POEM #25- ONCE UPON A TIME

Broadway Tower, Cotswolds, England, by Newton 2 from Wikimedia Commons

 I'm participating in Mary Lee Hahn's Common Inspiration- Uncommon Creations Poetry Challenge over at Year of Reading. This is poem #25.

“Once Upon a Time”

the day is all about blue sky

and green grass and

a few wispy clouds and

after crossing the moat

filled with hungry alligators

 i will march right up

to the smallish stone castle
lift the lions head knocker

bang on the heavy wooden door

and proclaim authoritatively

i am a long lost princess

here to meet my prince

please let me into 

they lived happily ever after…

(c) Carol Wilcox, 2013

POEM #24 SUSHI TRAIN

Picture from Wikimedia Commons, via Mary Lee Hahn at Year of Reading

I'm participating in Mary Lee Hahn's Common Inspiration- Uncommon Creations.  This morning I left for work this morning at 5:45, got home at 7:50 tonight, and then tried to write a poem about a sushi train, which I have never ever heard of (that was actually after I read all of the other poets' work, which is very funny and wonderful, and well worth a trip to the Year of Reading blog. I wrote a crappy limerick, then tried to channel my inner Douglas Florian, playing with the sounds in the names of different kinds of sushi. Finally wrote about the day last summer when a sushi bar opened in my very diverse neighborhood grocery store.

"Sushi Train"

The sushi bar
in the neighborhood
grocery store
opened to great fanfare.
Chefs banging gongs,
free samples
shouted invitations,
to come try this fishy delight.

And I watched
my neighbors-
carts loaded with
pepsi, hot dogs, white bread,
tortillas, enchiladas, frijoles,
chitlings, collard greens, mac and cheese,
crowd around
to partake
in a whole new world
of sashimi, wasabi, and squid.

(c) Carol Wilcox, 2013



*******

There once was a fishy named Sushi

His flesh was so firm and not mushy

To a roll he did go

With some rice just for show

And now there’s no fishy named Sushi. 

POEM 23- A FEW WINTERY SPRING HAIKU

Robin in winter, Wikimedia Commons

Mary Lee used an audio file of birds singing for the prompt on her poetry challenge, Common Inspiration, Uncommon Creations today. Not too many birds singing in Denver, where we woke to  20 degree temperatures and six inches of new snow. I was facilitating PD all day and looked up to see a lone robin huddled on a tree outside of the classroom. A crazy busy day, so I'm taking Mary Lee's advice, "There's always haiku!"

frigid april morning

red breasted robin huddles

saving songs for spring

busy shovels throw

piles of wet slushy snow

no bird songs today

Hey Mr. Redbreast

ignore this swirling gray whiteness

sing your song of spring

welcome mr. robin

glad you brought your own sunshine

to this cloudy day

 

Three April blizzards

long to listen to bird songs

not  clanking shovels

 

Mr. Weatherman

we should be planting flowers

not shoveling snow

One more blizzard then

we shut the door on winter

and welcome bird's song


Bird choir ignores
howling April blizzard to
sing spring opera.

April showers bring

May flowers, April blizzards

bring grumpy poets

POEM #22- IRIS

Irises by Vincent Van Gogh, via Mary Lee Hahn, in the public domain, Wikimedia Commons

I'm participating in Mary Lee Hahn's poetry challenge, Common Inspiration, Uncommon Creations. When I saw today's "prompt," I immediately thought of iris I planted in the front yard of the first house I ever owned. That was twenty years ago, but the iris are still there. Every summer I drive by and admire them.


"Iris"

I find them one day
in a brown paper bag
in the teacher's lounge
bumpy white bulbs
withered brown leaves
stringish  roots
covered in dry dirt.
A sign on the bag says
IRIS- FREE TO A GOOD HOME.
I am told not to take too many
they will take over my yard
I select ten.

I am not a gardener.
do not know that iris
like to be planted
in mid to late summer
in groups of two or three
four inches down
with nitrogen fertilizer
in half sun.
I throw them in the ground
and forget about them.

The next summer
my paltry efforts
are rewarded
with a rainbow of richness-
kingly purple,
a deep velvety night black,
tawny lion's mane gold
and palest lemon yellow.

All that loveliness
pulled from a brown paper bag
in the teacher's lounge.

(c) Carol Wilcox, 2013

Poem #21- A Rubik's Cube Kind of Life

Image by Silver Spoon, found by Mary Lee at Wikimedia Commons

I'm participating in Mary Lee's Common Inspiration- Uncommon Creations Challenge this month.

"A Rubik's Cube Kind of Life"

The Rubik's cube,
Those six faces
red, yellow, blue,
green, white, orange,
a twist, a turn, a spin,
in the hands of some 
the faces magically align.

In my hands
that crazy cube
doesn't quite work that way
I twist one way
sure that that will make a color align
but then another color
is misaligned
and I make one more twist
sure that I will create perfection
and then two faces are misaligned.

Sometimes life
is a lot like a Rubik's cube
All those facets-
family, friends, finances,
job, house, God--
And I think if I just make one shift,
if I just get up half hour earlier,
or spend $20 less here or there,
or pray a little harder
just that one twist
and all of the faces will align.

Except they never do.

(c) Carol Wilcox, 2013

Poem #20- Travelling

POEM #19- UNDERWATER

Picture from Wikimedia Commons

I've been writing poems all month with Mary Lee in her Common Inspiration-Uncommon Creations Challenge. Every day, Mary Lee posts some kind of image- a photograph, a sound image, or a video clip. Today we are supposed to be writing to the sound of the ocean but when I read Mary Lee's "Swimming Pool Memory," it brought up one of my most vivid memories from childhood…

“Underwater”

I am five.
Marge Westbay tells me to sit
on the steps at the pool
until it is my turn
to swim with her.

I mean to sit there
But then somehow
I am underwater
moving weightlessly
through a strange and magical
aqua green world

enchanted
by the dappled sunlight
dancing
on the bottom
of the pool

The lifeguard
drags me to the top
sits my bottom hard
on the edge of the pool
and scolds me
for moving toward that magic.

© Carol Wilcox, 2013

POETRY FRIDAY is at Irene Latham's Live Your Poem. Irene is the "instigator" of a really interesting Progressive Poem. Every day, for the entire month, a different poet adds a new line to the poem-- it's been fascinating to watch it unfold. Be sure to head over to Irene's blog and check it out!