One of my favorite forms of poetry is the haiku, a 3 line Japanese poetic form with a total of seventeen syllables, (follows a 5-7-5 syllable pattern). I write Haikus when I’m feeling stressed and need to pour out an intense emotion using metaphorical nature imagery.
Haikus By Leah
Monday Mourning
Monday Mornings rise
up to reluctant commutes
to a dull duty
New Soil
A stagnant seedling
sits unwatered, neglected.
Time for a new soil
One part I appreciate about living in New York City is the libraries. NYPL hosts diverse programming for dozens of interests. Today I attended a poetry workshop hosted by a poet and editor from Argentina. The facilitator introduced the attendees to two poets; Marosa di Giorgio and Susana Thenon. The poem I came up with is based on the theme of remembrance which id Giorgio heavily incorporates into her poems.
Title: 14 Years Later
I remember when you told me I was your best friend but you could never love me,
I remember your heated voice scalding
my ears for hours because another “she”
rejected your declarations of love misplaced
on a pretty face and empty intimacy
I remember the time I spent twenty dollars at Hot Topic for your Christmas present
It was a T-shirt with your favorite band AC/DC
I remember your half smile when you opened your gift and your eyes
expressing gratitude that you reserved
for me
I remember you in the words, ink and x-ed out declarations of admiration
between the lines of the diaries of my teen years that
I knew I’d never share out loud but baby
these long ago words managed to leap off the pages and sneak into your
half closed consciousness
So now here we sit at adjacent tables at a coffee shop
Fourteen years later
and you ask me “If I remember”
baby
I always remembered
Good evening readers! Hmm, it’s dusty up in this blog! Please forgive me if I’m rusty(did ya catch that in rhyme? ). Happy National Poetry Month! I originally committed to writing and posting a poem every day in April, but of course procrastinated until the last week of April. For this week, I’ll be posting 1-2 poems a day to celebrate a writing form that fascinates and frustrates me as a writer. Most of the poems will be free form with a sprinkles of haikus, cinquains, villanelles and a Sestina (no sonnets, iambic pentameter and I are not friends). I hope you enjoy!
Title: “Where Are You Sis?”
“Where are you sis?”
In the crevices of half-hearted hugs and obligatory smiles
The “HI SIS!’s” that hang hollow off the so called sisterhood
“Where are you sis?”
Standing aside as I watch a family I barely know and I am not sure that’s meant for me
embrace , bellow and belly laugh
Because they’re fully braided within the bushel of coils, never questioning
If their strand belongs
“Where are you sis?”
Back and forth, scouting for empty seats for visitors and “family”
Desperately trying to be a steadfast servant, reporting for my duty
Diligently serving in God’s Kingdom and
Just maybe
Just maybe prove that I fit into an
Infinitely impossible standard of prime faithfulness
“Where are you sis?”
On the 1 train, eyes closed , lulled by the rock a’ by
Of the train. I can finally fling off the mask thats been a suffocating
Compliance and end expectation for the last four hours of this show.
Free from claustrophobia of fruitless “amens”.
“Where are you sis”?
The Bashful Butterfly 