1379

[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

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  

 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

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 Quadrille #243: Bird is the Word 

Using the prompt word - bird

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1377

 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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1374

[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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1373

[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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1372

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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1369

[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

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

 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

1367

 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

1366

[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

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

 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🇹🇹

1364

[image from google]

Because of today's date, in the  northern hemisphere the tradition of the groundhog, will be in mind of many. Should the groundhog see his shadow, folks will buckle down to about six more weeks of winter and snow.

 To  spring or not to spring, that's what the sunlight will decide today.

And here in Trinidad where i live, for Catholics, the carols are finally shelved now. Today's feast is about the presentation of The Lord in the temple, the Candlemas.

After holy mass the creche/ nativity scene will be removed.

The last of the Christmas decorations to go. 

blessing of candles -

hope in the light anchored

again today

© gillena cox 2026

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 Haibun Monday 2-2-26: Groundhog Day Redux

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ENJOY THE MUSIC 

1363

 [ image courtesy dVerse Poets Pub]

 The Dream

I never knew i wanted to be a superhero,

Until the dream drew me in oh oh,

There was i then, 

Solving problems this planet, 

Had never done before,

My team worked very hard,

To rescue me,

When i was, captured by enemy guys,

Breathingly heavily, 

Gasping all the while,

I escaped into reality.

Waking up i think,

I really didn't belong there at all.

© gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

 OpenLinkNight #400

I linked back to

Poetics – Dream Interpretations

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 Paramin Here We Come

We planned this trip, thoroughly.

Leaving point, the Library. 

Leaving time [9:00AM].

A stop along the way,

To visit a tiny museum. 

Then, on our way to,

The Paramin lookout point. 

Here we will have lunch, 

And Take group photos. 

The rain was unplanned.

© gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

 Quadrille #240: Fill, Zip, Trip

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SONG CHOICE FOR TODAY

1361

[AI generated image]

 She was a tawny gypsy girl,

A girl of twenty years,

I liked her for the lumps of gold

That jingled from her ears;

From: The Gypsy Girl By Ralph Hodgson at Poemhunter.com

Feet Afire

To dancce barefooted,

Must be a painful feat,

Except, a pillow of passion

Flowing tiny through veins,

Carries her higher, faster,

Enveloping air and feet hurl,

To heights unseemingly known,

Only to the vibe of dancer,

How does art develop to swirl?

She was a tawny gypsy girl

Whom sidewalk audience,

And prestige hall grew to know,

And loved her fast moving feet,

Destined for clouds, or so

One thought seeing her,

In motion throttle rhythmic fears,

Cadence carried along dreams,

Only the artiste dared to stir,

Yesterdays mattered not, nor tears,

A girl of twenty years.

Her layered skirts,

Frilled and coloured,

Patterned for sun moon and,

Roving ways through sleet and sun,

Danced a rhythm of her feet below,

For this was a sync of her and bold,

They always became a part,

Of her thrilling feat,

Those agonizing stories told, 

I liked her for the lumps of gold.

Bedecked adorned for audiences'

Bewilderment, was her goal,

Always she drew them in, to

Tales of treachery,  wander,

And exhausting moons

Above wagon wheels turning gears,

On dusty winding curves,

Music never dared to silence,

The clink of earring's solid years,

That jingled from her ears.

© gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  Meet the bar at the Spanish Court 

Challenge: to write a Glosa 

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SONG CHOICE FOR TODAY

1360

[snow flake photo (2019) Photograph by Klaus Vartzbed from Google]

New To Snow

In a time of vacation,

When minutes are relaxed,

Appetites surge like  ocean waves

Waiting for godot now,

Is  never piontless,

He will or he very well may not

Come what may the cold is real

And torrid weather oceans left behind

This is a move northward

Time spent away of comfort

Zone new and foreign

Anticipating snow is relevant

So when the dust of flakes

Fly to my unmittened cupped hand

Through the doorway, wow!

© gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  Poetics: New Year Snow 

Challenge: to  a poem about snow, inspiration Frances Horovitz - ‘New Year Snow’

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SONG CHOICE FOR TODAY

1359

Vasily Kandinsky - The Great Masters of Art - Bauhaus Movement ...from google

Eleventh Day

 If i should die, before you should sleep, you should bury me. With the lies I told, you can carve a monument to debate about abstractionism. 

With my truths, knit together a stone tablet of love. Remember to pen in my good deeds in a tabular form. Numbers one to eleven should suffice. Remember, i was born on an eleventh day. Shalom!

© gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  Dverse Prosery Monday — Bury Me 

Challenge: to use the line 'Bury me with the lies I told' from Alejandro Escovedo's - 'Bury Me'

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SONG CHOICE FOR TODAY

1357

 [last train to San Fernando photo from Google]

 One day the train

Chugged along its rails

And rested

Never again to whistle

Clank or chug

Then the buses rolled

With people kids and goods

The way things change

After  long long semesters

© gillena cox 2026

##all of the railways were finally closed on December 28th, 1968 in Trinidad🇹🇹 

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  Folsom Prison Blues 

Challenge: after reading and listening to

Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash: to write an inspired poem 20 lines or less

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SONG CHOICE FOR TODAY

1358

[ “Mme Kupka among Verticals” painted in 1910-11 by Frantisek Kupka. Courtesy dVerse] Poets Pub

A Look Back

She looks back

Only to see herself etched

In a canvas of colour bars

Not as tasty as candy

Much more messy

Than an artist palette

The truth triggers waterlilies

To blossom on strange

Mossy rocks

© gillena cox 2026

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  It’s Open Link Night AND our LIVE session is just around the corner! 

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