Kaleidoscope
Summer colors mixed with winter lights
swirling apexmesmerizing vortex of mirrors
held to the child’s eye
as he slowly turns it
so the colors fold themselves
in on unending varieties of patterns
of wonderment.
Hour Seventeen: The Pose
Start with your feet hip-width distance apart.
Begin to slow the breath, noticing your weight evenly distributed between both feet.
Find your drshti; balance is breath and focus, strength and faith.
One last slow breath…
Now shift your weight over to one leg, keeping the knee unlocked, accessing the quad.
Take a slow breath in and out.
Then place one foot atop the one bearing your weight now, gently, with little-to-no-weight, resting there.
Extend your arms out to a tee, one arm at a time.
Breathe.
Three more slow breaths.
Now slowly sweep your arms back behind you as you curve your spine forward over the bent knee.
Bow your head, redistribute your weight to the ball of your supporting foot.
Breathe.
Concentrate.
Think pink.
Fluff of feathers,
Channel your inner flamingo.
Hour 17 – Holding hope, a sestina
I have been holding onto the hope
That I’ll find answers in the moon
Or that I’ll be revealed as a fairy
Released from the expectations of a society that make me want to die
There is too much going on to be bored
But there is also too much going on for me to sleep
–
Sometimes while I am sleeping,
Their eyes blue bore into me again and I wake up with hope
In my heart, i wish that I was bored
I’d prefer that to wailing at the moon
About all the versions of me that have died
When someone stopped believing in fairies
–
I had a dream I met a fairy
And he begged me to help him get to sleep
He told me he could make it so I didn’t have to die
He expected me to take that, but I don’t have that hope
I can’t wait to rejoin the moon
I bet with all the night sky to keep her company, she’s never bored
–
I wonder if the sun gets bored
Maybe that’s why it invented fairies
The stars are always out to party with the moon
While the rest of the world sleeps
Neither of them should be lonely, that’s my only hope
I know how much isolation can make you want to die
–
I don’t have a desire to be young when I die
But when I am low, there are moments where i am so bored
Of being alive. The highs of this roller coaster give me hope
When I can go out to a party and drink beer with a fairy
But on the days I can’t sleep
I try to make stories out of the clouds over the moon
–
I think of certain people when I look at the moon
I don’t know if I can still call them friends, or if that label has died
There used to be nights we’d stay up ’til dawn talking, choosing that over sleep
Being loved by them felt so easy, it was impossible to be bored
My peter pan and my stubborn fairy
Now unanswered text messages, unmet hopes
–
I have been holding on to the hope that I won’t have to keep wailing at the moon
I dream I make friends of a fairy and the loneliness doesn’t make me want to die
But even in moments where I am so bored, I’d still choose living over endless sleep
Hour 17: Kaleidoscope
Kneel down and look
At a myriad of colors
Light and dark
Energetically twisting around each other
In perfect formations
Dancing, lifting the spirits
Of young and old alike
See them, and vow to live a
Colorful life
Of unexpected encounters, journeys, and surprises
Painful at times, but always leading to a sweet
End.
“Hoax”
I love your lips and your hips,
And the way it sways when you walk,
I love how you speak,
And your freak-mind bending ideas that keep me thinking,
Where on earth you get them.
I love your songs and your voice,
And your imitation that you are a professional singer even you’re not.
I am your only arena,
And you’re loving it every time we made-up a pretend concert.
I love your touch and smirks,
Your quirks and little remarks.
I love everything that you’re not.
Yes! These are not you.
I’m a hoax, and so are you.
Text Prompt
Write a poem that is pretending to be something else, a set of instructions, a recipe, an letter, a news report, etc.
(Why yes, this prompt was inspired by This is Just to Say, which is a poem pretending to be an apology)
#POETRYMARATHON2023 #HOUR16 #24HRSCATEGORY
Nefelibata
Look, that cloud is a dragon!
See it’s snout and tail?
And look, over there
Aren’t those flowers simply breathtaking?
I wish I was a pegasus
Flying above the world
Marvelling at all it has to offer
Wouldn’t that be something?
Everyone stares at her
The strange, unusual girl
Head always in the clouds
Never paying any mind
To reality, to the world around her
Hour 17 “Whispers…”
Hour 17
9/2/2023
“Whispers…”
Mid-naught…
and my breath HOLDS.
Eyes startle,
wander, focus…
Search, I can see each movement,
each passing pause and restart.
I can hear each “tick” – feel …each… tick.
Sense as the second hand sweeps
round and around the face.
I FEEL the THUNK of the minute
as it falls into the present
and my heartbeat mirrors the intensity.
Midnight
electric hum
the chime of the portent comes alive…
and my legs move
bedclothes rustle –
feet find their home within leather wraps.
Coffee beckons
and the kitchen table awaits…
Midnight, just another day in paradise.
Chris
(C) Chris Twyford 9/3/2023
Kaleidoscopic
Endless combinations
of color and light.
The most minor shift
brings new design
and unique beauty.
Another shift
and the pattern is gone
and won’t ever be seen again.
H17.P17 – Keildoscope
I close my eyes
A feild of sunlight
Penetrates my closed lids
Light spills onto my skin
I am bright, warmth
A spider web of veins
Drift and glow as l rise
My soul fills with happiness
Prompt #17
Shapes form, but dissolve before
I can name them.
Colors come into focus,
blend, and come back
a new hue.
And us?
We form, come into focus, blend, and
come back perhaps not better, but
yes, good enough.