artifice

we speak in riddles and doublespeak

and half-finished glances

i am tired of never saying what i mean

and hoping you understand

me:

coy but ready

you:

distant but yearning

everything is artifice

and we are just playing parts

Day 3-Write about interpersonal relationships and the games we play to avoid vulnerability.

Today was a good day, but...

I have not quite burned down this house

let’s call it a coat that I have hung up in the summer months

a house feels too large

and too final a thing

and I fear that winter will find mind me

and I will be all to ready to drape myself in old sorrows.

Day 2- Write a poem that addresses at least one other poem and/or poet by name. You might imitate, parody, disagree with, champion, or generally respond to the other poem and poet.

I chose A Good Day  by Kait Rokowski

Housekeeping

I'm about to post a bunch of poems from the various half-finished poetry challenges I've started for 2015. Enjoy.
Promptly in January
For My Girl April 2015

Re: Old Age

Day 8- Write a cinquain on a topic of your choice.

maybe

she lost all that

weight so you could get used

to seeing your giants shrink to

nothing.

To The Stump In my Garden

Day 7- Take a walk until you find a tree you identify with, then write a poem using the tree as a metaphor for yourself or your life.

To the stump in my garden that has begun to sprout
Mere days after its branches have been shorn:
Teach me whatever lessons you have learned
How to give thanks for your still solid roots
And how to recalibrate the hardened fibres of your bark
And make life once more.

Lemons

Day 5- Write a three line poem about lemons without using the following words: lemon, yellow, round, fruit, citrus, tart, juicy, peel, and sour.

My mouth puckers at the taste
But it is not without a lesson:
Take nothing without a pinch of salt

In Your Old Age

Day 3- Find the nearest book (of any kind). Turn to page 8. Use the first ten full words on the page in a poem. You may use them in any order, anywhere in the poem.

Senescence is the great equaliser.
great men, average men,
men of faith, men of none
living life with the promise
that some of its secrets will be revealed
but all you will ever learn
are verbs like forgetting
and dying.

Upon Review

Day 2- Who was the last person you texted? Write a five-line poem to that person.

I cannot write about you.
Poetry reveals truths
And I cannot hear those truths
Without revealing hurts.
I still have not healed from your last wounds.

Updates

Last October I attempted a 30 poetry challenge. I didn't get very far, but I'll be posting a few of the poems I didn't hate here.