Category: Poetry

Haibun for the talking baby

For the dverse prompt.

Babies learn so quickly, growing from unformed blob of glup to something that walks, talks and has its own opinions.

So few weeks ago
it was spring and these birds
were still eggs.

Between September visits, our small grandbaby has changed from being dog spectator, watchful and amused, to dog commander, dishing out treats from her plate, and expecting to be obeyed in all things. She follows them about, calling, but of course, they don’t understand their new baby names, and of course, baby gets furious when she has to shout twice, or ten times.

Scattering leaves
with a swirl of red skirts
summer leaves the stage.

By the end of the autumn, who knows how her wings will have grown. Perhaps Bee and Emon will have learned a new language too.

In the porch
dog watches leaves bowling
remembers the sun.

Bee (more commonly known as Bix) stealing the talking baby’s lunch.

Emon (Redmond) and Bee (Bix) early morning June, hence the green.

Deer

Colleen reminded me of the Essence poetry form.

Deer

There were deer on the hill,
fled in fear, never still,

on the hill, till they heard,
not the rill, not a bird,

but the crack of a gun.
Looking back, through the sun,

saw a man, metal bright,
and they ran, feather-light,

in the green, left a glow
where they’d been, so I’d know.

The one on his own at the bar

Last week’s prompt from Paul Brookes was the acrostic form. I’d never written an acrostic poem before so gave it a try. This is what I came up with. I assumed that any subject was acceptable.

The one on his own at the bar

Gabble drips from your loose lips,
Offering opinions no one wants to hear.
Behind your effusions and hearty back-slaps,
Silence, as women roll eyes and sip their drinks.
Hands you try to shake, raise to catch the barman’s attention
Instead, backs turn, hoping you’ll go away.
There is a world of misogyny and arrogance in your
Eyes, that fondle what you will never have.

Random word generator

Today’s words.

I have been writing Badgers, to get iambic pentameter out of my head. The Oracle gave me some relevant ones with this word selection. Reminder, for those who would like to try some, a Badger’s hexastitch is a six line, syllable-based poem, following a 2/4/6/6/4/2 pattern.

Badgers without badgers

I see
cats stalk the field,
conspicuous, white-furred,
yet their prey see only
a deeper shade,
death-winged.

Outside
supermarket
doors, the homeless with their
dogs sit, the begging cup
obstinately
empty.

They have
so much, the rich,
they walk in glitter-clouds,
not urbane or humane,
the word is crass,
vulgar.

The child
with the snotty
nose and dirt-patined skin
cries, but feet hurry past,
eyes always look
away.

Brothers
watch the field’s edge,
dogs, intrigued but wary,
unsure if a wild pig
is friendly prey
or foe.

Watching

The Oracle reminded me of an incident on a walk a week or so ago. She never forgets.

Painting by Willard Metcalf

Watching

I watch
but not her
not the woman with the tiny dog
yapping in her arms

fussing because leaves
damp dirt other dogs

I watch the beauty
fall slow from the trees
listen as the leaves whisper forgiveness
to the summer
for the relentless heat

I taste the tang of rain
in their soft browning
foetal shapes

while Dog sniffs the change
revels in its richness.

The turning of the year

Another poem in straight forward rhyming couplets, iambic pentameter.

The turning of the year

Today we start the slow slide into night,
the balance shifts to dark from summer light,

and how are we to know to find our way,
once winter winds send all green paths astray?

When songbirds flock and flit among the trees
about the house, leaves thinning in the breeze,

with gentle chatter, reassuring words,
that mean, perhaps, there’ll still be seeds for birds,

when silver frosts the nodding stalks, their gold,
once honey-sweet’s a memory grown old.

The yellowing of the year

A poem in couplets of iambic pentameter with end and internal rhymes. I think it ought really to have five stanzas, but it’s late.

Painting Ruszczyc, autumn landscape

The yellowing of the year

The yellowing of the year has now begun,
In woods where timid deer and fox would run.

Rain falls in leaves from cloudless skies, gold drifts
Beneath the trees where summer lies her gifts,

Heaped red and orange fire-flamed, they were,
But equinoctial winds, untamed bestir,

In tourbillons of Dervish dance, their rest,
And I in silence watch entranced, the jest.