The Poetry Marathon

Poem no. 18 Evening Fog

October is the month the mists draw in.
These calm and freshly silent mornings settle summer
and draw reluctant autumn to our door.
The evening fog falls low on crop-shorn fields
as rolls of rich, mysterious white seep through the emptying hedges
and fall in ragged scraps of soft, pale mist
that scatter loosely at our feet like something worn.
The animals will walk within this now – a second skin –
shielding themselves from hunter and from prey
while we, preparing for the still, small death of winter’s blast
mourn what is concealed – soon to be lost.

Sparrow and I

For little sparrow

my ventilator is home

and I its neighbour

21

A small departure
for a bigger adventure
The horizon fades

Tiny pockets filled
her choice of stones or liquor
Sink, float, swallow, gasp

hour sixteen

and here i sit on my throne and will they get what i wanted them to see,
thwe saw and looked at each other
and i saw fear and i saw anger,
some admiration but mostly
from the dreamers and the artists
they were impressed
but the people,
again i couldnt reach them.

and here i sit on my throne
and i can hear them building new altars
for new gods to help them,
to defend them from the colours in the sky.
They are already turning away from me and
here i was hoping that for once we could start
on a footing they would understand
and agree
but they are already looking away.

Hour 20 Eaters

20 2017
Eaters
by Paul Robert Sanford

Tortoise eats cactus
Cactus shelters bird from snake
Ant eats them all.

The ‘Diva’ of My Soul

 

I am a kind word ‘Diva’ uttered  and repeated,

By the voice of people and nature around.

 

I am an enigmatic star dropped from the blue tent

Upon the Earth for red carpet treatment.

 

I am the daughter of the elements

With whom winter coincide;

To whom Spring gave inception;

I was reared in the lap of Summer and

I respite in the realm of Autumn.

 

At dawn this ‘Diva’ communions with the breeze,

To herald the coming of light.

 

At dusk I club with the chirruping birds,

In bidding goodbye to the fading light.

 

The plains are ornated with

My vibrant colours, and the gushing air

Is scented with my fragrance.

 

As I embrace deep slumber,

The dark Night keeps a vigil over me,

And as I rise and shine, the sun

Be with me as the only eye of the day.

 

I ‘Diva’ is the Elixir’s gift.

I ‘Diva’ is the reminiscence of moment of eternal bliss.

I ‘Diva’ is the last gift of the ‘Inspired Soul’.

I ‘Diva’ is and will be the eternal jubilance for ‘Thee’.

 

And I invariably glance up high,

To visualize only the gleaming light,

And never look back to glance at my shadow.

This wisdom, the ‘Diva’ of my Soul transpires in ‘Thee’.

21. i hate it (i love to hate it)

If words were
as they should be
LITERALLY would no
longer be used to exaggerate

fake news

We have a pussy.  You can usually find her in the barn.   She hunts mice, bothers raccoons, but leaves the chickens alone.

 

We have a cock.  He also lives in the barn.   He’s our only one.  He struts his stuff.   We’ve noticed he has a favorite hen, but he’s really not that particular.

 

Lately on the news, it seems, they’ll talk about our pussy, but not our cock.  Have you noticed?   What’s up with that?

Hour 20: Reclaimed Wreckage

Racing for the sunlight quicker
Growing thicker
Saplings reaching
Send roots leeching

Strangling the clockwork functions
Green expunctions
Cogs have rusted
Engines busted

Forest once a metal garden
Nature’s pardon
Oxidizing
Fertilizing

(In response to Prompt #20… though it was no deviation from my usual themes)

Exploratory Surgery

It’s like you dissected me, exposed me, beginning with the heart
and slowly working backward through the ribs, the dermis
Your idea of love is a poem you’ll never write.
then outward leaving notes in my skin with your scalpel
and delete line after line until you find one that strikes
You stand at the door, texting while I’m at work
leaving directions for the next woman to search for
a treasure you say they’ll never find.

Prompt 7, write a poem from inside out