Honey Love

Too much honey i poured straight from the jar

telling myself it would make things sweeter

how the taste would linger deep in my throat

poison to swallow when my love is far

*

give too much honey myself and I’m weaker

find a balance on this menu of love

sweet and sour are good combinations

let it bind in robust flavor for two

*

My love is greater with the right antidote

not one or the other but a nice mix

all ingredients combined in a bowl

stirred into an harmonious union

*

Too much honey can spoil the batter

love is a complex evolving matter

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NaPoWriMo Day 9 to write a love sonnet

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Minnet

New Year’s Day was a birthday for my second born and a smorgasbord for the relatives. Pickled herring, cheeses and pressgurkin, gravlax, pate, pepparrot, Janssons frestelse, kuttbullar, sometimes lutefisk, bruna bonor, appelflask, oxrelader.

Akvavit poured in just the right amount. How we linked arms and shouted “skol”. I can still hear my mother-in-law’s voice, “That will warm the cockles of your heart.”



midwinter hoarfrost

crispy sharp on old flowers

cold stabs in the mind

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dVerse haibun prompt on New Year memory. Forgive my Swedish spelling.

Word Dissonance

I search the day for pretty words

turrets of rain pummel them into the garden

where they remain until rot comes

maggots eat into their bouma

maggot grows fat from majuscules

creep over minuscules

chomp ascenders and descenders

lying there

in the riddled corpse of a word

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dVerse prompt to write a poem of dissonance

Boxed In

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ I FEEL SO BOXED IN]]]]]]]]]]] CONFINEMENT AND ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[SPACELESS WONDER ]]]] [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ NO MOVEMENT FOR ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] [[[[[[[[[[[ MY [[[[OWN ENJOYMENT]]]]]]][[[[[]PLANNING MY ESCAPE ]]]]]]]]]]]

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NaPoWriMo Day 28 prompt to write a concrete poem.

Christ’s Entry

I can’t really say I loved him. Love does not come easy for me. He was my first kiss, a little bit of making out, kind words from his thin lips.

I went on to guard the pool, to save a life, my tanned olive skin a beacon for men. Then one day a man walked through the gate and I watched his choppy strokes across the water and married him.

We vowed to love art. To make art out of our lives. We traveled both locally and abroad but that huge painting on the Getty wall stays with me— Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889 by James Ensor.

When will He come?

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NaPoWriMo Day 21 prompt— a person forgotten, a job taken, a memorable piece of art, an unanswerable question

https://smarthistory.org/ensor-christs-entry/

Purple Splendor

• 

Rhododendron

blooming

purple in its splendor

risk taken

after a flower

the fade

no longer the showcase

of the garden

fertilize

mulch the ground

prepare it for

another bloom

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dVerse prompt on risk and remodel— garden is beautiful and then it isn’t

Word Waltz

One two three

One two three

One two three

Please don’t flee

Come and see

He and she

Dancing free

One two three

One two three

Angry Haiku

I was angry then

beating the eggs so hard

I broke the bowl

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I was very fond of that bowl.

Parody on Drunken Sailor

What do I do with a drunken husband

What do I do with a drunken husband

What do I do with a drunken husband

Leave him in the morning

Pray stay I will do better

Pray stay I will do better

Pray stay I will do better

Don’t leave me in the morning

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NaPoWriMo prompt to write a parody . I could go on with this but I am on a road trip.

Literature

“I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot.” Holden Caulfield

Kindle me

to sleep at night

with words of escape

imprison me

send me from cell to cell

with your chapters

packed full of defeats

and promises

each character a splice

of an unfolding humanity