Thursday, March 5, 2026

1377

 Oh the dusty windy days

Sneezes and coughs to 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 
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 [see examples below]



Tuesday, March 3, 2026

1376

 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



BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 
Challenge: to write a poem using only phrases


Monday, March 2, 2026

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 
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





Tuesday, February 24, 2026

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 
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


❧✿❧


Monday, February 23, 2026

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

Thursday, February 19, 2026

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 
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. 


Tuesday, February 17, 2026

1371

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 
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.

❧✿❧