Become...

Midnight Snack, 1984, by Curtis Wilson Cost

 

Become the thunder you want to hear

The light when all around is dark,
A throttlehold of fear

Dig deeper than your childhood dreams

When you vowed to reach your goals
Before excuses joined as one
Umbrella meshed with coal

Let the shifts shape you

Away from inherited beliefs
Stand still as wings lift you,
A destination unique

Become the thunder you want to hear

The light when all around is dark,
An upward channel, clear

 

*
Picture prompt courtesy of The Mag 139
Prompt inpisration: The Sunday Whirl 78- umbrella, deeper, inherit, excuses, stand, become, thunder, childhood, joined, vowed, shifts, light

 

When Poets Joined to Play

At dusk we met online,
our link a chain of poems each week;
the idea to empty essentials one after another
like a word association game.
From all around the globe we sat,
hands on keyboards, pencils near-
a moment in time, a union in cyberspace;
our dear operator a yellow rose with a patient heart.
The time approached,
we sat prepared to shoot off words in unison.
A sudden rain with sporadic drops from everywhere
splat, FORGIVEN
each thread a trace of chaos,
a recipe for ADD/ADHD,
a race to keep up,
a bond with poets on the fence of laughter
as spontaneous as the raindrops, the words,
the camaraderie on a Friday night when poets joined to play.

*

Prompt inspiration: The Sunday Whirl #71- dusk, link, trace, empty, essentials, rose, pencils, fence, chain, recipe, forgiven, operator

Drawn Before You

Phosphorus greenish glow
breaking crests on dark ink,
a tip of neon highlighters;
lines ~~ the waves across the page.

Vivid drifts of words
conch shell
whispers;
secrets
waiting to be told.

Split down the horizon,
left and right;
paper cuts
a nick of broken glass.

You find yourself torn
between the insidious and tinted
dying to change the evening tide,
rough, then gentle in your limbs.

Preludes of debate
leave a tinny aftertaste,
lies the reason
drawn before your eyes
as clear as elementary art.

**
Prompt inspiration: The Sunday Whirl 70- tip, fix, tinted, preludes, vivid, tinny, drifts, nick, waves, gentle, limbs, insidious, split

A Boy and His Dog

image by Zelko Nedic

One might think it strange:
a wayward, rampant boy
whose rough conditions early on...

...one might think would cause
a frenzy of foster parents
falling left and right,
a stack of cards misdealt;
but a good old faithful friend
learned to attack
his checkered moods
with wholehearted love
and sublime attitudes...

...one might think a calming channel
that coaxes robust energy
to settle down, enjoy life
as it is now, not how it was...

...yes, one might think
the ball is finally in his court
and, thanks to his dog, they’re correct.

©laurie kolp

Prompt inspirations:

The Sunday Whirl #67- wayward, falling, frenzy, attack, sublime, strange, settle, rough, channel, ball, robust, life

The Mag 128 (picture prompt)

Blanched

Figure Eight, 1952, by Franz Kline

On a pale cover
in my mind 8 years
of disappointment spray

melancholy memories

with erotic delusions

~~a sprinkle of powders~~

~~psychedelic powers~~

  ~~illusionary grasses~~

blanche rosy intellect.

Sometimes,

8 stray fibers

wrapped in
blingy gold

swing from the corner,

fling flaxen affiance-

hope that soon dissolves

like the 8 antacid pills

I stuff down my throat

on a daily basis

since you’ve gone.

©laurie kolp

Prompt inspiration: Sunday Whirl #66: erotic, melancholy, rosy, gold, swing, powders, pale, cover, spray, grasses, fling, stray

Picture prompt- The Mag 127

Poolside Play

Every year in summer’s hot months
housewives swarm like angry
bees, their sting a bitter
look as they watch their kids fall
in the pool, then plop
down into chaise lounges
order adult beverageswith
lemon rind, skim frou-frou
magazines- all the while
ignorant to the wild ruckus
in the waves among
their own unruly kids,
a grasp for eternity

and I have to wonder
ifthey’re mentally subtracting
the days until September. I
watch from the deep end,
shirk the shallow scene as I
swim beside my children, splash
water in their faces and laugh at belly
flops as they jump like cannon
balls of energy, spurn my inner-
child desire to drop
my drawers and moon
those moms.

©laurie kolp

Prompt inspiration:The Sunday Whirl 64- ignorant, spurn, eternity, drawers, balls, year, rind, sting, months, housewives, subtracting, fall

Your Whistle Shield

A montage of demons
floats through your closed
window in jasmine disguise
with an ample alluring aroma
as pleasing as the psycho-pseudo
sunset placed before your eyes.

And you think your life
a flawed mistake, a scrap
of litter on a granite field.
You feel trapped in an unknown
domain as the airtight room
swallows your whistle shield.

©laurie kolp

Prompt inspiration: The Sunday Whirl #62- jasmine, demons, window, scrap, ample, montage, flawed, granite, trapped, whistle, domain, sunset

Animalistic Love

a piercing strident boom flew through the air
when your delirium set in and suddenly I was
a dappled monster trying to eat you up

with the drooling swish of a rabid wolf and
Herculean strength you stopped in mid-step
ripped your pleated clothes off then dug
your fingernails in my clammy skin

all the while screaming at perfect
shatter-crystal pitch, the demon living
within your shell emitting words that always
seem to reignite my desire for you

@laurie kolp

Prompt inspiration: The Sunday Whirl (dappled, piercing, shell, air, strident, reignite, delirium, emit, pleat, pitch, swish, seem) & Poets United Poetry Pantry

**

Ghost Gutter Inn

Flickering… a mélange of sidewalk signs
that in a second flashes ‘orange’ and ‘red’
neon lights carved too bright to really see
{mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha, mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha}
the hungry thing… lurking… in the shadows
twitched in time the demons in your mind
caught unaware inside Ghost Gutter Inn.

The air of night a bloody gurgle in its throat
that if you listen close enough you’ll hear
a THUMP followed by a crooked laugh
{mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha, mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha}
like a genie… possessed… in a bottle…
twitched in time the demons in your mind
vanished inside Ghost Gutter Inn.

@laurie kolp

Prompt inspiration: The Sunday Whirl (twitched, crooked, bloody, sidewalk, bottle, flickering, gutter, gurgle, thump, vanished, carved, caught)

Also linked to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Halloween share

Dancing at the Ocean's Edge

In the shallows of the ocean deep
where broken shells are gathered
and sea foam cotton is a mirage
that fools the young at heart,
causes feet to drop on textured sand

a burst of pain settles in the toes
now dancing through hoops of fire;
one shoulder twists and then the other
like a bolt of Charo shimmying
rolling tongues until she topples,
forgives the waves for cutting in the fun.

@laurie kolp

Poetry inspiration: The Sunday Whirl (forgive, shoulder, topples, shallows, bolt, broken, gathered, dancing, drop, burst, causes, feet, hoops)

Also linked to Imaginary Garden With Real Toads Open Link Monday

French Quarter Lovers (Prose Poetry)

Strolling through the French Quarter, hungry singles look at passers-by as potential lovers. Horny men shop for immodest girls drunk enough to lift their shirts and jostle their tits; while lonely women stop and chat outside art galleries and exquisite restaurants in search of well-educated men. This is how they met-- by fated accident, or so they say; only she wore a muumuu dress roomy enough to hide a handle of vodka and he waited tables at a strip joint on Bourbon Street. Outside the St. Louis Cathedral I watched them move in slow motion, run like Chariots of Fire athletes until close enough to clutch one another in a loving embrace. Occasionally things turn out that way but most of the time French Quarter lovers wake up early the next morning, leave faster than you can say laissez les bon temps roulez. Such is the life in good old New Orleans.

@laurie kolp

Prompt inspiration~ The Sunday Whirl... Words for 9/25/11: accident, chat, jostle, motion, move, shop, occasionally, strolling, passers-by, outside, clutch, look

I'm also posting this to Poets United Poetry Pantry

Building a Bottom Up

The shrill voice said it was urgent, come now
and I was a lion roaring down the highway pass
cutting in and out of traffic, honking horns,
darkened night the void that filled my mind

with horrific thoughts of impending doom,
a rash of tragedy to build his bottom up;
could I withstand this not so simple man?
A jolt of dignity mustered bold strength

to scrape the nerve I needed to approach
this brewery lying on the ground smiling
ankles crossed, hands in pockets limp;
will he still be happy when he comes to?

@laurie kolp

*

Prompt inspiration: The Sunday Whirl, also shared at Poets United Poetry Pantry

Sweet Nothing Secrets

Some women with birdlike appetites crawl to the salad bar
fill their plates with hordes of green and red blooms
their pallid chins quivering as they pass the meat rack
and dessert tray, sweet nothings they never know.
But like a goof you hitch yourself to every tantalizing
presentation studded with grease and fat
drizzled in oodles of butter, thickened cream sauce,
then tackle those edibles like a football player
after the Super Bowl, only to excuse yourself
to the ladies room for long stretches of time.
Who do you think you're fooling?


@laurie kolp

Prompt inspiration: The Sunday Whirl

***********************

Imprints of Guilt

Father Night sweeps dust upon your cloak
an incubus that haunts life's fervent truth
and though the breeze incites veracity
dense matter stifled chains forgotten youth.

You toss and turn, your trunk a newborn babe
with residue beneath the skins of crime
sweat stains the satin sheets you lie upon,
leaves imprints on guilt's vessel every time.

@laurie kolp

Prompt inspiration: Sunday Whirl, Poetic Bloomings

Wasted Hope (Blitz poetry form)

cracked like an egg
cracked and wasted
wasted life
wasted death
death unnoticed
death unknown
unknown desparation
unknown light
light a cigarette
light ash
ash cleansed
ash remains
remains slouch
remains a stranger
stranger revolution
stranger spins
spins the bed
spins webs
webs capture
webs kill
kill joy
kill freedom
freedom choice
freedom cheap
cheap thrills
cheap perfume
perfume lingers
perfume samples
samples vanilla
samples granite
granite held
granite earth
earth unmasked
earth people
people pleasers
people judge
judge me
judge you
you cratered
you fell
fell captive
fell crashed
crashed head-on
crashed shattered
shattered image
shattered hope
hope scrambled
hope twists
twists
hope

@laurie kolp

Prompt inspiration: Sunday Whirl

Fools' Battleground

Seditious lies enmesh pundits
who pledge for tufts of change.
They tread on sacred ground
tremor emphatic plans, rearrange

sporadic polls of popularity
plummet, plaster fear around;
hindered growth a stigma,
nether fools' battleground.


@laurie kolp



Prompt inspirations: Sunday Whirl

Let It Go

wind-swept scars immured in cement curtains
morning torments the plinth from which they form
off-key notes a rusty memory forever calling
fantasies of tender moments in the sun

funny how we romanticize the happy times
while agony amasses walls around our hearts
false prophets crawling beneath corrosive pain
until you demolish barriers only God can part

@laurie kolp

Prompt inspiration: Sunday Whirl

Standing Outside the Holy Fortress

I stand outside the fortress
a weed I sprout in fear
voices jangle, I try to hide
my head rattles ear to ear.

Have I lost my mind to think

the splinters would dissolve
how you pierced my heart again
a skewed image I can’t absolve?

And I was on my knees

and I was crying out to you
seeking redemption, forgiveness
within this tainted view.

A cloak I felt enwrap me

pick me up, carry me in
a vision I won’t long forget
the day you freed me from all sin.

@laurie kolp

Prompt inspirations: Sunday Whirl and Poetic Bloomings

Poetic Afflatus

marvel at the whir of clouds
creating your poetic spark

twist ideas through
scattered words
in the mind’s
blink a poem
is born
cast aside
rendered fear
reprehensible doubt
shadows self-esteem
opened curtains gild
a brighter view
so scan
your heart
and trust
afflatus*

@laurie kolp

Prompt inspiration: Sunday Whirl

*inspiration

Speaking Through Words

This week's Sunday Whirl words

In a world of twisted logic, I thought
perhaps my words might make a difference
for should we not help others going through
the same things? The poem spoke to me, told
me to share my past difficulties through buzz
words; the depression, the skewed perception,
the self-hatred perpetuated with drowning
dependence on food, drink, men. To get that
low and rise above; why resist my instinct?

To get that low and rise above; why resist
my instinct? It’s not a crazy whim or hiccup,
it’s the hope-filled promise that others too
can make it through the strong river currents
of life. At times I cry; peeling away those
thick layers of onion can be emotional. I once
fluttered through tough times with a big smile,
but I carried a clutch under my belt. Now I
can walk through the pain, meet my Higher
Power galloping through peaceful silence and
telling me to write down in words who I am.

@laurie kolp

Prompt inspirations: Sunday Whirl, Poetic Bloomings