end to end
lifetime just a moment
holding moments
years like seconds
a sweeping arc nearly
come full circle
now a crawl
midnight ever closer
Another poem in my recent obsession with aging, this is my response to
Reena’s Exploration Challenge #172.
The theme is Components of Time.
Image source: needpix.com (edited here)
It Was Never You, nor I
But we both know it was the children, sad as that is to say,
for the gift they have been. Your direction and mine,
different as night and day, had one exception,
their well-being and success. Discord
may have been evident, but not forefront,
as we gave to them what we could not give
to each other, a love that is true and unending.
There was no sacrifice on our part in fulfilling
the only desire we truly had and the reward it returned.
But that time has passed. It is now time
for us to follow our own directions.
Yours.
Mine.
This poem is in response to Reena’s Exploration Challenge #171, which is to use the provided image/dialogue, “take it forward from the perspective of the opposite gender, not yours.” I initially wrote this as a short prose poem, but I feel it works better with stanzas.
Regarding the prompt – without trying to sound sexist – I’m not sure if this works, as I once was told that I don’t do well in capturing “the female voice.” And I don’t mean the audio recording.
It Was Never You, Nor I
But we both know it was the children, sad as that is to say, for the gift they have been.
Your direction and mine, different as night and day, had one exception, their well-being
and success. Discord may have been evident, but not forefront, as we gave to them what
we could not give to each other, a love that is true and unending. There was no sacrifice
on our part in fulfilling the only desire we truly had and the reward it returned.
But that time has passed. It is now time for us to follow our own directions. Yours. Mine.
Also shared with Did you know you’re in my circle? — the OpenLinkNight at dVerse ~ Poets Pub.
Reena’s Exploration Challenge #166 offers two short pieces as inspiration, to be coupled with an image, our own or found online. Of the offered short pieces I chose the following:
inkblots mutate
to form pictures,
alphabets,
stories
I did not create
The image is one I’ve used here in the past. It shows me on my fifth birthday, in 1958. Our family tradition has been to place an extra candle on the cake, for good luck in the next year, as mentioned in this Wiki entry. (Something tells me that blowing out candles on a cake will become a thing of the past.)
Stories I Did Not Create
Decades to come, too many to count,
when I look to the past,
see stories I did not create,
stories that unfolded before, around me
Will I follow the inkblots that mutate
to form pictures and create alphabets
to understand the elements that came
to define my perspective?
What does a child know of these things?
There is only now. Before and after,
anticipation and regret, these we create.
Will I understand this, then?
Donald Downer
What deeper descent than this lift?
Falling
Falling
Falling
Our attendant
Lips pursed
Beneath brim of red hat
Offers no excuses
Only promises
Of a living hell
The doors open to reveal
A hell no different than
The last four years trapped with him
A swift kick out the door
A simple X on a ballot
And we leave him behind
What sweeter ascent than this lift?
Reena’s Exploration Challenge #160 offers this scenario:
You go down in a lift that doesn’t stop for hours.
When it finally opens, what do you see?
The Butterfly and the Branch
A branch sways
A butterfly changes course,
its wings the wind
A branch reflects on its situation,
draws a butterfly
A butterfly succumbs to obscurity
A branch sways in the wind
This poem is my response to Reena’s Exploration Challenge #154,
which offers the image for inspiration.
Image source: Gerd Altmann / Pixabay
fragments of a tune
a body manifested
with each measured note
This senryū is inspired by Pablo Picasso’s
“Girl with a Mandolin” and is in response to
Reena’s Exploration Challenge #146: Cubism,
which asks us to explore cubism.
Image source: Wikipedia – Girl with a Mandolin, by Pablo Picasso
patent, as in open
a hole in the wall
the shortest route
between two chambers
the heart of the matter
Reena’s Exploration Challenge #145 asks for a poem
that is as short and as cryptic as possible.
If the MRI I had on Tuesday shows no indication of past stroke,
my patent foramen ovale (PFO) will remain untreated.
Also linked to Open Link Night #270 at dVerse ~ Poets Pub.
Image
Detailed chambers of the heart & PFO illustration – © Mayo Clinic
(click image to see larger view in new tab)
As Above
so below, within the pulse that emerges
star fields forming just beyond
flames engulfing, just as quickly receding
depth in layers revealing what was always there
currents that conceal nothing and everything
eclipsing perception even as stars dance
their light washing away all you perceive
offering instead an amorphous birth
life in starlight
This ekphrastic poem is my response to the prompt for Reena’s Exploration Challenge #141 – Free Flow, which is to express a free flow of thoughts inspired by As Above, a video by artist Roman Hill showing the surface of a fluid chemical reaction accompanied by a pensive score.
Also shared with Open Link Night #269 at dVerse Poets Pub.
Image: screenshot from the video “As Above”
AS ABOVE from Roman Hill on Vimeo.
Perchance to Dream, Again
From the buzz I felt, half-awake,
sipping water mid-night.
To my bones, my joints aching
to move as they did mid-dream.
Goosebumps telling me,
“It’s not over. Go back to sleep.”
Signs I heed, yet traces slip away
as I struggle to grasp them.
I piece together what’s left,
intent on returning to something
already gone, only to find a new tale
in this writer’s reality.
Reena’s Exploration Challenge #137 offers three phrases for inspiration:
1. Writer’s Platform
2. Writer’s Cave
3. Writer’s Reality
Image source: Wikimedia Commons – Starry Night, by Vincent Van Gogh
(edited here)
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
