TEAM TWO

PLEASE DO NOT POST HERE UNLESS YOU ARE IN TEAM TWO.

Larry
Potp
Karla

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PROMPTS:

1. Tanka
2. Poverty
3. Include the words "just before dawn"
4. 35-40 syllables
5. Wild Card (any poem)
6. Must have 10 lines.
7. Etheree. (normal or reversed)
8. Include the words "coffee" and "bench"
9. Must mention a word that tells you what the weather is/was like. (rain, tornado, storm, hot etc)
10. Double haiku/senryu

GO!!

1. Tanka

When she sees the moth
struggling to reach the light
her heart yeans for love
one that would draw him to her
and melt together - ignite!

2. Poverty

She had wealth within her reach,
arising with cotton sheets and cherry blossoms
upon fair skin-
yet her heart was poor,
for love was a linnet bird
that had not serenaded her
no matter how many times
she practiced the song of hope.

3. "just before dawn"

I came awake
just before dawn,
slipped out of bed
careful not to awaken
my wife and cat
from their innocent dreams.

This emerging day will see
a proposition unclaimed
until its time was ripened
so it is well to let them sleep
to witness foolishness by me
would not start their day well.

4. 35-40 syllables

Rain flirts with dreamers,
who contemplate the dregs
from the bottom of their
coffee mugs,
a self-fulfilling
prophecy-
today bears
stubborn remains
yet will wash
away.

5. Wild card

Rotten grapes cannot be eaten
Yet when distilled
they are excellent for wine.

Suffer the difficult child
It is your modeling
he will emulate and which
determines the vintage.

6. Must have 10 lines.

Your poetry was always handwritten,
always. Even when phone calls interrupted
your daily routine of haikus and meditation,
even when the world seemed to board up
every window in your home and you lost inspiration.
There was never a secretary hired- you were the only author of a life you spent trying to understand. You thrived on papyrus until 1999, until your breaths became shallow and legs became paralyzed. Hundreds of reams litter your living room,
your life now waits to be read...

7. Etheree

Ten
living
men and boys
came to a space -
clearing in the woods -
without care for danger
stepped into a well laid trap:
bullets tore through helmets and heads,
battle over with no shots returned;
ten men and boys were dragged to a mass grave.

8. Include the words "coffee" and "bench"

We were incompetent lovers,
unable to reach beyond barriers
and create clarity within each
other's hearts.
In a New York City haze,
cautiously sitting on a moldy
wooden bench,
sipping on lukewarm coffee,
we tried again to critically
solve the problem of
ineptitude.

9. Weather word

Rain flies up
the fire rages
trees crash exploding.
Men who jump from planes
surround the blaze
armed with shovels
armed with foam
but exposed to hell.

The storm that rages
does little to slow
the conflagration;
they must fall back
form a new perimeter
start the containment
after yielding up lives
of trees, animals and hope.

10. Double haiku/senryu

Thunder startles us,
rebelling outside these walls,
rage of injustice.

In the House of God,
we are safe from all tremors,
singing to calm gales.

2-1. Tanka

I watch you asleep
hold my hand over my mouth
so that my breath wind
does not waken you, my love,
you must come to me uncalled.

2-2 Poverty

Living as nomads,
swaddling her son
in tainted rags,
for she must keep
moving toward land
that will not forsake
them.
Home is where their
hearts beat in unison,
though she still fears
her child will never
build a foundation
for his dreams.

2-3.

Just before dawn this poem
was called for by baby rainbow
but it is only now finding
the freedom to be released
on unsuspecting poets -
"no mas."

2-4.

Afternoon croaks
at the back of my
lungs-
my teeth need to be
brushed, my dog fed,
my homework done;
time is lapsing
while I try to straighten
my posture
before sunset.

2-5. Wild card

Meet me on the Riverwalk
we'll dance and drink
until the dawn rises
over the walls of the Alamo.
Then we'll salute the gallant
and order breakfast
and fall back to our room
exhausted but ready
for the coming evening
when we'll do it all again.

2-6

Anyone can shorten their thoughts,
broadcast a pithy paragraph
by removing any depth-
relinquishing emotions to nature
evading true humanity
vacating a sacred identity
isolating themselves from analysis
avoiding problematic finds
trusting that all will heed the message
excusing the excitability of further words.

2-7. Reverse Etheree

Ten men and boys were found in a mass grave
no clues to the killers but they knew
the murderous clan who'd take out
the lives of friends and comrades
plans were laid to get them
revenge would be sweet
circles of death
coil like snakes
no end
left.

2-8

Coffee stains our
neatly pressed collars,
as we become content
with resting on
abandoned benches,
spilling poison with each
kiss, struck
by what's forbidden
in the sky.

2-9. Weather word

Spring is pleasant in Houston
for the three weeks it lasts -
rain and wind, fair or foul;
still, not the boiling pot
of summer that immediately
brings to every face a scowl.

2-10 Double Senryu

screams in the bathroom,
a girl calling the police;
vulgar on the run

one paramedic
wearing white gloves, holds her head;
dad comes home and prays

3-1. Tanka

Yellowstone trembles
over super volcano
threatens to blow out
ash and fire across ten states:
hurry or miss Old Faithful.

EDIT

3-2

We are defined by our neediness,
yet our hands are muddy with earth,
with human will, with a beating heart
that will not be quieted at dusk.
Some say we are poor because we
are imperfect humans,
yet I say it is this that makes us
even more valued,
a splendid blessing to behold.

3-3

Just before dawn
the flowers in my backyard
awoke to say good-bye
to the moon.

3-4. 35-40 syllables

My teen child comes to me
eyes filled with glee
tells me of latest pup
that she's patched up.

Now here's an adult
wisdom to consult
for sniffling cat.
Where did she get that?

3-5

Homework,
you are the notebooks on my desk.
the assignment, I have yet to finish.
the pencils, I have yet to use,
but the keyboard where I type
and the music of Mozart.
In you, I find myself lost.

3-6

However much I struggle
to remember the good times
it is the fear of the future
for my children I dread
and the world they must endure

Let the metes and bounds of war
be drawn with narrowing sticks
let the fields grow lush again
where tanks have torn the soil
it is too little to ask - yet I do.

3-7 Etheree

a
tiny
but little
but more little
than the little and
tiny but little thing
that that tiny and little
thing - does to me, is more little
than what that tiny and little thing
would do if it was not tiny little.

3-8. coffee bench

"Even though
I sat on the bench
I wanted to play,"
his true voice.

It made my daughter
sigh in compassion
as she sipped her
caramel coffee cream.

3-9

Hot comes to mind,
but it doesn't feel like it's boiling,
cold is out of the question
I guess "all right,"
it's what defines it.

The weather it's fine.

3-10. Double haiku-senryu

The path curves and up
along the edge of a cliff
eyes closed - smell the pine.

Snow melts rivulets
dripping down over the side
splashing wakes me up.

4-1 Tanka

silver light appears
afore the shores and the sea
like a thread of hair
from a maiden in a cliff
braiding a road to her love.

4-2 Poverty

Canned soup, saltine crackers,
jello packets... we never had
sophisticated mouths.
Yet you have taught me life
through every word the
tongue considers.
I am rich from your offerings,
from meaning that has no
label or distinct taste.

4-3. Just before Dawn

In the afternoon my soul longs
for the quietude of my bed;
to be alone, reading a book,
glass of something beside me.

But then night comes, you're gone,
I've got my book, my wine
but not the quiet that I wanted
it is just before the dawn I sleep.

4-4 35-40 syllables

Sacrifice, honor, liberty...
these were mantras burned
into your flesh, leaving eyes
that served as embers
for a people who tended
no fire.

4-5 Wild Card

As fast as songs, a man with steady fingers typed.
He said, this is easy like dancing with a gal.
A step in front, another step aback, I lead the dance.
I pull her close to me, I press the keys to waltz.
At night with music playing in the deck, I write.

Be careful, slow it down, just follow my command,
the mind implored. In time, a story of love will waltz.
if not, you'll trip and fall with words that'll come out
of your mouth. To slap your face for rushing out.

4-6. 10 lines.

King Arthur and all his knights
went searching for the grail;
they passed through troubles
they fought across harsh odds
yet most returned to table round
hands empty as their hearts.

Two alone attained the treasure:
Galahad through gallant purity
Percival by stumbling innocence;
doubting Lancelot could only look on.

4-7. Etheree (normal or reverse)

We used to camouflage ourselves in your
aunt's apple orchard, red writing its
memoir on our chubby chins, cheeks
and sun-baked lips. We weasled
past morning chores and strain
while dawn greeted us
with delicious
full gardens
of our
youth.

4-8. Coffee bench

Spring days in the park
sitting on the bench
drinking my Starbucks
and watching the squirrels
chasing after joggers;
okay for now but please
don't make me suffer
endless days of this type
in what some would call
retirement.