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Threads: 408
Joined: May 2014
Let's Pretend it's April - Nov. 12
Rules: Write a poem for LPiA 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 the month of November.
Topic : Write a poem inspired by a mode of travel. (Planes, Trains and Automobiles) subways, horseback, etc.
Form : Any - Sonnets get bonus points.
Line requirements: 8 to 14
Feel free to reply with comments or kudos as you wish.
Questions?
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The Unwritten Rule
when riding the subway
is that there shall be
no eye contact.
On hundreds of trips
I observed that rule,
yet once
I did sustain
eye contact,
with a woman
two rows forward,
yet facing me.
We locked eyes,
and she (and I)
were determined
to remain locked
on each other’s eyes
until she got off
at her stop,
and never looked back.
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Threads: 16
Joined: Apr 2020
SteamBoat
Like Moses in bull rushes
adrift in black water no larger
than a loon the steam-horn
presses upon banks
with weight like
children’s balled hands
flowing over valley
flooding sky
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Threads: 176
Joined: Jan 2021
I.
He had a black 1963 Lincoln Continental.
Our gang could all fit into the back seat
and I got to sit next to Karla, my thigh
next to her thigh in its plaid skirt.
We were taken to see Winnie the Pooh
at the Capital Theatre and we stayed there
watching the movie over and over until
the theatre closed. Karla’s parents finally showed
but for mysterious reasons stopped
at a Masonic Temple on the way home
and I arrived at midnight, my parents frantic.
Karla’s thigh in a plaid skirt and just before
she moved away she said she’d go steady
with me and I never saw her again.
II.
I want to be on Huck Finn’s raft
going down the Mississippi
with no destination but away.
III.
Bud told us how, when horses gallop,
all four hooves leave the ground
as though they were flying,
Andrew said the first movie camera
was used to document that mystery.
I listened, and imagined airborne horses
and wondered at the majesty of their flight.
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Joined: Aug 2016
Whenever someone calls in sick
All our jobs are harder.
Even if I have enough employees
To cover their shift
I can't make them come in.
We're still short staffed.
If I call in sick, though everyone's job is easier.
Because no one else can do my job
So there's not as much to do.
Peanut butter honey banana sandwiches
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Threads: 137
Joined: Feb 2022
Gone Away
Behind trees I shuffle like Scoob and Shaggy
Running from a mad spook in the hallway.
I’m the cold stone skipper, Jack the Ripper!
Though I go by many a name- old dog.
The things I’ve seen, the places I’ve been- old dog!
Here there, gone where? Started? Ended? Began?
You can only spot me in the between.
Hand me my scarf, old dog- I’m gone away.
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Joined: Nov 2015
Short Voyages
I’ve seldom sailed on ferry-boats to cross
from mainland to an isle, then back again;
a landsman, I endured their dip and toss
less happily than bluff sea-faring men.
In each case destination was an island
which promised leisure, love, or Liberty–
a copper giant justifying my land,
a refuge from world’s cares with family.
Yet those small episodes resemble life:
its sailing forth in birth, its bounded stay,
and then a little trip, brief as a knife,
forgetting all one lived across the bay.
Or might it be that life’s the ferry ride
with work as one, and rest the other side?
Non-practicing atheist
Posts: 1,139
Threads: 466
Joined: Nov 2013
"sonnets for bonus points" but on day 12 and not 14?!?! smh xD
Posts: 1,139
Threads: 466
Joined: Nov 2013
Crash
Snap an angel's wings
before she tries to fly. Drive your car
into a pole. When the train you're in
enters a tunnel, someone
has to be trying to kill you.
That crop duster flying
in the distance? It must have guns.
The ship you're on,
sailing to New York? Make sure it sinks.
Make sure the towers fall,
the climbers suffocate,
the shuttle to the stars
disintegrates mid-flight. For love to last,
it must be tinged with loss.
Posts: 894
Threads: 176
Joined: Jan 2021
(11-14-2022, 03:06 PM)RiverNotch Wrote: Crash
Snap an angel's wings
before she tries to fly. Drive your car
into a pole. When the train you're in
enters a tunnel, someone
has to be trying to kill you.
That crop duster flying
in the distance? It must have guns.
The ship you're on,
sailing to New York? Make sure it sinks.
Make sure the towers fall,
the climbers suffocate,
the shuttle to the stars
disintegrates mid-flight. For love to last,
it must be tinged with loss.

Powerful stuff