Sweet and Bitter Stuff of Wonder
Brought to you by Mary K
There is a shadow projecting on the wall
Is that a reflection or just the film
My neighbour’s watching?
I hear that strange noise in the back yard
Shall I go and check the dog or do I hear
My neighbours throwing a party?
“Weird that you would care for shadows and sounds
When all you need is in this box.”
Hey, who’s speaking? What’s that wretched voice?
Come in the light and stop molesting
Or I’ll scratch you from existence with
This very finely sharpened pencil.
© 2024, soulmary
Well-done for a wishing well
That has no idea how to do things right.
If I am about to climb this height,
I will need to give instructions and to tell
The well how to listen and comprehend
Things that have to be brought to their dreamt-of end.
Why is a wishing well the go-to place for so many?
Is it that the place is charmed or its depth is thought unharmed?
Well-done, my well.
Now, you go and tell your precious Nell that
Time is up and fast as we might row
We can’t be sure of those seats we purchased on the front row.
© 2024, soulmary
Wow, wow, wow – the time when I could do my regular daily word count for NaNoWriMo and produce at least one poem for the November PAD chapbook have passed! I remember that in 2011 I did all that in spite of travelling every weekend for my latest Master program at university where I wrote in a notebook by hand, copying everything on my PC later. Then, in 2013, I had a full-time job and a very young child. Yet, I did all. While this year… I do mainly catching up. Fortunately, the three poetry prompts I skipped are related so I could pen down a single poem for the period. Love/anti-love, advice and frustration. Related, they are, aren’t they? Enjoy!
*
Beginning with love
We stroll carelessly along that beautiful river
Which brings us all joy and splendour.
Elders will nag for days on end
Their boring advice about the risk of drowning,
The danger of getting our hearts and souls
Stolen by the splendid river pirates.
After love has left to play with a new cast of actors
And a stage which is a world apart from us,
We are left with the frustration
That grannies and aunties were right,
After all.
And there – the play ends in the bitter
Anti-love mood.
The river is just a muddy swamp
Which sank our youth
And beauty and dreams to its monstrous
Ugly bottom.
© 2024, soulmary
My mouth will stay shut
For the things I could shout
When seeing red are not the things
I’d want to remember myself saying.
My eyes will stray to the side
For the views which make me raise my brows
Won’t be looked away by the arrows I toss
And I won’t need to swallow
The shame of remembering it.
Ah, the nerves arrogant people have!
© 2024, soulmary
As I mentioned three days ago, I started NaNoWriMo this year. I plan to write a completely new novel. Well, I started off somewhat bareheaded. That is, I barely had any idea what to write about. This time, I didn’t want to write another coming-of-age novel featuring young teenage girls based on me and my friends from high school. I was thinking more to the direction of a grown-up heroine who will need to go on a quest of some sort and overcome old traumas. 
Every day I have been behind the word count necessary to make it on time. Because it’s still early in the month, I hope I will catch up before the end of this week. Today I got slightly stressed by the realisation that I have typed 3500 word out of the 6600 I needed. So, you see, halfway late.
The story itself started somewhere, then I found my main character actually lives in a shockingly different place. I’m afraid there will be some discrepancy or a sense of dissonance in the readers’ minds. Ah, well, what can I do? As we WriMo-ers know, the rule is “Write now, edit later.” I plan to stick to it. The difficult part is the need to start some action. I am hardly an action writer, so it takes me forever to write the action. At nearly 4900 words I am still getting ready to do it.
OK, this was the update for now. Come back later for more.
Creating funny animals with blue and pink balloons in
Order to display the celebration of
Renaissance or our
Recreation, we, indeed, are trying to
Escape the depth of mortality, or just
Suspend it for a while.
Pretending we are joyful increases
Our pain and then we
Need to disperse the
Darkness that stands for our lives’
End in order to prove the
Nether realm of reality actually
Corresponds with the brightness
Eternally beaming from our hearts.
© 2024, soulmary
Wearing this frightening costume
I try to chase my fears away
Yet, it attracts some more my way.
I don’t trust the fairies to help unveil
My deeply covered mystery.
And still, not willing to let go,
I plan to wear the costume some more.
© 2024, soulmary
Yay, November is here! Time for the unforgettable NovPAD and NaNoWriMo where I plan to participate again. Day 1 prompt is quite romantic – Before You Leave. My difficulty is that right now I don’t have the sad angle, so I chose to mention my favourite animal.
Let me tell you about the panther
napping in the back yard.
Waiting for my caress, she sleeps
all day and hunts all night.
A lovely creature hungry for life.
Before you leave,
take a minute to admire her
and to consider what might make you stay.
© 2024, soulmary
After rolling the previous chain of verse, my poem took a different path and I followed, of course. What with the recent high-school drama my teenager has been witnessing at school, I suppose, the following simply came natural.
Gossip abundant
Idleness unbound
Check your own wonders –
can’t see them around.
Wonders will wander
with nothing to stop them.
So, bullies will ponder
whether to curb them.
Bullies, not heroes –
the children today.
We step aside, crushed.
Shall we watch or run away?
© 2024, soulmary
These days, I haven’t had enough time or inspiration to sit down and poem. But I had both the time and inspiration to look out of the window and admire the beauty outside. Verse came rolling smoothly in my mind, and I took and old-fashioned pen and notebook to put them down. Here is the first bunch – celebrating autumn and my love.
I’ve nothing to say
and nothing to do,
but stare at the clouds
and think of you.
Every day awesome
with some blossom new.
Autumn trees are so gorgeous
and so are you!
Yellow with sunshine
Brown without smile
Red for the anger
All barren and wild.
© 2024, soulmary
