Day 30: Letting Go

SPRING CLEANING

The clothing the kids out grew long ago
Gifts I should have returned to the store
Clocks and electronics that don't even work
Rubber-bands, paper clips, all in a drawer

Papers and drawings, crumpled and torn
Homework assignments from years before
Must let it go, throw away, give it all up!
But my real fear is, we'll just get some more.


Caren E. Salas

Day 29: And suddenly...

SUDDENLY....

Suddenly it's all come true!
My life is great! The sky is blue!
My children have done all their chores!
How could I, really, ask for more?
I've won the lotto, they published my book!
My husband hired a maid and a cook!
It's almost more than I can take.
Then suddenly...I wake.


Caren E. Salas

Day 28: End of the Line

The end of the line
Seems to be farther away
Than I thought it'd be.


Caren E. Salas

Day 27: Hopeful, or hopeless

HOUSEWORK


No matter
If I work all day
Run around
Like a girl insane.
No matter
If I refuse to sleep
Toil into the night
'Til I can't see.

There's always
   More laundry
   More dishes
   More dust
Another floor to do
   More to do
   Clothes to pick up.
There's the bathroom
   The bedrooms
   The kitchen
   The yard
The livng room
   Porches
   The hallway
   The car.

It's endless.
It's hopeless.
Why can't anyone see?
It just never seems
Like there's time
Left for me.


Caren E. Salas

Day 26: More than 5 times...

GETTING YOUR ATTENTION


I raise my hand
I reach and stand
I shout out loud
Lost in the crowd
I wave my arms
Use all my charms
Jump up and down
Dance like a clown
I call your name
It's all the same
What can I do
To get through to you??



Caren E. Salas

Day 25: a poem inspired by a song

Okay, I'm not sure if this still qualifies but it is a piece of music:  "Midsummer Night's Dream" by Felix Mendelssohn.  This is beautiful music and if you close your eyes you can see the fairies skipping about, well, I can anyway.

DREAMS

Fairies flit, fly, hop and dart

They fill the dark with tiny lights

     Like fire flies.

Puck the mischeif-maker

Looks for trouble to incite

     With quiet eyes.

The fairie king and queen square off

As lovers are mislead, confused

       And afraid.

Actors practice, one's transformed

An ass's head appears, Puck's ruse

       Is played.

When morning comes the lovers wake

The forest is by sweet Puck, blessed

      Therein

All is set right, all renewed

The fairy world is back at rest

      Again.

Caren E. Salas

Day 24: Evening

I wanted to write something simple and calming for this one, and decided to do a haiku.  I started out with this one:

Evening quiet comes
With a kind of tranquil peace
Like whispering leaves.

(For those of you who know me, try not to barf - SO not me.)  I ended up going toward something a little more dramatic. The problem is, that it ended up having a hint of an old TV commercial.  (Listen for it - you know what I'm talking about.)  Oh well...

Evening quiet screams
In my ears like a nightmare
And I can't wake up.


Caren E. Salas

Day 23: an exhausted poem

MY MIND


Exhausted.

 Still my mind will race, through the bills yet to pay and the errands to run and the phone calls to make and the long list of chores and appointments I missed. Old friends I should e-mail and the grocerie list. Places to run to. People to see. Things I should sign. Memo: haircut for me. What's for dinner tomorrow? Any plans for the week? Teacher conferences soon.When was that supposed to be?

All day I keep running and time seems to fly.
Can't slow down til the night
What still runs...
                               is my mind.




Caren E. Salas

Day 22: an Earth poem

I thought I'd throw in an acrostic poem, just for fun.



EARTH

E veryone together
A ttempting the impossible
R euse, recycle, whatever it takes
T oward a better tomorrow
H elping each other.


Caren E. Salas

Day 21: According to....

ACCORDING TO THE MOVIES...


According to the movies
Love's romantic, easy, true.
There's always happy endings
People do the right thing too!

In real life it's harder
People break up, hurt and die.
I'd rather watch the fairy tale
Even if it's just a lie.


Caren E. Salas

Day 20: Looking back, or not

ALMOST FINISHED

My journal's almost finished.

All the pages are filled up

With scribbles and doodlings

No one else will understand.

It's my heart  my soul, memories

and dreams. A story of me.

Caren E. Salas

Day 19: Write a poem about someone

JACK


There was old Jack Sprat
Who's meat had to be lean,
And the poor farm boy Jack
And his handful of beans.

The quick nimble Jack:
Let no candle wax spill,
But the Jack who fetched water
Tumbled down with his Jill.

There's the Jack of all trades
     Jack of Hearts
          Jack of Spades
Black Jack
          or just "Jacks"

That the little girls played.

There's "QuickerthanyoucansayJackRobinson" Jack.

There's flapJacks with syrup,

Can I have a stack?

  

But there's one Jack you won't find

In fiction or fad.

He's the best one of all

And I just call him "Dad."

Caren  E. Salas

For my Dad - Happy Birthday Dad!! I love you!!

Day 18: To _____ (fill in the blank)

"To sleep, perchance to dream, ay, there's the rub..." (Hamlet, by William Shakespeare)



TO DREAM...


When I close my eyes tonight,
What road will I travel?
Will my journey's path be smooth,
Or will my fears unravel?

When I drift off, will I fly
To places good or evil?
Will I plunge into despair
With no hope of retrieval?

When I sleep I never know
Which way I'll be taking
Until the dawn brings memories
To haunt me while I'm waking.



Caren  E. Salas

Day 17: Science (or aspect of it)

 "THEY"

They say we descended from monkeys,
And the universe began with a "BANG!"
They can't decide if Pluto's a planet,
Or if cloning is good or insane.

Our time's short because global warming
Will destroy all our lives, so they say.
All the science is confusing,
            and what I want to know,
Really who, for Pete's sake,
                                 are the "they"?


Caren E. Salas

Day 16: Death

THE FIGHT

Death teases me
With dreams of peace and rest
As I lie sleepless in the night.

Death kisses me
And whispers "No more pain,
And I'll make everything all right."

Death lies to me
And tells me "No one cares,
No one will miss you if you go."

Death's hold on me
Is like a constant fight,
And how it ends I just don't know.



Caren E. Salas

Day 15: Deadlines...(in honor of tax day - ouch)

April 15


Deadline.
Stop sign.
End of the road.

Time's up.
Give up.
And pay what is owed.



Caren E. Salas

Day 14: (blank) Island

PARADISE ISLAND

The sun feels great on my body

As a soft breeze caresses my face.

There's a drink by me with an umbrella.

I may just melt into this place.

The cabana boy brings me another

"Close your eyes, and leave troubles behind,"

He says while massaging my shoulders.

Too bad that it's all in my mind. 

Caren E. Salas

(lest I get too serious on you all...lol)

Day 13: Love or Anti-love (I pick "love")

So much has been said about love. I thought I'd better keep it short and to the point.



A question, a ring
A promise for a lifetime
Our forever love.



Caren E. Salas

Day 12: Pick a City...

Morning in Quebec City

The dawn greeted me

with the clop clop clop,

of horse drawn carriages

passing down the cobbled road.

The sun, reflecting

off the St. Lawrence River,

came streaming through the trees

in the park across the way.

The sidewalk cafes bustled

with tourists and lovers

out for cafe au lait, and crepes.
Chateau Frontenac

loomed above,

stretching into cloudless skies,

and almost to heaven.

What a place to be in love.

Caren E. Salas

(Quebec City is where my husband and I went on our Honeymoon!)

Day 11: The last...

THE LAST TIME

If I had known that the last time

I saw you, would be the last time

I'd see you, would I've remembered

All the things I wanted to say?

If I had known that the next time

Was never to happen at all

Could I have made time slow down?
No.


Caren E. Salas

(In honor of Sid Fleischman)

Day 9: Self Portrait

Sorry people, I posted a bit out of order. That's probably since I tend to write things out of order. I've never been much of a "color inside the lines" kind of girl.  I'm more of a "squint your eyes and look at it from a distance" type.  Anyway, this one was tough. I can write about things and feelings, but about me? That's a whole other story.


WHO AM I?

I was a child,
of course
once upon
a time,
then a student
a swimmer
cheerleader
a mime.
I was a dancer
an actress
a singer of songs.
I'm a writer
a poet
a dreamer
a mom.
I'm a taxi driver
warden
accountant
the maid
dishwasher
secretary,
none of it paid.
But who am I really?
Who am I meant to be?
Am I only one thing?
Or is the sum of these...me?


Caren E. Salas

Day 10: Horror

BELA

No blood

No graphic scenes

Just eyes

And my imaginings.

"I am

Count Dracula"

Once said,

Became more frightening.

All black

I hear the scream

Silence

Then becomes deafening.

Nightmares

will follow me

To night

Memories still startling.

Caren E Salas

Day 8: a Tool

SCISSORS

I never ran with scissors
I held them by the blade
I put them where I found them
And that is where they stayed.

So why, now that I'm grown up
When I set them down a sec,
Do they seem to disappear,
Into thin air...
                     what the heck??



Caren E. Salas

Day 7 "Until..."

UNTIL I'M DEAD

Until I'm dead I wonder
If anyone will say how
Much I meant to them, or how
I changed their life. I wonder
Because I'm not sure I will
Have done that, until I'm dead.



Caren E. Salas

Day 6: Ekphrastic Poem

An Ekphastic Poem is, simply put, a poem written with a specific work of art as inspiration this one is inspired by
Flight of the Witches, by Francisco de Goya. 
I wrote it as a haiku.

Fear takes many forms

Ice cold chills, witches flying

Nightmares over head.

Caren E. Salas

Day 5: Too Much Information

SOMETHING COOL

Billy was excited.
      "Mom I saw something cool!"
He said, running into his house
       after school.

"I saw a half flattened,
       mostly squished cat,
or maybe a possum,
       or a really big rat!

"It was run down
       by a truck, or a car.
I'll show you tomorrow!
       It's not very far!

"I think it was knocked
      Right off of it's feet.
It's guts were all barfed up
      all over the street!

"It's fur was all matted,
      and covered with blood.
One of it's eyeballs
      popped out on the mud.


"Really! It was
      an incredible sight!
By the way, Mom...

       What's for dinner tonight??"




Caren E. Salas

Day 4 - History (of sorts)

Redwood

If only I could read the rings

From your heart out to your skin,

And swiftly fly through time and see

The secrets there within.

If I could just have seen the life

From your trunk, to needles green,

And close my eyes awhile and glimpse

A magic never seen.

Caren E. Salas

(photo by William Salas)

Day 3: Partly...

Sorry, this is one of those I'm hoping to sell, maybe I'll get back to this prompt and do a different poem. :)

Day 2: Water

VERNAL FALL

Like countless snow white buffalo

Crashing helpless as they fall,

While roars like ancient dinosaurs

Echo on the valley wall,

The glacier's last rememberings

Humble all who may insist

On climbing stones left slippery

By eternal rainbow mist.

On God's enormous boulder pile

Worn by current force and years,

The sky high pines grow greener

From the rivers constant tears.

And the glacier's last rememberings

Speak to all who listen still.

The power of the waterfall

Holds life and death at will.

Caren E. Salas

(photo by William Salas)

Day 1 - "One is the Loneliest Number" a poem about being alone/lonely.

SILENT STAY

So many things I want to say
I bite my lip
        And silent stay.


The secrets that I can not share
It hurts my heart
It isn't fair.


While others seem to have their way
I hold my tongue
         And silent stay.



Caren E. Salas

Okay...

Well, I'm a little behind on my Poem a Day Challenge, but I'm catching up. I've written a lot of them but haven't had time to post them here. So...I'm gonna' get going on that. A few of them I won't be posting due to future publication concerns. Basically, if I think I may want to sell them, some editors will not accept work that has been posted on blogs - go figure. All of my 10 followers may be plagerizing me as I type. 

National Poetry Month!

Okay, I'm really going to do it this year.  I'm going on Robert Lee Brewer's website, "Poetic Asides" so I can get a new prompt every day and I'm really going to do it. (By golly!) One poem every day for a month. I should be doing this anyway, but now I have...encouragement.   I've already started on Poem #1 (I'll post ASAP). Unfortunately, I may not have much access to the internet in the next week due to spring break vacation, but I'm still going to try and get the prompts if I can, and work off line.