Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines are here)!
I usually share photos I take, but I couldn’t pass by this one that my husband emailed to me.
This picture makes me think of:
- Shadows (again!) — I love them
- Tiny elves holding a concert INSIDE a viola or a cello
- I want to learn some Christmas songs on my old recorder
And, here’s my first draft.
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!
70 Responses
Life is a stage
The spotlight is shining
Not on me
In the depths of despair
Anne McKenna
Slowly sanded wood
a smooth sheen
sleek slender arrow–
a poem to pierce
your heart.
Lovely, Joy~
Oh, Joy, this is gorgeous! That sleek slender arrow…
I like the “s” and “p” words Joy. Pierce the heart is very telling.
Oh, that third line is a killer, Anne! Beautiful and sad.
Anne, thinking along the same lines. Great interpretation.
They reminded me of spotlights also. It can seem pretty dark sometimes…
That is so lovely. Haunting but beautiful. What all great writing aspires to evoke.
Anne– “Life is a stage..” Love this. Not always happy endings. Not all stories end with a smile.
Shadow splitting silence
Vibrating through the echos
Releasing uncontrollable music
of light
Love that you used “splitting” and “vibrating.” This music is really dynamic!
Amelia, silence can be deafening and vibrating. Wonderful description.
Your language is emotionally aggressive and full of cacophony — Splitting, Releasing– feels like a chemical reaction–and yet the music feels soft– echos and light. Such a great contrast of sounds and action.
I promise I composed before I read yours.
Inside
music echoes on soft wood
while shadows dance
a pirouette–
Melody magic.
See you soon!
Beautiful–shadows dancing a pirouette…love it! And, yes, see you very soon!
Nice Margaret, and inevitable that at least two will see the same image.
I post my poem before I read the poems sent to the prompt. There will always be a semblance of cross-over but I want my words to come out before I am influenced by what I read here! It cannot be helped. Images seep in, consciously or not. I love seeing the different directions we take from the same photo.
Love that “shadows dance
a pirouette” in there!
This piece literally dances on the screen. How smart of you to connect the music with the movement and response to the magic we hear.
Fathom Of The Opera
sea-song
notes
infant-light
doe
ray
me
note-
shadows dancing
winding box
shaped violins
gifts of music
Poem By Jessica Bigi
Ooh, love those sea-song notes!
Nice Jessica. Music is a gift.
I heard a “sea-song” in this image also, Jessica.
Ironically, saw LORD Andrew Lloyd Weber last night on Stephen Colbert’s show.
I love your play on the PHANTOM title. Sets stage immediately.
Very cinematic poem in so few words.
(Typo:It is Andrew Lloyd Webber. Oops. Sorry there, my Lord.) ;>
Take time to learn some Christmas songs on the recorder. You’ll be glad you did!
It’s been SO many years!
This picture makes me wonder HOW the picture was taken. ?
It reminds me of my dulcimer. I play the Appalachian lap dulcimer and it also has those cut outs in the wood.
Appalachian Dulcimer
The joy my music brings
by strumming on the strings
moves and soothes the soul.
Lovely, Pat! A soothing rhythm and mood…And I’m guessing they lowered a microcamera down through the cut outs?
Lovely Pat. We can all stand some “soothing” about now.
A stringed instrument certainly “soothes the soul”.
The image is really intriguing!
I love how you personalized your response. You took us into your soul. (The poem is YOUR camera.)
A lovely photo Laura. I thought swans at first glance. In spite of their lovely surroundings, this past weekend came to the forefront. Apologies for sounding “gloom and doom.”
Swan Song
Graceful souls
reach for release
from the depths
of despair
into tranquility.
Au Revoir.
Sorry Laura. My crooked little finger hit the wrong key and I appear as anonymous. I will again try to fill in all of the blanks.
Nice tribute, Martha. Perfect title.
Martha, this is beautiful. So calm and melancholy. Au revoir sounds so much more peaceful than good-bye, doesn’t it?
Martha: Je Suis Poetry.
This was a touching response to the ugliness swirling about.
Poetry can keep us safe– and sane.
I adore that image of humans as swans, floating away.
GORGEOUS.
Thank you Pamela. You are sweet.
At first this looked like a concert hall to me — then it took on the image of the insides of a wooden ship…
So two today, both ships. The concert hall never came back to visit! (though the word “belly” sneaked into both!)
Slave Ship
Whip cracks
Row!
Row!
Sunlight spotlights
Our plight;
Creaking, rolling
Ship’s belly music
Releases me.
Mayflower
Pilgrims to a better world
In the belly of a boat
Thankful for sun-slotted days.
I like both Donna. Timely too. A ship’s belly is always present, pro and con.
I love “sun-slotted days”!
Oh, I love how concrete both of these are. “Slave ship” especially puts me right there…
very soul full wonderful
I saw the blonde wood in the photo as well. I love how you turned this into a poem about ships.
Music reaches from the belly of both poems. It carries us along, forward, alive.
old violin
on a shelf
haunted by ghosts
of music
—Kate Coombs
Picture perfect Kate. Wow!
Thanks, Martha! 🙂
Love that “haunted by ghosts of music”.
Oh–ghosts of music–glorious!
this is wonderful Love the last 2 lines makes me think of an old theater weir no one has played inn years and walking in to the ghost of performers playing music wonderful tells a wonderful story in few words
I shoued up anomuss
Thank you, Jessica!
Oh my. Stunning. “Ghosts of music.” The secrets of abandoned instruments. Such a powerful image.
By the way, Laura, don’t know if anyone has mentioned that the image showing for this post on your home page is of last week’s photo.
Thanks, Kate–still getting used to setting featured images. Sigh.
Love that “haunted by ghosts of music”.
[Doesn’t that light beam look like the kind that comes in through the stained glass windows of a cathedral.? Or… maybe…NYC’s Grand Central Station? And so…]
Cello
Behind the bridge, within the body,
this light beam: boy
plays a cello, Grand Central.
Yes! And the feeling of it is so hushed. This beautifully captures this moment and holds it still for me to sit with. Thank you for playing, Julie. Always an honor to have you stop by and participate!
This is a film scene, with the opening wide shot (behind the bridge) moving and zooming through “this light beam” to finally see a boy and his cello emerge on the screen. Love this beyond measure (and no, I did not intend to make a musical pun there). {}
Act One
The orchestra waits
behind curtains,
arms poised, instruments aloft,
A symphony of still-life movement.
-Pamela Ross
I’m not anonymous. I’m shy. But not anonymous. Trying again.
Ooh, aloft and that final line…just lovely. Such moment of stillness, but full of stored energy!
The day’s tune
inside of you
will depend
on the tempo
you set.
True words, Cindy B. I love the language– the tune and the tempo. This reads like a lovely lyric in a song.
Nice–I’m a big believer in self-determination:>) Love your metaphor here.
Laura: I hope you see this comment. I want you to know how wonderful and talented you are and how it is impossibly perfect your poem is for a first draft. You make it look easy. We know it is anything but simple and yet a poet strives to invite readers into the door of our complex world with such relative visibility.
Your words are free but I feel each grain and splinter and shard, carved from raw wood, sculpted into art we can touch and feel and hear. Look deep into the words and there are shadows, something the poet may still need to keep hidden, not ready to release and play for an audience.
Oh, gosh. Thank you, Pamela. You know, that’s one thing I love about the 15-word limit. It’s truly easier to end up with something meaningful/evocative in a tiny space, I think. I tend to dilute my poems as they go on! Thanks for this lovely comment:>)
FINAL MOMENT (GLORY BE)
One streaming shaft of light
calls me home.
© Charles Waters 2015 all rights reserved.
So short, but so powerful–that streaming shaft–lovely!