Home, I come

Indefatigable forgiveness of home
An oft heard comfort phrase
But, as days pass by 
There's a lack of this sweet space

Detached from the childhood

home, that houses memories

Adulthood brought with it

A spate of constant worries

Looking back at nooks and crannies

Secret hiding places, imaginary 

Away from the prying eyes

Without a care in the moment buried. 

As I do now, a place of my own

Constantly trying to make a home

Unsuccessfully, I break down

the constancy of yearning syndrome

Incomplete life remains now 

Mechanically going through motions

There's never going to be 

of despondence, a remotion. 

PromptS

One

Two

Regrets

I wince in regret at my day,

Up I am at crack of dawn.

While over the tasks, I slog away,

Others waltz in, unconcerned thereupon, 

A pest of a crowd around me,

Ignorance, they pride as festoon, 

Rambling away nonsensically

While the wasteful, I try to prune.

In disappointment and remorse

I moan my daily chaos,

Like the oft ignored workhorse

I rue my conscientious ethos.

Hiccups arise, one too many,

While at my cost, I traipse

Appreciation, there isn't any,

A slight miss, but gets the scrapes. 

For today’s prompt, write a regret poem.

For today’s prompt, use at least 3 of the following 6 words in your poem (using a word or two in your title is fine); for extra credit, try using all 6:

• pest
• crack
• ramble
• hiccup
• wince
• festoon

In tune with melody

Songs, the pleasant sound
Not the cacophony oft tagged

A moment in life, a phase
each brought back, in bond.

An association, attached to each
The joys of wins and milestones. 

The gloom of failures and 
the grief of losses

Each sound in the songs
evoking an irrepressible memory.

Of the years that have passed
dredged up unapologetically

Music - to the soul, a balm
Soothing and suturing salve. 

Forks in the road

By choice - the powerful
the attitudes of confidence
A message of control
The satisfaction immense

among choices is one

which is unparalleled

A complete life changer

And, emptiness is quelled

Not one to be taken lightly 

But, very often done so

the consequence borne

by the unwitting though

Nurture and nature 

are often debated

Neither does however

exceed in fear abated

Reinforcing cycles,
that of very life
Nature's law enforced
devoid of any strife 

Prompt: One Writer's mind

Haiku day

In more ways than one
celebrate niece, haiku too
Today is special

Happy Birthday to mine



Poetic Asides

Last straw

There's the tale of this guy,

A moron, of unseen levels

Egotistic, ignorant and despised

He bickers and in it revels. 

Constantly insults are strewn,

The coup de grace, however

Was the unnecessary use of brawn

A narcissistic abuse of power.

An offer to help is snubbed

And, slurs and slights thrown,

Relationships are flubbed, 

Seeds of resentment sown.

Family and friends, for him

Was just to use and dispose

Mistreating others at whim,

Pummeling them into throes.

Admission of a weakness,

is akin to an Armageddon,

While confused with meekness,

his aim is of others deaden.

Like with the candle's flame,

we get burnt, due to proximity,

Mental disorders claim, 

Souls and commits to toxicity. 

For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Last (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.

Nature

Horizon afar
Sight of tranquil hues of blue
Now serenity

Prompt: One writer's mind

Onus of remorse

Today as I brood over

my mostly uneventful past,

my shoulders stoop at,

the burden of regret.

A guilt ridden existence

at the passing of time, 

Like a wounded soul at 

the thought of no return.

No turning back and

righting the wrongs

No second chances at

this seething juncture.

The ring of finality

the numbers shan't lie,

Shan't recede only

way is forward.

Unafraid, if I were

grab I'd the bull,

by it's cliched horn

Alas, I but mourn.

For today’s prompt, write a guilty poem.

A journey without any destination

Packing bags, moving town, 
Bucket lists, many to take down,
One among them is universal 
the urge and will to travel.

Romanticized in anecdotes

Depicted in certain grandiose

Everyone is a backpacker

Recalling their adventures.

To each, one's own style

The time, each of them whiles,

One scrooges a cheapskate

Others, of money, have a spate.

Tales to state at travails

Others to fanciful, set sail

Squaring up meals, struggle

while exotic another guzzles

The journey has but begun,

Destinations are no fun 

Like some, eat, pray and love

while, for others, joy behove.

Prompt: Travel

Warped

A portrait of someone
A disgrace to human race
I paint with displeasure 
A burden on my space.

Egotistic nincompoop, with
Utter disrespect for others
Sloth like and snacks away,
the dreams of many, he smothers.

A cynic and a skeptic,
disparages and condemns,
Single handedly sets out
to create total mayhem.

A llama is convincing
Brave is a chicken
A sheep has great spine,
To him, you liken.



Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that is a portrait of someone important to you.
A twist on the prompt ... contrarian prompt

So loving

I begin in apprehension,
I tiptoe in exhilaration
The excitement builds,
I seek to meet my little one.

One look and I am hooked,
In my arms, as he sleeps,
I watch with bated breath,
His petal like skin, I caress.

The moment stands frozen,
In time and in me,
Years have passed since
That moment still breathes.

Enveloped in love of each
other. Oblivious to the
entire world. Soaking in
Reveling in the 'oh so loving'.



For today’s prompt, take the phrase “So (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem

Argot

Quants, an oft repeated term
An aura of importance, it evokes,
The sense of knowing it, but
without really a peek into nuance. 

A magic of numbers, to the lay
A black box mystery it shrouds
A brainy bunch of humans
A few images flit by

Stochastic processes are the tools
Statistics is regressed into
Standardization and normalization 
Are their bread and butter.

Broken down, if it is into blocks,
Just plain ol' numbers it is
Manipulations permissibly so
That's all there is to quants. 



Prompt #9:  Write a poem that uses at least one word of jargon from a single discipline or source. 

to the ninth

This ninth day of the month
brings continuity in its wake
A feeling of establishment 
while fingers begin to ache
Memories are drudged up
and gone over a rake
Many a words are spewed,
Some just for it own sake
Now moving on to the tenth.


Because today is the ninth day of NaPoWriMo, I’d like to challenge you to write a nine-line poem.

Alliteration - not repetition

The shush of annoyance
at my repetition of a tale
His defensive justification
and the conflict was veiled.

It was just this, I cried out
It was just that, I said then
Every one of the times though
It was just something again

This frivolous banter irks him
While I dismiss it as human
I decry his frustration, I say
to each, its own, their acumen.




Today I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that relies on repetition. It can be repetition of a phrase, or just a word

Manic panic

The ringing sound is heard
Ringtones vary, but is loud
To wake the sleeping bodies
An urgency, these foretold.

In the semi consciousness of

darkest of nights, in slumber

The panic is real and morbid

The moment and space, I lumber

Many an instance, in the past

Triggers the Pavlovian dread

the calls are handful in number

but, responses are inbred.

The affected are numbed

into complete suspension

While the show goes on,

for others, it is an apparition. 

Prompt - Poetic asides

The countdown to nothing

I fantasize about the joy
that numbers can bring,
the completion - a sensation
that these counts carry along

Age, while I steadily climb,
I wish for the absence of these,
Markers, they are to my mortality.
A slow but certain finality.

Money, while sought is finite 
Created nor destructed like
the energy. Accumulated in greed
of great amounts, albeit limited.

Anything of value, are assigned
An indicator, a marker, a rank
The harmless number now has
turned tides on my back

Tales, they tell innumerable
without saying one word
the digits set sail thus
into man's infinite eternity




Prompt #7:  Write a poem that evokes the concept of counting.

Art imitates life

Rudimentary wall paintings,
That's what they are called
Nothing primary about it,
everyone are just enthralled

Geometry is prevalent in 
circle, triangle and square
Symbolic of elements
they are an elaborate affair.

Festival and dance scenes
Shapes, there are but three 
Rituals and routines many
Imagination is let out free.

Liberating the swarms 
of the triangular beings
Encircling the audience
with ideas intriguing. 


Inspired by Warli art

Prompt #6:  Find a work of art that intrigues you, and write a poem that invokes the piece.

Iron

While I went in search of the
modern periodic Table, looking
for a fancy new name element.

All the while, I realized, under
my nose, was the unassuming 
But sold and strong, iron.

I charted out rhymes and
fancy fictional backgrounds
even building a juicy plot.

In the end, I grasped
the useful ones lie low
with plain Jane names.

Americium, Curium, Berkelium
I passed one by one, to the right
higher up in the count

While staying strong within me
propping me up with hemoglobin
Stayed my trusted lieutenant.


For today’s prompt, pick an element (like from the periodic table), make it the title of your poem (or part of the title), and then, write the poem. Anything goes from hydrogen to oganesson.

In tune with nature

The ocean, the vast expanse, the horizon
Amidst my busy days and rolling lists
of things to attain and accomplish
This moment of tranquility exists.

I wait and squint as far as I can,
There's the end, I presume it to be
I readjust the focus and lose it
There's non or so it appears to me.

The shades of blue vary in degrees
Navy blue, cockle shell or blue bell.
Trying to gradate them in half baked ways
But the grays are all, it seems to foretell.

The approaching storm threatens to
roil the calm tones of the blues
Mixed inseparably with brown sand
it takes on some angrier hues.

I stand glued to the majestic fury
portending some times of turmoil
I shall run to seek shelter
But first, its wrath, i shall assoil. 


prompt for Day Five (as always, the prompt is optional). In honor of Mary Oliver’s work, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that is based in the natural world: it could be about a particular plant, animal, or a particular landscape. But it should be about a slice of the natural world that you have personally experienced and optimally, one that you have experienced often.

Gobbledygook

Like Marry Poppins, I set out
to invent a word of my own
Imagination ran particularly low
So, I sat there with a frown.

While others create with ease,
I stumble and struggle in woe
I decry the need for design
While seeds of my word, I sow.

A follower shall spew them 
Not make one for posterity
There, that is my end result.
A display of lack of ability. 




Prompt #4:  Write a poem with a word or words that you make up.

Stages of love

The whispering of sweet nothings
Gazing into each others' eyes
While we skipped these phases
We seemed to be given the byes.

Then comes, the stable kind, 
where the trust is complete
There are no spats or tiffs
And, display takes a backseat

This matures into the solid
the state of taken for granted
Aging mechanism kicks in
Here's when, they are disenchanted

In each other, the comfort grows 
Then comes the fireworks
Louder are the exchanges
Relationships are in the reworks.

Settled into each others' warmth
Love continues to grow
Humor and camaraderie 
We continue to avow.


 For today’s prompt, take the phrase “(blank) of Love,” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem

Hiraeth

The visions come floating by
The glorious joy of the space
wishful and wistful the needs
How easily the mind embraces.

A soul space,, the idea originated
Never implements to fruition 
In a high, there is a push but
in effect, stays an unfulfilled mission

A colorful space, wall in pretty
pasted and lavenders abound
Corners for my whimsical indulgences
Memories, with photographs surround


Write a poem that calls forth hiraeth.  Is there a place for which you long?

Formulation

I need a brew to mint some money,
I searched high and low, for the recipe

A wise old man, with a silver mane
promised me the trick, if I stayed sane.

He said, they were tried and tested,
And, one that could not be bested. 

So, here goes, for what it is worth. 
Maybe for your own mirth. 

A gallon of hard work added,
With a pinch of smarts padded. 

There's two ounces of polite,
And, a pinch of one's own might. 

Mix it well in the work blender
till the dough id firm, but slender

Puff it well, for success
Then, there you have the access

That is all that goes into the pot,
if boatload of money was what you sought. 

Today, I’d like you to write a poem inspired by, or in the form of, a recipe!

Not today

A diligent worker
going above and beyond
Everything's clockwork
But, not today.

Take on more that
deemed necessary,
Completed in a jiffy,
Really? Not today.

Exceptional output
Top performer
Unparalleled in all
Agreed, just not today.

Multitasking
Effectively, smoothly
Quick turnaround
True, except not today.

Today, I write away
pouring out words,
penning away
Yes, just for today.


For today’s prompt, write a “not today” poem.

Reflection

It was unexpected, along the way
It was to be an uneventful, forgettable day
Poignancy was not the essence
of a day, there was just presence.

A dying woman rubbed my cheek
while words, she was trying to speak
A light smile played on her lips
While I wet it with some ice chips.

This was a moment etched in mind,
To this, I keep going back to, I find.
The transience of it all, the end
The approach, one has to upend. 

The circle of life, did I pay forward?
The soul swims to the shore ward.
While discarded body is consigned,
The loved ones, to a loss, are resigned.

It was but a tiny speck of time
One that we cannot begrime
The details always fail me,
Not forcing it upon, I let it be

This fleeting life - a lesson
'Mono no aware' egression.


Prompt #1 is this:  Write a poem that reflects a moment from your life in which you encountered mono no aware.  You can consider why it is painful, what makes it fleeting, how it brings you out of yourself into the larger universe, or any other aspects of the phrase with which you are familiar.

Reminiscing poem

A choice, one is thought to have
Anchoring to the past securely
Or move on forward, as a salve.

Youth, the arrogance and joy
The whiling away of seemingly
infinite availability of time 

Once at the thresholds of life
the crossroads of conundrum
of life affecting evaluations 

There's no more, the cocoon 
the cushion of achievements
And a luxury of tomorrows

There's the stoppage, the aches
uncertainties and losses
Nothing in permanence

Transient and temporary
on the descent, in succession
Using up borrowed time.



For today’s prompt, write a reminiscing poem. In my mind, this means a poem that remembers something