65

The Assembly of the Gods, after the frescoes in the Loggia of the Farnesina in Rome - by (after) Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio of Urbino); image from google dot com



PHEW!
Poems poured in,
How they danced,those words,
Erotic sambas to boot,
Why? for a trophy of worth

Port of call,
Here we are, here we are,
Excited to have gone the mile,
Winners then, are we all.
© gillena cox



Written for the prompt
Poems In April Final Day
CHALLENGE: (from Isadora Gruye) A BANG...A WHIMPER....A SYLLABANT HISS as we find ourselves at the end of yet another National Poetry Month.

Monday WRites 9

image courtesy The imaginary garden with real toads

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 #9; whats your mood today ❧✿❧ my poem today is a recipe poem ❧✿❧ I invite you to link in with one of your WRites

RECIPE FOR POESY
Gather ideas as fresh as dewdrops
Distil your muse harness your thoughts
Gather herbs of rosemary and thyme
This verse meanders within a rhyme
So far so good yet this work’s not done
Pounding and kneading is then to come
Meaning into metaphor also wit and pun
Let it rise from sunset till next the sun
Grab your bowl now as dawn birds twitter
Toss this dough while pink clouds enter
Its been a dash of this and a bit of that
Free verse poems are where its at
Bake till golden brown as needs a good crust
Repast of a hearty flavour needs room to adjust
© gillena cox

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 the prompt today from Björn Rudberg at
Poems In April DAY TWENTY SEVEN - It is not just about food
CHALLENGE: to write a poem in the form of a recipe. It can either be something we can actually using for our favorite dinners, but why not a recipe for something more abstract such as love, spring or death.

51

image courtesy imaginary garden with real toads (i saw the image, liked, cropped it and used it as it served to be my inspiration for today's poem)




"RABBIT RABBIT"
My mother says if you say "rabbit rabbit" on the first of any month
something unexpected happens, much like the tooth and the tooth fairy
that sort of thing.
Where is the entrance to Alice's dream? is there an end to this
rabbit's appearances, does he ever sleep? does he ever dream. does
he follow us around
Or are dreams made of following stuff, some edible some for mere
foolish entertainment like wearing crowns and ordering folks around
sizing up and sizing down.
At any tea party where white gloves are worn, there will be spills
for dainty though these ladies be, a March hare is cause for a stir
or maybe even a stare
All puns intended, for i write it as i know it; the deck of cards
turn carrot, or is it tarot, who knows may be it is and maybe so
all elbows off the table please!!!
© gillena cox






Written for
Poems In April DAY FOURTEEN The Tuesday Platform - unprompted free-range day of the week

Monday WRites 7

image from google dot com



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 #7; whats your mood today ❧✿❧ my poem today is an quote acrostic ❧✿❧ I invite you to link in with one of your WRites


“Time is the school in which we learn.”
― Joan Didion


OF TIME
Time: largesse of universal being;
Is this really all there is to life?
The sum total of vast yearnings?
School: that platform of curving lines,
In excess of drawn reality schemed,
Which, if not directed to here nor there,
We drift, in gazillion star gates to no avail;
Learn then must we, to direct our gaze.
© gillena cox

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 />




I Wrote in response to the prompt today at
Poems In April DAY THIRTEEN - The Poetry In A Quote
THE CHALLENGE: choose one or more of Joan's quotes as a springboard for your poetry.

49

Guernica by Pablo Picasso; image from google dot com



PICASSO-SQUE MOUTHS
when they scrape the carcass
freshly butchered off the streets
of hatred
and i have to read and i have to watch
newsreel and newsprint
the picasso-sque mouths of mothers
and fathers gaping in horror
and the marrow in my
bones gash and shudder
cause no more is there brother
or brother or sister
then only the words of a song
or the words of a prayer
hones my sorrow
urging me to carry on yet
© gillena cox





Written for the prompt today at
Poems In April DAY ELEVEN 'A Message from the Little Grandmother'

April is the month of the Pink Moon. This Moon has a dark star, which shines across the abyss, reminding us that we are made of the same stuff as the stars. That's what keeps us looking up, into the heavens, feeling our connection to the unfathomable beauty and mystery of the spheres.
CHALLENGE: Write about how you manage to maintain that balance, how you hold onto the beauty and the hope. Write about what heals you...

48

DEAR GRANDPA
Your magical fingers still echo, in the memory of today, and tomorrow.
A lovely wire planter, you so skillfully wrought, like the song of a sparrow,
Holds the beauty and sincere fragrance of a desert rose. Petals furl as if waving,
Waving to heaven, only because you are there abiding.
You are there, savouring this poem, and every word written, against a flawless
Background, of blue birds and ground doves, grackles and kiskadees. Chorus,
From heaven’s abode; candied into sweet soft whispers, so tender and true,
Of knowing you’re fine, and i love you
© gillena cox




Written for the prompt today at
Poems In April DAY TEN - Dear Past, Dear Future
CHALLENGE: Think about your ancestors. Think about your future descendants. Write a letter to either or both. Word count is wide open.

47

The Crucifixion by Jan van Eyck (1390 - 1441). Flemish painter


She is shielded in grief
A destined maiden she
How will Mary be comforted
Of her dear son Jesus departed

Stone, heavier than the weight
Of sins; lightly shifted stone
Revealeth then angelic might
For devotion's pity sight

New Jerusalem is written awaits
What hope behold this city new
And what about seeing eyes of doubt
Does resurrection consider such clout
© gillena cox



Written for the prompt today at
Poems In April DAY NINE - words vs pictures
CHALLENGE: to combine words and art...to pen a poem about a piece of art that moves us. It can be something famous, something a child made for you or a loved one, or it can be a carved bar of soap. It just has to move you in a profound way. Your poem will gives us insight to the 'why'!...give credit to the artist selected.



...

The Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych (or Diptych with Calvary and Last Judgement) consists of two small painted panels attributed to the Early Netherlandish artist Jan van Eyck, with areas finished by unidentified followers or members of his workshop. This diptych is one of the early Northern Renaissance oil on panel masterpieces, renowned for its unusually complex and highly detailed iconography, and for the technical skill evident in its completion. It was executed in a miniature format; the panels are just 56.5 cm (22.2 in) high by 19.7 cm (7.8 in) wide. The diptych was probably commissioned for personal and private devotion….
Along with Robert Campin and later Rogier van der Weyden, Van Eyck revolutionised the approach towards naturalism and realism in Northern European painting during the early to mid 15th century. He was the first to manipulate oils to give the close detailing that infused his figures with the high degree of realism and complexity of emotion seen in this diptych. He coupled this with a mastery of glaze to create luminous surfaces with a deep perspective—most noticeable in the upper portion of the Crucifixion panel—which had not been achieved before...
The Crucifixion panel comprises three horizontal planes, each representing different moments from the Passion. The upper third shows the crucifixion before a view of Jerusalem; the lower two thirds detail the crowds and Jesus' followers at Golgotha (Place of the Skull). Located outside the city walls amongst rock tombs and gardens, in the first century Golgotha was Jerusalem's place of execution, and the visible patches of hill highlight the area's "stony, forbidding, and lifeless" nature. The atmosphere of bleakness is reinforced by the random figures in the upper ground that scramble for a better view. The gospels tell of Jesus' followers and relatives, as well as his prosecutors and assorted spectators, attending the crucifixion at Golgotha. In van Eyck's panel the former are represented in the foreground, while the latter, including High Priests and Temple Elders, are shown in the mid-ground.
The centre foreground shows a group of five mourners, with three other figures set to the right and left. In the center group, John the Evangelist supports the Virgin Mary, surrounded by three women. Mary's dramatic swoon in grief pushes her forward in the pictorial space, and according to Smith, places her "closest to the viewer's presumed position". Dressed in an enveloping blue robe that hides most of her face, she collapses and is caught by John, who supports her by her arms. Mary Magdalene kneels to the right, dressed in a white-trimmed green robe and red sleeves. Raising her arms aloft, she clenches her fingers in a distraught, agonised manner. She is the only figure from this group shown to look directly at Christ and serves as one of the key painterly devices to direct the viewer's gaze upwards towards the crosses. from Wikipedia

41

hummingbird and Barbados pride flower from google dot com



THE GARDEN: FIRST DELIGHT
A pretty garden in sunshine and in rain
Dahlias, Vanda orchids, Barbados pride
Lots more, single petalled and double
Hummingbirds, danced the backwards dance,
That no other bird did, or maybe could not;

The weeds grew unannounced, uninvited;
In lieu of a beating, children pulled these weeds,
To their benefit, venting anger for reproach;
The parents thought they won, let them think so,
Ha!

Children can win, at the game of: "do this, do so,"
Also;
The Pomerac tree, carpeted the sight of friends, and,
Visitors alike, with its very pink, yet delicate blossom fall;
A lovely transition to delicious mealy fruit
© gillena cox 2015



I'm blog hopping today at
Poems In April DAY TWO

39

DayBreak by Katkat-Tan on DeviantArt image from google dot com



NEW DAY
I sketch the dawn with my mouth,
Holding between my teeth twitterings,
And the colours of roosters, alarming
The night to hurried flights of departure;

Swishing, the radiance of morning stars,
Contouring, soft pinks and yellows: pastels,
Designing, early morning repast of orations;
Gums are hidden under a smile of devotions;

Tis dawn! and, it is as he has planned;
With just a single word, this day of mercy;
An offering, a gesture, a coax, a pampering;
Ochres, blast bombed greys, and snowy whites;

I sketch the dawn with my mouth,
After a painting already accomplished.
© gillena cox


I'm blog hopping today at
Poems In April DAY ONE