Lavender

Lavender

Lavender grows by my back door.

The way it smells, makes me want more.

I’d like to plant it everywhere;

yes, share it till it fills the air

with scent so sweet and mauve galore.

There may be those who will abhor,

who find it cloying at their core,

who find it makes them ill, where’re

lavender grows.

Is to love just one scent a bore?

Should I ask of neighbours before

I plant these flowers everywhere?

What if they breathe it in and glare

or roar at me, no more, no more

lavender grows?

This is a light-hearted response to the poetry prompt for Friday, July 13, 2012 from Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads.  They suggest writing a rondeau of 13 lines and a 4 syllable refrain, the first half of the first line, used twice.  The rondeau is arranged in 3 unequal stanzas, usually with two main rhymes, plus a third rhyme in refrain.  It’s supposed to be iambic lines with 4 stresses, but I have not quite captured the iambic cadence in each line.  The rhyme scheme is aabba, aabc, aabbac.  One of the most well-known examples of a rondeau is the poem "In Flanders Fields."

If you click on words in red in the text, you will go to another site with additional information.

Desire

Desire

On the door frame,
white paint hangs like a pout
then peels
in slow slivers.

The afternoon sun nibbles
a little each day.
Nothing is left
except naked wood
and a few curls of paint quivering
beneath the sun's breath.

The door frame cannot resist
the sun's fingers,
cannot say no
to its searching touch
and scorching kisses.

I know this.
I know the paint will swell
and give way,
will split and open.

The sun's caress
is so insistent
and delicious.

As I paint,
I feel the sun
behind me
pulsing, rounding with desire.

I know my bristles
will not stop
its hunger.

What Comes Next

What Comes Next

When housewives return
Christmas balls to the drawers,
when the old year's gone...
subtracting months from eternity,
when the New Year's rind falls
off, and entices happy wishes...
then,
and then,
there is something that spurns
the ignorant
(caught celebrating),
as yet unaware of the stings
that await,
when they bite
into the pulp...
of what comes
next.


This is a poem I wrote for The Sunday Whirl, a weekly wordle for July 8, 2012 using the following list of given words:  housewives, ignorant, rind, spurn, subtracting, fall, months, sting, drawers, eternity, balls and year.  The Sunday Whirl is a poetry prompt site which you can link to by clicking here.

Summer Whine

Summer Whine

Breathe in lavender

and roses, impossible

with a summer cold.

Sun kisses my skin;

comfort, caress and healing

for fever and ache.

Summer day singing,

leaves chat with the breeze.  I cough,

cough as chipmunks chirr.

I want to exchange:

tissues, lozenges and sneezes

for margaritas.

I want to breathe in summer,

be well and be well.

This is not an earth-moving poem but one which is reflective of my whiny state, of having a summer cold for the second time this summer.   I dream of being well again and enjoying the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of summer, and of writing better when my head is clear.

The Royal Wave

The Royal Wave

Birch trees in the breeze.
Leaves flip, green to gold and back
and forth, royal waves.
Tiny heart-shaped hands rotate,
twist and wave, acknowledge us.

Photos are mine.

Daisies Grow

Daisies Grow


As a child, I chanted,
"He loves me, he loves me not,"
yet wondered
what the dropping petals
had to do
with love.

I pluck a daisy still,
but no more wonder
what it means
or if...
I am
my Love's love.

For his love choruses
its own ripe song,
round all the circles
of my daisy chain.
As each white petal falls,
"He loves me, yes,
he loves me,
yes."


And fields
once rough and raw,
now full
of daisies grow.
On bright breeze,
the pale and golden songs caress,
"He loves me, yes,
he loves me,
yes." 

Photos are mine.

Rain Music

Rain Music

Hostas cradle rain.
Droplets shimmer in the folds.
Clear, like tiny bells
glittering so perfectly,
you can almost hear them ring.

Photo is mine.

This is a Tanka poem for wewritepoems   Wewritepoems is a site that offers poetry prompts; click on the words in red to go there.