saying goodbye ... napowrimo #30

a train passes by …

what once went before me

a sound haunts me in my dreams

a despondent resonance it makes

my mind moves reluctantly

on a journey to another place

don’t fall off the train

you may lose your legs

try to keep your balance

or leave it behind

a train makes such a forlorn hum

desolate and lingering

going nowhere and everywhere

leaving emptiness inside me

"In the city" napowrimo #29

The Spring Break massacre

Happened over the oyster bar on Fifth

Welcome back Courtney Love

Even if you don’t like the idea

She says “Laura Bush has gay friends”



The Spring Break massacre

Staring at Sapphic Romance portraits

New York happy hours all round the clock

During a conversation with a human centipede

Mayor Bloomberg called out on education for the kids



The Spring Break massacre

You don’t say “A stray remark haunts Brown?”

They approve the big wind farm off Cape Cod

Just another evening out with friends

In “The city that never sleeps”

what a bunch of ... napowrimo #28

Something tells me to leave it alone

I know I won’t ‘cause it’s not my fashion

Should I steal away?

Catch a forbidden kiss

I have never listened to my logic

I have thrown caution to the wind

Or was that the other way round?

How can you do that anyway?

Sounds like a bunch of crap to me

Something told me to leave it alone

But I didn’t …

And I am confident I never will

Ramblin' Rosie napowrimo #27

Feeble and occasionally a bit foppish

Entertains with Congo music from a distant land

Big bells and drums, funky men in hula skirts

Rabbits hopping in the garden eating up the carrots

Under an umbrella sipping mint tea from a tall frosted glass

Aristocratic and well read, a novelist by trade

Rosemarie Rutherford from the shores of Montezuma

Yawns when you get near

One rainy evening napowrimo #26

Under a full moon

smell the exhaust of planes

waiting on the tarmac

rain has just fallen glistening drops left behind

everyone waiting in anticipation



a plane takes off

one lands and hits the tarmac-hard

its engine begins to coil

someone is arriving home

or visiting a new place



thinking of starting my new life

it has all become clear

memories fade away

in my mind and my feelings

I fly …

An adventure napowrimo #25

"Furthermore you are to bow when I enter the room"

Horacio the young prince said to Jemmy

Ill-bred young prince

The whipping boy now lives in the palace

Jemmy caught rats in the sewers

The best fighting rats

He has an education now reading writing sums

No corporal punishment for Horacio only Jemmy

Several times a day

They runaway to the countryside

Encounter Hold-Your-Nose Billy and Cutwater

Highwayman and henchman

A girl has lost her dancing bear

A man with a wagon full of potatoes

They sit down to eat together

Tomorrow they’ll start another adventure …

medieval Erasmus said ... napowrimo #24.2

Euripides writ the play

don’t they know “`A dogge hath a day”

from the coliseum the spectators watched

hungry for the blood and mayhem

rivalry was wicked in those days

release the dogs

take his soul and be it carried away

to the dark depths from where he came

a lowly man once said “every dog has his day”

Oh my brothers! napowrimo #24

I shall stick my hand through the hole

You may cut it off

You may grasp it as a sign of peace

Oh Saint Patrick’s Cathedral why do you do me wrong

Ormondes and Kildares

1492 it was always a time for war and strife

Bombings don’t end it, do they?

Now, then, when

What did we learn?

“Give peace a chance”

Jacqueline and Tom napowrimo #23

barricades have been set up, Tom has notified the public

Jacqueline sips Chai tea from a china tea cup

she contemplates the block of terra cotta clay

he clears the area of debris, turns off water and electricity

hands are subtle and flexible, smooth to touch

she handles the clay with expertise

respirators, safety goggles, earplugs for all the men

she sits down to the wheel

lightly pumps the peddle with her delicate foot

Red Cross in place and ready with first aid kits

centering, pulling on the clay, spinning

torquing, forming the vase with her hands

they soften supporting columns, place dynamite inside

smoothing and moving the clay

the vase is taking form-becoming a work of art

set the blasting caps, clear the area, charge-fire

The den napowrimo #22

Tomorrow marks another day

in the opium emporium

Pepper mist hangs indistinctly in the air

Crows are sitting on the divan

I flinch, they squall

Tendrils hang about my face

Saffron flowers in my mind

I am dizzy with ecstasy

Sounds reverberate in the night

Rust forms on the walls of my heart

I am fierce

You die

For the love of napowrimo #21

On canvas colours mix

In hues of subtle tones

Vibrant - vivid

Van Gogh, Monet, Botticelli

Capture what is seen

In the artist’s mind

Put the brush to the paint

Oil - turpentine

Strokes wide and wild

Short, violent, erratic

Perfection for the lover’s eyes

berets and fatigues napowrimo #20

You lived for the cause

A handsome young man from an affluent family

Well-educated, plagued by asthmatic attacks

You lived amongst the lepers

Never worried about yourself and comforts

To help the people less fortunate than you

You believed in the cause

First and last mistake was threatening a first world power

Though I can’t say I share all your points of view

You lived in the jungle

Sometimes with nothing to eat, not bathing for days

The revolution was what mattered

You were a radical

I think you should have chosen your friends more wisely

You were abandoned in the end

Recurring

I signed my silky panties

With love from me to you

Hot and sexy fun that was

Seems a lifetime ago



Walking down Park Avenue

People staring at me

Thinking “I must look good today”

I realize I am naked and wake up in a sweat



Now I choose my nightwear carefully

Flannel, cotton, thermal

Comfy and nothing sexy at all

Don’t want to die in the buff

Back napowrimo #18

Slinky, silky, gliding

Caged up and fierce

Ready to ambush

You are pathetic

I am authoritative

I subsist

You don’t in humanity

I am the vigor

For battle or escape

I am clever and eloquent

I am a cat

Refresh me again napowrimo #17

Deep beneath you

Can’t breathe but oh how I wish I could

Beautiful and refreshing

When will you leave me?



Spilling oil in your home

Dumping rubbish in garden

Killing life that you protect

Why have you been harmed?



To take a bath in you

Brings remedial to your internal soul

To rinse away the filth of one’s life

Where are we disappearing to?



Water

If I could only go deep beneath you and breathe

To once again be refreshed

Waterfalls at Plitvicka Jezera National Park, Croatia

                                 by Jack Brauer Photography

Sometimes on Saturday napowrimo #16

I remember you as I wander through the market

The scent of fresh cut flowers, seeds and oils

As I go by vegetables and fruit

Sweet and pungent smells mixing in the air

Colours so intense and brilliant

The coffee aisle is my favourite it reminds me of

early mornings on the terraza with you

Dark, rich aroma of the beans gathered in Veracruzana Mountains

Laughing together when I was once in love with you

Tears sinuous salty on my cheeks

Coppery smell of blood in my open wound

My heart is suspended in cobwebs of sadness

That's all I remember now

a shitty little ditty napowrimo #15

I am a poet

I am so cool

I publish daily

To please you



I am a poet

Schnizzle Wizzle

I can rhyme anything

Uncle Tizzle



I am a poet

I be so bad

My words so sweet

They drive you mad



I am a poet

Don’t take me wrong

And if you do

Bite my schlong



I am the reason

God made the world

I am a poet

My words are swirled



Like magic mountains

Going up to God

I am a poet

You are a toad



I am a poet

I am so cool

I am a poet

I know you drool



When you read my writing

Just bow down low

I am a poet

I think you know



There’s no-one more important than me

I am a poet

Deedeedeedee



Don’t even think of crossing me

I am the reason for liberty

I am the reason the sun comes out

I taught the Beatles to twist and shout



I taught Aretha to pay respect

I taught Mata Hari to pay her debt

I didn’t kill the Kennedys

I don't tie ribbons on oak trees



I am a poet

And now I’m gone

Just remember

Who sings this song

How about that! napowrimo #14

Jars and filled up stuff crappy thoughts of life

You remind me unpleasantly of coldcream on the kitchen counter

Of where I’m headed to it should be in the bathroom cabinet



Cranberries canned mascara smudged under my eyes

Pickles on the fire my hair’s a friggin’ mess

Always love roasted pickles bathroom towels on the bedroom floor


They remind of our fantasy days wet and smelling musty

Dancing in platform shoes can’t you ever pick your stuff up off the floor

In the bar where we met you are getting on my nerves

It was early April we need to end this love affair



When you wore a lacy nightie I’d like to have someone nice and tidy

Too bad it was filthy who will call me sweetie pie

I should have done the wash more and tell me how wonderful I am

Covered in sweat and blood is that too much to ask


It’s the blood that stained our lives you can be such a selfish twit

The sweat was indifferent me I am perfect

Sometimes I wake up crying so loving and kind not a mess at all

Reflecting upon your meanness I am certainly better than you


Then I say “what the fuck, it didn’t matter anyway”

“Poem Starting with a Line from Norman Dubie.” napowrimo #13

In the near field an idle, stylish horse raised one leg

delicately,

to avoid the napalm ravaged earth

dropped a month ago, the stench still hung

the stylish horse was going blind

he had been worried he might be

when he had gambled as a pony, back in that card game in Tau Luachapore

and lost

it had seemed to him that he would lose his style

yet, here he stood, in the near field, a stylish horse with one

leg raised

as I watched bemused

scraping burnt earth into my dinner bowl

and ruminating on this sour existence

mine napowrimo #12

breasts speak to me of love

lovely things soft and milky smooth

for you to touch

nipples hard and ripe

like the first buds of spring

touch, kiss, caress, fondle

my breasts want to be …

touched and held against your cheek

My bookcase napowrimo #11

Big cats walking on the ceiling

I watch them uncomfortably from my iron chair

Slipping a book from my bookcase of regrets

Turning to chapter seven



Goldfish swimming on the wall

Reflecting waves on the pages

Making the words swirl nauseatingly

As I remember …



Dogs walking on stilts out in the yard

Remind me of where I am today

Sitting in my iron chair remembering how you fell

And not being there to catch you

the celebration napowrimo #10

There you sit drunk out of your mind

talk to me of California

As if I should know that place

Just because I am a gringa

Hey don’t bother me and go back to your wife

She is looking at me like I am a threat

And believe me buddy I am not

Did you say I’m going out to give myself to death?

Then I look round the party and see a mother and father

Dancing together with their little baby cradled between them

as the mariachi comes out to play "las manitas"

The celebration of the birth of you

Such love can you be cruel and condescending of course you can

A good cook napowrimo #9

Please pull a rug up

Join me ‘round the campfire on this lovely winter evening

To listen to the tale of Janey Alison White

A blind girl from the Appalachian Trail

Living in a house made of wattle and daub, a red chimney atop

Maestra of marionette kiddy shows for a pence

Cocinar extraordinaire “consume de pansa” her speciality

Massages given for free (well if she liked you that is)

She collected pumice stones

which were stowed away in a pail out in the garage

She loved strumming her guitar under the stars by a torch

Wearing only a fringe leather jacket and a silly yellow hat with flaps

Laughter came from someone in the group

“Don’t laugh. She was a great talent in her time”

She made the finest pickle jam anyone in these parts had ever tasted

Someone in the group startled me and asked

“How did she come to be blind?”

Sad story really: the husband tore out her eyes with his long talons

He was jealous

She was a much better poet than him

Listen everybody I am getting tired I need to head back home

I think my behind is bruised from sitting too long

“Could someone pass me my jug of octopus wine?”

Oh I have forgotten my walker this evening

This limp is bad tonight good thing I always have my cane with me

It is hell trying to get around when you can’t see


*Process notes: I used all of the words except "lever and tome". My favourite sound is laughter and consume de pansa tastes horrible to me. It is a soup made from the stomach of either cow or pig. And it is very popular in Mexico.

my brother napowrimo #8

my big brother




you tried to teach me how to be a grown up

when i much preferred being a pain in the ass

your spoiled baby sister

what patience you have shown in your life

taught me how to golf, play chess

never very good at the latter

an exceptional artist, drawing and painting with ease

capturing the beauty that surrounds us

you never liked to raise your voice, so logical, how calm you were

you spoke to me of the endless possibilities of the universe

loving and kind, steadfast in your approach

you always said “In this life nothing is free; you must work for what you want”

words i have carried with me

i will miss your voice

you telling me that you love me

my big brother Bill you will be truly missed





*notes: I wrote this in lieu of the horrible news I just received.
My oldest brother is finally losing his 10 year battle with cancer.
And I am just heartbroken. He is a wonderful man.

a visit napowrimo #7

you show up at my door with a 2L bottle of chlorophyll water

tell me it’s good for my health while smoking organic cigarettes

then on our first official date you ask

want to visit Elva B. Shoecraft

she lives in the cemetery by my house



Process notes: I met Michael (my partner now for 14 years) through a mutual friend. I was totally mesmerized from the second I saw and spoke to him. He is brilliant, handsome and a bit eccentric. I was however a little concerned about the cemetery thing. Until I saw the cemetery it was small and quaint and very old. He taught me about how last names long ago were associated with the family or the person’s occupation. Well I thought it was interesting. ;)

Momo (dedicated to the one person that I truly live for) napowrimo #6

Oh my little baby girl


auburn hair, almond shaped eyes

green like a sea, sparkling in their orbs

my beautiful child



when I look at photos from our past

i am reminded of joy

felt by holding you in my arms

what a delight you were , never demanding much

you have grown up to be

smart and dependable, loving and kind

you are all I could ever want,

oh my little baby girl

Process notes: This is Melissa Amber. She is 31(which most times reminds me of how fast time flies).
I can still remember bringing her home from the hospital as if it were yesterday. She is a lovely girl and works as an RN in a hospital in Florida. I call her Momo. Don't know why, it is just a name that has stayed that way over the years. I miss her all the time.

lovers napowrimo #5

the smell of you upon my skin

pheromones

whirling through my senses

of infinity



round and round

scents of you, pleasurable

hold me fixed, caress my skin

infinity

you touch my hair

kiss my lips

gaze into my eyes

infinity exists

trace my finger on your skin

the shape of the neverending

with no beginning, no end

sign of infinity

what happens next?

wait for a sign

till the morning comes

infinity finally leaves me

inside me napowriomo #4

if you turned me inside out what would you find?

well you would see the pain I have endured

living here and knowing a few fucked up people

again you would see the love I’ve known

tears cried, smiles and laughter shared

if you were to turn me inside out

you would see I am made of flesh and bone

and nothing more

let’s take a walk in the park together

because the weather is just delightful

people vs spiders and snakes napowrimo #3

spiders don’t scare me

neither do snakes

let’s talk about people

terrifying oh yes

scariest thing to walk or crawl this earth

ouch! People

some with hearts of gold, others

with hearts of stone

Are you scared yet?

I am always terrified

what will they say next (never mind what will they do)

holy wars

genocide

raping and killing children

torturing small animals

Hey! those are the things that people do

Are you scared yet?

It really isn't an anomaly Napowrimo #2

An anomaly that it was
                                              warmed up

beyond belief
                                              hot bodies writhing, grasping

looking for respite from the sweltering heat

even in China and New Zealand

                                               everyone felt it

bodies looking for reprieve

What follows next?

                                               only wondered by many

then came the little ice age

no longer bodies squirming from the heat
                                                           
                                               but looking for the warmth

                                               from within

oh look at the shit we have gotten ourselves into





*process notes for this:The Medieval Warm Period (MWP) or Medieval Climate Optimum was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region, that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time, including in China [1] New Zealand [2] and other countries [3] [4][5] [6] [7][8] lasting from about AD 950–1250.[9] It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic termed the Little Ice Age. Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important.[10][11] Roman warm period.

Little Honey Napowrimo #1

She was the little honey

And every man’s delight even a lady or two

Pretty girl with eyes as green as emeralds

She lived in Electric Ladyland

Where the landscape was filled with tulips

every colour, multihued



She was the little honey

And spoke only tales of mystery and imagination

A voice just like the songs heard

only in your heart

liquid mercury floating in the air



He came to her and told her things

Like the revolution starts now

He took her hand in his

He led her to the Purple rain

Oh the little honey say bye bye



*Process notes: I ended up with quite the eclectic assortment here.

Electric ladyland -Jimi Hendrix

The revolution starts now – Steve Earle

Purple rain – Prince

Little honey – Lucinda Williams

Tales of mystery and imagination – Alan Parson’s Project