starting with ABC Wednesday.  Okay, I'm a day late!

Heart-attack.

Killing kilograms.

Kinetic ktenology

Knarred kernel knockout.

 Then there is Write A Letter Wednesday

writing a letter to my pet.  A certain ginger moggie.

I know you are descended

From a worshipped breed

But my patience has ended

Just shut up and feed!

The food that is in your bowl

Cost as much as mine

You know, the stuff that you stole

And ignored, you swine.

Stop trying to break in

To find yourself treats.

There’s nothing in the bin,

Certainly no meats.

Please stop bringing me mice

And letting them free

I know you’re being nice

But it’s just not me.

Oh, yawn and turn away,

Pretend I’m your pet,

But I will have my day,

We’re off to the vet.

All right you ginger pest,

Give me a head shove

You like your comfy nest,

And you give me love.

Who, me?

WOW.... ( Words of Wednesday) !

Following Dodges WOW.... ( Words of Wednesday) .
 I have taken the prompt from
http://www.threewordwednesday.com/ Today's words are loud, Persuasive, riches

and combined it with
http://dodgewrites.blogspot.com/ Where we will do a Haiku

I have used the 3-5-3 Haiku this time for a change.

The result is:

Loud colours

persuasive fresh scents

spring riches.

http://celebrate-gratituesday.blogspot.com/2011/03/gratitude-tribute-prompt-5.html  Where we are asked to write a tribute to someone we are grateful for and also

 http://onestoppoetry.com/ where we congratulate the team for the honor of winning the Shorty Award !  Well deserved !!

British Poet Pete Marshall with American Poets Brian Miller, Leslie Moon & Adam Dustus—

Four poets who sought to share

Set out to make a place where

Different types of art could meet.

Adam, Leslie, Brian, Pete,

Built a team of people who

Spare some time for me and you,

Providing prompts to inspire,

Links to see work and admire,

Tips and hints and how to does

With lots of great interviews

And now this great team has won

A deserved award. Well done!

Picture prompt poem.

Combining Dodges minute poem prompt with

http://childrensverse.blogspot.com/

To produce, despite a migraine making me see double, the following:

The squirrel came to the picnic

With tail flick,

‘I’ve brought a nut,

We’ve had a glut.’

The gnome replied with smile so fair

‘If you can spare,

We’ll have some more

From your large store’

The squirrel led the party there

Glad he could share

And with new friends

Our story ends.

Not my usual sort of thing.  i hope it is ok.

Killing two stones with one bird

Or verse in this case.
Here we have my response to: 
One Stop Poetry Form – Rondels part II – Guest hosted by Samuel Peralta
And also:
Dodges Today's Prompt is FIRST AND LAST


Today we will use the line...
THE DOG WAS HAVING A GRAND TIME
The rules are you must use this as your first AND last line in your write, with no changes.


And the result is:

The Hunt

The dog was having a grand time,

Chasing across the rocky fell,

Now following that tempting smell

That hid amid the gorse and thyme.

He bounced and scrambled up the climb

His handler told him to do well,

The dog was having a grand time,

Chasing across the rocky fell.

And there, amid the rock and lime

He found the man, the one who fell

His handler let out a loud yell.

Though covered now with mud and grime,

The dog was having a grand time.

One Stop Poetry Picture Challenge!

Picture by Roger Allen Baut
Challenge by : http://onestoppoetry.com/

Diamond sparkles in frozen waves

A moment captured forever.

Electronic magic now saves

Digital second whenever

The click of a button and so

The picture we’re certain we see

Becomes a line of yes and no

The wonder of imagery.

The light there glinting on the page,

A myth that fools the eye and brain,

Ink and pixels become the cage

That traps and then displays again.

And since it looks like a thin wafer of crystal to me:

Crystal lines refracting light

Layers of atoms bonded tight

Layers of time exposed to sight

Crystalline bright.

Bands of compressed history

Viewed microscopically

Glimpses of the past we see

In filigree.

Pressured into lines so thin

What things are recorded in

The bands we see drawn within

Silicate skin

In future times will crystals hold

Information so controlled

Grown in many a careful mould

Data stronghold.

And will we ever free the past

That’s held within your rocky cast

And understand what you amassed

And now outlast.

Good luck at the Shorty Awards ceremonies folks.  I hope you have a great time.

Dodges latest prompt

Today's Prompt is Butterfly cinquain

Butterfly cinquains are a nine-line syllabic form with the pattern two, four, six, eight, two, eight, six, four, two. Generally they are centered as a formed poem.

Dozing

In the sun light,

Feeling the gentle rays

Softly caress my warming skin,

Bathing

In the ocean of summer gold,

Watching the clouds puff by,

Insects buzzing,

Birds sing.

Italian Sonnet

You want to be my knight and rescue me,
to fight my dragons; despair, fear and doubt,
and all my other enemies you'd rout
to save me from the horrors that I see,
but I am not the sweet maid that you seek,
I won't be locked in your prison of love
to view the distant world from far above
and cling to you, obedient and meek.
I want to be an equal, by your side
while facing down our foes on common ground
and we should walk together, stride for stride
I won't shrink meekly, hoping I'm not found.
If left alone I can't afford to hide,
I'll battle on alone and not be bound.


The octogram.

You are no saint I'm glad to say
and nor am I.
Not shining white but shades of grey
and that is why
I let you in to my whole heart
for I can show you every part,
you are not here to pick and pry
and nor am I.

You're in my thoughts throughout the day
I smile and sigh,
my dreams distract me, mind astray
the time flies by.
Oh I could be alone again
but not without some grief and pain.
You're not prepared to let this die
And nor am I.


English Sonnet

Your love enfolds me like the morning sun,
a golden cloth of light when I awoke
I take it when the day has first begun
and wear it through the day as a warm cloak.
It keeps me from the cold of daily life,
proves shelter from the rain of pettiness,
and it repels the grime of hate and strife
so guarding me from all this sad distress
Yet cloth will soon show signs of daily wear
becoming stained and marked as time goes on
the nap rubs through and it becomes threadbare
while your love still survives this marathon.
And I will stay forever safely curled
In your soft golden love, light of my world.

Exercises in form.

Now my head hurts.

My Secret Garden, Dodges prompt and Friday Poetically with Brian Miller

I have a secret garden

Deep within my heart

Where flowers grow all year round

In the light of love.

They are watered sometimes by tears

Shed alone or in fellowship.

But all are tended carefully

For all are precious to me.

No two are ever alike

And some change shape with time.

Some may bloom for just a season,

Some stay evergreen,

Some die back then flower again,

Some are hardly ever seen.

I sometimes have to pluck out weeds

Of jealousy and doubt

And sometimes I may lose a plant

Though I mourn each one that's lost

I preserve the flowers carefully

In that garden in my heart

Where all my friendships grow.


Please let me know honestly whether you like this, love it or it leaves you cold.
Thanks
Pen

And in response to Dodges prompt::

Todays Prompt is USE THESE WORDS

Today's words are... BETWEEN, YOUNG, TORTURED, ENLIGHTENMENT, JINGLE, PRESTIGIOUS, SILVERTONGUED, GLITTER, SUBWAY,  MERGE

The rules are you must use at least 8 of the 10 words, as they are given, with no changes. You may do prose or any form of poetry

Silver-tongued drugs peddlers sell toxic dreams,

Enlightenment in many twisted forms,

To young people lost in a modern storm

Where virtual reality now seems

To merge with tortured truths and to glitter,

Prestigious status handed out to some

While other people go without a crumb,

Cast off like a piece of subway litter.

Somewhere in between horror and peace

Must fall a way of life with hope for all

Where truth and justice are a clarion call

Not drowned out by loud noise without surcease,

Where the jingle of bribes shouts out loud

And brings condemnation from all the crowd.

From our friends at onestoppoetry we have:

Friday Poetically with Brian Miller

It’s Friday, let’s have a little fun. How about some New York poems today?

Okay Brian.

   Here is my effort:

Distant Vision Of New York.

Gateway to the New World,

Immigrants’ dream,

Modern towers of Babel

Languages teem,

Towers darken daytime

Spreading shadow,

Adverts brighten night-time

Bright neon glow.

Heaven or hell?

Depends on who you are.

No-one can tell

From what’s shown on t.v.

A foreign strand

Half magical, half real,

Mystery land

I will never visit.

Dodges prompt: - Today's Prompt is FINISH THIS LINE

Today's line is...AS I STARE AT MY REFLECTION
The rules are you must use this as your first line as it is , with no changes. You may use prose or any form of poetry...

AS I STARE AT MY REFLECTION

I wonder why I look this way

In a world seeking perfection

I am a very wayward stray.

If I wore contact lenses and

Had the perfect wig made for me?

Threaded my eyebrows strand by strand;

Became as skinny as can be,

What would the big change really mean?

That I was a quite respectable?

That I was now fit to be seen?

That I was now collectable?

Dodges latest prompt

Today's Prompt is Pleaides

Write a Pleaides poem.
Pleaides poems are seven lines long.
They have a one-word title.
Each line in the poem begins with the same letter that is the first letter in your title.
Any subject


Depression

Diving downward to new depths
Despair leading me by the hand
Disgusted by my own self-pity
Driven by echoing memories
Deriding all I have done well
Deciding I have no right to life.
Death thoughts haunting all the time.



Also via JL

Speaking of linking up, we found a new place to play

http://write-a-letter-wednesday.blogspot.com/

This is what I wish I could send to my father.

Dear Dad,

We made a mess of our relationship, didn’t we?  I could never be the daughter you wanted and you had no idea how to be a father.

Did we love each other?  In a way, I suppose we did.  You resented every minute of Mum’s attention I claimed.  I lived in terror of your anger.  A terror made worse because I didn’t know what would happen.  My older brothers and my sister warned me not to upset you until that was all I knew.  Don’t disturb Mum, don’t upset Dad.

Were you really that bad or did my fear exaggerate every incident so much that it lost all reality?  I can only remember you hitting me once, but you killed me with your anger and your silent disgust so often. 

And then I grew up and left home as soon as I could.  And I was still afraid.  Afraid of you, afraid of everyone in authority, afraid of doing the wrong thing, afraid of breaking rules no-one ever explained were there.

You have been dead two years now.  At your funeral, everyone told me how proud you had been of me and how much you thought of me.  They told me how good I had been to you.  Yes I visited.  Yes, I did your gardening, your decorating, checked you were keeping warm, eating properly, going to the doctor.  Yes it was a 120 mile round trip.  Yes, I took you on holiday.  But I didn’t do it because I loved you, I did it because you were my Dad and no-one else would. 

You told the hospital I was your only child.  Why?  There were four of us.  Why did you deny the existance of the others.  Okay, Colin was already dead, but what about Alan and Kit?

I wasn’t there when you died.

That hurts.

The hospital phoned me the night before to say you were poorly.  I was tired.  I had been at work since 5 am.  I asked if I should come and the hospital said there was no immediate rush.  So I put it off until the morning.  I got up at 5 am.  I got ready.

Then the phone rang.

You died at 6 am.

I was too late because I was too selfish.

That I will never be able to forgive myself for.

I know you didn’t recognise me when I visited you.  I know your mind was gone to the past.  I know you were still asleep.

I doesn’t matter.

I wasn’t there.

I don’t think I miss you; I miss what you could have been.  I don’t miss you; I miss what I never had and now never can have.  A father whom I could love.

Goodnight Dad.

I’m still afraid.

Celebrate Gratituesday

GRATITUDE Acrostic - Prompt #4

Gratituesday's Challenge this week is an ACROSTIC

The word GRATITUDE

Why I'm Grateful for My Blogging Experience.

Gaining new friends everyday

Reading comments on my work

Active sharing of ideas

Talented people dropping by

Inspiration everyday

Thoughtful comments from good friends

Understanding new ideas

Dodges prompts from our JL

Expert guidance in poetry.

And speaking of Dodges prompts, todays is Tanka:
Mine is:

My heart had dried up

and blown away like ashes

in the winds of change

I feel the cold bitterness

of uncaring tomorrow.

sorry for any errors, Chad is helping me write as this webcam shot shows:

Dodge Writes: Today's Prompt is Monotetra

Dodge Writes: Today's Prompt is Monotetra

The politicians smiling cries
are full of things which he denies,
a blank faced look when one tries
to prove his lies, to prove his lies.

The media will probe and press
when faced with someone in distress
and tease out words under duress
here more is less, here more is less.

How dare one pray a fight to win?
For surely this pride is a sin,
the golden truth will turn to tin
when deaths begin, when deaths begin.

Today's Prompt is Octelle - a couple of days late!

You wrap me in a blanket of
your warmth and your enduring love,
my shelter when icy blast
blows right through me from my past.
When I am down, feeling blue
I turn my heart back to you,
you wrap me in a blanket of
your warmth and your enduring love

a Rondel Prime or “French Sonnet”

 For more infor on Rondels follow this link!
http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/03/one-stop-poetry-form-rondels.html

 When I'm With You.

I see you turn and laugh at me,

My fears then melt and drip away.

How can my heart not have its say

When it is full of love and glee?

Sometimes I’m sure you can not see

The love I feel, that you will stray.

I see you turn and laugh at me

My fears then melt and drip away.

And this is how it seems to be,

My heart is strong, my mind falls prey

To fear and doubts that you will stay.

But all these worries turn and flee,

I see you turn and laugh at me,

My fears then melt and drip away.

Winged Thoughts

Once my thoughts had wings,

and soared to great heights,

I spent many nights

Writing down such things.

Now people read the sign

and so find my name,

so much for great fame

for those thoughts of mine.

A quick photograph

to say ‘I saw this’

which they then dismiss

‘Who was he’ they laugh.

Thoughts cut like a knife

as I stand here alone,

remembered in stone,

forgotten in life.

Birds know I am here

as a place to perch

while they stand and search

for food, and they jeer.

Thanks and credit to James Rainsford for the picture and the challenge it presents.

Thanks to http://onestoppoetry.com/

and. just because I am proud of it, here is my photo of last nights super moon.

If you want to see how much fun I had getting this shot, see the post before this one!

Super moon! Well, sort of...

I took some photo of the moon when it was just a sliver.

Um.. well, I tried!

And tonight we have the Super Moon.

My neighbours think I am a lunatic, not because I take photos of the moon but because I stand on the decking shouting at the moon "stay still, damn you".

Then, finally, it played fair:

Not forgetting the one where the cat helped by climbing my leg:

My favourite:

For Japan

How bitter-sweet those memories
Of joy and laughter, families,
Now lost to the devouring seas
A few short days ago.

When life was normal, life was sane,
The sea was bound in her domain,
And shakes were just a normal strain,
A few short days ago.

When power stations were just there,
And didn't leak, to poison air,
We did not fear a nuclear flare
A few short days ago.

The people battle on with pride,
And hide their grief down deep inside,
Yet mourn for those who must have died
A few short days ago.

The world can only wait and hope,
As shattered structures strain to cope,
With disaster's deadly scope
A few short days ago. 

Friday Poetically - Challenge from http://onestoppoetry.com/

Thanks Brian, a tricky challenge.

A Knight of Old.

A knight of old can not show fear

He must take peril in his stride

Yet I am frozen solid here

I’m literally petrified.

A white knight should be strong and bold

A knight of old can not show fear

And to his knightly vows must hold

To fight for all that good holds dear.

I feel my doom is creeping near

I can not lift my sword to fight,

A knight of old can not show fear

Yet see me petrified with fright.

This stony embrace holds me hard

Will future squires laugh and jeer

Or will I put them on their guard,

A knight of old can not show fear.

Short and Sweet

J.L.'s Prompt is 'Short and Sweet'

Today we would like you to write a poem in  four lines or twenty four syllables... SHORT and SWEET  must be used in the poem... you may use any subject

Life may be short or long,

Days may be sour or sweet,

But when your love is strong

Your life will be complete.

*********

Sweet kiss of the sun

Though the days are still short

The flowers open to smile

In the warmth spring has brought.

********* 

Bitter-sweet memories

Of joy, laughter, families,

Lost to the devouring seas

A few short days ago.

One Shot Wednesday

One Shot Wednesday http://onestoppoetry.com/
Drop by and see some great works.

Anxiety

My heart is beating faster now

Though I can see no reason why

Yet I know that somewhere, somehow,

A death is waiting nearby.

The air feels thin, my chest is tight,

My body feels quite drained of heat

I know I’ve flashed back to that night

When death was lying at my feet.

But still I can not shake that fear

As panic grips my heart and mind

I feel the threat creeping too near

I sweat and shake, my terror blind.

This feeling may be baseless, wrong

It’s hold on my mind is so strong.

Anxiety and flashbacks are a constant  problem for me.

Subduction Seduction - a rispetto

More exercises in form and iambs

Subduction Seduction - a rispetto

Come, let me lie upon your bed
And gently roll along your length
The continental plate had said
And so their passion grew in strength
The subtle pressure pushed it to
The melting point as tension grew
Exploding into lava vents
They rested then on sediments.

In geology subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate
moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth's mantle as the plates converge. A subduction zone is an area on Earth where two tectonic plates move towards one another and subduction occurs. Rates of subduction are typically measured in centimeters per year, with the average rate of convergence being approximately 2 to 8 centimeters per year (about the rate a fingernail grows).
Subduction zones involve an oceanic plate sliding beneath either a continental plate or another oceanic plate

Restless Earth

I  am taking an on-line class in sonnets and other forms.  For this lesson I am looking at kyrielle.

The kyrielle is also a poem written in quatrains in iambic tetrameter
The rhyme scheme is up to you - it can be abab or it can be aabb
The important part is that each stanza ends in a repeated refrain line - that same line ends each and every stanza. The poem should have at least three stanzas. The challenge is to make each stanza naturally end in the same line. 

so here is my shot.

 Restless Earth

At first the mountain smokes and steams

then lava belches forth in streams,

the sound a crashing, blasting din

as Mother Earth twitches her skin.

The ground is shaking, trembling hard

so buildings twist, foundations jarred,

and fall to crush the folk within

as Mother Earth twitches her skin

The sea draws back against the tide,

a wall of water, deep and wide,

first building up then crashing in

as Mother Earth twitches her skin.

So dreams are crushed and lives are lost,

there’s more than monetary cost,

for truth is harsh and hope worn thin

as Mother Earth twitches her skin.

And solid Terra seems to be

like Terror Firma now to me.

Is it a fight that we can win

As Mother Earth twitches her skin?

A Toast to Toast

I initially wrote this as an exercise in the iambic meter.  However, it seems perfect for
http://jinglepoetry.blogspot.com/ and their

POETRY POTLUCK - Food, Drink and Indulgence

A Toast  to Toast

I love to sit and eat a piece of toast
To feel it crunch and crack at my teeth's kiss.
The crumbs fly off like sparks, it seems almost
A sin to fancy bread as much as this.

The smell would draw an angel from her prayer
So warm and tempting as it drifts up from
The toaster, to lie heavy in the air
It tickles in my nose like a scent bomb.

I can't imagine life without some bread.
That simple blend of water and ground wheat
So altered by the yeast with frothy head
It changes from mundane to magic treat.

Oh, I could write a thousand words to bread
And all the variations it can boast
If I were lying ill on my death bed
I'm sure I'd still get up for fresh made toast.

Triolet?

Me

One basic truth is I am me

Of that I think I’m sure at last

While in my life I’m all at sea

One basic truth is I am me.

So room for doubt just can not be
No existentialist blast

One basic truth Id, I am me.

And that ‘I think, I am’ is last.


Hey!  Hayfever!

Are yes, at last, now spring is here

And suddenly the season shows

We see the fresh flowers appear

Are yes, at last, now spring is here

The itching deep in eye and ear

A violent tingling of nose.

Atchoo, at last, ow, spring is here

And suddenly the season shows.

One Stop Poetry – Where Poets, Writers & Artists Meet…

Trioletting again.  Not my best form.

Thanks for visiting.  Please excuse if I don't get to visit and comment on many posts today, I hit rock bottom again last night.  Not a good place.

Who am I?

But.  Possibly the most depressing word in the English language.  It's good but...
In my case, it is 'I like you but...'

Sorry BUT,  this is me.  I am not a bush you can trim to shape.  If I listen to people who 'like me' and try do be liked more I would have to cut 'me' out.
'Be careful how you say things, people don't like the way you say it and get hurt' - Hey!  Guess what!  That works both ways.

'People don't understand your sense of humour and get offended, so don't use it.' -
So I have to listen to blue jokes, nasty comments, rude remarks and toilet humour but I have to keep quiet?

So, you don't like the things I say, the way I think or my style of humour.  Well, I am no great beauty so it ain't my looks.  What do you like abouit me then?  The fact that I do all the dull, tedious, tricky work, get it done on time and don't complain?  That isn't liking me, my 'friend'.

So, do I go back to pretending to be an emotionless robot and keep my job, or keep battling and lose either my sanity or my chance of a comfortable life?  Or maybe I just give up on it all and on life.
Seem to me I've been here before.
Well.  The cap stays on the pills.

Tonight anyway.

Accept the Picture Prompt Challenge!

In response to: Fee Easton & Poetry Challenge

 

 

You call me addict,

Shun me, shame me, hound me.

Under interdict

You have tied and bound me.

One thing you predict

That my death has found me.

You took my money

Manufacturers won,

Pictures like honey

A subtle trap they spun,

Isn’t it funny?

Holding this smoking gun.

Now you laugh at me

When I stand in the rain

Smoking desperately

Nicotine craving brain

Leading fatally

To death’s dark last domain.

Freedom beckons now

The end is in my sight

For I know just how

I will spend my last night

For you must allow

There’s no point in more fight.

Thanks to Fee Easton for this challenging image.

Fee’s Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootcoot/

Fee’s Twitter: @Bootcoot

Today's Prompt from JL is Abecedarian Poem

Today's Prompt is Abecedarian Poem

Abecedarian Poem

An abecedarian poem is similiar to the ABC poem but uses all the letters in the alphabet. It starts with "A" and works all the way down to "Z".
It is a form of an acrostic poem. The first letter of each line in the poem spell out the entire alphabet

As I amble down the country lane

Birds sing arias overhead

Courting rabbits scamper past

Down towards the trickling stream

Eddies swirl where leaves touch water

Fish flick past beneath the surface.

Going upwards after crossing

Hill are beckoning me on

Idle clouds drift slowly on high

Just soft wisps up in the blue.

Knots of wild flowers line the pathway

Lilac, yellow, pink and blue

Mixing happily together

Nodding gently in the breeze.

Onward though the path is steeper

Passing through some wooded shade

Quickly now the path is rising

Reach at last the rounded top

Standing tall above the world here

The valley lying spread below

Umber, green and yellow patchwork,

Velvet colours viewed from here,

Winding through, the gentle stream flows.

Xanadu in my England

Yes, this is my dream country

Zealously I’ll guard this land.