At dverse this week the prompt from Dora is to write a poem using an animal as a metaphor to break through on a blank page
His eyes are a wasteland mirrored
by the arctic paper
lying in front of me.
This hunter of seals through
pack ice and
snowed shores.
Eventually blood will write
of the kill in this
clean wilderness
And so now
my page
finally bleeds
At dverse tonight the prompt from Mish is to write a Quadrille (a poem of 44 words) including the word shift or a derivative of that.
When wind reaches a certain velocity
it shape-shifts into wild horses
that charge ahead.
Flaming hoofs,
manes of streaming water,
eyes rolling,
not in fear
but for the joy
of being unleashed.
You ask me
about my emotions.
What more can I tell you.
At dverse tonight the prompt from Frank is to write a Haibun (short prose with a haiku). Today is Mezza Luna, or half moon and that is our subject.
That’s it. Another day put to the sword. I watched it drown in an indigo sky,
thinly slashed by a burnt orange sunset, which bled out under stars, Venus,
Jupiter, the half moon. Now a frostbitten night is closing down, will put us
to bed in a deep freeze. Swallow our dreams. The only sounds: a river
chattering in the cold as it slides over a double weir, the faint rocking of
traffic on the bypass.
Silky black river
captures a bright half moon and
drags it out to sea
Broken bones of leaves
which whittered and bowled
along roads in autumnal gusts
now lie pressed on paths.
Fossils of last year’s seasons
At dverse Kim is hosting and has challenged us to write a Quadrille ~ a 44-word poem to include the word ‘rain’
With lilac, rosemary
and birch wood
we set a fire going.
Flames tear at night
reaching for the moon
and sparks rain as if
wanting to become stars,
fire
adding to fire.
That eternal engine,
that foundry
where dreams are
lost,
smelted
and reborn.
At dverse Bjorn is hosting and has challenged us to write a poem about poisonous flowers!
She loves you
she loves you not
she loves
picking petals, crushing leaves
feeding you berries until
your blood’s a deadly
shade of night.
Until you think this love
is not quite right because
your throat is dry
speech is slurred
heart is racing
vision blurred
And yet you still drink in
her every word.
She’s your passion flower
and her dolls eyes
so big and dark
they draw you in
until you cannot move
cannot breath, completely
frozen by her beauty.
She loves you
she loves you not.
Poisonous plants:
Actaea pachypoda: known as doll’s eyes or white baneberry.
Atropa belladonna: known as deadly nightshade or devil’s cherry
Passilfora caerulea: known as passion flower
Note: bella donna is derived from Italian and means beautiful woman because night shade drops were used by them to dilate the pupils of their eyes to make them appear seductive.
welshstream 