Tongue Tied?

    With thanks to Mag 100, where Tess gave us an image of a sculpture by Jason deCaries Taylor.

Fun Thoughts For A Monday Morning

Tess gave us another B & W photo to set our imaginations going this week, as befits that black and white Magpie bird which figures in her blog title. I tend not to see things in black and white, so here's where my Friedlander photo details took the Jinksy mind...

DON'T JUMP!

A king in his palace, a pig in his sty
each have the same distance
between them and the sky!

Water Music

Colour me blue in shades of rain or sky

when clouds scud in window-painted reflections

on clear, glass-green panes of light, and rills

of singing water rush a stream of music

in waterfall cascades about my ears;

liquid thoughts to flow and feed the muse

who waits in arid expectation of life

filled to the brim with their soft sounds…

A muted colour palette for Poetry Jam  who asked us to colour our lives.

Dingbat!

I hereby declare that my animal name
has to be one which is more of a game-

an imaginary creature you won't find for real!
I know, I'm a  Dingbat! That's a name with appeal.

The ding of my bell is as good as a song,
and with bat ears to listen how could I go wrong?

My bat wings can glide with a sense of direction
which is second to none, thanks to sonar detection.

If I hang upside down I can then be objective,
for I'm sure it may help me see life in perspective.

'Down' can be 'Up' in the blink of an eye -
with a flap of my wings, the  limit's the sky!



At  IGWRT, Fireblossom asked for our inside animal to emerge, but mine is trapped in the imagination, as is every true Dingbat since time began...

X 2 C?

IGWRT's Friday challenge , which I've now got round to reading, asked for a  poem written in less than 5 minutes, and including the word 'ecstacy'...
How could I resist another joke?

Ecstacy
is you and me
together
by the Xmas tree,
where X stands for a little kiss
without the need for mis-
tletoe!

Watch out!

Do you wear a watch? Does it rule your days and haunt your dreams? Tick, tock…the rule of clock surrounds you, turns the screw. Once you’ve learned to tell the time, that face, with hands that sweep the hours away, becomes a threat to freedom, while it keeps you moving on towards the future…

The detail is from a image by Lee Friedlander, 1966. Linked to Magpie Tales today, and  on Friday, it will serve for Flash 55!

Sweet

Sweet dreams, baby, 

may they always be
full of love and laughter. 

Blessings rain on thee!

Theme Thursday chose the prompt and gave us a graphic full of hearts, which I've adapted as a picture frame for this little gem of babyhood!

The Call Of The Sea

This detail from the Magpie Tales #95 illustration by Mostafa Habibi set my mind in motion...And I've also linked it to Imaginary Garden for their Open Link Monday.

Neptune's Kingdom curved around the globe;
waves whispered lyrics mermaids sang
in coral caves, when everywhere was water.
Their soft soprano salt-sprayed notes
danced above the deep wave’s roar
as ocean currents orchestrated music
in melodic symphonies, whose sounds
form a background to our lives today.
Without their ancient lays, where would we be?

Flash Fiction?

Theme Thursday gave us an interesting graphic today, and I decided 160 characters would wrap it up nicely!

A forest fire hides him in wreaths of smoke. Flames leap ever higher and devour trees like a hungry dragon, as this modern day St George battles for supremacy.

It's all in the details...

They sat opposite each other, with eyes downcast. Unappetizing sandwiches and lukewarm tea added nothing to ease the situation. Divorce was on both their minds.

In the tradition of MonkeyMan, I've used a mere 160 characters to capture the mood of this snippet from the Magpie Tales illustration - 'Lunch' by George Tooker, 1964, Columbus Museum of Art - which Tess has used today. 

But I couldn't resist honing in on other parts of this intriguing painting, so full of stories...

Morning light
filtered through the glass,
but coffee
was needed
before his eyes could focus
on its brilliance.

But HOW did the G-Man get in on the act? Look carefully! Hehehe!

An Inner Plan

 

Time's palette turns, perception alters around a basic structure. Dreams evolve in technicolour tapestries which  meld for a moment, to decorate our world.

An orchard's harvest falls, and feeds the soil with richness gifted to the generations as yet unborn. This urge to propagate is inherent in every living cell of man, of beast, of plant. Since worlds began this inner plan has played its predetermined part. We can't deny, nor start to understand its complexity, merely stand in awe..

This is for In Tandem #21, and Theme Thursday.

Time

Life In Motion

Teeth engaged, cogs circle in disdain.
Not in smooth running, round-wheeled ways
but spasmodic clicks, with tricks to trip
the shape-shifting focus in a mind
searching for the calm centre of Now.

Binding past and future, pendulum thoughts
swing in Time's cradle, but do not
be lulled by their rhythm. Life's jagged edges
await to jolt the complacent dreamer
and catapult them into the present tense.

Imaginary Garden asks us to explore the realms of the metaphysical today - here's my attempt, also linked to dVerse and Poetry Pantry.

Walled In?

Phantom shapes
crowd our awareness,
supplicants
who beg for
attention. "Please acknowledge
this, our existence?"

Translucent,
these ghostly beings
murmuring
in whispers
are an insistent army
who cannot find peace.

So our thoughts
seek recognition,
as they pass
through our minds,
clamouring to be noticed
until we pay heed.

This was sparked by today's Mapie Tales' photo by Christine Donnier-Valentin. Thanks, Tess!

Look And Listen?

Fairies, fragile winged, fast-flying,
brilliantly outshine the lights
reflected by the sparkling dew-drops
left on blossoms overnight.

Pollen-laden stamens glisten,
surrounded by the glowing gems
of velvet flowers' scented mantles
swirling crenelated hems.

Gladly, bees collect this treasure,
toiling morning until night;
but fairies, far too busy playing,  
gambol to their heart’s delight.

If you listen, still and silent,
you may hear their tinkling tones,
see the showers of golden sun-motes
as fairies frolic while bees drone.

Chelsea Bednar's design, which I used for In Tandem, immediately made me think of this poem I wrote for my great niece, when she was much younger than she is now! Thanks, Chelsea!

Sparks

He meets She;
lips touch and sparks fly,
together
for ever
in a lifelong partnership,
evolved around love.

Tess at Magpie Tales gave us an unusual picture of a kiss for this week, which I have translated into a 'feel' factor, complete with a shadorma. ♥

"Incantation"

Imaginary Garden for real toads had a musical prompt for Friday, but as soon as I read the words "Sometimes, I write about how experiencing live music feels", I knew I would have to use this piece for my post. I saw this group, back in the eighties, play live at Chichester Festival Theatre. For those who don't know, its modern architecture is closer to the original form of 'theatre in the round', and the accoustics were incredible when Incantation played this music.

                      

(Sorry this video no longer works, but  try this link instead...

Cacharpaya - Incantation - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSkYpzikcdM )

Below are two poems I wrote as a result, and I'm leaving them just as they hit the page all those years ago, when this music spoke to me for the first time.

Incantation 1

Tarka, Quena, Drum, make the ether thrum.
The theatre's high vaulted dome would be the sky,
if the pipes were home, in Bolivia.

Joyous, noisome sound echos far around
and struggles to unleash the ties
that hold it earthbound, under skies that beckon.

Incantation 2

Bright music swirls around. Pan pipes, drums and flutes
hurling notes into the air, that soar on high and hover there,
then dive down helter-skelter chutes,
to the depths of the bass drum notes .

The ancient rhythms pound, robbing mind of thought;
soul and body both repeat the ancient music's dancing beat
that all the instruments have caught
with their glorious, rainbow sound.

Non-poem For Toads?

Thoughts blur one into the other, like vibrant inks on wet paper, enticing my imagination to drift aimlessly hither and yon, grasping at phantoms and I am at a loss as to how they may be captured in words. Undefined, these hover on the outskirts of my awareness, misty, mocking my underlying need to communicate.  How do I prove to myself I am not the only inhabitant in this eerie world of Not-Quite-Here, on days like today, when my thoughts take on the jumbled aspect of coloured pieces in a kaleidoscope, but refuse to coalesce into coherent shapes, or patterns?

In Kerry's Wednesday Challenge for Toads, she asked us to write a 'prose poem' - I think I have painted one! ♥

River Of Life

by Jacqui Binford-Bell

Sometimes life
asks for choice between
'yes' and 'no',
but it is
overridden by the flow
of willful currents.

Our free will
surrenders to them,
their rapids.
We are tossed
in a maelstrom of water
waiting for the calm.

But perhaps
we'll see the river
chose the route
we needed
to achieve the best result
for all, without help.

Thanks to Jacqui for allowing In Tandem to use her work.

A Plea In Two Parts

Don't look back
to a past that might have been,
when in quiet moments
you have chance to dream.
Feel no regret for words unspoken;
guard your memories, as a token
of a tender love
that's lasted through the years,
and love like that
shouldn't give you cause for tears.

Now the space between us lengthens
as I watch you turn,
and start to walk away...
I hope that my will strengthens,
for my being longs to call to you
"Please stay!"
while I watch you turn,
and start to walk away...
Don't look back,
now it's time for us to part,
for if you do,
you might see a broken heart...

Once again, Tess at Magpie Tales has got me going with her unusual choice of photograph, which eventually produced this rather odd result, for a Jinksy....
And of course, Open Link Monday ties in so well at Imaginary Garden...

What A Belter!

In my parent's flat where I lived before I got married, Orion was framed by my bedroom window. It was always special to me, since the time when a science teacher at the Northern Grammar School had us girls meet up on a dark night, so she could point out all the constellations.
She also made sure we could repair fuses, replace an iron’s heating element and change a tap washer.
Thanks for the memory go to Dr FTSE and Imaginary Garden, Here’s my first Orion! LOL.


Belt of Orion beyond
bedroom window, lead my dreams,
made three diamond points of light
a focus in the darkness,
as my imagination
re-invented the Hunter,
strongbow ready, primed to shoot.