Wind Tunnel [15 Words or Less]

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. 

Vacuum Sphere
Photo: Laura P. Salas

Here’s Randy in front of a dome near our old home. It’s used to create a wind tunnel for fluid dynamics testing. We drove by it for a year or more before we finally walked over and checked it out, following up with a bit of online research on the company to see what exactly it was and what it was used for!

This image makes me think of several things:

  1. Space Mountain and EPCOT
  2. golf ball
  3. walking downtown in Minneapolis on a grey, windy day

And here’s my first draft. 

A Downtown Wind

 

It’s your turn! Have fun and stick to 15 WORDS OR LESS! (Title doesn’t count toward word count.)

 

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25 Responses

  1. Oh, that wind! So mischievous 😉 .

    I saw

    God’s Everlasting Gobstopper

    Sun rays
    Violets
    evergreens
    and
    quietness
    mountain highs
    valleys low
    candy clouds
    blizzard snow

    I have a super busy day today.…not sure I can get back for comments. I’ll try!

    1. Linda, this is stunning. Our earth is so amazingly beautiful–love your playful title, too!

    2. PS Your comments are always lovely and welcome, but don’t feel bad if you don’t get to them today!

  2. Laura, just returned from Chicago and my grandson’s wedding. First time there and loved it. Still smiling after reading your poem. Perfection, again! My first thought was “tethered.”

    Futuristic

    Hot air balloon
    tethered in place,
    might this be
    a launch into space?

    Not me!

    1. Yes it does look like a balloon tethered in place. Wouldn’t want to fly that in the windy city. I just viewed the video you posted…amazing!

    2. I’ve read about space balloons–wonder if they will really come true. Ha on your last line! I adore Chicago–glad you had a great time!

    1. Wow! I’ve seen that activity before, but never at that level. That is amazing! I love the “on pure air” phrase. Seems impossible! And I want to try this.

  3. when me and my sister were younger we visited our older sister I in Westcon in the summers out her window in a distance there was a blue water tower

    Poem By Jessica Bigi

    As A Child I Imagined Ozz

    Age Seven
    My sisters Window
    Dorothy Balloon ride
    blue lions create rooms
    drawn on Westcon skies

  4. Love this image and your poem, Laura!

    I’m sharing my

    Impressions

    Butterfly pause
    Iridescent wings
    Breezy flight now
    What joy this brings!

    1. Butterfly pause — I love that line, because I can read it several different ways. It could be a noun, a statement of what happens, a command. That first line makes me want to read the rest of the poem:>)

  5. Poem by Jessica Bigi

    When I Was Younger
    I Imagined Ozz

    Age seven
    Sisters Window
    Dorothy’s Balloon ride
    Blue lions crest rooms
    Drawn on Westcon skies

  6. Wow I don’t think I’ve ever seen a wind tunnel before. I love the last line in your Downtown Wind poem, I can just see those papers scattering and caps flying off in the wind. I also chose to write about the wind, but that dome got me wondering if it had all the wind, then where was ours?

    Who stole the wind?

    The wind has vanished,
    a tempest lost.
    Sails lie limp
    on this sea of glass.

  7. Since I’m a little unclear about wind tunnels for fluid dynamics, I played with other tunnels!

    Tunnels

    tunnel of shadows
    tunnel of trees
    tunnel through mountains,
    beneath stormy seas

    1. Yeah, I’m unclear on that myself, despite my engineer father’s best efforts to educate me:) I really enjoyed the sort of surreal feel to your poem, even though that uses very simple words. Or maybe surreal is the wrong word. It makes me feel like I’m in an epic adventure like The Hobbit or something!

  8. Poem By Jessica Bigi

    windy pipes
    of Iris flutes
    windy tunnels
    of noted breezes
    Chiming
    Rhyming
    Poetry

  9. poem by Jessica Bigi

    When I Was Younger

    I Imagined Ozz

    Age seven

    Sisters Window

    Dorothy’s Balloon ride

    Blue lions create rooms

    Drawn on Wisconsin skies

  10. the one that didn’t get away

    countless millions of
    irresdescent
    incandescent
    glimmery shimmery ideas
    free for the taking
    –caught just one

  11. It’s autumn, so you’d thinking I’d be in the mode of harvesting, not planting. But then, fall scatters seeds!

    Seed
    knows
    sky,
    reaches,
    ready
    to
    open
    and
    grow
    a
    rainbow.

    —Kate Coombs

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