Letting Nature Rip Old Pains

“A nightmare is mere fodder for poetry.” ~ Kerry O’Connor

Last year’s screams are being swallowed by the shrieking storm that’s the year to come. My skeleton grins in the rain, letting nature rip old pains, readying the soul for the fresh flesh frock that twists broken pieces whole.

Yes, there’ll be more pain.

But don’t despair (or attempt to flee) when life cracks her relentless whip. To run, a body has to show its back. To bear agony (and persist), a soul must bare her teeth.

Rebirth, by Patricia Ariel

 

for the Imaginary Garden’s “Play It Again! with Real Toads”, where our beloved Kerry lists some of our favorite prompts and invites us to “PLAY IT AGAIN! and AGAIN! and AGAIN!” I chose Izy’s challenge, “Chew through your own chains”. She asked us to “create a list of three words or phrases specific to the worst job [we] ever had and craft a poem having nothing to do with work.” My words are “skeleton, pieces, despair”.

linked to Poets and Storytellers United (Writers’ Pantry #2: Storms and Stones and Warmth). 

Of Your Twilight, the Darkness

Shadows can’t be without light… just like me. Without you, twisting my limbs in our secret garden of little deaths, I can’t find the Self that makes Me. In the Solstice of my tale, you are Sun—new growth, old blaze, life… I know you fear full night. I taste the truth in words you touch to my lips, in caresses you banter to keep, in every rebel gasp my voice rips out of that bit of your mind you’ve wished didn’t whole who you are…

let me be the heart

of your twilight, the darkness

balancing the bright

for Poets United Pantry of Poetry and Prose #9

My Ink and Your Feels

We dance in a garden of ink and feels, plant words out of dreams our wants make real. Your patience puts a gentle hand on the small of my back. My eyes are fixed on your mouth (sipping, sipping, sipping… all the truths your tongue spills)

and our hearts are naked, exposed to all

who dare to look (and see)

my ink and your feels spelling

poems and stories grown out of our flesh and bone (for all souls).

photo borrowed from House of Hawthornes

 for the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads (13 Poetic Bits of Kerry: this piece includes the line “our hearts are naked”, from Kerry’s poem Atlantis Found). I shall also link this piece to Poets United (Pantry of Poetry and Prose #8)

Mouthless; or, an Interactive Retelling of The Little Mermaid

Watching him through a wet veil, she thought, He’s perfect. So, the decision to exchange her voice for his touch wasn’t difficult to make. Not while his tongue warmed her blood.

They had some good days, better nights.

No, there was no happily anything. Mouthless girls rarely get an ever after. They get foam, unless_____________.

Yes, that “unless__________” is an invitation to change the mouthless girl’s fate. An invitation which you, of course, don’t have to accept. But if you do, then I would love to read your ending to this retelling in the comments. 

detail, from “Morning Walk”, a photo by Mario Azzi - on Unsplash

this interactive retelling (which I’m linking to Poets United Pantry of Poetry and Prose #7) was inspired by the frothy water in two of Kerry O’Connor’s paintings

Scars Are Armor

 embraced scars
make the best armor
of living

via

- originally shared last year, right before the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, the blog where I first shared my poetry, closed. Thankfully, the site remains open as an archive, so I didn’t wail too violently. Still, I do miss it...  I wrote this senryū for a prompt where Rommy asked for poems brewed out of “words to live by”. I chose the words scars and armor. And since I just got a brand new scar, it feels just right to re-share this bit on Poets and Storytellers United (Writers’ Pantry #35: Change Happens (for the Better, Let’s Hope) Aug, 2020)