I am sailing...

I skippered the Monday boat rather well
tossed out some weighty baggage
and sailed the swelling demands
of lesson pressures and emails
rather well too...

That is
until THE email
popped into my inbox
THE email
that wanted to reconstruct
a future assessment task for Year 8's...

I had spent so long
shuffling the rubrics and
pinging the ultimate topic
that would send little minds into big spins

but THE email wanted to fix the rubrics
at the lowest level

NOT SHOWN
NO relevance to the topic
NO imagination
NO structure
NO grammar

a whole column
of NOthingness...

what to reply
politely
without resorting to
NO grace

Finally I mustered
some dignity...
I believe the ultimate purpose is the topic...
the lowest common denominator must be
some recognition
the writer wrote anything at all...


I skippered the Monday raft rather well
tossed out some weighty baggage
and kept sailing...



Linking to;
Imaginary Garden With Real Toads - The Tuesday Platform



NOTES
This poem intended to be for the recent 'skip' prompt at d'Verse...
The poem intended to be a quadrille - 44 words...
But it morphed into more...
Rubrics - columns headed from HIGH to LOW + explanations in each

your silken light...

Wordle #249 overlaying the closing colours of today in the Dromana Hills...


today
your evening silken light
serenaded my boundless yearning
for the grace
of your moment

today
I tried to keep you close
to join you
seeking the cell of your fire

wrenched from me
wrenched from me

so heartlesslessly
cracking
the eggs of our time
into myriad
shells
of
elusive
memory

today
I imagined
offering my hand
to you
waiting for any warm touch of your skin

so loved
by a lonely child 
that was

and in some ways

is still




your evening silken light
closed
my dream

for another year




NOTES
Today would have been my father's birthday...
I lost him when I was just 12...



Linking to:
The Sunday Whirl - Wordle #249

when the colours fell...

waves of autumn winds
tidal rains scourge
a sea of leaves



NOTES
Today was a wild day of strong winds and rain...
And autumn colours fell in torrents...
The photo shows a patch of strewn colour just near my front step...
I thought, after the April stampede, I was all puffed out of poetry,
but this wild day needed a poetic note...


Linking to:
Poets United - Poetry Pantry

other maypoles...

shedding maypoles
lambent colours
anticipate 
autumn winds
will trigger
the dance



Poetry form: free verse



NOTES
The photo is a view of autumn vines between trees at Red Hill...
Many trees split their bark or shed layers of it.

And so closes another year of National Poetry Writing Month...
I achieved my goal of 30 poems in 30 days...
* for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads prompts - 29 poems
* for Poets United - 1 poem
Thank you ever so much to the hosts for providing inspiration for us!


Linking to:
Imaginary Garden With Real Toads - Poetising the Maypole

window ledge...

window frame
of morning
buzzing with
a micro landscape of
innuendo

a ledge
divides and
multiplies

composed 
poised
nonchalent
ruffle of a smile
a little figure
sheathed in 
elfin threads
elfin glad rags

she could be happy

but her eyes 
seal
the secret of
her frozen moment

all I see
in my moment
is
a young girl
framed

in but not of

my scraps of autumn
oddments of the colours in my life
beyond

our ledge
divides and
multiplies

Poetry form: free verse - 79 words



NOTES
This is one of several little whimsical figurines on my bedroom window ledge.
Outside, autumn days, autumn lights are closing in.


Linking to:
Imaginary Garden With Real Toads - Instapoetry - no more than 100 words

peel me away...

extrovert teacher
insignificant socialite

eclectic painter...
weaving
the invisible 
deep in the tapestry of
 poetry in motion

(coffee connoisseur
daily)

camera lens
feeling the screams and nuances of the world

weeping willow on some days
an oak on others

vintage car
struggling to shine
for new times to come

 paradox




Poetry form: free verse - 50 words


Linking to:
Imaginary Garden With Real Toads - Words Count

in a confined sweet space...

meander
a small path around trees 
and stones

meander to

a
secluded
worldless
toneless 
small room

feel
inside
a bucolic silence
easing the raging colours of the mind

and welcome

the slow 
mandala harmonies of

a humble heart

willing to share
a bowl of tea with

a stranger


Poetry form: free verse



NOTES
I found two interesting websites on the life of Sen no Rikyu and the tea ceremony  HERE and HERE
One particular comment - Rikyu contributed the idea that there should be a doorway to the tea room that requires guests to bend to enter the room - a sign of humility.
From Imaginary Toads I selected:
'When you serve tea to your guests, you should simply serve tea from your heart, and think about nothing more.' 



Linking to:
Imaginary Garden With Real Toads - The Way of Tea