пятница, 18 апреля 2014 г.

April PAD Challenge Day 17

April PAD Challenge, Day 17
Prompt: a poem about pop culture
***

My Scream Screen

lamentation song


make me laugh,
square flickering thing,
make me forget all the troubles
I had today,


oh, make me laugh!


make me cry
over a made up death,
let me forget for a moment
my real pain,


oh, make me wail!


make me love
or rather be loved,
find me somebody I could believe
is mine,


oh, give me love!


make me live,
tell me I'm worth a shot,
give me a number to call and
a site to check,


oh, help me live!


make it real,
square digital thing,
all this incredible world that
you call our life,


please, make it real. . .

April PAD Challenge Day 16

April PAD Challenge, Day 16
Prompt: an elegy
***

Lullaby to a Deceased Poem

I remember every letter,
crooked lines and clumsy verse,
every word that could get better,
but no doubt kept turning worse,


words that wouldn't go together,
thoughts I couldn't tell apart,
cups of coffee, rainy weather,
night you chose to depart.


Buried under piles of crumpled
paper, shrouded in ink,
just like that, without a grumble,
you were dead, you poor thing.


I'm not Dickens, I'm not Maugham,
there was nothing I could do.
Rest in peace, unfinished poem,
you were............................

April PAD Challenge Day 15

April PAD Challenge, Day 15
Prompt: a love/anti-love poem
***

Anti-poem

How many more poems
have to be written about love,
so someone could read them,
count and say, 'Enough'?


How many more poems
have to be written about hatred,
so all of it could just
stay on the pages no one would read?

April PAD Challenge Day 14

April PAD Challenge, Day 14
Prompt: If I were...
***

Law of Conservation of Self

If I were
anyone else,
someone else
would inevitably
be me.

April PAD Challenge Day 13

April PAD Challenge, Day 13
Prompt: an animal sestina
***

Doggy Life

My limbs hurt, it's hard to stretch.
I wonder if in spite of my dark-brown skin
anyone can see a smile on my face.
No, I'm not happy, I'm catching my breath;
I've only escaped death because I can run.
It's not the first time I lick the wet ground.


But at this very moment when I've ground
my teeth to sand, I'm glad, in the short run,
that I'm alive. Under my ragged breath
I whisper to passing feet, 'In your face!'
I still have pride, a few spare knees to skin,
and staying alive isn't much of a stretch.


Some would think I'm cute, but still waters run
deep inside me, where nothing, not a breath
of wind stirs them. I know my lovely face
doesn't look mean, more than once it saved my skin,
but to say I'm harmless is quite a stretch;
I could chase a wild cat into the ground.


It's always been like this, from my first breath,
from the moment my mom's tongue touched my face,
and I nuzzled her belly, soaked to skin;
hands tore me away, and hours at a stretch
I lay hungry and blind on frozen ground.
When found by some stray female on the run,


shaking, I grabbed a nipple and stuffed my face
till my stomach hurt and the tender skin
on my gammon felt raw, but by no stretch
I was able, or was going, to give ground.
I lived, and before I could walk, I'd run
until I would collapse, gasping for breath.


I let nobody get under my skin,
it's thick enough and not easy to stretch.
Life taught me to keep my ear to the ground,
I'm so good, were I human I could run
for office, but I'd rather save my breath
and be a dog till I'm blue in the face.


When I'm finally on the home stretch, alive by the skin
of my teeth, in one breath hundreds of doors slammed in my face,
I'll take the high ground and howl that I've had a great run.

понедельник, 14 апреля 2014 г.

April PAD Challenge Day 12

April PAD Challenge, Day 12
Prompt: a beginning/ending poem
***

Velleity of a City Spring

Oh, nasty spring, how long
will you be so cunning,
stunning everyone
with icy winds? and snow?
Oh, grow a pair of balls
and come already,
against all odds, come strong!

April PAD Challenge Day 11

April PAD Challenge, Day 11
Prompt: make a statement a title of your poem
***

Don't believe in yourself. Have faith.

Hard as it seems, stop thinking you're the worst,
because you're worth this whole damn world and more!
Who knows what else life has for us in store.
Is there a point wasting time on sulk?


I could just say believing in yourself
is what it takes, but what would it all mean?
Are you a Santa Claus to doubt if you exist?
Are you a Neo lost in your own mind?


Want my advice how to deal with life?
Well, stop believing in yourself, have faith,
because I have, and I can say for sure
you'll get this job.../this girl/this cup/this dream. . .


P.S. and even if you don't, we'll still
be friends,the world will still be there,
and there will always be another chance.

April PAD Challenge Day 10

April PAD Challenge, Day 10
Prompt: a future poem
***

Crystal Clear

It’s true, nobody knows for sure
what lays ahead,
but I have read
my future in my mother’s wrinkles,
her restless sleep, her salty sprinkles.
I know what I’ve yet to endure.


I live, caressing in anticipation
the crystal ball of my imagination.

April PAD Challenge Day 9

April PAD Challenge, Day 9
Prompt: a shelter poem
***

Thousand Selves

I have to fight, inevitably fight.
I lurch, and my opponent's sword
swings in the air, slices through my skin,
I don't give up; I bleed, I sweat, I win.

It's dark, my body aches, my cloak is wet and heavy;
I spread my fingers, sparkles leave the tips,
the only light there is, I hear the dragons.
As I collapse, they come to rescue me.

I grow new wings, then fangs, then I'm a wolf;
my skin is scorched, then scratched, then torn to shreds;


I find shelter from the quiet of this world
in that imaginary place that books create.

April PAD Challenge Day 8

April PAD Challenge, Day 8
Prompt: a violent/peaceful poem
***

Blinders

some news may be a sea to deep to delve;
death after death, depression, overdose,
and, let's be honest, deep down to ourselves
we think, 'Thank God, not me, not someone close.'

I'd watch, I'd say, "Oh, my!" and for a while
I would be shocked or sad, but then I'd go
about my business, chanting from my isle,
'Not me, not mine, not somebody I know.'

with all the losk and comfort of our lives
it's hard to see: the world's not just the West;
there's hunger, destitution, human hives. . .
'Not me, not mine, not dearest or nearest!'

who knows, maybe, it is our only way:
to watch the world like through a mired lens
and thus survive, in peace and calm, but hey,
indifference is peaceful violence.

April PAD Challenge Day 7

April PAD Challenge, Day 7
Prompt: a self-portrait
***

Selfie in a More Tranditional Way. Or not.

I thought a self-portrait would be easy.
I take a pencil and draw my outline,
and suddenly - eyes too big, hair too cheesy.
I erase my nose, have some wine,
start over.


I take a red felt pen to fill my lips;
it's dry and only smears awkwardly.
I try a ball-pen and find out it drips
one or two drops too late, like I bleed.
Give over?


Pissed off, I take crayons, draw a sun,
orange flowers strewn over an endless field;
I draw winds and streams that run
across mighty deserts; I build
bridges and cute bungalows on the very edge
of cliffs, I paint them bright and dreamy;
I take a step back to admire the sketch
and think to myself, "Finally, me."

April PAD Challenge Day 6

April PAD Challenge, Day 6
Prompt: a night poem
***

HANDS

(nocturnal wake)


tick-tock
three
on the clock
two
on your hips
one
on my lips
one
on the wall (fingers and all)
push. stroke.
breathe. smoke.
tick-tock

April PAD Challenge Day 5

April PAD Challenge, Day 5
Prompt: a discovery poem
***

MIRROR

Every time I look
in your eyes,
thoughts,
feelings,
soul,
past,
future,
present,
I discover me.

April PAD Challenge Day 4

April PAD Challenge, Day 4
Prompt: Since...
***

Perks of Being Alive

since my u-cord
since my first word
since the first step
since day one in prep
since I got cool
since damn high school
since his light touch
since my 'too much'
since that wet kiss
since what I missed
since the big fight
since money and might
since my old grudge
since the dulled nudge
since my old age
since a blank page
since my first breath
till my last deathsins

April PAD Challenge Day 3

April PAD Challenge, Day 3
Prompt: a message poem
***

Words Written with Hope on Air


I'm very good at floundering around.
I'll go out of your way
next time we meet. I'll blush, then pray
you wouldn't see me whisper to the ground:
Gulp me!

I'm excellent at merging with the crowd.
I bet you think I don't exist,
I'm great at carving on my wrist
something I'd never say aloud:
Love me. . .

________________________

The Right Thing to Say

It was one of those days when you go
outside just to get some air,
when you wander the streets and know:
kicking stones will get you nowhere;


those days when your heart sinks
and gets up your throat in prickles;
days when your friends and darlings
turn into texts and missed calls;


when some kid smiles at you, and in spite
of yourself you smile back, keep walking
and wonder how on earth the right
thing has been said to you without talking.

April PAD Challenge Day 2

April PAD Challenge, Day 2
Prompt: a voyage poem
***

POEMING

I open
my mind into the depth of whiteness,
I linger
at every point and every line,
wary to cross;
my fingers
hover over the letter 'why',
hope and
imbue all the tumbled dashes with nothing
short of luminous.

April PAD Challenge Day 1

Poetic Asides' April challenge is on in full swing. Between the musing struggles and triumphant scribblings, I've found a moment to post the long-labored poems here. 

April PAD Challenge, Day 1
Prompt: a beginning/ending poem
***

30

Beginning to feel old,

letting yourself go


while holding on to life,


feeling an urge to sew (sow?),


shunning the drafts and cold,


searching for things to die for,


desperately, in frenzy,


coining new words like 'friendsy',


talking to your TV,


scarfing the letter 'V',


stacking up things to mend,


rolling your eyes at clocks,


buying a larger box,


thinking, this is the end.


But it's not.