The Seeds of the Day

So today Merril prompted the folk at dVerse to write a quadrille with the word seed in it. If you haven’t read this form before, it is a poem of exactly 44 words, generally with a prompt word in there somewhere. I’m back to my old old style of darker poetry with my take on today’s prompt, but go check out the other fantastic takes on today’s prompt

---

The seeds of the day were sown
In smoke, ash, and bone
The cry of a dying crone
Baby’s boot, alone
The hearts of the men were stone
Deaf, to plea, to moan
The seeds of the day were sown
In blood soaked loam

---

Hope you enjoy, please feel free to comment
The Lonely Recluse

Bridges

I’m on fire this week, two poems in two days. Over at dVerse Merril was musing about bidges, and invited folk to either write a poem with the word bridge, or to write a puente (Spanish for bridge), a puente has two matching stanzas with a middle line – a bridge between the two that links with each (sorry if my explanation is poor, go read Merril’s, and the fantastic poets who have written their bridges).

I had the dual ideas of building/burning bridges between people, particularly the bridges that are made and lost over the interwebs, the idea seemed to fit nicely with my understanding of the puente, so I thought I would write a bridge poem about bridges (although not about Bridge, I’m not good at cards).

---

I build bridges in the sky
Hope connecting you and I
Edifices soaring high
Vain Gravity to defy
Building bridges in the sky

~ I light a match, watch it flare ~

I burn bridges in the sky
Ending hope twixt you and I
See the smoke soaring high
Vain, Gravity to defy
Burning bridges in the sky

---

Hope you enjoy, please feel free to comment (it makes my day)
The Lonely Recluse

The Present

Frank over at dVerse has laid down the challenge to write a haibun about the present. I’ve got to admit this is the first time I’ve written anything in this style, so I hope that I haven’t taken too many liberties with what a haibun is supposed to be. Go check out the other awesome entries over at dVerse

---

Here we stand, at the intersection of past and future. We stand eternally on a tipping point, all of possibility stretches out before and behind. Every heartbeat has led up to it. Every hope and dream coalesce around it. The infinite and the fleeting.

So proud stands the oak
Breathe in deep, the sun soaked skies
Know the here and now

The present, now, here. See it, feel it, touch it. Taste the possibility. The conjunction of all probabilities past, the explosion of all probabilities as they refract ever onwards. Watch as all we have been, all we will ever be, meets in a grain of sand. A toss of a coin. A turn of phrase.

Fast flows the river
The hope of future laughter
Silver glint of fish

Ever slipping away, never to be held. We cannot grasp the moment. Just touch, just kiss, just savour the present that is never present long. Forever joining, forever parting. Forever wondering when when became now, when now became then.

The warmth of hot brick
Moon shadows dancing in grass
The taste of your love

---

Hope you enjoy, please feel free to comment
The Lonely Recluse

Bothersome Bibliographies

And I’m back from the dead yet again, I really should get a hold of my perpetual Lazarus syndrome. Sorry, I’ve been mad busy in real life (still am mad busy truth be told), but I’ve missed creative writing, so here is a little.

This piece is from dVerse’s Quadrille Monday with the prompt “Bother”. If I can bother you some more, go read the fantastic submissions now

Why do I bother seeking for words
Hunting, peering, searching, fearing,
Long days lost in dusty books
Penning lexemes to be locked in dusty books
Parched paragraphs perplexing pointlessly
I could be free
Flying, rhyming, dancing, climbing
Breathing fresh air
Away from bothersome bibliographies

Hope you enjoy, please feel free to comment

I Wear My Smile Like Armour

This poem comes from three strands, so hopefully has the same strength a three strand rope has (or maybe I’m just being hopeful).
The first strand is the prompting line “I wear my smile like armour”, it was buried in my phone’s notepad, so I don’t know if it is an original line, or something I read somewhere, but it is the start.
The second strand is my job, I work in retail. I think that speaks for itself.
The third strand is the form. This poem is a pantoum (click the link for wikipedia’s entry). I was introduced by this amazing form by debatablydateable’s fantastic poem “War Cry” (go read it, it’s awesome), and I had to try one out for myself. In short a pantoum is a poem where the 2nd and 4th lines of a stanza make the 1st and 3rd lines of the next, until in the final stanza the 2nd and 4th lines are the 1st and 3rd of your original stanza (read the wiki article, it’s clearer).
And the final part of today’s ramble, this poem is part of dVerse’s Open Link Night, so go check out the other amazing offerings.

I always am the charmer
When faced with your childish rage
I wear my smile like armour
As I dance upon my stage

When faced with your childish rage
I wish I had stayed in bed
As I dance upon my stage
I shall bleed all you have said

I wish I had stayed in bed
Here I am playing for you
I shall bleed all you have said
For all of the bile you spew

Here I am playing for you
I always am the charmer
For all of the bile you spew
I wear my smile like armour

As always, I hope you enjoy, and please do comment, it makes my day.
The Lonely Recluse

P.S. Apparently it’s my 10 year anniversary on WordPress, so (un)happy (for some) decade of my poetics

Midnight draws near

I really should go to sleep earlier, save my brain chewing on itself

Midnight draws near
And I’m sitting here
Questioning it all
With nothing clear

I’m looking back
At the course I tack
Will I leave this fog
And find a track

I sit and write
I’m scribing a light
To just spot my feet
And blind the night

Hope you enjoy, please feel free to comment
The Lonely Recluse

The Void Stares Back

It’s Quadrille time with dVerse today, so on with a 44 word poem. De challenged us to write a poem with possibilities. My mind decided to take a bit of a darker wander for this one. Go check out the fantastic poets who’ve written other possibility laden posts https://dversepoets.com/2020/11/16/quadrille-116-poem-those-possibles/

The word possibility
Loses all credibility
As the void stares back
Darkly
Starkly
Odd civility
Leading you on
Madness
Sadness
Knowing your own fragility
There is no
Retuning
Yearning
Too late learning
That the void stares back
And the word possibility
Loses all credibility

Hope you enjoy, please feel free to comment
The Lonely Recluse

The Writer’s Soundtrack

Apparently I’m back. Sorry for the absence, life got in the way.

Peter over at dVerse set out the was talking about sound in poetry. He set a challenge to write a poem that let sound ring out. With my break from writing I’ve gotten a bit rusty (yet again), and ended up writing the sound of my trying to write. Go check out the fantastic entries folk have given for us to hear https://dversepoets.com/2020/10/22/mtb-let-your-words-ring-out/

Scritch scratch
Scritch scratch
Scritch scratch
Sigh
Rrrrriiippppp
Wrinkle, crinkle, crumple
Sigh
Scritch scratch
Scritch scratch
Scritch scratch
Sigh
Tap tap tap tap tap tap
Click
Sigh

Hope you enjoy, please feel free to comment.
The Lonely Recluse

Smash

So dVerse is celebrating its 8th anniversary, and Brian has invited folk to write a poem that captures a moment, here’s my take on the prompt. Go check out what moment others have chosen to capture https://dversepoets.com/2020/07/14/dverse-poetics-8th-year-anniversary/

For a fragment of a second
Milliseconds stand as hours
The world stands still
As realisation dawns
That nothing can be done
And everything
Tips
And

Falls

 
Down

 

Down

 

 

Down
Smash
There goes my favourite glass

Hope you enjoy, please feel free to comment
The Lonely Recluse

Bandaid

So a friend ghosted me the other day. Here’s my dealing with that. Posted to dVerse’s OLN, check out what others have written https://dversepoets.com/2020/06/25/open-link-night-269/.

A bandaid
Used
When times were too hard
Then you’re ready to discard
Me
When things become easy

Now I am
Left
Wondering what went wrong
Or what went
Right
If I ever helped the fight

Or did I
Just
Keep you bleeding
Just making things
worse
Some sort of curse?

Did you wake
Up
And smell the truth
Is that why you’re now
Aloof
Ghosting me?

Is there your
Blood
On these my hands
Or was I just used in the
Flood
Of now receding chaos?

Hope you enjoy, please feel free to comment
The Lonely Recluse