poetry challenge – Page 3 – Susan Joy Clark

Outside My Window, #Double Ennead

This month, for Carrot Ranch Literary Community, Colleen M. Chesebro challenges us to write a double ennead poem on a topic of our choice in 99 syllables, then reduce to a 48 syllable form, then 24 syllables and finally to a 12 syllable haiku. Here is my entry.

Double ennead form, 99 syllables

clouds like spun sugar in

periwinkle sky,

a tree’s outline in shadow in sunny grass,

white butterflies flying

above rose bushes.

golden yellow lilies

peeking out among

all of the green foliage in the garden,

red Japanese maple

branches wave gently.

a little brown sparrow

hops about in grass,

then flutters over to perch on the fence,

these are the sights I see

outside my window.

48 syllables, 4-7-5 stanza trio

spun sugar clouds

in a periwinkle sky,

butterflies flying.

yellow gold lilies

among the green foliage,

red maple branches,

small brown sparrow

flutters to perch on the fence,

outside my window.

24 syllables, (6-6-6-6,) 1 stanza

spun sugar clouds

in periwinkle sky,

butterflies and lilies,

sights outside my window

12 syllable haiku, short-long-short

spun sugar clouds

above white butterflies

and gold lilies.

Creative Life, Poetry

Goldfinch, #Haiku

a bird’s serenade

from among the coneflowers,

trills out for his mate.

This haiku was written for Ronovan Writes haiku challenge in which he asks us to use synonyms of song and chirp.

The bird in the photo is the American Goldfinch, which is, by the way, the state bird in New Jersey where I live. I remember learning that fact in grade school. Years later, I saw a lot of these colorful birds at my dad’s bird feeders which he filled with nigel seed, a favorite with finches. Dad no longer keeps up with the bird feeding, but I still spotted a goldfinch this season in the shrubbery.

Just for fun, here is the soundtrack of a goldfinch’s song.

Creative Life, Poetry

Ice Cream Cone Romance, #Paint Chip Poetry Sixain

He gifted her an ice cream cone.

He gave it to her with a blush.

“I wish it were a precious stone,”

he told her in a quiet hush.

His hands were stuffed into his jeans

of faded denim, while he leaned

In for a kiss from his sweet girl.

Her lipstick marked him on the cheek,

Leaving his head then in a whirl,

As he felt awed and somewhat meek.

To him, she wore a halo bright,

An angel that mystical night.

Years later, his fortune increased

But his girl was still the same,

His romance then did not decrease,

Even after she took his name.

He thought a better gift he’d give,

To celebrate the love they lived.

He gifted her a polished stone,

She was then the one who blushed.

“I wish it were an ice cream cone,”

He told her in that quiet hush.

And, after this, that husband meek,

Still got a kiss upon his cheek.

This was written for Linda Kruschke’s paint chip poetry challenge. The challenge this week was to write a stanza or more of a sixain, using four or five of the paint chip words below and one as a rhyming word.

The poem was partially inspired by a story my mother told me that she had read about the actress Helen Hayes and her romance. At one point in her courtship, the man who became her husband gave her a bag of peanuts (maybe at the movies or some event) and told her he wished they were emeralds. Years later, he did give her emeralds and told her he wished they were peanuts. In my poem, peanuts and emeralds became ice cream cone and polished or precious stone. All other details were also fictionalized and, of course, created, to fit in the paint chip words.

Creative Life, Poetry

Poetry in Motion

Like a ship’s maidenhead

reimagined

for a machine on wheels,

she is poised

for action,

knees bent like those

of a diver,

gracefully streamlined

in art nouveau design.

She is, seemingly,

a type of female Mercury,

a goddess of speed,

wings tilted upwards

as well as her chin,

holding forth a

wheel

as though the wind

will turn it.

Though frozen

and still

in sculpted metal,

she is full

of motion.

This poem was written for a dVerse Poetics challenge, where we were challenged to choose one of 12 minimalistic photos by Glenn A. Buttkus for poetic inspiration. Glenn is a poet who contributes to dVerse challenge and also has a site for his minimalistic photography.

Creative Life, Poetry

What Do I See?

Hermann Rorschach, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I think I only see a smudge

Or aliens guzzling down fudge,

Seahorses kissing sea urchins

or seaweed undersea lurking,

Eiffel Tower by Picasso,

An odd man with green mustachios,

Strange one-clawed acrobatic crabs

With ostentatious derby hats,

What malady’s inflicting me?

Imagination’s all I see.

This is for dVerse’s Monday quadrille challenge. By their definition, a quadrille is a poem with exactly 44 words. Our poems had to include the word “smudge.”