Alternative Names for the Daily Newspaper
- smudged inked fingers, with coffee and scones
- echoed shouts of rolling machines in motion
- camera lens clickclickclickclickclicking
- question/answer question/answer question/
- crumpled thin paper fire starter
- Relic, yet reliable
- Tipping on the balance beam, daily
- The space where death goes to be noticed and remembered
- Paneled fun space art show gallery
- Help Wanted: A daily document to connect the community
for #openwrite
https://www.ethicalela.com/alternate-names-a-list/
inspired by https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/56843/alternate-names-for-black-boys
Hiding Myself in Annotation (An Experimental Poem)
One: See #2
Two: Where a part of me
might linger
in a poet's notes,
the other ghosts to
Three: See #5
Four: You notice I'd crouching
not revealing much, in order
to hide to
Five: In public spheres, where
one so easily disappears,
I am barely these words
as you think you know me
here
Six: See #3 then step to #8
Seven: I am Kevin.
That much is truth.
Eight: I am writer power
poet teacher preacher songwriting
go it alone leaping forward
like skipping stone to #10
Nine: See what I did there? Gave just
enough verse to completely
disappear from here, and then hit
the poem upon reverse
Ten: Back to #7
for #openwrite
https://www.ethicalela.com/steps-to-being-insert-name/
Whose woods these are
I may no longer know
as my shoes dip heavy
through new-fallen snow
The dog's beyond me,
on the trail of a scent
as I follow her tracks,
in silence, seemingly sent
from somewhere above;
trees grabbing midwinter sky
as I hike through the gap
between the ground, and I
for #openwrite with hat nod to Robert Frost (of course)
http://www.ethicalela.com/out-back-a-form/
Let's meet
somewhere
in the music
in the space
between the
staves and sound
vibrations of
the treble clef
Let's meet
somewhere
where chords
connect, where your
notes complement
mine
in the rhythm of
the movement of
the signature of
the time
Let's meet
somewhere
at the start,
and then
let's meet
again at the end:
this joyous
singing heart
for #openwrite
https://www.ethicalela.com/lets-meet-somewhere-diction/
Songlet
Feel free, she told me,
to remember me,
as tree,
to see me rooted in dirt,
the unsettled place where
love clings to hurt
So I sung her song -
I still sing her song -
so I would never forget,
for why make a sonnet,
queries the poet of rules,
when lines break beautiful,
into songlet?
for #openwrite
https://www.ethicalela.com/sonnets-dont-run-away/
Scars
show healing,
too, knife lines
tracing wounded
worlds, places
of exposure
in which fingers
brush up against
the past, the skin
always sharing stories,
with jagged
imperfections
etched deep
inside the heart
for #openwrite
Awake,
when sleep
departs,
listening
to rhythms
of night,
the landscape
inscrutable
but for some
small melody
still yet lingering:
mere gossamer
and translucence
and then gone
for #openwrite
There was a time
when the crowd hushed,
when all of our eyes watched
the ball flung into motion
with such beautiful flight,
its shape slightly wobbled
in the air flow imbalance
of impossibility
It's that breath before
that I remember the most,
the beauty of the possibility
of perfect reception,
and not the drop,
when the world stopped,
and the magic
of the moment, broken
open
for #openwrite
What is
hope
but a rope
for which
to climb
a chance
to take
our time
a moment
in which
we find
something within us
that brings us
together
for #openwrite and #clmooc
The shelves have become
barren of those silly cards,
those throw-away phrases
that always tried so hard
to make us laugh, in aisles
of the grocery store and
boutique shops and kiosks
in the mall, manufactured thanks
spit out by cold machines,
while I'm still one of those few
who settles down in the quiet,
pen in hand, to carve out poems
from the bones of memory,
a crinkled paper-cut of words
tucked into the folds
of your jacket pocket
for #openwrite
https://www.ethicalela.com/thanks/