terZaRima// just be wise&DoNotTalk to swans too much

you’d think their view on life is white,
weightless & a bit afloat,
(it’s not, & i don’t talk to them too often),
feather downs in windy nights,

waterWet sprinkles on my nose,
rippling wave worms set a yawning pace,
fishes, (wiNkWinKwiNK), belly up along the boat-
side, (nah, not dead– for sun tan reasons)

blowing seed(s), dande(Lions) in your face,
i say, “cycled without helmet to the moon,
once” (true)a tight against the lightspeed race,

the thing with oxygen is– it’s lun(e)-
atic(ly) important & i’m not a mermaid
(tickle me), a seaweed wig (thangGreen) &soSoon

i’m panting– brEATHLesS
anyWay–

.

smiles…my (almost) terza rima sonnet for dVerse where tony serves drinks behind the bar..

FormForAll: two sijo

how to keep ‘em quiet // propaganda

we throw rocks from bridges into the ferocious, roaring mawl of
(dangerous-for-the-system) dragons, lurking in the crash of the fall (that’s what they tell us)
as if constant feeding silenced them// like it does// silence us (sometimes)

 

this morning on my way to work

i feed my road bike spokes with juicy, fresh plucked morning sunlight,
spin, spin, spin (tongue thick with pollen) along yellow yawning fields
a thousand dew dipped spiders pull their hats, silently greeting

.

we’re writing “sijo” at dVerse today, a popular traditional Korean form… consists of three long lines, one main thought each line (roughly thesis-development-conclusion), 14-16 syllables per line, 44-46 syllables in total.

shades between compassion between shades

just or not is what– exactly?
sit on rot, suj/ets
things that make no sense (to us),
no, make that (hidden) things seen,
doesn’t matter which direction,

she works with disabled kids,
& we eat sausages, drink red wine
on a bench without a backrest, things shift,
shift things back(to)rest without–

“she’ll be blind soon,
we’re preparing her for it– best as we can”
fragile, shards, moths with velvet wings,
my wings velWet with (splashed) moths,
we try to stabilize, ezilibats (yeah, i told you,
it’s difficult if we don’t see with the heart)

turn it around, circle around it, turn/
her eyes, shades between compassion–
& compassion between shades of what is
hard to understand,

“i admire what you do” i say,
& say, i do spell it backward, trying to
understand too hard is what shades
between compassion’s left/maybe

.

we’re writing palindromes at dVerse today where things can be read in more than one direction, be it words or lines– i embedded mostly line palindromes here.

the poem was sparked by a conversation at a party about a friend’s work with disabled kids, she told me a bit about the 2-6 year old kids in her group and it really hit me hard, i didn’t talk much that evening, was just listening and really admire her for what she’s doing 

living 4today& knowing//the name of the lion

ice wind whips, west/Cross on the highway
in the tight throat of a traffic jam,
a lion painted on the front car pane
with yelloW marker, duct taped to a ray
of strings/ IMAGINE — Lennon

died with only forty. “i’ve had” i say
“five more years already”, check the rear, sway
over, snow piles on the street’s vibrating vein,

“you play the sax, right?” “no, there was no time”,
“write poetry?” “a poet?” “never met one”
& time’s icy fingerS crack

hard against the pane, i climb,
freeFall on frayed ropes along
life’s fragile line, smiling at the lion, counting back

. 

Sam has us write Miltonian sonnets at dVerse today, give it a try and join us when he opens the doors at 3pm EST

6:30, on the highway, night, still clinging to me

on my way to work

 .

saving
last night’s breath in
foggy jars, we speed, through
concrete mornings, cut, by blushing
tail lights

. 

over at dVerse Tony has us writing cinquains..2 syllables, followed by 4, 6, 8 and finally 2 syllables again..wanna give it a try..? doors open at 3pm EST

for 8 missed beats you get a Major7 (that’s a fair deal, right?)

count me in for a cyber music mission to the moon,
on a wing-ed old jazz guitar ride into space,
strumming heavy metal riffs with just two fingers

(got) 11 belgium chocolate bars (just in case), a spoon
full of pitchY tuned scales, & sans sports-car in a race
against time (tiCk//TocK//toCK), scent, dissonant progression (mostly offBeat) lingers

feel the rhythm, cha-bOO BoOM, typhoon balloons
in the flat seams of my socks, &reMakes
of odd crackling rock songs, bulge-lipped singers

eXplosion-proofing the white spaces of the eyes, red-throated loons,
no goggles (yeah, you thought so), guess
it was the jet stream wind that brought us

closer to the tip-tap (you can hum that) uniVerseAlSpace
as cyber-Y pixels (uhhh, i saw them blush– ) crush a bunch of 7th minors
in a tight emBrace

. 

abc abc abc abc aa (or bb or cc) — that’s the sonnet variation, Sam will focus on in his FormForAll article at dVerse today– and yeah, i guess i’m guilty for not playing exactly to the rules– so don’t take this as a good example– smiles– see you at 3PM EST in the pub..

WhatWeTalk whenWeTalk traVeling

between Myanmar & Perth,
the indian ocean in a blurred, blue blanket
& there’s something in my eyes
that swims– dropsOnDriftsOnCrests,

he leans casually against my desk
“she’s doing well, spent a few days
on the beach, traveling again now,
mobile doesn’t work but—“

we talk about risks, leaving comfort space
how difficult it gets once we’ve settled in,
i chew the soft end of my pen,
wanna suck up all the salty space on
google maps with chapped lips, back-
packed stories, sweat-soaked,
re-told, snow spills

in my business shoes, i walk
lunch break silent, swinging wing-less above
trees, the forest’s damp breath on me, through the
traffic jam back home, i say, still in my coat,

“i booked a flight to Berlin —had to”
“you’RE two weeks home already, eh—?“

i start unbuttoning his shirt,
close to his ear, ask “ya remember Madagascar?
Gia Jaguar–? really, wanna be like her
on that trapeze, without thinking, following, i—
ve much to learn,
un-zip my coat, close the blinds “plEAse,

WILL you—

take me some/Where? IDon’t care—“
close my eyes, gonna play
blind passenger, with a bold smile, juMp
right after you, loop in the air & scream,
catch the corners of the high wire with my teeth
& will not buckle up //i swear//

when we take off—

.

Gay has prepared a wonderful poetry craft article today at dVerse & encourages us to embed as many of the poetic tools  like rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, diction, denotation, connotation, hyperbole etc. etc into our verse…go and give it a try..doors open at 3pm EST…oh…and i’m referring to the movie Madagascar 3 in my poem…very cool film…

complex waveforms or the physical significance of–

moon’s alluring force, hidden under coal & made up lamp light,
gently pulling as we walk,
snow flakes in our face,

i took the silent road last night,
lying on a pile of mattresses (one pea//a princess)

hiZZing chalk-
lines in lunatic patterns on the floor, (colorful & yet) diViDiNg
space/us

& (you guess), instead of talk-
ing, in an imPulse,

i fling
paperthin umbrellas (duct-taped). From the distance,
slightly out of tune (life’s like a snake charmer with turban sometimes),
“picture him” between his wrinkled lips, the ebony flute sings

of now, a 1000 amplitudes, range outside the given scales (&
dawn drips– from his beard of candy floss all over)

.

Gay has us write Karousels and Weaves at dVerse today, poetry forms, invented by David James. I went for the Weave which has a rhyme scheme of: abcad befbg ehiej – no fixed meter. Stop by when we open the dVerse pub doors at 3pm EST

back@work

the InFrontMyOffice flag
raises fluttering cotton arms, happily
saluting New Year

throaty beeps escape
her square, white womb and
i badge in

last year’s dust,
contains my fingerprints, scattered loosely
on the keyboard

your kiss lingers
still, softly promising, between my
business dressed thighs

.

we’re writing Jack Collom Lunes at dVerse today…get your pens ready and stop by when Sam opens the pub doors at 3pm EST..

un.Tamed

she welds letters in the moonshine
into pairs of eight full iambs (ok/almost)
hunts wolves, that hide in charcoal mines,
searches the sky with glowworm lamps

writes recipes to preserve rhyme,
melts peppermint & jam to blend,
along synchronous orbits, mends
fragmented letters in the moonshine

catches the wind with cautious hand,
then binds him to balloons & chimes,
sun-lotions words, she knew were meant
to bathe in dotted cups of moonshine,

escapes (ina wild Ride) from pent-
up form to where audacious
creatures raP and s T R etch their spine,
howling bold & un.Tamed in the moonshine

. 

what do you mean, you didn’t know that moonshine comes in dotted cups..hu? smiles… just having a bit fun.. Gay Cannon is challenging us with Kyrielle for FormForAll today.. and again, mine is not a good example as I went a bit wild with it, but it def. is a form, worth checking out.. see you at 3pm EST at dVerse..and of course, you can bring as many wild creatures as you like…Gay can tame them ya know…she’s awesome…smiles