Post Up

 

Post Up

 

Post up.
The pass is
on the way.
Handle it cleanly
and score.
Fumble it
Turnover
Take too long
Three seconds
Post up and
see how well
you play today.

 

 

What besides leaves begin dropping in the fall? Basketballs going through the hoop! Four months until March, when the madness begins.

 

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Chill

 

A Chilly Night

 

Pumpkins grow faces and

skeletons adorn

unusual places.

The chill may be

in the air or

from the scare of

a story I've read.

Who's there?

I swear I felt a tap

on the shoulder.

Did a ghost

get that close or

was I just frightened

 by my own shadow?

 

What gives you a chill? When you come up with the answer, leave a link to it on the Wordsmith Studio Creative Prompt blog post. Thanks to Carol Early Cooney for this week's prompt-Chill.

 

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Waiting for Words

 

Waiting for Words

 

Waiting for words
isn’t like waiting
for a bus.
No designated
places scattered
throughout  the city
where words arrive
on the half hour.

 

Waiting for words
isn’t like waiting
on tables.
No call
from the kitchen
that the next plate
of words is up.

 

Waiting for words
isn’t like waiting
in line.
No one giving
out words when you
get to the front.

 

Waiting for words
is waiting for

 your voice.
Letting it speak
 even when you
 are afraid of
what it will say.

 

 

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Beat

 

 

 

Modern Sonnet

 

The words won’t flow
in form for me
despite the time
I spend with them
in work and play.

 

I try to make
the stress and light
just right and place
the rhymes in lines
like Shakespeare could.

 

My lines are short.
They lack the rhyme.
Don’t see the light.
The stress remains.

 

Beat-(noun)  a metrical or rhythmic stress in poetry or music or the rhythmic effect of these stresses

(Merriam-Webster.com)

 

Thanks to Rebecca Barray for this week's Wordsmith Studio Creative Prompt-Beat.

 

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Everybody Up

 

Everybody Up

 

4 a.m.
Flash, flash, flash,
like a strobe light
firing outside.
Thunder follows,
rattling the windows.
Rain falls gently
at first, then
increases in
intensity.
When the Boss has
insomnia,
nobody sleeps.

 

 

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Totem

 

 

This week's Wordsmith Studio Creative Prompt is Totem. A totem is an object (usually animal or plant) that serves as an emblem of a person, family or clan. I chose a lily as my totem because it reminds me of two women in my family.

 

The first is my mother. Her name was Lillian. Her nickname was Lil rather than Lily, but the flower still reminds me of her.

 

The second is my Aunt Lydia. She was my father's sister, but she and my mother were very close. Auntie had orange daylilies growing along one side of the driveway for as long as I can remember.

 

We lived in the upstairs flat in my aunt and uncle's house until I was nine years old. The families actually lived together for 18 years so Aunt Lydia and Uncle John were like another set of parents to my siblings and I.

 

What totem would you choose to represent your family? Put a link to it in the comments on the prompt post. Thanks to Dana Dampier for this prompt.

 

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Uneven Ground

 

 

Uneven Ground

 

The knee aches
on uneven ground,
issuing warnings.
“Watch those stones.
You might lose
your balance.”
Don’t make that climb.
It’s too risky.”
Recently damaged
by a misstep,
the knee cries out
in hopes of
preventing another.
Trust, once broken,
is hard to restore.

 

 

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Support

 

 

I went to one of my favorite places, the Sculpture Park at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, to take pictures that would represent this week's Wordsmith Studio Creative Prompt-Support. I knew there were a variety of physical examples of support in the park. As I walked around, I was reminded that this has become a place from which I draw support for my art and my well-being.

 

I took about a dozen pictures in search of one to use in this post. They included the columns that are part of the Nelson-Atkins Building, parts of various sculptures and even some fencing near the Bloch Building. I settled on the above stairway because it shows two forms of support. One is the structural support that holds up the railings. The other is the railings themselves, which give support to those who need or choose to use them to go up and down the stairs.

 

Thanks to Rebecca Barray for this week's prompt. Where do you find support?

 

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Docked

 

 

Docked

 

Sun warms the wood.
Water still has a chill.
The slap, slap, slap
is like a lullaby.

 

Look across the lake.
Storm moving in.
The day turns gray.
Wind whips up waves.

 

Run for shelter.
Get in before the rain.
Never forget how
quickly things change.

 

How do you react to change? Have you ever been blindsided by a sudden change?

  

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Line

 

A Fine Line

 

Long, straight and

step-on-a-crack,

break-your-mother's-back

hard.

Get in, stay in,

stand in and wait in.

Hold it or keep it moving.

Just don't cross it.

 

 

Thanks to Carol Early Cooney for this week's Wordsmith Studio Creative Prompt. What's your line? Put a link to it in the comments on the blog post.

 

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