Poem of the day

Passaway

by Penelope Shuttle

deep sorrow for his passaway

              sorry we lost he

 

after your passaway 

              I give you river, 

              cloud reflected in river

 

You give back river 

              you give back cloud

 

sorry we lost he

 

I give you whirling dervish of house, 

              half-mile of heron

 

You give them back, 

              you are passaway

 

I give you memory 

              of our weekdays and weekends 

                            and all the days in between

 

You give them back 

              with or without sorrow 

                            I can’t tell

 

sorry we lost he

 

I give you hodgepodge of spiders, 

              Love’s dagger-proof coat, 

                            myself when young

 

I give you river and cloud, 

              you return them, unused, 

                            don’t need them

 

              you are passaway

 

18 April

Happy World Book Day!

by Julie Johnstone

17 April

Wars and Rumours

by Toluwalope Ogunlesi

Preamble:

love has folded His sheets of music,

time assembles to distune our talking drums,

songs seal themselves in bunkers of silence,

daylight rushes her still-wet laundry in.

 

Prophecy:

scarecrows beat fear-full wings in the sky's vast

tombs,

birds freeze into poles of torment, riotously hued,

it's going to rain; it's going to pour,

the clouds whisper it, through kola-blackened teeth

 

Visions:

in years to come time will

tell it; unfold bunkers of teeth -

grinning teeth, chipped teeth, set in

a silent, still convoy of skinned skulls

 

Questions:

a canvas citizened by victims,

a canvas mounted on poles of silence

a canvas painted in pencils of (heated) lead

- did the Painter Realise his Vision?

 

Aftermath:

bunkers of silence drum to empty sheets of music

birds rain, lifeless, like kola-blackened teeth

grinning teeth, once hued, smile wet-laundry smiles

songs assemble, file into vast tombs with skinned

souls.

 

16 April

The 70-Poet Challenge

Photograph image of Dylan Thomas bust surrounded by library stamp dates, with pale yellow background
14 April

Woody Guthrie (You are the poet)

by Dennis Gould

13 April

'A man is'

by Paul Peter Piech