poem a day: 25 through 30

I made it all the way through the Poem a Day Challenge in April, although I did have to make up a few days that I missed. These are the last six poems with their respective prompts. No pictures this time, just words:

April 30: farewell poem

Farewell

Don’t placate me with
fond farewells and promises
to be friends. When you
walk away it will be for good.
There’s no mistake. Someday
when I ask for a moment
we’ll see what kind
of promise you can keep.


April 29: Never _____

Never

Dangerous finality of thought
this nevering, this stomping of feet
this gnashing of teeth

over the silliest of things. Eating
broccoli or brussels sprouts or
making nice with relatives

who long-ago did something so horrid
so insulting you don’t even
remember what it was anymore

only that it was their fault. Never
is the black and white of those
who refuse to accept a life in color.


April 28: sestina

Defiant,
I refuse
to write
a sestina
today
or tomorrow.

Tomorrow,
defiant
like today,
I will refuse
a sestina
to write.

Writing
tomorrow,
a sestina
in defiance
I’ll refuse
just like today.

Today
I’ll not write
I’ll refuse
again tomorrow
in defiance
to write this sestina.

A sestina?
Today?
(defiantly)
I cannot write!
Nor tomorrow!
I’ll still refuse!

This refusal
to write a sestina
tomorrow
or today --
a sestina to write --
I can only defy.

In defiance I refuse
to write any sestina
today or tomorrow.


April 27: a poem of longing

Longing

With no wish to travel to exotic places,
to win the lottery, to drive a fancy car,
I can stand at my own deck railing
or the edge of the sea, and wish
for just a little more time.


April 26: miscommunication/misinterpretation

Lapse of Clarity

A choice is made,
life-changing, permanent,
the result of an off-the-cuff comment
misunderstood in a moment
of confusion. It is a pivotal decision
to walk away, to choose
the inevitable.


April 25: poem about an event

Gold Nugget Days

Hard to imagine the hauling
of a fifty-four pound gold nugget
up a steep mountain
on the back of a donkey
to a northern California
cul-de-sac mining camp
called Dogwood. Hard to imagine
this glittering rock was plucked
from the side of Sawmill Peak
a full ten years after the beginning
of the California Gold Rush.

.