Dramatis persona*

helenhead Helen Chick

I've always wanted a bumper sticker that said "I'm a female, LDS/Mormon, Scout leading, geocaching, piano-playing, bicycling, mathematics educator with a PhD in maths ... and I VOTE"!

I think this makes me a minority group of cardinality 1!

* Since there's only one of me and "personae" is plural (I think), I've gone with dramatis persona.

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30. Under the Rain [100 poems challenge]

 

30.          Under the Rain

Deceptive days of warmth and sunshine
Found where such are rare
Are swallowed by the looming clouds that
Fill the open air,
And swollen with the gathered dampness
Come from oceans west,
The great grey ceiling full to bursting,
Eager to divest.
And then it comes, a gentle drizzle,
From the sodden sky,
Increasing, steady, now a downpour,
Nothing remains dry.
Small puddles form, the […]

29. Happiness [100 poems challenge]

 

29.          Happiness

Jollity schmolity,
Happy frivolity,
Mirth and amusement and
Smiles and guffaws.

Laughter, exuberance,
Hypereuphoria,
Cheerfulness, gladness and
Joy without pause.

18 May 2013

 

Comments: Hah! I’ve written a double dactyl poem. A dactyl is a DUM-di-di triple syllable metre, and one of the hallmarks of a double dactyl poem (which I nearly forgot to include … along with some of the other […]

28. Sorrow [100 poems challenge]

 

28.          Sorrow

All-consuming anguish,
The aching emptiness of loss;
Inconsolable grief,
And world-ending darkness
That must surely last forever.

At the edge of the abyss
Where nothing can be right again
And wounds will never heal
A mother’s gentle hug
Gives a glimmering of hope.

28 May 2013

 

Comments: I couldn’t get into this one at all, as you can see by the fact that it […]

27. Foreign [100 poems challenge]

 

27.          Foreign

Ich spreche wenig Deutsch
Et mon français est pire;
Mi español es insignificante
Mit dansk er ikke-eksisterende
Nem tudok beszélni a magyar
Nevím, žádné české
Latine est unice cantatum
I am — sadly — monolingual.

16 May 2013

 

Comments: This one is “Google Translate does poetry … badly”. I thought about including some lines with non-Latin-script characters (e.g., some Russian or Korean […]

26. Tears [100 poems challenge]

 

26.          Tears

I am angry, I am hurt,
Blamed for things
Not all my fault,
Undermined and
Scapegoated.
I am angry, I am hurt,
I manage words
Of self-defence
But I am left
Impotent.
I am angry, I am hurt,
I clench my jaw
Emotion raw
But I won’t cry
Not even on the inside.

15 May 2013

 

Comments: This theme and a bad day at the office collided unfortuitously. I […]

Bivouac Bay hike

I had a Scout camp this weekend: a District event involving a number of troops from our area, in which the kids did a short overnight hike, as well as a series of activity bases. The weather forecast had not been great, but both days were mild and sunny and the venue—a place I hadn’t visited […]

25. Trouble Lurking [100 poems challenge]

 

25.          Trouble Lurking

I cycled English countryside
Past villages, and churches,
Past Roman ruins on the ride,
Past elms and oaks and birches.

With narrow lanes and cars so fast
My top was coloured brightly
So I’d be safe as they sped past,
My helmet done up tightly.

I had my trusty GPS
And maps to guide my steering;
My journey planned—well, more or less—
And only steep […]

24. No Time [100 poems challenge]

 

24.          No Time

The past is gone—
Its vast momentousness
Unchangeable, immutable,
Already written and stained.
The future is not yet —
Its great potential
Unreachable, intangible,
Distant blank tomorrows.
There is only now—
The infinitesimal immediate instant
For all of action and creation,
Everything in nothing.

13 May 2013

 

Themes to come: 25. Trouble Lurking; 26. Tears; 27. Foreign; 28. Sorrow; 29. Happiness

Explanation about the 100 poems […]

23. Cat [100 poems challenge]

 

23.          Cat

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry
Or I would …
If I had a cat …
And its name was Jeoffry.

13 May 2013

 

Comments (part 1): This first poem is for those of you familiar with Jubilate Agno by Christopher Smart, a rather unusual poem dating from the 1700s. Alternatively, since the first might seem a […]

22. Nature [100 poems challenge]

 

22.          Nature

At first
All I see is
The grey ash,
Its fine powder dark and dusty
Below the charred black bark
Of once proud eucalypts
Now naked,
Leaves vanished
In a furious inferno,
A howling firestorm
Of hungry flames
And swirling embers;
Consuming, capricious, and catastrophic.

Grey ash,
And scarred stumps,
Black and grey,
Charred and cindered;
Grey ash,
Dusty and dead.

But then—
Luminous against the grey—
A tiny, impossible green;
Tentative yet defiant,
Sign of life.

May 23rd, 2013 | Category: Poems | Leave a comment