poetry

The Ultimate Abuse

/ Ken / rivrvlogr / 12 Comments

The Ultimate Abuse

Wade through the rhetoric,
read row after row
of 213 pages of propaganda,
and understand the abuse
not only of power
but of citizens living
in a male-dominated society
where personal welfare is ignored
and the potential of a death sentence
is imposed without any pretense
of a trial once petty politicians are allowed
to do so to maintain their dominance,
and ask yourself how you can be
proud to be a member of that society,
knowing that further changes
using the very same logic,
or lack thereof, will be used to erode
further personal freedom in the future.

 

               Click image for link to US Supreme Court decision

Blackbird ~ with audio

/ Ken / rivrvlogr / 16 Comments

 

Blackbird

The time has come.
A flame long lit rises higher
with each generation.

No longer meek
or following a creed
that dictates second-class status,

this sisterhood, each woman
who walks this earth, grows
with each bridge crossed.

Do not ask me to refute this,
for I can not. Nothing will stop
their search for equality.

Its progress may seem slow,
but a blackbird in the wind
will still choose its course.

This is my response to Wordle 577 at The Sunday Whirl.

blackbird / flame / wind / time / cross / me / woman / meek / seem / creed / search / earth

Shared with OpenLink Night #319: Midsummer Edition!  at dVerse~ Poets Pub.

solitude ~ with audio

/ Ken / rivrvlogr / 10 Comments

solitude

fear of conformity
this loneliness
that keeps me from joining in

must minds be alike
to get along?
am i so different?

the same needs
a desire to belong
without judgment

perfection
though not requisite
the mind’s obstacle

is that it
the fear of judgment
that holds me back?

fear of failure
to conform
all in my mind

This is my response to Poetics: When it comes to Peer Pressure,
the prompt from Sanaa at dVerse ~ Poets Pub.

Weather Doesn’t Wait ~ haibun

/ Ken / rivrvlogr / 26 Comments

Weather Doesn’t Wait

Thirteen times since early May, our weather has flirted with – no, made out with – temperatures of 90ºF or higher here in mid-Missouri. Since the beginning of the year, 83 days have had daily high temperatures that exceeded the normal range, with 4 record high temperatures set. All of this, while waiting for tomorrow’s start of summer.

weather doesn’t wait
for notes on a calendar
waiting for solstice

This is my response to Haibun Monday 6-20-22: Solstice,
the prompt from Frank Tassone at dVerse ~ Poets Pub.

Image: Black Shire Distillery, Hermann, Missouri 19 June 2022

Private Audience ~ quadrille

/ Ken / rivrvlogr / 25 Comments

Private Audience

Tucked out of sight beneath a rock ledge,
my kayak motionless on water
smooth as glass, I gaze from shadow
into light, spellbound by an aerial ballet
of swallows weaving around each other
as if choreographed in a performance
for an audience of one.

 This is my response to Quadrille #154: Casting a Poetic Spell, the prompt from Sanaa at dVerse ~ Poets Pub, which is to use a form of the word spell in a 44-word poem (excluding title), with no required meter or rhyme.

Heedless

/ Ken / rivrvlogr / 13 Comments

Heedless

The river flows and waves crest
in the wind. Wave tips shimmer,
return sunlight in kind,
heedless of my acceptance.

Thankful for the gift of light
on a cloudy day, a tree reaches
skyward without judgment,
offering a gift of its own.

Neither overcast day
nor cloudless sky holds
a promise meant to assuage
the concerns of one such as I.

I shared this poem with Open Link Night #318, June LIVE Edition at dVerse ~ Poets Pub, when I attempted to join the live video chat from a parking lot outside of my doctor’s office.  That was a big failure, since my cell signal was almost nonexistent.  To make matters even worse, I totally forgot to add it to Mr. Linky.  However, the many fine poems that were linked are still available to read there.

Rising River ~ video poem

/ Ken / rivrvlogr / 41 Comments

 

Rising River

The crash of calamitous
rainfall creates a beast of a river
that batters its banks.

Scoured by trees with trunks
twisted from their frail grasp,
gouged beyond recognition,

swallowed as waters rise,
the shores silently succumb
to a watery wasteland.

We wonder what will be left
when the waters finally recede,
the banks far from their former place.

 

This is my response to the prompt from Björn at dVerse ~ Poets Pub, Meet the bar with dissonance, where dissonance may add an unsettling emotion that may be crucial to describing unpleasant topics, perhaps by using harsh consonants, breaking up assonance with various vowels, etc.  I’ve decided to use some harsh sounds and an excess of alliteration, as well as what could be an unsettling topic. I returned home from kayaking to find this prompt and thought, hey… why not?

Within Your Light

/ Ken / rivrvlogr / 29 Comments

Within Your Light

“Perhaps I will become a ray of sunshine, to be embraced by your colours.
I will paint myself on your canvas.”
                              Amrita Pritam

The words have flowed
from the moment I met you.
With paper as my canvas
I paint the words you bring.

From a distant beacon
over darkest waters
to the romantic light
of a candle’s flame.

From the subtle light
of a full moon’s glow
to the faintest light
of the farthest star.

These words of love,
the paint on my canvas,
are revealed to me,
found within your light.

This is my response to Poetics: Woman are people: Invoking Amrita Pritam, the prompt at dVerse Poets Pub in which Punam asks us to write a poem using one of five lines by Amrita Pritam as an epigraph.

Image source: morguefile.com