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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPoetry in Public 2015 Adult PoetryUNTITLED Laurie Scott Cummins Like my dad’s hair Summer grass is thinning. Seasons change. SHANGRI-LA Christopher Merrill Of Lost Horizon I remember the plane crash, A lush green mountain valley, and contemplatives Who do not seem to age or die... The grade school teacher Who made me trade the Hardy Boys for an adventure Story set in Tibet, inspired this hankering For ideal places. How I need you now to see Through my bravado, and train me in the ways of God. SWEET IOWA CORN David Duer Stopped at a farm stand this morning to get a sack of sweet Iowa corn, that delicious butter-and-cream variety. Five boys sat in the shade— the ones who just picked it?— swapping lies and shucking corn and eating it fresh off the cob. NEWBORN Julie Claus I stood in the garden uncertain what to do with him. So in the hushed tones of grasses, I began introducing him to life. Bough by bough, leaf by leaf, I named every name that would name him. Petal by petal, we opened to each other. I kept to him, he kept to me even as we flew from tree to tree. MISCALCULATION Dan Campion These trading cards of dreams will never sell. Their grainy pictures fade. Their film noir spell Disperses in a smog of bubble gum. They don’t pack even quiet house’s hum Or subtle glow of clock-face radium Or pillowcase caress of tousled hair. We’re stuck with cardboard decks of solitaire. CODA Marvin Bell Listen to my song. Listen when my song has ended. It will be my way of taking you in my arms. It will be the way I come to where you are. GRACE Nina Lohman Cilek Grace, my grandmother-great, taught me to pray when I was six or five in her kitchen white The Lord’s Prayer white by the sink where water steamed and scalded by the oven that warmed, at the table where she sat line by line, again one more time while we wait for the yeast to proof BUTTERCUP Karol Krotz the window her imprisoner from the goings-on outside scents of air and sounds of life through the tiny crack not deterred she readies herself for the encounter she awaits those that taunt her instinctive longing self-composedness, alertness, poise, precision necessary to escape and conquer her elusive desire not today, she abandons her post, the bird flies away OPTIMIST, TEMPTED Leslea Haravon Collins It looks better than it tastes But there it lies, nestled amongst its sweet companions Sticky and chewy Beckoning to my mouth. Maybe the next one Will taste better. INSPIRATION Ruth Manna Senior tech lab time Need to create cool haikus C’mon c’mon muse ''A NOSE IS A NOSE IS A NOSE!” PATRICK NEFZGER, WIGGLESHAFT A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NOSE, WOULD SMELL THE SAME! A NOSE BY ANY OTHER ROSE, WOULD SMELL THE SAME! INSPIRED BY GERTRUDE STEIN, SHAKESPEARE AND HEMINGWAY. CHANGE OF VENUE Carol Tyx It’s good to move out of your room at least once a year, to sleep in the spare bedroom or if that’s full, on the living room floor maybe even the backyard to see who you might be waking up somewhere else. GATE Tony Craine Windblown gate, banging late at night Surrogate noisy neighbor While the noisy neighbors sleep By day you contain the annoying little dog No wind moves you then Only now, irregular, you open and... Slam. Open and... THE BOOK OF NO PAGES Dave Morice I bought a book with all my wages. Between its covers were no pages. No one wrote it very well With perfect grammar. I could tell. All the words were clear as air About a truth that wasn't there. IN THE GRASS Nancy Lael Braun small boy reaches out for the grasshopper, reaches out for the hopper... reaches out again and again and again and both hopping, hopping JUST A MERE FARM Randy Beckman It’s just a mere farm built from the sweat of DAD’S brow It sustained his large family through the Depression somehow Wherever we’ve gone in pursuit of our goals The farm is within us – its part of our soul And Dad would smile to know we’ll always call This mere farm on the prairie home to us all IN THE MORNING Mary Pogge I stretch awake and discover which of my joints fingers, knees, whatever has joined the lemmings’ march towards the cliff of age today SPRING Brown oak leaves dancing Over frozen sheets of white Promise warmer days Tim Terry JANUARY THAW Jan Down A wisp of wind Tree branches bend Snow plops down Upon my head HAPPY FOURTH! Tom Snee I live in my own little world, but it’s well kept. Mow the lawn, shovel the snow, paint the fence when needed. I’d invite the neighbors to a Fourth of July picnic, but I don’t have any. DQ HAIKU David Leshtz Soft serve krunch kote queen Summertime butterscotch gal Melt my blizzard heart HAIKU evening smoulders midsummer June bug boogie cool lightening hot dance Janvier Abramowitz HALF SONNET Paul Diehl Through fog the bridge throws lights across the river, parallel lines of dark, dim, dark, dim, like fingers through a hand’s spaces. The wind deepens, this way, that way. Tonight I’d do anything at all but break your heart. THE UMBRELLA'S DREAM Madi Genz My umbrella has a dream to fly away. When storms brew I open its canopy. It tries and perseveres, but has yet to take flight. I feel sorry for the poor thing. For I am the one with the strong grip. TWILIGHT DANCE IN AUTUMN Janet Skiff Dozens of small onyx dots with thread-like wings rise from large, dark, lacy trees and together create a pointellistic cloud that glides up and down and soars with collected grace across a low fuchsia sky. LESS THAN ONE CENTIMETER ACROSS Lisa M. Roberts You know what got me? After the ultrasound and after pointing out what were and were not the healthy bits of my breast, the radiologist, as he got up to walk away, leaned down to pat my leg and said, "Good luck." BETRAYAL staring unblinking as if I were a stranger turncoat computer Denise Tiffany IN READINESS Rene Paine The moon, three days waning graciously introduces the purple and pink of a February sunrise Sunrise to sun risen, the Iowa earth readies to exhale that breath of thaw while life below the ice perches like the swimmer on her block ready to heed the whistle of change and send us into the churn and thrust of renewal BIG BROTHER Dick Hakes You did not know I watched but I bore witness to your deed when Niko’s skates betrayed him and he sat there on the ice discouraged and alone until your hand came through the crowd. I could have cheered out loud.