a life in the day

readwritepoem: napowrimo day 29 front page news:  choose your favorite newspaper or online news provider. jot down five to ten headlines that jump out at you and without reading the articles, select elements from each headline to create a new event about which your poem reports. i chose today’s online www.thedailybeast.com bylines the cheat sheet and highlights section front page. also used the beatles a day in the life song from sgt pepper…. ; photo: signal, detroitmi97, flickr

REAL MESS TALK MOVIN IN
today the white house on 10th street
was smeared with socks and shoes
swung on primetime with anchor
who made the grade

one observer noted the news
was rather sad almost cursed
inside the lights gleamed brightly
unaware the immigrants were
leaving in droves

a crowd of people moved away
praising the euologies of those
missing in the boobquake diasaster
trapped in pugatory not noticing
the light had changed

release engage

read write poem napowrimo day 27 let someone else take the lead. thanks to carolee for today’s prompt. take a word that’s part of you — your name, your birth month, your favorite animal, your guiding principle. write that word vertically down a page and use the letters to start the lines of a poem. always wanted to try acrostic form…i choose harmony; photo: Smokin’, scoobs1969, flickr

happiness beckons in continuous kinship
arresting the anger cuffed and stayed
reconciliation chain entwine simpatico
mischievous madness manifesting nowhere
optimism spreads sweet strawberry jam
nesting resentment cleared and cleaned
yielding yawns wishy washy yummy yearn

conduit connect

readwritepoem day 25 first things first. first sentence you hear or read after you’ve read today’s prompt take that and build a poem around it. “don’t push me” as she takes a step and flies over the edge, this is the first thing i heard… ; one single impression: fissure; photo: Raging Water, ahamediqbal, flickr

somewhere subtle deep
raging racing waters breech
erase rock release

crashing crooning thunder
roaring tumbling groaning grains
terra firma ebb

where once was cryptic
breezes in a wadi way
come my love to me

humble pie

read write poem: day 24. Find a phrase. Je ne sais quoi An indescribable or inexpressible something. Literally, ‘I know not what’; photo: Morning Java, JamMarz, flickr

a beautiful morning
pops out from behind
the night. a hand making
motion. as a sheer silent
curtain drawn back

it’s about 5 am and i am
wide awake. i arise from the
comforts of sleeping
soundly in the security
of my soft warm bed

my morning ritual
begins. i make strong
french black coffee
and head towards
the back porch stairs

i sit outside in the
garden under the tree
enjoying the current
book i am reading
resting in the sounds of
early morning

not a second later
along comes the intruding
sound of someone speaking
requesting the time
what in the world
solitude interruptus

i look up towards the sound
and i am instantaneously blinded
by the sheer force of light
without thought i pull my
hands upward to shield my eyes

and just as quickly
the dazzling light dissipates
and i am able to see clearly

i know exactly who
this person is
he smiles and speaks
hello rachel, i’ve heard
your meditations and i’ve
come to sit with you awhile

speechless i wonder
if i am really awake
it is barefoot jesus
i wonder, does he
like his coffee black

peek

read write poem: napowrimo day 23 unlikely couples. write a poem in which you combine a speaker and an event that normally don’t go together; photo: fantasia hippo

bertha the hippo and kiki the butterfly. friends forever in an open hot dry savanna. the observer whispers.

are you watching
come close closer

k almost done
hold still
please don’t fidget

bertha hardly able
to contain herself
she kicks at the air

kiki floats above
momentarily
waiting

again she starts
stitching pretty
pink on bertha

stingy petite stitches
between flappy flesh
and the hardest of bone

so sorry bertha
these might be
tight so they
won’t come
loose

ok done
now turn around

you are beautiful