Poetry Sisters Write Classics

The challenge this month was to write a poem in any form with the theme of classic, or to an image we consider classic.

Life is so hard right now that it was difficult not to focus on the state of the world as I began to write. I  tried to brainstorm some ideas and asked myself, "What is classic?" I immediately thought of the classic cars my father loved and repaired, the "classics" an English major reads, the classics major, and the way my son says "classic" when he listens to his friends talk about their escapades. That short list set me on a familiar path. You see, I've written a lot of poems about my dad since his death, now almost 11 years ago. I'm not sure why, but my heart and poems often seem to find their way to him.  Here's what I came up with.

My Father's Hobby
Worn out shells of classic cars
rusty and forlorn
peaking out from weeds and grass
"Parts cars"
my father called them
culled them for the Fiat
he was rebuilding in the garage
"Junk!"
my mother called them

On Sunday drives we traveled
with the classifieds
stopping to check out
cars for sale
sometimes adding another to the
growing collection of clunkers
each sacrificing a bit of its guts
a carburetor here, a steering wheel there
a stick shift, a parking brake

I often sat quietly on a stool
watching him work
in rain, in cold
hour after hour
his labor of love
in pieces more than whole

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2020. All rights reserved.

You can read the poems written by my poetry sisters at the links below.
Tanita Davis
Rebecca Holmes
Sara Lewis Holmes
Kelly Ramsdell
Laura Purdie Salas
Liz Garton Scanlon
Andi Sibley

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Poetry Sisters Look Back - Take 1

In setting our challenges for this year, we decided that we would take time to revisit poems we wrote in previous outings. I  spent way too much  time looking back through old  posts! Seriously,  this monthly  adventure has  generated a lot of writing. I finally settled on our September 2015 challenge  in which we wrote found poems. I experimented with blackout poems and shared a few I strung together to into a story of sorts. When I looked back through my poetry notebook, I found an unfinished and abandoned poem from this prompt and decided it would be my focus for this month. The first thing I  did was change it from a blackout poem to "white out" poem.  This seems a bit easier on the eyes to me. I also played around a bit with the words I chose to include, changing the theme of the poem.

I found this interesting because my original  post  included a poem created from a recipe by Jamie Oliver. This "lost" poem was created from the August 29, 2002 blog entry from The Julie/Julia Project.

Here's my updated poem. You'll probably need to click on the image to see/read it.

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2020. All rights reserved.

You can read the poems written by my poetry sisters at the links below.
Tanita Davis
Rebecca Holmes
Sara Lewis Holmes
Kelly Ramsdell
Laura Purdie Salas
Liz Garton Scanlon
Andi Sibley


I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Karen Edmisten. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Poetry Sisters and the LAST Friday of the Month - January Haiku

It seems late to be saying happy new year, but welcome 2020. This year my poetry sisters and I will be sharing our challenges on the LAST Friday of the month instead of the first. I'm grateful for the little bit of added time.

This month the challenge was to write a haiku with the theme or foresight, or the new year, or both. I'll admit I normally write every day, but I haven't written anything in a few weeks. It felt good to sit down and put pen to paper. Yes, that is how I write poetry!

Honestly, I would prefer to wrestle with a sonnet than a haiku. Some folks make haiku look easy, but man, getting it right is hard. Here are a few of the poems I wrote.


New Year's morning
recalling the prior year
fills me with gratitude

Janus minds the door
ushers in another year
humbles us with hindsight




January first
the birds in the trees sing
just another day


this year of foresight
cancel my psychic readings
horoscopes be damned


another new year
calendars out of sync
school's not even half over

Poems ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2020. All rights reserved.

You can read the poems written by my poetry sisters at the links below.
Tanita Davis
Rebecca Holmes
Sara Lewis Holmes
Kelly Ramsdell
Laura Purdie Salas
Liz Garton Scanlon
Andi Sibley

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Jone MscCulloch at Deowriter. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Poetry Sisters Write With/In Gratitude

In this final month of the year, our challenge was to write a poem of gratitude in any form. I've been pondering favorite lines  of poetry  and  using them to write my own  poems, so today I'm sharing  a golden shovel that uses a line from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot.

A Golden Shovel for My Poetry Sisters

This is beyond me, myself, and I.
We are friends who have
been tested and measured 
by all that life can throw at us. Out 
of affection and gratitude for my 
sisters, I declare that this life 
would not be the same with-
out you. I am the tea to your coffee,
you are the forks to my spoons.

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2019. All rights reserved.

You can read the poems written by my poetry sisters at the links below.
Tanita Davis
Sara Lewis Holmes
Rebecca Holmes
Kelly Ramsdell
Laura Purdie Salas
Liz Garton Scanlon
Andi Sibley

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Tanita Davis at fiction, instead of lies. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Poetry Sisters Write Villanelles

This month Tanita set the challenge to write a villanelle on a wintry topic. We had the added requirement of including a pair of words (or homonyms thereof) from the following eleven: bleak, draft, gutter, chill, chime, glitter, gust, harsh, rime, nip, thaw.

The villanelle is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. It is made up of five tercets and a quatrain. The rhyme scheme is aba aba aba aba aba abaa. The 1st and 3rd lines from the first stanza are alternately repeated so that the 1st line becomes the last line in the second stanza, and the 3rd line becomes the last line in the third stanza and so on. The last two lines of the poem are lines 1 and 3 respectively.

As much as I love winter, I tend to get the blues from December through  February. I started thinking about the coming season, the snow projections (more than usual for VA), the prospect of indoor recess, the early placement of Christmas items (before Halloween!), and a number of other ideas. Once I started writing, I realized I'd chosen an odd end word for the "a" rhyme, which made choosing words a bit challenging, but the poem finally came together. Here's what I came up  with.

December's Discontent

December’s onset brings a discontent
a case of blues that lingers into spring
when winter’s snow and chill will not relent

Short days a coda to the heart’s lament
it’s fall’s crisp days to which we madly cling
when December brings a discontent

As autumn turns to winter we resent
the doldrums of the months that clip our wings
when winter’s snow and chill will not relent

The house is bleak, the family in dissent
for cabin fever leads to arguing
December’s onset brings a discontent

Time outdoors brings nothing but torment
as ice and wind assault the cheeks and sting
when winter’s snow and chill will not relent

But we'll hunker by the fire, breathe in its scent
and dream of early thaw and blossoms crowning
December’s onset brings a discontent
when winter’s snow and chill will not relent

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2019. All rights reserved.

You can read the poems written by my poetry sisters at the links below. Kelly and Andi are both on  the mend, so we'll welcome their  return  when  they're both feeling better.

• Tanita Davis
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Rebecca Holmes
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by  Tabatha  Yeatts at The  Opposite of Indifference. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Poetry Sisters Write Pastoral Poems

Rebecca set this month's challenge to write a poem in the pastoral mode. We could choose the form and topic, so this one was wide open. Rebecca shared an excerpt from one of my "go to" books on form, The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. I also found Poetry 101: What Is a Pastoral Poem? to be particularly helpful. Here is an excerpt:

What is the Purpose of a Pastoral Poem? 

An overriding, defining theme of pastoral poems is the idea of an idealized vision of country life, in which humans live simply and in harmony with nature. Other common themes and motifs that characterize the pastoral mode include:

• A beautiful, natural setting

• Shepherds as central characters (who are often used as vehicles for political or religious allegory)

• Religious allegory in pastoral poetry is aided by the common association between Christianity and shepherds/flocks of sheep

• The trope of a return to an idealized Golden Age, when humans lived in complete harmony with nature

• Focus on imagined life in the country, rather than reality

• The working belief that country life is superior to urban life

It was hard to live up to some of these motifs, but I gave it a shot. I have been scribbling random lines of poetry all over my field notes this week. I'm not sure I have a finished poem, but the idea here is to be brave and share our drafts. Here's mine.

On Retirement In a Tiny House 

In dreams I Marie Kondo my life
pack what remains into a tiny house
built from reclaimed barn wood
and church windows
(indoor plumbing be damned)

I put down roots in my very own Walden
find solitude in a wildflower meadow
just beside a copse of trees
or shallow, vernal pool
a bucolic spot to loiter through the seasons
my only neighbors the birds and wild creatures

No television, phone, or radio to distract
from the serenading of the hooting owl,
chirping cricket, chittering squirrel

I've all the time in the world
to tend a garden
read books
write poems
walk and wander and wonder
grateful and thrilled to be alive

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2019. All rights reserved.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. 

• Tanita Davis
• Rebecca Holmes
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Kelly Ramsdell
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon
• Andi Sibley

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected at Library Matters. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Poetry Sisters Get Herpetological

Laura set this month's challenge to write a "poem comparing something with a snake — some snake pairing you think has never been done before! 8 lines or less."

Hmmmmm ... my brain has been on overload since I started my sabbatical in earnest 3 weeks ago. I'm going to blame it for my inability to follow the rules in any meaningful way. I did however come up with something that is a close tangent.

What a Herpetologist Sees

That lamp cord, that shoelace,
that bathrobe waist tie,
some pasta just rolled up
jet trails in the sky
Anguiform, serpentine
shapes all around
each place that I look
snakes simply abound

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2019. All rights reserved.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. Kelly will be back with us next time.

• Tanita Davis
• Rebecca Holmes
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon
• Andi Sibley

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected by Sylvia Vardell at Poetry for Children. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Poetry Friday - #DearOneLBH

Today I'm sharing a poem that includes a line from a Lee Bennett Hopkins poem and is inspired by the man himself. He is so very missed.

The line I chose is "He opened the door." It is the first line from the poem entitled Librarian, found in the book School People. Here is that poem.

And here is mine.

Always Opening Doors
He opened the door
to the magic of words
of word play
of metaphor
of poetry
He was pure poetry

He opened the door
for writers of rhythm
writers of rhyme
writers of nature
of space and of time
He was pure poetry

He opened the door
for teachers
for children
for young and for old
for the love of a poem
and the joy that it holds

Lee opened the door

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2019. All rights reserved.

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Poetry Sisters At It Again with Ekphrastic Poems

This month the challenge was to write to one of three photos Sara shared with us. Here's the photo I chose and a few of the poems I scratched out.

Street Art, along the waterfront, Tel-Aviv
Photo by Sara Lewis Holmes

13 Ways of Learning This Landscape

I.
open your heart
open your mind

II.
rely on all your senses
what do you see?
what do you hear?
what do you smell?

III.
start with the sky
the blue
the white
the spaces in-between

IV.
notice the dark
the light
the rising
the setting
the moon and the sun

V.
lower your eyes
to the horizon
where lines blur

VI.
see what rises
out of the landscape
tall and imposing

VII.
admire flora
and fauna
earth and water

VIII.
take your shoes off
sink your feet in the sand
dip your toes in the water

IX.
shift your view
to what man has made
take it in from
every angle

X.
find structures of
concrete and metal
barbed wire

XI.
look for color
for movement
for light

XII.
find it not among
the buildings
but on their sides

XIII.
birds take wing
street art bringing
hope to life

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2019. All rights reserved.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. 

• Tanita Davis
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Kelly Ramsdell
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon
• Andi Sibley

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected by Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Poetry Friday and Triolets

Welcome! Poetry Friday is here today. It's also the first Friday of the month and that means the Poetry Sisters are sharing poems for a new challenge. This month we were charged with writing triolets with heat as a theme.

A triolet is an 8-line poem that uses only two rhymes throughout. Additionally, the first line is repeated in the fourth and seventh lines, while the second line is repeated in the final line. Because of this, only five different poetic lines are written.  The rhyme scheme for a triolet is ABaAabAB (where capital letters stand for repeated lines).

My poem was inspired by a memory of my grandmother and the realization that I was complaining and just needed to buck up and do my work. While writing it, I was also reminded of a letter my grandmother wrote to my father during the war. (One page is pictured below.)

If you can't read it, the portion at the beginning says:

We are having lots of fun trying to get butter, so far we have had enough, & now Truman says we have to tighten up our belts, so we can feed the other countries, & we are going to have to eat dark bread, so there was a flour scare on & Sat. I went shopping in the Star Market & the people in there it was just like a mad house & no flour.

So, that's a long introduction to my poem, which isn't really about heat, but uses the word.

Grandma Quoted Truman

Grandma quoted Truman in times of trial

"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Would tell tales of Depression and war, if you'd just sit a while

Grandma quoted Truman in times of trial

Made my worries seem so juvenile

I think of her words when I feel like bitchin'

Grandma quoted Truman in times of trial

"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2019. All rights reserved.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. (I won't be adding them again to the round-up below, so be sure to visit them!)

• Tanita Davis
• Rebecca Holmes
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Kelly Ramsdell
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon
• Andi Sibley

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today. I'm rounding things up old-school style, so please leave a comment and I'll add you to the post. Happy poetry Friday all!

***************
Original Poems
At A Journey Through the Pages, Kay shares an original poem entitled Lady Liberty.

Kimberly Hutmacher shares a poem she wrote for a clunker swap (cool idea!). It is entitled Be Changed, Be You.

Molly Hogan shares a "little love song to oatmeal" in her poem entitled Oatmeal.

Linda Baie shares a poem entitled Looking Long. It was inspired by the exhortations of a John Moffitt poem that says "If you would know that thing/You must look at it long."

Michelle Kogan is sharing an acrostic poem for the 4th of July reflecting on American values. She's also sharing "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is sharing her poem "For A Little While" in the new anthology I Am Someone Else.

Carol Varsalona is reflecting on nature the part it plays in her writing life. She shares some digipoetry and a cherita.

Matt Forrest Esenwine shares a tanka in the form of photo poem. What a lovely window box!

Irene Latham is sharing a number of poems she's written, inspired by LOST WORDS>

Inspired by the word feldgang, Margaret Simon wrote a poem while looking out her kitchen window.

Heidi Mordhorst is cleaning out, going through papers, and sharing some original poems from childhood.

Mary Lee Hahn is showing off her fence beautification project and her poem entitled The Choice is Yours.

Cheriee Weichel is writing about her family history and sharing these inspired poems. Today's poem is entitled Crossing.

Jone MacCulloch is sharing a lovely haiga/haiku.

Poems of Others
Tabatha Yeatts is sharing the poems of Christine Potter and Cambra Koczkur, two poets writing about current events.

Catherine Flynn is honoring her dad and sharing the poem High Flight by John Magee.

Ruth is sharing a lovely collection of thoughts and poems on and by Donald Hall.

Sylvia Vardell is is asking poets to share poems that did not end up in a published collection. One such poem and an interview with Janet Wong are highlighted today.

Little Willow is sharing song lyrics from the Duncan Sheik song She Runs Away.

Poetry Projects and Exchanges
Linda Mitchell is showing off some of the incredible poetry swap goodies she has received.

Talking Poetry and Writing
Michelle Heidenrich Barnes is kicking off a new series of reader highlights. Today she's spotlighting Linda Mitchell, who also set the ditty challenge for the month.

Poetry Books and Other Inspirations
Carol is sharing a review of Kate Messner's middle grade novel, Breakout, where one of the main characters uses mentor poets to write her own poems.

Myra from Gathering Books is sharing thoughts about the collection Standing Female Nude: Poems by Carol Ann Duffy.

Robyn Hood Black shares a link to her artsyletters Summer Letter. There are so many fun things in it. Do stop by for a visit.

Poetry Sisters Write Skinny Poems

Andi set this month's challenge to write a skinny poem. A skinny poem consists of eleven lines. Lines 1 and 11 can be any length and line 11 must use the same words from line 1, though they can be rearranged.  Lines 2, 6, and 10 must be identical. And finally, what makes this poem skinny, is that fact that all lines except for 1 and 11 (the first and last) may be only ONE WORD LONG. You can learn more about the form at The Skinny Poetry Journal.

This form scared me. Couple that fear with a hellacious work schedule as of late, and that meant I had no poems the afternoon before posting. So, I was poem-less, but promised I'd try my hand at this form. Here are several first drafts of poems I whipped up just in the nick of time.

Skinny 1
A poem is a prayer
a
touchstone
of
truth
a
triumphant
metaphorical
wonder
a
prayer is a poem

Skinny 2
My numbers don't lie
just
forget
the audit
just
trust
my
calculations
just
don't number my lies

Skinny 3
Carefully chosen words
are
poems
stories
psalms
are
epistles
lyrics
speeches
are
words carefully chosen

Skinny 4
Traveling through time:
one
dimensionally
transcendental
TARDIS,
one
Doctor.
We
are
one,
traveling through time.

Poems ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2019. All rights reserved.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. Liz and Sara hope to have poems in the next week or so. 

• Tanita Davis
• Rebecca Holmes
• Kelly Ramsdell
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Andi Sibley

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Michelle Kogan. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Poetry Sisters Write Dizain

Sara set this month's challenge to write a French Dizain, with bonus points awarded for using the word “square” in the poem. This form consists of one 10-line stanza with 10 syllables per line. The rhyme scheme is a/b/a/b/b/c/c/d/c/d. You can read more about the form at Robert Lee Brewer's site at the Writer's Digest.

I played around with a several topics and wrote three poems, all of which are fair attempts at the form. However, I couldn't get past the calendar and the date, so I decided to write one more poem. You see, my father would have been 93 on Sunday. The tenth anniversary of his death is May 7th, and on the 10th, he and my mother would have celebrated 67 years of marriage. I hate that the beginning of May makes me so downcast, especially because I thought it would be easier by now. It's not. Here's the poem I was inspired to write about my dad. I struggle with titles, so this one is untitled at the moment.

In early May my heart’s a hollow square
a box that holds my memories of you
Time heals all wounds but this cannot repair
Ten years without a father, I’ve made do
despite the dark and sad days I pushed through
I long to call you up, seek your advice
This time I’d listen well, would not think twice
Despite the gruff exterior you cared
I knew your heart, your work, your sacrifice
I’m pained by all you’ve missed and should have shared


Here are two additional poems I wrote while experimenting with this form.

How to Write a Poem
A poem doesn’t need to rhyme they said
it’s all about the heart and words you choose
select the ones that mend a broken thread
or square with all you know or just amuse
then tell the story of your faithful muse
take form and substance over what is new
eschew the window dressing, find a view
translate the human drama into art
dig deep into your soul and tell it true
love letter to the world a splendid start


Welcome to Boot Camp
A military life? They were surprised
It didn’t seem the hill I’d want to climb
The day we all arrived we exercised
our independence for one final time
then changed our clothes and scrubbed the floor of grime
We marched from place to place our corners squared
No matter what we thought we weren’t prepared
They broke us down and built us up again
as iron bonds were formed by hardships shared
they gave us swords but I preferred the pen

Poems ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2019. All rights reserved.

I also gave Laura's photo poem format a try and posted another dizain to Twitter. Head on over to check out  my math-themed poem.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. Kelly, Laura, and Andi  are all grappling with life this month, but they'll be back with us soon.

• Tanita Davis
• Rebecca Holmes
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Liz Garton Scanlon

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup. Happy poetry Friday friends!

NPM 2019 Day 30: Personal Ad for a Frog

It's hard to believe that April is coming to a close. The last poem I'm sharing is part of series of poems I am working on that resemble classified or personal ads.

Personal Ad for a Frog
Winter sleeper, spring peeper
Champion hopper, eyes copper
Log squatter, loves water
Bug catcher, heart snatcher
Eats flies, great thighs
Winner of the swimming prize
Better than those other guys
Pick me!

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2019. All rights reserved.


You can see all the poems I shared this month at NPM 2019 Original Poems.
Happy Tuesday all. I'm so glad you spent this month with me celebrating poetry. Since Friday is the first of a new month, I'll see you back here for another Poetry Sisters challenge.

NPM 2019 Day 29: Scenes From a Train

Today I'm sharing a poem I wrote for a 2008 challenge that required using the five words sky, knot, fork, wall, and rose, as well as either trumpet or bullet as the sixth word. I recently dusted this one off and revised it. 

Scenes From a Train
She imagined riding on a bullet train
not in this creeping coach filled with
the sounds of screaming kids,
strains of muffled music, and
buzz of constant chatter.

She stared out the window,
eyes locked on the swirl and
knot of a flock ascending--
an immense black wall of
feet and feathers, wings and wind.

When the sky grayed and opened,
she traced the heavy drops,
rolling in forked rivers and streams
down the glass.

Hours later, lulled by the hum of
steel wheels and whispered voices,
she nodded off and missed
the rose and orange sunset
that quietly followed the summer rain.

Unfazed by all these events,
large and small,
within and without,
the train traveled on.

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2008-2019. All rights reserved.


Happy Monday all. See you tomorrow for the wrap-up of National Poetry Month and one more original poem.

NPM 2019 Day 28: Acrostic Riddle

For more than 10 years I've been working on a series of riddle poems on animal collectives. I'm not sure why I've been stuck on this topic, but perhaps it's because I love words and collective nouns are a fascinating bunch of words. Here's one of the riddle poems, written as an acrostic.

Sticklike legs step and strut
Through tidal flats, mangrove swamps
Awash in pink and vermilion
Noisy honking keeps us together as we
Dig and forage for meals in the mud

Who are we?

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2017. All rights reserved.


My thought in writing these poems is that the collective noun would appear somewhere in the poem, along with clues to the animal. Once the reader turns the page, the animal would be revealed, along with some factual information.

For the above animal, you may be more familiar with the term flamboyance, but a group of these birds is also called a stand.

Image from article Beauty From the Bottom Up

Happy Sunday all. See you tomorrow for another original poem.

NPM 2019 Day 27: Spread the Love

Back in 2017 I was an authlete in the Madness! Poetry competition. My first round word was propagate and I wrote several poems before selecting one to submit. This is one of the poems I did not share.

Spread the Love

Like plants we snip and grow,
we should cultivate kindness,
redouble compassion and caring,
give smiles
in return for nothing.

Like seismic waves that ripple outwards
from the epicenter,
goodwill, charity, and mercy
should be granted
to everyone.

Why do we allow hate to spread?
Let’s choose to propagate love instead.

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2017-2019. All rights reserved.


Happy Saturday all. See you tomorrow for another original poem.

NPM 2019 Day 26: Prince's Lament

As I mentioned earlier in the month, I love to write poems based on fairy tales. Today I'm sharing one inspired by the story of the frog prince.

Prince’s Lament
    Be careful what you wish for. 
       You just might get it …

Curse broken
I was transformed
but I despise this life
(don’t get me started
on my wife)

Restricted in every way
I cannot breathe
or stretch
or hop
cannot eat or sleep
whenever I want

I long to be
refreshed in the pool
to cool in the shade
of the trees
to join the chorus of
song at dawn

Each day I leave the castle
in search of a witch
(a real one)
hungry for a new curse
to set me free

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2019. All rights reserved.


I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink. Happy poetry Friday friends! See you tomorrow for another original poem.

NPM 2019 Day 25: Jade monkey with peach

I traveled to Taiwan, China, and Tibet in 2007. While there, I bought jade figures for both my mother and father. For my mother I selected a hummingbird, for my father a monkey. After my father passed away, I wrote a lot of poetry about him. Here's one centered on that monkey that I've dusted off and revised.

Jade monkey with peach

A small jade monkey
holding a peach
sits on my mantle
just within reach
I often rub its smooth head
proud of the negotiation
skills that brought him
home from Tibet

Dueling calculators the
mode of communication
instead of words there were
head shakes
double takes
rolled eyes
threatened goodbyes
sighs of exasperation
then celebration

A gift for my father
this Chinese symbol
for longevity
that failed to fulfill
its destiny.

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2019. All rights reserved.


Happy Thursday all. See you tomorrow for another original poem.

NPM 2019 Day 24: Acrostic Poem

Because I love poetry and writing, they are often the subject of my poems. Today I'm sharing an acrostic on, what else, poetry!

Phrases imperfect, imprecise
Ordered and reordered
Endlessly
Turned and twisted end over end
Revised
Yet again

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2019. All rights reserved.


Happy Wednesday all. See you tomorrow for another original poem.

NPM 2019 Day 23: Inspired by the Dictionary

I am a word collector. I like to read the dictionary and thesaurus for fun. Sometimes I'm inspired by words I read and write a poem based on them. Here's one of those poems.

miz·zle - very fine, misty rain n.
   [from the Middle English mysell and Middle Dutch misel]

The skies are heavy
with woolen clouds
of gray that
do not dump or pelt
but fairly spritz
the earth
in a nebulous
fog of delicious
rain

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2009-2019. All rights reserved.


Happy Tuesday all. See you tomorrow for another original poem.