Oberon’s Dragonfly War – July 18, 2014 – Fun Poem

‘Twas the summer of 98
When they invaded his magic gate
Tiger mosquitos big as jets
Sucking the fairies to their death!

Brave king Oberon took up the challenge
He called out the Dragonfly brigade …
He launched the bloody war at once,
That’s now part of our history!

“Come to my aide my brave beasts,
I call upon your mighty wings …
Save my kingdom from these pests
Or my reign will soon be lost!”

The captain of the Dragonflies
Took off without a pause or hesitation …
And in the true spirit of a kamikaze
He took the battle to the evening skies.

They fought by day and they fought by night,
For the Tigers knew no rest!
Then calling their allies the Bats and Birds,
Who harried them even in their nests.

The battles raged and the fairies raved
At the prowess of the noble beasts …
The Tiger vampires met defeat
O’er the lands of Oberon!

Inspired by Cathy Tenzo’s Haiku – 16 July

Poetry Prompt # 18 – We Drink Because We’re Poets

The Victorian Lady – July 17, 2014 (Flash Fiction)

I was walking down a lane in an old district of London one evening when I suddenly realized that the light of a lamp-post cast a shadow that shouldn’t have been there.

It was in front of an old run down brownstone house. The other buildings weren’t modern of course, but they’d been recently refurbished. To me the windows resembled empty woeful eyes, looking on a world with which it felt no kindred ship.

The street light flickered and suddenly I felt dizzy. To my surprise a beautiful young girl stood not far from me.

“Ohi Gov, would you be wantin’ some company this evenin’?”

She was talking up an elegant gentleman, who looked to be in his forties. He was your classical strait laced Calvinist sort.  I was fairly certain he wouldn’t be interested in her favours.

He looked disdainfully at her then hissed: “Harlot! Can one not walk down the streets in peace without being accosted by the likes of you!”

Then to my horror, he pulled out a knife and began to viciously stab her.

She screamed: “Oh Lord have mercy .. it’s Jack!”

Flash Fiction Prompt – We Drink Because We’re Poets

Poetry Prompt #16 – Alphabet – July 1, 2014

Warning!!! This poem was written for the weekly poetry prompt created by Oloriel Moonshadow.  What we had to do was choose one letter and begin every word in the poem with that letter … I chose the letter G.  Obviously the poem is written in Giant Lingo 😉 .

Great Gnats!!!
Girly gravid giantess, Grimace Grace,
Grouse Grindstone’s granddaughter,
Graced Greasy Grimily’s “Grovel Garden”
Gulping generously
Green garlicky goodies.

Grimace Grace grunted guardedly:
“Greetings great Genoese gourmet,
Greasy Grimily,
Grand garlicky garnished grump!”

Graciously, Greasy Grimily grins:
“Girly giantess, Grimace Grace, gravely gravid,
Genial gutter-snipe gourmand:
Generous gargle-blasting garden grunts
Gather gleaming …
Gum-tree grappling geraniums!
*Gradisci?”

Giantess Grimace Grace, grumbled grumpily:
“Great glowing Gnats … Grazie, Greasy Grimily,
Grunting goony gory gnome!
Give gathering garden grunts, greetings!
Gimme:
Garlicky garnished gizzard giblets –
Greasy gristly gravy – ground grey gravel garnished!
GO! GO! GO!”

Great Genoese gourmet giant,
Greasy Grimily,
Glowered gloomily,
Guessing ground grey gravel gives
Gristly gravy, garnish …
Greatly galvanizing,
Gullible gourmand gravid giantesses,
Giving genial grape-nutty goodness.
Good grassy garlicky gooey gunk,
Guarantees gracious gravidy!

Going – Going –Gone
Greasy Grimily galloped gracelessly
Grunting grimly:
“Great Gnats!
Grimace Grace’s getting gormless gloomy!
Great graceless goose …
Grrrrr … Gravid giantesses get grumpy!”

Greasy Grimily gathered garlic,
Grass, gravy goo, gunk
gizzard giblets …
Giving Grimace Grace’s
Great gravid grossness,
Garlicky garnished gizzard giblets –
Greasy gristly gravy – ground grey gravel garnished …
Guaranteeing Grouse Grindstone’s
Gad-fly generosity:
Grimace Grace gobbled,
Glowing gravid grateful grins.

*Gradisci = Do you want some.

Written for Oloriel’s Poetry Prompt.

See: Wordle for Yves – July 1, 2014 for the story behind the poem!

Dawn Thoughts – June 20, 2014

Last August 9th 2013, Sahm did a poetry prompt on We Drink Because We’re Poets asking us to create our own form.  This was my contribution.  Someone commented on it yesterday, and it was an odd comment, but it brought the post back to mind.

Thursday Poetry Prompt #15: Invent a Form!

My response was this:

Well, I don’t know if this already exists or not,   It’s 4 quatrains…with an added fifth Haiku type 5 syllable line at the end of each quatrain similar to the Haiku “cutting phrase”, and a fifth quatrain, at the end of the poem, in free verse.

The rhyming pattern is particular: aabbc aabbc aabbc aabbc abcd, but the first and third quatrains rhyme on the last word – the second and the fourth quatrain rhyme on the first word, “the cutting phrase and the last quatrain have no rhymes –  the last quatrain is completely in free verse.

Unless someone can say differently, I’ll call this The Group Effect…in honor of the Group that’s been stimulating me so much.

Of Fig Leaves

Together one summer day,
Through the country we wound our way,
We joked and  I took  photographs,
A pleasant morn and oh the laughs,
A memory for winter’s cold.

I stopped beside an old fig tree,
By the path it stood so green, whilst
Taking lots of close-ups we ‘rengaed’,
Making comments as I worked …
In jaunty bawdy rhyme.

We talked  about writing a blog
How it’d be good to clear the fog
Of  illogical stories told,
Passed as history, but  just fool’s gold.
Philosophizing.

Asking why the fig interested me, I replied,
Masking my glee:
Biblical verse has made me giggle for
Quizzical questions,  they sometimes pose, like
The nature of fig leaves.

White sap from fig leaves
Burnt your skin last summer,
We imagined
Fig leaves on our ‘private parts’!

(I’ve  edited the poem … it reads much better now than it did then)

§§§

Tilus

bright colorful whirly-gig …
impressions
life

Shadorma

confusion
too many things to do
running mad
though its fun
these kelidoscope feelings
are nice in small doses

§§§

Georges Seurat – Poetry Prompt #15 (Artistry)

Georges Seurat – Pointillism

Grande Jatte – Credits: Philadelphia Museum of Art

Dots and more dots
Impressions
Of light and color …
Inventing pixels
Long before the thought was thunk
No digital camera
No fancy electronic app
Just brushes
Paint
And patience!
Georges Seurat:
Pixelventurer par excellence
Creator of vibrant worlds
Using just
Dots and more dots

Les Poseuses – Credit: Barnes Foundation, Philidelphia

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This was written for Oloriel’s Poetry Prompt – We Drink Because We’re Poets

Scars – June 16, 2014

Hidden in the citadel of my heart
behind a lost wayward smile,
that flashes all too readily,
like a neon sign …
a honking laugh
warning of an alarm
since it has no home
but inside myself …
the castle keep
of memories
where ancient scars
of pain
are kept inside the dungeons,
too ugly for the light of day,
have made me
who I am
a woman, though watching tigers rend
the lowing sheep
looks at the harmony
of zen.

My feet have trod many paths
from hunger to war
abused by some
lost and forlorn
in a world never my own
out-of-place in this great city of life
depressed and stressed
abandoned …
but I found myself
wounds healed – though scars remain …
I look not to the ugly ghetto of hatred,
retribution means nothing to me
and flee its desolating poverty of the soul
seeking the richness of harmony
to inspire my remaining years …
reneging the game of fear
and its power to destroy
I walk a path
of simplicity
seeking the small joys of life.

---

This was and is a particularly difficult prompt for me.  I could talk to you more easily of the scars from my gall-bladder operation I suppose, but I’d like to work a little more on why I don’t blast the world with anathemas and hell fire which so many do.  Neither do I enjoy writing in the tones of sobbing lamentations.

I really do believe that if I can’t change the world around me, if I can’t make people be fair, honest, loving, unjudgemental and all that good stuff, then I’m wasting my and other’s time trying to do so.  To me being combative is combatting inside myself the tendency to be unfair, dishonest, unloving, judgemental etc etc.  And the battle is arduous, believe me.

Written for WDBWP’s Poetry prompt # 12 – Scars

Poetry Prompt #11 (We Drink Because We’re Poets) May 29, 2014 – List Poem

Minestrone, brioche, coffee, milk, strawberries, white wine, fabric softener

Day Begins – List Poem

Waking up at the crack of dawn,
A cup of wake-me-up: strong coffee,
To sweeten my beginning day, a brioche
My communion food in the morning
Before
The minestrone madness,
That is my daily life, begins…

As sweet as a cup of fresh strawberries
Is my family as they rest,
Before arising from their beds
I ponder my blessings –
The milk and honey of existence.
What better way to toast a day …
The sparkling white wine of joy
Bubbles in my heart …
Decreasing problems that may be posed
Like a magic fabric-softener.
Then my daily life – begins …

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Written for Poetry Prompt # 11 – We Drink Because We’re Poets

Pixelventures – Through the Wall (Free Verse – Italian and English)

sailing
beyond the diamond of my mind
unto the vastness of time
learning voyage
from port to port
I wander
like a sailor without a home
spying eternity

§§§

navigando
oltre il diamante della mia mente
fino alla vastità del tempo
viaggio di conoscienza
di scalo in scalo
vago
come un marinaio senza casa
spiando l’eternità

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Written for Bastet’s Pixelventures – May 20, 2014

Poetry Prompt #10 – Haiku Novel

“What I would like you to do this week is present your favourite novel, book, your own personal poem, movie or similar – the entirety of it, the story of it – with a Haiku!”

Pirates of the Caribbean

Pirates of the Caribbean

my hero flies
from sail to sail
over the harbor deep

he’s a wretched sot
and not a gentleman
but how I love his walk

he saves his life
and finds his ship
then sails the ocean blue

with an orphan’s help
and a lady’s smile
he somehow saves the day

the treasure found
the enemy comes
trying to steal their wealth

but fate would have it
that the orphan’s right
will open the treasure box

then in the end
we find the orphan’s dad
was a salty pirate too

so he takes his rights
and he sails the seas
with his sword and lady too

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Written for We Drink Because We’re Poets – Poetry Prompt 10

The “Nana” Dog – Haibun

Last week I was in Rovereto for my husband’s art exhibition.  The day was cloudy and there was a strange yellowish tone to everything.  I was taking a photograph of Piazza Erbe working on the idea of perspective and there he was…a huge dog walking his owner.

The dog reminded me of Nana from Peter Pan for some reason.  And then I wondered:  what sort of apartment does this guy own.  I mean look at the dog, it’s huge!  Basically people live in apartments in this country…those who have yards are really in the minority, so one wonders about keeping pets of this dimension!  Oddly enough though, I’ve often found that the bigger the dog, the smaller the apartment!

Still, my imagination galloped thinking of this Nana dog and I imagined that the man had a beautiful family with three children just waiting for their dog to come home…maybe in a 4 room flat!

small houses big dogs
funny how they choose their pets
other perspectives

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Written for We Drink Because We’re Poets Story Prompt #9