PattiKen and the Muses

4/26/2016

Apocalyse

(Artist: Mauricio García Vega; Source: WikiMedia Commons)

Noisy images,

     crowding,
    shoving,
                             splashing
     life script
                                             onto the page...

Scenes of cities never visited,
memories of days more real than those lived,
screeching, blaring, thumping street songs
filling the mind, spilling words by the hundreds,
day after day, never pausing,
until, one day, they do.

The end?

***

Abhra at dVerse Poet's Pub asks us to 'fess up to being a secret admirer of a poet who inspires us.

.

4/25/2016

Renaissance

The announcement reads, “Friends and family are invited to a celebration of Dave’s life.” His was a life worth celebrating. It is his early death that they mourn.

Echoes of his laughter are caught like dust motes in the kaleidoscope of winter sunbeams slanting through stained glass windows and warming those crowded into the little chapel. One by one, they step to the altar, cast off their wrappings of grief, and share the memories of his escapades they carry within. When the last laugh fades, his son and his family stand and move to the large marble font at the rear of the nave. The minister annoints his grandchild, and Dave’s spirit is reborn.

petals drop, decay

fertilizing future life

winter unto spring

***

Photographer Susan Judd is sharing some of her lovely photographs at dVerse Poets Pub as inspiration for Haibun Monday: Beauty in Decay. For those of you (like me) unfamiliar with haibun, it is a Japanese form of poetry that combines prose with haiku.

4/19/2016

Faerie Four Step

(Artist :William Blake.c.1786)

In her dream, they hold their ball

Answering the night minstrel’s call

Gossamer gowns glitter, all a-twirl

Faeries emerge to play.

‘Round her pillow they come to meet

Tripping lightly, fleet of feet

Swinging and swaying to the beat

They twist the night away.

***

It's been a long time since I paid a visit to dVerse Poets Pub. Stopping by last night, I was greeted by Grace with a challenge: write a Quadrille using the word "twist" somewhere within its 44 words. I don't know a Quadrille from a Texas Two Step, but it caught my fancy, so...

4/01/2016

The One

Tara of Thin Spiral Notebook issued a challenge: write a 100-word story without using the letter A. How could I resist?

The One

The first time I see her, no voice inside me shouts, “Right there! Her! She's the one.” She isn't very pretty. She isn't even cute. Still, something pulls me to her.

She sits in the corner by herself, eyes down, oblivious to everything. My gut wrenches. The poor thing, she looks so forlorn, forgotten.

I go to her. “Hi.”

She lifts her eyes, those icy eyes! But despite their Nordic frostiness, I see joy fill them when she sees me there. She is the one. I'm in love.

I sign on the dotted line.

“Come on, gorgeous. Let’s go home.”