Third Grade Science Project

pinned down in mid-flight

a styrofoam butterfly -
button eyes twinkling

Refuge

fuzzy warm slippers
comfortable and cozy
for the brown recluse

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

Before we were married ...

standing in your living room,
terrified
because you see me
and still love me


Photo credit: Tim & Selena Middleton, via flickr // CC BY 2.0

Simple brilliance

dandelion suns
a galaxy in my yard
their smiles radiant

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

Crowd Control

I can’t babysit them like I used to;
there’s no time to set them down gently.
When I get interrupted, as I often do,
my poems don’t queue neatly
like patrons at the post office.

Rather, they are a raucous crowd:
unruly soccer fans, kicking,
clawing, screaming at one another,
clamoring for my attention,
desperate to be noticed.

I hear them strangling now,
words congealing on the page,
stagnant as a blood clot.
Scabbing over, they will harden.
The leftovers wait to be picked off,
wait, impatiently, for their reprieve.


Photo credit: John Martinez Pavliga, via flickr // CC BY 2.0
(I realize this is a crowd of football fans, not soccer fans, but they certainly look raucous to me!)

Happy Poem in Your Pocket Day!

April 29th is Poem in Your Pocket Day. To celebrate, I participated in the "Envelope Project", where you take the first line of a famous poem and use it as a springboard to write your own poem. This year, the first lines were all taken from Emily Dickinson's work.

I chose "The Murmur of a bee." You can see the sentence in it's original context here. My poem is below.

The Murmur of a Bee

The murmur of a bee
as he talks to the flower,
he softly strokes her petaled face
before the coming shower.

Then, damp and dewy, he flies home
buzzing loudly in his haste,
with her pollen on his mind
her memory, his to taste.

[Update: This poem was honored by Poem in Your Pocket Day NYC as an "outstanding poem."]


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

Burst

party pink flowers
stark against naked branches
silky leaves asleep

Photo credit: Dendroica cerulea, via flickr // CC BY 2.0

Flooded

Here, I find solace:
the center of the poem
eye of my maelstrom

Photo credit: Kim Strømstad, via flickr // CC BY 2.0