222

[image from google dot com]


LOOK! AN ELEPHANT
His skin so rough,
Or was it her skin, so
Tough; big and gentle looking
With doleful eyes expressing,
The journeys of a circus;
Such is life -
Pages written in with ink of expressing;
A performance becomes a rite of passage
Within reach and within bounds
Of caution;
Sitting up there in the stands
You look, and you gawk,
You leave the circus,
And tear up your ticket,
The keepsake is fresh new understandings,
Becoming memories etched.
LOOK! AN ELEPHANT © gillena cox 2016

Written for Fireblossom Friday: An Elephantine Challenge

221

[image from google dot com]


LOVE SPELL
You tease, where i thought you would
Appease, my every unmeasured sense;
Waves, approaching in torrents; I stood
At the shoreline, carrying a stick of incense.

Those murmurings, a love spell,
The ocean dared chant in mantric charm;
I pluck it out of the sands, a seashell;
Trap the genie of passion, do him no harm.

Your calm surface, to smooth the command
Of wishes, yet unspoken; for before me and
At my whim, your chicane now shall be;
Oh Love, I, shall conquer thee.
LOVE SPELL © gillena cox 2013 [ first posted at Poemhunter dot com]

Blog hopping today at The Tuesday Platform

Monday WRites 54

[image courtesy imaginary garden]


READING UNDER A CLOUDSCAPE WITH DAY MOON
Page after page, activity and characters appear
Taking two dimensional form in mind invisible

A cup of tea, brewed right from a tea bag
There is no strain of creativity in such actions

Just a sense of knowing from remembering
What each sip warrants the maker's hands

But a sky chock full of puffy white clouds
Surrounding a day moon there in ambush

That's a surprise for a clear evening
Apparent just for a very few minutes
READING UNDER A CLOUDSCAPE WITH DAY MOON © gillena cox 2016





You've heard about the Monday Blues ❧✿❧ well this is Monday WRites (musing on the definition here of rite, as any customary observance or practice eg the rite of afternoon tea).
Welcome to Monday WRites #54, ❧✿❧ Todays write is linked to The Imaginary garden with real toads❧✿❧ Whats your mood like today ❧✿❧ I invite you to link in with one of your WRites



GRAB MY BUTTON
<br /> <a href="http://myblog-verses.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0C9WPzL5kFEY1gEitLn4bC5inZjfq2beowWitvrD3zLruIRMxxj1RyrHw6Xcd6SlmEASrTd6rLFn4mfF8D8XC5Mz4ASE8iblAAmc3uaKNuHtYgvzIWajyH64D6kzlwugaU8wP610yKLRq/s320/button2Monday+WRites.jpg" alt="verses" /></a><br />

Written for Brendan's prompt
Turns of the Tale: Poetic Surprise

THE CHALLENGE: Discover something new by revisiting a favorite theme of yours from a different perspective.
❧✿❧
HARM AND BOON IN THE MEETINGS:by Jack Gilbert
We think the fire eats the wood.
We are wrong. The wood reaches out
to the flame. The fire licks at
what the wood harbors, and the wood
gives itself away to that intimacy,
the manner in which we and the world
meet each new day. Harm and boon
in the meetings. As heart meets what
is not heart, the way the spirit
encounters the flesh and the mouth meets
the foreignness in another mouth. We stand
looking at the ruin of our garden
in the early dark of November, hearing crows
go over while the first snow shines coldly
everywhere. Grief makes the heart
apparent as much as sudden happiness can.[courtesy the imaginary garden]

219

[image Columbus Inspired from Wikipedia]


WHEN THREE SHIPS SAILED
In ships three
Santa Maria, Pinta and Niña
They set out to sea

They sailed and sailed
But mutiny stung his men's heart
“ Give me my men but three days"

This was his voyage three
Lo! ahoy! he saw the peaks three
And named the landmass La Trinity

Some say he governed with greed
And his rule was one of tyranny
The Columbus brothers three

Christopher, Bartolomé, and Diego
Returns to Spain from voyage three
Reward to chains of imprisonment

Freed eventually and rewarded
Were the Columbus brothers three
This is a small tale

In lines of three presented
Three cheers for
The island of Trinidad
WHEN THREE SHIPS SAILED © gillena cox 2016

Written For Hedgewitch's prompt
Poetry To The Third Power

The Challenge:The idea of three can appear in any form and in any association in your poem: three objects, as in the floating heads shown in the painting by Odilon Redon below, three places, events, people, states of mind, directions, colors, or whatever, as long as you incorporate the number as a meaningful element of your piece.

218

[empty tomb - image from google dot com]


AWE OF RUINS
Days remaining, shadowed in doubtful failing light
Light regarding, shone on past to present line
Line curving, pointed in one dimensional vision
Vision slipping, honed of voices hushed to silence
Silence remaining, spoke of trust to harvest futures
Futures sustaining, carved of words good in hope
Hope retaining, bounded by fists refusing to open
Open cajoling, chanted thus the refrain of "sesame"
Sesame hearing, emptied a cave in morning sunlight
Sunlight blinding, chimed an end - beginning days
AWE OF RUINS © gillena cox 2016

Written for
In The Remains of This Month (April!)

The Challenge by Outlawer: this 16th day of this crazy month of April write something that stems from this word--remains, remaining, remainder-- and I post pictures of sculptures I have taken or pieces that seem to me to be remains of some kind. (Feel free to do an ekphrastic poem and certainly to use your own pictures.)

AND

The Challenge by Sanaa:
On Popular Demand – Pour me drops of glorious sunshine [4]


AND

The Challenge by Magaly
Of Peculiar Fun and Me – Dark Poetry for the Cruellest Month, 2016 (Day 7)

217

[a google dot com image]


THE REASON BEING
Crunch colour and lace
Who sets the pace

Just because, angels respond
Not every sylph will be blonde

Falling lilacs when they carpet
dull spaces in their contacts

Break the spell of doldrums
Even now Spring time comes
THE REASON BEING © gillena cox 2016


Revisit to read
Angels
Crunch colour and lace
Falling Lilacs

Written for Magaly's prompt
A Poem of Our Own

The Challange: to create poetry into which we weave the titles of 3 of our own poems.

AND

Prompt Nights – Spring is the time of land’s awakening [11]

216

[anteater: a google dot com image]


SOMEWHAT SILLY
Do anteaters eat aunts?
What a wildlife to live!
And of uncles, would they flaunt
A tongue so fickle, as to give,
Riddles to every question asked?

Chased by the pride of lions

Truly, i'd rather be an aardvark
Running fast and burrowing deep;
So grandma can sing me to sleep.
SOMEWHAT SILLY © gillena cox 2016


Written for Kerry's prompt
Get Listed! ~ The Compound Word Edition

The challenge: to use compound words in constructive and imaginative ways:a minimum of three words to include in your poem of the day.

AND

Day 3: Idiots Herding the Blind 4/6