Funny Tall Tale Poem – Day 12 of April PAD

Today, the two prompts were very interesting and difficult to follow. Robert at Writer’s Digest prompted us to write a Funny Poem, and the NaPoWriMo site asked for an attempt at a Tall Tale Poem (you know, the type of David Crocket stories). Here’s what I wrote, although I doubt it’s either funny or doing any justice to the tall-tale genre. The latter has always been a favourite of mine, but at the same time, the one I have never been particularly good at.

***
The circus came –
Clowns more frightening than funny,
All thanks to good old Stephen.

Children thought they’d better spend
their time creating heroes.

With costumes green and purple or bizarre,
with eyes so big and grinning lips,
their hands were shovels, some were rakes,
legs were particularly difficult to make.

Then look – the next day
all the forest was live with laughter
echoing throughout the village,
mixed with screams and shouts.

The circus stayed a month
The children’s heroes played around
Brimming with the joy they’ve found.

©2024, soulmary

Memories and Monostich – Day 11 of April PAD

Memories often bump in me
like balls sliding on fast tracks
or toys hurled by toddlers.

Sometimes they bounce off happily
causing smiles and leaving me bright.

Some, though, stick – thick and heavy,
reluctant to move on,
simply clinging to me
as cannonballs in damp clay.

They give me goosebumps,
or visions of dark.
The love of darkness
is overwhelming.

***
Belittling bad memories has never brought about the joy we hoped it would.

©2024, soulmary

Note: Both pieces are on the topic given by Writer’s Digest Prompt for the day – Memory. The second one is a Monostich after NaPoWriMo.net prompt for the day.

Day 10.2 of April PAD – More Poetry

***
My poetry
Reminds me of me
Thirty years ago with Daddy.

The poetry
we used to read to each other,
arguing, explaining…
in short – showing the love.

©2024, soulmary

Poetry Is Better – Day 10.1 of April PAD

The poetry blog of Writer’s Digest through our very own Robert gave us a nice prompt – Blank Better. I decided to put Poetry in the blank, and here is the resulting poem –

Poetry Is Better

Poetry is better than most
awkward truths and silences.

It fills our souls with yearning,
tears and thoughts we want to
yell to the world or weep about.

Poetry urges us to be better,
stay better, dream wilder
sigh deeper.

What can be better than poetry?

It’s always new,
striking new,
eye-opening new.
Nothing’s better.

©2024, soulmary

Another Love and Anti-Love Set of Poems – Day 9 of April PAD

So many times I have written a Two-for-Tuesday Love-Anti-Love set, that I thought I couldn’t do it justice. Still, I think these two pulled just right. The first one is Shadorma, and the second one derives from my favourite musical of Chicago and the famous piece “All I Care About Is Love” where the lawyer plays the generous type. Here is the video for you to enjoy:
And now, for the poems

***
Love is when
you make me coffee
all mornings

Not asking
what type I want or when but
simply knowing it.

***

Anti-Love

“All I care about is Love
That’s what I’m here for”
Billy Flynn, Chicago Musical

The lawyer loves the money they pay,
the scandal they make,
Sensation for Miss Mary Sunshine’s newspaper
Jealousy for the husband’s repertoir.

Love is the theme of many a mellow tales,
many a lies
and the songs
cheaters lull us by.

Anti-Love could be a topic
for a rhyme worded on a
beach at the tropic.
Of Cancer
Or Capricorn?
Who knows? Or who cares?
Anti-Love is a bug in which
we all stare.

©2024, soulmary

Spring and Eclipse – Day 8 of April PAD

The Warm Weather
has been tiptoeing in the city,
throwing furtive looks in windows,
balconies and backyards.

The moon has tiptoed in front of the sun
to make us wear paper glasses online
and post prolific safety tips and random bare toes.

©2024, soulmary

Luck – Day 7 of the April PAD

Good luck you wish for.
Bad luck you wish away.
Pot luck is what you get
when others cook their way.

Is there anything we can trust about luck?
Or control about pots?
Can we stand and watch from the side,
silently acknowlegding whatever’s served?

I wish I could simply eat the pot away,
not nagging for hours every day.
Still, we don’t control our luck –
it just comes and tends to stay.

©2024, soulmary

A Set of Minimum Poems – Day 6

A Minimum Shadorma

Looking at
the summer that’s here
already,
Alive with
the sounds and aroma of
happiness fulfilled,

is the minimum effort
I am able of
today.

***
M indlessly
I ntending to ruin the
N everending bond between
M e and my
U mbrella, I spend
M any minutes thinking how I can

P ossibly do so.
O pening, or closing it? Or
E ntirely forgetting it in
M y happy closet.

***
M any a time
I rreverently ignoring the
N iceties politeness
I nduces upon me,
M y smile turns to a smirk
U ntying the bond between
M umbo and jumbo.

©2024, soulmary

Yes, we know yesterday was the 6th day of April, but I am posting today because of schedule. So, the prompts were ‘write a Minimum poem‘ by Poetic Asides, and ‘write a “weird wisdom” poem’ from the NaPoWriMo site. I couldn’t think of any weird wisdom I had been taught as a child, so I gave in to that. However, I penned three instead of one minimum pieces, and the final one, which I post in the leading position here, is in my old favourite form of Shadorma, while the other two are Acrostics – another favourite. Enjoy!

Tell It In A Funny Way – Day 5 of April PAD

Tell It In A Funny Way
To bring all joy to life
And bask in the jolly light
of a carousel of sunshine bright.

Tell it to the crowds
so curious to know
what the latest gossip is.

Make them laugh
and forget their days
of bleakness,
holding on to fake dreams,
building their lives
on rumours.

So, tell it in a funny way
as if we still have pocketfuls of
joyride tickets.

Fun is for free, so
tell it in a funny way and
let the sunshine be!

© 2024, soulmary

A Sweet Mistake

A huge mistake – I caught the wrong bus
Then I hopped off at an unfamiliar stop
No coins for the pay phone,
No map to find my way home,
and no time to stroll around the hood.

There you stood,
almost unreal,
smiling, ethereal.

Then you ran to my rescue,
we ran together.
The picture changed in a blink –
the hallway walls were mirrors
that made the place shift,
I lost my balance, nearly fell.

Swaying with the music, you were
still so unreal and still all smiles.
The fourth realm of life, you said,
is where you are.

No more do I remember
until this moment.
Your smile remained with me
to enjoy every moment in every realm
of life.

© 2024, soulmary

Note: My regular prompt site, Poetic Asides asks for a Mistake Poem. Then, the NaPoWriMo site has an interesting prompt again: – this is the topic I choose for a title. Above, you see what it all turned to.