Express In Eight

Express in Eight - May 2022

Expression in 8- May, 2022 entries


5-1-2022
Powerful

The maestro's baton ever so
delicately, creates powerful
harmony, a fusion of cymbals,
saxophones, violins evocative
of the blaze of a spectacular
sunrise or the grand panorama
of a limitless sky splashed
with breathtaking beauty of colors.

Prompt: Music from 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968


5-2-2022
Hiss and hit

Huddled in our cabins
we could hear the rage
of the Atlantic as it roared through
the dark night that never ended.

Giant waves and the white foam
hissed and hit the heavy ship
toppling it with the fury of a leviathan,
as the rescue boats caved in.

Prompt:Image of the sea.


5-3-2022
Once upon a dewy dawn

Commotion in the dewy dawn sky
alert the deer and its comrades spot
flocks of song birds and crows flying
into the green belt of Northumberland.

"What a feast!" thought, winter starved
deer, skipping into the dense woods
to lie in wait, to ambush and devour
the once-in-a-lifetime delicate dinner.
Prompt: Image of “Deer and Birds”


5-4-2022
Picturesque

My camera caught
cool calm misty skies.
Not a cloud out of place.

The first rain like first love
captured by the lens
stayed in heart.

The heat's gone
peace prevails.

Prompt: " "I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking." - from Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood


5-5-2022
The center piece

The house plan was designed
to make the kitchen, the center of gravity
around which throbs the habitat, 'cause the family
gathers at the big table within mom's vicinity
not just for any meal but also for umpteen
conversations veering off from point
to point with effortless ease.
A place meant to forge bonds.

Prompts: Veer/Design


5-6-2022
Extraordinary

The city's zookeeper
looks like a zombie,
at night in particular.

His life, preoccupied
with tigers, lions and monkeys let
his mouth agape
eyes to glow green at night,

used to animals rather than animals in human forms.

Prompts: Preoccupied/zookeeper


5-7-2022
Travel light

I take very little, less the better.
I'd prefer
to travel light.

Think of the space or freedom
of mobility thereby.

I can't stuff my mind with ego or grudge
robbing me of ease of living.
No, I can't or don't take it.

Prompt: You can’t take it with you


5-8-2022
Priceless

Diamonds glitter
like cat's eyes.

cold, colorful
flawless like
a chaste heart.

Hard as a merciless
man without feelings.

Priceless possessions.

Prompt: There are millions of tons of diamonds on Jupiter and Saturn.


5-10-2022
Simple joys

This very swing set
looking lonely and left
out, was once our merry seat
swinging us to a heavenly treat.

Simple joys and relaxing days
are no longer people's ways,
missing out on open skies
confined to their cell lives.

Prompt: Image of an abandoned swing set


5-11-2022
Intercultural


"We never eat with hands."
"Oh, we do."

"We don't wear shoes
in the house."
"Really? well, we do."

Culture clash
bothered them not.

Because love is all that matters.

Prompt: Clash


5-12-2022
Refreshing

A sincere smile,
her only ornament.
Lack of luxuries
immense wealth.

No complexes,
always at ease.
mix and motivate
simple life, a winner.

Prompt: Simplicity


5-13-2022
Streaming on

While the jungle
snakes on both sides,
the cute little train
running on a meter-gauge
zigzags through
fifty eight tunnels altering
between light and shadow,
like life flowing high and low.

Prompt: Write a tunnel poem


5-14-2022
Train Journey

Reached the station huffing and puffing
before the train pulled out rumbling.
Sat by the window for winsome sights
offering stuff to dwell and dream at night.

Some settle with a book or a magazine,
rivers, hamlets and hills pass us by, on and on.
Some sleep on berths, spreading sheets
while we loved chasing stars, a unique treat.

Prompt: National Train Day - started by AMTRAK in 2008 as a method to spread information about advantages of railway travel and history of trains in the US.


5-15-2022
The Nucleus

Family is the nucleus of a society, a country.
Happy families make happy world

Brothers compete, sisters rebel,
parents endure, wait for them to rethink.
Grandparents' experience comes in handy,
face whatever life throws at them together
bickering, loving, celebrating.

A tension free climate, hearts bound by love.

Prompt: International Day of Families - founded by the United Nations in 1994 to honor the importance of families


5-16-2022
A better prospect

A closed door often speaks of
other chances waiting for us.

Regrets of missed opportunities,
fetch me nothing, I realized long since.

When I lost a much loved job once
I did feel the frustration, yet..

There was a more profitable project,
"Thank you God for opening another door".


Prompt: When one door shuts, another door opens


5-17-2022
Cattle

If falling coconuts cause
yearly deaths of one fifty
and the stinging bees
extract more than fifty
human deaths, hardly
a wonder that a fear-
driven bovine rebels at
the whip and constant herding.

Prompt: Cows kill more Americans each year than sharks do


5-18-2022
Bizarre

One late night in bed
I felt the presence.
Fact or false? A puzzle!
Perceptible by smell.

A familiar fragrance
of an overwhelming essential oil!
that hung to her while alive.
It melted as if the spirit floated away.

Prompt: Surreal (Sculpture by Xiao Yang)


5-19-2022
Cliff, the cowboy

Cliff's strength and spirit,
his love for horses and
his protective stance
are well known in the valley.

His communicative skills
with the horses amazed Kate.
He looked like Butch Cassidy in the making,
and she appreciated that he is no robber.

Prompt: "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys"
(sung by Willie Nelson, written by Sharon Vaughn)


5-20-22
Access denied

After three attempts
I failed to connect.

Helpless, I looked up
into the empty space
above the desktop,
not knowing how to cope.

Ten minutes give or take
or else, pack up for today.

Prompt: Image of a Writer (Desperation at the keyboard)

5-21-2022
The current

I love the present
can't stay here, though.

Need to move on
to a better future, if I can.

It's a God-given chance
to use my current to flow
with dignity and detachment
appreciating every moment.

Prompt: Dignity/Current

5-22-2022

To merge

The rain water falls through
hill and valley to percolate down
into the smooth still stream of a ravine
that dreams of merging with the sea.

Your ways, words and vision
struggle to find destination
in someone that dreams
of being one with you.

Prompt: ravine

5-23-2022
Stages

Spring trees are like young girls
fresh, tall, straight and lissome.
Summer trees mature and mellow
spreading wide providing shade.
bend and bear till the fruit is picked,

Winter makes them shine in snow
Their charm's in shedding shackles
Good enough to go with God.

Prompt: Image of a Tree with two faces

5-24-2022
Vision


Artist's vision
relieves tension
animals of the wild
live in unity rare to find.

The lesson is present and
and pressing, yet we pretend
to be the brilliant masters
of a divided world edging on to disaster.


Prompt: Image of Heritage (art display by Cai Guo-Qiang)

5-25-2022
Cool shade

"It's so cool here," she says
surveying the detailed landscape.

Sitting on the stone slab under
the thick branches of the mango tree,
the fruit of which was just picked and
enjoyed among kith and kin."you know Jay,
your trees make the scorching summer at least
6 degrees cooler than outside," she gushed.

Prompt: Landscape

5-26-2022
Access denied

After three attempts
I failed to connect.

Helpless, I stared
into the empty space
above the desktop,
not knowing how to cope.

Ten minutes give or take
or else, pack up for today.

Prompt: Image of a Writer (Desperation at the keyboard)





5-27-2022

Foresight

Her clairvoyance
proved surprising.

While we went
gaga over the ruling party's
strength and substance,

"They will fall from grace,"
she affirmed, prescient enough
about transient power.

Prompt: Prescient

5-28-2022

Resourceful

This part of the desert
is dead as a doornail.
An arid wasteland.

Many miles ahead,
as luck would have it
the tech-savvy sheikh
found groundwater reserves
inducing emerald perfection.

Prompts:
Dead as a doornail (2 Henry VI)
As good luck would have it (The Merry Wives of Windsor)

5-29-2022

Sway

The grace of horse
shows pages of pain,
pleasure, bravery and beauty
mentioned in fiction, history
and memoirs of different
countries and cultures.

The silky, singular animal continues
to hold sway over generations.

Prompt: The Horse, a poem by Ronald Duncan

5-30-2022

Inseparable

The Ogene of Igbo land
of Eastern Nigeria
a master metal bell,
echoes through the jungle
bringing the communities
together, a symbol of unity.
Like the drum beat of the Ekwe,
an inseparable part of a people's life.

Prompt: WRITE A POEM ABOUT SOMETHING MADE OF METAL.

Note-
Ogene is a metal bell.
Ekwe is a drum made of the trunk of the Iroko tree of Eastern Nigeria to relay messages.

5-31-2022

Rocks of Peru

The immense rocks of Peru
blew my breath away
like the hills of Kathmandu
the gigantic form stays

etched on mind with its layer
upon layer of nature's artistry.
Despite the wear and tear
stands an immortal mystery.

Prompt: Image of "Stack"