#VerseLove2024 – Page 2 – Common Threads

April 20, 2024

Day 20 of #VerseLove with Susan Ahlbrand

Susan Ahlbrand of Indiana is our host today for the 20th day of #VerseLove. She inspires us to write Noteworthy poems. You can read her full prompt here.

She shares the process for writing these poems: reflect on communications you’ve had in the past . . . notes like mine, phone calls, letters, texts, Facetimes, and then work them into a poem. Feel free to tinker with an inventive form.

Getting the Picture

there was this picture

this picture of a watermelon

A WATERMELON!

a watermelon sliced

sliced like cries

cries of a mother

a mother with cancer

cancer that consumed

consumed her, piece by piece

piece by piece, like a watermelon

like a watermelon, there was

there was this picture

picture a mother

a mother crying for mercy

for mercy denied

denied until the end

the end, after the pain

the pain of loss

loss of a body, loss of a family

a family broken, a shattered picture

picture a mother

a mother who mattered

mattered to her sons

her sons who loved her

loved her and listened

listened and heard

heard her pleas

her pleas for mercy

for mercy denied

denied by others

others who refused

refused to believe

believe she felt pain

pain that consumed, piece by piece

piece by piece consumed their mother

a mother who mattered

April 19, 2024

Day 19 of #VerseLove with Dr. Stefani Boutelier of Michigan

Stefani Boutelier leads us in Irish poetry today. You can read her full prompt, along with the poems and comments of others, here. She writes,”Today I will introduce the Deibide Baise Fri Toin form. It was difficult to find the full history of this form and more impossible to get a clear translation, but I like how it ends with one word to represent the power of single words and syllables. The quatrain form (3/7/7/1) is explained here:

Line 1: 3 syllables, rhyme A with two syllables

Line 2: 7 syllables, rhyme A with two syllables

Line 3: 7 syllables, rhyme B with one syllable

Line 4: 1 syllable, rhyme B

A published example of a Deibide Baise Fri Toin

This link provides a nice templated example at the bottom

Praise!

shake and sing
gospel choir awakening 
hallelujah voices raise ~
praise!

April 18, 2024April 18, 2024

Day 18 of #VerseLove with Shaun: Motivational Speech

Shaun of Las Vegas, Nevada is our host today for the 18th day of #VerseLove2024. He inspires us to read this poem by Charles Bukowski that you can find here, along with the full prompt. [Bukowski, Charles. Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way. New York: Ecco (An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers), 2003.]

Then, he urges, Think about your life. Do you feel like there is something holding you back? Do you feel stuck or helpless in your circumstances? Do you remember a time when you persevered and overcame the challenges thrown at you? Perhaps you can tap into your inner-coach and deliver that life-changing halftime motivational speech!

I found inspiration in these lines of Bukowski’s

just watch them.
Listen to them.

I also added ending lines from Old Woman of the Roads by Padraic Colum

out of the wind’s and the rain’s way

The Neighborhood

there they are
building nexts
in the garage
again
three already

we can’t even
put the door
down because
there’s one on top
and on the toolbox
and in the corner
in a box

three wrens

friends?

just watch them.
Listen to them.

building houses
chirping dreams

in this
regular
bird-friendly
neighborhood

out of the wind’s
and the rain’s way

April 17, 2024

Day 17 of #VerseLove with Erica Johnson

Erica Johnson of Arkansas is our host today for the 17th day of #VerseLove. You can read her full prompt here as she inspires us to write Echoes from the Past.

Erica explains her process of writing an echo sonnet:

As I told my students, don’t worry too much about the traditional sonnet structure; focus instead on keeping it to a brief conversation of 14 lines between yourself and an “echo” of your choice.

I’ve been down and out with vertigo this week, so the echoes have been loud in between the world spinning.

**##!@ ##@* Vertigo Meadows**

Green grasses sway and bend and spin (like wind!)

look less like blades, way more like monster fur (sure!)

I’m praying for this vertigo to end (when???)

It’s hard to think when all the world’s a blur (duhrrr!)

Who’s Epley? I get sick from his maneuver (a mover!)

Oh, wait! I jerk my head ~ear crystals shatter (scatter!)

This could be true – a vertigo improver (a soother!)

Just keep a barf bag close so things don’t splatter (it matters!)

Even chirping birds sing sideways songs (gongs)

and baby bunnies loop like Ferris wheels (banana peels)

I need this meadow back how it belongs (it’s all wrong)

my countryside set back on even keels (not these feels)

Royal Fortress Meadows sing their woe (echo)

This dizzy/jacked-up/whirling Vertigo ($h1t Sh*w)

April 16, 2024

Day 16 of #VerseLove with Dave Wooley: Sevens Up

Dave Wooley is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the 16th day of #VerseLove, inspiring us to write seven- line poems called Kwansabas. You can read his full prompt here, along with the poems and comments of others.

Dave describes this process:

The Kwansaba is an African-American poetic form that was created by Eugene Redmond in 1995. It is inspired by the seven days of Kwanzaa and it is a praise poem.

The rules of the form are:
-it is a seven line poem,
-each line is seven words in length,
-each word is seven letters or less,
-and the poem should be a praise poem

He’s Back

today I praise this dim quiet spot

this sweet spot, still, fan breeze blowing

air on my face: my current view

is the ceiling and flutter eyelid blinks

because Vertigo demands all of my being

ghost thief of time, work, family dinners,

but mark my words: still, I’ll rise

April 15, 2024April 15, 2024

Day 15 of #VerseLove2024 with Angie Braaten

Angie Braaten is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the 15th day of #VerseLove2024. You can read her full prompt, along with the poems and comments of others, here. Today, Angie inspires us to write elegies in the style of Clint Smith. You can read two of Clint Smith’s poems here:

Clint Smith’s “Playground Elegy” and “No More Elegies Today”

Honey Buttered Toast

Today I will

write a poem

about a dog eating honey buttered toast

it will not be a metaphor for a land of milk and honey or savior-style pet rescue

it will not be an allegory for a character named Boo Radley, white as a ghost, who saved people, found standing behind a door

but rather about bottled wildflowers

sweetly spun nectar of honeybees

dancing through the meadow, kissing blossoms

but rather about buttery cream

freshly churned from Guernseys

grazing green grasses of the meadow

but rather about chaffed wheat

grain gleaned from the meadow

ground and baked and sliced and toasted

but rather about the blending of ordinary meadow things

that become the extraordinary

when the world doesn’t want to read another dog poem

Boo Radley and Briar eating honey buttered toast for breakfast

April 14, 2024

Day 14 of #VerseLove2024 with Margaret Simon of Louisiana leading us into Spring Days with Borrowed Line Poetry

Margaret Simon of Louisiana is our host today for Day 14 of #VerseLove, inspiring us to use a borrowed line from a poem to inspire a new one. You can read her full prompt and the poems of others here. For Margaret’s prompt, she chose a favorite Billy Collins poem entitled Today and challenges us to use the line “If ever there were a spring day so perfect….” I’m letting that line be my title today for this borrowed line poem. With a huge thanks and a salute to Margaret Simon ~ and to Billy Collins.

If Ever There Were a Spring Day So Perfect

sun shining brightly would melt winter’s curse
planes would trail banners of poems and verse

flowers would smile pinkly, swaying in dance
groundhogs would high-five their weather-called chance

jasmine would fragrance porch swing breeze
beckoning readers to carpe this diem seize

sun-brewed sweet tea would pour extra-freely
buds would unfurl on branches green-treely

butterflies would turn pages of poetry books
hummingbirds sip nectar with grateful quick looks

napping hammocks would cradle a snooze
on a perfect spring day, we’ve got nothing to lose

wild bunnies would scamper, tumble, cavort
neighborhood club kids would hide in a fort

cows in the meadow would slumber unflied
folks would seek seashells on shores at low tide

woodpecker bellies would hammer with laughter
and the whole springtime world would live happy hereafter

April 12, 2024April 12, 2024

Day 12 of #VerseLove with Jordan S. of Virginia

Jordan S. of Virginia is our host today for the 12th day of #VerseLove2024. You can read her full prompt here. She inspires us to write an ode to an underpraised or undercelebrated being.

Ode to a Mosquito

O, Mosquito
whose proboscis
I well know
whose kiss
makes most
skin glow, an
inflamed inferno
oozing volcano

across the globe
in every zone
your overt
poke
ain’t no joke

no matter how
remote
in glacial smoke
or tropical oaks
you and
your droves
of blood-bloated
homies
drone over
innocent
uncloaked
folks

so to you,
my chosen
poker,
I wholly
devote
this
toast of an
ode

now go!

April 11, 2024

Day 11 of #VerseLove with Amber Harrison

Amber Harrison of Oklahoma is our host today for the 11th day of #VerseLove. She inspires us to write Surprising Supplies poems, and explains the process. You can read her full prompt here, along with the poems and comments of others.

I want a meadow ~ I think it could supply all the needs a person ever truly has.

Heavenly Meadow

a royal fortress 
meadow 

cloaked
in Mother
Earth’s 
embrace

arms 
cradling 
us 
carrying 
us
crossing
us

from
 bosom
to 
 heaven

April 10, 2024April 10, 2024

Day 10 of #VerseLove with Joanne Emery

Our host today at http://www.ethialela.com for Day 10 of #VerseLove2024 is Joanne Emery, who inspires us to borrow ideas and lines from another poem to inspire our own. You can read her full prompt here, along with the poems and comments of others.

She explains her process: Find a line in the poem that stands out to you, expresses something about yourself. Then continue the poem while reflecting how you live your life.

We used Jane Hirschfield’s poem My Life Was the Size of My Life, and I borrowed this line from hers:

and closed its hands, its windows

I also chose one from Joanne’s poem Larger than My Life

with perfect white teeth, smiling

Keystones

our house with keystones

with perfect white teeth, smiling

to raise our children

you pulled all its teeth

and closed its hands, its windows

we bloomed in the dark

	margaretsmn on Lights Reflecting Hope
	Sharon Roy on Timeless Wisdom
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	Anita Ferreri on Timeless Wisdom
	margaretsmn on December 3 a.m. List Poem