Poems for years 4 and 5 of the Promptly Poetry Challenge. |
A year's worth of poems, every week for 52 weeks, spanning 2023 and 2024, plus the year following, from August 2024 to August 2025.(provided I live that long, of course). |
Water the drop depends on the lip of the tap sharp reflection of the world quivers above abyss Line count: 3 Form: Kimo For Promptly Poetry Challenge 5, Week 8 Prompt: Kimo - Israeli version of the Japanese Haiku, usually image-specific and acts as a still life, or snapshot, of a single moment. Three lines, syllable count 10, 7, 6. |
Week Monday rolls in, so full of promise, Tuesday arrives with the Pacific War, Wednesday is hump day and soon upon us Thursday is empty and uncertain, unsure, Friday senses an end to the book, Saturday brings more time for tea, Sunday falls softly with barely a look so goes my week from the land to the sea. This is retirement, the end of real work, day follows day, a cycle of time, habit the ruler, the vulture and stork, over and over whether sainted or crime. Line count: 12 Rhymed abab For Promptly Poetry Challenge 5, Week 7 Prompt: Use the following words in your poem: Monday, fall, tea, book. Notes: The poem is quite personal since it describes my week, not yours. Much needs explanation but I’ll explain just the Pacific War reference. This recalls the fact that my favourite YouTube vloggers release each episode in their study of the Pacific War on Tuesday mornings. It forms my entertainment during breakfast on that day. |
A Soft Day A soft day as the Irish have it to describe those grey days so natural to the British isles when the cloud comes down to meet us shrouded in gloom and dim light with rain so fine it falls not but inhabits the atmosphere soaking nothing but arraying our clothes with the diamonds of tiny drops held on the fibres miniature pinpricks of moisture and we swim in the mist creatures of the silent world coddled in chilly companionship grateful for the veil that hides our secrets. A soft day indeed and the mark that seals our souls with talk of weather as though anything but this gentle touch could steal our hearts. Line count: 23 Free verse For Promptly Poetry Challenge 5, Week 6 Prompt: A rainy day. |
Pumpkins Pale and protected from the sun, ghost pumpkins white await their fate, dreaming perhaps of Florida where their sickly hue might tan to burnished gold of bolder mien, or orange from the salon’s sessions, a brazen bunch of bulging beam, and ready now for Halloween with toothy grin and archèd brow, brain aflame with darkened thought, as evil creeps extended night, the world embraced by fearful dream. And so to reach their pumpkin calling, no longer wan and unappealing, but ghosts arisen from the dead with furbished claim upon their rights. Line count: 16 Free verse For Promptly Poetry Challenge 5, Week 5 Prompt: As per illustration. |
Celebration Twenty-four today, twice twelve, scribbler’s ship sails on, literary legend so loquacious, vaunted vessel of valiant view. So sails the ship on spider’s seas, wanderer of web, warp and woof, gallant the galleon, great the game, she bends to the briny breeze. Calls to the captain the clever crew, cheers to the challenge of twenty-four more, roistering rum ration raised to the roof, sozzled the scribes in sweet sentiment. Alike in action, all assert their aim, onward only to open ocean, they raise their glasses in tumult and praise, birthday the happiest to Writing dot com! Line count: 16 Free verse For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 4 2024 Prompt: Write a celebratory birthday poem to WdC. |
Advice Mind how you go, hard times ahead, take care, if you’d get home to bed, the future is a place unknown, be wary of the traps and stones, keep eyes upon the winding path and drifting snow, so guard ambition on the heights, mind how you go. The storm will pass, the night will end, you’ll ride the beast bad luck will send, if you can grasp and not let go your destination’s cheery glow, beyond the sands sweet meadows lie, bright flowered grass, the valleys wide, the days so bright - the storm will pass. Line count: 12 Form: Wrapped refrain For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 3 2024 Prompt: Wrapped Refrain form - 2 or more stanzas of 6 lines each; Meter: 8,8,8,8,12,12 and Rhyme Scheme: a,a,b,b,c,c. In each stanza, the first 4 syllables (or 4 single-syllable words) in the first line must be the last 4 syllables (or 4 single-syllable words) at the end of the last line. |