Scavenger

lumbering catfish
lurking in the murky dregs
mobile barbed wire fence

Photo credit: Brian Drum, via flickr // CC BY 2.0

Link love for The Haiku Buckaroo Contest 6.0

My friend Tanja pointed me to My Mommy's Place, home of The Haiku Buckaroo Contest 6.0. Of course, I have to enter this contest. I need the Haiku Buckaroo logo to dress up the margins of this blog. ;)

When I thought about My Mommy's Place and haiku, my mind drifted to my kids. This one's for the boys:

quiet, starlit night
in the stillness before dawn
tiptoes and giggles

And this one's for my baby girl:

her eyes, clear and cool
her curls, a tangle of red
my dominant genes

Bad Doggerel

stray mongrel poem
lost, snivelling, doggerel
tale between its legs

Photo credit: Pixel Addict, via flickr // CC BY 2.0

I Love Joe

beans
hard, firm
grabbing, pressing, squeezing
grinder, blades, percolator, water
sniffing, sipping, savoring
fragrant, aromatic
coffee

Note: This was my first try at a diamante - interesting. That fourth line is hard: the first two nouns pertain to the top word and the second two nouns that relate to the bottom word. It's hard to move a poem with nouns. I wonder why they were chosen for the fourth line?

Photo credits: (top) Refracted Moments™ (bottom) Gunjan Karun, via flickr // CC BY 2.0

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[Update: 2/16/10 - I stopped by to add commas to the fourth line - I'm still having troubles with that one!]

Shelter

Earthenware mugs sit on the table
filled with hot chocolate, now cold.
The little boys have run wild again,
outside with the blizzard-like winds,
laughing as they burrow into the snow,
burying themselves in layers of ice,
encasing their bodies in a womb-like tomb
where they can retreat from adulthood,
back away from life’s worries, head back
to a time when life was always nurtured
forever warm and safe, even when --
especially when –- it was cold outside.


Note: This was my first attempt at a Jackpine sonnet. For more about Jackpine sonnets, read this.

Photo credit: Ruthanne Reid, via flickr // CC BY 2.0

Even Now (for JF)

So we decided to remain friends
because I knew in my heart
that I couldn’t stand her
dating you, and me
off to one side, watching,
waiting for the phone to ring
desperately wanting
things to go back
to when we were
just two.

And we remained friends
even after the time I got drunk
and followed you around
to the neighborhood bar, cornered
by our dateless co-workers,
desperately lonely,
singing karaoke
off-key, horrible
memory, haunted me
for years.

Today, though apart,
I think of you, my friend,
and me, and how we married
other people, our best friends,
and I know, once again,
that I made a good choice
to let you go.
I wish you the best,
not desperate, not lonely,
just curious,
even now.


Photo credit: Dragunsk, via flickr // CC BY 2.0

Sparkle

crystalline flakes fall
through the pearlescent snow clouds ~
my daughter's first tooth

Photo credit: Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley, NOAA's National Weather Service Collection

Love Lessons

Lingering over Valentine evening
Our voices entwine
Votives endless
Empathy

Photo credit: Rajwinder Singh, via flickr // CC BY 2.0

Note: I wrote this poem as an entry for a contest at Soulpoetrysite.com. The theme was to write a love acrostic poem.