Poetry Game, Anyone?

It's About Time

to make the time
to take the time
to find the time
to time and time again
realize it's only a matter of time
before the time
when the time comes
and time runs out

next theme word: prioritizing

When we were young and not yet full of care
we had the time to stop and stare
where now we scurry, endlessly,
to earn our bread.
Yet when man was young and work was too
standing and staring was the way to go:
poised on the moment, waiting
all the heat-hazy afternoon
for the ripple to become a fish
for the song to become a bird
for the word to become a poem

Next word: tribal

small time

No I didn't! When I posted the word was 'time'. We probably posted all three at the same time. But anyway, the piece I posted, I am still working on it and last night I dreamed of it and thought afterwards that I actually didn't know what I had wanted to say with it, etc. You know the feeling? So: I'll give 'tribal' a thought AND I'll do some editing to 'small time' ... maybe call it 'half-time' 'or time lapse between GMT and EMT' or something. Did you know when you talk to me here, you are actually talking to me yesterday?

Tribal


The woman of the age of dream


'Night, twilight, a great light: A cluster of trees, sky-like, rising red as the sun'
Quote from a ceremonial song sung in Central Australian Arunda circumcision rituals, since time immemorial, which was recorded in 1959
Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God, Primitive Mythology


Let she - Homunculus - not see you
The woman of the Age of Dream
Let she - Detrudo: Thanatos - not see the flood
Let she - Libido: Eros - not see your subincision
Wound
Or taste the coagulated form,
The forbidden food
Nor the blood nor taste the amniotic fluid
- Night, twilight, a great light:
A cluster of trees, sky-like, rising red as the sun -

Let she - Homunculus - not hear you
The woman of the Age of Dream
Let she - Unmerciful - not hear the cry
The pain - Infantile Arouse - of your re-
Awakening
Or feel the sweet salt of your manhood
Taste your skin
Your soft new body
Nor feel the concomitant
Or hear the utterance of your perishing past
Let she kiss your renewal, rejoice in your birth
- Night, twilight, a great light:
A cluster of trees, sky-like, rising red as the sun -


Next word = mime

Mirror

My god you are good! here is 'mirror' poem with title '71. POEM THREE'



she sits in front of herself 'oh I am so old'
she said 'old as wrinkled leaves crunched

falling fall leaves falling from trees
winter trees Hilvarenbeek trees

and oh where is the fire you were talking
about

a couple of poems ago?
Where is the gardener who sings in the rain?'




It has references to other poems in the sequence, etc. Next word 'after'

I see the answer
So clear
A proper introduction
With bells and bulbs
So clear

Always so clear

After the stumbling
After the damage
After the point of no return

I see it
Too late
A painful goodbye
With tears and regrets
Too late

Always too late



Next word: hindsight

I came to the crossroad
I knew was my last
three paths to choose from
but I was stuck in the past.

My vision was cloudy
My heart filled with pain
and broken and angry
I cried, "not again!"

Three paths I could choose from
Though two I'd been down
So I took the third one
To the bright side of town

I tell you this story
just so you will know
when you come to the crossroad
Take things mighty slow

For the paths you decide on
Are you're destiny
they build you or break you
Or kill you like me.

Next word. Destiny.

This haibun poem was just published by Literary Mama at the end of last year/04. I was stunned to see this thread's theme now lead right to the title of my poem . . .


The Goddess of Destiny

She hugs me from behind
my face in the mist
of a mirror

While standing beside fertile pots of yellow daises and forget-me-nots, my neighbor Betsy and I boasted about our bulging bellies and ballooning breasts.

We labored in adjacent stork-bordered hospital rooms as
amber leaves swirled to the ground. I toted my daughter home in a gingham-lined basket; her baby was buried in a brass-hinged casket.

The following winter, through icy window panes, I watched a moving van haul a hollow crib away beside the lawn where my daughter's soggy mittens had whooshed angel wings into the downy snow that fell that day.

Now, as I light 18 candles on my daughter's flickering cake, I add one more in memory of forget-me-nots and fate.


The first line of this reverse haibun poem is excerpted from Rod Wilmot's original haibun poem, Ribs of Dragonfly.

Ooops. Sorry about that. Next theme word is . . . fate

Put quite complex
Or simply,
Fate
Is what it was
And will be.


The theme word is.... simplicity

Simplicity

I sat on a gate
sighing
Pondering the world.

No vision did I see
looking
No answer to my prayer.

Tiny bird landed with me
twittering
Sweet song lifting my soul.

"Simplicity is the keynote"
hearing
Voice inside quietly said.


word: song

Song

Wet off of lips
Words float through the smoky haze.
Piano keys tinkle across the abyss
Dividing me from you.
The words,
Forming the song,
Hit me like dew
In the crowded room.
I sit and listen
To your song.

Next word: Forever

Awesome KTC!! And so fast!

Such was my Freedom

Like suddenly caught at the edge:

the abatement of breath
as the moment expands
and your mind stretches out
and all is focused
and your body tenses,

as it awaits
the decision
of what’s
to
come...

Such was my freedom


Next:

Discovery

Discovery

Restlessly
Pursuing
Breathing

Hardly
Waiting
Patiently

Visualizing
Tempting
Leaning

Kissing
Tasting
Smiling


word:Breathing

Sucking in the sea's mist,
Walking aimlessly along the broken shore,
Winter-cut paths of drift wood blocking my way,
I breath, remembering Vancouver.

Breathing touches mountains,
As memory walks back past my path
Into the flat lands of Manitoba
Where crop circles still mystify the masses.

Breathing eases, relaxes into familiarity
As I cross the border into my land,
Yours to Discover
license plate preachers exhale
As I stop the car to inhale.



Next word: Watch

Watch

Watch as the strength of the figure before me pierced my heart as I thought about the hands that created it.
The secrets hidden between the lines form a solid message.
That of pain, happiness or even unrest..
The silence of the picture stirs the dust of the prairie
filling my eyes and the calm of my soul like the stillness of the sea fills my mind.
The broken jaw, the imperfections, the rough edges mastered
by it's Creator tells its own story.
The shadow gives into the strong, illuminated steel, and the head of the bull brings into light the image of my friend.

Next word: secrets

Secrets

No, don't tell me.
Let them sit on the wind.
Let them rise with the breeze,
then float away.

We're better this way.
You, whispering to the wind,
and me,
listening only to the rustle
of autumn leaves.


Next word: silence

They keep telling me
I will find the answer
in the silence

That if I will be still
and listen
a voice will whisper

In my ear
I hear roaring only
Like the sound

of an angry ocean
the rain falling on it
the tears of mankind.

Still, I wait
in the silence
believing

Next word: Believing

Believing

You have repelled me from your life so often,
that now it is only a common feeling.
I no longer soak my pillow with tears of yesterday
or thoughts of tomorrow.
No more anticipation of seeing you
or waiting for the phone to ring.
Believing that the unity of our hearts has
become a fleeting thought;
as the love you have had for me.
Your obscurity has led me in the safe
dwelling of myself.
And there I will stay....
Unbound
Word: Fleeting