Fun with Facebook Poetry

One of my Facebook writer-friends (Meg Pokrass) posts random words, and then challenges us to write a piece based on those words. I've now done three and enjoyed these "assignments." I love how when I first look at the words, I panic a little; and then that feeling transforms to creative energy that creates the first line, which then builds to the next and the next.

Each exercise is a reminder of how our minds are meaning-making machines. Give us something random, and we'll discover a connection. In a way, we feel that connection before we "understand" it.



Meg's words #1: rat, lips, crap, huh, corrupt, purr, disinterest, hangnail, civil, skyward, inflict, underside, ramp, hate, curdle, sweetness, skim, scarlet, tinge, tendon, squint, condemned

Advice

On the underside of curdle, taste the tinge of sweet.

Conclude that only states of mind are indiscreet.

Slide down the ramp of hate into civility’s pool.

Know that all falls yet remains (take Istanbul).

Skim across infliction like the purr of a cat.

Not all with lips are kissable (take the rat).

Corruption ramps up then condemns itself.

Most crap gets flushed or corrodes on the shelf.

Tendons tense and loosen for a reason.

To squint and say “huh?” is not treason.

Ignore hangnails and paint your nails scarlet.

Relish the skyward ride in time’s winged chariot.

Meg's words #2: annealed, forsythia, crabcake, froth, louse, mercury, wallop, sander, bevel, icepick, morningstar, zephyr, doodle, quixotic, nudge, paste, riposte, drill, slather, spitoon, Irene, skip, fortify, mosquito


Things That Fortify

“In photography there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated.” -August Sander

During an icepick moment, doodling.
Forsythia’s yellow bells.

A zephyr soft as froth.
At dawn, morningstar out your window.

Freddy Mercury.

For fun, missing the spittoon.
Skipping the urge for riposte.

Meditating on the bevel.
Observing the mosquito drill.

Any wallop, any louse.

Anything annealed.
Anything quixotic.
Anything slathered.

With your fork, nudging an ambrosial crabcake.

“Goodnight Irene.”
Pasting on the face of a queen.

Meg's words #3: quick, worry, speak, cake, sombrero, oyster, mask, porch, provide, pithy, ferry, tinker, surplus, overhead, scorch, pout, blaze, gape, expose, steamed, selfish

Back to School Prayer

Lord, provide me with pithy speech,

no gape in my blazer or unintentional

exposure. Make me as a cake on a sombrero

or a mask on an oyster: surplus,

quirky, quickly inspired. Provide me

freedom from scorched worry; allow pouts

to stay hinged on selfish mouths, unconsidered.

I pray for the illumination of the overhead bulb,

the sturdiness of well-built porch, the clarity

of the mapless tinker, the allure of the steamy

meal. Ferry me into endless waves with a lust

for new waters and a thirst for horizon.