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.
Going through the Atlanta airport for NCTE recently, I was enchanted by this ceiling in one terminal hallway. It was dark and hushed, and then wildlife sounds would play. And in the center was an open section of “sky.” Occasionally, a flock of birds would fly across the blue screen. It was so relaxing. An instant de-stresser. A great reminder that reality is what we perceive at any moment. Yes, it’s a busy, hectic world. But also, there is beauty and calm, and rainforest noise to ease our moods. This image makes me think of several things:
- finishing a jigsaw puzzle to realize ONE piece is missing
- camouflage pants
- “The Veldt,” by Ray Bradbury (love that story–click here to see just the text in a Word doc)
And here’s my first draft. I was thinking about sound effects and computer generated images and weird, jagged pieces could create the feeling of something manmade and violent or something natural and relaxing–a little escape.
It’s your turn! Have fun and stick to 15 WORDS OR LESS! (Title doesn’t count toward word count.)
31 Responses
I can see why you were enchanted with this ceiling. What a wonderful addition to an airport! The more I read your poem, the more I love it. Great word choice!
Sunrise on the Pond
Golden rays caress
rippling balsam reflections
and drifts of lily pads.
Blue sky peeks through.
Ha! I was on the “other side” of the pond!
Thanks! Ooh, I love the specifics here. Balsam makes me smell the trees (that’s my favorite evergreen scent, I think), and I can see the lilypads…you’ve put me right in this scene.
Would love to experience that hallway!
PERSEVERING
Puzzle pieces everywhere,
Hope turns to despair.
Trying one by one,
finally gets it done.
I almost wrote a puzzle poem — my dog just at the most recent puzzle after the cat knocked about 20 pieces on the floor for her (we’ll never know how many, as she ate many and I’m not finishing the puzzle!). But don’t you love puzzles?
It really is spectacular. You can see people’s demeanor change (most people) as they go through it. They take a deep breath, shoulders unhunch, etc. Your cheerful poem made me think of “Put One Foot in Front of the Other,” which is now playing in my brain. (We watched Santa Claus Is Coming to Town the other night.)
Poem by Jessica Bigi
Painting By Numbers
Teacher sad easy
fallowing numbers
matching colors
one two three
red blue green
messy-messy ‑massy
Clever! It does look like a paint-by-number!
Love the plaintive voice in this, Jessica. Even “easy” projects don’t come out the way we hope, sometimes!
This looked like the sky through a leaf covered surface of a pond or lake, and made me think of a fish’s voice who lived there.
The World is Water
Above is waterlight
Below is waterdark
I move inwaterbetween
Don’t take me to
Waterout.
Oh, I love your created words here. Makes this a whole fantastical world!
Wow — fantastic fish view. Love the third line.
I love trees in any season. I also like when airports, which are often so dull and industrial looking, display art.
Dream
A dream of leaves
rustling green. Wake up
to bare branches
against gray winter sky.
Kate Coombs
I agree on all counts, Kate! What a beautiful, surreal, and melancholy feel this has. Feels like part of a wonderful folk song.
Spring again soon… love the feel of this!
Rain Forest Sunrise
Light
Refracting, ricocheting
Timid fingers through the leaves
Warming cold earth
Perfect “timid fingers” of light!
Laura, I love jigsaw puzzles and I have been in that particular terminal hallway. You captured it beautifully.
Mother Nature’s Palette
She lays colors
mixes, slathers
onto blank canvas
adds bit of red for the season.
Ha! I had to go back to the picture to see the bit of red! Special!
Oh how pretty.
Thanks, Martha. I love Mother Nature as a painter. Great verbs!
I love the bright colors of this photo, and especially the sigh of a rainforest sky.…but my brain has turned them white, like the world outside my window.
Snow Party
Crystals meet and mingle–
a crazy quilt stitched together
to blanket the morning
in white.
Another great envisioning! It does have the look of frost crystals on a window. I remember them on my bedroom window as a child. Better insulation and better windows has almost made that a thing of the past for houses!
Ooh–beautiful! Love that first line especially!
Next time I am in the Atlanta airport, I will have to look up. The poems are fun today.
my sight gone to pieces
glancing through
a kaleidoscope
Oh, of course! A kaleidoscope! Thanks for bringing that to mind.
Hehe–love the pun!
Oh Laura, wasn’t it so beautiful? I took a video as we passed through. The shared image reminds me of the collage of people I met and hugged and hung out with at NCTE.
Bright yellow
welcomes deep green,
Blue sky holds orange hands,
a rainbow of friends.
Oh, that is beautiful, Margaret! Your brief poems lately have just resonated so with me.
A maze of uncertainty
Reveals what lies within
Your heart and soul
for all eternity
Anne McKenna
(first in a while)
Welcome back, Anne! This makes me see that jigsaw ceiling as a kind of Rorschach test:>)