April Odds & Ends

too many dreams and
so little time to follow
any to its end

if they don’t bathe in sunlight
daffodils will never bloom

lying on the sand
looking up at Ocean’s mirror
the rain dropping through
brief remnants of the daylight and
their echoes—the stars and the moons

TV noise …
I saw it before
Star Trek reruns eternally

Poems in addition to the ones assigned to April days. Still looking through text files for poems I may have missed along the way.

Liz

Wide Awake | NaPoWriMo Day 30

Copyright 2016, Elizabeth Bennefeld, photographer. All rights reserved.

sunny afternoon
no rabbits in the garden
nobody to chase

both our people are asleep
what’s to do with time that’s free?

Note: My husband requested a poem to go with his favorite photo of our dogs, The Scampers. The photo was taken in the spring of 2016, when they were four months old.

Just in Time | #NaPoWriMo Day 26

Goldilocks time
the second between dusk and night
when the stars come on

Rain on the Flowers | #NaPoWriMo Day 25

camera in hand
soon after the day begins…
tulips and raindrops
Copyright © 2021-04-25, by Elizabeth Bennefeld.

Looking West at Evening | #NaPoWriMo Day 24

waiting for the geese to fly overhead
dreams of going home
© Elizabeth Bennefeld, April 2021.

As night falls | #NaPoWriMo Day 23

time grows short
shadows stretch to night
wee mice play
Liz Bennefeld,
Copyright 2021-04-25

May Day – NaPoWriMo Day 18

rain in the morning
snowfall starts at afternoon
sunshine at evening
water for the thirsty plants
next comes warmth for May Day blooms

Winter Storm Day – NaPoWriMo Day 17

rain, snow, and bluster
promise of a quiet day…
warm and cozy bed
surrounded by my pillows
piles of books and lots of tea

Image by kristamonique from Pixabay

Childhood Memories – NaPoWriMo Day 15

the sounds of childhood
uplifting music filled our home
Mom and Dad singing
of their desire, joy, and love…
their duet became a choir

Frozen Dew – NaPoWriMo Day 14

bunnies and sunshine
a mix-up of the seasons
winter in the spring
snow blankets on the tulips
frozen dewdrops on new grass

Sounds Surround Me – NaPoWriMo Day 13

distant sounds echo
police car sirens fleeing…
snowflakes come to rest

my puppy snores and resettles
birds sing their morning psalms

Image by myungho lee from Pixabay

Transformation – NaPoWriMo Day 4

nature is the greatest magician — Nature’s Magic

nature transfigured
the familiar wears a mask
streets and highways gone
seek paths to the beginning
restart the world…try again

Photo by Peter Oslanec on Unsplash

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 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

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 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.

Quiet Spaces

The Written Word at Home

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