Entries to Express It In Eight from September 2020 to the present . |
The number of poems enforces the use of blog format with ten poems per page. |
The Directional Propensities of the Pigeon Pigeons are known to be fond of home; their desire to get there legendary. Never mind “as the crow flies” - the pigeon brooks no detours. Though single-minded this may be, and home is sweet for everyone, it’s not yours he cares about. Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus! Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 03.22.22 Prompt: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! |
Quandary “Shortest distance between two points,” he said. “A straight line. Straight as a Roman road. No need to survey; it’s flat, no obstacles. Just a few scraggly bushes, no trees, no rocks. Lay the road level and keep going straight, no problem. Here’s a compass. I’ve marked the heading; Follow that and build it as straight as a die. Child’s play.” Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 03.21.22 Prompt: As per illustration. |
Frog Poem Frog climbs from the nursery pond, shining with the sheen of his childhood, seeks the damp and secret places hidden from the day and its searing sun, awaits the cool hand of night, to bound upon the fields of earth, free at last to celebrate new life in raucous chorus with his peers. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 03.20.22 Prompt: World Frog Day. |
Clara’s Head Clara, the big red hen, lifts her head to survey the flock, clucking quietly together, as they pick staccato in the dust. Clara, the big red hen, left her head on the farm, her body plucked and packaged, en route for supermarket. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 03.19.22 Prompt: National Poultry Day. |
Acrophobia Don’t look down. Don’t look down. Yet, when you live on the edge, down is all there is. The abyss yawns, only the rock beneath the feet a hold on sanity. Waiting, perhaps, to learn to fly. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 03.18.22 Prompt: Photo of man standing above an endless precipice. |
Yakkety Yak Dyslexics sometimes get it right, conservation clubs can often be conversation groups instead, a place for hotter air than clean. where arguments of resilience outdo the need for action. Extinction looms upon our deeds, but words will likely fail us. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 03.17.22 Prompt: resilience, extinction, conservation |
Radio Here’s to the sounds of radio, not the eff-em beast of today, but the old kind with glowing valves and weary waits for warm-up, little windows on numbered dials, shrieks and whistles, moans and groans of static interference, garbled voices, as tuning finds the narrow band. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 03.16.22 Prompt: Write an interference poem. |
Grasshopper Oh, grasshopper of the summer days, casting aside all care and caution, to leap with joyous verve and daring, launched into the bright, confusing wind, haphazard missile into perilous future, committed to an unknown landing, awkward, unplanned and reckless arrival, kindling the flame for the next adventure. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 03.15.22 Prompt: Choose a word from each of these poems and use them in a poem of your own: The Poetry of Earth Is Never Dead by John Keats Wind by Amy Lowell Fire by Dorothea MacKellar |
Pygmalion She stares back at us, the automaton future, her face a cold, metallic and careless sheen, blameless in cruelty, blueprinted design, the mirror to our dream, tomorrow’s conscious intent. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 03.14.22 Prompt: Illustration of the robot’s face from the film Metropolis. |
A Classical Illusion Ludwig, though counted as German, had a Flemish grandfather, which explains why he is van and not von Beethoven. Schroeder, being musically inclined, gave no thought to origins and presumed his friend, Jack Beethoven, to be the one in question. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 03.12.22 Prompt: “I always thought Beethoven was a native of Minnesota” - Schroeder. |