The Poetry Marathon

Your Cell Phone’s Echoing Song (With Apologies to Andrew Marvell)

 

Had we but world enough and time

That cell phone out would be no crime.

You could sit down and talk away,

And chat, text, and Angry Birds play.

But at your back you should fear

Midterms, papers, and finals hurrying near.

For yonder all before you now lie

Incompletes of vast eternity.

So rather than inattention your GPA devour

While you daily deplete your i-phone’s power,

Now roll all your wit and charm and all

Your attempts your instructor to enthrall

And get back to listening as a part of life

While a D-slip causes student-parental strife.

Thus, although you really cannot swing an A,

With some effort, you can still softball play.

Picture prompt

Eternity

A place or feeling

To many it could be both,

We want to have serutiry

We all want to know.

Some crave to have enernity

To save cherish our lives,

Some crave it to take care

Of our children or wife’s.

 

There is a place called eternity

A light will show your way,

You can go in and keep to yourself

Or to people watch or even to pray.

People come to this place to loose

Themselves inside this place,

We all want that place where inside

We can let loose some way.

 

Eternity a place where we can

Be sure and unsure,

Thinking we know what we want

Money or a forever cure,

To help people that love us

As we love them so,

We want to know for eternity

Our families are safe as they grow.

 

So come with me to eternity

Follow our dreams,

Let’s go let loose

Talk quiet or scream,

Follow me to a place where

We are free,

Inside this place you can find you

And I may find me.

 

Waves Wash Away

In this world of lies and empty smiles
Of gadgets and of virtual friends
Waves wash away the unwanted thoughts
And bring them far to far-flung place

In this world of many two-faced people
And mind you they are those that rule
Waves wash away all the frustration
And toss them to the god Poseidon

Waves wash away yes waves do wash
To shores all burdens they smash
For us to feel strong again
And be just like uncanny men.

2017 Poetry Marathon, Hour Three: Eternity now

I’m not sure how I feel
about eternity now

As an escape, it’s flawed
because you can never come back

As a feeling, it’s frustrating
because sometimes you just want to get on with it

And what sort of eternity
are we talking about?

Is it forever and ever
or change is a constant?

Is there a difference?
Because I may need to bring a change of clothing

As for the timing
wouldn’t eternity now negate everything that came before?

I don’t know if I can go along with that
I have things to do

(5 August 2017)

Hour 3

To prompt of the fist pic hoeing beach scene- both in English and kannada

piecing together
what’s left of the jigsaw
I sputter
under a sudden wave
of missing dad

jODisuta
murida bombeya
diDhIrale
usiru kaTTide
appana nenapu

ಜೋಡಿಸುತ
ಒಡೆದ ಚಿತ್ರವ
ದಿಢೀರಲೆ
ಉಸಿರು ಕಟ್ಟಿದೆ
ಅಪ್ಪನ ನೆನಪು

Shut up and dance

 

shut up and dance!

 

You, there!

You, there, with your belly full of stars:

can you see the path,

the link,

the umbilical cord between you and me made of lightning bugs –

yellow flies –

pieces of stars shattered by baby Thunderbirds

playing ball to keep them from making storms from boredom?

 

I could follow that trail to you –

the one between us that links us to the steps of the ancestors

and our beautiful beginnings

before we fell from the sky and shattered.

 

We danced by shadow filled with light so bright

that to hide it would shame all the stars witness to our dancing.

 

You hold my way to the light as I hold yours

and all our hopes become glass bridges over the Grand Canyon –

only dangerous if we look down.

 

You, there!

The secret to shadow dancing, then, is to shut up and dance –

with the stars in your belly,

like fireflies,

and don’t look down unless you remember:

I dance with you, too.

 

1. L. Elke

© Aug 5/17  prompt 3

 

 

 

Mountains (2017)

Looming, Calm
Immovable, Quiet
Majestic, Peaceful
Filling me with euphoria

Blood Girl

Blood girl
Dripping in your cup
Rise petal dress
Velvet crushed

Cinnamon kissed
On pillow splattered breath
Deeper in I drew,
Sweetly tasted breath

Lilly valley note
Lingers on the breeze
I fins myself humble
But not upon my knees

Blood girl
Spread your crooked smirk
Upon loose tongue
Dismiss silent quirk

The Mayor’s Garden

People will still come here

to wave their possums on sticks

 

 

 

 

Speak (Hour 1)

SPEAK

Rolling thunder beats against the heavens,
a blanket of darkening clouds promising to tear back the
supernatural veil.
as the wind violently whips through the towering treetops,
holding us back.
Breathe. Speak to the Sky.
The storms that wage within and without have no power to bind us with fear.
Call forth peace, and peace will be.

Moving from one world to another, the earth tilts, its axis flipping upside down.
Its hard shell cracking as it breaks open to the forbidden depths of Sheol.
Brimstone and searing lava flow through the crags of our known world
as fire ignites street after street.
Breathe. Speak to the Earth.
Call forth the waters of life, and the burning of worlds will cease to be.
Fire may consume all it touches in the earthly realm,
but it will not singe our feet as we walk upon the flames of disappointment and loss.

Destruction has no power, except that which we give it.
In every storm, in every turmoil, when our shoulders fall from the weight of the world,
look up and see the sun’s light peaking through.
A promise of another day.

 

— Saskia Lynge