Winter Lullaby

Winter is here, stop and wait, it is time to hibernate
Snow is drifting all round, a white blanket to replicate
Rest your eyes, rest your head, until all the snow’s fled
Sweet dreams through the night, ’til spring comes back with the light

Written for dVerse Quadrille #238

Fairytale

Photo by Bob van Aubel on Unsplash

Within the tower,
Imprisoned.
Counting each hour,
Sits the monarch
Bespelled.
Waiting for a spark,
Dreaming of rescue,
Wishing on fallen stars
For a daring coup.
Aid finally calls,
Shattering spells.
Returned to his halls,
The monarch bestows
Honors on her,
His valiant knight.

 

 Written for dVerse.

 

Glossy Wind

Photo by Laura Kapfer on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The glossy wind bustles
Elbowing sleepy clouds away
Until the sky smears blue
Then plunging downwards
Jostling summer leaves
Breezing past piqued foliage
For a novel look below
At shaded creamy pages
Inked with bewitching phrases
Resting just a spell
Rustling between the covers

Insomnious Shipwreck

Photo by Olga Tsai on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glimmering licorice waves
Cover the sun in sleep
Unveiling midnight enclaves
And the secrets they keep

Here an insomnious shipwreck
Groans for a guiding star
Fish darting over the deck,
While ghosts look after the sandbar

Where starfish sparkle mid
Night and concealing surf

 

 Written both for dVerse's Quadrille and Compound Challenge

Paper

Photo by JJ Ying on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is so clear and white
Patiently waiting for any bright
Scintillating words to tumble out
(Grubby words would do
If they’d only come in a slew)
And take root and sprout
With inky tendrils on the paper
Instead, they vanish like vapor

 

Written for dVerse.

 

 

Vie

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dragonflies supply vat dye,
Whereby tie dye neckties
Dandify shy magpies,
Defying sly butterflies
Plying fluorescent dye,
Applied on bow ties.
Thereby war cries zip by,
Spry allies stand by.
Nearby, horrified walleyes
Clarify, rectify, pacify.
By and by, mollified spies
Buy shoofly pie.

 

 Written for dVerse.

Walleyes are a type of fish. Shoofly Pie is a pie made with molasses.

Exponential Potential

Photo by Razvan Mirel on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Effervescent baker Tiffany
Had an electric epiphany
Electing to add an ephah
Of enchanted yeast
To her emerging feast
Expanding her elegant eclairs
Exponentially
Enveloping every kitchen surface eventually,
She exclaimed, “Can I evade excess?
Perhaps there’ll be less,
If I expropriate a nibble.” 

Happy Exponential Day Everyone! (The Exponential Constant is 2.7)

Ephah -  An ancient Hebrew measurement that's probably too big to put into an eclair recipe, but at least it starts with E!

Written for dVerse.

 

Myriad Seams

 

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little fluttering breezes
Along the stream
Dither here and there
Teaming with dreams
Bursting forth
With scintillating gleam
Splintering into fractals
Of rainbow beams
Shuddering past the frost
That waits and schemes
Flitting softly away
Into myriad seams
Of consciousness, shivering
With ideas aquivering

 

Written for dVerse.

 

Diamonds

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow queen sits upon her throne
Holding winter in her hands
Dreaming of frost and hailstones
She pours diamonds on the land
Seeds of crystal fluttering down
Like regal swan feathers
Adorning the earth in a wedding gown
She smiles at such fair weather

 

 

 

Midnight

Photo by McGill Library on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.
Cold hearth
Filled with soot
And tears

2.
Sisters in velvet upstairs
Stepsister below
In ashes and despair

3.
Orchestral violins
Send forth dreams
Drifting over embers

4.
In the flames
Glowing fairy glass
Melts into slippers

5.
Princess at the ball
In scintillating silk
Becomes a fairytale  

Written for dVerse.

 

 

Onward

Photo by Fiona Murray on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Standing on a ribbon of time
Looking towards an uncharted climb
Winding through curious climes
Perhaps without reason or rhyme
Meandering over trails of grime
Or grassy plains in their prime
Go onward then, do not stand still
For the discovery’s a marvelous thrill

 

Written for dVerse

 

 

Mountain Spring

Photo by Michael C on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snowmelt pours downward,
gurgling and babbling against
still standing rocks worn
smooth. Sending sprays of
river droplets streaming through
the air; across the banks,
pooling and swirling, frigid
with the memory of ice,
chilling tentative ankles.
While around them, trees
unfold with green mist.

Growing

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To the future, small feet
walk, from Here and Now
squinting towards a view incomplete
what will it endow?
Over the horizon, a smudge
might be an architect
perhaps a magician, or judge
all have a different affect.
But for now,
onward they plow.

 

Written for dVerse.

 

 

Wretched Road

Photo by Anton Maksimov juvnsky on Unsplash

 

 Under caliginous twilight,
where stars bestow no light
nor friendly voices sound,
the wretched road wound
through twisted trees
with fitful breeze
and fearful shivers,
over treacherous rivers
to the dragon’s abode.
There the knight rode;
she wounded the dread brute,
liberating the route.

 

Written for dVerse.

Book Nook

Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash

 

 

Here in my nook
me, myself, and I
and the glorious book.
For the next golden while
let me say goodbye
to the laundry pile
dinner pans and dishes
without anyone asking why.
These are my only wishes,
so go away; don’t bother me.

 

Written for dVerse.

Before the Magic

Woman using a swift. Photo by Les Triconautes on Unsplash

 

Before the magic of hooks and needles
dance through stretched out string
forming curving pathways,
there’s the whir and work and magic of the swift.

Whisking thread from hank to ball
thus molding the universe
and preparing for triumph
long before the work begins.

 

 

A swift is used to hold a hank of yarn while it's being wound into a ball.

Value

Photo by Jasmin Sessler on Unsplash

Of all that’s valued high,
prices reaching to the sky,
many glint with gold
or sheen of something old.
Yet with all this social distancing, I can’t decide
which is valued most: Meeting you sans screen?
Or rolls of toilet paper stacked close by?


Written for dVerse.
 
I've been thoroughly enjoying all the posts and pictures highlighting the importance of toilet paper to our current society; they've been bringing a much needed laugh. 

On a more serious note, please consider joining members and friends of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Good Friday in Fasting and Prayer for relief from COVID-19. Stay safe everyone!

Stirring Up

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Pour me a sample

From some forgotten lore

Of something more

Then the blended grimy grays

Of tepid hustling days

Stir in some pinks and yellows

Bobbing marshmallows

And something bright

That sparkles like hope

In a long telescope

Looking beyond here and now

*

There’s a fever in the air

causing such a scare

stirring up fear.

When’s it coming here?

Don’t panic! (Have a stock of food,

but don’t overdo it, dude.)

Whatever shall we do?

Here’s an easy clue:

wash hands same as for the flu.

*

With a stir, with a shout

Monsters scamper out

In a massive swarm

Like a mystic storm

Mocking nature’s laws

With purple spotted claws

And needle pointed teeth

They fly from beneath

Look how tiny, oh how sweet

As they flit o’er the wheat

Written for dVerse.

I tried three times to respond to the prompt, and wasn't completely satisfied with any of them, but I mostly like them, so here they all are. The last one I actually wrote first, and while I like the sound and the feel, it's pretty much nonsense. So I have decided, that these little monsters eat viruses and while mostly harmless, are known to bite obnoxiously rude people. 

 

Bells and Bells

Photo by Jez Timms on Unsplash

Bluebells bob around the tower
And ivy climbs up the stones
Where bells peal every hour
In tremendous booming tones
Echoing across sky and sea
As diving bells vanish beneath the blue
While the wild gulls soar free
Over bells and through the view



Written for dVerse.


 

Spring Thrills

Photo by Abigail Lynn on Unsplash

Prodigious Punxsutawney Phil
Poked his head outside his hill
Displaying his special skill
Searching for his shadow’s spill
He searched and was searching ’til
The answer arrived with quite a trill
Giving everyone a springy thrill
For of winter we’ve all had our fill



Written for dVerse.