2016.12 Trampoliniste

Another #poetrytogo commission, aided and abetted in the last stretch by @MyriamWordmaker and @AnaisBokanovsky:

Lovely girl, you bring light,
A delight in the arc of limbs
Flinging themselves with precision
Across the sky.

Tu éclaires - avant le sommeil
Les mots dansent,
En pages et dans
Ton esprit pétillant.

Childhood's fripperies are
Giving way, inch by inch
Aux dictionnaires, et au sens pratique,
Activities amid the trees.

Mais, dans la forêt,
Et dans tes rêves,
Never forget - love
Colours everything, mon coeur.

---

Another Poetry To Go commission, this time for a seven-year-old child of French and English parents who is very active, practical, and creative.

2016.8 Clarion

Another #poetrytogo commission:

Your voice is a constant -
Sea wind on the clifftop.
You are beckoning -
The movement of clouds.

Beach-bound and shadowed
I listen, washed and washing -
Salty, moon-girt,
Trickling and gritty.

Eyes strain high -
And finally I cast lines,
Climb into hard embraces,
Hand-over-hand - escaping erosion.

Here, muscles bunching,
I sweat and clench,
Then kick and swing,
A laugh swooping into air.

Blisters harden,
Graft gathers me
Against gravity -
Higher and drier.

Here your voice sings louder -
A tug to the final push -
I hook strong fingers
Into gravity and heave.

And here, gasping,
The sun's heat finds me
And I am singing your song,
High on the headland,
Seeing everything anew.

---

Another Poetry To Go commission - this time from a woman who wanted a metatextual poem about the difficulty (and joy) of writing (poetry), having fallen out with it after a certain high profile poet told her that she was no good at it. I think I tried to give her something with a measure of hope mixed with reality. Would love to know if it worked...!

2016.7 Small Shaggy Dog

Another #poetrytogo commission:


What good is a dog
Who won't pay heed,
Who tangles herself
When you put on her lead?

What good is a dog
Who can't see cars,
Who eats LEGO bricks
Like a creature from Mars?

What good is a dog
Who thinks she's a train,
Who pulls at you, chuffing,
And leaps in the rain?

What good is a dog
Who slips and slides,
Who slithers while
Other dogs give their folks pride?

You know what - those other dogs
May be quite nice,
Smart, and well-behaved,
But they just won't suffice.

See, the good of this dog
Is the strength of her heart,
And the way that you miss her
Whenever you part.

For the love of this dog
Will be there to the end,
In this bouncing, brown, barking-mad,
Wonderful friend.

---

If you'd told me that I'd write a rhyming poem about a dog and enjoy it immensely, I'd've laughed at you. And I would have been very wrong.

2016.6 Can You Spy Mariam?

Another #poetrytogo commission: 


Mariam means Mary
Mary makes the garden grow
Gardens grow up to make parks
Parks wander into forests
This forest hides a mysterious tower
The Tower shelters Rapunzel
Rapunzel reads books
Books that speak of little girls
This little girl loves pink and purple
Purple sunsets summon dreams
Dreams of pets like panda bears!
Panda bears that love to dance!
Dancing makes you hungry
Hungry girls eat lots of sweets
Sweet dreams, Mariam...

______________
Mariam was adamant that this poem MUST NOT RHYME! You've got to admire that kind of focus at five. I think I managed to squeeze in all her favourite things here...

2016.5 X9C3-2

We should be asking:
Where's the line
Between what's seen
And what's just mine?

The web was meant
To make us free;
Instead we're tangled,
Can't you see?

Convenience
Can't be worth the bill:
No secret shared's
A secret still.

________________

This post is, in itself, a delivery of a #poetrytogo commissioned poem from today. Feel free to ask, but there's only so much I can tell you…

2015.18 - Ask Me Tomorrow

Another one from #PoetryToGo, this time a one-word challenge: “`Happiness´. Can you write something from that?”

“Well, yes, but it could head off in all sorts of directions, so: what does happiness mean to you?”

“People leaving me alone.”

“Er, I can take a hint, if…”

“I suppose that´s quite rude, but I didn´t mean you…” and she went on to rhapsodise on what I can only describe as the serenity of solitude, the peace to think about past and future rather than present, requested a 10-ish line free verse poem, manually typed on green card:

_________________

Walk me into light.
This silence sings,
And brings me into a
Core of peace.

Release the busy clutter,
The bright bustle of polyphony,
The drowning questions,
The apologetic constants.

Here I can hum
The one note of me
Suspended in the grace
Of continuity.

2015.17 - A Message

One from #PoetryToGo - the brief was from talented local storyteller Marion Leeper, who's been joining us for NaPoWriMo this year. She said she wanted to give me a challenge: a terzanelle about political cross-dressing (she'd just been to see a talk by Steve Bell of the Guardian). The poem needed to be put in a party-neutral poster form for Marion's window.

Behold the result:
______________________________

That mannequin you might well label Queen,
But not the one you think that you all know.
(Some people find that sort of thing obscene.)

The time has come to dress up for the show,
To cover up this figure’s ugly fact.
(But not the one you think that you all know)

Although you know this smile is just an act,
You may not see how smoky mirrors serve
To cover up this figure’s ugly fact.

Don’t speak up and you’ll get what you deserve –
The Emperor’s bereft of honest thread –
You may not see how smoky mirrors serve.

Don’t let the bright lights turn your pretty head –
There’s something darker lurking underneath.
(The Emperor’s bereft of honest thread.)

In shiny shoes here comes a heavy tread –
That mannequin you might well label Queen.
There’s something darker lurking underneath.
(Some people find that sort of thing obscene.)