Fossil [15 words or less poems]

OK, I think I have the Comment settings figured out so that it’s easier to Comment now. I just thought nobody was coming by!

And, today’s the last day of the 99-cent sale of the Kindle edition of Riddle-ku: Haiku for Very Close Reading.

Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines are here)!

Giant Irish deer
Photo: Laura P. Salas — Giant Irish deer (extinct) at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh

This fossil of a giant elk or deer makes me think of:

  1. an elk with giant wings that could fly
  2. the antlers look like hands
  3. how does it hold its head up?

Here’s my first draft.

wings

It’s your turn! Have fun and stick to 15 WORDS OR LESS! (Title doesn’t count toward word count:>) If you leave a poem in the comments, and if it’s 15 words or less, I’ll try to respond!

37 Responses

    1. Somehow the word “Still” makes this whole poem. Isn’t that odd, how one non-sensory word can evoke so much emotion? Lovely.

  1. puzzle bones
    grazing fields
    antlers knitting
    milkweed swatters
    fossilized footprints
    of times passed

    Poem By Jessica Bigi

  2. The Carousel’s New Member

    Climb aboard
    a seat I lack
    antlers and pole
    keep you
    off my spindly back.

    Laura, loved your wings in flight! With all of the fall fairs and carnivals in town the pole sent my brain scurrying to a carousel. Also, I am receiving this post twice.

    1. Hi Martha–what a great concept! Spindly back–love it. Did you resubscribe recently? There was a time period of a week or so when it had not imported my subscribers yet, so I’m wondering if you subscribed again? I had done that and had to cancel one of my subscriptions once the import issue was fixed…

      1. Thank you Laura. To my knowledge I did not subscribe twice, but never say never. I didn’t want to delete the second one until I was sure I was connected. I’ll do that now.

        1. Oi. It might be another bug. I’m only getting one notification now. Here’s what I would say. Unsubscribe, and then see if you still get at least one email tomorrow morning. When I unsubscribed myself, it showed me when I had subscribed, and it was the new date of only a day or so before when I unsubscribed. If yours shows a date and it’s much older, then maybe it’s a bug. I’d still try to unsub and see if you get an email tomorrow. If all this doesn’t work, I’ll post and ask if other people are getting duplicates. If so, I’ll contact Support. Sorry for the hassle!

    1. Yikes. I am Anonymous. I’ll try again. My name is Pat — not podlipec2013. When I signed up on Word Press a couple of years ago, I guess I didn’t do it right. Can’t seem to change it.

      1. Hi Pat, I think you’ve always shown up as podlipec on my blog…but, anyway, glad you’re here! I love the sensory feel of those black, smooth bones. I get such a sense of age from those descriptors.

  3. Time Changes Everything

    Petrified now in static splendor
    Gone the fear I could once engender

    1. This one makes me feel so melancholy, Buffy. Love those battles and the way they make the first two lines all feel like weapons.

  4. Maybe not made of stone…but stony anyway! The ceiling here just made an impression and fit the structure of the sculpture, too. I can feel another poem trying to come to the fore.… Nice image!

    Echoes of a Former Life

    Once hide-hidden bone
    Now side-splitting stone,
    Elk’s thin laughter
    Echoes in rafter -
    Reverberating,
    Invigorating,
    Alone.

    1. Thanks, Donna. This is lovely. I love those first two lines, especially. And IF this is a fossil, which I assume it is, rather than just very old bone, then it actually is stone, since bone or leaf or anything organic actually turns, cell by cell, into rock as it fossilizes. Amazing, right? Wonderful contrasting last line…

      1. Who says you can’t write from a different perspective and POV and make it work? {}

        Love,
        Pamela, perpetually typing with the Deer in the Headlights face xoxo

        1. Heehee–I think finding that different perspective is what makes something WORK, usually. You’re on the cutting edge, girl–it’s what everyone’s looking for:>)

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