The second of my collections of poems written for "Express It In Eight." |
As usual these days, I choose blog format because it offers more space for the work. |
Toolbox Never had a workshop though I’ve worked in factories never owned a power tool though I’ve operated machines never had a toolbox the kind that spreads when open with lots of small compartments for this and that and t’other. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 10.05.24 Prompt: Write a toolbox poem. |
Interstellar Of course, it’s true that you’ll need a licence; the fact is this time it sure is rocket science - which you’ll know from the force of the boot up the bum! That’ll open new fields of expectation and fun. And you may think me terribly direct and brutal, but for the moon and beyond I’m still the most crucial. It will always be so until the day that you have the scientist’s pipe dream that is called anti-grav. Line count: 8 Rhyming couplets For Express It In Eight, 10.04.24 Prompt: Write a poem from the point of view of a mode of transportation. |
Techie He peers through goldfish glasses is not the kind to make passes his skin so pallid like the screen life scripted in black and green Lightning tapping at the keyboard dreams expressed in coded words so he builds our future bright the techie in the binary night. Line count: 8 Rhymed couplets For Express It In Eight, 10.03.24 Prompt: Write a technology poem. |
Farm Animals ‘Tis in the farmer’s best interest to keep his animals happy, for ill and dejected beasts leaves the consumer a thwarted chappie. ‘Twas only industrialised farming, with battery chickens and the like, that soured the whole idea, giving clients a reason to gripe. Line count: 8 Rhymed abcb For Express It In Eight, 10.02.24 Prompt: World Farm Animals Day. |
Words Words gather moss like static stones, clothed in association they grow, gathering nuance and wealth and life, stealing the suggestions of friends. Some coalesce to secret guilds, choosing companions with care, others strike out on their own, seeking their own private fief. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 10.01.24 Prompt: Quotation regarding the enhanced meaning of words. |
Aside I love the sound of breaking glass, the fourth wall descending in a shower of shards, my arm reaching out to grasp your collar and drawing you in to say boo in your face, yet adding spice to your suspension of belief as you become complicit in creation, grinning with me in recognition of deliberate interjection. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 09.30.24 Prompt: Interjections. Note: There is a chapter in my book The Gabbler’s Testament that is one long interjection or “breaking of the fourth wall.” |
Old Groaner Grumbles whether empty or full busies himself in secrecy sends his demands in disguise cares not a fig for status speaks loud when he feels ignored mutters in dreams when replete swells in pride when pandered and shrinks to nothing when starved. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 09.29.24 Prompt: Write a famished poem. |
Old Age Old age is a cardboard box emptied of all allure boundaries square and set contents departed space now for cats’ play imagination coiled in a cube weightless yet bold a toddler’s delight. Line count: 8 Free verse For Express It In Eight, 09.28.24 Prompt: Movie titles (ignored for once). |
Forgiveness Boy, you’re going to carry that weight, it’s a boulder upon your shoulder, a huge obstruction in your fate, to bend your back as you get older. Set it down on the path behind, let it lie forgotten in the sun free its clogging grip upon your mind and let your joy explode in how you run. Line count: 8 Rhymed abab For Express It In Eight, 09.27.24 Prompt: National Forgiveness Day. Note: Thanks to Paul McCartney for the first line. |
Exoskeletons In the land of insects where the bugs do fly, the lawn’s a mighty forest and the deserts magnified; so huge are the obstructions and catastrophe so vast, survival needs great stamina and armoured outer cast. The creatures there like tanks go lumb’ring to and fro, their carapace so clumsy and their faces made of stone, they spin their webs and beat their wings, they chirp and grind and holler, in alien chorus sing. Line count: 8 Rhymed couplets For Express It In Eight, 09.26.24 Prompt: Article regarding the appearance of insects. |