The Narcissist – March 23, 2016

Arno Rafael Minkkinen

involution
written from somewhere inside
a fantasy
or mystery
but who holds the pen

and those words echoing
across a sea of static
unheard
and yet so well-known
who speaks them

there
in a murky wilderness
without rhyme or reason
unbeknownst to anyone
he walked by
snapping a photograph

he caught … the narcissist
reflecting upon his soul
preening in dark waters …
mysterious are the words written
this  bright spring morning.

© G.s.k. ‘16

Photo Challenge #105

Hump Day Poetry – Week 7

Black and White – Haibun – March 12, 2016

Emily Grant

 

Truth they say is black and white, Marco thought as he walked along the street, intrigued by the odd afternoon light caused by a pause in the storm. Thunder rumbled in the distance, the wind picked-up shaking a plastic bin bag drawing his attention to it. Someone had discarded an umbrella or maybe something else, he wasn’t sure. How odd; the light refraction caused by the weird preamble to the storm made everything a little mysterious. The world seemed black and white yet things were anything but clear. Hard to see any truth here.

bold contrasts
enlightening
his inner truths

© G.s.k. ‘16

(100 words)

Friday Fictioneers

B&P’s Shadorma and Beyond 

Alone with Marigold – Kyrielle Sonnet – March 11, 2016

latoday.deviantart.com

Reflected in the wilderness
Hunger, thirst and then deep darkness
She walked alone with Marigold
Along her path both fine and bold.

To take give counsel she went north –
To her enemy she went forth –
Unto the city as foretold
Along her path both fine and bold.

She never fainted nor gave praise
But freedom’s banner she did raise
Her name was never known I’m told
Along her path both fine and bold.

Reflected in the wilderness
Along her path both fine and bold.

© G.s.k. ‘16

 

From Sunday Whirligig 49, The week’s words came from Psalm 107:1-13: wilderness, hungry, thirsty, works, darkness, counsel, thanks, enemy, north, city, fainted, praise

Mindlovesmisery’s Menagerie’s Photo Challenge and B&P’s Shadorma and Beyond – Kyrielle Sonnet

My Kyrielle Sonnet isn’t based upon anyone from the “real” world.  I just imagined how the once tiny girl in the photograph, from her childhood adventures with her cat might have grown into a bold decisive woman.

Ode to A Mask – Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie – March 4, 2016

Carnival in Venice -29 by Stefan Insam CC BY-SA 2.0

Ode to a Mask

Hidden in a plaster mask
For all the world to see,
Covered in bright feathers
A cockatoo waddles past.

Fancy dress at carnival,
Walking down the grand canal and
Yet another peacock cries
Dressed in orange and fur.

“What know you of her past?”
I asked my tourist guide ..
“A princess or a pauper?
“Who knows!” his shrugged reply.

For now we’re in September
Long past is Mardi Gras
No longer is it fun
To see her masked facade.

Hidden in a plaster mask
Dressed in feathers and silk
Once she was a beauty queen,
Now she’s just a ghost.

© G.s.k. ‘16

Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie – Photo Challenge and B&P’s Shadorma and Beyond (ODE)

Tanka Prose for Chèvrefeuille – Moonlight – March 3, 2016

When I was a child, I lived in the Philippines with my parents.  One day my father came home with painting for my mother.  It  was a scene of a full moon over the ocean painted on black velvet.

The painting itself was composed of just a few well place strokes of white and brown oil paint giving the impression of a white river flowing from a hovering moon over the ocean, shimmering towards a high abandoned cliff.    I loved to look at the picture imagining the sound of the wind and the adventures that took place in that magical dark world perhaps inhabited by pirates or explorers.

Even now though many years have come and gone, I’m still fascinated by the memory of that painting … and I realize that from time to time I try to recreate it.

a glowing river
flowing on the night-time ocean
in a child’s dreams
silent winds blow up the stream
the smell of salt air abounds

© G.s.k. ‘16

Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie, Heeding Haiku with Chèvrefeuille and Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu 

 

The three Sadhu – Haibun – February 12, 2016

Sadhu by Sukanto Debnath CC BY 2.0

They are the backbone of faith, the mystics, wise men, the Sadhu. They sat with Gautama Siddhartha through his long months of fasting contemplating Brahman. They refused to cheapen their spirit by touching, thinking or breathing impurities and never fell to the temptations of those who dangled their promises of ease, wealth or fame. Yet, they fell, and failed to achieve mokṣa by refusing the middle way.  But they are still the backbone of faith, the mystics, the wise men, the Sadhu.

three sat with Him
reviled Him when He ate
they still – sit

© G.s.k. ’16

The photograph came from: Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie: Photo Prompt #99 February 9, 2016 entitled: Sadhu by Sukanto Debnath CC BY 2.0

I’ve also used the three words furnished the week on 3 Word Wednesday:

Backbone, noun: spine, spinal column, vertebral column, vertebrae; back,

3 Word Wednesday

mainstay, cornerstone, foundation, chief support, buttress, pillar, tower of strength, strength of character, strength of will, firmness, resolution, resolve, determination, fortitude, pluck, pluckiness, nerve, courage, mettle, spirit, moral fiber, guts, spunk, grit, true grit.

Cheapen, verb: demean, debase, degrade, lower, humble, devalue, abase, discredit, disgrace, dishonour, shame, humiliate, mortify, prostitute, reduce, lower (in price), cut, mark down, discount, slash.

Dangle, verb: hang (down), droop, swing, sway, wave, trail, stream, wave, swing, jiggle, brandish, flourish, offer, hold out; entice someone with, tempt someone with.

Morning Haiku and Waka – Blog Hopping – January 11, 2016

Love, what is love?  That potent attraction that pulls two people together?  No perhaps that’s hormones and little else.  Well, might it be then, the fascinating encounter with a great thinker who can mesmerize one into ecstasy with words? I think not, intellectually fulfilling perhaps, at least for a time but love, no, not love.  What about that perfect body, those lovely eyes and that suave voice.  Aesthetically pleasing perhaps, but no, not love.  We in the west, raised and nurtured on fairy tales and romantic novels, have a vague idealistic vision of love and I suspect that that vision is just an illusion.  If we search for love guided by all the nonsense that we watch on television and read in books our love affairs will be quickly over because they’re based on “fried air” as the Italians like to say.

So what is love – are there different kinds of love, or is there just Love with a capital letter?  Is that feeling you have for your dog or cat any less important to you than  the feelings you have for your child. (I can hear the scandalized voices now .. but Let’s be honest.) Don’t you get all torn up and feel miserable when your dear four-legged friend dies.  I know I still mourn my old friend Maao to the point that I never want to own another cat.

If we’re talking about sentiments and emotions, I suppose we could call a summer encounter or a meeting of minds on the internet a love affair, but if we’re looking for something deeper that involves something more universal maybe we should look within.

a quick flash
star-crossed summer loves
autumn cinders

© G.s.k. ‘16

§§§

sun and moon
lovers always separated
forever linked

this heart
one with the universe
love

a warm touch
the cherry tree blossoms
in love with life

creation
attraction and repulsion
love’s paradox

© G.s.k. ‘16

This post is linked to:  Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #69 An Essay About Real Love, Heeding Haiku With Chèvrefeuille February 10th 2016 and

Haiku Horizons – Fast

NaHaiWriMo – Zest

Heeding Haiku and NaHaiWriMo – Classical Haiku – February 4, 2016

“Classical Haiku”

evening walk
even in the cold snap –
plants blossom

old sea-gull
creeling and fighting
– his old age

winter oasis
palms bend under the snowfall
– for one afternoon

© G.s.k. ‘16

 

Heeding Haiku With Chèvrefeuille, February 3rd 2016

“I love to challenge you to write a classical haiku, which means you have to follow a few classical rules:

1. Your haiku must be the “impression” of a short moment, as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water;
2. Your haiku has a “kigo” (or seasonword) in it;
3. You also have to use a “kireji” (or cuttingword, like e.g. “;” or “!”);
4. You have to use the classical count 5-7-5 or 3-5-3;
5. Your first and last line have to be interchangeable;
6. Last, but not least, try to catch a deeper meaning in your haiku.”

NaHaiWriMo – February 4

Etched in Sunset – Minute Poem – January 28, 2016

in the shadows of the gloaming
each line etched
against the lake
in black and white

in the twilight we leave the shore
and lake birds call,
shrilly voicing
their last goodbyes

in this moment of day’s passing
a star rises
to guide our steps
ever homeward

G.s.k. ‘16

The was written using the form Minute presented on:  Three-Day Midweek by Quickly’s Winter Doldrums

Distilling Marcel Proust – Shadorma – January 16, 2016

fear of death
awakens our mind
our slothful
careless mind
to all that we will miss upon
slipping through the veil …

how careless
to be bored by life
tomorrow
or tonight
our life might slip away – gone
it’s our human fate

© G.s.k. ‘16

 

B&P Shadorma & Beyond – January 15, 2016 – Distillation 

This week we will do a poetry distillation … the poem I chose read by Alan Rickman passed away this week is: Text: Marcel Proust – Life Would Suddenly Seem Wonderful.  I’ll be distilling it into a shadorma.

[A shadorma is a non-rhyming six-line poem with a syllable count of 3/5/3/3/7/5.]