Four (Other) Pieces for a Workshop

I mentioned back in Four pieces for a workshop that I’m taking an online writing course and shared the requested exercises in that post and in Two Pieces for a Workshop. This time we were asked to 1) evoke emotion in two lines and 2) write about someone experiencing a strong emotion.

Evoke Emotion in Two Lines

  • He couldn’t believe what he heard,
    A siren calling his name.
  • The sky fell down around him,
    Drunken stars lit like father’s eyes.
  • She dabbed nail-polish on his nose.
    Easier that scratching his cheeks.
  • The guitar played itself in the corner
    Memories of old songs lost in time.

Someone experiencing a strong emotion
My sister lost her grip on the inner tube I sat in. The current pulled me out, away from the dock. I was focused on my parents and their friends drinking, laughing, eying each others’ buttocks and bulges and breasts, deciding who would spend the night with whom.

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Why It Works for Me – James Dickey’s “The Sheep Child”

This is the tenth in a series I’m doing wherein I discuss why a particular piece of writing works for me, aka, this piece of writing taught me something about writing, encouraged me to be a better writer, engaged me, captivated me, educated me, et cetera.

As I’ve written elsewhere, it’s one thing to know something is good, it’s a better thing (in my opinion) to know why it’s good and then be able to copy what’s good about it, to learn from it so you can be as good and (hopefully) better.

This time out, James Dickey’s “The Sheep Child” from his poetry collection, “The Whole Motion”.

 

 

Robins, Basho, and 20th Century Poetry

Three More Poems

I’ve written previously that poetry is not a form I go to readily. Such is still the case. I’ve been toying with sharing some of my poetry on Facebook. There’s a few gifted poets there – they hit more than they miss – and I sometimes feel the need for comradery.

Let me know what you think of these.

Do Robins Remember?

Do robins remember
They were once
Tyrannosaurs?

Do bluejays watch
Scurrying beetles
And remember
Brontosaurs falling to the grass?

Do cardinals hopping from seed
To seed
Remember being
Raptors chasing down their prey?

Or do they not care,
Their days being what they are,
Only hoping that tomorrow there is
A little more
Because memories fade
And tomorrows never last


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Three Poems

Spiders, Cats, and Mice

Poetry is not a form I go to readily. Even so, my poetry’s won awards. Here are three I particularly like. Hope you enjoy.

Do Your Daughters Sing?

She hears her daughters
(who may some day eat her sons)
Sing
Eight-legged wonders
in a shroud of silk
Warmed by day
Cooled by night
They burst free
Fleeing her mischief
Spinning their own way
to distant eaves
Not even knowing her name


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Poems From the Heart (Examples)

Responding to @RealisticPoetry

In response to a Twitter request:


I have held women for one night

I have held women for one night,
no longer,
never loved
and loved them forever.
Held them so tight,
so breathlessly tight,
for fear they would let me go.
Walked one million miles to touch the sun
all the while surrounded by shadows,
fearing to feel that fire on my face
And wept, Jonah in the belly of my own whale.


I went to places

I went to places after you passed.
Places we walked
Needing to find you there.
Footprints in the sand,
Footprints in the snow.

A whisper of your words to me
     explaining tides
Or a nod, another question
     as we told each other stories about the tracks small animals made.

{We came from different worlds
     and made them one.}


The Mouse

Tiny little paws
grasping at a seed
nibbling away
to fill her breasts
to feed her pups
to insure she is remembered
in mouse dreams
when the future becomes the past.