NaPM April 19 2015

[milo]

Rules: Write a poem for national poetry month on the topic or form described. Each poem should appear as a separate reply to this thread. The goal is to, at the end of the month have written 30 poems for National Poetry Month. 







Topic 19: Write a poem inspired by looking out your window.
Form : any
Line requirements: 8 lines or more

Questions?

[just mercedes]

wondering about lemons


why do they shine
through the dusk
like lanterns?

what do they guide
from the night?

can shadows
travel faster
than light?

[jasmine.m.wardiya]

It almost looks like it's snowing.
It's not. It's just the curtains
white and transparent

but it's cold enough.
Goosebumps raised. Fogged breath.
Why shouldn't the roses freeze
as well? They look almost crisp
like it's morning dew -
except it's almost sundown
and a sullen grey outdoors.

There's black spots too.
Was the hail before.
Now it's gone and melted.

Maybe there's a few left.
Sure is cold enough.

[cidermaid]

In the yard the cobble stones look hairy.
Rejected seed from the feeders
has seized the way to replicate.
Tender roots push past goose poo,
left as a fertility gift, now set like glue.

Birds flirt under baby oak leaves.
Popping grub laden gifts, beak to beak.
An orgy of activity under a veil of catkins;
they miss the flick of wings that shoves aside
their cosy hide, as the sparrow hawk arrives.

Spring sunlight plays with the cat
asleep on the roof; caressing her fur,
singed from sitting too near the heat lamp.
She chooses to move inside, the weather
disturbs her more than the falling feather.

[billy]

The sun looks through my window

The barking bitch

births me into lancing sunlight
'lazy bastard' expletives
broadside me.
The finger, periscoped
from below a warm duvet,
ignored;
with a nifty brush handle to the ribs.
She pokes the cover away
revealing
the early morning
piss proud prowler; it garners
ridicule instead of passion.

'Dream on pencil dick'

Her ambivalence excites me
but not as much as my bladder.

Topic 19: Write a poem inspired by looking out your window.
Form : any
Line requirements: 8 lines or more

[rayheinrich]

                               
                                < looking out window >
                               
                                inside dirt
                                Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour album decal
                                outside dirt
                                white bird shit
                                spider web
                                bodies of dead insects trapped and eaten by spider
                                one mayfly
                                two regular old flies
                                forty-two mosquitoes
                               
                                        - - -

[Todd]

On Horticulture and Beer Goggles

The Texas Redbud in the nursery
is an explosion of 80s fuchsia.
It’s what would happen
if a weeping willow had sex
with a crape myrtle at a rave.

The strobe lights on the night
my Texas Redbud was conceived
must have been like the paparazzi
cameras going off in shamed unison
when Princess Diana died.

How else could you explain
a weeping willow impregnated
by a pool cue resulting
in a dead stake suitable only for drunk
vampires lounging in the moonlight
on chaise lounges near the pool.

[bena]

Ravenous

If I have one, I'd simply want two.


Dozens of squirrels leap through my yard,
studying the tree flowers downed by the rain.
Some chance going across the road
in search of greener pastures.

One is flattened in the process.

A lone crow discovers it.

He glances around,
then goes for the eyes,
the very best part,
plucking one out like an offending grape.

His beak now bloody,
he stretches his tar feathers,
and still does not call report to his murder.

[milo]

Out My Window

Out my window I can see
the rolling grass, an ancient tree
the wind that blows so freely through it
as if to say there's nothing to it,

a statue of a man and horse
but they don't move at all, of course
and, not today, but on days gone
some squirrels have flirted on the lawn.

There is a lady just behind me
and every day she says - don't mind me
she gets the bedroll and the light
then rolls my chair just slightly right

so she can clean beneath the wheels
and on that table, leaves my meals.

[Tiger the Lion]

Under Glass

 
I see you in our April morning garden,
barefoot in the dew, the cuffs of your favorite jeans
rolled up exactly twice, revealing all but the sting
of your scorpion ankle tattoo.
 
Under the gazebo, your coffee and magazines
sit on that perfect tripod table we found,
just three doors down at the year’s first garage sale—
you clapped your hands for joy,
having paid with a handful of change.
 
The trellis behind you is budding,
and the grass is finally green.
 
I wish you could see it too.

[rayheinrich]

Under Glass

 
I see you in our April morning garden,
barefoot in the dew, the cuffs of your favorite jeans
rolled up exactly twice, revealing all but the sting
of your scorpion ankle tattoo.
 
Under the gazebo, your coffee and magazines
sit on that perfect tripod table we found,
just three doors down at the year’s first garage sale—
you clapped your hands for joy,
having paid with a handful of change.
 
The trellis behind you is budding,
and the grass is finally green.
 
I wish you could see it too.

I love love poems, my absolute favorites to read or write.
But given their reputation, their abuse; their simple complexity comes hard.
Congratulations.

[Erthona]

F5

With my dad's binoculars,
out the window I saw;
one, then two, then three,
four and finally five twisters
come together to birth a monster
a half of a mile wide.
How did I know it's width?
I saw its wake of destruction,
through all the new home construction,
leaving only bare concrete foundations
naked to the sun, a strip five miles long.  


Erthona

©2015

[bena]

So powerful Dale.

@71--I always love it when you talk of your garden. I generally don't like love poetry (for the reasons ray says) but I find those who do it well seem to do it effortlessly. I really like this one.

[ellajam]

The Joy of Early Rising

Just before dawn,
on the lowest large limb
of an ancient oak,
a raccoon sits forty feet above
ground, curled and watching.
Curled and watching,
I see him carefully
descend.

[Tiger the Lion]

So much wonderful spontaneous writing on this day. I often come back to April to remind myself what a talented group we have here. I couldn't possibly pick a fav from this day - but I do have a fav line... ooooo

Cider:

Tender roots push past goose poo,

[cidermaid]

Thanks for that, but actually i think I need to return the compliment because i simply adore the first stanza of your poem this day

I see you in our April morning garden,
barefoot in the dew, the cuffs of your favorite jeans
rolled up exactly twice, revealing all but the sting
of your scorpion ankle tattoo.

So many rich images and just the right amount of suggestion in the scorpion sting line. Lovely.

[newsclippings]

Has this place been abandoned?

[milo]

Has this place been abandoned?

What place is that?

[rayheinrich]

Has this place been abandoned?

        It's like Brigadoon, only it's one month out of every year.

[ellajam]

Has this place been abandoned?

Nope, because you peeked in. I always enjoy the occasional Boo! from these threads, prompts me to read them again, enjoyable and encouraging.

I've always loved Brigadoon.