Each month this blog will feature a word of the month to stimulate a poem. Anyone who wishes to share a poem is invited to participate. The point is to enjoy the challenge of writing a poem inspired by a single word. It doesn’t matter if this is your first poem or five hundredth. It’s all done for the fun and exercise of writing.
Cutoff for posting the current Word of the Month poem is the last day of the month.
On the first day of each month, a new word will be posted to challenge your imagination for that month.
Please post your poems on this page, so everyone can find the poems easily.
Thank you and have fun!
David
PS: The word for April is QUARTER.
April poem
Quarter back
Quarter barrel
Quarter mile
All bring back thoughts from decades ago.
All make me smile.
High school Friday nights.
Sacking the opponents leader under home field lights.
Celebrating wins at a friends home. Not admitting to underage consumption of beer. But we all spent the night because we lived in fear of our parents finding our little secret.
Drag racing on three mile lane. Local police officers would watch for traffic. All good times that in retrospect probably couldn’t happen today.
Some do gooder would definitely have something negative to say.
Great times. Life long friends. If I had it to do over I’d do it again.
Don B
Good memories. It’s great to have them.
Memories are great they make us who we become. Feel sorry for kids today. Just a whole new world
Thanks for this, Don. It took me back to my high school days!
School days. School days. Dear old golden rule days. Wouldn’t change a day
Sounds like you were a bit of a rascal. No doubt enjoyable and memorable times.
By today’s standards we were probably delinquents. Lol. Just normal living back then.
Amazing the memories a word can evoke.
Buying the Wind
I threw a quarter
Into the water,
buying the wind.
It did what it ought-a
in the water,
a channel opened.
It opened a border
into the water,
poor kids swam in.
(You have to read this with a NY accen t really make it work. Or maybe Boston.
Jane Yolen
Jane Y S
I like the idea of Buying the winds.
Swimming was always fun too.
I grew up near Boston, so I read it, saying, “quartah, watah, etc.” Thanks for the fun.
Love the accent, love the poem–buying the wind.
Thank You for Your Service
Was a love hate romance going on
for over a quarter a century
in career courtship with Army life
where just going along to get along
never was he content just to be
all he could be
so now my fellow country men heed his advice
in wars fleeting memory proud yet hauntingly melancholy sad
veterans all need someone to make them feel glad
William Joe Pyles
I really liked this poem and thank you for your service. My husband is a 25 year Navy EOD veteran.
Thank you for sharing.
I like your analogy, William. Thank you for your service.
Song of Poison
By Linda Boyden ©2018, 2021
It sang a song of poison,
this dull brown bird,
darting here and there,
dropping musical notes in its wake:
whole notes to scorch rose petals,
quarter notes to ravage geraniums.
It fed upon hemlock needles
and blossoms of white oleander,
plants with murder on their minds.
Stay inside.
Bar the windows
against its winsome form.
Once heard, its melodies
will splice tendrils of venom
into your heart,
infect your mind;
sprout deadly toxins
that taint your soul
with a desire to destroy,
a lust for ruin.
Sounds like Repiblicans to me, Linda, Or at least the Oath Keepers et al.
Thanks, Jane.
Ooh, Linda–tendrils of venom! What a horrid song!
Jane, thanks, normally, I write happier poems, but this was from a prompt.
THREE MONTHS
A quarter has passed since we met face-to-face,
Since I felt the warmth of your embrace
So long
Eighty-eight days of meeting on Zoom.
They say it’s like having you in the room
They’re wrong
It just reminds me of what we are missing;
And I do feel rather stupid kissing
My phone
And when we’ve finished and you are gone,
I’m right back where I started from
Alone.
Twelve weeks (and a half) I have been waiting,
Longing and anticipating
Wondering why
Every day I watch the clock,
Counting every tick and tock
Go by
I’ve even calculated seconds;
Seven million plus I reckon
Is that sad?
It’s just that, waiting here for you,
I have to find something to do
Or go mad
Yes, a quarter has passed since we met face-to-face,
Since I felt the warmth of your embrace
Too long
Bryn Strudwick
I know where you are coming from. We in Victoria, Australia, were in lockdown for four months, after a shorter one. Frustrating!
Yes, virtual is better than nothing, but a poor substitute for the real thing. I like the pattern you’ve put down here, Bryn.
Oh, Bryn, this holds so much angst. Beautiful.
Routine
It’s quarter to six,
It’s time to rise,
What’s ahead for me,
Is no surprise.
Need to get up,
Have a cup of tea,
Make myself ready,
And from house I flee.
Pick up grand kids,
Take them to school,
The next six hours,
I’m free, it’s cool.
Back on the road,
Again a pick up,
Take them home,
Till their parent’s show up.
It’s a pleasure I know,
I love them dearly,
Now a quarter of my life,
Has been hijacked, clearly.
Toni Newell 4th April, 2021
Clearly! But how wonderful that you are able to see your grandkids like that. Thanks, Toni.
I understand very well; for years I did the same with my grandkids so their single Moms could work. Now, all but one are adults. I miss them, but not the drives!
WIDE AWAKE
Quarter past three
A.M.!
Wide awake,
Grateful for gentle snores of
Husband and dog.
c Jane Heitman Healy 4/12/21
Jane, I have been there, too. Hope you can do what I do and take an afternoon nap!
Hi. Most of my female friends tend to wake up around the 3 o’clock mark. I find that very curious and interesting. And that of course includes me! Cheers T