The Poetry Marathon

Your body feels like an oil painting to touch.
You’re an art baby.
There are stories and secrets hidden in the crevasses of your imperfections.

When I kiss your lips your breath smells like freshly brewed coffee and sourdough.

Your voice is soothing and calming like a river.

I just want to dive in your essence.

When the one you love is hurting, you are hurting as well.

And want to take their pain away by any means necessary

only to realize that it’s their battle and their decision,

you can’t fight their battles for them.

You can only love them through it.

That’s what internal bleeding feels like.

Humble and hardworking
Terese -gentle soul.

Always greets others
with a warm smile.

She doesn’t have much.
She lives within her means.

She loves her tea with biscuits
and loves all things vintage.

She limps because of her bunions
you can tell they are a pain in the way she walks.

Terese- my friend and my neighbor
mother figure.

She doesn’t like shopping and
prefers wearing hand me downs which she still carries elegantly.

She speaks country Aussie
and devours books on British royals and novels.

Her garden always looks immaculate
something I envy about her.

Her walk is tired, her shoulders dropped.
Her hair is always unmade.
but she’s fit as a fiddle even for 76.

She calls me lovie and is so endearing.
She will send me a note in my mailbox to fix a date tea time.

Terese doesn’t own a mobile phone
nor does she have the internet.
She’s pretty old fashioned that way.

She keeps active and has a social circle
she loves her tennis and walks.

On Sundays she has all her sons over
she cooks up quite a storm to feed her 4 hungry boys.

Against a landscape of snow covered mountains,
lost in the mist in the far distance.
Unforgiving Winter is here for while,
and has made it itself comfortable
by covering the pine trees in frost and snowfall.

Set against this wintry chill of a scenery
alight with warmth in the front porch
this cozy wood cottage was home to a family.

A pond close by
the beauty and the bleak
encapsulated the essence
of unforgiving beauty.

This hour your challenge is to write a poem about coffee . Although there is one tiny catch. You can never use the words coffee, beans, black, milky, cafe, or caffeine in this poem. You must convey the idea of coffee, of drinking it, without ever mentioning these words.

Obviously, this is a little tricky. If you want to write a first draft containing these words, go right ahead. But then you must edit them out.

The challenge of this prompt is to convey something without stating it. It is also fun to challenge one’s mind to use new and different language to describe something you encounter everyday, even if you don’t drink it yourself.

A perfect blend of hopes and dreams,
My shot of energy during the day,
My cup of opportunity in the morning
You make me feel like I can take on anything the world throws at me…
Hitting all the right notes
Oh
you are so good to me.

My day doesn’t begin without you in my system.
A cup or two to get me through the pile of workload.

You make the impossible, possible.

You are my power savior.

She escaped into her world of books.
Where the words she reads
are the same thing she needs to hear.

She finds comfort as the words blanket
her hungry heart with a cup of tea.
Reading brought her joy.

She devours story after story
in search stories to live in
-for the moment.

Reading – her only escape from reality.

Title a poem as you would start a letter with Dear “insert name here”, then go on to write a poem to the person whose name you used. That person could be real or fully imagined. The contents of the poem could contain truth or fiction, but you must keep in mind the duel nature of this poem, it is a letter as well as a poem.

Dear Nadine,

I love you with all my heart.
I appreciate you and your friendship
The times we shared -I truly cherish.
The memories we made
will always be in my heart -unforgettable.
I will never forget
how comfortable you made me feel in your presence.
And how you always had my back.
You were my true friend.
I love how we’d be able to pick things up where we left them.
Thank you for contributing towards my growth.
Thank you for being part of my life.

Times have changed
we find it hard to catch up for months on end.
I don’t harbor any hard feelings towards you.
We have sort of drifted apart,
yet I feel connected to you
with the friendship we once shared.

I wouldn’t say you’re a stranger
I still love you
and wish you the best in life.
It’s just that I never imagined our friendship
would come to this.
This space where finding the time to talk would get so difficult.
The silence between us is awkward.
I guess this is the end of the road for us.

We must part ways.
As much as I didn’t want to accept it,
I am, in this moment, writing to you.
Farewell Special one.

Take me to a place in time
where I was a different person.

I don’t recognize myself in the mirror
it’s been way too long since I have felt
comfortable in my skin.
It doesn’t fit me anymore.

My mind is empty
Running dry of stimulus
it can’t keep up.
I am so afraid.
I feel trapped
I want to reach out for help.

You see me
but do you hear my cries?

I am burning in this fire of despair.
I have nowhere to run.

Death is the theme of many poems and the preoccupation of many poets. Still after all this time poets are churning out new and intriguing approaches to death in poetry.

The goal of this prompt is to write a poem about death. The death you write about could be imagined, personified, personal, true, or false. The details of this prompt are entirely up to you.

The idea of dying scares me.
It haunts me in my dreams and nightmares
It feels so final and certain.

Where do we go from there?
Heaven?
or hell?
or do we just disintegrate into the soil?

I am not ready to die…
I am never going to be ready for death

A certain uncomfortable feeling
settles over me as I struggle to
grapple with what death personally means to me.
Expressing my emotions about death
is somehow very difficult as I am at a loss for words.
I haven’t acknowledged death
or even its eventuality.

I’ll try as hard as I can
to write something on death
I guess..

Death is
-Devoted and patient.

Death is
-a welcomed relief to the suffering.

Death is
-a one way street.

Death is
-the celebration of life.

Death is
-sometimes so sudden

Death
only takes, it never gives.

Shame
Red faced- the person in the mirror
that doesn’t even meet your eyes.
Your insides are knotting up
Strip yourself of the unpleasant feeling.
Accept it and acknowledge it,
but don’t empower your shame.
Get over your shame.

Guilt
You feel responsible,
Maybe you are,
but maybe it was out of your hands.
This trip that you have set on is
an unending and unforgiving one,
You have to learn to forgive yourself.

Regret
Your heart is so full of it.
It is in everything that you do.
It’s poisoning your core
You end up becoming
calculative and controlling
-a prisoner to his/her regrets.

Shame, Guilt and Regret
hinder the search for self healing.
Blinding the vision to the obvious.

Let go and
Forgive yourself
Pick up the pieces
It’s time to move on
a step closer to self healing.