Blooms Against the Darkness

Light may leave the background dark.
Blooms look brighter where
The background makes a blacker mark
So colors blossom there.


Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Lillian is hosting with a selection of photos.

Photos: The featured photo above is from NadinLisa’s collection at Pixabay one of five images selected by Lillian. The one below, “Blue and Yellow Flowers”, is one I took.

Blue and Yellow Flowers

Is the Sun Conscious?

What we believe about someone
May not be wholly true.
We calculate the outside stuff
And measure till we’re sure enough,
But when we think we’re finally done,
Our doubts then surface, too.


Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics where Lillian is hosting with the request to write a poem on one of four photos from ESA/Hubble.

Photo: I picked the first photo, below, from Lillian’s list with credit to ESA, NASA and L. Calçada (ESO); ESA/Hubble.

Artist's concept of exoplanet orbiting Fomalhaut Credit: ESA, NASA and L. Calçada (ESO); ESA/Hubble
Artist’s concept of exoplanet orbiting Fomalhaut Credit: ESA, NASA and L. Calçada (ESO); ESA/Hubble

YouTube Video: A few months ago I found out that there are people today who think that stars generally might be conscious.   Source: machc1234golf

 

Mask Over Mask

I wear a mask to hide from you
Since you would not believe
The mask I wear below that one,
The one you can’t perceive.
That mask as well is not quite true.
It hides reality
That’s always there and never done
And one that I can’t see.


Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Michelle Beauchamp  (Mish) is hosting with the theme “mask”.

Photo: “Sky Masked By Leaves” by the author and linked to Frank Jansen’s Tuesday Photo Challenge with the theme “sky”.

Autumn Prairie

Whatever comes to cool the air
And make the greenless leaves descend
And make the clouds seem strange up there
I welcome as a smiling friend
Who tucks the prairie in to sleep
And offers dreams for it to keep.


Linked to dVerse Poetics. Kim of Writing in North Norfolk host with the request to write about “one autumnal item”. My item is a photo, “Tree and Grass”, I took last autumn that represents for me the prairie in autumn.

Inside the Refrigerator

Half a cabbage, shadowed low and deep,
Wrapped in plastic took its chance to grow,
Stretched its leaves, awoke from cabbage sleep
Near cheese forgotten also long ago.
We found it and then found a pot and so
A cabbage we once ate, one half of two,
Turned into one again with light and grew.


Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Lillian is hosting and she asks us to look at what’s in our refrigerator.  The poem is written in Chaucerian stanza (also called rime royal or rhyme royal).  I will be using this form for Thursday’s Form for All post.

Photos: “Lucky Cabbage”, above, and “Half Cabbage in a Pot”, below, by the author.

Half Cabbage in a Pot

Turquoise

It’s a funny kind of blue or green
That seems to match my oddly changing eyes.
Turquoise is a stone I recognize
More than that hidden self that stays unseen.


Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Lillian is hosting with the theme of birthstones. Mine is turquoise.

Photo: “Birds and Table at the Park” by the author taken at Navy Pier in Chicago.  The people left and the birds arrived for the crumbs.

Questions That Won’t Tolerate Any Old Answers

What will help me levitate
Above my shallow, mundane state,
Paint my dreams in shocking true
From patient red to brilliant blue?

Where’s the shift that turns the night
Into the mysteries of light
And lets the words that stray today
Be only those you’d have me say?


Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Bjorn is hosting with the theme of questions.

Photos: “The Shoin House at the Chicago Botanic Garden”, above, and “Morning Observations”, below, by the author.

Morning Observations

Rain — #writephoto

Rain is wet like water,
Not so hard as ice,
Not so hot my hand gets hot,
Messy, mostly nice.

The Sun thinks clouds are funny.
They block the warmth of day
Making fantasies up high–
Carousels turn in the sky–
Friendly, flowing play.


Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Lillian is hosting and the theme is to put a positive spin on “rain”, “rein” or “reign”.  I am also linking this to Sue Vincent’s #writephoto prompt.  Come join us in writing for these prompts.

Photo: Sue Vincent provided the photo for the #writephoto prompt.

Sue Vincent's #writephoto icon

Deeper Magic

Is someone out there looking back when we
Look out observing all those mindless things?
Those fantasies we know we truly see
Are changing through Newtonian alchemy,
But then we hear as deeper magic sings.


Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Paul is hosting with the theme “magic”.

Photo: “Pond Inside the Lincoln Park Conservatory” by the author and linked to Frank Jansen’s Tuesday Photo Challenge with the theme “water”.

Walking with the Aid of Shoes and Fairy Tales

Serving underneath my feet
Holding on along the side
Often magically complete:
Every fairy tale’s a treat,
Sweet or terrified.


Linked to dVerse Poetics. Kim of Writing in North Norfolk is hosting with the theme “shoes”.  This poem uses the “acrostic” form which I will feature this Thursday on dVerse.  I am practicing using it.
Photo: “Blue Sky With People Wearing Shoes” by the author linked to Frank Jansen’s Tuesday Photo Challenge with the theme “blue”.  I took the photo at the Chicago Botanic Garden.