2022 Poetry Marathon, Hour 2
Very loosely based on the photo prompt: (more…)
In the belly of the river
Aham is a stream
Though we see her as river,
A poor person’s fowl is his cow.
In the village of my birth
Everything has a gender;
The Aham is the female,
And the Imo the male.
These are the two water bodies
In the village of my birth.
Standing by the bank I watch the water
Flowing deliberately.
I felt invited, I knew it even smiled at me.
I took a plunge.
I first felt cold, then warm
And my mind began to play games.
I became fish, breathing and flowing along with the tide.
I met the mermaid and other aquatic dwellers…
As I joined the queue to receive their sacrament of baptism, I choked
And bobbed up to unkind reality.
Hour 2: The Darkest Evening of the Year
(Title line taken from Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods”)
The darkest evening of the year
Didn’t fall in December
Or even one of the colder months
No, it came in suddenly
One bright May day
Stricken with grief and loss
The darkest evening of the year
Has nothing to do with sun or weather
It has nothing to do with presence of light
Just the absence of hope
And life and dreams
And you and me
The darkest evening of the year
Is the one where we lost
Our home, our safety, our peace
The one where I lost you
The one where you lost me
And we both lost a part of ourselves
The darkest evening of the year
Didn’t fall in dreary December
But on a bright May day
Full of warmth and false sense of comfort
That one bright May Day
When the light of love disappeared.
An Unfortunate Friday Verdict
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Kindly said
Kindly said to us
To be obedience
Fine
To see of your mistakes to be sinner free
Even when you don’t think so but it is
You’ll see
You will be pleased
And out of a situation or pain
The storm will pass over
Thanking the king for his doing here on earth ground we walk on
With all of him to make a way
To hold us near
This is our God with second changes
To fill up our hearts amazing
The care to love and take
With appreciation and gladness all year long fruitfully
The joy it is so
Just in time for hope with the morning rain Sunday’s
When the sun is out glowing down on us naturally
God’s true smile on us
Where we must not be afraid nor in fear
When he’s there beside us to cover us in armour protection
Night and day
Scarlet arms around us
Veneer veil
Many days to come
One day at a time
Sweet Jesus
Years and years
A plan made so
Wonders
Hauls of abundance for plenty more
In do time
In the light of day
Time don’t waste
Days or nights
Its rotating circular on and on
With the sun
The son of God in place to carry on
In minutes away
Imagine of his steps he makes solid soul walking on earth twice as much
All of our days
For better or worse
The Wall–Japanese Imayo Form-Image prompt
The Wall
I look down from atop the wall—I am overwhelmed
Fear paralyzes me—The challenge is too much
But I cannot stay here—Life moves along
Go says the voice in my head—My hands will not obey
Feeding his Ego Hour 3
(Note Brett Dyer and I are writing in tandem, replying to each other)
Feeding His Ego (Valkyrie)
‘You feed from me within my dreams,
Notions of a Wallachian Count penetrating,
Moving on to more malevolent themes,
A thirst derived from fangs exsanguinating.’
Your lusty eyes lock on my shell, so hollow,
‘Underground groups seek online for domination,
A vampiric master to feed, worship and follow,
Mausoleum bound, grant her exsanguination,
And let her, in her own desire, wallow.’
Alluring offering, sacrifice to your fallen whim,
I continue my discourse, the penitent’s flow,
‘To penetrate adorn a sharpened, bladed ring.’
Feeding your ego, I watch your skin glow.
So, it is set, the upcoming scene,
And my body is safe from his ego supreme.
The heart should always overflow – Half Marathon Poem #2
The heart should always overflow
Do not let your emotions
be small enough to sit
comfortably inside you
Let love pour out of you,
spill onto the table,
cover the floor around your feet.
Love should always
be more than can be
contained
And if you grieve?
Grieve big and grieve deep.
Let the grief you carry
measure the loss it mourns.
Even anger needs that
release. Do not contain it,
do not nurture or feed it,
for then it becomes a poison
lodged deep inside you.
Pour it out and be done with it.
And as your heart overflows,
you will see it grow, become
larger still, and able to encompass
more and better things.
But still, then, it should overflow.