Linda Kruschke – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Two Challenges

Dale offers the theme “in bloom” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

Linda Kruschke’s Paint Chip Challenge this past week requires us to use ten of the following:

sunflower, watermelon, pool, in your eyes, clear skies, before the rain, margarita, hot sauce, zest for life, heavenly, sunshine, total eclipse, out of the blue, the whole enchilada, and yellow brick road

Loss

In your eyes I saw clear skies
before the rain that day.
All left at once out of the blue,
the sunshine and the sunflower, too,
the hot sauce zest for life I knew.
Our margarita laughing pool
shut down. You went away.

Buildings of the Past

Dale offers the prompt “buildings of the past” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge. The photos are from an old home preserved in a park in northern Illinois.

Here is my poem for Linda Kruschke’s Paint Chip challenge.

A tiny trinket out of jade
deceptively was smoothly made.
I bought it. Why? I do not know.
My dreaming mind got caught, went slow.
I wonder now how much I paid.

On a Small Scale

Dale offers the prompt “on a small scale” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge. I’m hoping these bees are small enough.

Linda Kruschke’s Paint Chip challenge this week featured occasional poetry for Mother’s Day.

Gaia really wasn’t there
the way my mother was.
The full moon of the night or dawn
were never heartbeats I’d count on
the way my mother’s was.

My Green World

Dale offers “my green world” as the prompt for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

And here is my submission to Linda Kruschke’s Paint Chip poetry challenge for this week.

There’s quicksand by the pearly gates
for those who wander off the way,
who love the breezy, sleazy mud.
Then pleasure pops – another dud.
On pins and needles now they say,
“Let’s try again!” And there they stay.

In the Big, Wide, Open Spaces

Dale offers the theme “in the big, wide, open spaces” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

I wrote this poem in the comments section of Linda Kruschke’s Paint Chip narrative poetry challenge.

The Night of the Jack-O’-Lantern

The jack-o’-lantern’s hollow nose
turned darkly down on Antique Rose.
Its scornful eyes pierced Mistletoe.
Its toothy mouth warned them to go:
“It’s easy peasy in the street
Where greens and pinks and yellows meet.”
But pleasure wasn’t why they came.
No morbid magic, flashing flame
Could substitute for righteous light.
They stood their ground, prepared to fight.

The jack-o’-lantern burnt all night.

Its pride at dawn collapsed within.
Mistletoe knew they would win
And so did joyful Antique Rose.
Their faith like Mustard Seed’s still grows.

Art For Art’s Sake

Dale offers the prompt “art for art’s sake” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge looking for something “out of the ordinary, manufactured, morphed or manipulated”. These are the parts of fallen palm branches waiting by the road to be picked up as trash. I think they are out of the ordinary, but the only morphing I did was to crop out some of the photo and enhance the color and light.

Last Friday Linda Kruschke’s Paint Chip challenge was to write a one line poem along with at least two of the required words or phrases she selected from paint chip samples. I submitted the first line in the following poem using “bright idea”, “margarita” and “castle” from the list. Since one line didn’t seem enough I’ve added three more to this nonsense-or-not poem.

Aquarium

Some bright idea said, “Go swim beyond that margarita castle.”
I knew I should and would, should I be good, but good was such a hassle.
Now deep in hell the water’s – well, this margarita’s cooking.
I do recall before my fall that castle was good looking.

Lisa Tomey announced that Heart Beats has been published. I have a poem in this anthology. I am grateful to her for accepting it.