confess reality of dark side
fight to keep it under control
try to contain addiction,
greed, lust, fear, hateful lies.
it hides inside us
fallen nature
we all need
rescue…
help!
monstrous
13 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in nonet, Uncategorized Tags: dark side, hate, monster, pride, rescue
my blog has a name
05 Oct 2026 29 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: birds, bumblebees, moon, poem, rain, waves, wind
search for caves with waves that rhyme
remember rhythms of road travel time
hum with bumblebees buzzin’ in brain
roost with word birds in pelting rain
marvel at mysteries of moonlit night
yes, please, any of these might…
put a poem in my pocket!
De hosts quadrilles at dVerse poets pub…come with empty pockets and fill them with poems!
combustion
01 Oct 2026 18 Comments
in couplet Tags: beauty, blooms, flames, love, orange, poppies, seeds
Georgia O’Keeffe’s Oriental Poppies, 1929
fasciation – notice them!
double poppies growing upon single stem
beauty ignites in blood orange passion
bright flames rise from ashes
smoke ruffles edges of petalled glory;
will love burn out its story?
fair summer love goes to seed in autumn
seeds spread if wind caught them
Grace suggests we break up the couplet at dVerse today! I wrote an ekphrastic poem and tried “split couplets” with lines of uneven feet. I also learned new word 🙂
Fasciation is a rare condition where the growing tip of a plant becomes flattened or distorted, causing it to produce fused, doubled, or twin structures like multiple flower heads sharing a single stalk.
season in between
23 Sep 2026 11 Comments
in free verse Tags: breeeze, clouds, monarch, ox-eye, pilgrimage, prairie
i amble around ripe prairie loop
(adjacent to alma mater campus)
fall breeze ushers clouds in early.
no geese migrating overhead yet
but late monarchs linger on golden
ox-eye, heavy stems wave goodbye
to summer …a fleeting reminder to
many (any) observant pilgrims who
walk this way that all of life is sacred.
Linking to dVerse poets where Bjorn hosts poetry on theme of “non-religious” pilgrimage…is there such a thing?
break-the-fast
21 Sep 2026 13 Comments
in quadrille Tags: beef, breakfast, butter, eggs, pepper, salt
Take and break
two organic brown
humpty-dumpties
into fry pan with a
bit-o-butter, melted.
Sprinkle with real
himalayan salt and
dash of cracked
black peppercorns.
Flip over easy,
serve with side
of one grass-fed
summer-sausage
flavored beef stick.
Preface your day
packed with protein.
______________
Enjoy humdinger of a breakfast (served anytime) while you
read quadrilles with De at dVerse!
still…life
16 Sep 2026 14 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: chasm, cow, death, resurrection, roses, shroud, skull
Inspired by ekphrastic poetry class with John Sibley Williams. Also linking to dVerse poets where Kim asks us to respond to classical piece, Adagio for Strings, by Samuel Barber. I think the phrasing of music and poetry fit together to interpret the painting.
west bend
08 Sep 2026 12 Comments
in quadrille, Uncategorized Tags: rocks, stone, marble, Christ, sculpture, xenolith
who expects classical sculpture
in rural iowa town?
life-size figures of carrara marble
(think italy and michelangelo)
set with care inside massive stone shrine
rocky labyrinth of many rooms, this grotto of
the redemption hides like xenolith within prairie bedrock
created by concrete-mixing priest.
Melissa hosts quadrilles (44 word poems) at dVerse Poets. Theme is”xenolith” which is a fragment of foreign stone trapped inside larger igneous rock. Photos by lynn_
beat a conumdrum
03 Sep 2026 21 Comments
in descort Tags: friendship, independence, loneliness, marriage, person
To be an independent person
is that even a goal?
in puzzle of humanity, all pieces interdependent…
Or overthink, think, think it and become co-dependent
when one marries you are
ONE
whole/half holey
person; impersonate or get personal
flesh will mesh, soles mate
(maybe, baby—by wearing each other’s shoes)
but if it don’t fit…it pinches!
walk it out anyway
or choose friendship only, still grow old lonely
i wonder who/whom we really DEPENDS (trademark) on ?!
risky either way and
“we’re out of your size,” says shoe sales person.
Repeat after Dr. Seuss: “A person’s a person, no matter how small!”
Grace hosts a descort prompt at dVerse Poets. The word descort comes from the idea of discordia or disagreement. Variations in rhythm, rhyme, stanza shape, language, or voice reflected tension and emotional conflict within the poem itself. The traditional themes of the descort are inner turmoil, emotional conflict, and unrequited love.
morbid comfort
01 Sep 2026 2 Comments
in american sentence Tags: comfort, death
With a thousand awful ways to die, i’m glad we only do it once.
friends and lovers
31 Aug 2026 21 Comments
in haibun Tags: bridesmaids, groomsmen, marry, wedding
Marry me in the same small town church where my parents married. I’ll wear my mother’s sleeveless wedding dress, featuring lacey arm gauntles and wide hoop skirt covered in lace. Shall I wear a hat or veil? My bridesmaids will wear peach street-length dresses and carry sheer parasols.
You will be handsome in broad-shouldered ivory tux trimmed in dark brown. Mother says no cowboy boots! Our brothers, as groomsmen, will wear brown tuxedos with matching bowties. Your nephew can bear the rings on a pillow and my cousin’s daughter can walk down aisle dropping rose petals.
Let’s decorate dais like a garden with latticed arch and baskets of mums. The church ladies can serve barbecue beef on buns with potato salad, frozen fruit cups, and wedding cake. After our reception, you will drive us away in antique buggy, proudly pulled by your horse, Ginger. We must keep our final destination secret!
on lawn of stone church
congratulations and punch
spill like summer petals
Linking to dVerse poets where Mish hosts haibuns on wedding bliss. My husband and I celebrated our 43rd anniversary this past weekend!
butterfly garden
26 Aug 2026 21 Comments
in rhyming verse Tags: butterfly, flowers, garden, honeybees, scone, tea, turtledoves
if planting a butterfly garden for me,
invite white doves to flutter by for tea
inside the gazebo, set quaint table there.
don’t wonder or worry what you will wear;
dress in blush, butter yellow, or emerald sheen
like the flowers, who have no need to preen.
serve english tea with sweet cream and a scone,
listen as honeybees dance their way home.
“If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?” Matthew 6:30
Melissa hosts landscape poetics at dVerse where we explore the art of Egon Schiele. My ekphrastic rhyme is in response to his painting, House with a Bay Window in the Garden (1907)
squeals of delight
24 Aug 2026 26 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: girl, grand daughters, protest, scream, tickle
“Tickle me!” little girl
demanded. Grandpa
would oblige until
i laughed to tears and,
gasping for air, finally
screamed, “Stop!” which
he always did, with a grin.
Now history repeats
as I witness my husband
“tickle torture” our
own granddaughters,
floored in loud protest.
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks” – Shakespeare
______________
A quadrille (44 words) on the theme: protest. Read more at dVerse poets pub.
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