Tag: #vss365

  • Prompt poem: Suffering to birth a new star. Me & My Foreshadow

    Suffering to birth a new star
    6/3/23

    I don’t care if this isn’t real
    I’m just so glad you’re here

    Now shake with me Loosen
    your torment There
    is a bird like an ibis
    whose flight is motionless
    It swims against the vulturish night
    Carries suffering away to
    fuel the birth
    of a new star

    See? All is #achieved


    Me & My Foreshadow
    6/2/23

    She wandered years
    clawed out of body
    walked with her foreshadow
    nodded at ghosts in railroad cars

    A carny dead and alive
    took her skin to show
    a #crowd for admission

    The spotlight cast
    a lunacy of shadows
    round the dark perimeter
    Hers followed
    the world’s laws of light


  • poem – Feminine swords of proliferation stir in heart and hands of warriors

    Saltatory penetration
    from the earth back
    to the #wistful sky
    Feminine swords of proliferation stir
    in heart and hands of warriors
    Necessary pull away
    from necessary decay

    ~ LAFogle
    5/20/23

    #wistful #vss365

  • writing prompts: full to new moon in Capricorn and Aquarius

    beacon captive hill mountain balk egg duet rain fall devil

    January 18, 2022 to January 30, 2022

    from the full to the new moon in Capricorn and Aquarius



    The realization struck her like a beacon from the moon; held her captive in its lunacy, in the long trance of night. Flushes of rose and gold reached the earth first, outlining Hemlock Hill in amber glow. There. She’d prolong the scatter of violet light with ashes.


    I sang up the mountain,
    arpeggiating up
    a balkanized cord.
    Each step echoed
    its linear thread.
    Stumbling chromatic
    contradictions of blue
    and scarlet duets
    key the triad
    to strike at the top
    of the whole
    mountain.



    She heard the rain sizzle on their skin before finding them huddled together in the thick fog. Old Harry, Azazel, Belial, and Baal. But who was this new fallen devil? He was wearing an attractive meatsuit. “That’s Skroll,” Azazel said. “He’s in charge of the internet.”

  • writing prompts:  new to full moon in Capricorn 2022

    writing prompts: new to full moon in Capricorn 2022

    prompts: infinity tranquil solar perspicacity pop yawn hugs crisper dollops midnight

    January 2, 2022 to January 17, 2022

    from the new moon to the full moon in Capricorn


    You soar from sky
    to infinity in Blake’s
    grain, glisten like snowflake
    prisms, vapor altered
    states: ruby bronze
    azure chartreuse
    copper violet-rouge;
    Ephemeral bloodroot
    mulls on leaf mold
    and dew—Listen
    for the tap
    of bones when
    the fertile earth
    is ready for you.




    For each harsh word,
    I gained another tranquil
    ruffle on the lake, a solar
    marvel raring from a grayer day.
    I am the end intended, take in
    infrared, hug back the rays,
    appreciate the symbiotic
    interplay. You are the link
    that breaks these atoms
    into different shapes,
    my blood picks up the relics
    takes them to the places
    where they ionate to give
    my heart and marrow all
    the strength you could not
    spare to spare me. Take.
    Your best aim.



    “It’s called perspicacity. You explore, learn, reflect, and create with a comparably divergent drive. You’ll starve there. Actualize who you are and step into the light.” Maena crisply pierced the apple’s skin, tearing into its pulp before eyeing me. “Hungry?”



    Honesty grabs one hand, loyalty the other. Vertebral seams pop, the serpentine column dances toward a new center, landing in perse moments of exchange: phosphene stories of love and pain ignite the mind.

    The next words are butterflies.




    She yawned and threw the message into the icebox. Yowls, crackles, and hisses flooded the moment before she slammed the door. The icebox kept words chilled and sentiments on ice. Hugs from the crisper were non-existent. She cupped her hands under the faucet and splashed water over her eyes. From what she’d seen, this one could take some time to cool off.



    He felt the dollops of ink release and flow from some great telepathy of the sky; heard the phonological claps of thunder and mortal shock rain fractal words of the weary and fallen onto the page, like tears washing particles from a collective mind’s eye.




    At midnight,
    the witches gather
    and abdicate their veils,
    revel by the sconce
    of fearless perception
    on the winged misdivision
    of the adder and the newt;
    sing basilisk elegies and play,
    then fly away when lore
    gives way to darker hours.

  • writing prompts: from full to new moon in Sagittarius & Capricorn 2022

    prompts: barrage charm disguise quiet flashbacks reasonable spotlight passengers becoming renewals

    December 18, 2021 to January 1, 2022

    from the full moon to the new moon in Sagittarius & Capricorn



    The salesman used a barrage of charm to disguise his goal of extracting as much money as he could from her. She stood abruptly and announced she would return after lunch. “Wait!” He cried, “$100 off!” But she’d been advised beforehand: Don’t rush, read the fine print, and always be prepared to walk away.



    It’s a quiet connection now.
    Some nights, flashbacks blare
    and cough, their clamant yawps
    muffled by a stuffed shift.
    The redress alters me
    into a reasonable
    block of ice;
    thaw will come,
    internal, with hope
    renewed.


    The Ram

    A spotlight glances across the land,
    like twinkling stars to passengers
    headed east; The beast, it flies
    and reasons o’er the Black Sea.

    Ambassador Spectacular,
    hold on tight, don’t handle her;
    This chauffeur-alien won’t be fleeced.

    Backward, in the nick of sky,
    in dark absence of moonlight;
    it scans the clusters
    searching for its kind.


    “Das Zeichen des Bundes” from Genesis section of Augsburger Wunderzeichenbuch (ca. 1552)

    Words
    like tangerine spray glint,
    peel back a summer day when
    sunlight filtered longer
    through the pied air,
    becoming rainbows.

    But he never wants
    what he has,
    so he never gets
    what he wants;
    then you realize
    the circle disappears
    beyond the undying horizon.


    I’m proud of us: Strong
    and conscientious,
    hard-working;
    Our love renewals,
    delight for life,
    through growth, detach
    suspicion as we do from
    feeling what is good
    about a friend.

    We truly are
    each other’s people
    Agreed to expect
    our loyal best;
    To cast away
    sorrow.

  • prompts: gravity mantle steeple constellations starved strings floated pause guide enemy risk

    prompts: gravity mantle steeple constellations starved strings floated pause guide enemy risk

    from the new moon to the full moon in Sagittarius

    gravity mantle
    Smoke & mirrors collect us
    as royal subjects.
    In imbalance of power,
    lateral thinkers
    bow in gravity

    It is not weight,
    does not dismantle
    It attracts—
    defines compromise,
    value in effort—
    Willing past the win
    of resistance

    Yet the planets seem lighter than this phone.


    steeple

    Imagination questions without fear,
    for no one is listening with an ear to control:
    to scold as parent or toddler,
    to ostracize as jailers of faith,
    or primitive posturing for rank;
    to be revered rather than injured,
    to be obeyed rather than swayed.

    In our steeple of curiosity,
    tolerance for ourselves and
    tolerance for others
    gains accordance.


    constellations starved

    She grew up playing in the woods, orienting by sun, trees, water, constellations; but was lost here, starved for organic connection. Many had no use for nature but to consume, & nature had no use for them. They’d gladly choose a virtual life if she could only perfect the forebrain.


    strings floated

    She sent vibrational
    strings of thought
    looping out
    Tethered balloon animals
    floated, reshaped,
    and popped.
    One transformed
    into a dove
    and flew away
    on a silvery gleam.

    She let it go.


    paused guide

    Trauma paused us.
    We go back, reenact
    where stuck. Neural arms,
    flailing to connect, reflect
    near easy lovers: fear,
    unfairness,
    primitive defenses.
    Our scarry attempts
    to block off, protect
    Disconnect like cell death.

    A plan will guide us,
    laurel us through
    genesis.


    enemy risk

    The enemy-risk effect of the virus was isolation and inactivity. Productivity and trade slowed as the needs of survival shifted. But to Hunter, they were the real enemy and the prey. Meanwhile, all the predative profiteers laughed—a nervous laugh.

  • prompts: kind stuck spouse vulnerable worry journal conversations worry crisis worthy ribbon oracle rival

    November 19, 2021 to December 4, 2021

    from the full moon in Scorpio to the new moon in Sagittarius


    Jake choked off his last shred of objectivity with piercing confidence and rode off into some kind of loner sunset, with only the curtains to hold his hand. Our shared wonder dismissed as magical thinking, wheeled away for correction, argued away as naive—just to argue.


    stuck
    Kill or be killed, child.
    180 shots per intended minute.
    Unregistered plastic bag.
    Probable conclusion without a scratch.
    Presumed protection with intent
    to mutilate. Murdered property.
    Insurrection.
    Hip-hop cowboy, good gang, posse.
    Annie, Get Your Gun and a permit.
    Marissa, the wall has rights.
    Stand your ground unless stuck
    interpreting the lunatic
    interpreting the reason
    interpreting the law


    albatross photo


    The wandering albatross bow,
    widen their wings and scream
    at the sky; they circle, preen
    and snap at their spouse
    in a mating dance for life.

    Three million miles
    of soaring the skies,
    ever to return
    to the island
    of their love
    and birth.



    Vulnerable, the reliant pilot hides in a pride of clouds/
    seen, the sun comes out/ the complex speaks to the complex/
    lowers a bridge open to valuation, closed to faulted criticism/
    subject and object scatter, hide in the mirroring sky/
    light faces the page, not the eyes



    Thanks giving:
    Let the worry fall away
    from your clear eyes,
    For the world turns
    and we are in it;
    Should joy escape your mind,
    allow release to recommit
    compliments of reprieve
    from lifelessness.

    I am your cherisher
    thankful for each
    delicate moment.


    journal photo

    Wake and tell us what’s good, love, as the daylight
    reaches your mind. Promise to snuggle in deeper,
    cross the heart on your chest and hope to die.
    Code your secrets in my journal
    where I can read between the lines.





    “I had conversations, but the upper hand of the masher, phlegm, and baffled stranger would not salute. And the agro. Everything I said was ammo. So I gave him ammo. All of it.”

    Cere opened the lid to find furry teal blotches moldering the tops of the apricots.

    Worry eats at your thoughts. I needed to be done with it.”



    “Recognize crisis mode. Deflection is a way to cope, but it’s pretext. We eventually have to move past it to understand the dissatisfaction that leads to a major life change.”

    “Huh. I’ll think about that,” Greg said. “You’re not mad?”

    “I’m working on a new perspective,” she said, taping up the last box. The movers would be arriving any time now. “Ultimately, I’m on your side and hope we get to share a better future. Call me after you’ve answered your own call.”



    two crows photo




    You are shiny,
    like teeth bared
    through organic
    murmuration.

    Is it the love shown
    or the love deserved
    that makes us worthy?

    Two lorn brood
    recuperate
    in innate pattern,
    flockwise;
    their calls imitate
    a wildish belonging.


    ribbon

    If I were a ribbon,
    I’d curl around your finger
    to remind you
    that I am always
    there. In spills of ink,
    siftings of sand, traces,
    and twisted strands of hair
    Snug between the wanton
    hand of death steepling in prayer.

    If I were your ribbon.




    oracle

    She placed her hand on the young king’s chest and closed her eyes: He floated in a river of blood, tethered to a casketful filled with paper money.
    Fire cremated the land into black ghosts pillowing the lusty blaze. Through the roar, he heard his name as a boy dipped a toe in from the shore.

    The oracle opened her eyes and locked gaze with the young king. “You have enough for now. Do not invade. Take a vacation with your son.”




    In returning warmth
    that refuses to leave
    the season,
    mistle breaks,
    disturbs a winter silence.
    Leave your contortions
    where misery can find its
    mirthless tune. I’m here
    in life’s harmoniacal quietus,
    a rival of the snow, parched
    as the ground, threshing
    its mortal boon.

  • prompts: sugarcoat fingerprint primrose retrograde saga dormant hypothetical implores plumes resolve normalize shame

    November 4, 2021 to November 18, 2021

    from the new moon to the full moon in Scorpio

    sugarcoat
    The sugarcoat fairy has a white wand that sprays a sweet powder onto desserts, glass rims, and hard truths.
    Often followed by the elusive tooth fairy who sneaks in to collect your teeth and the occasional sock.


    fingerprint

    fingerprint
    o your voice
    unlocks
    cliche
    ridges, whorls
    veins, shape
    disturbs the air
    in a lover’s mouth
    vowels
    of
    admission
    quicken, thicken
    the formant
    folds deep
    in throat
    open and close
    tremerous
    sympathetic
    bones and body
    lash and tongue




    How fast you move, swift Mercury
    how slowly your myth wanes
    Appearing to regress backward
    as you pass in retrograde

    Venus relaxes on cowslip wine
    made from the primrose
    of youth, when a paused
    message of love was new


    saga
    “Sorry about that! It’s a monthly saga. She sought help but her insurance might as well be a coupon for 10% off Midol.
    Her support group changed locations without telling her and, oh no.., I can’t find my wallet—“

    “GO!” The clerk said, standing in the rubble. “LEAVE!”


    dormant

    “The term ghosting is an insult to ghosts.”

    Cere cut deep into the burning bush, removing dead weight from the dormant plant to stimulate growth in the spring.

    “All you can do is treat yourself better than that—care well for yourself—and love comes back. New love.”


    hypothetical implores

    It hurts. The expectation.
    But it was a lipless hypothetical notion.
    A narrative unspoken neither guides nor implores action to reach that forever ending, where pride belongs to everyone.


    plumes photo

    plumes resolve
    plumes of lament
    $2k in car repairs
    filigreed wreathy elegy
    time = money + interest
    shearing scytheless stylist
    resolve mends or ends
    in determination

    thoughts
    like a fresh
    haircut


    normalize

    “Not everything has to be normalized. You don’t comb the beach looking for the least exceptional rock.” I looked at Ash. “Sorry, the graveyard, seeking unremarkable stones.”

    Something like a smile broke through Ash’s stolid face. “Or the bones of sane people.”


    shame

    I’m a firestarter
    A ram bored with shame
    Blood cut off from tight reins
    Cold hand fumbles matchstick

    A shrug-off warms up
    this sympathy dance
    Great romance cues
    the strings, notes
    like tears drop
    Douse a flame

    Relax the grip
    gentled baton

  • prompts: trust signifies cafe innocence intimacy accidentalist hurt foreshadow sleepwalk

    October 20, 2021 to November 1, 2021

    from the full moon to the new moon in Libra / Scorpio


    trust

    Back to the wilder
    from collapse
    under stacks
    of undecayed
    inorganic
    matter—
    It’s all temporary

    Underground digs
    in sentiment trapped
    Prone to lucid dreaming’s
    involuntary maw
    Steps into the yawn
    of your own pitfall

    Take to the trees
    like Tarzan—climb
    your agile mind—
    swing from trust-
    worthy vines


    signifies

    In his ghast and livid beam, no colors absorb; absence signifies his subject in virous torrents of rayed devastation.
    I am spared—my eyes cauterized at first sight. Mere ash beside a vacuum, patient for the Spring. Cremains in the kindness of a friend.


    cafe
    I’m a tourist in their cafe
    where they talk over a good song;
    Collectors of the medium/ who trade
    the pain of kids who don’t belong.

    It bounces off the reclaimed beams—
    factoids, brag, gimcrackery;
    lathers popularity
    without a sole
    analogy/ of us

    on the island of loneliness


    innocence

    Innocence is a gift—mingled in commitment—of passage.

    It has been slain on the altar of infant helplessness sulked in vengeance.

    It has been saved by the certainty of power relinquished in permanence.

    One day you won’t give your heart to bargainers.


    intimacy

    At the corners of their bed sate epic tales of wind, fire, earth, and sky loving the anthropomorphized form of their senses, conjured from the aromatic pyre; a tinder nest, intimacy the tender.

    Not even the fires of hell refined worked so well to warm the dead.



    She was an ‪accidentalist in one great big song about obedience.
    More deistic than contrarian, because those small-town panderers just couldn’t be the gatekeepers of divinity.
    They sounded more like creations of comedy.


    hurt

    “You’re being emotional and kinda paranoid,” Maena said. “Read the situation like a book.”

    “Like look at a few words, jump to conclusions, and cry into my pillow?” Cere asked.

    Maena smiled. “No, we don’t read books like the words are going to ‪hurt us.”


    foreshadow
    In the afterglow
    of a gamma-ray
    burst/ in her hard
    bright light

    His silhouette whistles—
    harsh foreshadow,
    blocking the lumen;
    inkling black hole,

    a cold hero’s trope


    sleepwalk

    I sleepwalk & talk
    expose the bare truth
    that fear & pain
    hang from the pall
    that covers the life of day

    Mantle worn by soothsayer
    who blankets infantile babe

    There, in low waves
    while the mind hides
    memories, ring words
    of the dissembler:
    vestments
    unpicked to rags

    ©2021 LAFogle / Lesley Ann Fogle

  • prompts: lock mock sock war store shore score door lore wake gores glib alight choir

    September 6, 2021 to September 19, 2021

    from the new moon to the full moon in Virgo


    locks
    My hair smells faintly of you living in the strands
    The memory locks on briefly,
    tightens in a playful pull for your reaction


    mock
    The wolf, starved, eyed the food left at the door of civilization. A steel bowl garnered with rules.

    The mockingbird, its acute trills a duality unheard by the wolf, laughed and flew away.


    sock
    “Try at least three times, really try and without pride, to talk to your friend and try to mend things.”
    Grandma’s fingers moved deftly to the clicks of the knitting needles.
    She paused to hold the big red sock up to the light.
    “Darn it. After that, you might cut ties but don’t carry resentment.
    Poison in your well is just as draining as holding on to trouble that can’t be solved.”


    war
    Strangers now but wearier, warier specie raised by sponges fashioned into mothers; wolves who left the pack in search of mate finding some single cell finale of fate; it was a self-exiled finality unlike the busy sorting aftermath through war or disease


    store
    a shortage of mason jars lids during the pandemic
    a well-built corner store on every block
    cherries, apple butter, cheese, and greens
    lidded, rezoned into brightly packaged
    sugar and fat, three for a dollar
    leftover cottonseed once dumped in the river


    shore
    One foot on the shore side of Scylla
    A boat of chum, dog toys, and catnip
    some chocolate for the lady and the palest hyacinth
    matches and a thimbleful of gasoline


    score
    The score was 3 to 4:
    quarter notes bending into position,
    nodding to the stretch
    of wholes ready at the relay.
    Down the linear track in wait,
    a chorus of eighths eager to pace,
    excite, divide, and propagate
    into a feverish, rapturous finish


    door
    This broken heart opens like a ‪door
    Death metaphor, transform

    Ashes on the floor and a wreath
    of nosegays and sycamore leaves

    Through the door to deity
    Entrance or exit, war or peace


    door
    Mr. Wentithird turned, spotted Ms. Theid, smiled, walked toward her, caught sight of her entourage, paled, checked his watch, then eyed the door to the stairwell. For a moment nothing moved but eyebrows: Mrs. Crane’s raised, Miss Applebomb’s left brow arched, and Ms. Theid’s bunched at the browline.


    wake
    She listened though I’d said nothing worth saying. Even when my words in wake of sleep fell easy,
    she never asked me to explain; said the stringing sound of poesy is the only worthwhile philosophy,
    so I stayed. As I was never made her student nor patient, I remain.


    lore
    Grief takes the very mystery of things and mines the awe; leaves you with a ball of unsorted confusion.

    It doesn’t bounce or return—there is no further lore; a hard dull carbon thud.


    gores
    The art, history, and monuments of battle
    never quite depict the blood shed
    Rivers of ephemeral red
    Infernal tributaries of devastated
    communities

    The noun ‘champion’ gores the verb
    from the the peaceful heart of [hu]man


    glib
    I missed the soft side; he who called looking for lifelines aglitter, to talk in poesy meandering the marveling day: a language-loving philosopher.

    I waited for him at the Green Mill, ill-prepared for the glib aloof lounge singer who sang of his own beauty. It was the wrong night for this mood.


    alight
    The sky, black and blue, through milky haze;
    Stars alight on strings of night and candle flames.
    Our bodies tucked in beds of softest grass—
    light years from the past—
    in the spiral of Orion’s arms.


    choir
    A choir of highs and lows
    with all notes stacked
    and tween, moves
    in untold ratio
    with everything
    living

    We are resonated fools
    in a sea of waves
    enduring, brief ballads
    fossilizing in the deep

    ©2021 LAFogle / Lesley Ann Fogle