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133 · Sep 2022
Divine Comedy
bulletcookie Sep 2022
hearts suffer great loss
hummingbird's tongue drips nectar
wings muted beating

-cec
130 · Jul 2022
Honey
bulletcookie Jul 2022
as perfumes linger
high summer Linden flowers
flutter by senses

-cec
130 · Feb 2020
Allegretto
bulletcookie Feb 2020
this feeling
bears no home in one thought
here in this heart it dwells
beating orchestral thunder
waiting its next tidal currents
bringing closer a stranger specter
paws impressed on deep forest moss
wandering easy with force and might
descending within a primal wilderness
jolting these foundations
in passion's yield

cec
127 · Aug 2021
Mending Wing
bulletcookie Aug 2021
deep within this hardpan soil
lives a seed of hope
fallen out of curious Pandora's
empty wooden chest of woe

awaiting millions of moist tears
to permeate its germane heart
beget its roots and shoots
of nature's salve for carnage

when all fury breaks bone
and spirit's frayed tether
life spins its gears of light
spawning will and grace together

-cec
123 · Oct 2021
Apostrophe
bulletcookie Oct 2021
Dear MIA─
are you all-together there
in the middle meadow?
or do your legs bob down-
stream on a turbulent current?
ball blown by cannon's snort
resounding echo at gathering
triangle's bar calls to family arms
embracing memories of the missing

the dog tags wine on distant shores
scratching in the mud of our before-father
mothers in their labor fear, and loath
each forgetful life added to the toll
fenced in by limp flags near stone mounds
buried with ritual lies of nationalist hounds
each border marking a resting place
for an unknown billeted body, not there

-cec
121 · Mar 31
Early Bird Prompt
bulletcookie Mar 31
Dear feathered friend
what do you rend?
a worm from down low
or grub with no toes

Up 'fore dawn's porridge
you care for no storage
'cept to fill a small belly
with nutricios bug jelly

Quick in you flutter, by an' bye
tree's tea leaf readings, fool the eye
you twitter, tin whistle, and tweet
announcing your day's avian treats

-cec
120 · May 2021
May
bulletcookie May 2021
May
sidewalks blush with cherry blossom snow
robin redbreast ***** its hunting eye
black-cap chickadees flick forage now
seedlings wait for morning's warming sigh

winter hides to higher mountain's keep
gravity's cold rivers run riot
****** crows caw into forest deep
awakened buds drip dew in quiet

clouds roil vortices and thunder
break to sunlight's laser sculpted aura
spring released poltergeist toss und turn
nature remembers when it was young

-cec
120 · Nov 2021
Garden Songs II (Haiku)
bulletcookie Nov 2021
morning sun, glass sliced
spectre colors tinge curtains
autumn's complexion

-cec
119 · Sep 1
Sandalwood
bulletcookie Sep 1
The crackling pine cones of summer
silent in the early autumn mists
shouting geese gathering in dancing lake
the world lays back north for winter slumber

-cec
117 · Oct 2021
Behold
bulletcookie Oct 2021
the rustling of the yellow leaves
tug upon the branches
bending trees that yaw and weave
high above the benches

the outlook waters roll and dip
to sculpting hands of air
there ducks that float like sailing ships
with backs that show no care

sitting, mulling near this shore
in chatty wind's discourse
cumulus thoughts of nature's tense
absolves the bonds of sense

-cec
117 · Feb 2018
New Day
bulletcookie Feb 2018
in darkness comes light
reflected in waters, sky
colors bleed sunrise

-cec
116 · Sep 2023
Dry
bulletcookie Sep 2023
Dry
ink well absent ink
pen in hand hovers wordless
fall's evening breeze waits

-cec
116 · Apr 2020
Green Lake
bulletcookie Apr 2020
rolling waves that break and linger
wind swept, goose-bump surface, skimmed
waters trembling under sweeping fingers
on age worn hand of lake's turbulent skin

drifting leaves and pollen painted eddies
washing up against soil's soft shore
spent and doomed without commission
while others to complete root's core

to distant waving limbs of tree tops
crows twist and lunge to claw a branch
there racing clouds that brush the sky line
as steel gray waters define their path

maple flowers rain off twigs from snapping
on muddy grass where  puddles trespass
we take our strolling in Fleur-de-lis ease
as April towers on cumulus breeze

-cec
edit 6/29/2020
116 · Nov 2022
All of our agents...
bulletcookie Nov 2022
Please stay on the line ─
waiting, waiting, waiting
in line, in lines, on-the-line
while ...
Muzak, playing rings around
and around; a merry-go-round
of instrumental oblivion

twenty minutes times infinity
life in a bottle floating on an ocean
of numbers, rings, dial tones, silence
disembodied voices giving quarterback signals
that misdirect a defense
throwing a yellow flag of neurosis
an empty, time out, receding stare

-cec
110 · Feb 22
Thomas Jefferson
bulletcookie Feb 22
The storm has been blown apart
Only cotton ***** sail in blue skys
below a lake ripples

-cec
109 · Oct 2021
Heron
bulletcookie Oct 2021
swooping in all wings
legs, backward knees, wade in mud
fall leaves swim shallow

-cec
107 · Nov 2020
Transient
bulletcookie Nov 2020
not stopping here for long—
tin droplets of rain water
slivers of sun shine through
silver wood barn boards
while each suspended mote
hangs star like in still life
eyes adjust, just slow, to forms
silence is not really empty
wind moves ghostly
stable straw stiffly shuffles
startled shadows explode in sound,
muffled feathered wings, boxing
splintering spell into evening's hours

-cec
106 · Apr 24
Spring Ode
bulletcookie Apr 24
“The Attic warbler pours her throat,
Responsive to the cuckoo's note,”

A blackhead chickadee arpeggeos across the plum's branch,
white petals floating down to pointillist path,
where a green and muddy ground catches moist spring.
Minuscule wing swarms dance circles and zigzag tunes
to April’s breezy baton in overture to nature.
Snow-bells, pawnbroker hang, while crocus stand in purple/yellow ranks of elliptical rooted silence.
Oh gentle air of ancient curious prīmo vēre,
what wonders will you issue forth and form?
With outstretched arms and hearts we welcome you,
your nurturing ways of equanimity in equinox so true.

-cec

"Ode to Spring" by Thomas Gray
4/24- NaPoWriMo - write a poem that begins with a line from another poem
105 · Oct 2021
Ache
bulletcookie Oct 2021
a thousand beautiful moment
as full on brakes, applied
to the truck, full of cord wood
aimed to plunge over rocky cliff
of love, so strong, crushed in loss
though sought after in dreams

-cec
104 · Nov 2021
one more time
bulletcookie Nov 2021
picked up the phone
ringing in tongues

hello dear words
time stamped in white

idioms in digital limbo
casting a net of zeros and ones

primal packets once dots and dashes
hoping to gain sound or sight

numbed senses by arthritic messages
left twisting in the wind of microseconds

faster than a speeding bullet
but unable to leap imagination's bound

there it is again
a ringing in the ear, carnival sounds

-cec
100 · Apr 1
Word Prompt
bulletcookie Apr 1
Cage- outside looking in
Ocean- big bang without the bang
Time- currently does not have itself
Cedar- hats, rain shaws, baskets, bark box
Window- sometimes clear, sometimes  obscured
Sword- ugly, no matter how beautifully made
Flute- makes that elusive dream sound like mist

-cec
NaPoWriMo
97 · Apr 2020
Perseverance
bulletcookie Apr 2020
Like bark on a tree
this face showed understanding and compassion
after years of weathered, wood-pecked patience

-cec
96 · Sep 2021
Brown Leaves
bulletcookie Sep 2021
hanging by a drying stem
last day's wind worn remanent falters
no more sweetness or shared strength
countless others gone first without alter

fall's dull bodies, come light on grass patch
stiff, with apparent veins and discolors
rattle to ground to sound a hollow scratch
across an empty cul de sac of lost honors

from kind, distant branches, hush
evening swings a frosty chill
to gloaming trills of wood thrush
winter songs of wounded will

-cec
96 · Apr 16
in non sequitur awe
bulletcookie Apr 16
A star born at the edge of our universe,
gray haired now and older than the Big Bust.
Technology’s Webb has pulled the rug out
sending science math and models stumbling.
Suddenly we are fly falling through space/time, infinities spreading infinitely.
A maul opens wide to swallow all in awe,  
leaving lost sheepish looks on academics.
Most humans living in somnambulant’s dream, naive to the allusions of red shift in gold leaf mirrors, chained Cave dwellers in a daze.
“Everyday, everyday I have the blues ...”
a Milky Way song!

-cec
4/16- NaPoWriMo - 1st gear to reverse in last line
96 · May 1
May Flowers
bulletcookie May 1
Her golden hair in noon day’s light, aflame
burned an image in heart’s depths
even the fields of sun flowers seemed envious
as fence climbing roses reached up to see
beauty, that in beholding eye’s bias, florets

She waits there, in still-life discovery
a blossom undisturbed and fragrant
one can hear the buzz of desire stir
a hive of expectation and frenzied dancing
soon petals will open and pollen promenade


-cec
95 · Jul 2021
Cut Flowers
bulletcookie Jul 2021
a scent of roses fill this room
giving clues to summer's bloom
magnified through water's lens
thorns belie our velvet friends

a mouse once helped a lion's paw
who bawled to heaven with his pall
Hawthorn trees, appropriate name
sharp hawed lion with kingly mane

healing beauty eased its pain
as pity brooked the mouse's brain
a greater beast brought down to serve
the lesser mouse with velvet fur

a moral seems to lend its fragrance
as nature builds eternal rings
take this leaf, humbly snipped
as aphid clings to flower's hip

-cec
93 · Aug 15
Making up Sense (*)
bulletcookie Aug 15
Written words placed well
spoke metered sound wells
chimes sing in fluent breezes
spelling thought's current
memory caching
celestial spheres' music

Poets chew your food
drunk on cobble streets
bumbling, humming a tune
dreaming alphabets
Lasso' poly-phones
kidnapped by rhyme and resin

-cec
***The Alouette, created by Jan Turner, consists of two or more stanzas of six lines each, with set rules.***
92 · Nov 2020
Poem That I Didn't Write
bulletcookie Nov 2020
Here Linden trees with fragrance bloom
near Green Lake's lower Woodland
to start the season's summer chase
fauna, flora, rod and rake

with dancing light upon the waves
its power sure as movement
let's walk upon these winding paths
to stretch and feel pearl's ages

now fall presumes its colors fair
reds, yellow greens do govern
too soon to rust in showers frost
to swoon and crush in stages

beneath forever evergreen
there grows a solo fungus
its mantle spread throughout browned earth
digesting summer's progress

-cec
92 · Jan 2020
Autum in Winter
bulletcookie Jan 2020
rain lines pelt a glass window
looking out to a wet asphalt street
under a gray-scale bloated sky
where clouds push and billow

winter arrived with autumn's face
sad, with eyes full of years
these winds howl a lonesome veer
where sleepless trees shed leaves

above lie stones, below is rest
as grass imbibes through root
in morning's dark or lighted night
days colors are alike

winter arrived with autumn's face
a mask now cold once warm
while ina grave of earth's embrace
lie testaments of storm

-cec
92 · Apr 30
Hercules Redux
bulletcookie Apr 30
“Pillars, rampaging lions and boars, horse ****,
what more can one ask of a hero’s wit?
Well, here he sits, waiting for the next temp job!
How much more do I have to pay for a mistake?
I told the wife and kids I was all wound up with Olympic PTSD!
They just happened to wake me in a fit of rage and terror,
and they did not fit into my fit, so they played and paid.
Now it's, Heracles this, Hercules that, and don't forget; bring me golden apples, or tend to the herd in west Jesus or other,
and blah, blah, blah, your so strong ...
maybe you can help the neighbors move a couch out?
My friend Sampson went through similar *******
then his old lady, Delilah, gives him a bad haircut
which sends him into a rage, creating a scene.
I mean, I’ve had to smell the bad breath of monsters,
cut off their heads only to get pennies on the dollar or worse, no compensation except,
‘Good you came in time Herc ...’
I move mountains for folks and get **** from the gods!
What’s more, I get no respect from these young’nes;
they tease all the time that my lion cloak and helmet smell!
I just want to tear some heads off and punch them to pulp!
So, I've been laying low checking out the Amazons
having a nice draft of Soma and planning my next trick.”

-cec

fact check: Hercules did not know Sampson! He made it up!
4/30 - NaPoWriMo - write a poem in which the speaker is identified with, or compared to, a character from myth or legend,
88 · Apr 26
Proust Questions
bulletcookie Apr 26
Where is the center lost?
found in a raga’s tabla
and the meandering river
of a sitar’s harmonic dream

When does childhood end?
it begins in silent oceans
bursting open with wet life
grasping with tiny fingers

How does the hourglass last?
moments to minutes, limitless
each grain a sandy shore
mountains turned upside down

-cec
4/25 - napowrimo - write a poem in the form of an entirely new Proust Questionnaire - (or off the reservation)
85 · Oct 16
Ben
bulletcookie Oct 16
Ben
again and again
the, Thy, story does not end

I watch the people come and go
near lake's hidden lilys, again and again

fiddle like winds play a tumbling riddle
brown leaf ghosts dance music eternal

distant wild cactus flowers crack open
like Rumi's heart, a sacred mystery of love

where wind chimes sound good bye
and Theseus' ship still sails, by and by

-cec
Passing of a friend
84 · Oct 2021
Rime Ice
bulletcookie Oct 2021
Mountain crevices and glacial cracking ice
top of this world, far from labor saving life
there, above clouds, swim lost spirits
seeking ship's anchor on iron chains
in hope of finding solid port sans storms

winds that whip, whistle and blind
blown from west to east's witchdom
moving chilling fingers of **** frost
drifting, ever drifting, on whirling backs
of howling hound's jaws of vaporous breath

crystalized by uncaring, sub-zero mercury
laid down in tomb's snow and ice layers
absent green grounded colors, now adrift
auroral curtains draped between darkness
casting spells over vast flat expanses

-cec
84 · Sep 1
Comma
bulletcookie Sep 1
a fishing hook dangles from a branch
did the fisherman go home with a fish?

-cec
83 · Apr 2020
In the Time of Corona
bulletcookie Apr 2020
waking the absurd,
stark reality viewing
with moon's eye sockets
shadow formed craters,
in this wilderness of space
and time's relentlessness

detached, this eye's cornea
vision's blur into single thought
mortal being a shadow's shadow

days become hours, hours weeks
morning comes sooner every waking
darkness lays upon itself blanket worn

waking, the alarm clock turned (off)
a ray of light through vinyl blinds
comes, thankfully before another night

-cec
For those that work tirelessly, seemingly, into the wee hours of the day and night ...
82 · Sep 1
bridge
bulletcookie Sep 1
this moon's hair out shines
shadowy currents outlines
on black river's lane

-cec
75 · Apr 23
A Wonder
bulletcookie Apr 23
Wonder Wart-Hog succumbed to his powers,
“Was it the beer?” on his adopted planet
raised by hillbillies who were unable to eat him
As misanthropic as his neighborhood denizens
he is fated to bring swine justice, to the greater evil villains,
with his haphazard hog combat
living in a welfare toothed city scape
with broken-bottle-wielding alleyways
our superhero lumbers and snorts forward
into the breach of the seedy underbelly
of a schizoid society seeking hoodie anonymity
or zombie relief in a pick your poison age
This “Hog of Steel” though mild mannered
in his unaltered ego of Philbert DeSanex
fights for a labored truth, law and order
while delivering absurd antics on unsuspecting consumers of fascist pickles and bureaucratic saltines

-cec
4/23- NaPoWriMo - write a poem about, or involving, a superhero, taking your inspiration from these four poems in which Lucille Clifton addresses Clark Kent/Superman.

Wonder Wart-Hog - circa 1962 by Gilbert Shelton
74 · Apr 14
Knock Knock
bulletcookie Apr 14
Knock Knock

Who's there? The other side the chicken crossed to.

Who's there? Banana, since I had no more oranges left.

Who's there? 🎼Gary Indiana, Gary Indiana, Gary Indiana 🎶; of Lake County.

Who's there? Pizza guy, gal, else or a mobile food dispensing unit A2024D

Who's there? “Who's on first, What's on second, I Don't Know is on third ...”

Who's there? The Humanity, as the Hindenburg crashed in flames.

Who's there? (squeaky bull voice) “Little Red Riding Hood ...!”

Who's there? (muffled voice) “Land Shark”, er, “Telegram ...parcel post!”

Who's there? “What's Up ...!”

Who's there? “Dave, it's Dave man, me DAVE ...!”


-cec
4/14 - napowrimo - amaphora (somewhat)

Most are common references in 'mericka.
74 · Apr 21
Long Ago Argonaut
bulletcookie Apr 21
Odysseus sailed far and wide
destined  to ride the rising tides
this Vitruvian King, husband, father
navel of this orb’s slice, squared
outstretched (**** ad quadratum)
ventured out upon the stratum
plagued by duty, honor bound
cast upon his earthly rounds
ox and mule could not his delay
ten years, more, from place of his birth, away
how his voyage then encircled
this (**** ad circulum,) like a girdle,
wrapped the legend’s mortal length
though his will gave body strength
a horse’s belly full of Greeks doomed Troy
while oracles, “beef-witted” soldiers did toy
even tempered, ingenious and just
brought witty Outis from god’s drowning gust
thrown for a loop by Neptune and Zeus
betrayed and delayed by mischievous use
hearth and love drew our brave wandering soul
the weary years of travel had taken their toll ever closer to Ithaca, land of his kin
smuggled in sleep, there new struggles begin
finding rough suitors had invaded his place
to right all the wrongs his anger did rage
stringing his bow, friends, and state
shot his true arrow through twelve rings of fate
his story continues, sly Odysseus of Rome
but the Greek Homer bore him honors, fame and back home

-cec
4/20 - NaPoWriMo - write a poem that recounts a historical event
72 · Apr 19
Haunted Hunt
bulletcookie Apr 19
Haunted by the hunt
not knowing the aim
absent purpose
questions to questions
reduction ad infinitum
solus ("alone") ipse ("self").
a solipsist’s pirouette

Hunting the haunted
knowledge and knowing
resolved intent
books upon book shelf
atomism and Plato
holistic cast nets
finiteo (“complete")

-cec
4/19- NaPoWriMo - What are you haunted by, or what haunts you? Write a poem responding to this question.
Then change the word haunt to hunt
70 · Apr 9
Tippy
bulletcookie Apr 9
Hail to you oh mighty hound
with your nose close to the ground
sniffing out most every grannual
for the scent of mushroom annuals

Up the hills and in the creeks
soaking tail and muddy feet
charging fast through forest fields
undeterred, you will not yield

Loyalty and love of us
you dance around with happy fuss
to find a gift that aims to please
the fungi ours, you'd rather cheese

-cec
4/9- NaPoWriMo - write your own ode celebrating an everyday object
70 · Apr 2
Wind's Glass
bulletcookie Apr 2
True Platonic love —
Does not reside in the wind
or glass chimes it inhabits on a sunny day
It plays in the high harmony;
on breezes, thin glass and breaking sound
To a first time crush it sings
of mystery, leaping as up as legs carry
stops heart and catches breath
lingers in close carnal thoughts
trying to calm the chaos within
It never betrays or lets go, even
even night's shattered stillness
bows to the stars on strings
with amor for the music of the spheres

-cec
NaPoWriMo
69 · Apr 11
Mono Filament
bulletcookie Apr 11
This parrot keeps using fowl language.

Forgetting to put on your age is regressive.

Spelling is everything unless your grammar *****!

It's not whether the glass is half empty or full, it's how big the glass.

If bees dance, who plays the music?

-cec
4/11- NaPoWriMo - one liner style
67 · Apr 27
Arg
bulletcookie Apr 27
Arg
Hobbler, the crow, was lame
but he had game, and props
being a few other birds, not game,
city birds, begging and scavenging
savaging, all the same road ****
chill when humans came close
they became verbose, false bravado
for weightless bags of bone and feathers
whether or not noticed, scurrying
ducking under benches, cars, then
flapping half a bird lap up, down
around the service lamps; the scamps!
Their pirate leader does its one leg hop
and one can imagine a gang plank stop
with a heave-** flank and up they rise
into the market sky and to return
short of a ****** but gang none-the-less

-cec
4/26 - NaPoWriMo - something, something, poem ...

Props - back-up, team, member droogs ...
63 · Apr 14
WhY A E I O yoU
bulletcookie Apr 14
To SEE words move in waves, wand and swan
in FELT textures that pan over the span of human history, opening a can of exuberant fandom.

HEARING it, them, spit out quick fits and sh#$ kickstarts the hits, a lit stick in the hellish pit of form.

SMELLING fat rat **** in pat lines pulls the mat on the chap who writes and chats with his cat monster, Wapslap.

MOUTHING the sun chum from fun to pun and stun, by one, who has come for those won.

CONCRETE thinking comes second after the ocean before.

Building BRIDGES follows vocabulary construction, connections of all things phenomenal.

The OAR of writing is a chore and door that stores, like "four score ..." or more, bores deep, not like boar's spoor.

FLOW with the tides of literary time though shine with the new harvest moon.

Seal the BONDS of language and story with heart and mindful imagination.


-cec
4/13- napowrimo - Finally, our optional prompt for the day asks you to play with rhyme. Start by creating a “word bank” of ten simple words. They should only have one or two syllables apiece. Five should correspond to each of the five senses (i.e., one word that is a thing you can see, one word that is a type of sound, one word that is a thing you can taste, etc). Three more should be concrete nouns of whatever character you choose (i.e., “bridge,” “sun,” “airplane,” “cat”), and the last two should be verbs. Now, come up with rhymes for each of your ten words. (If you’re having trouble coming up with rhymes, the wonderful Rhymezone is at your service). Use your expanded word-bank, with rhymes, as the seeds for your poem. Your effort doesn’t actually have to rhyme in the sense of having each line end with a rhymed word, but try to use as much soundplay in your poem as possible.
58 · Apr 21
Dark Matters
bulletcookie Apr 21
black on black, not cat
black hole black, not a golf hole
whole crushing blackness

-cec
4/21 - NaPoWriMo -
a poem that repeats or focuses on a single color
58 · Apr 3
Surreal Cereal
bulletcookie Apr 3
The plastic bag can not be opened with fingers; scissors are a good option or you may find grapenuts scattered over counter and under shoe. The crunch echoes under foot instead of between teeth, reverberating into the skull. Milk and yogurt dampens the effect with frozen blueberries coagulated in purple-blue clumps that a spoon pushes through the white waves cresting over tawny kernals of quicksand cereal 🥣. For good measure a seafloor of multi-grain flakes stabilizes this ocean of supposedly nutricios morning victuals. Where did those banana boat dingies come from?

-cec
NaPoWriMo 4/3
Surreal prose poem prompt
56 · Apr 29
Mercurial
bulletcookie Apr 29
How  fleeting the sandy grains that drop
through narrow remembering of yesterday
ephemeral flowers that graced a table vase
now dehydrated still life, garden scattered

How the vaporous past presumes the future
lensed by present reflection’s myopic trust
further receding into hammered glass icons
erected edifices to a longing life portrait

Unpredictable, unstable, a butterfly vortex
arising from a bottle of smokey possibility
constant in ever capricious choice and predictability
a mutual mutability of then and now’s  protean toss

-cec
4/29 - NaPoWriMo -  Taylor Swift has released a new double album titled “The Tortured Poets Department.” In recognition of this occasion, Merriam-Webster put together a list of ten words from Taylor Swift songs. We hope you don’t find this too torturous yourself, but we’d like to challenge you to select one these words, and write a poem that uses the word as its title.

— The End —