The Poetry Marathon

Hour 1 Prompt One Then and Now

She was there during my darkest days

when I was afraid of my own shadow,

I wouldn’t have left the basement

if she wasn’t a writer.

She gave me advice that I pinned to my mind.

She brought me with her on her walks.

She made me feel like I mattered,

like I could conquer my demons.

Her laugh brightens my days.

She says we can talk on the phone

as if we were still sitting next to each other.

She gave me her cat and said I was meant to have her.

She told me I’m not stupid and somehow knew it was exactly what I needed to hear.

She is strong,

been through so much

and she keeps pressing on.

She is like sunlight.

I’ve always looked up to her.

She has helped many people.

Sometimes reading my poetry to kids in her class

to inspire them.

She would also share my story and say if I could get through this,

YOU can do it, too.

I don’t know what I would do if I lost her.

Black Conversations

Black Conversations

To be clear I don’t want your sympathy or your empathy.

What I need is the life that was promised to me when my spirit was placed into my mother’s womb.

A life of discovery, patience, vitality with freedom to love hard, live light and laugh feverishly every single day.

Well why don’t you pray?

Praying for a promise that already lies within me.

Access to these things God already gave me the key.

If I pray will this prevent the cops from shooting me?

Will it prevent COVID from consuming my family?

Will it clear the vision for those who see only my brown skin as a sin?

Well you know we trying to do better, but this system is where it all begins.

So why don’t you pray I say?

Praying for my people to fail so yours can prevail.

Access to these things the plantations made sure your lineage secured a generational key.

If you pray would you trade places with me?

Will your prayer be to finally see me?

The invisible strike of your lashes from the whip you never held in your hands.

Well you know my scars are beginning to heal from the trauma of America’s land.

Define a fine

Diplomatic not dramatic
Says what she means
With decorum and grace
Coaches with compassion
Helps you save face
A runner that finishes the race.

#1 – Well Kept Secret

They gawk and gaze and fawn over her,

A famous face, never changing,

They click a million pictures, fly miles to see her,

And she just stares back, frozen in time.

 

She has stories and odes written to her,

There is no one who knows not her name,

She is in books, in songs, in our history,

Yet, she gives away nothing, making people wonder.

 

We speak her name,

Yet, her story remains elusive,

Was she royalty, a peasant,

Or a former lover?

 

She says nothing, sits demure in her frame,

Simple, innocent, a secret, an enigma,

The only clue –

a mysterious smile.

 

-Prachi S

 

Primate Behavior Class

my first time

          seeing

Jane Goodall

          a young thing

making contact

          struck dumb

by her courage

          by her brilliance

											

Prompt 1, influential woman: I had a fairy godmother

Once upon a time

 

I had a fairy godmother.

She rescued me, but I was never

a princess. From my anger she wove

resolve. Despair became strength.

 

Her wings were a jet plane’s:

She rode with me to loneliness

then sent me home to heal.

Once home, I waited for her return.

 

Round of visage, clear of gaze,

she forged for me a lens

through which unhappiness

became only a tree branch in the road.

 

Once upon a time I knew a fairy

who led me through the desert

home. Sometimes I remember

but memory is like fairies ~ ephemeral

 

And wings are only dreams like mist

that fade in morning light. But I am home

and the music of the north country

sometimes fills the air. Like fairy wings.

 

Hour 1 Prompt 1

Why do they fear the fire 
the flame that burns high, then higher 
breaking through the rubbish 
to clear a path for others 

Why do they fear this walk 
over broken glass 
when it was laid by strong hands 
to reflect healing past 

Why do they fear this woman 
head held high through burden 
She has created footsteps to follow 
despite hands grabbing and voice swallowed

Why do they fear what they could be 
as they hide in a place of misery 
timid to walk this path but not to sneer 
as she walks by head held high, without fear 

#1 Chloe

She is striped and small
like a child, a kitten,

a stranger and then
the lights go down. She dominates
stage and scene, her voice a warrior
in layers of fight

wants to be healed
as if I can pull her from
the ashes of centuries
past,
and lovers never
parted.

These are the days

she climbs the speaker, leaps
toward me. I might catch her
so she won’t need me
less.

Her purr an engine
rumbling smooth
under her tongue
over the smoky sway
of our collective
bodies swarming,
warming together like this.

I wonder if she sees me here
wonder if the cry
in her lyric sheds from a single dark wish
to be heard.
I’m at the bar,
shoe soles sticking to the floor
it’s cement, lava,
fire licking my inhibition

alive. If whiskey were goodbye
I’ll never see her again.

Strength Wrapped In A Smile

She’s everything I’ll never be
Strength wrapped in a smile
Every time life knocks her down
She gets up with a growl
“Gimme whatcha got!!!”
She screams at the sky
“You’ll never fucking break me!!!”
Wastes no time on “why”
She’s taught me survival
Unlike any other
Everything I am, today
I owe to my mother.
~Mandy Kocsis©2020~

#poetrymarathon #hour1prompt1

To Julia Cameron

She stalks my doubts

A post of encouragement

Random, simple

A nudge if you will

She knows my dreams

She tells me

I will make them come true

I must give my creative a chance

Smash my inner demons

She gives me hope

A small kick to push me onwards

A small whisper

A loud reverberation in my tired soul

She showed me my critic

She taught me to play

An “Artist’s Way”

To the “Vein of Gold”

Yes I have a “Right to Write”

My Companion for “Walking in This World”

 

Thank you for your honesty Julia

 

Thank you

For changing my life

You were there when I needed you most

You opened me up

Showed me the way

You chopped through my doubts

And revealed my path

You keep me steady

You keep me sane