Monday, May 2, 2016

Season of Innocence/sense(s)






Today smells like new lilacs
and the warm redbrick
of the library baking slightly
in the springtime glow.

Today looks like my smiling-eyed son
toting a stack of books,
the pep and hop
of his bright, young step next to mine.

Today sounds like the train,
always going somewhere, like we are,
even when standing still.

Today feels like that moment
I recognize
I’ll have only once

--and tastes
like goodnight
on the lips
of a season

better than summer,
innocent and golden.


© 2016 Jennifer Wagner


Wednesday, April 27, 2016

war for me





my brokenness has borne
the fruit
of a thousand sorrows

piece by piece by piece
piercing by piercing by piercing
arrows of unlove
unbecoming
to become

what can only be
remedied
by the man of sorrows

acquainted with grief
my grief

borne
in love’s long-suffering war


© 2016 Jennifer Wagner



“Love is a long-suffering war.” –Janet Martin, poet extraordinaire


Note:  over at dVerse the prompt is to write a secret admirer poem and since my poem is a bit similar to the guidelines of the prompt offered I wanted to make mention of it--though I didn’t write it in response.


Monday, April 25, 2016

Butterfly, Rest



We captured blown kisses
left like a note
on the kitchen table
saying,

I’ll be back soon--
just went to the grocery
to pick up a few things.

If we only knew
then,

that last sprinkling,
last dot under the heart
she drew

on the page
was her final
wingspread

now folded.


© 2016 Jennifer Wagner


for edr and kjt

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Sevenling (In that Dream)


image source

In that dream, I had all day and more
in the lavender field, sunlight speckling
my arms, my legs, the straw hat sheltering my face.

It was one I'd never worn before,
but you were there, sunny, honeyed
and yellowing all my purple darkness,

as it always should have been.


© 2016 Jennifer Wagner



This was written for De's dVerse Meeting the Bar: the Sevenling. I was unable to post it in time so I'll be linking it to dVerse OLN.

Monday, April 4, 2016

Calling the Game


Like Pudge.
Like Bench.

Like Yogi.

Opening Day
on the glistening green

shimmering
diamond,

with dirt under his nails

he scoops
the ball
from his mitt,

tosses back to the ace,

crouches,
gives signal,
waits

for the curve

of his smile,
and spits

o - u - t.


© 2016 Jennifer Wagner



Opening Day 2016. Go M's!
photo © 2016 Jennifer Wagner


A Quadrille poem for dVerse. Exactly 44 words (title excluded), including the word “shimmer” (or variant as I've used here).


Friday, April 1, 2016

Like Spent Cherry Blossoms


Milling about
the door,

while the garden lights
were swaying

and the moon was high,

this poem
found itself

arriving,

sweet spices
on rainpetal skin

from spring's unfurling trees.

And what was I to do, little poem?

Of course, I swept you in.



© 2016 Jennifer Wagner



Happy National Poetry Month! :-)

dVerse OLN
 

Thursday, March 24, 2016

March 20


Everything I saw that day
reminded me of another.

Two daisies in a glass bowl.
A discarded coffee cup (Starbucks).
Red spray paint, lipstick, a little bit of blood.

Never mind the window
speckled with mint green rain.

I wanted to lick it
but that would have been inappropriate.
Undignified. Quite.

But, since I've already
lost my mind a time or two. . .
more than that even. . .

What of it?
A mind is an easy thing to lose.
Don't even get me started on hearts.
That's another poem.

This one is about
my tongue licking mint green rain
and never you mind
I saw pumpkins and gourds on a March day,
orange and round, warty and yellow.

There's nothing to it.
I see what I want to see these days.

And afterwards I started jumping
because I determined
that's what you do.

And then you eat yellow daisies
or daffodils, if that's what you can find,
and you can, because it's March
and the Ides have passed.

You made it.
No one sticking it to you
this time, Caesar.

And death,
she's your friend,
but not today.

No, not today.



© 2016 Jennifer Wagner


OK, I went a bit wacky maybe, but I've been reading Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing. So yeah, Happy Spring! :-)

Daffodils are poisonous, though daisies are edible, so please, don't actually eat!