Cold and windy

late spring in the neighborhood — Late Spring in the Neighborhood

the season shifts
to days of cold, and colder nights
stars shine more brightly

dry winds abscond with clouds and leave
faint wisps of smoky haze

Forecast for the week is for nighttime lows in the 30s and low 40s (although not below freezing), cold and gusty wind.

I decided not to post a couple of the poems that I wrote during April, so my count on this site comes up short. I fell ill from an infected wound, and so I have been sleeping a lot and taking antibiotics every six hours. I will be so happy to have more than five hours of sleep in a stretch…you wouldn’t believe! Follow-up appointment later this week.

End of April’s Na/GloPoWriMo poems

I have written two of the last three poems for NaPoWriMo 2019. Laid low by an infected wound, and just now feeling up to writing, again, three or four days into a seven-day script for antibiotics. I hope to add the third poem to this page sometime before the end of Friday.

as I slept, the sun
appeared and warmed the ground
I woke to tulips

Prompt from Na/GloPoWriMo, Day 29: Write a minimalist poem.

rocks steam haze
clouds obscure the sun
no starlight

too wet, sleeping on the ground
but all the trees have melted

Brewer’s prompt for Day 20: Write a dark poem.

Day 27 Late-Season Snow #NaPoWriMo

cocker spaniel playing in the newly fallen April snow — Late-season Snow Storm

Prompt: “Take one of your poems and, in three places, insert a parenthetical comment…” I used only this much of the prompt found at Cuyahoga County Public Library website. Only three more days to go!

late-spring storm
{by now, I shouldn’t feel surprise}
snow on puppy legs…face…tail
{how did he get snow plastered THERE?}
don’t sit in my lap!
{ah, well! there’s towels}

Day 26: An Everlasting Pause #NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo

Prompt for Day 26: Write 10 one- or two-line poems on one subject, however loosely related to the subject. Put them together, arranging and rearranging, and title them as one poem.

An Everlasting Pause

Only eternity lasts forever

              Be still and know

There are many mansions

              and the perfect one is set aside for you

Passage of time and distance of place…

              all is present in the Now

I cannot conceive of a moment of perfection

              that never ends or varies

One thing that puzzles me is whether eternity is

              a continuity, an instance of existence, or an object of art

Clarity persists in haunting the mind of the bemused

The eternal Here and Now overlooks the ebb and flow

              of distance and time, not counting minutes or the miles

Satisfaction is a state of mind independent

              of circumstances or the company we keep

Experiencing the tides of now, the gentle inflow and recession

              of being and not being

Hypnotized by sensation and waiting for the feeling

              to come again

Lost in the eternal pause between nothing more

              and everything

Day 25 Springtime Joy #GloPoWriMo #NaPoWriMo

tulips in the side garden — Joy in Springtime

warm winds and raindrops
filling up the tulip cups…
sliding down long leaves

Copyright © 2019-04-25, by Lizl Bennefeld.

Day 24 : Just different #NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo

complete as me

i’m just me
not alone…but separate
a narrow focus

what goes wrong outside this room
does not change what i can do

Lizl Bennefeld, 2019-04-24

Day 22. Transformation #NaPoWriMo

Monday’s prompt words (from RonovanWrites Haiku weekly challenge) were action and friction:

action of raindrops
friction of waves on the shore
dry wind across stone

nature—micron by micron—
reshapes oceans and the land

Quote

Day 23, Waking Early #NaPoWriMo

dawn light scattered
trembling green-gold sparkles
dewdrops in the grass

Day 20 : Night’s Darkness #NaPoWriMo #Glo/NaPoWriMo

photoart by Elizabeth (Lizl) Bennefeld. All rights reserved. — Peonies

night’s soft cloak
sun’s lingering warmth
cloud-clad stars

summer’s breeze is redolent
with scents of sleeping flowers

Brewer’s prompt for Day 20: Write a dark poem.

Day 21 – Easter Morning #NaPoWriMo #Glo/NaPoWriMo

sunrise
cleansing rain
on the grass

Download free do whatever you want high-resolution photos from Jono Hislop at Unsplash.

For Holy Saturday, #NaPoWriMo Day 19

First posted this evening on my Quilted Poetry blog.

sitting on a hill
leaning back against the tree
waiting for a sign

so long ago, the trembling
that still echoes through the Earth

Day 18: topics not discussed #NaNoWriMo

Very loosely based on the Day 18 prompt from the Cuyahoga County Public Library. I am not sure that I’ll go back to rework this after NaPoWriMo is over for this year. I do know that I do not write poetry in four-line stanzas.

‘topics not under discussion’

sometimes I turn around to see
as though from outside human space
the larger patterns…masked by lies

then my heart catches…forgets how to beat
and I find myself hoping that it won’t
remember…how to start itself again

in the longer run the gifts I wield
will make no lasting difference
all will die quietly…fade away in sleep

what I can achieve is to be present
in this moment, acknowledging each
thing that lives and care…until we’re dead

Day 17: Saturday Matinee | #NaPoWriMo 2019

Inspired by Brewer’s POD prompt to write a reason poem and Permafrost, by Alastair Reynolds.

when the end does come
I will not be here to watch
the step off the cliff

documentaries portrayed
as funny children’s movies

Day 16 – In Hiding: An Ode to Anonymity #NaPoWriMo

‘An Ode to Anonymity’

I live underwater, away from all
there’s a turn in the river
I’m shadowed by its banks

the river’s in my mind
my mind safely sheltered, here…
here I’ll remain to the end of all time

Form: kimo and kimo, reversed

Prompt from the Cuyahoga Library for Day 16.

Photo credit: See attachment page.

Day 15: Two Poems #NaPoWriMo

To a dead leaf, lost on concrete

I found myself considering the sadness of leaves and seeds that fall where they can neither decompose nor have the opportunity to germinate and grow. And so, on a (serious) whimsy, I promised the residue on the garage floor that when I was finished with taking their photographs, there, I would gather up them all and return them to the outdoors, where they may decay, or sprout, and live again.

I cry for the leaves on the garage floor
thrown out in new plastic bags
not renewing the soil

Hey, tone it down, there!
Pitch-and-Toss ain’t meant to be
no blame shoutin’ match.

“Pitch-and-Toss” is a game of chance.

Day 14 : Rain Showers | #NaPoWriMo

unlooked-for rainbows

after clouds whose showers bathed

path and air…and me

A “view” poem, Brewer, day 13, Poetic Asides: Writers Digest.

Sweet Dreams! #NaPoWriMo Day 13

Hay(na)Ku, a new form by Eileen R. Tabio, has one word in the first line, two in the second and three in the third, with each word having as many syllables as you wish. Try one! (Cuyahoga Library Writers Center, Day 10)

tiptoeing
midnight approaches
puppies fast asleep

Day 12: Summer Memories | NaPoWriMo2019

Also published on my WordPress blog, The Moments Between.

collage of wildflower photos — Summer Memories

pictures tucked away at end of summer…
promises of winter’s end

Day 11: Drawn Towards Joy

This poem was posted also on my Quilted Poetry blog.

new, green leaves on a cotoneaster tree in our back yard — New Growth

drawn towards joy
changing of the seasons
gentle warmth
quiet melt of winter’s snow
springtime’s gift of sun and rain

As I write this poem, I am listening to an ongoing spring blizzard that has delivered over seven inches of snow, so far today. We expect another five to seven inches before the storm ends. The tulips and daffodils long since emerged from the warm, damp grown. I am trusting the new snow to protect them from the wind and icy rains still to come.

I have looked at photos from previous years, and April snows are not that unexpected. Still, it is strange to be confined to house and outbuildings by snow drifts, when at the beginning of the week, I was outside barefoot and without a jacket.

barefoot at the edge of the fading snowdrift in the back yard — Barefoot Weather, 2019-04-08

April’s Blow | #NaPoWriMo2019 / #GloPoWriMo2019

emerging garden fence — The Emerging Fence, 2019-04-03

March comes in as a lion and … April buries the road by which it leaves

January’s cold
is sharp but somehow peaceful
unlike April’s storms

like cyclones over water
Spring adds fury to its snow

Please also visit my Quilted Poetry blog on WordPress.

Tucked in | #NaPoWriMo2019, Na/GloWriMo2019

after sunset
ice reforms on quiet waters
tucking in the warm

Day 8 – Use the kimo poetic form

the remnants of a snowdrift in the front yard, bereathing its last — Melting Snowdrift (2019-04-08)

Write a kimo, an Israeli form that tends to capture a moment (like a photograph in words), using three unrhymed lines with syllable count 10, 7, 6. (Cuyahoga County Public Library)

ice crystals scattered in a shrinking patch
glistening in the sunlight…
exhaling their last breaths

My first poem for this Monday was written for the Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Prompt Challenge, and can be found on my Quilted Poetry blog: River’s Crest.

Day 7 – Words Fail Me | #NaPoWriMo2019

Prompt: Write a nonet, a nine-line poem, with the first line containing nine syllables, the next eight, so on until the last line has one syllable. (Cuyahoga County Public Library)

Words Fail Me

Sometimes the shape of each letter is
more compelling than words’ meanings.
Playing tricks on sore eyes,
they duck and vanish
into the mist
of fatigue.
Fail to
speak.

Day 6 | When evening turns to night #NaPoWriMo2019

Prompt: Describe what you hear.

from the darkness
birds call out their parting songs
the day is done…now
rest

April 5: Ice and willow leaves | #NaPoWriMo

ice underfoot
branches bare but for last fall’s leaves
grass of greens and browns
slow turning of the seasons
while nature holds its breath

Walk in the Garden #NaPoWriMo

a walk in the garden
snow deeper than me, head and tail…
no rabbits

Also posted on The Moments Between.

April 2: Quietly

Prompt from Brewer at Writer’s Digest:

And today is actually a special day: Two for Tuesday! Pick one prompt or use both…your choice! (1) Write a worst case poem. What’s the worst that could happen? (2) Write a best case poem. Take the worst and reverse it!

death of oceans
anaerobic luminescence
deserts without breath

bright colors on the water
moonlight’s dance on silent waves

Cross-posted to my Quilted Poetry blog.

April 1st: What do you hear?

two geese overhead
flying low and fast…they cry
HERE… WE’RE COMING…HERE

Beautiful sight and sounds greeted me as I stepped into the back yard at late morning.

Volume settings

Getting ready for National/Global Poetry Writing Month 2019. This year, the theme for the poets I write with is “Bring Your Own Prompt”.

evening bird calls
intersecting labyrinths of sound . . .
lost echoes

Quiet Spaces

The Written Word at Home

Na/GloPoWriMo2019