Fluff [15 Words or Less Poems]

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.

Dandelion 15wol
Photo: Laura P. Salas

I want to thank you all for your kind Comments, emails, and messages regarding my mom’s passing. It is a blow, and, as the cliche goes, it’s hard to believe that everything just carries on the same, even though the world has shifted. I am just keeping my head down, trying to get things done that have to be done. I probably won’t be posting much here the rest of the summer except for 15 Words or Less poems and the occasional Poetry Friday post. I need to just focus inward and on family right now. 

This image makes me think of:

  1. how blurry tears turn everything
  2. dandelion fluffs look like beautiful alien life forms
  3. a submarine periscope

And here’s my first draft. 

dandelion eye 15wol 

Blanket statement for July/August. Hope you’re having a wonderful summer. Mine is overwhelmingly busy and emotional. When you Comment, I get an email, and I will be doing my best to read every poem you guys write. But my availability over the summer to comment on each poem will be limited. I hope you’ll write because you love it and enjoy this community. Please know I value your participation, even if I am not able to respond much this July and August.

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

8 Responses

  1. A second try. Received a message that too much time elapsed between composing and sending. Hopefully this doesn’t come through twice.

    Playing Grownup

    My kitten’s face
    provides such fun
    either a roaring lion
    or an over-processed perm.

    I commented in my first try that tears are cathartic and offer a brief respite from grief. I love the way your camera portrayed this picture. I know there is a proper term for the process.

  2. So sorry to hear about your mother passing away. Such sad news. Thinking of you. You are amazing, Laura, so focused and hard working. Try to take time for yourself. Don’t worry about posting or replying. Lovely poem!

  3. The field by my office was full of dandelions, very pretty when they’re still yellow. Far prettier than when they’re in my yard!

    Dandelion

    Golden-haired child
    is old now, gray
    so light it looks like
    it could blow away.

    —Kate Coombs

  4. Thinking of you, Laura, and hoping that you find time to care for yourself.

    Dandelion Math

    one head
    one hundred seeds
    ten thousand strands of fluff:
    waiting to waft

  5. Laura,
    I think I sent you a message on FB, but again, you are in my thoughts and prayers. I am thinking of loss today as one of my writing-teacher friends died suddenly from a stroke. We just never know when the time will come. I have not done this exercise in a while. I pulled out my little 15 words journal again and edited down to this:

    This world spins fast
    blurring time.
    I am a speck of dust
    at dawn.

    Margaret Simon

  6. Also, your site now tells me it’s not a secure form when I want to post a comment. It didn’t used to do that. (These relatively minor issues aside, I hope you and your family are well, or as well as can be expected during a particularly tough time.)

  7. a mantra for loss

    how blurry tears
    turn everything

    how blurry
    tears turn
    everything

    how
    blurry
    tears
    turn
    every
    thing

    sending you peace, Laura

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