Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, K is for …Kimo.

“A Kimo is a post-Haiku poetic form , consisting of three lines of 10, 7, and 6 syllables. This form of poetry was invented in Israel.” Note that my “research” into this form tells me that the three lines can be in any order, meaning it could be 10, 7, 6 or 7, 10, 6, or 6, 10, 7, etc. So let’s see what happens!

Modern Times

Wires cross cross from house to house,
carry shocks of power
to light lives, feed bodies, warm kitty toes

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Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter K.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, J is for …Jeffreys Sonnet.

“A Jeffreys Sonnet was created by Scott J. Alcorn. It is isosyllabic (only 8 syllable per line), 2 sestets with a cross rhymed couplet (the cross rhyme is in the 2nd to 4th syllable in each of the two lines of the couplet). Also there is a cross rhyme in the first line of the 2nd sestet (between the 2nd to 4th syllable), tying the 1st sestet to the 2nd. So the rhyme scheme would be: aabccb, (b)ddeffe, (e)g (g)e. The letters in ( ) are the cross rhymes.”

Ok, this is pretty bad, but I had fun with it (and it’s been a very long day…)

Time for Bed

When I go to bed, they follow
up the stairs, cats through my legs go
try to trip me so I tumble
right foot goes up and over head
left foot follows, “come on” I said
right at the top, there I stumble

While I bumble, to catch my breath
I hope they do not cause my death
But in the end I make it there
walk through the door, take slippers off
sit down, sign deep, and give a cough
stretch arms up high, brush out my hair

They do not care, cats want some pets
And once they gets, away they tear. 

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Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter J.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, I is for …Imayo

“The imayo is a 4-line Japanese poem that has 12 syllables in each line. If a 12-syllable line sounds unique for a Japanese poetic form, don’t fret. There is a planned caesura (or pause) between the first 7 syllables and the final 5. The 5/7 syllable splits are the familiar patterns found in other Japanese forms like haiku, tanka, and senryu.“

Final Joy

When my time on earth draws close to its end, I choose

to see once more, moments of my life that brought joy:

Graduations, playing bass, soft ocean breezes

Marathon, BBQs, Kevin, oyster Brie soup

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Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter I.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, H is for …Hay(na)ku.

“Hay(na)ku is a very simple poetic form, and it’s also one of the newest. It was apparently created in 2003 by poet Eileen Tabios. Hay(na)ku is a 3-line poem with one word in the first line, two words in the second, and three in the third. There are no restrictions beyond this.“

Current Affairs

Today
watching worlds
crumble into dust

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Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter H.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, G is for …Gogyohka, “a form developed by Enta Kusakabe in Japan and translates literally to “five-line poem.” An off-shoot of the tanka form, the gogyohka has very simple rules: The poem is comprised of five lines with one phrase per line. That’s it.” (https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/gogyohka-poetic-form)

Waiting

Under dawn skies, a poet sits,
squat and silent,
on a grass-covered hillside.
Damp sinking into clothes and skin,
she shivers, her eyes squinting through the mist.

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Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter G.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, F is for …Free Verse. “Nonmetrical, nonrhyming lines that closely follow the natural rhythms of speech. A regular pattern of sound or rhythm may emerge in free-verse lines, but the poet does not adhere to a metrical plan in their composition.“

A good way to start the week, cause free verse is how I role most of the time…this is a Free verse but also a form poem called a Golden Shovel which “is a poetic form invented by Terrance Hayes that takes a word from each line of an existing poem and uses them as the last word of each line in a new poem.”

Sunset

After Robert Frost

The afternoon sun warms me and I
close my eyes. I wonder, have
these suns always been
in our skies? They say only one
sun meets the horizon, acquainted
with seas and skies. I watch twilight with
shadows of moon and stars, the
only hints of coming night.

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Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter F.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, E is for … Ekphrastic poem. “An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.” These poems have always intimidated me, but let’s give it a try. With this work of art:

The Monk by the Sea, Caspar David Friedrich

Monk by the sea waits,
a dot on shore’s horizon,
waves and clouds compress

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Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter E.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, D is for … Dirge. Now, a dirge is a brief hymn or song of lamentation and grief, typically composed to be performed at a funeral. In lyric poetry, a dirge tends to be shorter and less meditative than an elegy. This is a poem of grief, but not for physical death. This was written last week after a colleague decided to resign as part of a canvass and layoff process at our institution. There will be a lot of this happening over the next several months…it’s not a very happy place to be right now now.

Resigned

You say, I am done
as we sit
circling you
in an embrace.

We say, how unfair.
Your time with us
like spring blossoms
wind-tossed into streets,

trampled into dust,
rain-washed
into storm drains,
forgotten in darkness.

We say, we will not
forget your smile,
but know in time
smiles also become dust.

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Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter D.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, C is for … Cento.

A Cento is a poem made up of lines from other poems…Traditionally you should not add any of your own words to a Cento, but in the below poem I have added the odd preposition…it’s cheating, I know, but there you go. At least I’m admitting it…and I have cited all my sources so please feel free to read any of the original poems!

Almost a Cento

From Wanda Coleman, Nocturne; Silvia Plath, Resolve; Emily Dickinson, Life; H.D, Strophe; Robert Frost, Mending Wall; Mary Oliver First Snow; Ocean Vuong, Thanksgiving 2006; Rita Dove, The Stroke; HP Lovecraft, Sunset

Here i sweat
days humming because rhythm
makes persistence possible.

Coal fire burns
outside, little hedge leaves
become quite yellow

while on the stoop
of an old brownstone,
cigarette flares, then fades.

Who wins? Nations do not see.
Who falls? None observe.
Whose dying eyes no country regards?

He moves in darkness
as it seems to me, not
woods only. But shade of trees

glitter like castles of ribbons,
broad fields smolder with light,
the cloudless day is richer at its close.

I love you waits
with cold wings of a cold angel
shut up like cherry-buds not yet half in blossom.

Later he’ll say Death
stepped right up to shake his hand,
then squeezed until he sank to his knees.

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Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter C.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, B is for ...Blackout Poetry. Blackout poetry is a kind of erasure poetry where you take a piece of text and then black out words to leave individual words behind. Normally you would do this with words printing on a piece of paper and a sharpie, but me being lazy by nature, I preferred to try this electronically. And here is the result…which is also my photo for the post…

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Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter B.