Name of Water

Name of Water

My lips move in your naming

soft as foam on curling seas.

Summer surf devours promise;

sand dissolves, and liquid, leaves.

Autumn ebbs in the silver moonlight;

I'm left only winter words.

~October 2012

Posted for   real toads

Sunday Mini-Challenge: Sijo

My attempt at a sijo, a form of Korean syllable counting poetry, with groups of alternating phrases. For full details, see Kerry's excellent explanation at the above link.

 Image: Umhalanga Beach, (c) Jaime Clark

Used with permission

Scapegoat

Scapegoat

Don't go near that girl, the old women cried.

Her slant-eyed look

dried her mother's milk;

sister died.

There's something wrong inside.

She's dangerous. 

Yes, now--

changeling child of lies.

~October, 2012

Posted for   real toads

Challenge: Words Count with Mama Zen

 The mistress of le mot juste, Mama Zen, asks us to present a tale of conflict in thirty words or less. Yeesh--makes 55 words look lavish.

Image: A Peasant Girl with Dog and Jug, Thomas Gainsborough
Public domain, via wikipaintings.org

Summer Snow

Summer Snow

On nights when that ache is all I have

to keep me breathing

I sit outside and pour 

from a starspeckled

pitcher the black river sky

into my hollow heart

let it soak away all thought

all care

until I rest, a lump of carbon

cold

lapped in cold

immersed in a hypothermia

of what needs to be forgiven

or forgotten. A blind face

stares at me out of darkness

its breath turned to frost,

a scuttling black spot

on a white-out vision.  

Above me stars

revolve in ancient rites

unfulfilled

yet moving towards some point

where fulfillment doesn't show

past the simple beyond of what I can know

past this summer snow, 

melting as it watches from below

~September 2012

Posted for OpenLinkNight   at dVerse Poets Pub

I'm hosting at the pub tonight and hope you can make it in to share some hot mulled poetry with us on this early fall evening. Doors are open from 3:00pm to midnight tomorrow, EST.

Image: Star Seamless Texture, by Patrick Hosely, on flick'r

Shared under a Creative Commons license