dogtrax

A Poem As List (To-Not And) To-Do:

*Don't do anything in this moment *Ponder the predicament *Juggle words you might require, later *Imagine the story as a poem *Imagine the poem as a song *Imagine the song as a story *Wander *Wonder *Be wary of deadlines *Only then: write

for DS106

Song Cycling

I've slow-pedaled this thing for years each piece, something spoke, in lingering lyrics and subtle chords, a story, unspooling in song, and still, this project remains an abandoned bike, broken, until fingers stretch on strings, pushing melody against surface, again

for #verselove

Glissando, why don't you, trombone slide your voice into my note as we met

Each word, blended together, as if we spoke this poem in duet

for #mastoprompt

It's hard to fathom the warning when listening to an orchestra of birds on such an beautiful morning

It's hard to fathom the warning of a world, built slowly storming,

and how we're told but only heard: it's hard to fathom the warning when listening to an orchestra of birds

a triolet poem for #verselove https://www.ethicalela.com/try-a-triolet/

Poems became the ash of what was left in us when the world fell apart

Spent decades inside this screen and paper, dusty fingers trying to ink together memory, once nearly lost, forever; a heart

knows only what no longer works when parts and pieces collapse, but poets look to plumb the numb, for hurt is the place where a kindled line of wonder and healing might eventually start

for #verselove and #mastoprompt

Waiting on the words; the seeds of inspiration of a friend, out east

for Algot

A river's edge, reflected

a tiny pebble, collected

a smooth surface, inspected

a summer memory, detected

for #mastoprompt

The first song I ever shared with anyone was the song shared with Murph -

my best friend from childhood from the old apartment turf -

a drummer with impeccable time to compliment my rhyme, and when we were teens, we got down to work:

setting up microphones, and a borrowed Tascam four-track recorder,

spending hours like a puzzle putting down sounds in just the right order

And now? I don't know, we lost track in the years;

I moved into writing and then into teaching, and he started a studio, or so I hear

But his beat still provides me with sonic echos of the past, reverberations of Murph and memories that last

for #verselove

What? Were you daydreaming again? 'Cause I missed you in the side pocket, today, a corner shot deep with spin, spoken off the top of my head, my words in full ricochet tinted with scuffed-up blue, when I heard you wonder out loud to a friend, in guffaw: Was I? Daydreaming? Again?

A “What you missed” poem for #verselove

Murmurations

I had starlings on my mind last night as I watched, and then joined, a hundred or so kids and adults storming the gym floor, in motion, traveling in tandem, playful together,

a pulsating flock of bodies on the move, three minutes of relentless action, and the fulcrum source, a soft ball still in motion, a fabric magnet that drew us here, then there, then everywhere

and when a goal scored, the cheer from both sides became deafening, a kind of beautiful thunder no bird ever could make, but we could

for #verselove (inspired by a student vs teacher event at my school) Audio: https://sodaphonic.com/audio/0zU1FUNKkDeY2C6pdlwS