The Poetry Marathon

Cinderella Poem 8

Oh Cinderella

You cleaned house so well

Now you sit in a castle

Making others unwell

You once were a beauty

Covered in poverty and soot

But seriously honey

Your life needs the boot

You whine and you cry

Like all rich folk do

So tell me woman

What happened to you?

Prince Charming my ass

He’s a womanizing whore

He plays you like poker

He always wants more

You pillage the land

Wearing platinum and silk

What happened to the soul

Of someone born in your ilk?

Oh Cinderella

Remember who you are

You one had a heart

You once were a star

Go play in the mud

Put some dirt on your face

Go scrub a floor

Get out of that place

Go have a dance

Spit on a sister or two

Forget this princess stuff

Get back to you!

 

“limited word” prompt

Directions:

1. Take a piece of paper, and fold it in half.
2. In the left-hand column, make a list of your 26 favorite words, 1 for each letter, A-Z.
3.  Using Google or a thesaurus, find a synonym for each of the 26 words.  The synonyms need not start with the same letter as the original word. Write each word’s synonym in the right column next to it.
4. Use the righthand-column words as a limited vocabulary with which to craft a poem. The only additional words you may add to the poem (for the sake of clarity) are: the, is, are, & and.

DO feel free to pluralize words (i.e. “sun” versus “suns”), deviate from proper syntax (i.e. using a noun as a verb or an adjective as a noun), to reconjugate non-verb verbs for the sake of clarity (i.e. “turntable” to “turntabled”), and use wordplay (i.e. “sons” versus “suns”).

DON’T re-conjugate preexisting verbs (i.e. “love” to “loved”).

 

Note: This prompt was inspired by the concept behind Aaron Kunin’s book The Sore Throat, a collection of poems crafted from a limited vocabulary of approximately 50 words total.  Its subtle power is epic. I highly, highly recommend it.

Sunny Days

Hour 8 – 1:00 PM 

 

Hop to the beat

Sun beams off my cheeks

Glory days are here left not to seek.

Rambunctious are few.

Cause we see the light.

Theres no need to stay down, and out of sight.

– J.C.  ©

#8, My current location.

Soundlessly wandering the beaches of dreams

Grey waters sweep the sand out from under my feet and wash me away.

Do I give in or do I fight?

 

How much longer can I battle the ceaseless current.

It has no aching muscles that tire and fail. No bones to break and splinter.

No memory to forget, only oblivion.

 

White moon beach of my dreams. Like a Cheshire cat grins.

Pulling me with mystery. What waits on the other side?

 

I bleed my consciousness down to the last ounce. Suck every wonderful drop

Hazy eyelids droop. Wake and find a word.

Maybe two.

 

The dogs bark and skitter across the room. Awake again for a while,

The grin winks into the distance, but only for a bit.

It stalks from the shadows and corners of my mind.

 

Will you?

When?

When will we learn that different is beautiful?

When will we see with our hearts and not our eyes?

When will we read the character of the person with the discernment of our minds?

Will we ever see that peace brings healing and war festers?

Learn that kindness can be contagious even in the smallest of gestures?

Will someone, anyone, stand up, show up, grow up…….GIVE UP……The violence?

Will we stop killing our children?

When will we invest in our children, stop molesting our children?

When will color become the beauty its meant to be and not a distinguishing factor between who is better…..you? or me?

Will we ever see money as paper, and people with value?

Will you?

 

 

 

 

wolf

once upon a time
men spoke only in whispers
fear of wolves, shiver
they tried to blow the house down
buried. big, bad, backfire.

__ar.

(this is a tanka. also it’s hard to understand but let me know what you think it means? interested in hearing other people’s perspective since it’s not entirely clear.)

Pinnochio Loves Pistachios

But when he eats them

his nose grows long.

And though he fights

his appetite.

His nose grows longer

into the night.

Geppetto cries

inside a whale.

But a tickling feather

saves the day.

What we learn

from fairy-tales

is known to us

and really clear.

Don’t eat pistachios.

Stay out of whales.

And watch for fairy’s

everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

Enigmas

Black cat, haughty, proud.
Staring through me, seems to know.
Tell me who you are?

poetic therapy

i will unlock the door that has been closed

i will free the monsters and the butterflies trying to escape

they will scare and beautify-

make some feel intimidated

while others will leap for joy.

i will bear my naked truths-explicitly

and you will all wonder who i really am.

you will dissect my soul as if i asked you to

when i merely needed to release-

to unburden myself,

free myself from the weight that i carry around in my head-

my neck, my shoulders, my heart, my stomach,

my legs and my thighs.

i will let it all go out from this secret place

and spread it all across the pages of my books-

until i can really feel-

really love again.

Cinderella.

Dust and rags and broomsticks,

She would wash and scrub and clean,

Under the wrath of two step sisters,

Who found joy in being mean,

And a plump fairy godmother,

With a crack upon her wand,

Dooming every spell she ever cast,

To go completely wrong,

A ball gown turned to tatters,

Two glass slippers turned to boots,

Out of place among the dresses,

And the gold embroidered suits,

She ran as time struck midnight,

Worried what else could go wrong,

Didn’t lose a single thing,

Her boots stayed firmly on,

So she ran and ran still further,

Until the sunlight filled the sky,

Not even pausing briefly,

To wave that horrid life goodbye,

She broke free from their judgment,

And hasn’t cared to look back since,

She doesn’t need their greedy longing,

And she doesn’t need a prince.