The Versesmith

 dVerse Poetics:  Have You Ever Seen the Rain? Prompt from Li(sa) : Your challenge for today, if you choose to accept it, is to choose... your way with the weather. Use it as a framework. Or a metaphor. Or as a vehicle to get you where your muse wants to go. Any form or length is fine. I would love to see someone take a favorite weather song and pay tribute to its lyrics or melody. Please put attribution on your page if you choose that path. I’m very much looking forward to reading your poems. Going with the suggestion of taking a weather song, I have taken two.  One is mostly fiction, one is mostly fact. A Golden Shovel using a line from  November Rain by Guns N' Roses. And it's hard to hold a candle in the cold November rain A Golden Shovel is an invented form, created by Terrance Hayes.  It is written by taking a line or lines from an existing poem and using each word as end words in your poem. The words are kept in order.  Credit is always given....

 dVerse Poetics: But no, a butterfly   Merril tells us , "So, for today, I’ve composed a list of common butterfly names taken from several online sites. People seem to enjoy these list prompts. Choose at least three of the names from the list below and include them in your poem. You may choose to use more than three for your poem. Please use the entire name, that is use “Appalachian azure”, not just Appalachian or azure." I do enjoy the list prompts! photo credit   A clouded yellow sunset glow s on golden birdwing and autumn leaf . The painted lady reflects the setting sun.   ©2026   Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  

dVerse Poetics   Launch: light and truth of painting Today for Poetics, I thought we might write from a selection of Rousseau’s artwork. Choose one of the paintings in this post and let it be your muse. Additionally, use the above epitaph as a launch point to describe where the painting takes you, the viewer. Oops... I jumped into it after reading just the first sentence, neglecting to read " Choose one of the paintings in this post ..." until I'd already written to this painting, The Equatorial Jungle .   image You do well to stay hidden. Man comes. Everything he touches, everywhere his feet roam, where his eyes wander, he desires to Conquer. Dominate. Crush. ©2026 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  

dVerse Poetics : Names of the Rose  Please choose at least FIVE rose names from the list below. Or choose  your own FIVE words or more from this huge list. If the rose name is more than one word, you must use both words.  There is one stipulation, you can NOT use the word, “rose” in your  poem! I chose the following words, which I have underlined in the poem: Restless Seafoam Tangles Golden Gate Windrush Summer Song Peace I’m restless . I walk the tideline on Baker Beach, kicking tangles of kelp and seafoam . The fog is heavy, nearly concealing the Golden Gate Bridge. A windrush gusts; my hair briefly covers my vision. I sit on the cliffs hidden from the commuters above. The sound of waves and gulls, my summer s ong. The damp fog and incoming tide, my peace . ©2026 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  

 dVerse Poetics: Picking up the Pieces "So, for today’s Poetics challenge, I would like you to write about grief (in general or personal). If that is something you don’t want to share, you can write about healing, dealing with loss or the general state of our world that brings grief to you." While I've written, and posted, poetry speaking of grief in general, much of it, unbeknownst to the reader, as personal.  I may have mentioned, or alluded to the loss of my husband, but never came right out (that I recall) and wrote about it.  I've typed and backspaced, typed and deleted, and now, I've only been able to write one line, an American Sentence.     My heart was left so shattered, there was no way to pick up the jagg'd shards. ©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved Other poems on the subject of grief, and loss, can be found on the left by clicking "grief" in the Labels area.