Poetry April 29 College of Desert Open Mic + Performance Poetry + Music

This should be a great event - this Wednesday at College of the Desert, April 29.

Gummi Bear poem

Gummi Bear
the prompt for April 5th - "write about an animal"

mid-sized, the length of my palm
your short pink fur, black-stitched smile
initials, “GB” imprinted on the top
of your left paw, you ride along with
my car keys, clipped to the ring,
popping out of my purse, catching
a wailing child’s eye, I’m in a forested
monotony of a grocery line, comfort
foods like pizza and chocolate bars
spill from my car, I’m 42 years old,
maybe it’s okay, maybe it’s okay
if I tell people I heard you growl,
I’ll eat gobs of soft, multi-colored
candies in your resemblance tonight
I hope you don't take it personally.

by Ruth Nolan
copyright (c) 2009 by Ruth Nolan
rewrite 4.5.09

The Problem with Wind

Poetry A Day from Poetic Asides - Friday, April 3rd
the challenge is to write a poem a day this month, which is national poetry month. I'll have to backtrack to the first two days of the month, but here we are starting up with April 3.

Today's assignment: write a poem that starts, "the problem with ---" (find something)As it was VERY windy here today in Palm Desert, I chose to write about the wind.

The Problem with Wind

the orange and grapefruit flowers,
tiny white things snuggled into the tips of waxy leaves,
are stripped in a few hard blows from the citrus trees,
fewer fat handfuls of fruit this December

wind, in the desert in spring, has a face,
a wobbly smile gritty with sand. It has hands
that clobber like fists, much like your voice.
cars are stopped as if in a snowstorm, visibility low.

Just last night, the freeway was clear,
30 miles downhill from the Indian casino
on Interstate 10, windmill farms, wind is welcome
there, no vanishing overnight lovers in their arms.

This wind, you’ll say it has nothing to do with you,
hurtles downhill from the pass, 50 miles per hour gusts
generated by the numb cloud cover of the inland
region where you live, storm butted against mountain.

Venturi effect, stifled at the bottleneck until released
in this violence as air moves impatiently through this
narrow passage, impeded by two high ranges,
rain on your side, schizophrenic air forces here,

pressuring palm trees until they lose many fronds,
promises of fruit whisked down wind until next
year, perhaps, another resurrection, I watered
them last week, what did I know then

Ruth Nolan
runolan@aol.com
c. 2009 by Ruth Nolan