Micropoetry

In the mood for micropoetry…

~ thotpurge ~ 45 Comments 
Haven't written a lot of micropoetry since November 2017, when I hosted 
Micropoetry Month (You can also find the link in the sidebar). 
Time to give it another shot, maybe?

(1)
nothing
black wing on tangerine sky
and…still…nothing

(2)
summer solstice
how short this night
how long her empty sigh

(3)
one moon stirred pond
one splash of insomniac frog
what are the odds

(4)
rain falls on glass
on tile
on leaves-
so many ways
the sky calls out your name

(5)
wordless question
slanting shadows
kneel on the bamboo mats

(6)
between her and the night
a paper lantern
with one eye

(7)
even the moth
that burns in the flame
first sees the light

(8)
in the distance
autumn
I tremble with the leaves

(9)
stirring the afternoon
lone crow
with a broken wing

Micropoetry Month: Nov 2017: #30

~ thotpurge ~ 23 Comments

Micropoetry MonthOn this last day of the first edition of Micropoetry Month, I thought we’d take a look at the Jisei, the Japanese Death Poem. The Jisei, written about death in general or about one’s own imminent death, reflects the poet’s contemplation of his mortality, of what was and what comes next both in the context of self and universe.

One translation of Basho’s famous Jisei goes like this:

On a journey, ill—
And my dreams on withered fields
Are wandering still.

I attempted a jisei a couple of years ago, here’s another shot at it. Share your micropoem, about death or maybe about life, using comments or Mister Linky.

And when I realize
there was no now,
that life, like time, was a linear illusion.
Like death.
What then?

A cherita as well in the same tone:

she wrote her jisei in six lines

one line about
the fickle, waning moon

two about a persistent mist,
and three about a hobbled dream
waiting for a perfect night

 

A very warm note of thanks to everyone who was part of Micropoetry Month – as reader, participant, inspiration or supporter. Thank you for your poems, your likes, your comments. I enjoyed writing. I enjoyed reading. And I hope we can do this, or something like this, again soon. Meanwhile, I will continue to post micropoetry and other poems on this blog and haibun on my other blog Phantom Road.  You can find me on twitter @tp_poetry. See you on the trail! 

Micropoetry Month: Nov 2017: #29

~ thotpurge ~ 24 Comments

Micropoetry MonthWith just one more day left, Micropoetry Month pulls away to a bittersweet end. Writing everyday was pleasure and pain. Was joy and angst. Was exhilarating and draining. Was necessary and random. Was everything poetry is. And isn’t.

I have a short poem today inspired by a Midweek prompt at Poets United If you haven’t visited the group, be sure you will always find great poems to read, much to learn and new friends to make.

I wait outside the temple gate,
my feet shackled by my disbelief
to the nothingness,
my questions cast down into the dirt
like glass marbles,
the urchins run up to play with them
shooting one into another
letting them explode into a thousand universes,
one was carried away
in a small, grubby hand
through the carved double doors,
my question going where I
would not, where I could not,
its innocent eyes daring me
to follow,
like an answer.

Share your poem using comments or Mister Linky. And stay tuned for the final  Micropoetry Month post tomorrow!!!