OctPoWriMo 16 - Break My Heart

Today's prompt asks for a villanelle about words we wish we'd said or "the last word." I took it in a slightly different direction.

Break My Heart

Just like well-aimed darts,
Sticks and stones may break my bones,
But words can break my heart.

Think before you start
To speak. The words you speak, you throw
Just like well-aimed darts.

Words can be great art,
Words can cause my soul to grow,
And words can break my heart.

And yet, there is a part
Of great art that should be thrown
Just like well-aimed darts.

And if I come apart
At the seams because of woe,
It’s words that break my heart.

Whether they are art,
Or seeds of malice sown,
Just like well-aimed darts,
Those words can break my heart.

OctPoWriMo 15 - News Makes Me Numb

Death

Destruction

Countries are at war

Why do I bother with news?

So much is sensational

Is there any good?

I become

Numb

OctPoWriMo 14 - Listen

Today's prompt.

Listen
In silence you can hear
Get away from all the noise
Get away from everything
And listen
Hear the still, small voice

OctPoWriMo 13 - The Song of the Spheres

Today's prompt asked us to choose a letter and craft a poem using as many words beginning with that letter as we could. I didn't feel like doing that, so I'm rebelling today. I wrote an alliterative 4-stress poem (Tolkien was known for using this form). It's still something to do with letters and alliteration.

The Song of the Spheres

We shall sing the song of the spheres
Painters, poets, players, people
All together giving thanks
For love and life and light and loss
For freedom from fear
With the words of the winged ones
"Holy, holy, holy, holy"
Stars and streams and storms all sing
Let us join the joyful praise
Still my soul shall sing
"Holy, holy, holy, holy"

OctPoWriMo 12 - No Matter How Dark

Today's prompt is shadows, so I wrote a shadow sonnet. I love writing sonnets, but I find this form to be very difficult. Finding rhyming words that can begin and end the lines is just so hard.

No Matter How Dark

Shadows lengthen as the year ends. Shadows
Creep closer and closer. As the light fades, they creep.
Snows are coming. Cold and wind and snows
Sleep for now, awaiting our long winter sleep.

Dark looks like to be winning the war. Dark
Swells and spreads, growing like ocean swells.
Spark a flame in my heart—a tiny spark
Spells death to the dark; so small, yet they are magic spells.

Light is fading. And yet, my heart is light;
I’m not alone—I have you to hold, and I’m
Right where I should be, and everything is all right.
Rhyme with me, for you are my perfect rhyme.

You gave me a reason to live forever with you,
To be in the light, no matter how dark—to be two.

OctPoWriMo 11 - Tick Tock

Today's prompt asks us to listen to the sounds around us and incorporate that into our poetry. I'm home alone today, so it's easy to hear things. I closed my eyes and listened to the living room clock for a few minutes and this poem took shape.

Tick tock
Tick tock
Silent tears and heaving sobs
Tick tock
Tick tock
Screaming rage and silent glares
Tick tock
Tick tock
Questions without answers
Hopeless accusations
Empty arms and hearts
Tick tock
Tick

OctPoWriMo 10 - Around That Bend

Today's prompt asks us to write a reply to another poem. I chose Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken. It has always struck me how many people read it as a comment on how wonderful it is to take the less-traveled road, when if you really read it carefully he says clearly that the roads are equally worn. I believe he's gently poking fun at the idea that taking the road less-traveled is better.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~Robert Frost

Around That Bend

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less-traveled by…”
Or so I say with a sigh, yet I
Remember the other was “just as fair,”
And really the grass was just as green,
The fallen leaves were no more black,
No footprints marred either path.
I say, “It made all the difference,” yet
I cannot where know the other led.
Sometimes I lay upon my bed
And dream of what I might have met
If I had stepped around that bend.
~Esther Spurrill Jones