Na/GloPoWriMo Day 21 They Called Me

 They Called Me

Moose same as Gretchen

a big boxy girl

a brick house

mighty mighty

me the shorter

younger version

chubby they said

I let it all hang out

became Lizzie

after my Confirmation name

Saint Elizabeth they

chanted Lizzie is a Lezzie

at summer camp but

we all were then

and when I went out

as a short-haired 

boy in a ballcap

I'd be Lee for no 

reason except 

it was shorter

my last first name

syllable spelt wrong

on purpose to be familiar

a beloved blue jeans brand

or else it would be L-i-e

and nobody wants

to be called that

in Spanish class

I was Leanna which

wasn't Spanish but

something I'd made up 

to sound that way

and passing notes

with Nancy was I Star

or Moon or was she?

names nest one

inside another

like memories

personal

matryoshka

history

Na/GloPoWrMo Day 20 Animal

 

Na/GloPoWriMo Day 19 A Flower Poem

 

Na/GloPoWriMo Day 18 Adventure Song Snippet

Among the Folk

small creatures only some may see

dance beneath the gold oak tree

and sing of dreams

and longings

small creatures may be creaturely

and shape themselves mysteriously

to sing of dreams

and longings

such creatures dance inside our dreams

bright in our imaginings

they sing our dreams

and longings

Na/GloPoWriMo Day 17 Poem Responding to a Favorite Poem

T

To Elizabeth

"The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster."

                            Elizabeth Bishop

I saw the movie of your tragic love affair

with Lota, and my friend said I look

like the actress who played her but

more than resemblance I wished

for a lover-patroness like her who would build

me a little house on a Brazilian hillside

because she loved my poems and by proxy

me and, like you, I'd be swept off my

feet but would soon be chafing against

ag   all trappings (see how that works) of

       love, how I always have done, all         

       these years, make a trick of my heart,  

or    take a fake stance perhaps to keep

       me at a loss when it comes

       to love's trappings

    

    t  

of 

I

I

Na/GloPoWriMo Day 16 Nature as Teacher

 

Bosque

green breath 

rooted and reaching 

small mammals burrowed by day

bowered creatures aloft

beetles and bees

moths and

salamanders

and creek water

sunlight sometimes

starlight sometimes

a slice of moon

the deepest forest speaks

satisfaction

itself

complete

Na/Glo/PoWriMo Day 15 A Different Kind of Love Poem

 

More Love, This Loss

you in your part of this story write the scene

inside family inside grief's space

we don't ask but feel the question

where to put the love that went there now?

a melody in the key of loss

disappears into thin air like a wish

and still the circle holds

more love

pouring in

Na/GloPoWriMo Day 14 Poetry and Technology

 

With My Eyes Closed

the horses appear just before sleep

i turn from the model-t, let the crank dangle

make a poem make a poem make a poem

but all the driving has left me dumb

so i stand among the mares

who whicker and nuzzle my face and neck

i know i will never drive

again

Na/Glo/PoWri/Mo Day 13 A Fanciful/Mythic/Real Landscape

Summer Poem

I set out to dream the thing

to call it back, to fold that memory

up like a picnic blanket

& carry it home full 

of sand, cracker crumbs & sticky

with red Hi-C. Summer days

sun-stunned lake lovers we

waited dutifully 30 minutes

after eating -- salami sandwiches

crinkled chips, two dark purple

little plums each -- to charge back 

into chill flat water gleaming like

a tarnished tea service tray

this dream of those days slathered

in CopperTone come what may.

Na/Glo/PoWriMo Day 12 Memory of a Relative

My Aunt Refused to Cook It

one of my girl cousins took me 

out back to look

at the dead fawn in the shed

rigored and spotted

on its back

legs bent in

the air as if

striding as if about

to leap

no bigger

than their irish setter

her dad my uncle

had shot 

that baby

an accident

and brought 

it home

on purpose

why?

didn't want

to waste

the meat

cousin said

i made that week

for uncle

seven mouths

to feed but

fawn meat

we girls vowed

not to eat

and went to sleep

on hunger strike

that left him

livid

Na/GloPoWriMo Day 11 Blackout Poem

A Covenant People

so we became

Image by Marthalsermon Art

 a covenant people
people of the scorching wind
struck by the sun people who
cut through mountains
come from afar
beside springs of water
or not

yea
an amnesiac people
can a mother
forget her infant? 
be without
the child of her
womb? 

i will never forget you

people 
become story

word aloud
become scrolls
become 
sung from

Inspired by and snipped from Isaiah 49:8-15

Na/Glo/PoWriMo Day 10 Grief and Containment

What My Friend Did a Few Months Later

she took a picture of him to the bar on their wedding anniversary 

put his leather coat and favorite fedora

on the chair beside her 

ordered sausage pizza 

two glasses of chianti 

did her best

not to cry

the bar man who had known them both and wouldn't

let her pay     lifted the other glass

to hers in honor

of the day

No/Glo/PoWriMo Day 9 Animal

Buho

late afternoon 

patio  

perfect weather day

a marTINY in hand

because I can never

finish

a whole one

and

an owl 

right there

in the neighbor's

just leafing

pin oak

bwohoohoohoo

spring serenade

oh! i am ever

yours 

sipping from 

your perfect 

hands

what

your hands

have made

Na/GloPoWriMo Day 8 Repetition

Western 

you will know me by that scent

announcing itself across the rangy desert 

petrichor and gin   creosote       sage    

you will know me by what i drag

through dirt       the bundle of busted up beliefs

wrapped in wishes tied 

    with fraying rope

air pulsing rumble breath      wannabe thunder

more moan      more E flat blues

you will know me by the longing

i summon in you 

                    to be shaped

        how i shape you so you can't say

who wanted you this way first

rode hard     hung up  

beautiful

    argent      blue     etched against night sky

every shape of you

bejeweled

lavish  drops      longing still   unmeasured

you 

all my treasure

Na/Glo/PoWriMo Day 7 Snap Crackle

Possum Song in Outer Space

possum got her babies in her pocket

say marsupial, soup soup supial

possum got her babies on her back

and in in her pocket, nobody

gonna knock it cause they all get around

and black outer space got folks in a rocket

coming down coming down

from the dark side of the moon

coming down

to where the possum got her babies

all up in her pocket say marsupial

soup soup supial say

Na/GloPoWriMo Day 6 A Little Surreal

 Say What?

my husband insists i watch the dog play volleyball

not AI he says   too uneven       but hella cute 

black border collie nosing the ball     over a regulation net or

right above his teammate's hands     for the set up    we assume

the human is the collie's     both     marvelous   & 

winning in hot sand      human

hot & hunky in speedos     canine teammate     telepathic   limber & lithe

  alert to ball descending      the leap              airborne     dark shadow twirling

dervish     dreaming     

Na/GloPoWriMo 2026 Day 5 Hate That

 Problem with the Country

the would-be king is mental
loco off his noggin and could

be pathetic except for the fact
(i would wager) his soul
and Satan's are one and the same

i don't take declaring someone
the devil's work lightly
but some are easy to spot

things they say
and do or 

don't do

it has never been more true

than now when he says kill
them all let Allah sort them

not exactly in those words
but just as psychopathic

wickedness cloaked
as strategy

and the problem with the country
the problem with the country now
is not him actually but
the rest of us who 

(yes me yes you)
put him in charge

Na/Glo/PoWriMo Day 4 The Weather

Maybe, But

I want to be happy about spring

in Tennessee

        how it arrives in tentative pushing

ups, green shoot, quiet violet

                tiny hyacinths bubbling along

                the sidewalk, yellow swish of forsythia

daffodil flounce

                at last cherries and dogwoods 

    

temperatures careen up 

            and down our measures

                                wet air rumbles the frothy skies

circling her winds

Na/GloPoWriMo 2026 Day 3 -- Profession

 

What Am I Paying Her For?

I thought she 

would piece

the whole puzzle 

put the house in order, solve

the riddle of difficult me, but

all she did

was hand me

my own key

Na/GloPoWriMo 2026 Day 2 -- Memory

 Big Feelings

all feelings big then
at eight, at twelve

pure longing caught
in a square

body, a nose
always running

couldn't
sport around
too clumsy
for bats and bases
racquets and fuzzy
yellow balls
but not ballet
my chunk
of a girl body
at barre, en pointe
counted in french 

like i was 

somebody like

i could fly

Na/glo/powrimo 2026 Day 1 Tanka

 Tanka for My Old Poems

old poems show up like

unexpected visitors

shake rain out from cloaks

puddling my mind's cluttered room

full moon shines in every drop