8:43am
November 9, 2020 at 8:43am
#997966
Rain 50

Umbrella in the rain.


It is said (although it’s not true)
that eskimos have fifty words for snow.
The number may vary from one tale
to the next, but you get my gist
that, in the frozen north, the weather
must be, inevitably, about snow.
It explains why, in my England,
we have fifty words for rain.



Line Count: 8
Free Verse
For Promptly Poetry, Week 24
Prompt: As per illustration.

October 26, 2020 at 10:16am
October 26, 2020 at 10:16am
#996784
Cold Water Thoughts

The British Isles, being on the same latitude as Labrador,
would be frozen wastes were it not for the Gulf Stream,
a supposedly warm ocean current that bathes their shores
and creates a climate known as temperate, meaning
it has few of the extreme tantrums common to the new world,
preferring a moderate view of all things, including temperature.
Being of a geographical disposition of mind and aware
of such pontification upon the weather of the islands,
I greeted the North Atlantic with the same carefree joy
remembered from my days spent near the Indian version,
only to discover that immersing oneself in these northern waters
is not a matter to be essayed with innocent abandon,
there being a tendency to freeze to the marrow a body,
human or, I presume, otherwise, leading to a certain cynicism
regarding the naming skills of those geographers responsible
for the title granted our surrounding seas and currents.

Experience is a great teacher
and these days I still enter the waters,
but only as deep as my ankles,
emerging after a few minutes
with feet blue with shock
and toes as numb (and cold)
as yesterday’s french fries.
As Einstein would say,
“Warm” is a relative term.



Line Count: 25
Free (very) Verse
For Promptly Poetry, Week 22
Prompt: Cold water.
Notes: This alleged poem is experimental, part of a current drive I have to extend the length of my lines in poetry. Because, like Everest, it’s possible. Some might remark, with reason, that the result is more prose than poetry and they may be right. My only excuse is that it’s the best way I know to express my feelings regarding cold water. And feeling, surely, is fundamental to poetry.

October 19, 2020 at 9:17am
October 19, 2020 at 9:17am
#996235
Pond Life

The rumour drops as a pebble into the crowd
and the word spreads, ripples on the pool,
circles of disturbance radiating outwards,
concentric rings to mar the shining surface
until some resistant rock, an island adamant,
absorbs the waves and sends an echo,
an arcing counter to still the matter,
calm restored to the whispering waters.

They lap ceaselessly at the pebbled shores.



Line Count: 9
Free Verse
For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 21
Prompt: Ripples on water.

October 14, 2020 at 10:29am
October 14, 2020 at 10:29am
#995864
The Great Beyond

Always is forever
and that’s a long, long time,
long enough, you’d think,
to reach far as the stars
and they, we’re told,
are so distant even light
gets tired by the journey.
I doubt we’d make it,
given hundreds of lifetimes,
we’d still fall short,
our eyes filled with the sight,
fingers groping at nothing.



Line Count: 12
Free Verse
For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 20
Prompt: Write a poem about something that will always be out of reach

October 5, 2020 at 3:13pm
October 5, 2020 at 3:13pm
#995114
Modern Times

How strange the world is now,
when masked, we drift through spaces
once filled with noise and bustle,
empty spaces lately, signed by silence.
Thus we drain our lives of joy,
rely upon the long ago, the mem’ries,
exchanging times more magical
for recipes without the spice of risk.
You’d think by now that we would know
that immortality is never ours
(that endless strife being all that beckons)
but death gives meaning to it all.



Line Count: 12
Free Verse
For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 19
Prompt: Write a poem using the words masked, strange and magical.

September 28, 2020 at 7:13am
September 28, 2020 at 7:13am
#994455
The Pooper’s Complaint

Never thrown a party or a do,
been to a couple - didn’t like.
People are a thing best left at few
and tell the rest to take a hike.



Line Count: 4
Rhyme scheme abab
For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 18
Prompt: What is it like after all the party guests go home?

September 21, 2020 at 10:12am
September 21, 2020 at 10:12am
#993848
Autumnal

grey sheets in the sky
silver lawn in the morning
fall signs the guestbook

dawn light through the shades
old man’s bare foot tests the board
summer warmth departs

leaves lose their footing
flock down as aimless windfall
deep the carpet spread



Line Count: 9
Three haikus, one poem
For Promptly Poetry, Week 17. Entered in Poetry Topic of the Month Contest, September 2021.
Prompt: write a poem inspired by autumn using one of the seven forms provided.

September 16, 2020 at 4:00pm
September 16, 2020 at 4:00pm
#993509
Night Cruiser

Grundlebletch von Hoogenspit,
while driving his Trollmobile one night,
got lost in the wilds of Louisiana
and finding a road expressly for trolls,
he took it and was hurtling along,
as trolls are wont to do in the dark,
having, at one time or another
lived underground in caves,
when he came across a building
stretched clear across the road.
Without time to stop or throw out the anchor,
Grundle ploughed head on into the wall,
causing the edifice to collapse,
slowly and piece by piece along its length,
while, battered and bent, the Trollmobile
barely survived, though Grundle wasn’t
hurt and was able to hear the angry words
of a uniformed man who hurried up
panting and blowing the following words,
“Did you not read the sign? This is a toll road!”
“A toll road?” quoth Grundle, “My deepest
apologies. I thought it said Troll Road!”



Line Count: 22
Free Verse
For Promptly Poetry, Week 16
Prompt: Street Signs. Ponder on these street signs, then select one and write a poem inspired by it: Do Not Enter, No Parking, Toll Road, One Way, Speed Limit, Work Area Ahead, Maple Street, SLOW, STOP, WRONG WAY, EXIT, No Passing Zone.


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