Quiet Spaces

In addition… from 7 July 2020

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2020-10-26
No Comments on In addition… from 7 July 2020

Getting ready for November’s Poem a Day activities in 2020, I discovered this post in the Drafts folder. I hope you’ll join me as I write and (usually) post a poem a day. I think this is the one I will be using, again. Perhaps use this as an archive copy.

In addition to the two poems that I wrote for this week’s Ronovan Writes Haiku Weekly Poetry Challenge (see my Quilted Poetry post of Monday, 6 July 2020: Stargazing), I found myself wanting to write a few more poems this morning during my 1-hour weekday “mandatory” writing time.

No photographs for these, but I may dig around for a Painted Lady butterfly in my archives, since we had two or three summers of a larger-than-usual population of them, here in the Red River Valley.

as evening’s lights dim
the mind drifts from thoughts to dreams
restless ripples gone

sleep in night’s gentle waters
cradled in sea lullabies

Winter ornaments

leaves dance on the wind
celebrating with the snow
winter’s scattered art

Tags december, leaves, personal, photography, snow, winter

everydayinspiration Life Happens Life through my Windows Miscellanea Photography Poetry Writing

Day 29 – On the occasion | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-29
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dragonfly on a Sweet William flower — dragonfly

BIRTHDAYS

measuring time—
twenty-five or thirty-some years
yet to go … or less
looking at past records
of family births and deaths

my dad felt a hundred years
was too long to stick around for
my mother thought that ninety-four
was quite a bit too short
neither was pleased

don’t know what I’ll think
when my world and I transform
when time becomes eternity
maybe I’ll notice, or perhaps I’ll
forget what came before

Tags dragonfly, November, November2019, photography, poem, poem-a-day, poetry, silence

Life through my Windows Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 24 – Butterfly Memories | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-24
No Comments on Day 24 – Butterfly Memories | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

cloudy skies
threatening late-autumn snow
leaves on the wind

memories of butterflies
flower pollen, gentle breeze

Tags autumn, butterflies, leaves, November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day, tanka, weatjer

Art Life through my Windows Miscellanea Photography Poetry Writing

Day 23 – Listening | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-23
1 Comment on Day 23 – Listening | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

no more ideas
nothing to be done with that
but to keep still
listening from my silence
to the heartbeat of the world

Tags November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day, silence, tanka, weather

Life through my Windows Miscellanea Photography Poetry Writing

Day 22 – Between Seasons | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-22
No Comments on Day 22 – Between Seasons | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

in-between weather
too warm to wear the snow boots…
too cold for slippers

Tags November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day, senryu, snow, weather, winter

Life through my Windows Miscellanea Photography Poetry Writing

Day 21 – A Powdered Sugar Day | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-21
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powdered-sugar snow
too small to descend slowly
tumbles through the wind
blowing under inside doors
filling outside’s tiny cracks

Tags November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day, snow, snowfall, tanka

Life through my Windows Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 6 – Autumn Leaves | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-19
No Comments on Day 6 – Autumn Leaves | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Autumn Collage

leaves in the front yard
brown, windblown collages
snow melted and gone

looking forward once again
to icy streets and soft snow

Filling in for a missing day.

Tags autumn, leaves, November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day

Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 18 – From Solid Ground | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-18
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Skyscape

from the mountaintop
I was always looking down
in dells I look up

peaks provide a heady view
but in valleys, heaven’s light

Written to #RonovanWrites #Haiku weekly challenge prompt: Valley & Peak

Tags autumn, nature, November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day, tanka

Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 17 – Extended Conversations | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-17
1 Comment on Day 17 – Extended Conversations | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Out in the Country

“Catching Up With Mother”

I woke up thinking, “I should call Mom, today”,
forgetting that she died three years ago this week.
Forgetting that she had not taken a call from me
at least half a year before I got called to have
the ambulance tear her from her only home.

I still want to call her and ask about her week
and the previous years since we last caught up.
I don’t know where she’s sitting, or if she wants
to walk with me along a pasture fence
in a place not new to her…or one not new to me.

If I go ahead and start a new conversation,
should I pause between my sentences?
to see if she will answer me or make
a comment of her own? She liked to talk to me
but she didn’t always listen. Now, I wouldn’t care.

I have looked through all the emails. Of course,
none are new, and the last that were coherent
were sent a year before she died. I hadn’t,
really hadn’t noticed how far things had gone.
Or feeling bewildered, I didn’t want to see.

When Mother wasn’t panicking, she took me
as she found me, loving me all the while
she wondered why I wanted to be me
and not the daughter that she’d wanted. But
she still trusted me to do what must be done.

I can feel her arms around me, giving me a hug.
I can’t hear her voice, but she knows when I cry.
She can hear me talk to her and read what I write.
I know that she and God are always present to my life.
The separation that I feel is just an odd notion in my mind.

Tags communication, family-relationships, memories, November, November2019, poem

Life through my Windows Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 5 – Pleasure | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-17
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puppies on my bed
keeping warm my feet and heart
sheltered from the cold

Prompt for day 5: “pleasure” poem

A bit of catch-up, here. Still behind more than a few prompts.

Tags November, November2019, pets, poem, poem-a-day

Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 15 – In the Middle | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-16
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edge of town, looking south — The Edge of Memories

Recognizing the inevitable loss of friends, family members, and mentors over the years.

mourning once again
the loss of those who loved me
who brightened my life

locked themselves away from me—
walked away . . . I stand alone

Day 15 prompt: a “middle” poem

Edited to add: Another in the previous generation of relatives just died this morning; he was 95 years old. Alert and lucid to the end; a low blood oxygen level for a couple days, and then his heart just stopped beating.

Tags grief, memories, mourning, November, November2019, poem

Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 16 – Leaves on the Ground | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-16
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like autumn leaves
at the edge of winter
brown on green
dreaming of the halcyon days
that are surely yet to come

Tags nature, November, November2019, poem

Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 14 – Respite | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-14
No Comments on Day 14 – Respite | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

shaded river path
rippling water’s cheerful song
soft grass underfoot

nature’s essence soothes the heart
calms the sorrows of the soul

Written to #RonovanWrites #Haiku weekly challenge prompt: Nature & Nurture

Image by Tim Hill from Pixabay

Tags nature, November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day, summer, tanka

Life through my Windows Miscellanea Photography Poetry Writing

Day 13 – Unsettled Winter | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-13
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pile of brown, fallen leaves on top of the snow in the front yard — **Intermission**

restless leaves dance
across the newly white grass
never still for long

errant winds stir them around
shaking off the falling snow

Tags leaves, nature, neighborhood, November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day, snow, tanka, wind

Life through my Windows Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 12 – Nature’s Puppeteer | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-12
No Comments on Day 12 – Nature’s Puppeteer | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

black and white fallen leaves on the ground — Autumn Dances

swirling on the path
fall leaves dance to nature’s tune
just before the snow

Tags haiku, nature, November, November2019, path, poem, poem-a-day, snow

everydayinspiration Life through my Windows Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 9 – Wardrobe Salvage | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-11
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Prompt: article of clothing

kibbles…then dessert
threads tangled in teeth and paws
my sock in his mouth

Tags mydog, November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day, puppy, senryu

Life through my Windows Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 8 – Cupcake Winter | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-08
No Comments on Day 8 – Cupcake Winter | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

more than a dusting
but not a second layer…
frosting on the path

Tags hiking, November, November2019, path, poem, poem-a-day, senryu, snow

Life through my Windows Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 7 – Perspective | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-08
No Comments on Day 7 – Perspective | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

leaves upon the road
farther, the first quarter moon
clouds and tree branches

wayward breezes stir the waves
moonlight is lost in the sky

Tags November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day

Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 4 – Sky on Fire | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-05
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warning sirens howl
baying at a veiled moon
mingled mist and smoke

Prompt: RonovanWrites Haiku Weekly Poetry Challenge for 2019-11-04. First posted to my Quilted Poetry blog on WordPress.

Tags November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day

everydayinspiration Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 3 – Stage Fright | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-05
No Comments on Day 3 – Stage Fright | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

standing on a stage
without a script or cue cards
feeling out of place

I wonder, what comes next?
when the final curtain drops?

Tags November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day

everydayinspiration Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 2 – Happily Ever After | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-02
No Comments on Day 2 – Happily Ever After | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

a view of a lake inlet from the top of a hill — At Peace

Happily Ever Afters

Live ever after
with the happilies you find
Cherish the memories
that leach the pain from grief
Turn from dead regrets
to each experience
of presence freely given,
in joy still received

Tags November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day

everydayinspiration Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Day 1 – Growing Up, Learning | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-11-01
No Comments on Day 1 – Growing Up, Learning | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

View of Village Cemetery — Hawley Cemetery – 2008

what’s the capitol
of the Peace Garden State?
where’s the garden at?

we learned all the answers there
working for Dad, clipping grass

When we were children (there were seven of us, and I am assuming that others got roped into this, each in their turn), Dad hired us during May and as needed during summer school vacations to maintain the grounds of the village cemetery where he was the groundskeeper and sexton. He didn’t retire until he was in his 90s. There was particular need for us children to prepare the cemetery for Memorial Day and to refurbish things after the influx of visitors during the following months. My brother Tim and I worked together, being close in age, and we would pass the time by challenging each other with such miscellanea as state and country capitols and other interesting trivia.

My mother died three years ago, this month, and my father followed her three-and-a-half months later. Their ashes are buried next to the family monument, near two siblings whose lives were measured in days.

Tags family, grief, memories, November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day

everydayinspiration Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Warming up for NaNoWriMo, Day 2

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-10-31
No Comments on Warming up for NaNoWriMo, Day 2

and why would I live
beyond all kin and kindness
absent to their eyes

so, one leaves a friendless warmth,
braving winter’s storms, to die

The many deaths of those most dear

within the past three years… Suddenly, I’m homesick

for a place I’ve never seen.

Mourning seems to come in waves. In the midst of happiness, remembered losses beg not to be forgotten. That’s a trap, I think. The insistence of the mind on revisiting those intense emotions, long after one has moved on. The bittersweet taste of loves and friends and family set aside until time ends, or else, renews all things.

Tags November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day

everydayinspiration Miscellanea Poetry Writing

Warming up for NaNoWriMo

I am once again planning to write 30 poems during November (NaNoWriMo)—hopefully, more than one a day, but we’ll see. November and December are cluttered months. Nonetheless…

Today’s and tomorrow’s poems are warm-up exercises. During this poem-a-day exercise, I am hoping not to resort to canned prompts, but to find poems in life as it happens.

the years and the days
ephemeral, but endless…
looking for the end

Tags November, November2019, poem, poem-a-day

Life through my Windows Lifestyle Miscellanea

More often, more present to my mind

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-09-21
No Comments on More often, more present to my mind

As the years go by, I find myself thinking more frequently about staking out more formal times for solitude. Initiating rather than reacting. Turning inward. Perhaps I am more easily distracted, these days, and troubled more by externals that interrupt my thoughts. And then I review the proclivities of my past and recognize that there always has been a struggle for more isolation…for fewer interruptions and broader perspectives. I like the quiet that allows thoughts and images to flow together. The currents and their directions, the coming together and the divergence. Spontaneity, the mind at peace.

Waiting

Tags midnight musings, nattering

Life through my Windows Poetry Writing

Awakened at 0430

awakened from sleep
hard rain against the window
thunder coming near

memories of walking, wet and
reveling in dark winds

Tags awake, night, poetry, rain, summer, tanka

Art everydayinspiration Finding Everyday Inspiration Life through my Windows Lifestyle Photography Poetry Writing

Sunday meditation

morning light
Syrphid’s shadow
wind’s caress

Tags amwriting, backyard, everydayinspiration, haiku, hoverfly, morning, poem, poetry, summer, syrphidae

Finding Everyday Inspiration Life Happens Lifestyle Poetry Writing

Memorial Day Memories

photos of my parents in the 1940s — In Memory

I found myself
wondering why my parents
haven’t phoned, today

I’m caught up short, remembering
they’re on Heaven’s direct line

Memorial Day was “our” family holiday. It’s now my remembering. After my parents were discharged, they returned to Father’s home town to realize their life’s long-held dream of raising lots of children, together. (Eventually, there were nine of us, seven living into adulthood.) My father was groundskeeper (one of many jobs) and then the sexton, of the village cemetery, and we children, while growing up, worked with him to get the grounds ready for the Memorial Day observances. Mother was in the Navy, and Father was in the Army, separated overseas, but both serving in the Pacific Theater. (In uniform).

Tags memorial-day, memories, poetry, remembering, tanka

everydayinspiration Life Happens Life through my Windows

Retasting realities

bookshelves beside my rocking chair — Rewriting the World

So many years, to notice I’ve returned to the place from which I started. A journey not yet ended, but which will end in an hour … or months … or decades from this day. A journey not taken?

streams of thought

and kindnesses not looked for

barely noticed

I saved gratitude for the end

but, thinking now, it should not be left too late

to speak through silent words

written on a screen…a sheet of paper

or the sky’s clouds

gentle rain

tracks

in dust

before the earth is wrung dry

and cries for tears

to dampen it, again

perhaps there is a time…a moment

to stop the flow of thought and reason

to feel what is and mourn

what might have been—

to acknowledge the gaps

measures underweight

until the world’s too light

not to blow away

Tags amwriting, beginnings-endings, poetry, thoughts

Glo/NaPoWriMo Na/GloPoWriMo2019 NaPoWriMo

Cold and windy

late spring in the neighborhood — Late Spring in the Neighborhood

the season shifts
to days of cold, and colder nights
stars shine more brightly

dry winds abscond with clouds and leave
faint wisps of smoky haze

Forecast for the week is for nighttime lows in the 30s and low 40s (although not below freezing), cold and gusty wind.

I decided not to post a couple of the poems that I wrote during April, so my count on this site comes up short. I fell ill from an infected wound, and so I have been sleeping a lot and taking antibiotics every six hours. I will be so happy to have more than five hours of sleep in a stretch…you wouldn’t believe! Follow-up appointment later this week.

Tags iamwriting, poem, poetry, weather

Glo/NaPoWriMo Na/GloPoWriMo2019 NaPoWriMo Poetry Writing

End of April’s Na/GloPoWriMo poems

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-05-03
3 Comments on End of April’s Na/GloPoWriMo poems

I have written two of the last three poems for NaPoWriMo 2019. Laid low by an infected wound, and just now feeling up to writing, again, three or four days into a seven-day script for antibiotics. I hope to add the third poem to this page sometime before the end of Friday.

as I slept, the sun
appeared and warmed the ground
I woke to tulips

Prompt from Na/GloPoWriMo, Day 29: Write a minimalist poem.

rocks steam haze
clouds obscure the sun
no starlight

too wet, sleeping on the ground
but all the trees have melted

Brewer’s prompt for Day 20: Write a dark poem.

Tags challenge, everydayinspiration, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo19, national-poetry-month, poem-a-day

everydayinspiration Glo/NaPoWriMo Life through my Windows Na/GloPoWriMo2019 NaPoWriMo Poetry Writing

Day 27 Late-Season Snow #NaPoWriMo

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-27
1 Comment on Day 27 Late-Season Snow #NaPoWriMo

cocker spaniel playing in the newly fallen April snow — Late-season Snow Storm

Prompt: “Take one of your poems and, in three places, insert a parenthetical comment…” I used only this much of the prompt found at Cuyahoga County Public Library website. Only three more days to go!

late-spring storm
{by now, I shouldn’t feel surprise}
snow on puppy legs…face…tail
{how did he get snow plastered THERE?}
don’t sit in my lap!
{ah, well! there’s towels}

Tags glopowrimo, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo19, napowrimo2019, national-poetry-month, poem-a-day, senryu

Glo/NaPoWriMo Na/GloPoWriMo2019 NaPoWriMo Poetry Writing

Day 26: An Everlasting Pause #NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-26
4 Comments on Day 26: An Everlasting Pause #NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo

Prompt for Day 26: Write 10 one- or two-line poems on one subject, however loosely related to the subject. Put them together, arranging and rearranging, and title them as one poem.

An Everlasting Pause

Only eternity lasts forever

              Be still and know

There are many mansions

              and the perfect one is set aside for you

Passage of time and distance of place…

              all is present in the Now

I cannot conceive of a moment of perfection

              that never ends or varies

One thing that puzzles me is whether eternity is

              a continuity, an instance of existence, or an object of art

Clarity persists in haunting the mind of the bemused

The eternal Here and Now overlooks the ebb and flow

              of distance and time, not counting minutes or the miles

Satisfaction is a state of mind independent

              of circumstances or the company we keep

Experiencing the tides of now, the gentle inflow and recession

              of being and not being

Hypnotized by sensation and waiting for the feeling

              to come again

Lost in the eternal pause between nothing more

              and everything

Tags glopowrimo, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo19, napowrimo2019, national-poetry-month, poem, poem-a-day, poetry, writing

Art everydayinspiration Life through my Windows Na/GloPoWriMo2019 NaPoWriMo Photography Poetry Writing

Day 25 Springtime Joy #GloPoWriMo #NaPoWriMo

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-25
2 Comments on Day 25 Springtime Joy #GloPoWriMo #NaPoWriMo

tulips in the side garden — Joy in Springtime

warm winds and raindrops
filling up the tulip cups…
sliding down long leaves

Copyright © 2019-04-25, by Lizl Bennefeld.

Tags haiku, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo19, napowrimo2019, national-poetry-month, photoart, poem-a-day, poetry, tulips

Life through my Windows Lifestyle Na/GloPoWriMo2019 NaPoWriMo Poetry

Day 24 : Just different #NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-24
1 Comment on Day 24 : Just different #NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo

complete as me

i’m just me
not alone…but separate
a narrow focus

what goes wrong outside this room
does not change what i can do

Lizl Bennefeld, 2019-04-24

Tags amwriting, everydayinspiration, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo19, napowrimo2019, national-poetry-month, poem-a-day, tanka, writing

everydayinspiration Na/GloPoWriMo2019 NaPoWriMo Poetry Writing

Day 22. Transformation #NaPoWriMo

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-23
No Comments on Day 22. Transformation #NaPoWriMo

Monday’s prompt words (from RonovanWrites Haiku weekly challenge) were action and friction:

action of raindrops
friction of waves on the shore
dry wind across stone

nature—micron by micron—
reshapes oceans and the land

Tags everydayinspiration, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo19, national-poetry-month, tanka, weather, writing

Life through my Windows Na/GloPoWriMo2019 NaPoWriMo Poetry Writing

Day 23, Waking Early #NaPoWriMo

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-23
No Comments on Day 23, Waking Early #NaPoWriMo

dawn light scattered
trembling green-gold sparkles
dewdrops in the grass

Tags everydayinspiration, haiku, iamwriting, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo19, napowrimo2019, national-poetry-month, poem-a-day, poetry, writing

Art everydayinspiration Life through my Windows Na/GloPoWriMo2019 NaPoWriMo Poetry Writing

Day 20 : Night’s Darkness #NaPoWriMo #Glo/NaPoWriMo

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-23
1 Comment on Day 20 : Night’s Darkness #NaPoWriMo #Glo/NaPoWriMo

photoart by Elizabeth (Lizl) Bennefeld. All rights reserved. — Peonies

night’s soft cloak
sun’s lingering warmth
cloud-clad stars

summer’s breeze is redolent
with scents of sleeping flowers

Brewer’s prompt for Day 20: Write a dark poem.

Tags darkness, iamwriting, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, national-poetry-month, poem, poem-a-day, poetry, tanka

everydayinspiration Na/GloPoWriMo2019 NaPoWriMo Poetry Writing

Day 21 – Easter Morning #NaPoWriMo #Glo/NaPoWriMo

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-21
No Comments on Day 21 – Easter Morning #NaPoWriMo #Glo/NaPoWriMo

sunrise
cleansing rain
on the grass

Download free do whatever you want high-resolution photos from Jono Hislop at Unsplash.

Tags Hay(na)Ku, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo2019, national-poetry-month, poem-a-day

everydayinspiration Na/GloPoWriMo2019 NaPoWriMo Poetry Writing

For Holy Saturday, #NaPoWriMo Day 19

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-19
No Comments on For Holy Saturday, #NaPoWriMo Day 19

First posted this evening on my Quilted Poetry blog.

sitting on a hill
leaning back against the tree
waiting for a sign

so long ago, the trembling
that still echoes through the Earth

Tags Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo19, national-poetry-month, poem-a-day

everydayinspiration Life through my Windows Na/GloPoWriMo2019 NaPoWriMo Poetry Writing

Day 18: topics not discussed #NaNoWriMo

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-18
1 Comment on Day 18: topics not discussed #NaNoWriMo

Very loosely based on the Day 18 prompt from the Cuyahoga County Public Library. I am not sure that I’ll go back to rework this after NaPoWriMo is over for this year. I do know that I do not write poetry in four-line stanzas.

‘topics not under discussion’

sometimes I turn around to see
as though from outside human space
the larger patterns…masked by lies

then my heart catches…forgets how to beat
and I find myself hoping that it won’t
remember…how to start itself again

in the longer run the gifts I wield
will make no lasting difference
all will die quietly…fade away in sleep

what I can achieve is to be present
in this moment, acknowledging each
thing that lives and care…until we’re dead

Tags amwriting, challenges, everydayinspiration, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo2019, national-poetry-month, poem-a-day, poetry, writing

Na/GloPoWriMo2019 NaPoWriMo Poetry Writing

Day 17: Saturday Matinee | #NaPoWriMo 2019

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-17
No Comments on Day 17: Saturday Matinee | #NaPoWriMo 2019

Inspired by Brewer’s POD prompt to write a reason poem and Permafrost, by Alastair Reynolds.

when the end does come
I will not be here to watch
the step off the cliff

documentaries portrayed
as funny children’s movies

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Day 16 – In Hiding: An Ode to Anonymity #NaPoWriMo

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-16
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‘An Ode to Anonymity’

I live underwater, away from all
there’s a turn in the river
I’m shadowed by its banks

the river’s in my mind
my mind safely sheltered, here…
here I’ll remain to the end of all time

Form: kimo and kimo, reversed

Prompt from the Cuyahoga Library for Day 16.

Photo credit: See attachment page.

Tags anonymity, kimo, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo2019, national-poetry-month, poem-a-day

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Day 15: Two Poems #NaPoWriMo

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-15
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To a dead leaf, lost on concrete

I found myself considering the sadness of leaves and seeds that fall where they can neither decompose nor have the opportunity to germinate and grow. And so, on a (serious) whimsy, I promised the residue on the garage floor that when I was finished with taking their photographs, there, I would gather up them all and return them to the outdoors, where they may decay, or sprout, and live again.

I cry for the leaves on the garage floor
thrown out in new plastic bags
not renewing the soil

Hey, tone it down, there!
Pitch-and-Toss ain’t meant to be
no blame shoutin’ match.

“Pitch-and-Toss” is a game of chance.

Tags haibun, haiku, kimo, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo19, ronovanwrites, senryu

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Day 14 : Rain Showers | #NaPoWriMo

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-14
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unlooked-for rainbows

after clouds whose showers bathed

path and air…and me

A “view” poem, Brewer, day 13, Poetic Asides: Writers Digest.

Tags haiku, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo19, napowrimo2019, national-poetry-month, rainbow

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Sweet Dreams! #NaPoWriMo Day 13

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-13
No Comments on Sweet Dreams! #NaPoWriMo Day 13

Hay(na)Ku, a new form by Eileen R. Tabio, has one word in the first line, two in the second and three in the third, with each word having as many syllables as you wish. Try one! (Cuyahoga Library Writers Center, Day 10)

tiptoeing
midnight approaches
puppies fast asleep

Tags Hay(na)Ku, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo2019, national-poetry-month, poem, poetry

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Day 12: Summer Memories | NaPoWriMo2019

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-12
1 Comment on Day 12: Summer Memories | NaPoWriMo2019

Also published on my WordPress blog, The Moments Between.

collage of wildflower photos — Summer Memories

pictures tucked away at end of summer…
promises of winter’s end

Tags haiku, Na/GloPoWriMo2019, NaPoWriMo, napowrimo2019, national-poetry-month, poem, poetry, spring, winter, writing

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Day 11: Drawn Towards Joy

Post author By Elizabeth Bennefeld
Post date 2019-04-11
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This poem was posted also on my Quilted Poetry blog.

new, green leaves on a cotoneaster tree in our back yard — New Growth

drawn towards joy
changing of the seasons
gentle warmth
quiet melt of winter’s snow
springtime’s gift of sun and rain

As I write this poem, I am listening to an ongoing spring blizzard that has delivered over seven inches of snow, so far today. We expect another five to seven inches before the storm ends. The tulips and daffodils long since emerged from the warm, damp grown. I am trusting the new snow to protect them from the wind and icy rains still to come.

I have looked at photos from previous years, and April snows are not that unexpected. Still, it is strange to be confined to house and outbuildings by snow drifts, when at the beginning of the week, I was outside barefoot and without a jacket.