The last stanza
The last line
The last letter
The last day
April 30, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 30 Prompt: write a minimalist poem.
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
Alphabet Anxiety
More than needed
I can do this
Or so it seems
at the beginning
But isn’t that always the way
You set it aside
you wait
because you think you have enough
But time doesn’t stop marching
when you push it aside
or forget about it
And the letters won’t form words
just because you’re now ready
to put ass to seat
If you starve the ink
you can’t expect it
to burn on command
You’d better get ready
to beg
April 29, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 29
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
About Poetry
To crawl into another’s soul
and sail through stanzas there
I cannot do
To slip into another’s heart
and caress the verses there
I cannot do
To meld into another’s mind
and read the words there
I cannot do
My poetry
about my poetry
I can do
My poetry
can make me drunker than midori sours
and black samuca chasers
straight up
My poetry
is my strongest antidepressant
My poetry
makes me almost as happy as Robin Williams’ stand-up
almost
My poetry
fills me up more than pizza
(and is certainly healthier)
My poetry
is like Star Trek
was there at my beginning
will be there at my end
April 28, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 28 Prompt: write a meta-poem, a poem about poetry.
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
Midori Sour: Midori liquor and sour mix
The Prince Sees Cinderella For The First Time
I sat
deep in the shadow
on my way to being drunk
watching the ballroom
not people
but hangers for clothes
dress after garish dress
and an enormous diamond on every breast
no joy in the dance
just the vanity
just the grasping for position
it could drive one to scream
(it has already driven me to drink)
until on the open balcony
the guard stood back to reveal
a white moon
and before it
her
April 27, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 27
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
Pulled ten words blind from Magnetic Poetry and used them for inspiration; I was writing the third line when I got the idea for the poem - breast, diamond, dress, drive, drunk, enormous, moon, reveal, scream, shadow.
Cease Developing
Autumn For This Masshole
Getting colder
covering the windows in slippery plastic
covering myself in scratchy wool
The birds in the park
are all but gone
and those that stay
have changed their tune
Pumpkin spice in freaking everything
The leaves change and fall
and the smell of woods
is of colorful death
How long until Halloween?
April 25, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 25 Prompt: write a poem specific to a season, imagery that relates to all five senses, include a rhetorical question
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
Masshole: a contemptuous term for a native or inhabitant of the state of Massachusetts.
Swimming Against The Tide
The average, adult, human body is made up of 60% water.
Is that why so many of us seem to drown in ourselves?
We become rusalki of the people we hoped we’d be
We drown in debt
we tread water at work, at school
we drown in our emotions
to reach our goals we must swim to shore
We float on our lives
until we really do become a rusalka
Pulling against 60% of our nature
April 24, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 24
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
Rusalka, Rusalki - ghost, ghosts of those who drowned
House Cat
Sleeps
yawns
stretches
sleeps
eats
sits like the sphinx
occasionally deigning to look
disinterested as a god-pharoah
shits
sleeps
eats
gets high
spins around for twenty minutes
stares at own foot for ten
eats
stretches
yawns
sleeps
April 23, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 23 Prompt: write a poem about an animal.
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
What Vincent Sees
I see
stars
He paints
night suns
swirls
mazes
I see
people and water
He paints
love and lovers
reflections and depths
I see an early, outdoor Starbucks
He paints
friendship
breaking bread
drinking wine
the joys of life
I cannot see
what he sees
until his brush rests
April 22, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 22 Prompt: write a poem that engages with another art form.
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
How Deep
Dancing in a gym in a city hall
passing the girl in mime make-up
who can’t be saved
and grabbing some stranger
The dead girl tells us to hurry
she knows she can’t go
lost in hallways of a huge apartment building
lost and lost and lost
until outside
in my yard
the sharks coming in on the next wave
that turns out to only be ankle deep
April 21, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 21 Prompt: write a poem that incorporates wild, surreal images.
#ShutUpWrite Challenge
T Train Idiot
Do you thing god exists?
Which one?
The only one.
There’s been about 3,000 worshipped so there isn’t an ‘only one’.
You know who I’m talking about.
No, I can guess, but that’s not the same as knowing.
You think god is a joke?
I think whether or not there is some kind of god or goddess or gods and goddesses is too important a question to presume what someone else thinks.
Are you a Satanist?
No. Are you?
How dare you!
Is that a ‘no’?
You’re going to burn in hell for your blasphemy.
Only the religious can commit blasphemy.
(throws a Chick Tract in my lap as they get up to exit) You better take Jesus into your heart!
Have a nice day!
April 20, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 20 Prompt: write a poem that "talks".
#ShutUpWrite Challenge
Alphabet Soup
Alphabet poem
bowl full of letters
chaos swirls
depth unknown
emptiness to be seen
filling with feeling
gorging
hot with hope
I write
joltingly
klutzily
lovingly
making moments
no to inner critic
opening
pouring
quietly
roughly
stirring spices
tasting topics
universal
voracious hunger
words
xeroxing my mind for
you to eat
zen full
April 19, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 19 Prompt: write an abecedarian poem - a poem in which the word choices follows the order of the alphabet
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
Cappy's Workshop
Cut wood
and old dirt
Cobwebs
and sharp light
Shadows
and outlines
of fifty years
refurbishing
rebuilding
technical
toys
He held a whole house together
he held lives together
The wood stove’s cold now
the light bulbs burned out
We should’ve mixed his ashes
in the sand of the floor
and the bottom of the stove
so he could help support the next family
April 18, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 18 Prompt: make concrete the wild abstraction of a feeling like grief
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
Cappy was my grandfather (2 February 1917 - 28 April 2000)
Bottled
We’re meant to be eaten
pluck off the vine
pop in the mouth
But that wasn’t good enough
for you
Peel us
crush us
mix us with toxins
that mutate us
you don’t care
you can’t hear us scream
locked away
for years
for centuries
You create a dogma
around us
elite
rich
And what was good of us
the natural joy
is gone
and replaced
with drunken snobbery
you clink you fine crystal
When we should be
outside
sunset
long day with friends
popped in your mouth
April 17, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 17 Prompt: a poem that presents a situation from an unusual point of view.
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
Lucy, In Space, Is A Diamond
Little Helpers
Small ones in the morning
that have a rising sun
packed into their little, missile forms
Big ones in the evening
that have a thousand head of tired sheep
corralled into their thick, round forms
In between
stimulants of a liquid, legal kind
to keep my lids from lowering
and the tips of my fingers
tap-tap-tappiting
on the keyboard of my paycheck
April 15, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 15
#ShutUpWrite3019 Challenge
Knite One The Toon
I read my big, red book
wile I decide watt to where
and wear two go
It was a late knight
I whent hear, their, and everywere
To many dinks
I didn’t no
when too say wren
Made it holmes
in won peace
Feel asleep
redding my big, read book
April 14, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 14 Prompt: make productive use of English's ridiculously complex spelling rules, mis-hearings, mis-readings.
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
Who Wants To Live Forever
We create vampires
because the blood is the life
We create witches
because we hope spells work when surgeons don’t
We create werewolves
because we fear the beasts we can be
We create a monster
for the same reason
we birth offspring
we want to live forever
even if it’s just a cell
in someone else’s
reanimated corpse
April 13, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 13 Prompt: spooky, mysterious quality of being alive.
#ShutUpWrite Challenge
When I Came Back And When I Moved
Dull things
they don’t feed, clothe, or shelter me
they can’t cure me when I’m ill
many find them boring
yet they are
Significant things
they fill my mind
wrap me in joy
house me in knowledge and imagination
and help me through sickness
many find them cumbersome
burdensome
wastes of space
Twice I’ve sold, donated, given away
large portions of my books and movies
I’ve thrown away companions
because someone else didn’t like them
April 12, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 12 Prompt: significant and dull objects
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
From
I am from a womb
that should’ve been cemented shut
I am from a woman
who wanted obedience
and worship
I am from a family
of silence
I am from indoctrination
what to believe
not
how to think
I am from books and movies
not places
not people
I am from a small bedroom
to a rocking chair
April 11, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 11 Prompt: origin poem
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
A Scorcher
The weight of the heat bearing down
he holds your wrists back
The burning in your eyes behind closed lids
in the dark he tries to slip a dildo in your ass
after you’ve told him no
The sweat pooling on your body
his smirk of a smile after he belittles you
with the “honest truth”
The oppressive humidity making you dizzy
his brutal, quick speeches that make you
question yourself
Can’t take in enough fluid
to balance what’s pouring out
you faint
he steps over you and leaves
April 10, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 10 Prompt: inspiration from a regional weather phrase.
#ShutUpWrite Challenge
These Things
Little glass bottles
all colors
some never before
seen in nature
all textures
smooth as a love’s midnight moan
rough as a lover’s angry words
empty of liquid
filled with the sun
as they line at attention
near a window
these small, delicate things
hold my grandparents’ kitchen
their siblings lined along the sink’s window sill
rays of rainbowed sunlight
spray across the sink and stove
mixing with the scents of brewing coffee and frying peppers and onions
tiny containers of time
April 9, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 9 Prompt: list of things
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
ATGNI (all the gear no idea)
I’m a notorious collector
a new obsession
a new collection
and a new devotion
to learn all I can
Money spent
education at the ready
and the fire dies
fizzles faster
than it flamed
the passion’s dead
the interest’s a memory
and one more collection to box up
in the empty hope
discipline wins a future
April 8, 2019
#GloPoWriMo2019 #NaPoWriMo2019 Day 8 Prompt: use professional slang as n inspiration
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
Gifts & Joy
I’d give myself
Stamina
by the body full
Discipline
by the mind full
Balance
by the cell full
with these gifts I could rule myself
and the world would surely follow
I’d give someone
an apartment in Paris
where else should light live
Paris Joyeux
April 7, 2019
#NaPoWriMo2019 #GloPoWriMo2019 Day 7 Prompt
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
A Two Red Bull Day
One can for each
barely open eye
And now I can
hear color
the scream of yellow on a coworker
the moan of red on your lover tonight
the lullaby of black you’re trying to avoid
taste music
the hot sharps that keep you bouncing
the bitter flats you switch stations on
see heartbeats
in very door held by a stranger
in every car that cuts you off
touch light
the cold of office fluorescents
the warmth of the sun at lunch break
and smell
the migraine I am forever trying to avoid
April 6, 2019
#NaPoWriMo2019 #GloPoWriMo2019 Day 6
Hail and farewell Mary
Hail Mary
trapped in poverty, ignorance, and submissive traditions
Full Of Grace
and all that might have been
The Lord Is With Thee
whether you want him or not
Blessed Art Thou Among Women
it’s not rape if you’re anointed first
And Blessed Is The Fruit Of Thy Womb
because your worth
is all about your uterus
and what it does or does not do
Jesus
fucking christ
Holy Mary
because “molested Mary”
is too long an etching for a stained glass window
Mother Of God
because “child victim of a sex crime”
is almost a given in christ’s church
Pray For Us Sinners
all the Marys – get off your knees
Now
right now
And At The Hour Of Our Death
and all the hours before
we stand and we say
no
Amen
April 5, 2019
#NaPoWriMo2019 #GloPoWriMo2019 Day 5 Prompt
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
Just Fly
So what if your wings are borrowed
as long as your heart beats fiercely
not just ticks
Work through tragedies
and aim for the delights that always follow
so close sometimes
almost hand in hand
If you can’t be
the unexpected beauty
be the sparkle in the stone
April 4, 2019
#NaPoWriMo2019 #GloPoWriMo2019 Day 4
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
A Pistachio Ice Cream Person
Fresh
and a little nutty
Subtle
and mixes well with others
Until heated
Then the color fades
drains
and good taste
gets lost in the boil
A little
artificial sweetener
and color dye
and all looks good
and all tastes good
and that’s all
that matters
April 3, 2019
#NaPoWriMo2019 #GloPoWriMo2019 Day 3
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
?
~ is happening?
Is it always this loud?
What is “world”?
What is “god”?
How many?
I’m supposed to believe WHAT?
So, this is “adult”?
Everyone else does, so I should too?
Am I insane and just don’t know it?
Why does there have to be a “purpose”?
Well, don’t we each make our own “meaning”?
I am insane, aren’t I?
How did I get so old so fast?
Dead means dead, doesn’t it?
What is happe~
April 2, 2019
#NaPoWriMo2019 #GloPoWriMo2019 Day 2 Prompt
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
Noble
I endeavored to fight a mad man
with others of hesitant hearts
and one with coward’s tongue
Neither fury nor fire
nor blows nor rack
could beat or burn
names from my bleeding lips
We each have a point
where torture talks
so I hung mine
before my broken bones betrayed us
April 1, 2019
Epicharis: freedwoman who was part of a failed revolt against Roman Emperor Nero; after days of torture she hung herself on her sedan chair while being carried to continued torture (her arms and legs were already broken, she used her girdle as a noose) - she ended her life before risking betraying her co-conspirators (and herself).
#NaPoWriMo2019 #GloPoWriMo2019 Day 1 Early Bird Prompt
#ShutUpWrite2019 Challenge
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