Two snapshots

I.   Flash Fiction 55 words

     She sits, pale-flustered on red-cushioned seat of train.

     Across her, young girls laugh merrily, bright in summer shirts, shorts & back packs.

     Day painting job smears a man's pants, boots & pony-tailed hair, silver white.

     A group of jellyfish is called a bloom or swarm.

     I move towards the next exit doorway, carried by tide.


II.  For Margaret's challenge - Life on an Island


     Is a slow drift of afternoon sands
     Is opening the oven to freshly baked bread
     Is watching boats meander, unheeding wind & sky

     Is dabbing the sun's colors on your cheeks
     Is making a list and tying it to a kite
     Is a lost world, filled with treasures no one can count

Overlooking "Teach's Hole" (aka Blackbeard)

By Margaret Bednar

Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads
& Poets United
Personal Notes:   The baby robins have hatched and my brother is recovering in his home after a bout with a rare disease ~  Thanks for your kind thoughts & prayers.

Two subway train vignettes

In train crowd, there's always one firecracker
Everyone avoids like sudden gust of cold wind


Today, it's an earnest young man pleading for coins
But his speech is stump by megaphone 
announcing a derailment on northern station.


He steps out the train.   I hear distant sound
of rain flinting the concrete steps as door closes.      
 

~0~0~


She is counting, not the platform stops
but knots & turns of her crochet needle-

The red yarn is net of fishes
or stars    

It's hard to say
with her fingers trilling to a robin's song- 




Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Kerry's Challenge
& 55 Words Challenge
& Poets United

Thanks for the visit ~

Pretty in pink

sun spray paints my skin

not azure nor golden tan

but hot pink among the poppy reds

carnations, lavender, roses & baby pink

staining tiles, walls, sheets, every happy part of me

because it is springtime & everything looks

soft as an unfurling leaf, overflowing

with  blossom-seeds

i stretch pretty in 

pink, embracing

 beautiful 

season

Posted for Flash Fiction Friday - 55 pinky words to the G-Man - Thanks for all your visits ~
I wish you all the lovely colors of the season ~  I hope you are pink with excitement of your new journey, smiles ~

Picture credit:    National Geographic - This is my 2nd Holi poem - Celebrating Festival of Colours ~  Happy Friday ~

Into the Crystal Cave

Cave of the Crystals or Giant Crystal Cave (Spanish: Cueva de los Cristales) 

is a cave connected to the Naica Mine 300 metres (980 ft) below the surface in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico.

we enter this sacred cave
and feel the flutter of crystals 

threadlike diamond, lucent
blue mountains lift them like shiny ice pearls

but heat radiates & sucks sweet air
from our lungs

silver & lead blurs our eyes
the way sea drowns our walls to foam

the way stars overwhelm us
with their spinning light-

Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Transforming Friday by Hannah ~  Thanks for the visit & 55 Words for the G-man -  Happy to be writing again ~ 

Imperfect flower

Photo credit:   Mike Baum

A lilac petal missing 

stolen by wind-

gave you unsymmetrical face, 

imperfect bloom in garden- 

Still, you rise, pearled & regal 

Holding firmly your spine

under blue sky or whirling storm -

proud & blue blooded dame

Your crown, amber lit 

Your seeds, moon strung

i tell you 

you're more beautiful

than you ever looked-

Posted for Poets United - Mid Week Motif - Success

and 55 Words for the G-Man

Silver

Late afternoon sun 

breaks through the grey. 

Bare trees coated in ice sparkle like stars. 

Luminous crystals.  Shower of diamond glass.   

     Silver trees.       Silver branches.       Silver salt.       

Soon the moon will  dawn its  silvery light. 

        The landscape is drowning in silver tears.        

Or maybe its my eyes watering from

seeing you for the 

first time. 

 After the Ice Storm 
Frozen Birch Tree by Positively Riveting

55 Silvery Words for the G-Man~

Thanks for the visit ~

Red

Red Beach in Panjin, China

 (Home to more than 236 types of birds)

I stand sea-
swarmed under mauve rose sky- 
white wings folded

Under black crowns
I crane towards autumn canvas
wet of morning

rain, cupped majestic
by crimson sun shimmering salty
grass ripe as cherries

Night beckons
Plumed bright of rubies & garnets
My skin quivers

Everything pulses vibrant
bold
red
the only color I know:
You 

Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Hannah's Challenge
and Flash Fiction Friday - 55 red lettered words for the G-man ~  It's actually grey & cold here ~  Happy weekend to all ~  

picture credit:  Kirsten Wong

A flower is up to you

Martin Klimas

a flower is sinless
a flower is a blossom that contains brilliant
a flower is easy to make into a cartoon

a flower is chosen
a flower is given its scent by nature
a flower is born

a flower is an evocation to silence through the mask of language
a flower is the story of a disturbed little girl who sacrifices everything 
to preserve the only life she's ever  known
a flower is a lonesome thing

~Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Googlism - Selected from this word list ~

And 55 Flowery Words for the G-Man

a flower is a thing of loveliness
the illumination of all the life that has preceded it

hold up a mirror to your soul to see your life more clearly; for in its shape-
a flower

is not just a flower
it's healing, also formed in garlic & chicken soup-

a beautiful thing:
a flower blooming

Deep sleep

Mendenhall Ice Caves, Juneau, Alaska

the color
of my sky, deep velvet blue

here the river
gravitates towards its womb:  a cave

carved out
of wind & mountain of solid ice

my hands 
touch the arctic stones, glazed-cobalt walls     

but there's 
no sensation, nothing burns nor sears

the memories 
no awakening but   

silence, haven
suspended time

perhaps
this is my salvation


Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Hannah's Challenge - Haunted & Hungry
and Flash Fiction Friday - for the G-man - Happy Friday ~

Skyfishing

Artist:  Catrin Welz-stein

I call in 
not going to work today,
I'm going fishing instead


To where the sky opens 
Blue, clear & opulent
I hook the worms
Lilies are blooming feathers    
I cast the rod 
Wind blasts a million jellyfish  
I stoop, tugging extra string 

I catch 
a man wearing a business suit
& clouds 
laugh along with me

Posted for: Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Writing from the point of view of the animal & place -  Hosted by Peggy ~

and Flash Fiction Friday for the G-man  - 55 words ~ 
Thanks for the visit ~

Beautiful darkness

Grace @ EverydayAmazing

shiver -

the wind passes 

cold as blue moon, sharply

weaving the night to beautiful 

darkness 

i lay

vulnerable -

frayed & wind-tattered, i 

should be afraid of what's coming 

instead   

silence -

a crescendo

of heartbeats & gulls cries

engulfs me in peace, beautiful 

(amidst) chaos

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - I used titles of my teen daughter's books ~

And Flash Fiction Friday for G-man (55 shivering words) : 

We walked briskly, under shivering light of the blue moon.  Where once we were proud as eagles soaring near the sun, we now move like angels in the beautiful darkness.   Perhaps its the silence, a crescendo of heart beats we're seeking, but beautiful is what we find amidst the chaos of the city's underground ruins.  

looking out from my (business class) seat

Grace @ Everyday Amazing

the trees are throwing up

their hands in the air, shouting

verses & clapping hands- 

summer rushes, an impatient choir

as train carries me

feather light through corn & winery fields  

i let business & weighty  

matters of expectations & scorecards   

fade & slide behind me, 

the window, a waterfall of green

leaves as clouds followed me  

billowing the sky 

Posted for:   Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - Things Carried
I was in Ottawa City last week for a company sponsored sales conference.

And Flash Fiction Friday - 55 words for the G-man. 

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).

I dream of the sky

under my burqa, world is small as my hand,    
        but with my pen, hidden under the folds, i dream of the sky.    

~0~0~

why can't i choose my love,
        i am not made of stone nor dry straw dusting the ground.

~0~0~

kill me with your hands,
        but my words will live, setting my henna-inked sisters free.

Written for Real Toads:   Landai poems are mostly voices of Afghan women.  They are two-line folk poems that can often be humorous, sexy, raging, tragic and  also deal with love, grief,  war, exile and Afghan independence. The success of the poetry form is attributed to it being easy to memorize, which is really important in a culture where women are poorly schooled and forbidden to write or read.

An interesting Article:  Why Afghan Women Risk Death to Write Poetry

Also shared with:  Flash Fiction Friday - 55 words for the G-man ~
Picture credit: Afghan Women's Writing Project  

Haibun: Empty

She works in the far end cubicle away from laughter and noise.   

Lips pinched tight, arms crossed, she eats her lunch, 

either sandwich or beef patty, on her desk.      

She is cool to friendly gestures.  

No spontaneous embracing.  No hand contact either.   

Specially from men.   

~0~0

warmth of smile fading 

remembering hurtful words,

empty wooden box   

posted for Haiku Heights:   Warmth
and Flash Friday Fiction for G-man:   tell a story in 55 words.




Poetry form:   Haibun - combines the prose and haiku. 

Flower of love

blue purple flowers grew

in dark room, corner edge

towering ceiling with large heads,

stems slender with lily like blooms

roots clustered to bloom fertility,

strong healthy children,  a view  

she believed  

until one late summer, during a thunder

storm, she took pen, writing feverishly

faced with a choice, she chose

writing,

over having children     

Posted for the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads:   Write a flowery poem in an un-flowery 
way and Flash Fiction Friday - For the G-man.  Also shared with Poets United:   choices.



Facts about this flower:
Agapanthus is considered to be both a magical and a medicinal plant, and the plant of fertility and pregnancy. Xhosa women use the roots to make prenatal medicine, and they make a necklace using the roots that they wear as a charm to bring healthy, strong babies. The Zulu use agapanthus to treat heart disease, paralysis, coughs, colds, chest pains and tightness. It is also used with other plants in various medicines taken during pregnancy to ensure healthy children, or to augment or induce labor. It is also used as a love charm and by people afraid of thunderstorms, and to ward off thunder.

picture credit:   here

Waves

water crashing shore
never ending weaving
time and motion

roar of waves
singing, dancing in
unbroken rhythm

seashells on grey sands
swept by morning rush   
waits for turning tide

green algae float
salty brine flowing
streams into streams

swirling, crushed corals
clinging to soles of feet 
dusting footprints in sand

a pebble flies into air  

  
Author's Note:   I don’t know where it will land.  Some changes in my work life are coming.   More demanding and technical job in another city further away from home. 

I will know by next week.  

Posted for Poetry Jam - hosted by Dani and Flash Fiction Friday with G-man.  Yes, my other blog :-)

     

Picture credit:   http://dolphin-visions.blogspot.com/