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Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company! discussion
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Haiku
a rainbow colored
hair got tangled in the wind
a dream catcher's tale
hair got tangled in the wind
a dream catcher's tale
Dream catcher shines goldSun from the lowing dusk- she
sleeps by the window.
Crimson flame dervish Alights between dry gum boughs
Three Rosellas dance.
Day makes its good-byeAs the sky pierces crimson
swirls come to violet.
Sunsets were pagesfrom mouldering calendars
set in Monotype,
the shore where we walked,
the reeds and an eggshell moon,
done in tempera.
House darkened to night;walls floors brought to sweet slumber
while watched by the moon
The gibbous moon lightBathes the cracked and broken floor
The owl keeps watch.
The night wrought onlycrackling chirps of crickets and
intermittent "who"'s.
The hoarse owl wonderedwhat she should do, and, frantic,
dialed up Doctor Who.
I muttered in sleep,“Miss Gray Eyes waits, holding keys
to the rusting gates,
“to a lane beyond,
a viola played where leaves
cast their dusty shade.”
She sang. The lane wound
among low hills. The moon rose
from mists of a moor.
Her fingers found mine
as the crickets’ trills traced some
strange key signature.
She dwelled in ruins
hidden by vines, and led me
through high, vaulted crypts,
and things she murmured
seemed beautiful lines she’d learned
from lost manuscripts.
Moonlight on gothic
tracery of tall windows
glowed like phantom smoke.
Her lips, her fingers,
struck in me a heartsick chord,
from which I awoke.
Beautiful writing, M. What a scene; surreal and mesmerising. 'Miss Gray Eyes waits' is haunting. Love it!
Oh, M. The only thing I can think of that will describe your lovely haiku is "shiveringly delicious!"
Thank you, Lil! It’s the laundry room school of poetry. I like writing 5-7-5’s while I’m starching and ironing shirts.
Behind twilit walls,along secret, milky ways;
infinity calls.
Great fun, M. Gothic, haunting and completely engaging. Al, this got from me another inappropriate response, as it made me smile and chuckle. Nicely metaphysical Ryan.Into omega
Her soft kisses on my arm
Take me past the moon.
From here the walls disappear
And lost secrets become truth.
When he encounteredhis droll ex, she was wearing
a sparkling Rolex.
She smiled. “Omega
was my watch. Since my divorce,
I’ve moved up a notch.”
The Omega turnsThe hands on my watch, ticking
My lifetime away.
For her sake I goIn turns around my unformed face
Waiting for my time.
To make up lost timeI dream that the clock will stop
Hearing my talk tick.
But when I begin to speak
My quick words have fled my tongue.
When his watch's dialbegan to glow, her face peered
from the date window,
whose scratched acrylic
magnified her mute desire--
fair skinned, auburn eyed.
Her humunculusPeered past the back of my face
Into dark shadows,
Wherein there lives long dead thoughts
Finding their way to love her.
She ran off, marrieda pygmy with bad b.o.
and borborygmi.
Oi vey and oh boy!She was never short of quips
For her sweet pip squeak.
What celestial,swank hairspray gives her updo
its flawless alloy,
as if she were lost
in the Milky Way, adrift
on an Almond Joy?
The verses she wrotewere modal riffs, scenes that glowed
at an old drive-in.
She was a cenote
whose vine-hung cliffs, whose still depths,
lured him to dive in.
Handed the award,the pin-striped midget calmly
spoke, didn’t fidget,
but held his chin up,
looking proud--first to spot a
homunculus cloud.
Isn't it a shameusing midget as a name
will win you no fame.
For it is, you see.
not in any way PC -
sad, poetically!
Sorry, M! That's an awful haiku pairing, but your wonderful one reminded me of a short, intentionally humorous poem I once wrote (printed below)that I was called out on because I used the words "giant" and "midget" that were once descriptive of people with certain physical birth defects or conditions that are now considered pejorative - which really saddened me because they work so well sometimes poetically, and I was only using them in that way, not aiming the words at any sort of demographic group.
Reminds me of my mother's regret at not being able to comfortably describe any sort of happy person or situation as "gay." She felt that she had been robbed of a wonderful word, descriptive of many things, and she, of course, was right!
Paper or Digital?
© 2011 Paula Tohline Calhoun
The question of paper or digital
Is one neither giant nor midget’ll
Ever be able to answer to
The satisfaction of someone who
Insists it be answered one way or the other,
‘Cause I asked a midget and her giant brother,
Hoping to get the matter decided,
Before her nose and his knee collided!
I’m still waiting for what their answer will be -
For the long and the short of it seldom agree.
This was included in a post (same title) that is germane to much of my writing. It was written in 2011. If you or anyone are interested, the link is:
http://paulatohlinecalhoun1951.wordpr...
BTW, since homunculus is now generally used in a medical/scientific/cellular specific way, I wonder if the male "little people" would object to it? Just wondering. . . *grin*
I must admit, rhyming digital and midget’ll is pretty smooth!
What it is is outlandish and slick - not smooth! But thank you anyway!
I associate the homunculus with what little I’ve read about alchemy.
M: Interesting, because the little I have read or seen it used is in reference to cellular growth and structure true. . .now that I think of it, those Re all of a piece, anyway. Lately, I would take alchemy over medicine any day!
The blonde hairdressersoon made me her willing slave
in the salon chair.
Now my confessor,
she slaps me with aftershave,
dusts off my clipped hair.
(I’d better add a footnote to that. The tie-in was alchemy. It was going to rhyme with talcum me. Somehow, that stanza didn’t work out.)
M, very clever.The hair she collects
To doll up her doll of me
And make alchemy.
Sorry. Not good. Have fun.
Neither good nor badWe judge our work by feelings
That come and go, spent.
She left him livingin a tent, his Jaguar sold,
all his money spent.
The morning is here.Outside this tired dew damp tent,
The cat flicks its tail.
Here kitty, kittyCome to your mama, for no
One else should love her
((I know it was a really bad follow up of one beautiful poem, Guy, and I'm sorry.))
Lil, no apology required after being creative and imaginative.With an easy grace
And calm obstreperous face
She went to the dog.
[Ah.... [Shrug.] Sometimes my word muse needs to stretch. I find it amusing. whereas, perhaps the reading world finds it bemusing, annoying and/or obnoxious. Lol. How to 5-7-5 that?]To amuse my muse
Of words requires that I use
Words that oft confuse.
There is nothing likeA five dollar word when
Nickel words are blah!
I'm with you, Guy. My father always chose the $5 words when applicable because they were more precisely descriptive of the subject about which he was writing or speaking. If he said something I didn't understand, he would just say "Go look it up." There's no harm in urging people to expand their vocabularies; although I will say that many times the high dollar words are used by people who either want to confuse (in which case the word is useless, unless that was the plan), or to feel somehow superior (in which case the whole thing is just pathetic).
When Bess froze in place,then squatted, Arnold, piqued, asked
why she would stop so.
Pointing down the leaf-
strewn trace, she said she’d spotted
a Lhasa Apso.
Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company!
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