Climbing Out [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.  Thank you for being such an active and kind community while I was out of town–out of the country! We were visiting our younger daughter overseas and spent a week and a few days in Cyprus and then London. I’m sure you’ll be seeing pics here from both:>)

Tombs of the Kings
Photo: Laura P. Salas

Here’s someone climbing out of a tiny exit of a tomb at the Tombs of the Kings (or, really, just wealthy businessmen and politicians) in Paphos, Cyprus.

This image makes me think of several things:

  1. What would it be like to be a character in a videogame?
  2. my husband’s claustrophobia
  3. being trapped by an earthquake (it was weird being in all these old, stone structures around Cyprus and reading about how they were initially destroyed by earthquakes)

And here’s my first draft.

earthquake

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

 

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24 Responses

  1. oooooh! I always think it’s a good time to go below ground when I’m up top…but then. yikes! The scurrying fears are spot on. This is my second big reminder of Greece this week. I lived there a long time ago and gosh, I miss that place. Time to dust off my passport? For now, I’ll go have a think about a tiny poem.

    1. I don’t think about it tooooo much, but it does enter my mind. Cyprus, by the way, is not part of Greece, although it was settled, I guess, by Greek people. (I didn’t know this until our daughter moved there last year) :>)

  2. Climbing out
    Into the sun
    The same person
    With something else tagging along-
    History

    1. Oh, intriguing last line. Makes me wonder if history has been absorbed or whether it’s kind of a stowaway. I love poems that make me think like that.

  3. Desert sun
    makes
    de
    cend
    ing
    to cool
    dark caves
    inviting
    til world weight
    above proves
    terrifYING!

  4. I’d love to hear more about your trip. Sounds amazing.

    Catacombs

    First touch
    of cool stone
    shocks
    First light
    blinds
    We emerge
    changed

    1. Yes, I need to figure out how to blog about it–what I want to say about it…so much and so many pictures! I love how these changes and transformations happen, and how it’s shocking no matter which side of the equation you’re on…

  5. ADDICTION CONQUEST

    Being swallowed,
    no escape.

    Love made exit.

    Ticker tape!

    1. Oh, this is a serious change of pace for you, Cindy. I love the contrast from the first two lines to the second. Line 3 is my favorite!

  6. Your trip sounds amazing and spending time with a child puts it over the top. I really enjoy the way you filter the photos. I saw snow and also “flames” bouncing off of the sunburnt stone.

    You Can Have it Both Ways

    Ascend, descend
    exposure. security
    winter snow
    summer heat
    clothing a clue
    ending belongs to you.

    1. Ooh, this captures the ambiguity of the snapshot so well! It was hot there. Very hot. Give me the coolness anytime!

  7. It was so wonderful that you could spend time with your daughter, and have such beautiful places to visit, too! More inspiration everywhere!

    Alice

    “Hello!
    I’m back!”
    she declared.
    “Was scared,
    But I dared
    And fared
    Well!”

    by Donna JT Smith

    1. I like the way you played with rhyming words. Can’t believe how many you worked into this little story!

    1. I practically hear the rustling of bat wings when I read this poem, Buffy…

  8. Glad you had a wonderful visit

    Poem by Jessica Bigi

    Sade The Bookworm

    Climbing mountains
    of library books is fun
    climbing out book
    endings is difficult

  9. Didn’t they recently find a hidden space in one of the tombs, maybe even King Tut’s? And then there was nothing there. Very disappointing!

    Ancient History

    Wall cracks,
    dark tomb,
    everyone hushes,
    expecting Nefertiti
    at least, not
    Jennifer Jenkins
    from Nebraska.

    —Kate Coombs

    1. Hahaha– this one made me laugh, Kate. I totally wasn’t expecting the ending, either:)

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