When it's the real thing

I'd like to buy 

the world a poem 

for all 365 days, I

will not keep it 

company but will 

let it tumble, rip, 
crash, hobble, run,

slam, burst as autumn 

red leaves drifting by 

the river canal, falling 

over bridges & archways

until the verses settle down:  

a torchlight, bell, majestic river.

I'd like to give the world a view:

happiness, not bought & sugared,

nor snowed white as turtle doves

but simple yellow morning bloom.

Then I'd teach the world to sing  

in perfect harmony with trees, 

with each fading leaf color and 

passing clouds. Because there's a

poem to be found even in empty

road, lonely mountain, rainy days,

rusted can, or walking hand in hand.

Life tastes good when you keep it real. 

Picture credit:  Daaynos

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub ~  Poetics by Brian Miller ~ I have used an old Coke commercial (I'd like to teach the world to sing) as a framework for my poem ~  I have been away on business conference in the beautiful Ottawa city this week so it's nice to write again ~ Thanks for the visit.
Shared with Poets United ~

W o r d l e s s

                                              Edward Steichen "Coopers Bluff - Moonlight Strollers" (detail) 1905

fading  

s   k  y- 

casting jewels  

      radiant before us:      

           marbled grey, lingering lavender,  s l o w 

is  the  moonshine  gliding  waist  deep  between  trees -

 we stroll, hand in hand  as night carries us - feather light,  mellowed riptide      
  

Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Sunday's mini-challenge:  Fibonnaci poem (1-1-2-3-5-8-13 words) and Margaret's challenge - Stillness, Silence, Solitude

A fishy story we'll buy (no taxes added)

Inspired by A Fishy Story by Judith Clay

the city is stinking of fishy stories - 

thick-waisted mayor drinking & 
winning arm wrestling match vs  Hulk Hogan

a side-show to entertain while revelers
become ill from the monstrous fat burger dish

we drive to hyped-up festival in crowded freeway
asphalted thick with insurance premiums

justified by whom we wonder if there are 
hidden fees calculated in simple living, free

of poisoned air we're breathing - 
we're paying but who is catching the crooks & liars 

milking this city in debts, they said this park & lake 
are free for all (except for parking fees), but some people

end up with nothing & less:   no benefits-menial jobs, 
buying sale of expired items in basic stores, scraping by -  

tell me the story again
of the Japanese who decided to leave his city job 

for underwater photography, to behold a cathedral  
of ocean sands by an artist, a puffer fish    

his single fin, a brushstroke, a ridgeway of bridges  
and in the center bed:  lay his love, gentle as waves 

the water rises, and up we scramble to 
be dry as newspapers, littered with toll free customer service #     

we'll never call, so between us fish-
take everything here with a grain of salt 

but even that will cost you 13% GST/HST (ON taxes) extra- 



Posted for:   D'verse poets pub - Poetics
The amazing story of the puffer fish creating an elaborately designed crop circles as part of a mating ritual is true.   You can read/view more about it here. 

    

Style Icons: Teddy Girls

Ken Russel, The last of the Teddy Girls (1950-1960)

after work, i'm ditching my dress  
& wearing this velvet tie & rolled-up pants

i'm hanging out with my girls 
& we're going to have a good time

we've booked ourselves a table corner 
to share gossip & music & chocolate bars   

then we'll turn the town, slick & dandy, 
with flat shoes, tailored coats flying, hair astray,  

the men can snicker all they want
but we girls have secrets we aren't sharing:   

we're peeling away boundaries & setting  
the sky as our limit while strutting   

cheeky as can be, rebellion a cool style 
when you're running with Teddy girls   

Posted for Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - Teddy Girls- They were working class young women who dressed in neo-Edwardian fashions. The Teddy Girls were the first British female youth subculture and have remained historically almost invisible.
Shared with Poetry Pantry

Thanks for the visit ~

mid-summer colours

Grace @ Everyday Amazing 

leaves

h a v e

s t a r t e d

browning red

edges, creeping slow

like caterpillars emptying

garden of ripe tomatoes, plump peppers & eggplants-

too soon, summer is coming to a close and you're not ready - you never are ready -      

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub:   Fibonnaci: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21. I used syllables.

What i remind myself at night

Gastown Steam Clock

Vancouver BC

I count this day: work day
Not Tuesday nor Wednesday.

The sun hides behind the ruffled clouds.
And mustard walls, penciled with industrial carpet.

The office phone rings and I look for myself.
Someone is always pushing the buttons

In the elevators & up my cheek bones.
I am growing a thick skin & ulcer stones by the hour.

I burrow into the night. My cheque comes
every two weeks. Then disappears just as quickly

As fading keys. As rain by cruel summer.
Under the ceiling, the paint slowly peels off

In weariness. I remind myself to change the lights
to an energy saving ones. I hold into hands-

Inner & invisible- to keep my wheels
from going out of yellow lanes. To set my fires afloat.


Posted for OpenLinkNight of D'verse Poets Pub - Thanks for the visit ~

Of red plums

sky turns into blue lake
summer of August

we pick plums as
red ripening 
sweet nectar skin
and wrap its seeds
with brown paper

sunflowers blossom
yellow & orange spirals
wildflowers purple wave
    into
    

    r a i n d r o p s 

     
    into
waves, purple wildflowers 
spirals, orange & yellow
blossoms, sunflowers

paper (so) brown with 
seeds, we unwrap its 
skin, nectar sweet
ripening red
as plums we picked

August, that summer
lake turned bluer than sky-




Posted for Imaginary Garden of Real Toads - Sunday Challenge is Palindromes or Mirrored Poems

picture credit:   Tumblr.com

Mirror sky

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia by Tomas Rowski

I walk
Sea of salt flat 
Emptiness pulls, gaping 
Silence which thunders in my ears, 
Sky ricochets my thoughts, unborn & free 
When it rains, pristine as snowflakes,   
The sky is a mirror   
beckoning, so  
I walk



until words untangle, drift like clouds, carelessly float as paper boats, then fold  

unresisting into the page, sculptured stones  



Posted for:   Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - Hannah's challenge:  Hungry & Haunted
and 55 words for the G-man ~  First part is a rictameter poem (9 lines).

by the Riverwood

we walk towards 
       thrum of ancient trees 

 untouched by city's hard  
       hands, thick shrubs drape

over barks & stumps-
       leaves shimmer in rustling light- 

bikers & runners scatter 
       stones & while lovers sway 

as purple wildflowers 
      do in summer  heat - hungry 

for a raindrop -  fingers weave    
      slow ripple, slower heartbeat       

we should be bird-watching 
      & scanning for wayward deer  

but we watch the river
      yawn instead, then recline

on its back, catching sun
      with its mouth, like a fish


Posted for OpenLinkNight of D'verse Poets Pub - Thanks for the visit ~





Kindly check out our poems at The dVerse Anthology:  Voices of Contemporary World Poetry   ~

Edited by Frank Watson, he has included some of my poems ~ Here is one, originally written for Form for All:  Ghazal Sonnet form ~    
Better than I am

Unplugged music

Featured in Colossal Blog:   Chinese muralist DALeast  

My tongue relaxes, back to underbelly
where words roar, spinning without a tail

My stomach leans out, farthest sides of room 
exhaling wind to bended knees, unmindful of posture

My feet curls in, without spine & shoes 
repelling magnet, forgetful of gravity       

My hands reach for soap bar to erase
where I was, what I did yesterday

There's a list of things to do & gather momentum
before summer breaks into hailstorm, too soon  

For autumn's overture, when a voice aches, so raw  
It makes me softer than I am, remembering a sky

Shattered red-salmon by sun, eclipsing bay of boats  
I let the night sieve me into its arms, warm & uncontained - 





Posted for D'verse POets Pub - Poetics - Unplugged ~   Thanks for the visit ~