April 30 Poem - hated this poem and deleted it

I did write one for this date but hated it so much I have destroyed it...

April 29 Poem - Never Bathe a Cat

Prompt - "Never ___"

Never bathe a cat

clumps of clingy hair
mingle with your blood
a wet trail leads through dangling Chenille
to the underworld under the bed
where dust kitties stick to the wet kitty
where green eyes glower and the hissing continues...

-- Mistryel Walker

April 28 write a Sestina. Have not done this yet

I have not written in form. It is my ambition to eventually get back in here and write this one. its the only one i missed.

April 27 Poem - the long day

the long day

the fridge quit
a doe ate the only tulip
old red pickup bled a pool of oil
The raisin rice pudding ensnared an ant
and no one noticed.

-- Mistryel Walker

April 26 Poem - The Hereditary Trick Ear

write a poem on miscommunication:

The Hereditary Trick Ear

5:45 p.m. Me: What shall we have for dinner? Shall I make up some pasta?
5:57 You: Dear I am going to boil some eggs? Do you want an egg salad sandwich?

7:43 p,m. Me: I don't want to go out in this snow
7:45 p.m. You: I think there might be ice, maybe you shouldn't go tonight....

10:01 p.m. You: I am going to take my pills and go to bed.
!0:27 p.m. Me: Hey Ma - where are you?

-- Mistryel Walker

April 25 Poem - The Funeral

write a poem with an event for a title:

The Organist's Funeral

A visiting chorus he didn't like the sound of
sang works he wasn't fond of, and an organist
he didn't approve of accompanied.

His ashes were buried permanently in a town
couldn't wait to get out of...

-- Mistryel Walker

Video from Wed. Night Poetry on YouTube

Just wanted to give a plug to new channel on YouTube. I was getting so many videos of other folks reading their poems on my thePuzzledDragon channel, that it seemed logical to make another one for those videos. I mentioned it in a previous post. You might also check out the subscriptions page, as I have subscribed that channel to lots of poetry channels on youtube, both slam and academic, local and international. Lots of great stuff to be found there.

April 24 Poem - Location, Location, Location

Write a travel related poem.

Location location location

Bowed down with a pondfull of cold rain
the tent collapses on top of us, blue nylon
covering all: bugs, formerly dry socks and boots,
two unpacked packs, open sleeping bags ,
four blistered feet. We prop the arching poles,
don dripping panchos, struggle to stretch
a flapping tarp at the proper angle. Soaked
and weary, we shiver in the dark roar of the storm's
wind rushing up the ravine we are camped on
the edge off

-- Mistryel Walker

April 23 poem - Preparation's End

write a poem of regret:

Preparation's end

Mr. Buzz - with his careful stripe suit and
showroom of grand pianos - asked me to teach
voice in his music school in 1973.
Fresh from three years music study
(three not four)....I declined. This was just the start...
I've made a life-time study of self-doubt detours:
on other paths, watching the second choice
half-succeed at jobs I thought
I wasn't good enough to take...
Does a flower appraise its petals?
What difference would it make - it
cannot stop itself blooming...
Only a human being is stupid enough for this.

-- Mistryel Walker

Bent Pin: Nature Poems by Polly Brody

Nature poems and bird photos by Polly Brody are up on Bent Pin.  Follow this link to take a look


UPDATE: Bent Pin closed in November of 2009. The Bent Pin Archive and Index are moving, albeit slowly.... to:

http://bentpinquarterly.blogspot.com   Note: the author index now at http://bentpinquarterly.blogspot.com/p/author-index.html is part of the archive

April 22 Poem - Thankless

write a work related poem

Thankless

windows turn from yellow-peach
to black, don't bother with blinds
don't drown in razor coffee just
keep grinding out copy
think, type fast as you can
calves tucked under, body wriggling
in a roller chair, in a tiny cube.
think, edit, make a call,
nuture six stories all at once,
one last quote, double check the math
by midnight you file and swear.
Nap on the orange vinyl couch
Tomorrow, both sides call
You make them sound wrong, they say.
so this time, you did it right, pissed off both sides....
Every day another test.
Go home, sweat in your sleep.
in your dream every one is swearing:
"GOD DAMN MEDIA"

-- Mistryel Walker

April 21 poem - Forecast

haiku, poem about the haiku

Forecast

tight spiral green ferns
uncurling near the stone wall
hard frost tomorrow

On forecasts:

If we knew what was coming
would we set out anyway?
Follow the map until we
sail off the edge of the known world
and make a brand new map?
Let the revisions begin.

Uncle Eddie on the lamb: Edward H Smith

Mom came home from the hospital Saturday morning, and Sunday - early in the morning - we got a call from mom's sister, my Aunt Flo in Florida who wanted to let us know that Uncle Eddie, who was 83 years of age, had died. It's been a heck of year. Oddly I find I know less about my uncle at the moment, then I do about any of the other folks I lost this past year. I know he was in the Navy. That he loved to go to VFW everyday at 4p.m. for beer and conversation and enjoyed eating breakfast at MacDonalds. He and Aunt Flo lived on Hazel Street in Norwalk, CT for many years. Though I know a bit about his habits and personality in later life - I know next to nothing about any other aspect of his life. In this video you can see Eddie engaged in two of his favorite pastimes: drinking a beer and being a rascal.....


 Edward H. Smith, 83 of Kenneth City died April 19, 2009. Mr. Smith was born in Stamford, CT, and was a Navy veteran of WWII. He was the beloved husband of Florence; loving father of John and Denise, grandfather of 11, great grandfather of 16. Funeral services will be held at Bay Pines National Cemetery 10:45 A.M. Friday April 24, 2009. In lieu of flowers memorials to a favorite charity. Arrangements are by R. Lee Williams & Son.

April 20 poem - the godless heathen

write a poem of rebirth (You should really read the poem for April 19 first before reading this poem....)

the godless heathen

Born-againer of seven years
thumper of holy books
emerges Word-less
without the crutch
limps a bit, then walks away free
healed by reality....

-- Mistryel Walker

April 19 - Unholy irony

Prompt - write an angry poem

Unholy irony

You burned supposed witches
staked reputed vampires
launched crusades
drank the cool-aide
blew yourselves to bits
in crowded squares
to show us what -
infinity?
perfect love?

-- Mistryel Walker

Four Poems and a Fountain Mad Mar on Hendree Milward's poetry show

A video I reposted to thepuzzleddragon channel. It's taken from a reading I did on a radio show hosted by Hendree Milward. This video has four poems - Quixote's Lucky Penny, Dogged Politics, Ashes to Ashes and a Condition of Continual Immediacy which is based on my incomplete understanding of Julian Babour's proposal that thereis no time.

The fountain is at the mall. It's really a lovely fountain.

Treading the edge of the void

Have missed a lot of plans this week. I missed Rose Drew's Wednesday reading, missed Conflencia, Hudson Valley Writers open mic, and finally Shijin/SubQ. This has been a tough week. I am stressed and weary. Mom is home from the hospital this afternoon, after a fall when she was out visiting friends on Wednesday afternoon. It's been a week a very little sleep.

It seems we have lost a lot of folks lately and I am painfully aware of the fleeting nature of our lives. This makes me want to persist even in my current misery and make videos and write poems and paint paintings every day, even when I am living quietly and small, cheap and close to home. Who knows how many days we may have.

April 18 Poem - Home care

the prompt is to write a poem about an interaction

Home care

One woman bends
straps the blood pressure cuff
on the other who rolls her eyes
tries to relax

One woman dabs gauze
sprays wound wash
the other wonders
if the next fall will be her last

She's had this thought six times before
or more, the other listens, concludes
the blood pressue is still too high

Doc will tweak the meds,
but no answers today
They both smile.

--Mistryel Walker

April 17 Poem - "All I Want is _________"

The prompt is the title

"All I Want is _________"

All I want in this moment
fits easily there:
One second
then another
Breathe in - Dasein - Breath out

-- Mistryel Walker

April 16 Poem - Grey

The prompt - write a poem with a color as the title.

Grey,

by pigment: an amalgam of compliments
like lovers drawn to the qualities they lack
which in the end, they cannot bear.
First black: when painting with light
it's drawn with absence; In pigment,
with an absorption of all light,
Add White? In light it's too much
of a good thing, everything all at once.
In pigment white loves too much
is all reflection, gives everything away.

-- Mistryel Walker

April 14 Poem - Phooey on Pollen

write a poem on love, then an anti love poem:\

Phooey on pollen

1
Fickle bees approach
broach the hidden ledge of
nectar's privileged vault.
They buzz but never linger
though they find no fault.

2
But Venus fly trap's
always splayed
dew-drenched, friendly, baited
and hence the greater irony
that visitors are eaten, never mated

--Mistryel Walker

Christian right's odd position on Illegal Immigrants

A while ago, a relative who is a member of a "born-again" type church was talking to me about the "rightness" of arresting and deporting illegal immigrants. She quoted her pastor on the matter. As "de-converted" former believer, who is essentially an atheist, (though perhaps more of an naturalist), I thought this was an extremely odd position for an evangelical to take. The following is adapted from a letter I wrote to her.

Dear .....

I have been pondering how fundamentalism could have joined the bourgeoisie. I was under the impression that if you are an evangelical christian, your task is to spread "the gospel" the supposed good news so that "souls" can be saved. I heard you are "fishers of men" not "fishers of law abiding citizens and men with green cards."

According to the gospels Jesus had lunch with outcasts. Do you think that today he might be visiting the homes of illegals who are as reviled as the tax collectors, harlots and lepers of his time?

The gospels don't mention a single instance where Jesus hailed a Roman soldier or one of the High Priests and asked that a harlot get the punishment the law required. Nor did he ever ask that a homeless leper be escorted to the city limits. "Go and sin no more," isn't the same statement as Romans! Police! deport this criminal! Read your "holy" book, and think about the way a god who supposedly loves all humans and wants to "save" them would want you to behave towards the precious and possibly "unsaved" souls you want to deport.

Just a thought from your friendly local atheist

=========================================

April 13 Poem - The Palette

write a poem that incorporates a hobby

The Palette

Alizarin Crimson - a blush
Burnt umber lush garden earth
ochre fields of wheat
sienna in her sweet hair,
grey sky of mourning or
ultramarine in a starless night
Phthalo green, earth-marble sheen
cerulian blue sky-bright, the cadnimum sun,
the cadnium brothers are clean but loud
need to be heard, undiluted orange,
red and yellow burley fellows, raging
raging against this stretched white expanse..
Titanium laughs.
Ivory Black revels in its contradiction....

--Mistryel Walker

April 12 Poem - No Sale

write a poem that starts "so we decided to.."

No sale

So we decided to sell
and move to Kentucky
but the bridge washed out

Later, already twister tangled
forest fired, weary with doubt

all our belonings now
in one red barrow on the
debris laden- once-was-a-lawn

Uncle Hank from Mass arrived
in a Nissan truck, and picked us up
Now we are New England gone

-- Mistryel Walker

April 11 Poem - This Plain White Bowl

Write a poem about an object. Of course it's not really about the bowl.

This Plain White bowl

not porcelain, but cradled in grateful hands,
a perfect round of rice or rue or jello
carrot soup saucer, oatmeal coffer
ice cream chalice, strawberry short bake
the dark green leaves of lettuce and red
peppering take brief rest herein
before they become one with me,
I range plain as this round white bowl,
open to the menu's possibility.

-- Mistryel Walker

Anne Marie Marra's Colonoscopy Poem

the late Anne Marie Marra performing her funny poem "Colonoscopy"

April 10 Poem - Trash Day

write a poem for Fridays

On Trash day

a murder of crows collects
on clean white streert-side bags.
With scalpel snouts they spear each sack
a toss, a rip, a crow head
dips into the pack, retrieving
items curious and aromatic:
pizza crust, jagged moon
of strawberry, snazzy tin foil fresh
from the oven with a slick of grease.
Dinner conversation turns to scorn,
reaches hysteria as I open the screen
to scream and slam.

-- Mistryel Walker

April 9 Poem - Saga on the edge of the lawn

Prompt - write a poem on a memory

Saga on the edge of the lawn

Hedges of fern,
tribes of Indian pipes,
red "head-ache" flowers,
various shades of moss, and tiny violets
robins who stretch a worm to breaking
just before breakfast. Afterwards
someone sings.

-- Mistryel Walker

Poem-A-Day Writer's Digest Challenge

AWK - I am behind **** a note -- I did actually finish the poems are all posted on Facebook.***
- here are my first four days of the Poem a Day writer;s digest challenge (they supply a writing prompt - you supply a poem )

April 1 poem
the prompt was "origins"

Origin

Out of the muck we come
over-adrenalized and peevish
Muscled, toothed, furious to survive

Out of night, into the cave,
firelight dancing, igniting imaginings
of more-than-muck, and we

Out of our minds, with fire-born charcoal,
into the cavern carve a vast sprawling hunt
that we have made: gazelle, mammoth, man

men, together, ready for more than muck.

=============================

April 2 poem
the prompt was "outsiders"

Outsiders now,

They float feather light,
walk the teetering shuffle in slippers
except when they are falling and landing hard
on heads or breaking hips or clavicles on the tile
They peer out of their years of forgetting,
furrowed, pale, a little grey, waiting
out the silence of full lives or empty lives.
Hovering near phone,
imagining a knock at the door
falling asleep in the chair

=======================

April 3 poem
the prompt was "the problem with..._________"

Canine Compromise

The problem with dogs is underemployment.
Eons of DNA for running the tireless patrol,
cooperative hunting for fun and profit,
the upper-handed snarl, or deep-den digging
dirt-flying intensity or gnawing elk femurs,
or marking or sniffing out the latest odorous map.

All this reduced to a 20-minute walk, and a half-
hour yard run, two antique humans, one with
no sense of humor, a chair under the window, and
a horrid selfish cat who bits dog toes, ears, lips
anything to secure the sun-spot on the rug.
Ah well, waiting for the mailman will have to do

==================
April 4 Poem
the prompt was to pick and animal....

oh please, a little armor

Armadillo of my envy
waddles on with leathery grace
and when alarmed, curls to himself
in fetal retreat. Turtle, my other idol
moves at a such slow deliberate pace
and when the world is too engaging
withdraws his head and hides his face.

A very good night at Wednesday poetry

Lisa Starr was the Wednesday Night Poetry feature last night. Her even presence, her honesty and words made for a very good evening. The open myk was also quite good - and to combat the grey of the not yet blooming world Louise K. read a bunch of one liners. Like Red Skelton she enjoyed her own jokes so much she could barely stop laughing to read them - and we were laughing to....  

I have video of Lisa, and also more or Robert Riche and Mother Tongue which I will be posting on http://YouTube.com/PoetsAndTheirPoems

A very good night at Wed Poetry

Lisa Starr was the Wednesday Night Poetry feature last night. Her even presence, her honesty and words made for a very good evening. The open myk was also quite good - and to combat the grey of the not yet blooming world Louise K. read a bunch of one liners. Like Red Skelton she enjoyed her own jokes so much she could barely stop laughing to read them - and we were laughing too...

I have video of Lisa, and also more or Robert Riche and Mother Tongue which I will be posting on http://YouTube.com/PoetsAndTheirPoems

April 8 Poem - The Bad Marriage

write a poem on routine

The bad marriage

tick tick, argue, slam
tick, tick, argue, scram
tick tick, slam, scram
argue, tick, tick, argue
tick, tick, argue, scram
home again, argue slam

-- Mistryel Walker

April 7 Poem The studio

Prompt - write a poem for something clean or dirty  - edited 12/2010

The Studio

Unpretentious and clean, the door stands open
to a room of possibility:
.....jumbles of crayon, paint tubes, varnish, stain and taint
.....shards of ceramic, spears of mirror, postcards once quaint
.....and piles of torn paper, shreds of paint peeled from a tray
.....(smooth, yet stretchy), bottle caps with a certain stain
.....of rust, dollhouse chairs, a dollhead bust
.....pictures torn from a ‘zine, a rectangle of canvas board.
A story of caprice and shadow begins




-- Mistryel Walker

April 6 poem- Question for the departed

prompt - a poem for something missing

Question for the departed

Into the endless void
we stare and blink.
See nothing always,
but always think
where are you?
Are you?

- Mistryel Walker

April 5 Poem - Washington Monument

April 5 poem on a landmark


Washington Monument

Tall needle of democracy, impales all cloud

the industrialist bedlam ensues, thunder complains aloud

The ozone thins, the sun rays pelt, in all this heat

Greenland and the polar ice caps melt.

P.S. I hate this one.

April 4 poem - oh Please, A little armor

My poem for April 4th - the prompt was to pick an animal:

oh please, a little armor

Armadillo of my envy
waddles on with leathery grace
and when alarmed, curls to himself
in fetal retreat. Turtle, my other idol
moves at a such slow deliberate pace
and when the world is too engaging
withdraws his head and hides his face.

--Mistryel Walker

April 3 Poem - Canine Compromise

This is another poem I wrote during the poem a day April 2009 challenge - this poem was fir April 3: It's really about how mis-adapted we are for our modern lives....

Canine Compromise

The problem with dogs is underemployment.
Eons of DNA for running the tireless patrol,
cooperative hunting for fun and profit,
the upper-handed snarl, or deep-den digging
dirt-flying intensity or gnawing elk femurs,
or marking or sniffing out the latest odorous map.

All this reduced to a 20-minute walk, and a half-
hour yard run, two antique humans, one with
no sense of humor, a chair under the window, and
a horrid selfish cat who bits dog toes, ears, lips
anything to secure the sun-spot on the rug.
Ah well, waiting for the mailman will have to do

-- Mistryel Walker

http://www.youtube.com/v/KU6qpVz_KGM&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999

Vote Bots hit my youtube channel overnight

Amazing stuff. Automated votebots attacked my wee-little brand new channel overnight and most of my videos went from five stars to one star overnight. Some had less the ten views but had been rated as many as 34 times. I did have the foresight to disable ratings on My Escape from Christianity which seemed like an obvious target.

April 1 Poem, Poem-a-day in April Challenge "Out of the Muck"

This and all the poem a day entries are back dated. I wrote and posted them all to the Poem A Day Writer's Digest blog during april. It took me a while to post them here..)

The prompt was "origins"

Origin

Out of the muck we come
over-adrenalized and peevish
Muscled, toothed, furious to survive

Out of night, into the cave,
firelight dancing, igniting imaginings
of more-than-muck, and we

Out of our minds, with fire-born charcoal,
into the cavern carve a vast sprawling hunt
that we have made: gazelle, mammoth, man

men, together, ready for more than muck.

--- Mistryel Walker

=============================