No!
by Thomas Hood
No sun—no moon!
No morn—no noon!
No dawn—no dusk—no proper time of day—
No sky—no earthly view—
No distance looking blue—
No road—no street—no "t'other side this way"—
No end to any Row—
No indications where the Crescents go—
No top to any steeple—
No recognitions of familiar people—
No courtesies for showing 'em—
No knowing 'em!
No traveling at all—no locomotion—
No inkling of the way—no notion—
"No go" by land or ocean—
No mail—no post—
No news from any foreign coast—
No Park, no Ring, no afternoon gentility—
No company—no nobility—
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member—
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds—
November!
Since my poems often try to capture what I see and hear, smell and touch, I thought it might be interesting to write a poem about something that describes it by virtue of what isn't there.
So, there's your challenge for the week. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.
So, there's your challenge for the week. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.
Tricia,
ReplyDeleteHere's an animal mask poem about earthworms that I wrote some time ago. I posted it previously at Wild Rose Reader. In the first half of the poems, the earthworms tell what physical features they lack.
We have…
No bones
No shells
No teeth, as well—
No lips, no beaks
No chins, no cheeks
No horns, no claws
No talons, jaws
No legs, no wings…
No fancy things
Like fins or scales
Or fluffy tails,
No blubber like the big blue whales.
We’re soft. We’re small…
Not much at all.
We’re nondescript—
But we’re equipped
To eat your dirt.
It doesn’t hurt
Us--not a bit.
In fact,
We like the taste of it.
We toil in soil.
We’ve got true grit!
Thank you, Elaine! This is just what I was thinking of. I'm so glad you shared this.
ReplyDeleteThis stretch made me think of the brief interlude in our home between Eli and Cali....sigh.
ReplyDeleteDogless House
No one waiting by my door.
No lickingwigglingwags galore.
No one barking anymore.
I’m going home.
What for?
I am decidedly not a poet, but I love reading your Poetry Stretches, so I decided to give one a try. I had planned to write something about everything my family misses while my husband is deployed. Instead, I ended up writing this fairy tale-inspired poem about being a custodial stepmother:
ReplyDeleteNo poisoned apples or magic mirrors
No waiting for night in a woodcutter’s cottage clutching the edge of the forest
No spells, no curses, no magic wands
No potions that twist brothers into birds; no arms growing feathered in the morning sun
No lentils to sort, no floors to scrub, no hunting for strawberries in the snow
No ugly, one-eyed daughter sleeping, selfish, in your upstairs room
No royal huntsmen serving your heart for my dinner
No, I’m not your real mother, flying through the window to shower you with gowns like the sun.
But that doesn’t make me the witch.
Tricia,
ReplyDeleteIt was one of those gray autumn days without any sun here. It inspired me to write another poem for your stretch this week. It's a quickie "what isn't there" triolet.
NO SUN TODAY
No sun today.
No blue sky bright.
The clouds are gray.
No sun today.
No dazzling rays.
No yellow light.
No sun today.
No blue sky bright.
Going Back to Bed After Getting Up on the Wrong Side of It
ReplyDeleteDone un-.
Plus non-.
Difference in-.
Citement ex-.
Mood nix.
[If I have time, I'll shoot for something a little more upbeat!]
Hi Tricia--lovely to meet you at last!
ReplyDeleteMy Late Husband
The door creaks open.
It’s only air.
I hear your laugh.
You are not there.
I know you’re ashes
Underground
Without a body,
Heart, or sound.
I know you’re gone.
I watched you die.
Yet still you’re here.
I wonder why.
I do not scream
Or shed a tear
Because I want you
Here
and here.
Wow. What a mix of poignant poems and clever ones. Jane, I'm speechless. Owlinthelibrary--hate to break it to you, but you are a poet.
ReplyDeleteI hope to give this a try later this morning.
Here's mine-- I took a slightly different approach. Full Moon and Fog
ReplyDeleteHi Tricia ~ Had to post this one (tee-hee) about selling my daughter's trampoline and what wasn't there.
ReplyDeleteTHE TRAMPOLINE
It’s gone, that vestige of my
daughter’s youth, strapped to the
back of a pickup and ripped away, now
sprawling recklessly in a neighbor’s back
yard. Little did they know, late last night
I seized one final frolic, climbed aboard the
rusty relic that lazed for years on my front lawn
and before I knew what happened my nighty took
flight. I whipped that baby off my menopausal bod
and bounced, naked as a newborn, on that tarnished
trampoline, soaring like the titmouse that nests ‘neath
my porch, while a lecherous moon leered through limbs
of lanky oaks, surely amused by this midnight trollop.
I watched my neighbors grapple with it the next day
cart it across the grass, reckoning how in the heck
they’d get it home, while I sat and smirked
knowing full well, how I had romped
with this ol’ codger, the night before.
© Carol Weis, all rights reserved
I got a little carried away, and, due to the formatting I can't add my poem to the comments. It's posted at RandomNoodling.
ReplyDeleteNo Tree
ReplyDeleteNo tree, no branch,
no children swinging
into space and back.
No clean cotton socks,
no grumpy cactus prickle,
no slime of stately snails.
No runner's rhythmic breath,
no ragged shout of wind,
no tinkling unseen bells.
No warm embrace of bread scent,
no ripeness of spring earth,
no sour murk of skunk.
No ageless taste of sea salt,
no apple's autumn crunch,
no sweet melt of ice cream.
Nothing.
Nullness.
No one.
None.
Nearly
nowhere.
Yet, painted
in stolen sunlight
and its own wealth
of shadows, none
has more fair a face
than Moon.
--Kate Coombs (Book Aunt)
What a range again this week!
ReplyDeleteOwlinthelibrary - What a lovely phrase: "No potions that twist brothers into birds..." Wow - you might not think of yourself as a poet yet, but you've got good instincts for poetry! Hope your husband is not in harm's way and that if he's currently deployed, that he'll be coming home soon, safe & sound.
Such a wonderful selection of poems this week. Mine isn't the best of poems but it does come from the heart. How odd that this would be the stretch this week when I am, in real life, grappling with what isn't there.
ReplyDeleteThe Father Who Never Was
No large hand
to wipe my tears
protecting me
from all my fears
No shoulders
to ride so high
to watch parades
as they goes by
No trike training
or driver's ed
No late night talks
while mom's in bed.
No homework help
with science class
No begging me
to cut the grass
No boyfriend inspection
No first car selection
No father daughter wedding dance
Not even just a single chance
to see my father smile and say
yes, you're mine, in every way.
- Susan Taylor Brown
These are wonderful. I need to remember to post early, so I'm not embarrassed by my own contribution. Although it's interesting when themes turn up surreptitiously -- I see another "no tree" above.
ReplyDeleteTyler Elm
No Tree, there is.
Only tree space,
The absence of branch and leaf
A swing-sized hole,
The memory of standing on a wooden seat
And the photo to prove it;
The snowmen built in a storm,
Under its sheltering limbs,
And the storm that made No Tree
No Tree.
No Tree, there is
Only shadow,
A hundred years solid
And now a ghost
An apparition in an old film
With the movie star beneath
On the old familiar swing.
Even now, it creaks
But there is no swing,
No shadow.
Only the opposite of what once stood
And sheltered
And held up.
Only No Tree.
I don't know why my post doubled. Can you delete it and I can re-post? Sorry for your trouble.
ReplyDeleteme