don't believe me just swatch

This week at The Miss Rumphius Effect Tricia asked us to write a "timeline" poem.  I thought it was the ideal moment to write about some old watches I was dispatching during this my Summer of Declutter.  I'll say no more since I'm having a devil of a time with formatting today, except that our Poetry Friday host is none other than my local friend Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference. 

don't believe me just swatch

1

NYC 1986

sidewalk knockoff

of subway art

radiant, baby, in black and red

Thanks, Keith

 

2

London 94 and love is all around

on a Sunday I buy a new watch,

wear it to some weddings

but no one we know needs a funeral

we’re lucky

3

timetumbler 1996 flung

downunderbetween

weightless in the air over oceans

repatriated, do I come out

more polished?

 

4

Caterpillar Classroom 2001

sewing machine runs in fits and starts

patches of orangecoralpink & one red heart

4-year-olds keep me in stitches:

Mother’s Day quilt for my wrist

-Heidi Mordhorst 2015

 all rights reserved

photos from Swatch website

forward...smooCH!

In case you're just joining us, I and several intrepid poets (including you!) are writing 20 new poems this month in the Forward...MarCH Poetry CHallenge.  I've selected 20 verbs ending in -CH (the list is here) and today's word is "smooCH".  I guess I was in the mood for birthday kisses....

This one is a double challenge--it's crossposted over at the Monday Poetry Stretch with  Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect, where the CHarge is to write an ottava rima.

Birthday Ottava Rima

The day approaches like a kiss,

a smooch from the universe.

"Welcome, honeybunch! Follow your bliss!

Look what’s in your purse:

shiny swatch of that and this,

Book of Blessing, chapter and verse,

pebble and penny and pocketwatch

for hours of wishes and hopscotch.“

The day begins each year like a kiss,

a smooch from the universe.

“Forward, honeybunch! Follow your bliss!

There's nothing to do but immerse

yourself in this life.  Nothing's amiss--

or at least it could always be worse."

Bewitched by blessing, I follow a hunch:

I invite the whole world over for lunch.

HM 2015

all rights reserved

Who's smooching who today?   Leave your poem in the comments or send me an email.

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Donna sends us a kiss-shaped diamante today:

Smooch

Soft, tender,

Healing, soothing, loving

Good-morning, all better, good-bye, I love you, good-night

Teasing, chuckling, tickling

Loud, whiskery

Grandpa’s smooch!

-- Donna JT Smith

Next up is Mary Lee, who surprises with this slime-borne kiss (ew cool):

SNAIL

My snail is mostly foot.
His mouth is really small.
So does he scale, or does he smooch
the glass of the fish tank wall?


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Charles's animal smooch is less slime and more slobber!

RECIPROCATION

When I smooch my pooch

She slobbers me back,

I love being smothered

In her puppy attack.

Hee hee hee--Besame Smoocho!

Besame (No) Smoocho

A kiss is a peck or a
passionate surrender.

A smooch is not a kiss--
a smooch is an event.

Onomatopoeia
as performance art.

--Diane Mayr

And from far-off Utah, Kate Coombs joins the CHallenge!  Here's her "smooCH" poem (haven't we all known a guy like this?).

That One Guy

He’s smooth with his smooch
but not with his lines.
If he’d just keep quiet
he’d do fine.
First the ladies smile
and then they frown.
If he’d play silent film star
he’d win hands down.

—Kate Coombs

Carol is also joining the smoochfest with this one--it's so romantic!


Snowman Smooch

My snowman looked so forlorn.
He needed a mate to weather the storm.
I asked the children down the street
to find a partner for him to meet.
They molded and sculpted a beautiful one.
She came alive in the morning sun.
Then, her heart quickly melted away
as Snowman gave her a smooch that day.

--Carol Varsalona

Joy bring us a tiny mousie smooch:

I have a little mouse.
Kissie is his name.
He eeks and squeaks
and makes smooching sounds
whenever he sees a dame.

And now, in catching-up tour-de-force, Kate uses 7 of the words so far (plus 7 extras) in a poem as big as the 

Universe

The universe preaches, it’s giving us speeches
in words launching morning, like day moon, tree waking,
night going, clouds lighting, sky bluing, dawn breaking.
The universe stretches, it marches along,
sketching in daisies and wind and birdsong.
The universe twitches, it sews and unstitches,
with frog croaks and brushstrokes of reeds it unhitches,
with bug crawls and seedfalls and splashes in ditches.
It reads us the planets and points out the ants,
it watches the branches and fusses with plants.
Sky bleaching, sea reaching, the universe talks—
I listen to each of its beetles and hawks,
its message of bright and high hopes as I walk.

—Kate Coombs 

What a show-off, and I mean that in the best possible way.  Like in a Gerard Manley Hopkins way.  Golly.

I want to thank all of the participants so far for giving me this fabulous birthday gift--the Gift of Poetry!

forward...stretCH!

This is Day 2 of our Forward...MarCH CHallenge.  By the end of MarCH I will have written 20 new poems for CHildren, and you will have added who knows how many more! 

Our word today is "stretCH" and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect for faithfully offering a Monday Poetry StretCH most weeks to all who would partake.  CHeck it out --we're having scallops this week!

(removed)

HM 2015
all rights reserved

And now for a really good laugh...

StretCH yourself today and leave your "stretch" poem in the comments or send it by email!  I'd love to add yours to the MarCH CHallenge board (and remember, there's a prize for the StretCHiest MarCHer!).

First to join in today is Charles Waters, who ought to go out sans Dan now and then!

MAUREEN

I stretch my neck to be seen by Maureen

So she’ll notice me at last.

Got a fresh haircut, new contact lenses,

Worn out clothes are in the past.

She catches my eye, smiles, gives me a wave

I wave back fast as I can

Until she busts out laughing with her friends

She waved to my best friend Dan.

(c) Charles Waters 2015 all rights reserved.

Diane offers this tiny number--is it her stretch?  or her cat's?

6:45 alarm
a very un-lady-like
stretch

Donna surprises with this one about letting your insides show through writing.  I love the title.

Little-By-Inch

I wrote for myself
And some to the sky;
I wrote as if no one should
Hear me walk by.
Little by inch,
My thoughts opened wider
Till someone exclaimed,
“We can see what's inside her!”
No one was laughing,
They didn’t leave,
Everyone stayed there;
I heard myself heave
a sigh of relief,
And then I wrote more
and started a stretch
that opened a door -
A door that will only
close at the end when -
my “Once upon” time
with flourish of pen
concludes with “happily”,
“ever” and “after”
And signs off "Sincerely,
Word-happy Crafter".

Donna Smith

And from Mary Lee, a big question about little, faraway things:

PERSPECTIVE

Orion's arms and legs and sword
stretch clear across the sky.

Yet if I hold my thumb to him
he seems to be that high.

Why?


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015  

Joy joins in with a hint of spring:

johnny-jump-ups stretch
smiling faces toward the wind
jumping up and down.   

 Thanks to all  for playing!