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 |  Entries to Express It In Eight from September 2020 to the present . |
| The number of poems enforces the use of blog format with ten poems per page. |
| Africa Overhead, the sun reigns in a cloudless sky and the afternoon heat shimmers the stagnant air above the desiccated field of tall, yellow grass. Life pauses for breath, panting in the shade, only the ant daring the baked red earth, armoured against the furnace in shining black carapace. A sound like metal on stone breaks silence, “Chink, chink, chink,” the guinea fowl speaks peace. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 05.19.21 Prompt: Write an 8-line poem that has exactly eight words in each line. |
| Lombardies Lombardy poplars are tall and thin, the supermodel of trees, they sway with elegance in the wind, bending to the will of the air, leaves twisting and turning with each gust, flashing green and silver in line dance with the bright sun, whispering of warmer climes. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 05.18.21 Prompt: Sway. |
| Little Legalities The finger wags back and forth, like a metronome, naughty, naughty, caught again, authority intones. Don’t do this and don’t do that, stay within the bounds, mind your peas and watch your queues, be seen, don’t make a sound. Line count: 8 Rhyme abcb defe For Express It In Eight, 05.17.21 Prompt: Photo of metronome. |
| Over the Hangover “Clang!” sang the boomerang as it sprang against my fang. My head rang with the bang and the tang of blood still hangs in my mouth, even as I harangue myself. When will I learn to hang with the gang led by Chang? He allows us no pang. Dang! Line count: 8 Rhymes all over the place For Express It In Eight, 05.15.21 Prompts: Sang, Tang, Boomerang, Clang, Sprang, Fang. |
| Grasses and a Tuber Golden wheat rippling in the summer breeze, rice paddies terraced like steps on the hillsides, the corn standing tall in regimented ranks, oats, rye, barley, all are grass and grains, our staple foods, bread of survival, seed of the city and the earth ‘neath our feet, herald of peace and plenty. Humble potato cares for the rest. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 05.14.21 Prompt: Grain. |
| Frog Poem 21 Frog bounds upon the earth in the bounteous joy of being, his tadpole mind ecstatic with his metamorphosed world, from pond to vast expanse of air, his vision now horizon, his life reborn forever. And man still wonders at his death. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 05.13.21 Prompt: Frog Jumping Day. Note: This is numbered 21 because it is actually the latest in a series of frog poems. All but this one date from about 1970. The number is a guess, since I have lost all but one of those poems of my youth. It is sure to be a slight exaggeration but reflects the year of this one, at least. |
| Arctic Tern Sharp-etched against the sky, your narrow wings and pointed tail, forked like the swallow’s, white in the storm-washed wind, speak only of your streamlined speed and grace, pure humility omitting mention of your long migration, pole to pole and back again. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 05.12.21 Prompt: Tern. Note: The Arctic Tern has the longest migration of any creature on earth, travelling from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back every year. The route taken can be as long as 44,000 miles. |
| Cold on the Plateau The chill of a Transvaal night, hikers curled up and shivering in sleeping bags by the brazier, gravel stones digging into flesh, dawn silhouetting the horizon, as it erodes the dark vault above. They stumble to the water trough, break the ice to splash their faces. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 05.11.21 Prompt: Break the ice. |
| Indoor Cat She sits at the window, watching the movement on the path below, the people walking their dogs, the joggers, but, most of all, the birds, active now on nest-building duty, and her enemies, the crows, loud and ignorant of the cries they wring from her frustration. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 05.10.21 Prompt: Write a window poem. |
| What I heard I heard the wind in the pines, whispering secrets of the forest, I heard the chatter of the reeds, singing the songs of the river, I heard the music of the crickets, sawing through the heat of summer. and in the mountains I heard the soaring silence of the heights. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 05.09.21 Prompt: What I heard. |
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