poetry – Page 79 – One Woman's Quest

Define Family

Define family –
nest of promises, story
filled houses of stone?
Expectations built lacking
substance – original sin?

(Tuesdays I borrow from Twitter @Vjknutson, this tanka edited from original. Image mine.)

Scrambled Reality

Of cubism,
I am ignorant
yet, I relate

To express
depths of perception
concurrent aspects

Of a multi –
imagined
universe

Or even
to embrace
the possibility

of oneness
in fractured
slices…

I pull apart the pieces
re-create the image
still cannot find the whole.

(Reena’s Exploration challenge this week is cubism, a subject I know nothing about, but it does seem to fit with this self-portrait I’ve been working on. Synchronicity in action.)

Writer’s Bane

Poet’s mind fragile
images ripe, words lacking
waste of genius
shadows whisper of bathos –
a rewrite is imminent.

(Image mine)

Self-Actualization

The magic is not
in crossing paths
with celebrity

Gaining entry
into inner circles
deconstructing myths

Magic is the moment
when flattery does not sway
when recognition surpasses

the gloss of stargazing
embraces inner substance
evolves into self-acceptance.

(For Eugi’s Causerie Weekly prompt: magic. Art my own.)

Love Lessons

Had a weird sort of lexicon
the man who professed
to be my dad –

Clamped in his chokehold
he’d demand words of devotion

Became inured to this dichotomy –
spent a lifetime searching for love –

Just the right balance of cruelty and kind.

(Tuesdays, I borrow from Twitter @Vjknutson. Sketch mine.)

Disconnect

Hold my words
up to your lens –
exchange snippets

distracted lives
hold no audience
I seek a way home.

(Reena’s Exploration challenge invites us to write a cryptic poem. Image my own.)

Sapphire

I’m a sapphire kind of gal –
crystal blue smouldering
sky-bright moody –
the whimsical imaginings
of a heart cast in stone.

(Image mine)

I Wave, Maintain Distance

Feels so clinical
this measuring
of distance

Neighbours congregate
camaraderie a pull

I hide behind glass
record temperature
blood pressure

Underlying conditions
condemn closeness

Laughter of mask-less
trickles through panes

I pray for strength
clarity of purpose
refrain from joining in.

(For Eugi’s Weekly prompt: neighbour)

I Am Beast

These barriers –
iced over sentiments
barbed-wire wounds –

How do we reconcile
when questions
resist answers?

What remains
to be solved?
I retreat into misery

Should never have allowed
heart to even hope –
Belle, you torture me so.

(Tuesdays, I borrow from Twitter @Vjknutson. Image my own.)

We Will Rest Not, George Floyd

Brazen with whiteness
four toads
exerted presence
cuffed and killed a man

“I can’t breathe.”

On the front lawn
of America
stripped of empathy
the leader knelt

Not in prayer –
reverence burns his lips –
he knelt with authority
or his version, venomous

Three looked on
ignored pleas
gloated in the horror
of life’s final gasp

Humanity’s blood
now cold
unleashing a scream
a primal, reptilian rage

The offspring
of oppression
and hate
uncoiling

Like snakes
nest disturbed
rising against injustice
burning down the walls

As The Man weaves
his tale of dissonance
casting lines of division
few listen..

Black Lives Matter
drowns the rhetoric
the breakthrough is complete
we can no longer look away.

(For George Floyd and all the others murdered senselessly at the hands of those commissioned to protect. Submitted to Reena’s Exploration challenge: breakthrough. Image my own.)