Hidden [15 words or less poems]

Photo: Laura Purdie Salas

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

15WOLs

Here’s a pic I took while walking the dog the other day. This image makes me think of:

1) a cemetery
2) hiding places
3) lying on the floor by a Christmas tree

And here’s my?first draft.

Hidden Worlds

stolen????????? mornings

leaves ???????? carpet

branches??? ceilings

witches?????? castles

spyholes ??? ships

stories ??????? shadows

hiding???????? places

 

–Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved

 

Now it’s your turn! Have fun and stick to 15 WORDS OR LESS!??(Title doesn’t count toward word count:>)?

Please note: I’m making the drive today to Sheboygan, WI, for the Sheboygan Children’s Book Festival! I’m doing two school visits tomorrow and two presentations on Saturday, and I can’t wait to enjoy spending the weekend with book lovers! And I’m hoping to hear Kevin Henkes’ presentation! On the down side, though, I will not be able to respond to this week’s poems. So, write, share if you like, respond to each other, and have fun! I’ll see you next week.

 

 

 

 

 

134 Responses

  1. Leaves, blanketing noise
    Trees, softening skies
    Squirrels, splashing energy
    Me, watching, surprised

    I absolutely love fall and this picture. I guess this was a sort of “see how cool nature is” poems for my technology-glued generation.

  2. Leaves, blanketing noise
    Trees, softening skies
    Squirrels, splashing energy
    Me, watching, surprised

    I absolutely love fall and this picture. I guess this was a sort of “see how cool nature is” poems for my technology-glued generation.

  3. Kicking leaves
    Earth’s patchwork quilt.
    Each a memory
    falling
    into my life.

    Our desert autumn is very different from your picture, so I end up going to the memories of when I was a child.

    1. My desert autumn

      cactus trust
      for oranges’ reads
      gold’s like sunshine
      out side my window
      kitted with scents of Blue Spurs
      are my memories of leave

      Poem By Jessica Bigi

  4. Kicking leaves
    Earth’s patchwork quilt.
    Each a memory
    falling
    into my life.

    Our desert autumn is very different from your picture, so I end up going to the memories of when I was a child.

    1. My desert autumn

      cactus trust
      for oranges’ reads
      gold’s like sunshine
      out side my window
      kitted with scents of Blue Spurs
      are my memories of leave

      Poem By Jessica Bigi

  5. floating off their branches
    orang-gold leaf kites
    rest under blue spruces
    crackling under feet

  6. floating off their branches
    orang-gold leaf kites
    rest under blue spruces
    crackling under feet

  7. MO– USE HO– USEKEEPING WOES

    Amid the clutter
    I heard the mutter,
    “Oh, please,
    trees,
    enough of
    your stuff!”

    1. I can just picture those irritated little mice trying to clean house with all those leaves, quite out of their control, messing up the place again!

  8. MO– USE HO– USEKEEPING WOES

    Amid the clutter
    I heard the mutter,
    “Oh, please,
    trees,
    enough of
    your stuff!”

    1. I can just picture those irritated little mice trying to clean house with all those leaves, quite out of their control, messing up the place again!

  9. Ghouls

    Damp, moldy leaves
    silence footsteps
    awaiting arrival
    of sleek, black limousine
    into the graveyard.
    BOO!

    Taking a cue from Laura’s thought of a cemetery, and seeing my neighborhood dressed out in orange and black that will rival most Christmas decorations, I couldn’t resist.

  10. Ghouls

    Damp, moldy leaves
    silence footsteps
    awaiting arrival
    of sleek, black limousine
    into the graveyard.
    BOO!

    Taking a cue from Laura’s thought of a cemetery, and seeing my neighborhood dressed out in orange and black that will rival most Christmas decorations, I couldn’t resist.

  11. I too thought of what was under those leaves, Laura. “Hidden worlds” brings all sorts of imaginings, doesn’t it? Beautiful picture!

    The news today:
    The cold is snapping.
    ?TREES DONATE
    EXTRA BLANKETS
    FOR WINTER NAPPING!?
    Linda Baie ?All Rights Reserved

    1. A new take on “The Giving Tree”…
      Love the idea of trees “donating” their leaves instead of discarding them. :0)

  12. I too thought of what was under those leaves, Laura. “Hidden worlds” brings all sorts of imaginings, doesn’t it? Beautiful picture!

    The news today:
    The cold is snapping.
    ?TREES DONATE
    EXTRA BLANKETS
    FOR WINTER NAPPING!?
    Linda Baie ?All Rights Reserved

    1. A new take on “The Giving Tree”…
      Love the idea of trees “donating” their leaves instead of discarding them. :0)

  13. Students joining in again.

    Christmas in fall
    Two worlds
    Shadows having Christmas
    Light having nothing.
    –Tyler

    Woven quilt of rustic colors
    blankets the earth
    in whispering waves.
    –Margaret Simon

    What is hidden
    behind the tree
    stalks us,
    watching,
    it awaits
    for you
    and me.
    –Vanissa

    1. Thanks for sharing some student input! Great jobs!
      I could see Tylers “two worlds”. That struck me in the picture, too!
      Vanissa’s was pretty scary actually…who is that beneath the boughs looking out at us?
      Margaret, I loved the line “in whispering waves”…

    2. These are all terrific, Margaret. I love the idea of ‘Christmas in fall’, the quilt, and the creepiness of that final one. Great that you do this with your students.

    3. loves the kids poems today I love the 1 and 3 line of the first poem wonderful poems kids

  14. Students joining in again.

    Christmas in fall
    Two worlds
    Shadows having Christmas
    Light having nothing.
    –Tyler

    Woven quilt of rustic colors
    blankets the earth
    in whispering waves.
    –Margaret Simon

    What is hidden
    behind the tree
    stalks us,
    watching,
    it awaits
    for you
    and me.
    –Vanissa

    1. Thanks for sharing some student input! Great jobs!
      I could see Tylers “two worlds”. That struck me in the picture, too!
      Vanissa’s was pretty scary actually…who is that beneath the boughs looking out at us?
      Margaret, I loved the line “in whispering waves”…

    2. These are all terrific, Margaret. I love the idea of ‘Christmas in fall’, the quilt, and the creepiness of that final one. Great that you do this with your students.

    3. loves the kids poems today I love the 1 and 3 line of the first poem wonderful poems kids

  15. Dense blanket of fallen leaves are
    crunching beneath
    our feet.
    Not to be seen again until
    winter?s wrath is
    complete.

  16. Dense blanket of fallen leaves are
    crunching beneath
    our feet.
    Not to be seen again until
    winter?s wrath is
    complete.

  17. Dense blanket of fallen leaves are
    crunching beneath
    our feet.
    Not to be seen again until
    winter?s wrath is
    complete.

    1. Oops! So much for counting my total word count. Back to the drawing room! lol

    2. Well, I like this one even with too many words! The rhyme and “winter’s wrath” were so perfect.…How about leaving these (only for this purpose, because I like it the way it is!)?

      Blanket of leaves
      crunching beneath
      our feet -
      HIdden until
      winter?s wrath is
      complete.

      I love your idea of the leaves being out of sight soon, under a blanket of snow!

  18. Dense blanket of fallen leaves are
    crunching beneath
    our feet.
    Not to be seen again until
    winter?s wrath is
    complete.

    1. Oops! So much for counting my total word count. Back to the drawing room! lol

    2. Well, I like this one even with too many words! The rhyme and “winter’s wrath” were so perfect.…How about leaving these (only for this purpose, because I like it the way it is!)?

      Blanket of leaves
      crunching beneath
      our feet -
      HIdden until
      winter?s wrath is
      complete.

      I love your idea of the leaves being out of sight soon, under a blanket of snow!

  19. Let’s try this again!

    Dense blanket
    Fallen leaves
    Crunching
    Covering
    Warming earth
    Autumn

  20. Let’s try this again!

    Dense blanket
    Fallen leaves
    Crunching
    Covering
    Warming earth
    Autumn

  21. old spruce
    draws close her counterpane
    in autumn’s wane
    she knows
    the cold to come

    It so looked to me as if the spruce was gathering leaves to cover her feet…

  22. old spruce
    draws close her counterpane
    in autumn’s wane
    she knows
    the cold to come

    It so looked to me as if the spruce was gathering leaves to cover her feet…

  23. I know this is so not done… but there were so MANY really neat lines in this collection today that I had the notion to play with them. I had a much longer poem with many more great lines in it, but I then pared it down to this 6 line 14 word poem. I hope I didn’t offend anyone by either not using theirs in this, or by using their line in a different poem. My apologies to all! I just couldn’t resist this:

    old dog watches
    awaiting arrival?
    with a sigh?
    leaf kites?
    falling?
    in whispering waves

    1. I am honored the you like my words so much that they inspired you to use them I a poem

  24. I know this is so not done… but there were so MANY really neat lines in this collection today that I had the notion to play with them. I had a much longer poem with many more great lines in it, but I then pared it down to this 6 line 14 word poem. I hope I didn’t offend anyone by either not using theirs in this, or by using their line in a different poem. My apologies to all! I just couldn’t resist this:

    old dog watches
    awaiting arrival?
    with a sigh?
    leaf kites?
    falling?
    in whispering waves

    1. I am honored the you like my words so much that they inspired you to use them I a poem

  25. Arboreality

    Lovely, lovely quiet tree
    Whispering secrets silently.
    Branch, bough, limb, leaves?
    Murmuring in the breeze .

    Ellen Vojnovic

    1. your poem is almost like a song
      I can almost sing it as I’m reading it

    2. Love the alliteration in “whispering secrets silently”. Great poem for all ages.

  26. Arboreality

    Lovely, lovely quiet tree
    Whispering secrets silently.
    Branch, bough, limb, leaves?
    Murmuring in the breeze .

    Ellen Vojnovic

    1. your poem is almost like a song
      I can almost sing it as I’m reading it

    2. Love the alliteration in “whispering secrets silently”. Great poem for all ages.

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