The Poetry Marathon

Your Courage Mustered and Relish the Day

Welcome you are to my life and my home.

find some comfort in my company

find our fun and misadventure

maybe sail across the sea of ecstasy

Forsake the norms of genteel reproach and gather here on my mushrooms head

of power and persuasion and an aching in my head

do not be discouraged if this love is too profound

it’s called the little death because it’s the finest show around

around and ’round I’ll love you and chase you as we play

remember dear, when your heart grows cold, there is no other way

to shower you with pestilence and cover you in love

hold you now my hat as I slapped you with my glove

tis not in anger, nor in rage that my glove does strike

but only love with my kid glove can show my present state

a whippoorwill and dervish may go spinning through your head

but we are the enlightened ones Heavens joys are in our bed

I may not be nimble as of yore but fat I have not gotten

run from me, I’ll enjoy the flee and lose myself composure

I’ll pull you down and strip my crown, doth it to you in clover

as we alight I’m sure you’ll find my hospitality is marveled

the world over, it must ring true for I’m telling you,

unless the words are garveled

your courage mustered and relish the day

for recompense becomes me, love

 

 

 

WRITE

Wonder

Read

Imagine

Think

Explore.

Hour 20, I Grow Old

In my youth, there was sometimes beauty,
a grace of form unmarred by lines,
skin tight to the flesh and muscle well defined,
hair curling and furled down to a waist
a mere eighteen inches, spanned easily
by the hands of the man who became my love.

I grow old… I grow old…

In the years in between youth and age
there is the transitioning time, a form blurred
by swelling ankles, a thickened waist,
and sagging breasts, time’s no longer subtle
cruelties carving lines through my face and hands,
admired differently, desired differently.

I grow old… I grow old…

In extreme age there is another kind of beauty,
transcending the tightness of flesh
and instead defined by wisdom’s light,
glowing from within, a lamp beneath a silk thin scarf,
a lap and arms curved to shelter grandchildren
and a waist for their arms to embrace.

Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

 

 

 

Bookworm

Munch, munch, munch!

The Bookworm chews through a book

Gulp, gulp, gulp!

The Bookworm slurps up the knowledge

Nom, nom, nom!

The Bookworm finishes another.

 

A pile of crumbs left in the wake

It’s off to the library to re-fill their plate.

Indeed there will be time – T.S.Eliot

 

Prompt 25 Hour 20

Read the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot and use any of the lines, words, or phrases it contains, to write your own poem (Italicize Eliot’s lines)

 

And indeed, dear husband, there will be time, 

As soon as our Baby falls asleep

Time to relax and have some wine

As soon as our Baby falls asleep…

There will be time, there will be time

As soon as our Kid starts school

I will go back to work again and you work harder for an extra dime

As soon as our Kid starts school…

And time yet for a hundred indecisions

As soon as our Teenager goes to college

We will follow his dreams and aspirations

As soon as our Teenager goes to college…

Time for you and time for me

As soon as the Young One marries

Just you and me, with unanswered queries

As soon as the Young One marries…

Indeed there will be time

As soon as the clock stops its chime…as soon as ….

 

 

Between 20 and 21

“You rest; I’ll pray,”

A friend told me the other day.

Four simple words,

And I’m reduced to tears.

 

Because, for so long

I thought I must be strong

And stay awake

And pray for God to hear.

 

The cries of so much subtle chaos

Of which I am in charge,

To not lay down my duties

And the tasks I had at large.

 

But here my friend was saying,

“Go sleep; I will keep guard.”

“Go be at ease; You’re not alone,”

“Soldier, I’m on duty now”.

 

And so, I laid my pack aside

And I slept a deep, deep sleep

And knew on my behalf,

Between my friend and God,

There was nothing I need do.

Nothing they wouldn’t keep.

 

 

Aside: Here we are, before the Sun comes up, dragging ourselves through. Imagine if another poet said this to you…You sleep; I’ll write. And you were relieved of duty, just when you were too worn to muddle any further. <3

Warmth

Sleeping next to you
not only feels like home, it feels like
taking my bra off at the end of a long day.

Like starting to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer
for the fourth time.

Like walking back into high school,
almost like I never left.

You feel like stopping back at Grandpa’s house
for a hug from him, and an unwilling one
from his cat, Fritz.

You are my pillow, when I just can’t keep my eyes open,
a step stool, when I can’t reach the top shelf,
a driver, when I don’t want to or can’t

You have been my home for so long that
even memories from before we met
are synonymous with the comfort you bring me

Patience and Timidity (prompt 25, Hour 20)

Acknowledging  The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

 

Read this in the dawning
When the flush of growth sings green;
When hope rises up like sap, and
Bent age is not yet a fiend.
There will be time, they said, though, in truth, you were afraid.
Oh, dare to be brave! Dare to presume!

Pour love into this battered cup
As sparkling as a diamond ring,
As dazzling as arpeggios
When the heart knows but to sing.
Only if you dare, you challenged, for the yellow fog slides in.

Lift up your face once more, dear one,
And see me for what I am, not less,
Wrapped in the magic of your tender words,
Budding like trust within my breast.
Disturb the universe, while there is time! Dare to be brave, for time will not reverse, I said.

I cradle your truth beneath my wings
Whether you bid me leave or stay.
Consider it a gift, my penance
For all I lost, for all we threw away.
You’ve always known you may presume,my Lazarus, so please begin before I’m dead.

Though few look back at the end of life,
To acknowledge the chaos that they made,
I am bold. Forgive, and take this grizzled hand
In peace, content and unafraid.
The moment of your greatness didn’t flicker as you feared. Was it worth it after all?
Or was that not it at all?

Would it have been worth while? (The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock BY T. S. ELIOT)

Your words now have an insidious effect on me
Tedious arguments breaking my heart
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Coz I know you do not give a damn shit

You say
“There will be time, there will be time”
But deep down in the heart of mine,
I know,
Gone is the time
Time for you and time for me

But indeed
There will be time
To wonder,”Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Do I dare to get out of my chair?
Do I dare to declare?
Do I dare to ask if you care?

I, no more, seek answers though;
For I have known them all already, known them all;

But one last question before I leave the world,
If ever I had given one last chance to us, would it have been worth while?

Sevenling (hour 8)

She loved the morning sun,

Vinyl records and acoustic guitars,

Going out at night, and the open mic,

 

He loved old books,

Sleep-ins and histories,

Violins and the orchestra

 

But what they both had in common, was that they were meant to be together