Hello, and welcome! This is 15 Words or Less Poems, a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here. But because it’s National Poetry Month, I have a #wonderbreak poem to share, too! And it’s Poem in Your Pocket Day, too! So grab a poem (your own or someone else’s), print it out, and spread some poetry love today!
Here’s My #Wonderbreak Poem
I just never get tired of looking at the moon:>)
And Here’s 15 Words or Less
And now to our usual Thursday activity! Here’s a gorgeous sculpture right on harbor in Reykjavik, Iceland. It’s called Sun Voyager, and it’s by Jón Gunnar Árnason. I thought having a moon and sun-related poem on the same day would be fun! This image makes me think of several things:
- whale ribs
- drum corps in 2011 (our show was Valhalla, and this Viking ship brings it all back)
- tuning forks from orchestra–I never could make them work
And here’s my first draft.
It’s your turn! Have fun and stick to 15 WORDS OR LESS! (Title doesn’t count toward word count.)
33 Responses
Memories forgotten
Yearnings lost
Legends remain
and point heavenward
This is comforting.
Love the spareness and parallel feeling of first three lines, and then the way you break the pattern with the ending. Nicely done!
I love the idea of legends remaining after memory and yearnings are gone–lovely, Amelia!
All I can think is, thank goodness! We need our legends.
TEENAGE BOY’S LAMENT
I’m so hungry,
in a mood.
Make me happy
give me food!
And watch me grow three sizes in a year! I remember this stage with my son.
A teenager “in a mood”? Never! (Hehehe)
Ha! So true.….and that is a great way to see this skeleton.…just a hungry boy. I have a 13 & 14 y.o. sons. They eat so much!
Oh, yes…sunward. When my mother passed, she made us promise that her remains would face East. At the burial, we asked that her casket be turned to honor her wishes. Your poem brought that moment back to me in a flash. It has that sacred…partly earth…partly spirit world quality to it.
I looked up characters of Icelandic folklore for my simple haiku. I just imagined “spirits” or whatever exists there playing the Viking Ship at night.…kinda like we humans to to the beach.
Hiding Places*
Reykjavík sun
drives Huldufolk to hide in
ship bones …. lava rocks
** The ‘hidden people’ or Huldufolk are like elves. They look like humans and are believed to live in the lava rocks. According to legend, Eve hadn’t finished washing her children when God came to visit, so she had to hide the unwashed children away, and they were destined to remain forever ‘hidden.’
Wow, Linda, thanks for the tidbit of research. I love that writing poetry can lead us to discovery.
What an interesting history — nicely condensed into a haiku. Thank you for sharing it.
Yes! We learned about this on our lava tube caving tour. When God asked if these were “all” her children (the clean ones she was showing God), she said yes. So basically God said that those would be her only children, so the unwashed ones became forever hidden because of her lie. At least in the version we heard. Love “ship bones” and all the /k/ sounds. VERY Icelandic:>)
Thanks for sharing that lovely memory of your mom’s wishes. That sort of sacred, sort of earthly feel is exactly what I was going for. I love that mix.
Laura, love the “circle of always” and how you play with sounds of b and s in your 15 word poem.
A skeleton of what once was
gives science a clue
to what’s to come.
(Thinking about the recent discovery of bones that seem to prove man existed on this continent 130,000 years ago.)
http://www.livescience.com/58851-humans-occupied-north-america-earlier-than-thought.html
I was just reading about this. I like the bones of past and future in your haiku.
This is lovely–so peaceful and full circle‑y. (Science is amazing.)
I just read about this too, Margaret (NYTimes had an article yesterday)–so fascinating how they inferred humans (or human relatives) might have been present from mastodon remains! The word clue in your poem captures that mystery-solving approach.
I agree.…full circle. The past is prologue
I love the softness of the moon picture and the lighting behind the interesting sculpture. However, it was your tuning fork idea that inspired me, Laura, and brought back a memory.
The orchestra tunes
to the oboe
so I must play the first note -
OH NO!
Oh, the pressure of being first. Ugh. Love oboe and OH NO!
Wow.…what a memory.…I cannot imagine the pressure of that! I do love the OH NO!
Laura, your wonderbreak and 15 WOL poems are breathtaking. I can certainly see all three of the things the picture brought to mind. Hope no one is offended by the last line in my verse, written “in service to the poem.”
Shamu
Still standing
proud and tall
playied to crowds
large and small
Didn’t “wanna” no Jonah. l
Whales would be so much better off with no human interference, though I love seeing whale and dolphin shows. Orcas are majestic!
Sorry about the misspelled word. I don’t think playled is a word! Shamu played to the crowd.
I imagine the whale thinking he’s all alone.…playing to the crowd but also just doing his/her thing.
todays pic is so moving your poem is moving and powerful
I love all the words you used Laura
Poem By Jessica Bigi
Freedom
We rise from
Brocken
Back ships
Cain’s Brocken
Into freedom’s land
We rise
This is lovely, Jessica. The quest for freedom is so powerful!
You are making me want to visit Iceland again, Laura. It’s more than forty years since I’ve been there. Your photograph is just breathtaking! I love it. And I, too, see bones.
ON THIS DAY
On this day
God bronzed and polished
the beautiful bones
of what humans
created.
Oh, Yvonne–I love this reverent poem. Lines 2 and 3–swoon.
Love this photo (which looks nothing like a whirligig beetle, but for some reason that’s where my brain went.) Thanks for sharing more of your Iceland adventure!
Whirligig
Eyes above
eyes below
sunlit back
glinting glow
row your oars
round you go!
Love this nursery rhyme feel–I am off to look at whirligig beetles online! Eyes on top and below? Flounders and such freak me out with their odd eyes. A little frightened of what I might find for this creature:>)
Wow–cool! I had never read about these before!
oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh great sounds in this poem. I can imagine the rowing of little kids as they repeat the rhyme.