A Lady Who Thinks She Is Thirty

By Ogden Nash

Unwillingly Miranda wakes,
Feels the sun with terror,
One unwilling step she takes,
Shuddering to the mirror.

Miranda in Miranda's sight
Is old and gray and dirty;
Twenty-nine she was last night;
This morning she is thirty.

Shining like the morning star,
Like the twilight shining,
Haunted by a calendar,
Miranda is a-pining.

Silly girl, silver girl,
Draw the mirror toward you;
Time who makes the years to whirl
Adorned as he adored you.

Time is timelessness for you;
Calendars for the human;
What's a year, or thirty, to
Loveliness made woman?

Oh, Night will not see thirty again,
Yet soft her wing, Miranda;
Pick up your glass and tell me, then--
How old is Spring, Miranda?

April is National Poetry Month

National Poetry Month is a month-long, national celebration of poetry established by the Academy of American Poets. The concept is to widen the attention of individuals and the media—to the art of poetry, to living poets, to our complex poetic heritage, and to poetry books and journals of wide aesthetic range and concern.

Set Me Free

My eyes
are liquid charcoal
burning with injury
crying no more
my tear ducts
are blocked
with fragments
called pain
empty feelings
stay afloat
fulfillment extracted
never drained
held tightly
between the creases
of clenched fists
like the
hummingbird’s wings
I hum
listen
to the lasting effects
of a rapidly beating heart
anxiously awaiting emancipation:
hmmm,
hmmm,
hmmm…
set me free.

White Stilettos

Fishnet stockings
white stilettos
jet-black wig
through this ghetto
I strut
my gut
hangs low
head held high
what’s that?
hmph!
skin like rawhide
heart of steel
your words mean nothing
(green paper, everything…)
look into my eyes
you have no idea
judge me
check the mirror:
sin is sin.

Ekphrastic poetry is poetry inspired by visual art.

What the eff?

What I love most about poetry, particularly free verse, is that I can essentially be free in my writing. Free from rules and endless possibilities for word choices. There are no pictures, but readers will see images (at least that’s my goal). I tend to gravitate towards poetry with vivid imagery. These poems are especially lovely when read aloud.

I have attended and participated in quite a few poetry readings. While I appreciate poets that write for “shock value” (wow, I didn’t expect that; now that’s a twist), I can’t say that I care for poems with profanity. When I say profanity, I’m talking about the use of the f-bomb and other colorful words that you won’t hear on daytime television. I’ve found that the use of these words can sometimes weaken the effect of the poem because it can draw too much attention to the word. I recall a poet that dropped the f-bomb, not once, but twice in the poem, and I lost focus. At the end of the reading, many people in the audience couldn’t remember what the poem was about. However, what they did remember was that it contained overflowing profanity.

I challenge poets to find other ways to say what they are feeling without the use of vulgarities. Metaphors, similes, alliterations, etc. are so much more effective than obscenities. Let’s exercise and stretch our creativity.