Happy New Year!
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.
I love a good storm, but I did not get to experience this one. It’s just a filtered version of a public domain image. Can you tell I’m WAAAAAAY behind in stocking up my blog with images for 15 Words or less? Another thing to add to my get-caught-up list.
This image makes me think of several things:
- Zeus
- tangled up hair
- thirsty fields
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.)
52 Responses
Happy New Year! I responded to this poem on twitter faster than I could click on this link to see what you wrote.…and I was on the same page. with Zeus. What a gorgeous photo. Love it.
Zeus never sleeps alone
a whole earth his bridesmaid
careful the fire, husband
Love that final line!
Yes, love “careful the fire, husband.”
That last line especially speaks to me, too. Zeus is quite a scoundrel!
I wrote a short cherita with rhyming. Lightning looks like roots to me. It feels like I have more than this, but let’s stop here and not work it more!
Sky roots
Pierce earth
Sudden shoots
Sting soil
Singe and sing
Ensuring future fruits
You saw roots, I saw a delta 🙂 I love your word choice–pierce, sting, singe! Wow!
Love the idea of Sky Roots. Just excellent!
Love your strong verbs and also the way you celebrate the role of fire in regeneration!
I saw a dancer.
ELECTRIC PERFORMANCE
Ballerina in a twirl.
Ruffled tutu gives a swirl.
Fantasy of little girl.
Perfect title!
Oh this is so beautiful!
Lovely, Cindy!
Good morning, and a stormy morning it is here in the south. We came within an inch of breaking an all-time record for rainfall. Your drenched fields are certainly to be found here. My first thoughts for today were maps for the road and the body.
Vessels
V itality
E nergy
I ndividualistic
N avigable
S ustenance
LIFE
Yay, acrostic! I really love “navigable” as your N word.
Storm Watch
Sitting on the porch
With Dad…
Lightning flashing
Thunder booming
Storm approaching
Watching, listening…
Together
Diane Anderson
1/3/2019
I love the way your poem captures this moment–the eye of the storm, in a sense!
Diane I love this! You’v shared such a nice memory. My dad used to love to watch the storms come in from our porch too.
What a beautiful captured moment!
The picture made me think of how scared kids and pets can be of such violent storms. A rough draft for sure!
Some tear
in fear
when sky
lets fly
lightning bolts
that jolt -
affright
at night.
I like the quick, pounding feel, but still light. Like a quick storm and a fluttering heartbeat.
What a beautiful imagine, Laura! A two-hour delay meant I could participate today 🙂 Yay! I could have played with this for a long time and may go back to it later. It feels incomplete but I had fun exploring the river/sky overlap.
lightning deltas through marshy skies
earthbound current flows
toward illuminated plains
Oooh, those first two lines! Love, love, love!
Great prompt & poem, Laura! Since I’m fresh from reading today’s Storystorm prompt, the two combined ????
Brain/storm
A bolt splits
the cloud.
Ideas spark,
tumbling
down a two-laned
road leading
to adventure.
Candice it looks like we were both inspired by Storystorm today. Love your poem!
Oh, this is fun! I especially like the two-lane road, and it’s implications of more than one direction and multiple choices…
Yes, exactly on the two-laned road! My first draft was a mite too long so I went to cut it, but the multiple choices/opportunities didn’t want to let go!
Yay! I love it when a subtle connotation I pick up on was actually intended by the poet! Very skillfully done–glad you didn’t cut that!
This image makes me think of a sudden summer storm descending upon the cornfields around us in high summer, after days of dry and windless heat.
Here’s my first draft:
Silver rivers of lightning
promise cool, soothing rain
to rows of golden corn…
sweet relief.
Thanks for the writing inspiration today, Laura!
Tara, I love those silver rivers! Beautiful description of lightning!
Oh I love this image!
Electric veins
bubble and throb
lifeforce courses,
nourishes
fields of cob
Such a vital poem, Suzanne. I especially love line 3!
This is an amazing picture public domain or not. It’s very powerful. Love your “sizzling sky.” I immediately thought of the spark of ideas with Tara Lazar’s Storystorm.
Storystorm
Neurons fire.
Dendritic branches inhale.
Creativity crackles
across axons allée…
I am writing!
Beautiful! I love the alliteration and then that final declaration!
So sweet Diane. We had a front “parlor” that basically served as an extra room to dust except during a thunder storm. Mother would herd us in, pull the shades and we had to sit until the storm was over. We could talk but not play. A special memory though.
Love the words earthbound lightning and illuminating used together.
Oops, meant earthbound current!
A tutu always brings a smile.
Lovely Tara, sweet and corn are synonymous, and yummy!
Well done Suzanne. It seems we were somewhat in the same vein!
I like “adventure” with this photo Candice.
I know this is way moor than 15 but it is what I thought of
I’m the youngest in my emanate family but have lots of nieces and nephews
poem By Jessica Bigi
I’m your Big Sister
so tinny in my arms
luau by heart beets
beating malady’s of life
most presses gift
momma and poppa
ever gave to me
all bundled in humming goose
rocking in my arms
loved in my heart
pit pat pitter pat
What a beautiful love letter to your sister, Jessica!
Cool photo–I can feel the electricity!
Summer Storm
raindrops race across the lake,
lightning slices purple sky…
sizzle, crackle,
boom!
Ooh, I like your poem, Buffy, even more because your poem sparked an image/poem for me, too! Love the sound effects :>)
Love this image. Thanks, Laura!
THE FIELD
The field, lit up,
electrified
by a sky cracked wide
like a crazed
China cup
-by Heather Ferranti Kinser
Some unexpected words in here that I really like, like crazed. And love the touch of rhyme in electrified/wide. Nice!
It made me think of the white roots of plants
fuzzy roots
stretching
underground
smiling face
of a daffodil
rises above
I love that it connected to something happy and beautiful and positive for you, Joy. This does not surprise me at all :>)
I was captured by the color in the image, and seeing it here on your website–on my computer it looks very different than it did on my phone early this morning. I like your take on the scene, your poem fits well with it.
Here’s my poem–without textured fields…
Crackling skies disguise
growing discomfort,
as blood red encroaches
skies windowpane…
Ooh, so many ominous words here–a really strong feeling!
Damaged
by Ann Magee
Porcelain sky shatters,
rain splatters.
Mother’s favorite vase is cracked.
Water drips onto the floor.
This poem really makes me feel what a momentous thing this is–great comparison to the power of a storm!