Posts: 257
Threads: 108
Joined: Dec 2016
You’re halfway there! Also, can I just say? Fantastic job from everyone so far. I have been thoroughly enjoying this year’s contributions. Every year when we do this it just blows my mind to see the amazing poems you are all capable of writing while also keeping up with this crazy breakneck pace. 
Rules: Write a poem for national poetry month on the topic or form described. Each poem should appear as a separate reply to this thread. The goal is to, at the end of the month, have written 30 poems for National Poetry Month.
Topic: Write a poem inspired by things we discard.
Form: any
Line requirements: 8 lines or more
Questions?
Posts: 848
Threads: 231
Joined: Oct 2012
Many thanks Quix for keeping us running, just at the half way bell. Much appreciated.
We've had our warnings
I've seen the seagulls over landfill sites,
sampled puss that oozes from beneath,
the constant trucks like foraging ants
have only confirmed my disbelief.
When shoots break through the concrete
and all roads become quite still,
retail loses custom and trade
leisure stops the treadmill.
The earth will press the pedal bin
and scrape her dirty plate clean
she'll turn on the ocean's dishwasher.
No trace of where we've been.
If your undies fer you've been smoking through em, don't peg em out
Posts: 42
Threads: 6
Joined: Apr 2017
Lockdown Extension
No emergency
dead skin on bedsheets
hair on the floor
under a mink mausoleum
sheltered from the calculated cold
laptop on belly
toasted lint willed into being
Missing carefree stretches
alien skin against hand
moist breaths on brow
infectious joy and warmth
hot water baths
Three more weeks
Posts: 2,357
Threads: 230
Joined: Oct 2010
04-16-2020, 01:49 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-16-2020, 01:55 AM by Todd.)
Truths We Should Discard
I know a woman whose parents told her
Big Bird was pink and cotton candy, yellow.
Now, her mind hiccups against her five senses
(another lie),
as she struggles to compare
a hibiscus to a dandelion.
When we first learn, knowledge
is like a heavy rock tumbling down a hill.
Unlearning is standing at the bottom of that hill,
leaning against the rock, and pushing
it up the steep incline,
step-by-step. If only,
we could use more than ten-percent of our brain—
except we do. Yet, we still believe:
the Great Wall of China is visible from space,
that we might become murderers by dropping a penny
from the top of the Empire State Building,
and that color-blind bulls
are enraged by a red cape. I’m enraged, and not because
Napoleon wasn't actually short, but because these falsehoods
have distracted me for more than seven seconds,
and I must join all men in thinking about sex.
The secret of poetry is cruelty.--Jon Anderson
Posts: 1,185
Threads: 250
Joined: Nov 2015
Heraclitus vs. History
One can’t cross a given river
twice. But that’s not only due to
rivers changing but because one
drops off skin cells, viruses each
instant and picks up replacements.
Minds are similar. They seize on
new ideas, visions, fancies
blink by blink and never lose them
but by process of forgetting
which no-one can will to happen.
Having crossed a river once you
always will have crossed that river.
Non-practicing atheist
