that's mrs. mediocrity to you

we forget the sun is perpetually shining

even in the deepest dark of night

and on black cloudy days

and grey hovering

afternoons

we

obliterate

our own memory

as we spin circle spin

never clearly remembering

we are the poised agents of change

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 14
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today is off-theme, because the sun IS shining.

.

filtered through mother nature’s

winter network

of belligerent bickering biddies

coming out

on the other side

decidedly sky-riding

blue

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 13
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is PAD’s write a Last ________ poem.

.

i have one of those
messy minds

the kind that leaves
a desk
forever in disarray

or forgets to buy milk
but remembers to look
for signs of life
in a garden
in early spring

and almost always
your birthday

and most definitely
that time you stole a hat
and we laughed until we cried
when you thought
you’d been caught

but probably never that
you hate dark chocolate

i’ve read so many books
all the titles are gone

and i gravitate towards
the asymmetrical

because the patterns that fall
from my criss-crossed brain
consistently refuse

defining parallel

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 11
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is PAD’s write a defense poem.

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i’ve buried all the pieces no one ever gets to see

fickle fallow and everyday shallow
not enough coin inside oversized purse
cold confidence and chartreuse envy

and in between daisies
tiny fingers
of longing

in my garden i am always
over-exposed
and therefore
hidden

sun beat and wind burn
the torture of
bent back
long squat
digging
in the soil of silence

crows
are my charm
and for them
i leave glamour

gifts of
gilded bone and
beaded sinew

and we dance to the rhythm
of hidden heart broken start ritual
refusing to accept the blue bowl bright sky storm

raging just beneath the lost forget me not sea of invitation

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 9
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is a combo of NaPoWriMo’s lines that scare you and PAD’s: hide-out.

.

you think this means in the country
(where i live)
there is no garbage

you think a centipede is the monster
and the suit is a shield

you think cement is a bed
and people are stairs
and the sky is a mean green blanket

oh, i don’t mean you you
i mean them you

of course

i’ve no idea what you think

tell me

i’ll build a tower filled with wheels
and act the cog

i’ll ask everything you hold
in the talon of answer

i’ll tie ribbons in your wind
and watch the hair

we’re both after flight

we’re both

after flight

electricity

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 7
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is a PAD’s: Write a poem titled Urban ________.

.

.

remember the marriage of pronouns?
i held you tight and we both wish-kissed
and the river ran silent beneath loose boards
and scattered petal

that bridge is still standing
but years ago one side sank deep
into the mud of bottled anger

you can still get across
but you must walk crooked
and the path to the sky
has filled in with unspoken apology

all bridges are metaphors and ours
was no different

any day now the stream banks will sing
with a riot of daffodil trumpet
and we’ll hold hands in the rain
because we have two chairs

and this garden became us
or them or in the evenings at least
you and me

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 6
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is a PAD’s write an ekphrastic poem—a poem inspired by art

devotion is a curious spring
rippling up through time and history

a veil

of interlaced attempt and failure
stubborn reveal
bruised experience

hope

at the bottom of a well named fortitude

drawn up
in a broken-rope bucket
swinging and splashing

despair

on walls built of mud and stone

there is always growth

there is always frustration

there is always

beginning

born

of defeat

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 5
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

Today’s theme is a combination:
Experience from PAD and Heirloom Seed Names from NaPo

Now that March
has put some distance between us
February

I can see you didn’t mean
to be cruel, exactly
and April still holds sway

after all
you managed to hand us
an extra twenty-four hours
pretending it was gift
and not correction

but it was another terse-curt day
just like all your bitter
Napoleonic efforts

and don’t think
this means your dark laughter
has suddenly become okay

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 4
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

Today’s theme is a combination:
Distance from PAD and Is April the cruelest month? from NaPo

sitting shoulder to shoulder on on earth’s last boulder
remembering things we thought she said and forgetting
the way it rained on the night we learned

forgiveness.

in a drawer upstairs lies a box full of words
mine, not yours, his, not hers, lined with the echo
of unspoken progress. we never stopped moving

and thought shelter

was hidden in a shadow somewhere deep
beneath the ocean of your bed. i never asked to be held
and the waves kept breaking, even after the whisper:

you won’t drown.

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 2
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

Today’s theme from PAD is he said, she said.

.

we all play the fool

for a sky

fixed with one blue chance

.

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 1
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

Today’s theme is a combination: fools and lunes.