The Poetry Marathon

Poetry Marathon 3021

Poetry Marathon 3021

 

June 26, 2021.

You think this time capsule is big enough?

Nothing is big enough, so it will have to do.

You think this will all fit?

We’ll make it fit, now help me cram all of it in.

25 pounds of coffee.

Check.

50 cases of MREs.

Check.

24 gallons of water.

Check.

Two cases of tequila.

Check.

One book: How to Conquer the Poetry Marathon: A Book on Poetic Form.

Check.

42 notebooks.

Check.

1000 sharpened pencils.

Check.

One box of smelling tablets.

Check.

One bag of 24 earplugs.

Check.

One “Do Not Disturb” sign.

Check.

One Lazy Boy recliner.

Check.

One bag of Doritos.

Check.

It’s all here.

Close it up,

Seal it up,

And inform the crane operator it’s ready to be lowered into place.

Our work is done.

May God have mercy on their souls.

12th Hour – My Cat Wound

This wound
Prevents a cat
Love my little green friends
But pet plants simply aren’t the same
As the soft meows from
A warm furrball
Plus purrs

Prompt Twelve (the final prompt for me this year)

Ode to Signs

Cancer caused me to take stock of my
soul: discover what was missing…
Gave myself permission to
dream in poetry. See
my life in stanzas,
rhyming couplets;
lyrical
love of
words.

(Cristy Watson, 2021)

Under the Influence

Under the Influence

 

Martin drove me back to the university

after a weekend at home. Twenty five miles

to a different universe. That’s what I thought then.

He parked the Impala and walked me up

to my shared room at New Dorms. Want me to come in,

he said. I told him he could go home. Like a princess to a serf.

A princess with apprehension. He turned to the stairs;

I opened the door. My roommate Judy was there,

some friends, the smoky air thick and sweet with grass.

What if my father had come in? I said, my voice, usually too loud

muted by laughter, Dylan’s songs, and stoned exclamations.

Someone was lounging in my bed.

Next day, Martin called. What would I have seen, he said.

Oh, I said, improvising, some friends sprawled everywhere.

You know, college. He didn’t know but he wasn’t thick.

Be smart, he said. Don’t get carried away.

You want to talk to Mama?

I told him I’d call the next day.

I remembered but I didn’t pick up the phone.

 

 

May The Force

May the Force be with you
as you fly through life
Keep your Saber ready
there’s always strife

May the Dark side
stray far from you
To the truth, to the
light, stay true

May your steps be many
the miles you tread
Keep to the ways you know
stray from the Darth you dread

May you Master the force
with wisdom and age
To win the raging war
to end the darkest rage

Hour 12 – Azure Bloom (image prompt)

Like pressed flowers on the page

Transparent and delicate

My rage, a fragile needle,

Surrounded by the blossomed sorrow

That lead to a pointed attack.

It’s beautiful and useless

and all I can do is seethe

A despairing azure blossom

HR 8 – Text Prompt

Text Prompt

Try and condense the plot of a book, any book, into a poem. It can be very direct and recognizable, or abstract and obscured.

 

 

Girl grows up and wants to find purpose.
Girl meets boy. Love is her purpose.
Girl becomes woman.
Woman finds out that girl was wrong.

The Hook

This thing we have
is over
your once sparkling
smile
Has grown stale &
your laugh is no longer
a rainbow
in my life’s stormy skies
it’s over and
soon as I find my shoes
I’m gone

The Joke – A Nonet

Betrayal so deep soul wrenching pain,
soul tearing, soul twisting, won’t stop.
Dreams are lost, dreams are destroyed,
hope ignited, hope flamed.
Hope smothered, joke is
on me again.
Life ended
thanks to
you.

  A Haiku about Hard Times

 

Days of poverty

Of vulnerability

WANT to pay our way.