Barbara's Meanderings: It's April and that means April Poem A Day!!!!

I know I haven't written on here since March and that is because I am very busy. However, I am going to start posting my poems here for April PAD Challenge from Poetic Asides. It wouldn't feel like April without writing at least a poem a day and I am enjoying it very much this year.

Still working on my poetry book, Losing My Love, Finding Myself, and hope to have that done soon. So many poems are necessary for a book and hoping by the end of April I will have enough to do it.

I will be posting these poems here as much as I can. Check each day for the new one.

April 1

Prompt: Write about a fool or a foolish experience

Foolish Fantasy

He played me for a fool

believing a grieving widow

would be fodder for his avarice

and strung me along a poor excuse

for a lover over the invisible strands

of the infamous internet

he plied me with foolish stolen verses

and lied with honeyed voice exclamations

as I the ubiquitous duped one

responded as a well tuned violin

singing my foolish song to myself

believing in fantasy as reality

until the reality extinguished the fun

my life hissing as the smoke rose

from the ashes of my dignity

April 2

Prompt: He said, she said

Political Dialogue – A Fictional representation loosely based on the current Democratic candidates

it was just political banter

the kind most candidates

engage in before the ultimate battle

when each wanna be pushes the other

hoping he or she will tip over like an egg

left too close to the edge of the counter

and fall splat with egg shells scattered

and he said she had taken from the rich

oil consortiums making her evil and tainted

as if she were a rotten egg he wanted to

push over to lie there

with the yolk of her soul

bleeding out for all to see

and she said he was daft

for she had not truly taken from the

companies, but she had from the workers

who toiled for those companies

and he said still there is the money

you have compared to my measly sum

and you are carrying the mantel of those

one percent into the battle

while I am representing the ninety-niners

who clearly adore my direction

and she said, but you have no experience

for you it is an entry level job

while I have traversed the world and nattered

with the finest of the leaders

and he said, who cares

if your country is starving and you are

hand in glove with the people who have

caused this?

April 3

Prompt: Finish the title: Three——

Three of Us Left

Where once there were four

there is only three

only three plates for dinner

only three tickets for a movie

only three and the empty space

where once you inhabited

a chair and a piece of the table

your part of the world where

you staked your claim and we

were observers for your life

and three for discussion

missing the opposing argument

you inserted into a neutral time

creating your drama and bringing

the world with its chaos and confusion

into the center of our table

swirling winds surrounded your voice

as you expounded upon this or that

but we listened as apostles

for your gems of truth

you cut through with your words

as if you were a word butcher

slicing into anything mundane or

trivial and tossing it aside

no small talk for you

though the three of us

would have liked to hunker down

and breathe out the silliness around us

envelope our lives in the mundane

now there is silence in the fourth place

an invisible space where no one sits

an empty leather chair that once held a

hulking presence complete with glass

in hand and papers -- always papers

and now we can watch the silly TV shows

and gossip about the mundane

but there is always a time we wish

you were here to makes sense of

the world that somehow no matter

how we try to keep it out

seeps through the cracks and

you are not here to explain it to us

your ever captive audience

and once more we three are left

to sort out the monsters by ourselves.

April 4

Prompt: Write a poem about distance

Across the Distance

We met across the distance of the internet

close in spirit and thoughts

in the dark of night our voices flew across

miles through the phone and you grew closer

each time we talked miles dissolved as if they

were written in disappearing ink

your warmth and sparkling wit created

a cocoon of comfort as if we two were chatting

across filled cups of coffee and nibbling on

sweet, soft pastries between sips

My mind cannot accept the length between us

refuses to see the long road from you to me

easily vanished by a short air trip

but it remains a distant dream for each of us

you surrounded by piles of written images and

worn books and I unable to escape the life I

must lead to survive in my northeastern domesticity

But my heart and my mind will always be yours

no matter if we ever meet

for you are the one who can make me laugh

Slide away the dark clouds over my soul and

bring the light back when it seems no one

can lift the fog away

your delicious humor and sarcastic words

remind me, though we’ve never met, of a

man who did that for me all the time

and since he is an infinite distance away

I will speak for him and admire you as he

would do with a twinkle in his eye as he

gave your hand a firm shake with a big smile

April 5:

Prompt: Write a poem about experience or inexperience or both - Two for Tuesday

I have done too much and not enough

felt the spark of true love and followed it

drowned myself in the hazel eyes of my love

the ripples reverberating as the years went by

walked on the Taj Mahal and danced in the rain

held a crying baby in one arm as I washed the older

daughter with the other–getting myself wet in the process

stirred oatmeal while a baby suckled on my breast

domesticated the wild spirit inside of me

taught eager faces and ones who jeered me

saw the light of aha as at last a child found the answer

created characters to live the fictional life I dreamed

no longer the naive girl, I am filled with experience

a long chain stretching over years and years

connecting me and yet I know there is more

more to write and see and be

there is still space for the unexpected

Until the next time my April radio show on Blog Talk Radio, Red River Radio Tales from the Pages will be on April 28 at 4PM EST -6PM and will feature Phillip Matthew Roberts, esteemed poet and dear friend who has recently published his book called Lost and Found and Nicholas Maze.

For anyone who would like to read their poetry on the radio you should tune into World Poetry Open Mic where you can read your poems and enjoy the poetry of others every Friday night at 8PM Central Time or 10PM EST.