24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
What more is today
Walking to take in the afternoon
Stumbled upon a rock
Cut my knee wide open
Then pop
I fall asleep
I wake a bit weary
You’ve fainted they said
I look over my surroundings
Take a glass of water
The only thing out of place is me
So I hop up stagger to the street
Where my home be
Play a song on repeat
The last day of spring
Cerulean blue heavens with a dusting of clouds
Drift down into a morass of vivid pinks
Fuschia, flamingo, mauve, and rose
A tree bursts forth dressed in magenta clothes.
Rosewood hills rise up in the distance
Dancing with meadows, oh how they blush
A smattering of ruby tantalizes the eyes
As carnation petals sail up to the skies.
It is still nighttime
5 am here
Cat is confused
His people off schedule
Invading his quiet time
Just outside the window
I hear the ocean
Gently hitting the shore
A sound I barely notice
I can sense the moon disappearing
and the sun readying herself
for a glorious Maui day.
Cat jumps up
His fur lightly coated
A gentle rain greets this day
Full of promises and poems
Cat will adapt and inspire
Maui will caress with its beauty
The ocean will play its gentle percussion
The darkness will fade into light
Into darkness
Cat perches and chirps
Hassles me and bathes
Cat is the night, the rain, the quiet.
The sun will bring his naptime
I will poem through it all.
Of life's issues and questions too deep of things too clear to see of things which aren't what they seem and miles to go before I sleep Of all things my eyes have seen of lions that roar and gazelles that leap of posers too complex and miles to go before I sleep.
Lumber Jac
She traveled light and west and such
to feel Pacific’s sparkling touch,
and tread, barefoot, on the rocky shore,
where bluster bold and gray-bearded skies
Roll like waves in endless tides.
She tread where beanstalks never grew,
But Jac’s giant could learn a thing or too
Of punching holes through the ceiling-sky,
Yet tread she forth, amid mossy glade
Canopied by ancient shade.
Had Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe
Walked these woods, light speckled, grayed,
Axe in hand, in this holy place,
Cathedral green and star-glittered night
Dwarfed, instead, in the Great Tree’s sight?
In the corner of the photo-post,
What catches my imagination most,
Is the slightest edge of a red plaid shirt
Bold enough for her to compete
With the endless ocean and the ancient trees.
The ocean touched her very soul,
And the trees stand still in breathless awe;
Indelible, they’ve left their mark,
Entwining roots through her heart;
She may fly east, but she’ll never come back;
They’ve stolen the soul of Lumber Jac.
We never talk about
where we go when we sleep
until we have been awake
long enough to kiss good morning
and you wonder, but never ask
why I break away first.
Invitation to play
Teaching the rules
Preparing
The game begins
Card after card is played
Occasional rule reminders
We pick up speed
As my opponent catches on
Flashbacks to high school
Friends gathered around a desk
Waiting in anticipation
New comers “slapping in”
Something inside me stirs
Long dormant in my soul
A kind of sleeping fae awakens
Ready to play once more
The joy of simpler times
Laughter amongst friends
The warmth of fond memories
The freedom from “real life” problems
Oh how I miss those days
Of teenage ignorance and bliss
They weren’t perfect, not at all
But that’s why the memories mean so much.
Redfern on a hill, whistling in dulcimer breeze
Elven maid strumming to a forgotten tune
She remembers only from a grandmother’s lullaby
Before Men came to ignorantly burn and chop
Fairies played tag between golden towering trees
Exotic birds belted song to bring in sunny days
And great beasts drank in clear waters at the edge
Now there’s only a single tree swaying in sad silence
But Elves have long memories and the bard plays on
Remembering days when magic and heroism won
Have this dance with me
Run your fingers over the wood
and play a harmony
Duets are forever dances
even when we aren’t moving
our feet to the rhythm
And yet we are
as the notes fill the room
and we sway in time
Each of us shining
in our own way
with the music
Stay with me
for this one dance
before the night is done
Let me have
this moment with you
to keep forever in my heart
Hour 3 Prompt 3
Lapwings on the Moors
The clouds settled early over the moors today
Reminding me of the frosts that coat the late lapwing eggs in their nests
So I ran
I ran to gather them
To protect them
To save them
To give them a warm place they might shelter during the cold night
Only to find you’d tortured them with your trap
And now I see your bars
I long to escape your hold before I die in the nest as well