They say life’s a blank canvas
Full of infinite possibility
So what are the brush strokes, you’ll add today?
Padre
Life
Life
Choices
Charlotte had a dilemma of sorts. It was nearly time to go back to work, but as she had met up with Debz for her break, it hadn’t really been much of a rest since they chased about a bit checking out the stalls at the sea front. Now her ice cream was starting to melt, and run down the cone onto her hand. Should she throw it out and head to the office, or just eat the whole thing quickly – risking a brain-freeze? Well at over a pound a scoop a little freeze was a small price to pay.
Padre
“Our challenge is all about “opposing forces” and the use of antithesis in our writing. You will need to use the two opposing words in your response – which can be poetry or prose.”
Our words this week are:
– melt and freeze
– rest and work
In The Scheme Of Things
No one’s really a blank canvas
In the grand plan and scheme of things
We tend to carry with us –
All the stuff that life’s journey brings
Our childhoods – which like the Spring
Are merely a green flash
Then adolescent romance hits
With tongue-tied attempts – that tend to crash
Then school is finished
We seek out higher things
Opportunities fresh-squeezed
Life as yet to bear its sting
Some pass through the next few years
A tumbleweed without purpose
Your parents disapprovingly
Acting like you had runaway to join the circus
For some life brings rainstorms
Torrents of savage woe
Under the sea of troubles
Not sure of where to go
But our canvas is not blank
All those experiences to life you bring
Your easel adorned with a collage
A big picture of the scheme of things
Padre
Paint Chip Poetry Prompt #38: Although, I suppose, you are limited by these odd paint chip words and phrases: fresh-squeezed, tongue-tied, green flash, rainstorm, blank canvas, tumbleweed, and under the sea. Because they are a weird conglomeration of words, I’m only going to ask you to use three. But bonus points if your plan is to use them all and you succeed.
Breast
Pixabay
New and full of potential
Ill-defined of what it shall become
Infantile – the word’s true meaning
But full of so much promise – life just begun
Blooming – coming of age
Self-consciousness of the swell
Uneasy transformation
Puberty’s unlocked secret – now to tell
Ample – alluring
Lover’s attentions to titillate
Femininity manifest
Enhanced by lace uplifted – ultimate bait
Nourishing – life giving
New generation to sustain
Painful at times, and leaking
But she’d do it all again
Comforting – familiar
Soul-mate’s harbour secure
To snuggle into safely
Helping life’s pressures to endure
Declining- drawn by gravity
Or by cruel illness – cut away
But the heart beneath still beating
She – as loving, as nurturing in every way
Padre
Nocturnal Bridges
photo by Lerone Pieters via Unsplash
What adventures await us in our dreams?
As in nocturnal slumbers we bridge our way
From past yesterdays to the new today
Padre
Falls
Pixabay
Falls
They stood before the cascading waters and spray of the majestic waterfall. The world was theirs, full of beauty and promise. Hand-in-hand they gazed into their future.
Beautiful – Plunging
Uncontrolled by man’s power
Calming – Turbulence
She stood before the cascading waters and spray of the majestic waterfall. Her world like the waters themselves, careening. Widowed, she walked away alone.
Padre
This week Colleen has challenged us to write a poem in the haibun form. A haibun, she explains follows this format:
- Begin the haibun with a title. The title should hint at something barely noticeable in the beginning which comes together by the ending.
- Your haibun prose can be written in present or past tense including, first person (I), third person (he/she), or first-person plural (we).
- Subject matter: autobiographical prose, travel journal, a slice of life, memory, dream, character sketch, place, event, or object. Focus on one or two elements.
- Keep your prose simple, all excessive words should be pared down or deleted. Nothing should be overstated.
- The length can be brief with one or two sentences with a haiku, or longer prose with a haiku sandwiched between, to longer memoir works including many haiku.
- There are different Haibun styles: Idyll: (One prose paragraph and one haiku) haiku/prose, or prose/haiku; Verse Envelope: haiku/prose/haiku; Prose Envelope: prose/haiku/prose, including alternating prose and verse elements of your choice.
I have chosen to write in the prose envelope form.
In the challenge, Colleen asked that we try to incorporate Frank J. Tassone’s photo (below). I had first thought to write using it and having it as the scene of a “fall,” but that seemed too dark when I delved into it. I then took the licence of making the scene “a little bit further along the cliff at a waterfall,” and setting the narrative on two separate dates spaced years apart.
© 2020 Frank J. Tassone
Happily Ever After
Pixabay
Happily ever after,
So the story books do say
White horses, handsome princes
Fair maidens swept away
But living for the future
Is an error – many have made
Not cherishing each passing moment
And making the most of today
Padre
Looking Back
Pixabay
It is amazing how quickly we can forget from where we have come from. If we allow ourselves to be always forwards looking to greener fields, which many people teach is the right was to proceed in life, we can loose contact with how we got to this point anyway. Who were the people, and what were the circumstances that have given us our outlook on life? Do you recall that teacher who showed confidence in your abilities, and encouraged you to look beyond your self-imposed horizons? Do we remember the loves found, and loves lost that taught us how to love, or sadly how not to? Are we thankful for those rough times, when it just seemed that life was going nowhere, or worse still spiraling out of control? Yet, you are still here, how did those moments make it that you are?
We are the sum of every person we have ever met. We are the legacy of the events that framed us. Let’s take a few moments to day to reflect and recall, and then move onwards into the unknown.
From whence have you came?
And to what place do you now go?
What were those fertile fields –
That nurtured and helped you grow?
You are but one person,
But yet a multifaceted being
You have been moulded and shaped
Everyday by life’s everythings.
Padre
Portals
Pixabay
Milestones
Stepping Stones
Portal gates through which we tread
Birth to first steps
And onward we go
Life ever changing
Adolescence – the springs of youth
Families we make and break
Every portal brings situations new
Until we face that one last gate
Padre
Indiscretions: A Photo Themed Conquain
Image Credit: Balaji Malliswamy
Lurking
Lying in wait
Life’s small indiscretions
Devour you – repent before it’s
Too late
Padre
A Cinquain is a short, usually unrhymed poem consisting of twenty-two syllables distributed as 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, in five lines.
Colleen’s 2020 Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 178 #PhotoPrompt
