Love

In Love’s Warmth ~ haibun

/ rivrvlogr / 40 Comments

24 June 2017

In Love’s Warmth

A shining day approaches, the celebration of the day, three years ago, when family and friends witnessed the union of two souls beneath a lighthouse tower on the shore of Lake Erie. Our paths, separate and whole, met and became one in a way possible only through a desire to be complete, each with the other, no longer alone. As equals, we gladly followed the path before us, each knowing the love, grief, joy, hardship, and elation of the other.

Experienced by all present, our beacon of love could not be denied.

passion’s waves
flow from heart to heart
in love’s warmth

This is my response to Traditional writing: on a shining topic,
the prompt from Lillian at dVerse Poets Pub, which is to write a haibun
about “One Shining Moment” in the writer’s life.

Love’s Light

/ rivrvlogr / 26 Comments

Love’s Light

moonbeams dance ’round
your face, mingle with the light
of nebulae swirling within
your eyes to shine on this heart,
a reality this writer struggles
to put into words

Reena’s Exploration Challenge #137 offers three phrases for inspiration:
     1. Writer’s Platform
     2. Writer’s Cave
     3. Writer’s Reality

This also is linked to Open Link Night #267

Image source: © Francesco Batistella via Astronomy Picture of the Day

One Man’s Heart ~ haibun

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One Man’s Heart

There is no sea so wide that I would not cross, nor mountain so high that I would not climb. I would cross the driest desert and brave the wildest jungle, weather any storm of frigid snow and stand against the strongest of gales. All of this I would do so that I could proclaim to all the world my love for you. Not in sonnet nor in flowery verse, but in words so clear that none might question their intent.

one man’s heart
could not be more full
than by your side

This is my response to Haibun Monday 4/27/20: A Portrait of Two Masters,
from Frank Tassone at dVerse Poets Pub, where the prompt is to write a haibun
inspired by William Shakespeare and Matsuo Bashō.

~ Day 27 ~

In the Beginning ~ haibun

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The prompt for Haibun Monday 30/03/2020: Snapshots of Our Lives, from Kim at dVerse Poets Pub, is to write a haibun that tells the story behind a poem from our personal archives. This is the story behind How I Knew I was a Poet, my video poem from 2017.

In the Beginning

I first visited YouTube in 2006, and it wasn’t long before I was making videos of my own, including video poetry. As time went on, I joined other video sharing sites. In 2010, one of the vloggers I followed was planning to travel from Chicago to Boston on his motorcycle, and he asked those along his route about meeting up for coffee. I took him to see Niagara Falls, and offered a room and a bed for the night. He told me to visit him any time, offering the use of his spare room.

The following year, we planned a meetup that included four other vloggers. Two of them also were from Chicago, one was from Washington state, and the fourth was from Missouri. Over several days, we visited a blues club, took a boat tour of Chicago’s architecture along the Chicago River, and visited the Green Mill Jazz Club (the home of slam poetry) and The Poetry Foundation. Everyone had a good time, and I had some interesting conversations about poetry at The Poetry Foundation with, little did I know, the woman who would one day be my wife.

I moved to Missouri in 2012.

whispering verses
witnessed by poets
in the beginning


Image: The Poetry Foundation, in Chicago

Known, All Along ~ quadrille

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Known, All Along

Would I peel back the layers,
only to find what I’ve known
all along? Never, the need for that,
when knowing your many sides
is what makes you so dear to me.
To have my heart held within
those layers is more than enough

This is my response to Quadrille #98: Peelings… Nothing More —
the prompt from Mish at dVerse, which is to use the word peel
in a 44-word poem that does not require meter or rhyme.

Image source: teepublic.com

A Day Like Any Other

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A Day Like Any Other

With like minds, we scorn this greeting card holiday,
yet my mind still turns to you, a turn made
nearly every moment since that first turn
on the path that brought our hearts together,
since the first words I wrote for you, words
I would write on any day, even this.

My un-Valentine’s Day poem.

And more words of LOVE.

Notes, while driving with a love supreme

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Notes, while driving with a love supreme
    (random riffs recorded on the road)

Layer upon layer of clouds holding
a snow that never materialized
deliver a gray light,
but there’s joyful anticipation at the start
of this long drive home like a pulse
of contentment. A love supreme.

Piano pulls me forward with resolve,
when Coltrane comes in
pursuing that love
as drums urge me onward.

Like a psalm rolling through me,
clouds give way to blue sky,
the hint of home drawing me closer
on this long cold drive.