The Poetry Marathon

Hour 12: Closets

A closet to store time.

What will we find inside?

What treasures and imagination drags do we find inside?

What memories are tucked away neatly in a box will come tumbling down, falling often making a slight sound.

What lost item that we will find in plain sight?

What organizing shred or hack have we found?

What did we try to create?

What clothe will we uncover?

What fashion faux pas will be seen?

What shoes no longer fit?

What do we find hard to give away?

What will be left behind?

Hour 11-2023: The Extraordinarily Ordinary

The Extraordinarily Ordinary prism of light is truly a sight to see.

It captures in one sun beam all the colors of the rainbow.

It captures the spectrum found in oil spilled on an asphalt road.

It is the encapsulation of hope.

the sun total of joy.

A ray of light truly is a sight to behold.

It envelops those you love and care for in a clock of golden hues.

It is the best filter known to man and it shows your glow from within.

It is a feat of nature, and it shows the glimmer in the eye.

it is life.

It is the light that illuminates the moon at night and brightens the day.

Hour 10-2023: What is Love?

What is love? Bell Hooks says that, All awakening to love is a spiritual awakening.”

I was fooled by this once. The allure of my most reverent desire to fall for the spirit before all else.  No, I will trust my most basic instincts and sense. The sense of sight however vain I will trust in concert with taste touch and heart. To venture past the five senses is a great feat indeed. I tried to give spirit a chance yet, it too is as elusive and misleading as the five senses.  I will be more discerning and listen equally to the mind and heart, the left and right, the conservative and the liberal.

I will not go into matters of the heart blindly. I will walk in love and not fall or trip along the way without taking note and stepping up or back when needed.

What is right will be clear as the sun and as regenerative and live giving as the sea, who has yet to fail me even when I have been burned, bitten, and bejeweled by the ocean and its intoxicating love potion.

Receiving the sweetest sleep, the tenderest kisses, and the most mysterious of gifts.

Sing me a sweet lullaby and love me unconditionally. I do this too only with you.

Hour 9: Interrupted…Two Butterflies in the Night

Two butterfiels in the night. One black one white.

No they both were black and yellow like the bee and wasp. and the shimmer of thier black was rich like obsidian deep and true.

* I was interrupted by a fire alarm in my building. We were all evacuated.  As I was leaving, I found a neighbor who was panicked.  Her pet was safe, yet she almost panicked. We grabbed be purse key and phone and made it to safety. (This is the best way to meet all your neighbors. I found a picnic table to write yet it was difficult to write when you are not sure if everyone is alright.) Finally, we made it back in. Last month someone burned a waffle, this time I wonder who started to smoke. Everyone is safe. Now the writing like the show must go on!

 

Hour 8-2023 Musical Words

 

Musical Words

All my favorite words in music are friends…Rivers, Bayou, and Trees, all lead you Home to me.

This is clear to see.  Thank you, Sylvan Esso, even though I missed you at the festival this year.

They sing in a strong harmony, “lighthouse keepers”, “aching to return”, “waiting”, “aching to return to light”…

I was a day late and yet was able to volunteer and I was there.

 

Hour 7: The Viator of Respect

We ask to be respected

to be treated with kindness

and tact,

 

It leads me to think when

we ask to be respected

that we are in fact,

 

trying not to force a feeling

hoping to inspire a trend,

yet in the end when

we ask to be respected

 

we truly want it to be mutual

and not a only a give and take

what we really want is

for it not to be fake when

we ask to be respected.

 

Hour 6-2023: How can it be?

How can it be?

The earth is flat some say.

Is this what happens when we go off the grid?

Have we finally went over the deep end?

What do we truly know?

At least they made the claim!

Can we at least back it up with reason instead of calling teason!

Do we have an inextricable innate knowing?

I look at the shape of our moon, the way water puddles, how planets and organic objects like to congregate in shapes spherical in nature.

I’m partial to the circle yet that’s no excuse.

A personal preference or an inclination is not enough.

I like to wonder of what conclusion I would have if I did not attend school and how I could think out of the box no pun intended…

I’m ready to exit the ring.

Who knew this year my iced coconut coffee would coagulate into almost the prolific shape on our planet.

No not the hexagon.

A perfect pentagon.

Hour 2-2023: Ten Years Ago

Ten Years Ago

Ten years ago, I had a different mind, yet the same heart.

I knew not where I would be or that I would end up on the other side of the country to once again reunite with the four seasons.

I am always in awe of nature that too has not changed only intensified.

My love of music in concert has only grown stronger, like the pull to sea, it is where I feel the most at home.

Where all walks of life and ages come to be unabashedly free.

I am more open to the ways of the world and now I have included me.

I think I understood empathy naturally for others even too much so, yet this was the year I extended it to me.

I only felt sympathy for myself, and that we know is never good to feel sorry for yourself or anyone else because it is an indication detachment or unhealthy coping with challenge.

Hour (3) Three 2023: 20 Steps to Unlock the Heart

1. A project of the heart can be a chore.
2. Valentine’s Day is not about love.
3. Taste the sweetness of defeat.
4. I feel the sound of your heart.
5. ASH I heard someone spell out your name in four letters long in Port Townsend.
6. Love can be reduced to a day.
7. No, love cannot be reduced to a day.
8. Do you have the “rizz”, that special sauce, the “x” factor?
9. If the mind is willing, then the flesh must be weak.
10. Marriage for some is questionable, yet for the right person there is no question.
11. The divine universe of the mind is tied together inextricably.
12. Hands hold the meaning to one’s true desire to manifest.
13. Fly to me to the moon and float with me on the sea as we stare into the sky at the peak of midnight.
14. She is the Tigress and the tease only ready to please.
15. Soon we will reveal the mystery in due time when we are both free.
16. The prism is transparent solid body with two distinct triangular faces and end bases that has a body parallel to the vertical axis that intersect a horizontal axis reflecting rays of light.
17. I embody the light from within and without.
18. “La Dolce Vita” is where will share our bliss.
19. The seashell whispered it in my ear many years ago before you and I were introduced.
20. She echos in my ear only what you want me to hear, too shy to share, for she knows our connection.

I Survived the 2023 Poetry Marathon

The following images are part of the Poetry Marathon Tradition. They are for you to do with what you want, but they are often used as a way to celebrate your success. Full disclaimer, as per every year, two of them leans a little into dark humor.

The official list of everyone who completed the half marathon and the full marathon will be released in the next few days. Remember if you are not on the list it probably has more to do with our algorithm than with you, and please reach out so we can correct it.