pad day 16 snapshots and 17 the big picture

Here are the little linoprints I promised last week.


I have bombed out a couple of days over the weekend on the poem a day challenge, but better late than never, 3 snapshot poems for day 16

My gardening gloves
two pairs of dirty hands hang
on the washing line.


At the pet expo
the dogs were obedient
the mic misbehaved.


I
stack
dishes
the kids nag
for snacks, even though
they just ate their dinner, I yell
just as two strangers
come knocking
at my
door's
shame.


My day 17 big picture poem (which is a lot like my snapshot poems!)

Digging for victory

Digging in compost
to revive depleted soil
planting seeds of hope.

pad day 13 - relationship

Gesture

A steamy morning at the markets
we huddle in the patch of shade
under an awning, waiting to request
spring rolls and samosas.
The ladies are hot and hurry
to keep everyone happy
this one smiles and slips something extra
in the bag, does she remember me
pushing the twins in their stroller,
two buddhas for good luck
years back? Or is her kindness
for a familiar face?
One day I'll ask her name
for now, we exchange
across the counter, a few dollars
and true smiles.

pad day 12 - a form poem

A slightly different poem than the one I posted over at poetic asides. A fib - the form is based on the fibonacci sequence.

(fib)

School
boy's
velvet
cropped short hair
on the seat in front
on the bus
she wants
to
touch

pad day 11 - maybe

Maybe or not

When the kids ask
to go bowling or the movies
I say maybe - we'll see,
not to fob them off
but because the future is uncertain
and in that fog it's difficult
to plan anything.

pad day 9 - time of day

4pm

At this time of day
I am usually watching the clock
tick round to 5 and freedom.
Or sneaking off for a lie down
after too many hours of housework and kids.
Today the kids are packed off to the movies
and I am printmaking
a tiny lino-cut
woman and bird.


I do have this print to show you, maybe tomorrow I'll get chance to upload the photos, fingers crossed. Hope you've had a great weekend!

pad day 8 - celebration

Neglect
has let our pool
go green, no swimming
this wet season
celebrated this morning
by two kingfishers
swooping from the pool fence
to scoop up
tadpoles.

pad day 6 - Don't ......

If you just dropped by and wonder where the paintings are, it's poetry month and I'm attempting to write to the prompts at the poetic asides blog. This is my effort for day six.

Don't look down

Eating dinner at the wharf
everyone fights for the tables by the water
while we sit the next row back.
I couldn't comfortably spoon my Tom Kha
with that gap yawning at my side
I'd have to hang onto the kids wrists
so they didn't slide into the abyss.

After dinner they take their left over chips
to feed the seagulls or fish
with their Dad as escort
while I study the food on my plate
and look the other way.
I don't think I'm scared of heights
just the magnetism of that edge.

pad day 5 - silly or serious

I completely flunked out yesterday. Today the choice was between a silly or a serious poem, I went short and silly.


My daughter came to work
and made us all shirk
our proper responsibilities,
played with sequins and paper
to make flowers that later
made our window display look pretty.

pad day 3 - a world without me

This one was like pulling teeth!!

Without me

The washing would pile up
the kids would scrabble for
school uniforms, but maybe
someone else would do one mammoth
wash a week, instead of everyday.

Without me
the dishwasher would get stacked
higgledy-piggledy and no-one would complain,
someone else would have to nag the kids
about their homework
or forget about it
the world wouldn't end.

I imagine a quiet place
a jewelled garden in a Persian miniature
a place to sit in peace,
while they sort themselves out
and then I'll come back.

poem a day - day 2 Postcard

Greetings from Darwin

I have been turning over the veggie patch
half of it in fact, two square metres of dirt
riddled with roots from nearby palms
I could hardly get the shovel in.

A cloudy morning and the cyclone
that was flirting is still just a low
skirting the coast headed west.
I have spread the compost too
the other half still to do next weekend.

Poem a day - day 1

Just call me crazy!!
It's poetry month in America, the poetic asides blog is doing a poem a day challenge and I'm going to have a try. Here's my day one poem.

How I got here

By the power of my two legs
not fast from A to B
but allowing time for thinking
for noticing - the garden
with a cloud of cream flowers
open in the morning twisted shut
by afternoon, how I first saw
a double-barred finch flit
down to the footpath and up to the fence
I learned to look for them.
On windy mornings I long
to spread my arms out
dive into it like a wave
and ride the current.
I get to work knowing
I'm alive.