Tag: poetry challenge

• December 10, 2023

  Challenge Poem #18

  seventeen black birds sitting on lamp postsseven on this side and seven on thatand three down this side next to the four-lanegazing all this direction bold as blue sky hooked necks craning, marking them buzzardsnot ravens, never saying ‘nevermore’and Hitchcock in the passenger seat nodsappreciation, those birds are not his birdsand Kentucky sure ain’t Kansas,…
• December 10, 2023

  Poem 17

  I feel stupid; you’re contagious. I walkedinto your epidemic, expectationsbefuddled dancing drunk through all thoseisolation wards maskless fey and anileyour lilac-scented antimicrobialsmells faintly of vinegar – warn all the fruitflieswhat happened all those months in isolation?it seemed so short a time taking forever now the freedom feels like abandoned faithleaving us rudderless upon the vastshining…
• December 10, 2023

  Poem 16

  Words: something from nothingDan calls this Cognitive Alchemythis combination of disparate threadsinto articulations of verse such miracle of nature, thissystem of symbols from gray matterto black on white – ink on pagepage to book – book to library poets are alchemistscreating gold in crucibles of thoughtmining the heart of self and societyfor lead and tin…
• December 10, 2023

  Poem 15

  Uphill from here, she says. Unintimidated by aught,I climb Parnassus though I stumble betimesthough stones bruise my bonesand storms wash me cold and dampdown weathered heightsundaunted I stride
• December 7, 2023

  Poem 14

  I am thinking of time-blindness today:it’s a talent I use at work to while awayhours as my hands do what it is wetrained them: plugging this and that connectorone car per minute or thereabouts – me,I’m a million miles distant as my handsdance their intricate dances, conjectureand narrative and hasty judgement landsmy mind here there…
• December 4, 2023

  Challenge Poem 13

  there’s a gene in me wants to hibernateit is not the dog’s cancer-cough todaythat makes me want to stay abed, though thatdoes weigh my heart with utter gravity –it is the dropping temperature and dampof this Kentucky winter day. cold frontmoving in with wind and rain and tonightforecasted for a hard freeze. I’m secondshift, so…
• December 4, 2023

  challenge poem 12

  sometimes there’s a yearning. often. sometimesthe need hits too strong to submerge – you musthave a companion for your present debauch:morality does not figure in. Nojudgement -that is, condemnation, anyway –can touch the drunken, dancing sufi self.you dance and sing and no word is profane;you sing your song and dance life’s dance – profoundand sacred…
• December 4, 2023

  Challenge Poem 11

  I’m not telling you how to avoid the roadto hell while shaking my finger at you;I’ve been down that road, love, and I’ve seenthe dragons that feast on its travelers. I’m not telling you how to behave as saintfor the sake of heaven, love: I’m no saintmyself as well you know! but I see much,eyes…
• December 4, 2023

  poem ten

  feeling deeply unsafe, I avoid lifein what they now call bed-rotting – motherissues again. Goddammit, we burnt heronce, can’t do it again! she twice asked mesoon before her sleep apnea departure:how did I raise such hateful sons? Mother,you did not – not hateful. Rage was the milkthat flowed from your bosom. can you fault usfor…
• December 4, 2023

  Poem 9

  oh historic asp of fortune, strike truemy breast and lay me low upon the ages!beside cleopatra, though no lowerpleb than I ever was born. strike true, asp!strike true that I may die with my beloved!strike true that I do leave this tortured worldbehind to the hands of anonymousothers who might or not love with passionall…