October pantry

 

Salt and pepper clouds on pewter sky

Thick marrow, mashed with maple syrup

Pumpkin skinned rhubarb and apple pie 

Drizzled curry and thick cream on vegetable soup

Fallowed leaves on twigs twisted in cinnamon bow

Bitter chocolate, cold wine, pints of sorrow on 

fallen pine cones

Harvested pots of color:   russet, crimson,

lurid yellow, blazing sepia & burnt amber on shelves

Faded photographs of black crows, echoes 

of requiem mass

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - OpenLinkNight.    Join us when the pub doors open at 3pm EST.  Thanks for your comments and visits.

Food for the soul

 

red maple leaves

blazing fire & frisson

feed

this simple soul

quiet space is growing

as autumn grips the sky

copper & russet 

we fall

on bed warmed by hikes

our footprints invisible

by dying sun

Autumn Leaves

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Three Little Words by Sarah.  

I chose:  Feed.Quiet.Copper.   Join us when the pub doors open by 3pm EST.

Hope is a suffix with plexiglass

 

hope is free

hope is a breeze across an open field

hope is a spoonful

of trouble, laundry detergent & rain clouds

hope is tea

spilling on my hands

steeping my words with prefixes & suffixes

hope is you, 

in you

hope is the sun-

dress, flowers, shine, burst

of glass

when hope is lost

hope is a hoax

hope is not enough

hope is a golf ball

hope is a letter that never arrived

hope is (not) a thing with feathers

that sits on my table with porcelain doll

hope is a verb

hope is a muscle,

lungs, legs, arms, wings, claws, fingers

it is young woman who calls

Animal Services for help, waiting beside  

a convulsing squirrel on the side street

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub- MTB, List that Google Gives Us - Hosted by Bjorn Rudberg.  I used the tool, googlism to spark and find my poem.   

Ballad of Jack & the Fish

 

His name was Jack, trader & trickster

Of perfumes & tarot cards of death

Carrie was young, dolled in her sister's

grey clothes, carrying basket of baby's breath

They met under bony tree, dire of pears

To exchange a letter sealed by candle wax

With a grin, Jack bowed with gentleman's air

And she smiled, preening feathers & flax

Her purse full, she'll meet him by lodging house

Tomorrow when the night is grey silver

And air is wanton whiskey & roasted grouse-

Jack rides off, salivating with thoughts of glitter 

On a flesh cuddly soft as baby

Her swan neck, arching for fool's gold

Wait, what's her name?  Jack's brain was hazy 

His chest were knives, pressed so cold

With these blackouts, he was lost fish

Palm readings to find his landing, so tragic-

Carrie walked towards the market to buy fish

hooks.  Her dagger & cord, ready to work magic

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - You Want It Darker, guest hosted by Lucy.  Dark themes in ballad poetry form.   Thanks for your visit and comments.  

Threads

 

my tongue is spooning pumpkin soup

      & warm bread 

wrap me 

not with wrath of pandemic's

      second wave

nor with skein of its affliction 

but with blanket

knitted soft as sky of maple leaves

       red-smocked by evening sun 

threading deeper unto shadows 

of trees

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Quadrille, where the given word is Blanket.  This is a 44 word post. 

Thank you for hosting Merril!    

Woman of the Tree

 

her ribs came from wood

of sufferings, swollen with moonlit tears

her eyes reflect solitude of woods

her arms softest of fiddlehead ferns

yet her fire from failures

carves her path now

into the next journey,

she is resolute, as her mother

& grandmother have been, welding 

her words to burn at every dawn 

Tree Sculpture at Mississuaga Park

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - OpenLinkNight, hosted by Mish. Join us when the pub doors open by 3pm EST.   Thanks for the visit and comments.   

Appled in the city

 

i wear my mask & shop in my grocery store

fresh fruits & veggies & locally produced meat 

on top of my list

i inhale the scents, imagining earth's fertile soil

basking in sun, spices & oils

but this routine chore is a madman's maze 

of confusing marketing pitches & items

as i am aware only too well

of what it takes to bring food to my home

there are deceptions at work in the process

to make the fruits super-sized & fresher than they are

to sell meats and milk as organic when they are not

to push for colorful packaging over bland & nutritionless items

at worst, we are vulnerable & misearable as chickens 

packed in industrial farm

I know that i chose this life in the city

so I go on inhaling industrial fumes 

while hopscotching over sugar-laced snacks & drinks

only too aware that others go hungry & live with the

foreshadowing of war above their homes  

i am blessed to protest in my own way

while continuing to educate myself about food safety & fraud 

if you can, speak up to your local community

before we all turn to codified shell-empty flower cuttings

Source:  That Fresh Look, Genetically Buffed

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Protest Poems - I have chosen the theme and issue of food safety and fraud.   Please join us when the pub doors open by 3pm EST.

Keeper of secrets

 

the days blur in sulfur  

time is raging sky of crimson & smoke

and come nights

your eyes are teacups of insomnia 

the intensity of your secrets eat you

your dreadful premonitions wither you

as if all your life events

are open book somersaulting in street corner

bring the watcher

he is a guardian riding on swallow's wings

he hands over the

key of the moon to

you

& you 

are hallowed in silence, 

made of candlelight

& cosmic heartbeats

catching feverish dream of cathedrals afloat in the universe

Credit to Catrin Welz-Stein

Posted for dVerse Poetics:   Let Your Words Be Your Paintbrush, hosted by Lillian.  We are writing about the work of artist C. Welz-Stein.  Join us when the pub door opens at 3pm.  Thank you.

Choose your spell

when days are stretched taut as strings-

when nights are purpled in turmoil-

remember that you wield

color of your sky-dome

blue as silent lake 

calm as palm of deep forest

or

grey-metal, sawdust of despair

in storm-drivelled clouds

or 

pumpkin-pixelled

coaxing sunflower spells

Sunflower by Grace

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Quadrille, hosted by De Jackson.  This is a 44 word post with the chosen word, SKY.  Thanks for the visit and comments.   

September Sun

 

It seems as though you are still summer

Running across wheat-rippled fields

Blowing dandelion seeds  

Your bag is treasure hunt:

twigs, warbled flowers,

bugs, budding things-

mud-stained gifts

Your smile-

sun

First line of my poem:   To the Light of September by W.S. Merwin

Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Poetics:  9 Across for a count down, hosted by Laura Bloomsbury. A poem in nonet form.   Thanks for the visit.