Sunday, June 14, 2015

FIVE DAY POETRY CHALLENGE

I have happily accepted a poetry challenge by friend and fellow artist Cath Blackfeather to write one poem a day for five days (Click on her name to visit her site and read some of her fascinating writing).  

You can find each day’s poem here, in this post. These challenges always seem tough when you start out.  However, some of the best poetry and haiku that I have written have come from just such as this.  This has been great fun, and I encourage anyone to take this challenge on, whether you consider yourself a poet/writer, or not. Poems don;t have to be complex, elegant, or complicated.  Sometimes they can just be fun!

Photo "Chicken Noodle Soup" by Casja Lilliehook from Wikimedia Commons

Day #5

The Last Poem
By Judith Cullen
© 2015

A Cup O’ Noodles at 5am,
Face in a steamy reverie
Poem five must post today
What the heck will this one be?

Nature’s glory? That was four
No need to be repeating
Perhaps some deep, heartfelt emotion?
Number two, beware of prating

Inspiration lurks all around
Just need to see and catch it
The cat? the light? my asthma wheeze?
Good Lord!  Could I just scratch this?

Just sit your butt and start to write
The words will come, you know
There's always ideas awaiting release
A thought reveals and shows

The room, the hour seem desolate
What possibly can be said?
“It will come later” my inner voice says,
“Lay down, go back to bed”

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Click "More" to read the previous poems...



Image "Breaking Wave" from publicdomainpictures.net

Day #4

The Wave
By Judith Cullen
© 2015

Born of shifts a far
In depths unimagined
To soar, swell, and sweep

Racing through the wild
Great peaks, and plunging valleys
Horizon vast, broad

The rise of firmness
Force compacts, embrace direct
Rising, ever up

Breaking, an instant
Liquid jewels of the sea
Spread across the shore


"Celtic Heart" illustration by Judith Cullen

Day #3

Learning the Knot
By Judith Cullen
© 2015

Up, over, in,
Down, under, around.
One continuous line
Thread invulnerable
What does it mean?

My needle traces the path
Traveling in endless repetition
The cycle of stitches
One long, unbroken thread
A dimly remembered origin

Up, over, in,
Down, under, around.
One continuous line
Forms unshakable
Can I master it?

My pencil follows the path
Illusion created by the stroke
Lifting and dragging
Interlocking, interweaving
Lacing together eternity

Up, over, in,
Down, under, around.
One continuous line
Image everlasting

Of an eternal cycle.

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Image "Helping Hands" by Irene Marie Dorey from publicdomainimages.net

Day #2

Connections
By Judith Cullen
© 2015

Dedicated to Kathi Fastnow Dirkse and family with heartfelt blessings. 

- One: Grandmother –

Looking at your photograph
I see glimmering reflections,
Your face, my face,
A thread weaving generations.
The more I learn of you,
Gone so early from my life,
The more I know myself.

- Two: Mother –

Hearing your voice,
Your words always challenge
Who I am, who I might become,
Themes lurking in consciousness.
The more I listen to you,
So alike while so different,
The more clearly I understand myself.

- Three: Sister –

We hold each others hands,
Your familiar presence comforts
Even then, and still now
On the long road that we share.
Part of a whole you complete,
The longer we journey together,
The more I accept who I am.

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Day #1

Sunday Morning
By Judith Cullen
© 2015

Drapes glowing before dawn
A silence so utterly complete
Even birds still slumber
A single car sound far away

Air crisp, clean, and fresh
Sheets still cool cotton soft
Cat curled at my feet
Turning into the comfort

Thinking of you, whoever
The mythical one who thrives
In my heart, while my brain
Knows you do not exist

Hugging myself with dawn
The room growing brighter
Birds finally waken, singing
Held in arms still just my own


##

5 comments:

  1. I particularly love the third verse.

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    1. Thank you! That was just that morning. It was a wonder, sensual, magic moment that was at once wonderfully serene, and a little lonely.

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  2. I particularly love the third verse, also; the concluding statements in each stanza are wonderful.

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    Replies
    1. That means a lot ,Luna, given that I am kinda of a "sometimes" poet. Being primarily a prose writer, I am sooo not familiar with all the poetic forms and formulas (except haiku), so anytime I can find a pattern that works, I embrace it!

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  3. Poem #2: All the verses work for me, but yes love the 3rd one. I normally don't do poetry challenges coz I feel the poem just has to come to me - not be forced- but it is a good stimulus as I am in a fallow period just now.

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