Biography in 12 Poems – May 2, 2016

Biography in Twelve Verses

 

helplessness
menacing challenge
birth

a drifting figure
like a storm or summer breeze
– father

penetrating
all-pervasive night
black

whimsy and horror
kaleidoscope of events
childhood

anger
blocking the exit
growing up

pin-point and bright
wavering uncertainly
saving light

speak
the inner voice commands
the silence

throwing off fear
trusting once again
or no

this closed window
keeping out the weather
and the sunshine

plain truth –
equilibrium isn’t
balancing stones

satori
momentary dazzling light
in monotony

at sixty-four
a rocky stability
after the tears flowed

© G.s.k. ‘16

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

Whirligig 57: THIS WEEK’S WORDS come from “Weather” by Linda Pastan: menace, father, black, childhood, blocking, light, speak, throwing, window, plain, dazzling, after 

Poets on the Page – MONDAY, MAY 2, 2016 Poetry Prompts

Poetry Prompts:
Write for ten minutes asking what balance means to you, how balanced or unbalanced your life is, and/or what feels balanced to you.

Or…

Write about balance in nature, where you see it and/or feel it.

Word Prompts:
Balancing
Stability
Equilibrium

 

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.

The Blackbird Under the Jujube – Wordle – November 21, 2015

                             that snowy afternoon

whistling under the jujube tree
moving cautiously
following rhythms of an ancient lay
the blackbird pierced the fog
with its jolly song,
with a pantomime of indifference
there in the whirling snow storm …

elsewhere

barbaric drum beats echoed
inside a smoke-filled tavern
there bawds and bullies laughed and played
in a charade of carefree joy
in rhythmic discordance …
they never heard the blackbird’s song
under the jujube tree.

© G.s.k. ‘15

 

 

blackbird, afternoon, whistling, barbaric, pierced, pantomime, bawds. whirled, moving, tree, snowing, rhythms

 

Whirligig 34

Photo originally found at. Trees That Please Nursery

Morning haiku and waka – September 13, 2015

each rice sprout planted
by hand in the flooded fields
in late autumn

the woman moves
through the endless furrows
under the pulsing sun

timeless rice plants sway
under the moonless sky
like summer stars

rolling the grass
powerless the seeds fall
into the rice bags

floating in the dust
rice chaff dances in the sunshine
over rice paddies

known by many names
no matter where’s it’s grown
women planted rice
worldwide they’ve toiled in fields
in timeless tradition

© G.s.k. ‘15

THIS WEEK’S WORDS for the September 9th Sunday Whirligig come from “August 12 in the Nebraska Sand Hills Watching the Perseids Meteor Shower” by Twyla Hansen: rolling, furrow, moves, dust, timeless, floating, name, powerless, stars, rub, pulsing, moonless

Also written for:

Carpe Diem Time Machine #16

The photographs were found in a google search: The black and white photo of the Italian mondine was found at AvaxNews. The black and white photo of Japanese Planters was found at Pocket Guide to Japan. The colour photo of women planting rice while three men are watching the was found at Are You Corn-fed? (And the article attached to the photo is really worth reading). The old photograph of the elderly Italian women was found at Early Photos of Ebersgöns a gallery of historical photographs. The colour photograph of the woman in the rice-fields of Tamal was found at Gems of Tamalnadu. The photograph of Gambian rice workers was found at River Gambia Expedition. And the painting of the Italian women planting rice was found at Bioware Forum.  The video clip of “Riso Amaro” was found on YouTube.

She was Mad but He was Magic – Collage Wordeling – August 30, 2015

She was Mad but He was Magic

Her heart sprouted
from a dung heap
not far from
where the hawker’s balloon
fell to earth
near Jebson’s farm
in a now dead and dry
corn field …

She’d pined
becoming a mole
setting forth into the world
only at full moon-rise
when the beams
dripped cold.

“Reach out
for the remedy of your ills -”
the hawker called out:
“brewed from the seeds
found only on the vines
of Cleverness!”

She took a sip of the brew
then
– watched the liquid flow from the bottle
little did she know
where its power came from
but she entered a new world
she found oblivion
in a new love.

The hawker’s mission accomplished,
invited her into his balloon
and they left that farming district
never to return …

People still talk about them saying:
“She was mad but he was magic!”

© G.s.k. ‘15

Written for:

The Sunday Whirligig – August 19 – THIS WEEK’S WORDS come from “The Man Born to Farming” by Wendell Berry: reach, farming, sprout, dung, enters, corn, comes, mole, rise, seed, flows, vine

and Writing Prompt #122 “Collage 5″

A Quote, A Wordle, A Poem – August 1, 2015

” You live out the confusions, until they become clear. ” Anaïs Nin*

Poor soul!
He lagged behind us in Death Valley
and you could see,
just a thin vein of anger
trickling out of his soul
born from that extravagant
nonsensical person
who went by the name of Joy.

He contemplated
the thunderheads within:
they announced
that the last silver lining
was now blackly tarnished,
advising him
to chalk up
yet another loss
in his five-year diary.

The topmost thought
in his weary feverish brain
was how to clear – up
the inevitable confusion
of his now, once again, non-existent
love-life.

© G.s.k. ‘15

THIS WEEK’S WORDS come from “Whether” by Alfred Corn: anger, lagging, stride, vein, silver, thunderheads, nonsense, extravagant, joy, chalk, topmost, clear

* The Quote is linked to “The Muscleheaded Blog”

Sunday Whirligig – Haibun – June 25, 2015

Wandering without any particular goal, the woman found herself near the old abandoned lighthouse that stood upon the promontory, overlooking the rocky shoals. It was now an unmanned electronic wonder in an ancient building.  The sea boiled below and she watched as single waves would sometimes separate from the rest and break ithemselves against the rocks.

As she stood on the promontory, she remembered days now long gone and a man who she’d once loved, born in the city, he longed for the sea. He’d studied architecture but then, in an existentialist crisis, he joined the Merchant Marines and she never saw him again.  She’d nearly forgotten him.

As the sun began to set and the last tremulous light filled the sky, she turned to make her way back down the path towards the village.  There,  people lived their traditions and customs as though they were a badge of honour. Reflecting, she wondered what holds some people rooted to one place.  Why do some people run away from their birthplaces while others never even go to the next town?

The light from the lighthouse suddenly slashed through the night. Warning wanderers of the dangers of coming too close to its light.  A warning and a danger at the same time?

warning wayfarers
beams of light shine through the night
an old lighthouse

© G.s.k. ‘15

For:

Sunday’s Whirligig: Whirligig 12

Sunday Whirligig – June 6, 2015 – Published June 11, 2015

Dama Claudia

Dama Claudia’s Lament

another day passes and I think too much
so this sad depression I cannot shake
there are no monsters, no one’s at fault
just emptiness from whence cloying darkness springs
painting my soul with an ink-like stain
with a rope of hanging length.

I seek now for your gentle touch
to help me overcome this ancient ache
what know I of the earth and salt
of happiness and other things …
for I  live each day in sordid pain
depriving me of wisdom and strength

I seek so much from your touch
to shake in passion’s exalted ache
the salt of life – peerless without fault
which springs from all those mystic things
that heals all pain and absorbs all stain
which at length will give me strength

© G.s.k. ‘15

THIS WEEK’S WORDS, rhyming pairs, come from Robert Frost’s poem “To Earthward”: touch, much, things, springs, ache, shake, salt, fault, pain, stain, strength, length

Wordleing with the Whirligig – June 2, 2015

what a nifty hat
thought the guard
as he watched her pass the chain-gang
in her car outside the prison …
sweet cherry red
and bright white tie strings
dangling round her face
enticing – delighting
a real 100 carat beauty …
he looked down at his shoe
his mind began to wander
one idea leading to another ….
a later sequence of thoughts
sure made his blood boil
ah, yes indeed –
what a nifty hat

© G.s.k. ‘15

Whirligig 9 May 27, 2015

A Crazy Wordle Poem – Wordleing – May 22, 2015

with madness in his methods
he walks the country roads
searching out bleached stones
to add to his collection

humming he sees the sheep
near an olive tree
he remembers Grandma’s needlework
and thinks all men are fools

like imaginary dominoes
fall lightly one on one
his melancholy laugh
echoes under the sun

he’s mad and we all know it
a hatter in his way
but let’s not look at him too closely
we might see he’s just like us

© G.s.k. ‘15

This week’s Sunday Whirligig is perfectly delightful .. not only for its interesting words, but for the lovely photograph on which it is composed … inspiring to say the least … many thanks to Magical Mystical Teacher for all her efforts to keep the Sunday Wordle alive!

method, country, stones, bleached, sheep, olive, humming, needlework, men, fool, dominoes, laugh