something opens

eyes clenched closed

: silence :

prayer utters itself in throat

without conscious thought

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haiku

in my alone

i grow up to be

a tree-speaker a rain-bone

a raven’s wet-throat

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haiku

we’re both slaughtered

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breath in my throat

catching like vomit

run rabbit run

separated from the pack

spindle-legged antelope weak

thought of escape

run rabbit run

can it can it can it

make it make it make it

weeping screaming imagining

sweat hot sweat hot breath hot swear hot

on my tail

nailed snapping crapping sobbing

stopping

catching breath

stopping

caught cobble-hobbled wolf-whistled

run rabbit run

down

noooooooo

throat cut my blood

pulsed howl watch detached

legs splayed face bodypressed to the carpet

helpless now

breath in my throat

catching like vomit

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not a haiku

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https://www.napowrimo.net/

NaPoWriMo day 22:-

In honor of today’s being the 22^nd day of Na/GloPoWriMo 2022, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that uses repetition. You can repeat a sound, a word, a phrase, or an image, or any combination of things.

aziz

Attempted Glosa ( see below )

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cassiopeia tree-heads nod from your skies

to mine though cloud divides muted eyes

i blink through sheaves of sand-gulls screeching

‘criss ink-stained papers, tears leeching

an unknown alphabet-net of dumb faces

i’m hung from tooth and skeins of white spaces

indentations where my head has lain

inventing fabrics of your pillow in vain

no matter, no stuff where dreams are hooked

i go to bed, as you are getting up

.

momentary glitch flashes ‘tween lashes

freckles of luminous liquid silences

i rise from these crumpled sheets

still littered with fragile sighs replete

in bellies unmet, limbs hung with longing

a wood-burner bright in my breast, sunset songings

in dull light, my white night dress soaked

in unspoke couplets, threads drift afloat

on twigs rigged with cloud-down as you curl

aziz, on the other side of the world

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water over stones over stretched

connects the dots of lights over ledges

eastwards ascendant scents falling

into premonitions of your gift-intentions

seared on darknesses, stitched in tocsins

i loosen my dream-throat to catch at

from whence you are, lost, dust and ash

notes acriss my midnight coverlet where

aziz, you have scattered the stars

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you go about your day vertically

i go about my night horizontally

wallow-wandering, thought of by me

you think as i think and dream muddily

plucking unstrung pearls you cast emergent

from whence you’ve sent as sacréments

glistening on pregnant sleeping lips

awake, i drink them in intrinsic sips

your water voice falls wild, aziz

towards me here, like seeds

.

.

n.b

tocsin: single long note or alarm bell

aziz: beloved

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My lines are chosen from a poem by Carol Ann Duffy

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World

.

I go to bed, as you are getting up

in the other side of the world

You have scattered the stars

toward me here, like seeds

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napowrimo.net

NaPoWriMo day 3 : This one is a bit complex, so I saved it for a Sunday. It’s a Spanish form called a “glosa” – literally a poem that glosses, or explains, or in some way responds to another poem. The idea is to take a quatrain from a poem that you like, and then write a four-stanza poem that explains or responds to each line of the quatrain, with each of the quatrain’s four lines in turn forming the last line of each stanza. Traditionally, each stanza has ten lines, but don’t feel obligated to hold yourself to that! Here’s a nice summary of the glosa form to help you get started.

diffusion

this quiet evening

light fills my throat finally

drowning craven fears

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haiku

lack of lyric

i broke the music!

this still hovers in guilty

throat; lilts of sickness

.

haiku

refusing blue

napowrimo day 12

blue pill

*you take the blue pill and the story ends. you wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe

red pill

*you take the red pill and you stay in wonderland and i show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes

.

.

swallowing red

scrabbling on the edge of the rabbit-hole, bitten-lipped

footing lost, taste of red, vomit-ready, in my frozen throat

only the illuminated rumi in my apron pocket

letting go of everything known, wider awake than thought

falling up and into dirty soul

scrawling eat me, drink me, frantically

.

.

refusing blue

in refusing blue, i know it is the I that burnt the sky

standing on a rooftop poised to pitch forward, leapt, while you stepped

back while blaming me for killing us – knowing

the hole i had to go through was alone-shaped and mightily-icy – knowing

it was warmer than the bed i left – i swallow that 

while reciting sufism beneath my breath

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one fish two fish red fish blue fish

wishes swimming in soap-bubbles i forget to notice

cherry blossoms sobbing sweetly as background noise

swirling purply

.

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btw april 12 2021

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https://www.napowrimo.net/

Prompt:- I’m calling this one “Past and Future.” This prompt challenges you to write a poem using at least one word/concept/idea from each of two specialty dictionaries: Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary and the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.

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https://sfdictionary.com/view/2317/blue-pill

* lines from the Matrix

red pill / blue pill reference found in …https://sfdictionary.com/view/2317/blue-pill

rumi:- Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (also given as Jalal ad-did Muhammad Balkhi, best known as Rumi, l. 1207-1273 CE) was a Persian Islamic theologian and scholar but became famous as a mystical poet whose work focuses on the opportunity for a meaningful and elevated life through personal knowledge and love of God. He was a devout Sunni Muslim and, even though his poetry emphasizes a transcendence above religious strictures and dogma, it is grounded in an Islamic worldview. Rumi’s God is welcoming to all, however, no matter their professed faith, and one’s desire to know and praise this God is all that is required for living a spiritual life.  

blue pill n.

a drug that allows one to remain ignorant of reality; cf. red pill n.

Often fig.

Drugs

• 1998 L. Wachowski & A. Wachowski The Matrix (shooting script, 29 Mar.) 29You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe.

red pill n.

a drug that reveals esp. unpleasant truths of the real world; cf. blue pill n.

Often fig. Now often associated with right-wing or men’s-rights political movements.

Drugs

• 1998 L. Wachowski & A. Wachowski The Matrix (shooting script, 29 Mar.) 29You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
• 2020 H. Kunzru Red Pill 171 Hari Kunzru bibliographySo much of what he said had that particular tone, that suggestion of double meaning. Come inside or stay in the dark, as if he were about to initiate me into a mystery, offer me the red pill.

---

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Bowl of Reflections inscribed with Rumi’s poetry. Early 13th century, Brooklyn Museum. (TRT World and Agencies)

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ordinary love

stretching

there is a purr of

intimacy tickling my

throat

awaiting stroke

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haiku