24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
The young child strolled with his parents
in the cool of evening
He pointed
I overheard him say
“Hola, luna!”
High school Spanish came to me immediately
I smiled
and looked up, indeed saw the moon
The boy had said, “Hello, moon!”
as any child would
in any language
in any culture
His parents delighted
as any parents
in any language
in any culture
would be
as I was
My heart quickened
I spoke the words for myself
full of first-sight wonder
“Hola, luna!”
“Buenas noches, luna!”
Dearest friend
I hope you’re doing well
It’s been a minute since we met
I hope my name still rings a bell
I hope your favourite food is still chocolate
And that you never stopped reading under the dim lamplight
I hope you still sing and dance
I’m assuming you still believe you’re always right
I’m sorry we lost touch
And I suddenly moved away
But I still remember every time we met
And all the games we used to play
Maybe you wear your hair different now
And you’ve met people so new
Maybe you don’t remember me
Like I remember you
But I’ll see you someday
I’m sure it isn’t the end
But until then
Treasure the letters I send
It won’t be easy
Never written poetic lines over a beat
But this poetry marathon must be a success
Nothing can beat me down
What can’t kill my creativity
Can only make my mind stronger
I have to write this in two minutes
I have to beat down procrastination
I have to set my mind free
I have to free my style
This is just the beginning
We’re not on the home stretch yet,
Filling the page with random thoughts is my target
I have to kill this poem with a single shot
I have to write from the beginning to the end
Without lifting my pen from the page
Yes, I can. Yes, I can. Yes, I can.
It won’t be easy
Who said it would be?
It won’t be easy
All that matters is taking the first step.
With 10,000 hours of practice
Kill that procrastination that lingers on
With dedication, fill the pages with your passion
You’re a still writer even if you’ve not been published
You’re a writer, comments don’t matter
Criticism shouldn’t be known of your concern
We are all humans
Just hit the page with your thinking ink
Release your bomb ideas
And bombard the blank pages with creativity
That shutters grief and pain
With well-thought emotions
Hope you’ll make us feel alright!
*Linpoet
Hour Six – Write a letter to yourself from the perspective of someone who is no longer in your life. It could be a former teacher you admired but you lost touch with, someone you knew from childhood, someone who passed on, etc. The specifics are very much up to you.
The Stuff of her Life
After a year passed by, of your passing on
(Both of you passing on)
I steeled myself to open her steel almirah.
Expecting dusty sarees and musty smells,
expecting my heart to squeeze
the grief out of my eyes.
Oh, but I had to smile.
She was a hoarder, that one, your wife.
The things she had clung to, the stuff of her life.
There were letters you had written her
all through the almost-sixty years of marriage.
I have put them away, for your grand daughter
to find in my closet, after I am gone.
(Poor thing, what will she do with them, I pause to think.)
I found letters you had written to the 18-year-old me.
(How did Ma have them? again I pause to think.)
You wrote incredibly boring letters,
a dashing dude, dad, you could’ve done better.
I read a few, they all had the same last line.
“Don’t forget to drink Horlicks, hope all is fine?”
Well, what do you know father?
I have decided to obey you, almost forty years later.
I now drink Horlicks daily; it helps me sleep.
Thanks for the advice, I will not weep.
In the light of day of the hours
His light shines from above on us
His own true self over the world’s
With truth about him of all times and more
The life he lived so beautifully and better perfect eternal strength
We met in a flash,
came & went like the wind.
& it was cooler than I could have ever imagined.
From the karaoke around the campfire to shooting off roman candles in the woods,
there was no shortage of rockstar moments.
Racing down the hill with the thrill of existence on your back,
shooting down trap door slides at untold speeds.
surely, nothing could compare.
but at the end of the day, it amounts to nothing
if you are not truly there.
Thanks for the memories &
thanks for all the fun.
I can only hope I too one day
have my moment in the sun.
Dear Golibe,
I am not disappointed
That you didn’t see me take my last breath.
I am not disappointed
That you weren’t there all that time I laid up
I am not disappointed,
That you never did make that phone call
I am not disappointed,
That you wrote just one letter in four years
I am not disappointed,
That you left and never did look back.
I am not disappointed
And I don’t hold it against you.
Dear Old Friend…
Its been awhile, isn’t it?.
12 years passed and gone,
And you’re too busy growing up
While I’m too busy fixing myself up, again and again and again.
Dear Old Friend…
I’m sorry, That I turned insane,
And that left you confused, broken and alone.
That left you wondering, until now.
That left you wondering, why? or How?
Dear Old Friend…
I’m sorry, That I turned out to be this way,
And as a result, you were left to a friend that was not even a friend.
That should be me, but I’m sorry, I’m not well.
Dear Old Friend…
Despite it all, you accomplished so much.
All the hurdles, the pain, all of it.
You made it through without me,
I am so so proud of you, you are so strong.
Dear Old Friend…
I hope you still remember me,
I am Janine, your childhood friend,
Your only best friend since birth,
My only companion before I fall.
We played lots of imaginary games,
We played under the rain,
we played mud dirts and sung songs that the radio don’t recognized anymore.
We are each others fun,
We are each others run.
I wish you well dear friend,
I wish your future turn out the way we imagine it.
Though I wish I’m still with you right now,
Laughing and talking about our hopes.
But then I’m lost, and I’m praying that you are not.
I wish you happiness all through out,
I am here, always… despite the absence.
.
.
.
Writer: M.E. Flores
Hour06, Text Prompt06
I genuinely cannot believe we are already in hour 6 – it feels like I just woke up and also like I’m an 80 year old woman aching in her reading chair well after midnight. LOL! But that’s okay I’m here I’m ready! I’m stretching, I’m dancing, I’m doing all the things I can do. And I’m super excited for this prompt too: Say hello again by @thepoet_rajah on IG and Twitter!
Poem 6:
I think that if you could just find it
somewhere deep inside of your soul
to say hello again, to reach out just
one more time with the intention of
staying – or at the very least growing –
I think that we could be something
really quite special from within our
custom worlds built upon book spines
and spilled inky farewells. We do not
always need to push each other away
just to feel alive, wanted or needed.
-M. Rene’
SincerelyBlueJay Poetry
Poem 6.5: (because there’s time and I want to explore the prompt again) :
I want to say hello again,
to actually pick up the phone
and call you from three hours behind
and 5 years down the line, ready to
hear everything you’ve been through
and all the things that have changed.
I want to say hello again,
to explore all the possibilities of
this relationship we keep dipping
our toes into but never actually sharing.
Knowing that you and I – we bring
something really cool to the table;
balance. A skill, not a lot of artists can
claim between life and work and
all that incredible daydreaming too.
I want to say hello again
and know that this time there
does not have to be a goodbye.
-M. Rene’
SincerelyblueJay Poetry