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[ an image from googlr edited at Picsart]

 A False Interlude

Blank pages stare with eyes bright,

All sure words circling around,

None fall to clause or fright;

Arriving right on time, daylight.

Again silvery sunrise draws to

Azure; here is another gift, day;

But the storms offer dryness new,

To season of wetness just may,

Erase all phases as if phrases,

Need doing or telling; what

Scribes should to sunset raise;

Wait for petite careme, that

Can surprise a fertile curve;

When sunny rays dry out,

What is unpredictable like,

A haven of verbs in swerve.

The blank page transgresses,

Print, words, phrases no wrong

Thoughts arriving; sure tresses

Like daylight did with birdsong.

©  gillena cox 2026

Note: The Petit Carême (or "little Lent") is a short, 2-3 week dry spell that occurs during the rainy season in Trinidad and Tobago, typically between mid-September and mid-October. It acts as a break from heavy rainfall, bringing sunny, warm weather reminiscent of an Indian Summer [info at google]

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH

  Poetics: False Spring 

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[image courtesy dVerse Poets Pub]

In T&T, March is a cool down after February's carnival madness unless; the carnival is in early March, here then, the madness is in tact.

No tea party here; it's party on the road for two days after the seasonal carnival parties, more commonly refered to as carnival fetes.

Alice's March hare will easily fit in. Carnival is about colour, costume, dance/whine, alcohol, allowed 'misbehaving' within limits. Lots of words chanted in calypso/ kaiso/soca 

musical forms.

children's carnival -

mother push carts her baby

dressed as a bunny

©  gillena cox 2026

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Haibun Monday 3-30-26: Mad March Hare

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1386

[image courtesy dVerse Poets Pub]

A Bud Yearns - a fold

Tangled in vines of thought

A yearning for season change

Buds on iron railings wrought

Cannot surffice her longing

For it is her garden of thought

Where future days are cropped

Already set to days that ought

Rejuvenate her fertile mindset

She's anxious to blossom sort

That trees may dress up oh so

Remorse loosens in vibes of thought

©  gillena cox 2026

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 Open Link Night #404 

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[image from google]

Pelau

A happy mixup - pelau,

True true trini food,

Just like our trini people,

This and That and The Other,

But really, a browned rice cookup,

With pigeon peas and meat.

©  gillena cox 2026

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 Poetics Tuesday: Comfort food 

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 [image from google]

Dawn holds mystery of silence,

Based on what is known,

What is remembered,

What has not so long ago passed,

The sunset which slipped behind the horizon,

The silver linings to host,

A day moon before, 

The raucous, of birdsong,

And my pen writing.

©  gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

 Shhhhhhh…….Quiet, Please! 

Challenge: write a quadrille, prompt word - silence

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[image from google]

Good poets of dVerse

I salute you every one

Let's raise a glass

Let's make a toast

Enjoying words and phrases

Never tiring of clauses

Always willing to read

Come my fellow poets

Open your notebooks

Xanthic or weather worn

©  gillena cox 2026

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 Meeting the Bar: Tell Me Your Name 

Challenge: write an acrostic name poem

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1382

 

Leprechaun In The Lawn

May you always be blessed

And never ever be cursed

May your shoes fit snugly

So you never trip or fall silly

May you drink your beer

Be you far or near

May you dance on a shamrock lawn

But never upset a leprechaun

©  gillena cox 2026

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 Poetics Tuesday — Irish Blessings 

Challenge: 

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[ Kay Sage, I Saw Three Cities, 1944 from google]

Eternal Day

Sun and moon destined to shine, in azure or obsidian skies. They know their times and stations. Whether super, full, or black, eclipse or otherwise. Tides and moods stringed to their events helplessly flow in following. 

What of wars are they chimed in here too. Is war always inevitable? Must they always be at their appointed times. And what of peace, why can't we all, everyone, enjoy peace simultaneously.

It all belies, our existence; we wait, and are still denied. Or maybe, it is like day and night? Hours of light and hours of darkness? In one whole and eternal day.

©  gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  

 Prosery: Winter Lull 

Challenge: to use in a prose 

“It all belies

Our existence; we wait, and are still denied.”

From
“Winter-Lull” by D.H. Lawrence
https://poets.org/poem/winter-lull

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[image courtedy dVerse Poets Pub]

Chip chip Reward

These wet rocks,

where the tide has been, 

Barnacled white and weeded, 

Brown sandals gingerly,

Wend their way across as if,

Asking questions of ocean stir,

Still clinging to soles and stone,

Some days a catch of shells,

Settle in between crevasses,

Waiting willingly to flavor a pot,

So they come searching with,

Buckets and pails for the reward.

©  gillena cox 2026

Note: Chip chip" refers primarily to small Donax coquina clams found on the east coast beaches of Trinidad, particularly in Mayaro. They are a popular local seafood delicacy, often boiled, cleaned to remove sand, and prepared in curries or as "chip chip accra"[from google]

LISTEN

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 Open Link Night #403 with Live Edition 

Challenge: to take inspiration from the opening line from Edna St Vincent Millay’s poem “Low tide.” 

These wet rocks where the tide has been, barnacled white and weeded brown. In writing a new poem.

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[image from google]

Poui Alert

Alive! The Queens Park Savannah

March is here do you hear

The breezes through poui

Trees dress themselves so

You and i will stare in gasps

Oh how pretty the pink is

But the yellow is gorgeous

Too, still the whites are showy

Enough to arrest our stares

Easter is near, or else

Why the fuss from trees at

The perimeter of The Savannah

©  gillena cox 2026

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 Poetics: Embodying a Landscape 

Challenge: to  incorporate a landscape or cityscape into your poetry that either mirrors or amplifies your interior landscape (or lack thereof). Be sure to use the examples above to guide you as to what I mean by “embodying a landscape.” Is there a place that’s special to you, that moves you, that has become a part of you? Perhaps you have a memory of encountering a landscape that has changed you or enlightened you? What particulars of this landscape have inspired, comforted, encouraged, strengthened you, or done just the opposite? Put it all in a poem, and take us there.

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At Dawn

 Birdsongs at dawn

That time when i yawn

A sliver of light seeps in

My eyes seek to invite

Ah the wind so mild in sway

Banana fronds in shadow play 

Magical the hours of newness 

Erasing all my sleepiness 

Ah birdsongs at dawn

© gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  

 Quadrille #243: Bird is the Word 

Using the prompt word - bird

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 Oh the dusty windy days

Sneezes and coughs in assails

Indoor stays become again

The best choice of aging

Wait till later the night brings

A calming song of baslm

Then feet may dance

And wine to announce

The poet's ardous soul

Which only the moon soup

The gadabout's pervade

The gadabout's prevail

© gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  

 MTB: Two and a Half Rhyme 

Challenge:

• Write at least 12 lines of poetry in couplets
• separate the poem into couplets of 2 line stanzas
• the couplets must rhyme but only using half or para rhymes 

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 As sure as sunshine after rain

Trek when sunny the day 

Being close to trees again

Moss on age old stone

Birdsongs as sunshine after rain

Tired legs tired back

Stopping starting up again

Backpacks heavy to shoulders

Cicadas their shrill refrain

Atmosphere eerie forest green

Continue as sunshine after rain

© gillena cox 2026

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 Turn of Phrase 

Challenge: to write a poem using only phrases

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1375

 Goings And Comings

[I looked at the Soaps and enjoyed them so much. I never knew then, i was part of a soap opera, myself]

Last year it was my London uncle, he died, RIP. Then my youngest brother hosted for the first time a Family Get Together. There were folks from New York and Trinidad. We had a fun day in August.

yellow tees bespoke

colour my deceased mother

loved so very much

So that was last year, when i met for the first time a sister, i had heard about, who materialized, wearing red the colour of planet Mars. All the folks associated with only my father wore red.

So this year my Grenada uncle passed. He was the beloved uncle of all his neices and nephews. Would you beleive, no had anything negative to say of him. He was phenomenal.

one more shining star  

has joined the overhead sky -

 for my uncle James

Then in comes a new brother, living in Florida, who was searching for his father, who happened to be also my father. In conversation with a cousin of mine he related his quest. He had gone to the right source. By serendipity his search ended. Except for Rose, who was still in Grenada after the funeral of uncle James. Wednesday gone we brothers and sisters met.

my new found brother 

at last we meet face to face -

celebration time

© gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  Haibun Monday 3-2-26: A “Life on Mars” Tribute

Challenge: compose a haibun that reflects that resonance, as a tribute to the Pulitzer Prize-winner’s work - Tracy K. Smith, “Life on Mars” Graywolf Press

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[image from google]

Wonderland Today - a quadrille

Tears welled into an ocean

Hard to believe humans 

Contained so much water 

Alice knew swim she must 

To get to the tea party

This was not yesterday's wonderland

To stay on that page

Here is a small fact:

 You are going to die

© gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  Poetics Tuesday: Beginnings are Endings 

Challenge: 

The following are some opening lines. Please choose one as the closing line of your poem.

1. “Here is a small fact: You are going to die.“

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

2. “It was a pleasure to burn.”

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

3. “All this happened, more or less.”

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

4. “History has failed us, but no matter.”

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

5. “They shoot the white girl first.”

Paradise by Toni Morrison

6. “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.”

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

7. “The first thing I remember is being under something.”

Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye

8. “This is the saddest story I have ever heard.“

Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier

9. “I was looking for a quiet place to die.”

Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies

10. “I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice.”

  John Irving,  A Prayer for Owen Meany

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[image from Pinterest]

 Gnawing hunger was eating

Away at her being

He left her oh too soon

Blame it on the moon

She didn't deserve this

Unkindness clouded like mist

She should try to move on 

Maybe it was put on

Like a curse 

Couldn't be worse.

© gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY 

  Q242 Hunger Makes the Best of Poetry 

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Women in Carnival TT🇹🇹

Are we courting fire and brimstone?

Or, how deep are we into Hades?

Toe deep, ankle deep, knee?

It worried me for a while,

My masquerading sisters,

Playing mas so bare.

I pondered and contemplated.

You know, there was a time,

When women did not play mas,

Even though there were female roles

Men played them,

As i ponder, present day, women in mas,

Could it be, we are poems of protest?

Our energies are varied:

You know how recess time at school,

For some kids was play till you sweat,

While some more reserved will,

Go back to class intact, 

Shirt in pants blouse in skirt.

So the way some women plas mas today, 

Is our mind set recess time?

Then what of the spirit,

Because some folks cannot,

Look at these (ob)scenes,

Remember The Garden of Eden?

Remember how innocent we were, 

Before that bite of the apple?

Then what happened? 

God fashioned clothes 

From fig leaves for us.

Are we poems of protest?

Is it recess time?

Will we get enough clothes sewn?

Do we need clothes in our sunfest?

© gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY 

 MTB: Poems of Questions (No Answers) 

Challenge:Write a poem built entirely (or mostly) from questions.

Guidelines:

1. Begin with a question but don’t answer it. Let it breathe.

2. Continue with more questions that deepen, pivot, or expand on the theme.

3. Pair each question with imagery and metaphor. Let the image do some of the work of meaning.

4. Use at least two other poetic devices:

*personification
*alliteration or assonance
*contrast or paradox
*repetition for musicality

5.End on a question and resist the urge to resolve.

Let curiosity guide your lines. Let questions feel as powerful as answers. 

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THIS POEM IS A GLIMPSE, A SMILE AND A KISS

This poem is a glimpse

This poem a smile

This poem is a kiss

This poem is a glimpse as of

Strangers, but not so at all,

It is you, full of mischief 

After our recent tryst

This poem is the smile you 

Toss, at my greedy heart,

Wanting more, so much more

Of you, i swear i will swoon

This poem is a feather light kiss.

The kind that tingles and awakens

Desire, seeping through bones, to soul

Correct in effervescence

This poem is that glimpse of you, hours after

This poem is your smile, lingering through my day eternalizing minutes

This poem is your kiss, light enough to stir my soul.

© gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  Poetics: The Evolution of Love 

Challenge: 

to write a poem about love as something quietly sacred — not just roses and hearts, but the small, unseen ways someone stays. Maybe it’s the way they remember your silences, or how they feel like warmth in winter.

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[image courtesy dVerse Poets Pub]

 It is disgustingly disturbing the way lips forget. What they have kissed, become not sacred but obliterated and the taste of desire lingers like a gnawing hunger, biting into the secrets of night.

How many days must traverse one calendar before, feelings speak their truth. Before moons ripen bright in night skies for lovers to swoon over, with future promise.

The blue moons, the black moons, the super moons, all with their lights  of varing orb. When is a kiss sealed, to tomorrow, still lingering in the now

© gillena cox 2026

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 Prosery: Toni Morrison 

Challenge: To use the line "Lips forget what they have kissed"

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[image from google]

 Left or Right: A Fold

Walk with me, this sunny day

Let's count our strides; one

Two, three, here to there, may

Get us only to the curve, just

Barely; yes, this sunny day

Clear of the front gate, here

The Western Main Road, lay

Shall we go left, or go right,

To the market place i dare say

Not to distant, stacked with 

Goodies to fetch, this sunny day

© gillena cox 2026

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 Open Link #401 and February Live

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Enjoy The Music

1368

 

I'd Rather Go Blind?

Oh no no no,

I'd rather it was not so

How do you sound colour

How do you taste dancing

Yes to the dancing feet

That i may meet

Out in the street 

In colours glorious 

Let these eyes behold continous

Children's carnival 

© gillena cox 2026

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 I’d Rather Go Blind;

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Enjoy The Music

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 When Flowers Bloom In The Street

Yesterday was the Sunday

For Children Carnival parade

In St James 🇹🇹  near where i live

St James 🇹🇹  comes alive

Old and young dancing

Watching the children

The sun is hot hot

But nobody really cares

Watching the parade 

The children enjoy

Displaying their fancy

© gillena cox 2026

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 Quadrille #241: Swearing by all Flowers;

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Enjoy The Music

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[image from Pinterest]

 Shine For The Carnival

The sun shines brighter

For all the brightest days

Then music can shine too

Prefacing the merriment

In the street when two days

The sun shines brighter

Then the gustiness

Carry more dust held tightly

For all the brightest days

A season so dry

Carefree and full of humour  

Then music can shine too

© gillena cox 2026

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 MTB: Revisiting Cascade Poems 

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ENJOY THE MUSIC

It's Dry Season and also Carnival Season here in T&T🇹🇹

1365

Like  Real Dry Season

 Seems the weather has deceided to behave, like a child finally, understanding the lolipop is within reach of discontinued tantrums.

Its sunny today, and bright, and gusty, and dusty, like true true Dry Season i used to know, before climate deceided to change her ways.

Carnival is a season, like Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter. Complete with its colour schemes, events, actions and music.

Carnival ends with two days of carefree costuming and dancing in the streets in groups called Carnival Bands, giving way to the solemn sacred Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten Season.

© gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

 Poetics: The Smile in a Simile

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ENJOY THE MUSIC

It's Dry Season and also Carnival Season here in T&T🇹🇹