I haven’t really tried my hand at poetry for some time–years, probably.  This creative writing class, however, had two poems required this week.

The first set of three-line poems were to follow these “ingredients”:  Line 1–an abstraction, a verb, and a place; Line 2–describes/includes attire; Line 3–summarizes the action of the poem.  Here are the eight I’m submitting:

Entry 2:

Theft haunts this town;

Its invisible cloak creates chaos,

Striking at night.  In seconds.

 

Honesty corrugates throughout our firm;

We’re suited and booted;

Decked out to defend (y)our rights.

 

Merit defeats worthlessness

In its superhero Spandex;

All who Do relish in self-satisfaction.

 

Noise burrows from within a young heart

Churning within a child’s stained sweater;

He’s lost a cherished toy.

 

Cooperation pulverizes blatant solitude

When, after slicing away the layers and personal space,

We accept each other and grind out a finer product.

 

Parenting chokes at our younger selves’ souls

From within the churchy clothes we once loathed;

Disciplining the same way as ours did

 

Integrity lacks among the wavepools

and underneath designer adornments over the thick skin of the upper One Percent;

Wealth attracts people, but rarely friends.

 

Innocence chases innocence in schoolyards

Filled with bright yellow slickers and hand-me-down jeans;

Boisterous, youthful bodies exhibit the purest of joys, even among the raindrops.

The other assignment called for a twenty-line (minimum) poem that included at least six “merged metaphors”.  The exercise was to put 2 or more cliches together to make these new metaphors.  Here’s my attempt 🙂

Poem:  “

 

Ever since the morning you left,

I’ve slept like an owl.

These nights, there’s nothing on

And nothing to do

Nothing to smoke or drink.

 

Leaving, for you, must have been

As easy as taking candy from a horse.

my friends

my family

tell me there will be more pies in the bakery,

But, sugar,

I fall without you as my chief ingredient.

 

They tell me you’re completely over me

And that I shouldn’t live under this drum anymore

 

I’m thinner now.

Thin like yesterday, my brothers tell me.

 

They want me to let sadness’s rain

Make me clean as a rock seconds after the last drop has fallen.

 

But I want to sink down further

Into the world

With you.