The Poetry Marathon

Poem 6: Sky Eater: A Haibun

I drank the sky,
opened my mouth
wide,
my teeth flashing, cameralike,
in the sun.
I meant to stutter an excuse,
offer an apology,
sing the praises of someone
not me,
but something fuzzy and cool,
like gossamer
or lavender cotton candy,
spun inside.

Well, what was I to do?
Eyes wide and guilty,
I swallowed.

It was delicious,
I don’t mind saying:
Soft and spiky,
bitter and so sweet
my lips puckered
and my tongue perspired.
My empty tummy,
heretofore wrapped
like an undelivered present,
unfurled, stretched,
gurgled a message
to my fretful brain:
“More.”

I didn’t know what else to do,
so I kept my lips unsealed.
The heavens poured inside,
bulging my cheeks,
kissing my throat,
rounding my belly.
I’m pretty sure
a satellite, thundercloud,
perhaps a star or two
tumbled in.
They tasted hot and bright,
like metal against my teeth.

My face shifted upward,
eyes shining, mouth open
in a hungry song.
Words spun, colliding,
forming sentences and heat.
I’m confident I glowed.

So you see,
the fat orange sun
and its nursemaid clouds
live in me now,
rounding out my body,
filling me with thunder
and starlight.

I tell you only because you wondered
What happened to the sky.

Stars snagged in my teeth,
Clouds distended my belly
As I sipped the sky.

 

Note: This poem is a haibun.

Hour 06 – Haibun

The Beauty of the Bonsai

---

Family trees may bear much fruit yet some branches never get to grow. We must face occasionally the mortality of youth. The loss scars bark and molds form. We cherish every leaf and find the blooming flowers still as sweet, though watered with our eyes.

empty heart still beats
bare branches cry out in vain
silent teardrops fall

---

Hour 5

Rain is falling
Rain is flowing like a river
Rain is beating on the roof
It sounds so serene
Rain is beautiful

Nature it is
Cloudy and dark
Rain takes a toll
On the flowers and trees
Rain winds blow
Giving that feel.

“Evolution has no place in Christianity”

“Evolution has no place in Christianity.”

Oh how many times I’ve had that said to me!

But here’s the thing, stick around, you’ll see–

I’m living proof they coexist even inside a single being.

Evolution doesn’t just mean dinosaurs,

or 65 million billion years, or any other claims there are.

Evolution, by its very nature, simply means change,

and I don’t know about you, but my life has been rearranged.

Likely rearranged, changed, more times than can be counted,

but the rate at which I change shows evolving can’t be doubted.

At least not in the sense of personal growth.

I survey all my years on earth and realize I owe

so much more praise and worship to the God above, the one who holds

my life in His hands. I ask Him to illuminate my path, show me where to go.

Show me what to do, give me direction but no Rand McNally atlas.

I’m so thankful for His grace even though I know I deserve much less.

But that’s the quest – or question I guess:

Are you willing to hear and receive the answer?  Willing to accept forgiveness?

That decision alone is the difference between life or death.

The ability to make a choice is revolutionary, but I digress.

Since we can change our minds at any time it’s evolutionary at its best.

So if you ask me if evolution exists in Christianity,

I’ll say it right now,

I can guarantee,

because it’s how I like to be,

I only need agree with me,

I’ll answer unconventionally

–

Yes.

The trees rubbed their

branches together

with a terrible screeching sound.

The birds moved blackly away.

Insects were silenced by the violence of the

outburst.

The smaller creatures began to sway.

Then the rain came and beat like glass

across the forest walls.

 

Death came to this world.

With not a provocation.

Death left this world free.

Wedding at Pompeii

Today is like no other in memory
Let us not forget how the sun rays
exploded from the clouds
highlighting the ripe olives in our orchard.
Let us not forget that today when I
embrace you, it’s my wish that we never
again part
Let our love be a testament
a relic forever
Can you hear my heart rumble,
how the power of it makes the earth shake
and people run screaming from its blinding brilliance?
But we are not afraid
I will hold you and you hold me too
Our embrace so warm it burns
your breath hot on my neck and hands
stroking my back like licks of flame
your touch burns and I crave it.
I want more. I want your heat to flow around
my body and mine around yours and when
finally
it cools let our devotion stand like stone
Our monument chained forever to the earth
to prevent us from fleeing to the stars.

The 6th hour

In this thing

like flint

Doing me

like she did last week

putting in work

cant stop me now

 

 

 

Not today

For all the people that have their own agendas for me and what I do with my time today

Please under no circumstances assume that I will agree to follow suit

The thing is

I don’t want to

Atleast not today

Today is my day and I need you to respect that

Today I need you to actually listen

Let the words  actual penetrate your limbic system

I need this time for me

And I know it may come as a shock

I get it

You are use to being the director of my symphony

Creating and replacing the notes of my melodies in the way that it “should be”

---

But today is not the day

Today my music will sound exactly the way I want it to

Exemption

RULES DON’T APPLY TO ME

I m the teflon poet.

they do not stick.

I do as I please

so there!

The rules don’t apply to me.

We need bad boys in poetry

and I am a STINKER

Putting 7 syllables in the iambic pentameter

and sprinklin, commas, like, table salt just- to -a-muse- my-self.Makin

Making fun of love and not one flower or unicorn or clever turn of phrase.

I don’t take poetic license-

I on.y got a learner’s permit.

HOUR 6

FOREST DEMON

If he’s warped, then so am I. I feel his madness deep within my cold heart.

He screams, thinking no one hears him, no one can help him, but I hear him.

Over and over again, the same awful screech, the same complaint.

Can you hear him? Why do you ignore his pain. Please help him.

 

Reason is beyond a blind eye, it should capture the soul and emit…

goodness.

It should straighten out those jagged thoughts, that constantly turn into…

screams.

It should… demand the right to be heard, for the meek sounds of the night get lost in faint echoes.

Wind, rain, snow, fire and ice.

Are some of the demons entrapping forest life.

But a trap is man’s device.