Tower [15 Words or Less]

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. 

Atlanta Olympic Park
Photo: Laura P. Salas

Here’s a pic of Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, which I walked through several times a day at NCTE. This image makes me think of several things:

  1. dancing trees
  2. juice boxes with their little triangle flaps to lift up (the background building)
  3. a giant podium with no speaker (and lots of audience members waiting)

And here’s my first draft. That tree to the right of the tower looked like it was trying just a little too hard:>)

dancing tree 15wol

It’s your turn! Have fun and stick to 15 WORDS OR LESS! (Title doesn’t count toward word count.)

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26 Responses

  1. Maypole in July

    Out of season
    out of use
    Sunlight puncturing
    dusty memories
    of days gone by

      1. Amelia, I love how you saw the May Pole. I hope you have these all saved. I know you’ve been writing for years. How fast the time goes. So proud of you.

  2. Ha! Laura, I love your playful take on the trees. My eye was drawn to the tower dominating the scene.

    YOUNGER SIBLING LAMENT

    My sister thinks that she’s big stuff.
    Wish that I could say “ENOUGH!”

    and live.

    1. Heeheehee. As the youngest of four girls, I SO get this poem. Love that line space before your ending. Brilliant.

  3. Looked like the ball pole on the playground, and the lights looked like kids ready to toss the ball up there… though I was intrigued by that square-headed owl in the background.

    Net
    towers high
    Kids cry
    .……owl spies.….
    Basketballs look like
    eggs to fry -
    Oh, my!

    1. Donna, love the spying owl, another take on the juice box. Basketball nets are seasonal too.

  4. Laura, your first impressions are loud and clear, the juice box and large audience, wonderful. The picture takes me to watercolors and art from the impressionists.

    My Private Canvas

    Blurred Images
    yet so much to see
    such fun I’ll have
    selecting one for me.

    1. I think impressionists and pointillists are my favorite groups of artists. Well, I do love very clean watercolor, too. But there’s something about that lack of detail, and you capture it perfectly in those first two lines.

  5. Having trouble posting for some reason… hopefully this won’t appear twice.

    Shine on, little tree!

    I haven’t been here in quite some time, but I think it’s time to come back. Let’s call it a New Year’s resolution. 🙂

    Cup or Cone

    Caught staring
    at the sweet cream sky,
    God asks me,
    “One scoop or two?”

    1. Hi Michelle, Welcome back! I love your version of a God who is generous with the ice cream. That’s my kind of God. And “sweet cream sky” is lovely! Makes me want to go to Cold Stone, though.

  6. Such cool takes on this, everyone! And Laura, I like the way you’ve been artifying your photos. 🙂

    The spaceship waits
    solemnly,
    but the astronauts
    never come.

    —Kate Coombs

    1. Thanks, Kate. I like filtering them so that the shapes pop but I’m not overwhelmed with the real-life details:>) I like how slowly your poem demands to be read. Great sound choices!

  7. I also saw your tower as a tree, Laura. Happy Thursday, all!

    In the Rainforest

    One treetop
    towers above all
    others

    leaving underlings
    to jostle and stretch
    for light

    1. Buffy, your poem made me think about the constant struggle in nature. Sometimes I’m lulled into thinking of nature as peaceful. It might be, in this instant, but it’s ever changing and shifting. Love this!

  8. For First Grandchild Turning One

    Biggest candle,
    creamy cake,
    poems await
    when you wake.
    Rise and sing,
    my sweet everything.

    I, too, have been away too long. Hope to join the Thursday poems again regularly.
    Love seeing so many friends here. Special hugs to Laura and Amelia.

    1. Welcome Janet and oh, did you touch my heart. My little great-granddaughter just turned one.

    2. Oh, Janet–love this! You should put this on a card for her. Your granddaughter is such a beauty!

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