Lost Keepsakes
Do you still keep those memories
we once held dear, now that we have
nothing else to share? The one thing
we could not divide between us
dwindled away for me, once we went
our separate ways, leaving nothing
but faint memories of memories.
This is my response to Quadrille #91 – Keep — the prompt from Kim at dVerse, which is to use the word keep in a 44-word poem that does not require meter or rhyme.
Fading Glory
Which color is more true,
the rust of leaves that turn
their back on gaudy display
as they cling to an oak in October,
or the vibrancy reflected
in the stream below, shouting
the grandeur of its passing?
The sun will set on both, before long.
This is my response to Quadrille #89 – Are You Set? — the prompt from Merril at dVerse, which is to use the word set in a 44-word poem that does not require meter or rhyme.
Image: Sunset on the Missouri River at St. Thomas, Missouri
This Bitter Pill
That the cure is our demise
lies between hope and fear,
dear though we hold our home.
Are we the plague,
the ague that chills all hope,
the dope that drains all life?
To achieve tranquility,
must we become dust?
Must we be gone?
This second quadrille for the prompt from Lillian at dVerse … the most beautiful words are … (to write a quadrille [a 44-word poem that does not require meter or rhyme] using tranquility) – came to me after Merril’s comment on Till There Is Nothing – “I hope Earth will live as the Blue Planet, even if we make it uninhabitable for ourselves.”
Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Earth seen from Apollo 17)
Till There Is Nothing
Must it be, to find tranquility,
our search must be beyond
the reach of hands that spoil
the land till there is nothing
more than barren waste?
We hasten our demise, the seas
and forests soon like the moon,
little more than a dream.
My mind immediately turned to the Sea of Tranquility when I saw the prompt from Lillian at dVerse … the most beautiful words are … which is to write a quadrille (a 44-word poem that does not require meter or rhyme) using tranquility.
Image: full moon, 22 November 2018
Different Drummer
You hear the beat,
but do not follow,
your voice your own,
in a world where too many
let others speak without
questioning the merits
of a drumbeat too often
exclusionary, delusion
carried to extremes,
out of step with reality,
right to the end.
This is a response to Quadrille #85 – Raising our Poetic Voices, the prompt from De Jackson at dVerse, which is to use the word voice in a 44-word poem that does not require meter or rhyme.
Image source: YouTube (USC Trojan Marching Band performing “Tusk”)
Taking Note
I stop for a moment,
even as I begin, fingers pressing
strings, and fret over the possibilities,
take note of the heartbeat sounding
through the delicate wood
pressed closely against me.
What better music could come
from a beginner with a life already lived?
This is a response to Quadrille #82 – Fretboard of Poetry, the prompt from Kim at dVerse, which is to use the word fret in a 44-word poem that does not require meter or rhyme.
Two Hearts
Theirs is a flaming brilliance.
Not wildfires, nor dragons.
Two stars blazing. Embracing,
yet orbiting each other.
Two hearts bathing
in the warmth of their passion.
Each heart knowing, needing,
the pull of the other.
Their love burning without
consuming, yet quenching their desire.
This is a response to Quadrille #81 – Here there be dragons, the prompt from De Jackson at dVerse, which is to use the word dragon in a 44-word poem that does not require meter or rhyme.
Image source: Astronomy Picture of the Day – (cropped here)
