March Is a Fickle Mistress

"In like a lion, out like a lamb; in like a lamb, out like a lion" notwithstanding, we Midwesterners never really know what to expect of March. This year has been a prime example. When I left nearly two weeks ago, March was warm enough to make me wonder why I was going. When I returned, snow nestled in the shaded places around hedgerows. And this year isn't so different from past years in that respect. Here's a poem about a childhood experience:

Winter Violets

On a cold and blustery mid-March day
The wind whirled the snow away,
And there, hidden among the leaves,
Grew violets in winter.

copyright 2011

On the Night of the Supermoon

I'm late with my post because the world and I have had a very busy week. But tonight the moon will rise over the prairie appearing bigger than it has or will for many years. In its honor, I'll share this poem with you:

Moonrise

She blushes as she rises,
Naked,
And pulls a filmy cloud
Across her face.

But modesty is not her virtue.
Soon the blush has faded,
The cloud is cast aside,
And she strides
Silver, shameless,
Across her sky.

copyright 2011

Itty Bitty Poems Pique My Interest

For years I've been writing very short poems I called vignettes for lack of a better word. They didn't fit into the structure of haiku or any of the other accepted short forms of poetry. Most of them were intended just to paint a picture with a few brushstrokes, and I enjoyed them, but nobody else seemed to take them seriously. Then along came Twitter....

Recently I've discovered an entire community of poets who write Twitter poems, some of which are haiku and similar forms, but some of which are hashtagged #micropoetry and seem to fit none of the established forms I know about. I'm not sure if the micropoetry hashtag is an open community, so I haven't used it, but I have tried tweeting a couple of my vignettes. Twitter doesn't have enough characters for titles, but the first one is "Carpe Diem" and the second is "View From My Bedroom Window--Broken Bow, OK."

Purple thumbprint clouds / Like bruises / On the smooth pink flesh / Of sunset....

The moon, somewhere above my sight / Mocks the darkness of the night; / A thousand clouds reflect its light / To turn the earthen road to white.

copyright 2011

Thunderhead

The first real thunderstorms of the season swept across the Midwest last night. While the worst of them seemed to part and flow to the north and south of my home town, others had tornadoes and floods. 

This time of year, storms usually come in huge banks of black clouds that roll over the prairies in lines that stretch for miles. But in the summertime, they sometimes come singly, dark galleons floating in an ocean of sky.

Thunderhead

Storms never surprise the prairie,

They build up on the horizon,

Great blackening hoards of cumulus

Like the gathering forces of evil

From some old Scandinavian folk tale.

Or they travel swiftly alone--

Silver, anvil-shaped giants

Floating over their own shadows,

Muttering to themselves deeply

And juggling lightning bolts,

Sometimes dropping one.

copyright 2011

Dream Houses Can Be Nightmares

Twitter friends Johanna Harness (johannaharness) and John Ross Barnes (barnestorm2004) recently were discussing dreams about houses, a subject I find intriguing. I've read that when you dream about a house, it's actually a metaphor for  your own psyche. If that's true, I must have a very strange psyche, because I've dreamed about a lot of very strange houses.

But the most memorable was a fairly normal-looking three-story house with a large attic. I lived on the first two floors, and as hard as I tried, I couldn't walk up the wide, carved staircase to the attic. Something malevolent lived on the third floor and would allow no one to pass. I dreamed about the house repeatedly over a period of months and never was able to contain the gut-clinching panic I felt every time I started up.

Then one day at a family reunion, my father and sister and I started discussing strange dreams and discovered that we all were dreaming about the same house. And not only that, but we were all dreaming about it over and over, and none of us was able to get to the attic. 

Months went by, and every time we were together, we discussed "the house." Finally I dreamed I performed some kind of exorcism that walled off the malevolent presence and, though I still had to fight fear every step of the way, climbed the stairs to the attic. It was filled with beautiful antique furniture, jewelry and fabrics that looked like it could be worth thousands of dollars. More importantly, much of it met my needs to beautify my living space below. It was magnificent.

Several months passed before the family got together again, but when we did, the subject of the dream came up as usual.

"You know," said my sister, "I haven't had that dream for quite a while."

"Neither have I," added my father. "Did anyone ever get to the attic?"

I admitted that I had, and after thinking about it for a while, that I hadn't had the dream since. So I figured out about what week I'd reached the attic.

Not one of us had dreamed about the house since then.

Valentine for Lovers of a Certain Age

Valentine for Autumn 
(to my husband)


Come, walk the night with me,
Feel the silken touch of mist
Cool upon the warm bare flesh of arms entwined.

Come, walk the velvet darkness,
Follow sparkling fireflies through the wood
And wade the dewy grass with naked feet.

Come, stay the golden autumn night
Till dawn strokes the sky with nacre pink,
And we will walk together all our nights
Until the winer snows.

© Angela Parson Myers 2011

A Little Vampire Humor

One night I returned to the metallurgical lab after maintenance worked on the air conditioning. They'd left a ceiling panel ajar, and from the darkness beyond, I heard a sound like raspy breathing. Alone in the office because I was the only technician on duty, I hesitated before I walked under the opening, thinking, "In horror movies, this is where the monster drops down out of the ceiling behind its victim." After I worked up courage to continue to my desk, I wrote this "poem." 

    

Midnight in the Met Lab

Vampires live in the Met Lab attic.

I know.  I've heard them there

When I come in late at night

And catch them unaware.

I've heard their raspy breathing

As they lurk up in the dark,

Prowling through the ducts and pipes

To find an easy mark.

I've heard their footsteps slowly

Treading down the hall,

Past perchloric acid

And ISO butanol.

I don't know why they spare me

As I tremble all alone here.

Perhaps no one's told them

Type O's the universal donor.  

copyright 2011