Friday, April 9, 2010

napowrimo # 9

The prompt is - complicated.
Use at least twelve words from this list: flap, winter, torch, pail, jug, strum, lever, massage, octopus, marionette, stow, pumice, rug, jam, limp, campfire, startle, wattle, bruise, chimney, tome, talon, fringe, walker.  Mention something that tastes terrible, a sound that is pleasant, and include some lines from one of your failed poems.   Oh my!




Stopping By


A blustery evening.
Chimney smoke
of burnt wood 
acrid on my tongue.
I'm a lonely walker
at the fringe of town,
startled by wing's flap
and talon's click
in the graveyard.
Rather than flee, I enter.


Other than a pail
and a pottery jug                                       
not stowed away,
all is in order.
The wind strums in
winter’s thin branches.
I'm walking to your
grave marker.
In lurches of moonlight
as swift black curtains
blow aside, I see mound
after mound, neat beds
with grass rugs tucked tight
and stone headboards.


These dead
once watched the same moon
shining now on graves empty
of souls passed from here.
Are you there beyond those
swift black clouds, there among
the winking specks I see
in patches of night sky?

                    Wanda McCollar

11 comments:

  1. Wow, really nice one, Wanda! Your seriousness paid off!! The last stanza is beautiful, and the images throughout this poem are awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i agree your last stanza couldn't be lovelier. This is really a love poem. I like your photos too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. And glad that you didn't flee, though that might have been interesting, too. I like the graves as empty.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Wanda,

    Very atmospheric and a very different story.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I found this prompt impossible, but see you've done a beautiful job. Like others here I love the last verse particularly.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Seamless and beautiful :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wanda,
    You certainly used the words beautifully!
    Pamela

    ReplyDelete
  8. You create a wonderful atmosphere Wanda.
    Clever and beautiful poem.Chapeau!

    ReplyDelete
  9. WOW! You are so brave!!! And I don't think you complicate things, I think you did a lovely job with the prompt. BRAVA!

    My Day 9 Poem

    ReplyDelete
  10. Exquisite, Wanda! Right up there! Mine is a contemporary Petrarchan sonnet to our familiar rural cypress (Macrocarpa) here in New Zealand. It meets all the requirements of the prompt...a definite slam-dunk! Don't miss "Little Song" at www.gregoconnell.com

    ReplyDelete