[15 words or less] Scissors

?15WOLs

 

Photo: Laura Purdie Salas
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines are here)!

Three things this makes me think of:

1) Kindergarten
2) Pelican pouch
3) Baby bird with its beak gaping

And here’s my first draft!

Hunger

Body small as your palm
Beak gaping like Grand Canyon
Made of emptiness and need
–Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved

Now it’s your turn! Don’t overthink it. Just have fun with it–IN 15 WORDS OR LESS!? 🙂

224 Responses

  1. The teachers scissors
    Sit waiting for me
    Temptingly sparkling
    Baby scissors are not for me
    I have responsibility!
    Oops

    Sorry it’s over 15 but 🙂 love your bird, Ms. Salas

    1. Detention for you next time, Amelia! Maybe you can take some words out and share some of the info here in a title (the title doesn’t count toward the 15-word limit). Love that Oops at the end:>)

  2. The teachers scissors
    Sit waiting for me
    Temptingly sparkling
    Baby scissors are not for me
    I have responsibility!
    Oops

    Sorry it’s over 15 but 🙂 love your bird, Ms. Salas

    1. Detention for you next time, Amelia! Maybe you can take some words out and share some of the info here in a title (the title doesn’t count toward the 15-word limit). Love that Oops at the end:>)

  3. I’ve always done it backwards,
    I still do when I clip .
    Isn’t easy to cut left-handed.
    It’s snip, adjust,
    snip, adjust,
    SNIP!

  4. I’ve always done it backwards,
    I still do when I clip .
    Isn’t easy to cut left-handed.
    It’s snip, adjust,
    snip, adjust,
    SNIP!

  5. Thursday mornings are always a challenge!

    The First Cut

    Scissors and paper.
    Jaws move up
    and down mirroring
    the motion of
    a kindergartner’s hand.

    Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

    1. I, too, love the use of “Jaws”, and also “mirroring/the motion”. I hadn’t thought of it before, but I guess that IS what happens!

  6. Thursday mornings are always a challenge!

    The First Cut

    Scissors and paper.
    Jaws move up
    and down mirroring
    the motion of
    a kindergartner’s hand.

    Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

    1. I, too, love the use of “Jaws”, and also “mirroring/the motion”. I hadn’t thought of it before, but I guess that IS what happens!

  7. Hi Laura-You’ve captured the mother bird’s work well! They work so hard! You brought a memory back with this pic.

    Pretending

    Sissy loved
    playing beautician.
    It took months
    for my bangs
    to grow back.
    Mama cried.
    Linda Baie-All Rights Reserved

    1. This is wonderful, Linda. It’s fun and pulls on my heartstrings at the same time. “Mama cried.” Yep, I have my own similar memory captured in a poem… maybe I’ll share it on my blog sometime soon.

    2. I have memories similar to this, too, only my two oldest children did it to themselves. I’m pretty sure I did cry when my daughter did it — I had to take her to get her long hair cut into a short ‘do.

      I, too, am impressed how your poem tells a whole story in just 6 short lines.

    3. Hahhaha–oh, sorry! But this is hysterical. So true and tragic. Gothic southern at its best. Feels like a narrator of a book or movie. Love her!

  8. Hi Laura-You’ve captured the mother bird’s work well! They work so hard! You brought a memory back with this pic.

    Pretending

    Sissy loved
    playing beautician.
    It took months
    for my bangs
    to grow back.
    Mama cried.
    Linda Baie-All Rights Reserved

    1. This is wonderful, Linda. It’s fun and pulls on my heartstrings at the same time. “Mama cried.” Yep, I have my own similar memory captured in a poem… maybe I’ll share it on my blog sometime soon.

    2. I have memories similar to this, too, only my two oldest children did it to themselves. I’m pretty sure I did cry when my daughter did it — I had to take her to get her long hair cut into a short ‘do.

      I, too, am impressed how your poem tells a whole story in just 6 short lines.

    3. Hahhaha–oh, sorry! But this is hysterical. So true and tragic. Gothic southern at its best. Feels like a narrator of a book or movie. Love her!

  9. What a wonderful imagination you have, Laura! I just love that you saw a baby bird’s gaping mouth in a pair of scissors and came up with that beauty of a poem. Here’s mine…

    THIS TIME

    Cutting through fabric
    of hurt and betrayal,
    please God,
    this time,
    let the seam hold.

    © Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, all rights reserved.

    1. Michelle, the yearning in this one is gorgeous. I love that image of the seam stretched to its breaking point! And thanks–those baby birds just wouldn’t shut up in my head:)

  10. What a wonderful imagination you have, Laura! I just love that you saw a baby bird’s gaping mouth in a pair of scissors and came up with that beauty of a poem. Here’s mine…

    THIS TIME

    Cutting through fabric
    of hurt and betrayal,
    please God,
    this time,
    let the seam hold.

    © Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, all rights reserved.

    1. Michelle, the yearning in this one is gorgeous. I love that image of the seam stretched to its breaking point! And thanks–those baby birds just wouldn’t shut up in my head:)

  11. Connections

    Fold paper many times
    let scissors take the lead
    no matter the design
    Connected indeed!

      1. I agree Michelle. The dolls in my chains were adverse to holding hands, but I loved the snowflakes and pine trees.

  12. Connections

    Fold paper many times
    let scissors take the lead
    no matter the design
    Connected indeed!

      1. I agree Michelle. The dolls in my chains were adverse to holding hands, but I loved the snowflakes and pine trees.

  13. How creative to see a little bird’s mouth, Laura.
    I look at these scissors and I think “scissors.” I also am stuck back in the classroom. Ha.

    Hand Preference Test

    Honey, reach for those scissors there.
    Ah, yes. You need a different pair.

    1. Patricia, you must have been a great teacher. I’m left-handed but taught to do many things with my right hand including using scissors. No complaints, I’m definitely ambidextrous. Thanks for your comment.

      1. Thanks for your kind words, Martha. I don’t know about “great” but I worked hard, as did all the other first grade teachers. I think we all checked for hand preference. Made it so much easier for the little lefties.

    2. Thanks, Patricia. That’s funny! But then scissors brought this lovely scene into your head. This poem has such warmth and love in it. We all want this teacher for our kids:)

  14. How creative to see a little bird’s mouth, Laura.
    I look at these scissors and I think “scissors.” I also am stuck back in the classroom. Ha.

    Hand Preference Test

    Honey, reach for those scissors there.
    Ah, yes. You need a different pair.

    1. Patricia, you must have been a great teacher. I’m left-handed but taught to do many things with my right hand including using scissors. No complaints, I’m definitely ambidextrous. Thanks for your comment.

      1. Thanks for your kind words, Martha. I don’t know about “great” but I worked hard, as did all the other first grade teachers. I think we all checked for hand preference. Made it so much easier for the little lefties.

    2. Thanks, Patricia. That’s funny! But then scissors brought this lovely scene into your head. This poem has such warmth and love in it. We all want this teacher for our kids:)

  15. She is the family pivot point;
    they cross her
    like scissor blades,
    bound together,
    cutting apart.

    (I am a one-word cheat–sorry, I had a 15-word version, but did not like as well.)
    Love your hunger “made of emptiness and need,” Laura.

    1. The way my mother talked, she would connect to this very much Buffy. The middle child, she often said she was pulled too many ways. Perceptive poem.

    2. Oh, Buffy–fabulous. I think very family has one of these (and I’m glad it’s not me–such a responsibility). Last 2 lines really got me.

  16. She is the family pivot point;
    they cross her
    like scissor blades,
    bound together,
    cutting apart.

    (I am a one-word cheat–sorry, I had a 15-word version, but did not like as well.)
    Love your hunger “made of emptiness and need,” Laura.

    1. The way my mother talked, she would connect to this very much Buffy. The middle child, she often said she was pulled too many ways. Perceptive poem.

    2. Oh, Buffy–fabulous. I think very family has one of these (and I’m glad it’s not me–such a responsibility). Last 2 lines really got me.

  17. I love the images in your poem, Laura!

    NO MELTING ALLOWED

    fold and fold,
    snip and snip.
    careful cuts
    create
    crisp, sturdy snowflakes
    in any season.

  18. I love the images in your poem, Laura!

    NO MELTING ALLOWED

    fold and fold,
    snip and snip.
    careful cuts
    create
    crisp, sturdy snowflakes
    in any season.

  19. Super poem, Laura very imaginative

    Sharpened focus
    Plies and pliers
    Ikea ballet

    Don’t know hot to spell plies 🙁

    1. I think you spelled it right ~ it just needs an accent on the e (and I don’t know how to type one on here!)

      I love “plies and pliers”, and your last line made me smile because I own several pairs of scissors (and other things) from Ikea.

  20. Super poem, Laura very imaginative

    Sharpened focus
    Plies and pliers
    Ikea ballet

    Don’t know hot to spell plies 🙁

    1. I think you spelled it right ~ it just needs an accent on the e (and I don’t know how to type one on here!)

      I love “plies and pliers”, and your last line made me smile because I own several pairs of scissors (and other things) from Ikea.

  21. Living Dangerously

    Scissor sword
    snipping air,
    she ran with scissors.
    Didn?t care about
    consequences.
    She dared.

    ~~Barbara Turner

  22. Living Dangerously

    Scissor sword
    snipping air,
    she ran with scissors.
    Didn?t care about
    consequences.
    She dared.

    ~~Barbara Turner

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