a poem enters the unknown
word by word
steps out on its own
it delivers like a quiver
carrying ammunition
of what is and will be
makes us sing
a song we always knew
that we can hold onto
to dance away the day
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dVerse quadrille on poem
Need no envelope
Sent from places
We may have never seen
They let us in
Show a location
Or a situation
Say a few words
What’s on your mind
Moment when message penned
perpetually grows in the garden
it seeds itself
strong splendid stems
support the deadman’s bells
beautiful but deadly
all parts are toxic
known since ancient times
it can be medicine or poison
purples whites and blues
form bells that tower over
only the right portion heals
too much kills
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dVerse prompt on poisonous plants
Penmanship was always my favorite class. There was a fountain pen and a bottle of Skrip ink, usually black. The ink bottle had a little curved shelf on its inside where the ink could gather. Put the nib of the fountain pen in and suck the ink with a lever on the side of the pen. All this while sitting at a wood desk placed in rows by Mrs. Manocchio, my fifth grade teacher.
Trying to keep the ink between the lines of the paper, I made continuous circles round and round practicing to hold the pen in comfort, to get use to the flow of the nib. Prepare the hand to loop and turn and form letters, then words, a complete sentence and the ultimate paragraph. I was learning cursive writing with just the right slant and height of the i, dotted in just the right place between the lines, forming the perfect penmanship.
recall school days
labored for words on paper
ink dot on the snow
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dVerse prompt on handwriting which is becoming a lost art
Long legs you take a stand
Your neck a spring
For your long beak
Throw a spear
What weaponry
Used to dine
On tasty
Fish
Photo by Sharon Knight
Take to the sky
Fly with your velvet tentacles
Into a sea that is now earthbound
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dVerse prompt to write based on a photo by Sharon Knight
playing with haikubes
together we build with words
search for the meaning
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A game called Haikubes
There was a time I walked away from a disagreeable circumstance. I walked into a cold night, dressed for winter with boots on, leather jacket, long hair covered with a hat.
Not sure of the way home, I only knew that north would take me to the main road and then west would take me home. I walked miles under an unnamed moon.
I remember the crisp air, blue of the snow, ice crunching under my boots and how the light fell against the snowbound trees. I felt lost while finding my way home.
Blue freeze of winter
Beauty penetrates the night
Leads a path to home
Walk between the tide lines
Tracks haphazard then straight
run for miles northwest
into the windscape of dawn
Be the first to leave a mark
Find shell and bone
These fragments
left on the beach
will in time
become
sand
Today it is cold in Florida
there is ice on the wires
frost on pine and palmetto
mittens are sold out at Walmart
everybody has something to say
about the weather
waiting for a change of tide
a new moon or south winds
today that north northwest
brings down a chill
threatens snow in Florida
Winter on the Gulf Coast
isn’t always tropical breezes
blowing in from Belize
expect a hard freeze tonight
the northwesterly delivers
a harsh blow of minus below
picked up in Iowa
swept across plains
and plantations of Alabama
and Georgia
onto the fronds of palms in Florida
Accept the unexpected
everyone trying to stay warm
and make a buck
cover everything up
don’t let your pipes freeze
as the temp goes 25 degrees
cold sunshine of Florida
be ready to lose heat
prepare for more sleet
is climate change real?
it’s 20 degrees in Florida!
a real Florida freeze
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camping in Florida in the cold and dVerse prompt to use areas of silence in the structure of the poem
wordshophop 