28 to create Archives - Sweet and Bitter Stuff of Wonder

Daydream

I have reached the end of a wonderful project. I feel the making of my very own second thoughtfully woven chapbook is roughly complete. Somewhere on the way, I realised I wanted to make a depressed and depressing collection of poems, so from that moment on, I consciously tried to subdue all my prompt takes to that streak.
Starting from Daybreak as prompt One, here we come, completing the 28 to Create circle with Daydream:

***
I hope no rotting flesh will bother
your sunlight,
and my daydream
of laughter not choked down,
of breath freely taken,
will not corrupt
the way of your decay
towards a grey land of hurried sadness
that has no time for due mourning.

Some of my other favourites are (titles are clickable):
Like an Ocean, Day 24
Breathless, Day 3
Honestly, Day 19

I am accepting well-intentioned and polite advice as to my possible future chapbook.

Featured image: Joe-Maccer DA, full credits above.

Flickering Lights

Almost at the end of the month, I am considering how time-consuming poeming, blog posting, and finally, sharing all that is. In the same time, I could write a whole story, be it short or long. Now I remember that I started a novella on February 8th and never reached beyond the 3,000-word introduction. I planned to get to the real thing one day soon, but soon passed and it is March now. I can’t see the time to write that, yet. Maybe that is my trouble and the main reason I stay with poetry chiefly: lack of time to write consistently. Poetry is much more fragmentary, you don’t need to remember where you left… There is much less responsibility involved in it. Let’s celebrate the last but one prompt of the 28 to Create project that brought me much joy this year.

28 to Create, Day 27 – Flickering Lights

Image: Winged Vampire Wolf at DeviantArt

***
Flickering lights from the swamps
where prisoners try to escape
their destinies.

Marshes are ripe with
firebugs hurrying
to and fro.

Instant pictures of
self-inflicted soul insomnias;
instant tea
filling mud mugs
with sugary heartbeats and
strained tomorrows

Flickering lights behind
our dead
curtains

Featured image by: SuicideBySafetyPin at DA

A Double Toss in the Air, Echo Poem

28 to Create, Day 26 – Echo Day 2. An echo poem is literally, a line-to-line opposite to the original. I did that more than once. My first attempt was with T.S.Eliot’s Waste Land and you may read it here. The other echo poem I wrote was for Day 15 of this very challenge, is an echo of Mayakovsky and can be read here.

A DOUBLE TOSS IN THE AIR
The mighty roar quakes my inner soul
All air flees before it, frightened
Reaching the top, it slides down embarrassed
The hills that were bare
Look weirdly chaotic now –
rocks and grass entangled in the sun.
The silent waters washing my shore
choke on their slumber.

This poem is echoed on one written by a fellow-poet participating in the 28 to Create. Annmarie Lockhart and her poem Two Kinds of Quiet served as inspiration. Read the original poem on her blog.

Ambition and Despair

The month of February is nearly over. It was very fast, indeed, though much happened in it. Now that I look back, I see that I’m very pleased with how things went. All with celebrations, sick leaves, working schedules and creativity went fine, more than simply OK. Day 25 was Tuesday, so the prompt was of the #TwoForTuesday type. Here is one of the last poems I’ve written for the 28 to Create project: Day 25 – Ambition and Despair

***
Striving upwards
to skies curtained
with hesitation,
embroidered in clouds
so pink
they are disgusting.

I am sick
of desire to be perfect.
I am petrified by
the chance to
end up in the gutter.

That chance is grand.
Despair is stalking me
as I am staring at it –
sick and tired of reality,
striving upwards.

Can I escape dark lands
and the mire of desolation,
to roam off distant shores?

Yeah, sure.
Go ahead.

Like an Ocean

28 to Create, Day 24 – Like an Ocean

***
Like an ocean
spilling itself all over my fragile frame
not remembering,
nor bothering to do so.

Just pouring out all over
the past, the essence and the
flicker
that will go out in dimness,
when desire is dead,
instead of going out
in roaring flame
of falsified
fancy
stumbling in the asphalt road.

Like an ocean –
smooth and mellow,
blinding me with its salt
water,
bellowing at my deafness,
catching my eagerness to take a rest
and tormenting it as fake
or irrelevant.

Like an ocean –
bury me in your abyss,
deep,
away from people’s eyes
and memories;
Deafen their yells
of gossiping sympathy,
of curiosity ill-fitted.

I want to sleep
and let go.
The water glides
along my cold silky fingers
Let go
of me,
my cool ocean.

Featured image: ranarh at DA

Smudges

It is not unusual for people for get smudged while running away from their own day. Here is my Smudged poem.
28 to Create, Day 23 – Smudges

***
Smudges
left on my cheek
or on my left arm
that brushed against the dusty wall
when I hurried round the corner
to run away
unseen.

Smudges woke me
tingling on my forehead
making me aware
and uncomfortable,
feeling dirty
and stale
for the dust
I brushed off that corner.

The corner that helped me
hide from embarrassment.

Those Who Went Before Us

28 to Create, Day 22 – Those Who Went Before Us

***
Those who went before us
lost all direction in the mystery
of their ignorance, also known as innocence.

Those who went before us
saved themselves from bitterness
in this bare land
through their lack of knowledge
of the marshes that swallowed them.

Featured image: PavelE at DA

W/hole

This is not the first poem I have written on holes and their emptiness. This one, however, relates the hole to its wholeness.

28 to Create, Day 21 – (W)hole

***
Your whole imagined world
collapses in an abyss
where seasons don’t arrive
and news don’t cover it
The wholeness of the world
postpones its failure in
a hole.

Note: Featured image by: wiciaq at DA

Apple of my Eye

I know what it means, yet I couldn’t help slipping into my usual mood.
28 to Create, Day 20 – Apple of my eye

***
Apple of my eye
or a pear
no more illusions or expectations
I have no soft skills
and positively no hopes
Apple of my eye,
my precious, my only one
The one I need and crave to have
although it’s bitter as the analgin
I would take for each third headache.

Do I remember?

PS. Featured image: Kostas Panagakos at Deviant Art

Honestly

Here I am again, honestly doing my second best in following the prompts. I don’t know if it’s because I’m slightly short of time, but Day 19’s poem turned out somewhat short. Honestly, I preferred it to be longer.
28 to Create, Day 19 – Honestly

***
Honestly, I prefer being dishonest
Sadly, I still need to learn how
Even with bitterness and sour taste
deep down
my throat, my soul, my heart
and mind
I don’t know how
or why.

Tag: 28 to create

Daydream

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Flickering Lights

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A Double Toss in the Air, Echo Poem

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Ambition and Despair

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Like an Ocean

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Smudges

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Those Who Went Before Us

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W/hole

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Apple of my Eye

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Honestly

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