posting poetic prose
09 Jun 2026 24 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: commas, cummings, period, punctuation, verse
please do not
puncture my poetry
with unwanted or
wanton punctuation
commas i suppose
are required for prose
but totally unnecessary
for terse purple verse
better to be clean
in your cummings
and goings than to
leave a blot or dot
and if you cannot
decide where to pause
feel free to break laws
but be warned that
the punctuation police
are determined to deter
any pregnant poets
who miss a period
Melissa hosts poetics at dVerse and prompts us to write sans punctuation
06 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in ekphrastic Tags: cloud, cypresses, flames, grasses, mesa, moon, sky
Inspired by online poetry class with John Sibley Williams.
______________
Living flames of cypresses
leap upward as evergreen branches
swirl like burning driftwood.
Even Vincent’s baby blue
skies curl with playful energy
trying to escape lemon peel moon,
which already took a bite from cotton
candy cloud floating above wave
of distant mesa’s high water.
Saffron grasses dance freely in
summer breeze while eyes of
wildflowers and juniper berries
look on with a childlike joy.
04 Jun 2026 6 Comments
in ekphrastic Tags: grave, heaven, mulberry, tree, waterfall
______________
Bury me under the mulberry tree;
mark my grave with granite stone.
I will lie in tree’s long shadow as
it grows gnarly wild above me.
See leaves of heavenly glory gold
shimmer against bold azure skies
and know that I am finally home
where day or night will not matter.
Hear sound of snow-melt waterfall;
listen to memory of my laughter.
Be refreshed by hope of reunion
and do not fear coming darkness.
______________
Ekphrastic poetry inspired by online class with John Sibley Williams.
29 May 2026 16 Comments
“I write on these spindrift pages.” — Dylan Thomas
I… personally speaking, myself and not another; singularly and uniquely me
write… to scribble with pencil, flow from ink, or tap on keyboard; to make meaning from letters into words into phrases into poetry
on… immediately active location; ready position; prepared for task; alert
these… things here, not there; close at hand and possessed; opportune
spindrift… mist of music and lyrics like salty spray from crest of wave or wild dusting of snowdrift in gale
[easily confused with spendthrift… who gives away freely, shares extravagantly; both prodigal and profligate]
pages… leaves of a book, spaces on a screen, blanks waiting to be filled in with words and sent into the world!
Take a Dylan Thomas quote, make an acrostic, define your lines! Laura Bloomsbury hosts MTB at dVerse Poets.
29 May 2026 Leave a comment
in haiku, Uncategorized Tags: chicken, egg, free range, hen
large brown egg…still warm
from grass-fed, free-range chicken
work of happy hen!
20 May 2026 7 Comments
in ekphrastic Tags: church, envy, greed, repentance, stewardship, sustainability
______________
Circle of life in world of death
as fruit of tree links food chain.
Survival served by stewardship,
sustainability, not envy or greed.
But blood be shed in streets if
village values turn upside-down.
Milked by politics, compromised,
church not shocked to repentance.
_______________
Melissa hosts dVerse poetics with ekphrastic poetry inspired by art of Marc Chagall. My poem based on his oil painting, “I and the Village”, 1911.
18 May 2026 6 Comments
in quadrille, rhyming verse Tags: chef, crawdad, doggerel, feast, poet
proper poet can understand rhyme
personal chef pan-handle thyme
thus, poet with pen sits by yon pond
whilst chef, he pulls wet waders on
hip boots for catching crawdad feast
silly verse to tame clawed beast
poet writes fresh doggerel
quick chef dodges froggerel
______________
It’s quadrille Monday at dVerse where De invites us to write 44-word poems including a form of the word “dog”.
15 May 2026 19 Comments
in list poem Tags: art, artist, crows, cypresses, haystacks, paintings, starry night, van gogh, wheatfields
he comes from dutch reformed
family, disappoints (emotionally
distant, bereaved) parents;
as both a preacher and painter,
vincent ministers to peasants,
potato eaters, and sowers;
people of humble cottages.
follow him to france en plein aire;
walk along avenue of poplars,
past red vineyard and white orchard
(smell the blossoming almonds)
into wheatfields with haystacks,
under dark shadows of cypresses,
to the banks (and boats) of the seine.
admire the light of bedroom in
yellow house or the cafe terrace,
cobalt skies of starry nights, and
dying beauty of golden sunflowers:
feel angst of stark self-portraits
(especially with bandaged ear);
hear gunshot…black crows cawing.
______________
At dVerse MTB prompt, Bjorn Rudberg encourages us to make a list and write a poem. I made a list of some of Vincent Van Gogh’s (almost 900!) paintings and wrote a poem about the artist’s life.
13 May 2026 Leave a comment
in limerick Tags: fly, grandchildren, grandma, sky, spring, swings, wings
_______
I once pushed two grand kids on swings
when the big sister started to sing:
“We do like to fly
so high in the sky”
Grandma thinks it’d be fun to have wings!
________
12 May 2026 15 Comments
in ekphrastic Tags: abortion, daughter, miscarriage, mother, remember, womb
______________
remembering the
daughter she never knew;
today is another anniversary of
the day she was removed…
from her womb, from her life,
but never from her mother’s heart.
asking questions like what color
are her eyes? does she look like me?
wishing she could hug her girl
and ask for forgiveness;
who knew? a mother died too.
______________
Linking to dVerse poets where Punam invites us to write ekphrastic poetry inspired by Indian artwork.
05 May 2026 23 Comments
in rhyming verse Tags: Golden Gate, mermaid, song, summer, tide, wine
Sitting on the bay shore,
the Golden Gate in view,
enjoy an afternoon delight
with bottle of bordeaux.
In nearby pool of ebb tide
where sea foam kisses shore
I hear a mermaid singing
summer song of salty lore.
Her name is Desdemona,
the wind rush plays her hair;
then sudden as quicksilver,
siren’s no longer there.
A swish of tail, a splash of scale,
she dives back under brine…
But when I tell my friends of Des,
they say, “Lay off the wine!”
______________
Linking to dVerse, where Merril challenges us to use at least 5 names of roses in our poem. I used the following names of rose varieties: Afternoon Delight , Bordeaux , Desdemona , Ebb Tide , Golden Gate, Mermaid , Quicksilver , Sea Foam , Summer Song, Windrush
a poem in my pocket 
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