The Versesmith

Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Challenge #499 words: dream and fever  I couldn't pick just one! in my fevered dreams we press each other closely, dancing, 'til I wake  lost in fevered dreams  I so wish to never wake  and face your absence  my fever talking  I dream you are by my side awake I am lost   ©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved #haiku #ronovanswrites #weeklypoetryprompt #syllabicpoetry #japanesepoet ryform 

Ronovan Writes   Ovi Poetry Challenge 32: PROMISE  is your inspiration. He's smug, all holier-than-thou, toothy smiles when he takes a vow. Look! See him there, glad handing now! Can no one else see through him? Always making such fine pledges, skirting laws around their edges, ignoring truths he calls "alleges.” Will not one bring him to task? He claims he took in faith an oath, in public he announced his troth, in marriage and in business both, it turned out he was lying. ©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved #ronovanwrites #ronovanwritesovipoetrychallenge #ovipoetry #ovipoem #promisespoetry #syllabicpoetry #syllabicpoem #indianpoetryform 

Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Challenge #498 Words: placid and wild © 2013 Lisa Smith Nelson calm winter morning placid dawning to my day wild snowfall by noon ©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved #haiku #ronovanswrites #weeklypoetryprompt #syllabicpoetry #japanesepoetryform 

Over at dVerse , Björn has provided an optional mini-prompt, a line from Emily Dickinson's poem of the same name, " Frequently the wood are pink — " and/or this image Björn created using AI. I  If frequently the wood are pink , take off your glasses don’t you think? If frequently the wood are blue, check your eyes, they aren’t that hue. If frequently the wood are red, turn the other way instead. It frequently the wood are green, all things are perfect, as they’ve been. II   Frequently I’ve roamed this wood, these trails narrow, dark and good. Upon this fallen oak I’ve sat, thick with lichen, as a mat. To gaze above at clear blue sky, and utter nothing, but a sigh.    ©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved 

  24 Seasons Syllabic Poetry Challenge, No. 17  Part III: Early Cold (January 5 – 20) Shokan 小寒 – Poet’s Choice "This week’s TankaTuesday challenge invites poets to choose kigo words from a past season or the Early Cold challenge. The poetry form and season are open, but a kigo word must be included. Optional art prompt provided." I wrote one haiku and two tankas.  The kigo words are in red.  Winter in the Country , by George Henry Durrie winter morning chores sweet aroma of grass hay cattle’s soft warm breath the plough in the shed dreaming this winter morning clear dawn sky, cold light star sparkles – another plough* above my head to the east ©Lisa Smith Nelson steam from the saw mill reaches for the waning moon pink sky a portent of cold clouds before mid-day of barn cats chasing their tails** ©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  *The Plough is another name for the Big Dipper. **It's said that barn cats will chase their own tails

  MTB: Last Year's First Eleven A simple prompt once it clicked in my head how to do it!   In short, write a found poem of eleven lines from the first lines of  your own  poems, one each from months January to November.   The title comes from any month's first lines. I was glad to notice it  didn't have to be December, I only had one fairly reasonable  choice!  The title was actually the hardest part.  This August sun scorches. I fear I am not well, nor have been in years, I  languish, I grow weak. Some mornings I sit at the end of the pier, my mind in a fog. I view my garden. The crows in silhouette watch, silent as one crow. On these summer nights woodsmoke hangs heavy. A temple offering, r ight on time. ©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  January:   https://theversesmith.blogspot.com/2023/01/lena-in-two-january-27-2023.html February:  https://theversesmith.blogspot.com/2023/02/gertrude.html March:  https://theversesmith.blogspot.co

Melissa at  dVerse Melissa has asked us to write a Quadrille, a poem of exactly 44 words, including the prompt word, or variant of, lagoon.   I used lagoon itself, as well as shallows .  For this I was picturing a coastal lagoon when the tide was out, an estuary, a mudflat. When I was growing up my brother lived along a levee on the Sacramento Delta.  He'd take family out in his boat to one of the many islands for a picnic.  I remember wading into the water, and there was only a mud bottom.  I found it disgusting, slimy, and would sink into it. I lost a favorite ring sticking my fingers in the mud.  The tide goes out, it stinks and the midges appear.  So, yeah... mudflats and estuaries.  Shallows and coastal lagoons.  Who knows what lurked down there!    the author in her brother's boat c. mid-1960s Watch when you wade in the shallows! Beasties, rapacious and sly await Razor toothed  and venomous Just under the sand Beware the lagoon where sea bottom’s hidden! Wee cankerous wo

Poets and Storytellers United  Friday Writings #108: Beginning For your optional prompt this week, please let the idea of Beginning inspire you. You might write about that idea, or perhaps share a piece which in itself constitutes a beginning of some kind.  Would I, if given the chance, return to  our beginning? I hope you would understand if I refused. It is not meant to hurt you. Our many  years together, now years apart, I would not relive. If only for the pain at the end not to live through again. ©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved 

Kim at dVerse  has given us the following prompt for today's Haibun Monday . "No matter how you feel about the first day of 2024, I would like you to write about it. Have you set your heart on a new beginning, a move, a relationship, a hobby, etc.? Are you resolved to being stuck indoors until spring or have you been / are you going for a New Year’s Day walk? Is the first day of the New Year a time for reflection, or are you nursing a hangover and just need a little peace and quiet? Aim to write no more than three tight paragraphs, followed by a traditional haiku that includes reference to the season."  I stayed up until midnight last night.  Nothing unusual about that, it's something I usually do.  Have some snacks, watch the ball drop from New York, belatedly, as I'm in Oregon, then off to bed well past my "bedtime."   Too early I'm up, cranky and tired.   The cats kept me awake, coming and going, coming and going, knocking things off the bedside t