in the red

Neil Alexander explores light

in the red

you don’t think
it’s going to happen
until it actually does

 count to ten
 in the red
 don't get to mad
 it's in your head

take precautions
take a breath
listen and learn

 count to ten
 in the red
 don't get to mad
 it's in your head

walking to school
running to the store
what did you forget?

 count to ten
 in the red
 don't get to mad
 it's in your head

a kick here
a punch there
it won’t add up

 count to ten
 in the red
 don't get to mad
 it's in your head

************************

A one stop poetry Sunday challenge.  Choose from the works of Photographer Neil Alexander.

http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/07/sunday-photography-interview-neil-alexander-poetry-challenge.html

Messy Little Girl

Messy Little Girl

Mama’s gone shopping,
time to uproot.
Grandma won’t mind
if there’s dirt on the fruit.

Messy little girl,
spits on the soil
plays a crazy game
rolls up roots in a coil.

Who wrote the rules
whence plants must stay;
when there are no friends
who can come and play?

Messy little girl
turned over the pot.
The plant might live
Or perhaps, it might not.

************************

Written for:

I was asked by someone involved with bluebell to write something about this image, which is credited to mnn.com -> Mother Nature’s Network. I figured, why not, and even made it rhyme.

Posted on:

Open Link Night ~ Week 39

Also posted on:

M is for Me me me!

Joy Garrison Programs: Command Highlight

     A. Joy

I was born Joy, to enjoy
in a state of overjoyment,
an adventurous joyrider.

I play with a joystick
always joyfully, giving others
much enjoyment.

In this game,
my obstructors
are killjoys.

      B. Garrison

Ghosts defend me
through time, as I design
the ultimate garrison.

Understandably, my actions
lie on the periphery
of the fourth dimension.

I build protective barriers
so you can hold flowers
so you can smile.

     C. Command

The laws of life
move me along.

If I don’t see it,
I make it.

I theorize.
I change the facts.

As I change,
I command the world.

     D. Highlight

Watch me move the pieces:
A Queens Gambit
A fancy castling.
I always defend.
I always protect.
Do not seek my highlights.
I have not peaked:
too much to achieve.

************************

Posted on:

Open Link Monday

The artwork is by Bonnie. Her blog is http://originalartstudio.blogspot.com/

This piece is a response to onestop poetry challenge:

 http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/07/friday-poetically-with-brian-miller-21.html

I’m not sure what this work will mean to you, but I will assume no one will guess how/why I wrote this. After I explain it, it may make even less sense. 😉

Some time before seven this morning, I HAD to get on my computer to do some preliminary work on my screenplay. I booted up, and instead of NOT turning on my browser, I brought up Google Chrome, clicked on the one stop poetry page, and saw the challenge.  I decided that in order not to waste my time of not writing my screenplay, the only solution was to write the poem about my main character.

I had no idea what to write about. I read the first poem posted, by Esther Douek. This can be found on

http://www.estherdouek.com/?p=381

Her poem is titled: “A Salesman with X-ray Vision | The Eyes of Poetry” . Her concept of X-Ray made me think of Four Dimensional art, as in Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus)  Salvador Dalí. (1954).   Which you can see on  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dali_Crucifixion_hypercube.jpg

My protagonist’s name is Bashira Garrison. Bashira is a popular Muslim Girl name. It’s Urdu and Arabic for “Joyful.”   The main theme in my screenplay is “Protecting the Protector.” This is why her last name is Garrison. I called the character in my poem “Joy” instead of “Bashira” because I could play with the word “joy.” Poetry is all about playing and painting with words. So at least that part should make sense.

The image, above is saved as file name “ghist.jpg” . I thought it could be a mispelling or perhaps a variant of “ghost”, because it’s a ghostly image. I looked it up, and it’s a computer command: command highlight. The picture is one big highlight.

Bashira is an engineer who is developing a small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV). She often must re-programm the control system, so I thought that naming  this poem about Bashira (Joy) after a computer command would be apt.

Yesterday, someone asked me if my poetry was inspired by some sort of ” gift from a higher power.” It’s not.

This is how my poetry is contrived: I have one thing in my head, in this case doing some analysis on my screenplay. Then I encounter something I have to write a poem about, in this case a onestop poetry challenge. I take the two concepts and blend them into an abstraction. I look up words and phrases. I use them in my poem. In this case, I looked up variants of words with Joy in them. I looked up famous quotes for the words “change” and “highlight.”  That’s pretty much it.

Windsurfer

Windsurfer © Jean-Michel Leclercq

Windsurfer

In tropical dawn,
in sultry dusk,
I rendezvous
with waves.

Sweaty,
in the finest neoprene,
I dominate
a kingdom
I shall never throne.

Rinse and hold.
Taste the salt.
No break to my adrenaline.
Spray spitting from the barrel.
I carve kinetic fluid.

In the food chain,
I devour waves.

I take refuge
in the cycles
of lunar forces.
Always restless
in utter wetness.

************************

Posted on:

poets-rally-week-65

I found this on   Jean-Michel Leclercq’s Flicker Site  ©

Also, I have never windsurfed nor regular surfed in my life. I did take sailing lessons and was American Red Cross certified in basic sailing.

Too Many Car Blues

Too Many Cars - How many More in the Three Car Garage?

There’s a janky ol’ dude.
He keeps forty nine cars.
He stays with his mama.
She collects cannin’ jars.

He’s got seven pit bulls
that will tear you to shreds.
They crap on his rugs.
Sleep on their stinkin’ beds.

He got up one mornin’,
sneezin’ mightier than hell.
Them dogs peed inside.
He done holla and yell.

Got in the Town Car,
got a nail in a tire.
When he changed up the spare,
darn engine caught on fire.

The next day he drove,
an old Chevy truck.
Road to the reserve:
He had mighty fine luck.

He took all his cash,
bought himself a new Ford.
Now he’s gots fifty cars
by the Grace of the Lord.

************************

Here’s another “One Stop Poetry Challenges.” This time I’m writing in response to Form Monday “The Blues:

http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/07/form-monday-the-blues.html

OK, this is nothing like anything you are used to me seeing. As @Deshair has said in the past, my poems are vocabulary lessons. Well, this is just another type of vocabulary.

So, for those of you used to seeing me use words like chemiluminescent and nanomanipulator, he’s a whole different set of vocabulary words to ponder. I happen to favor “janky.”

Fear of Happiness

You are a puppet to your greatness.
You are the amplifier of its voice.
When you peak, you are amazed
and query your accomplishments.
Since your imagination has no limits,
a mirror exposes the bulges of your greatness.

With humility, you smile, relax,
and a fall asleep to sweet dreams.
You command a well timed silent dominion.

With the authority of laser like radiance,
envisage persistent obligation.
If your vision lies dormant,
Rub influence as you zip by;
Inspire with the scent of your perspiration;
Cajole with poise and assure with consolation.

Walk not with the gravity
of one who lost a child.
Even those outside the household bubble
are with blustery flares of disposition
in place of beaming manifestation of pleasantness.
If those shocking moment laps,
don’t accede to benign complacency.

Don’t accede to unhappiness.
Happiness leads not to empty hedonism.
Without it, authority disappears like sounds in a blown speaker;
Influence vanishes like weather in the eye of a hurricane;
Elucidation meanders about like a hungry, lost coyote;
And inspiration is not more than a fading spot light.

Make happiness tantamount.
Penalties are not mandated
on your subordinates
for you, your self
are endowed with merry gifts.

Make corrections.
Prevalent mistakes minimize your greatness.

Though in some domains you have lost control,
life, as a whole, averages it out.

Express your voice
In tones of utter determination.
Use your limitless courage to put right
what you now bemoan.

************************

Here’s another “One Stop Poetry Challenges.” This this is the One Shoot Sunday – Independence Day, 2011.” In other words, Fourth of July Eve.

Also posted on:

Midweek Motif – Happiness

 

I wrote this back in 2001 for now Brig General William Thornton.