The Poetry Marathon

Prompt 8/Poem 8

We need a resolution
A solution to a continuing issue
that has been plaguing this nation
My people are dying needlessly
In an endless war
A war considered by some to be obsolete
A war that has gotten much media attention
in days of late
due to the actions of the police
Killing black men, unarmed or packing plastic
pistols with orange tips, filled with BBs or metal
pellets, non-lethal weapons being carried
in states with open carry laws
that only benefit those who are not stigmatized
as being violent
We need to have a conversation
A conversation to address the struggle
between hard earned money and poverty
between easy money and prosperity
We need to unite as a country
as the melting pot we are
We must stop the violence against my brothers, against my sisters, against
anyone we consider different
We need to focus more on our similarities and less on our differences
We need to accept one another as human first
It is time…the time has come for change

She Sinks for No One (Hour Eight)

She sinks for no one.

She is fire and love and a caressing sweet breath of wind,

Playfully mussing your hair.

 

Love is her habit, not for gain,

But because it flows.

 

When the darkness came to call,

So brilliant was her light,

And so much her habitude,

That it did not darken her heart,

But provided a place for becoming,

Like a butterfly’s cocoon.

Hour Six – Butterfly Away

Caterpillar in

thoughtful transformation to

butterfly away.

Judy Klemos

Zumba

faces blood red, dripping, salty, sticky

bodies jump, twist, gyrate with and with out rhythm

screams over thumping thundering bass

t-shirts and leggings join the skin in a macabre duel of push and pull

World Chorus

say the bees and hummingbird in tune: we need sweet nectar, more flowers to grow
and the spiders say: we need less stomping and less death please
the bears chime in: We need more fish, more berries too, more seals, more ice would be nice
say we all: we need more sun, we need clean water, travel, we need less hunger, and to breathe
and the humans pitch in: we need to love one another, homes for the homeless, hate to begone, and art of course
dandelions have their say: we need the wind and breeze to spread our seeds
the praying mantises: we need to eat, we need to eat, eat, eat
say the wolves at night: we need to howl at the full moon each month with abandon
say the dogs: we need to howl too, but why?
say we all: we need more babies please. we don’t have enough babies!

we need we need we need…

Loss – 8/24

I guess I memorized the feeling of loss…
I guess I look for it everywhere
Sometimes I throw away something previously precious just to have a reason to be sad.
I guess, I know before everything, the feeling of losing.
The death grip of life as it takes something that was yours and plucks out it’s soul or simply puts her in someone else’s arms.

The feeling of loss makes my stomach rumble.
My anxiety triples, spews discomfort up my throat.
But I feel this in everything…
I can’t convince myself that anyone knows how to stay put

@ angel rosen

Hour 8: Bend

They call us witches

So let’s set ourselves ablaze

If they turn away

We’ll just watch each other burn

 

They say we’re useless

So let’s make ourselves lame

If they watch us crawl

On our neighbours we will turn

 

They say we have no morals

So let’s behave in sinful ways

If they think they know us

Then we’ll lend truth to their lies

 

They call us cowards

So let’s point away the blame

If they point right back

We’ll elect ourselves their spies

 

What they tell us

We’ll make true

 

What they give us

We’ll make do

 

Whatsoever they might make us

We will make each other, too

Poem #7: Belonging

Belonging

opening up and sharing as the ground is met
it’s about being heard – my whispers go right through
the dead air or even the occasional “hmm – hmm”
no longer affects me as it once did
there is a time and the moments have come
a breakdown is about due
but sometimes that is the only way –
to clean the slate, to break it all down
then putting it back together
(with some new parts)
but why does it take this each time
to understand we belong in flight

@ Renee Avard-Furlow
June 13 2015

Needing is the Worst

Hour Eight

We want the things we can’t have. We want the illusion of happiness
painted in tabloids, pop music, and reality tv. We want to know
that love is real—trying to grab air with bare hands. We want to
be in control. We want our bodies to look like those photo-shopped
Barbies and Kens that are constantly bombarding our self-respect.
We want to live on through eternity in a fantastical paradise where
everything we couldn’t acquire in life is bestowed upon us in death.
We need. That is the nature of man—to need.
We consume and abuse the elements around us.
We need to feel to be real. Zombie minded dullards,
they can get by tasting less than Love, less than True
Life, less than Will. We need words that make an impact
like a sawed-off shotgun—we need to blow the minds
of all the “sames” who creep around in the night of day
looking for more to eat, use, and rob. We need fantasy,
we need reality, we need to dream to be alive.. Can you recall
the darkness when you looked in the mirror? That black
pit in the center of your eye? I saw the nothingness there.