Down in the Valley

Down in the valley they sing
Waiting the message I bring
Swift as a bird on the wing

I hold the answer to prayers
I hear the pleas no one dares
I know the burdens they bear

Down in the valley they stand
Circular, holding their hands
Waiting for my news to land

I know success lifts the heart
I know what failure imparts
I bring them both, take no part

Down in the valley they hope
Building their fires on the slopes
Waiting, preparing to cope

I touch the rich and the poor
I heed no legend or lore
I hear the people implore

Down in the valley they seek
Thoughtfully, though it is bleak
Waiting, the old and the weak

I know no talent nor pride
I cast emotion aside
I hold the truth as my guide

Down in the valley they mourn
Seeing my descending form
Knowing by what I am borne

I am the only one left
I am the soul’s final breath
I am the angel of death

-----

Format: Soldier’s Englyn (Englyn Milwr)
Prompt: NaPoMoFo day 30

Malcontent

He always cites his sources well,
He keeps his references neat;
He’s accurate over all doubt,
Says nothing theoretically.
His certainty’s a sort of hell:
He has no place for wild intrigue,
And no expression, purr or pout,
Can make him find this mind sexy.

-----

Format: Long Octave
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 29

Paper Doll

Unwanted words compel
He’s trying hard to sell
Himself to any girls here
But most of all to me
I’m not so easily
Persuaded he’s the top tier
Or what I’ve come to find
I’m looking first for minds
So clever quips could endear

His drunken, boorish ways
Exhaust polite delays
Pressing me insistently
The papercuts of words
That seek to underscore
Rejection persistently
If he were the last man
On Earth, I’d make a stand
Dwelling solo, distantly

-----

Format: Balassi Stanza
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 28

Murine

Forlorn in the market she wanders
Unseen by the rich on their way
Alone in the shadows she ponders
The work of surviving the day

She hides from attention; she scurries
To stay clear of threatening feet
She feasts on the waste scraps of curry
Then rests from the sun’s blazing heat

With quick, nimble movements she dodges
The crush and the clang and the press
Returns to the crack where she lodges
And hides in the narrow recess

She struggles to fend off the hunger
That sends her each day out to roam
But each day returns to hide under
The stones of the market her home

-----
Tagging: +Poetically #30in30  Forlorn in the market she wanders
Unseen by the rich on their way
Alone in the shadows she ponders
The work of surviving the day

She hides from attention; she scurries
To stay clear of threatening feet
She feasts on the waste scraps of curry
Then rests from the sun’s blazing heat

With quick, nimble movements she dodges
The crush and the clang and the press
Returns to the crack where she lodges
And hides in the narrow recess

She struggles to fend off the hunger
That sends her each day out to roam
But each day returns to hide under
The stones of the market her home

-----
Tagging: +Poetically #30in30 
Format: Mixed meter, ABAB rhyme scheme; amphibrachic trimeter alternating with two amphibrachs and an iamb. I don't think there's a name for the form, but what do I know?  Forlorn in the market she wanders
Unseen by the rich on their way
Alone in the shadows she ponders
The work of surviving the day

She hides from attention; she scurries
To stay clear of threatening feet
She feasts on the waste scraps of curry
Then rests from the sun’s blazing heat

With quick, nimble movements she dodges
The crush and the clang and the press
Returns to the crack where she lodges
And hides in the narrow recess

She struggles to fend off the hunger
That sends her each day out to roam
But each day returns to hide under
The stones of the market her home

-----
Format: Mixed meter, ABAB rhyme scheme; amphibrachic trimeter alternating with two amphibrachs and an iamb. I don't think there's a name for the form, but what do I know? 
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 27

Lexicon

This is my mission
Without omission
to cease
Endless commission
Of repetition
increase
Thoughtful cognition
And erudition

My fond ambition
Halt the attrition
verbal
Decomposition
Churning editions
burble
More recognition
This is my mission

Words keep tradition
Frame compositions
offbeat
Fierce ammunition
Requiring recision,
retreat
Words take positions
Without omission

Words bring transition
Fight inquisition
and more
Sparking ignition
Bits of volition
restore
Without omission
This is my mission

-----

Format: Lai Nouveau
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 26

Art

She smiles brightly, holding out her hands:
“I drew a dog.”
I know the tone, and what my role demands:
I’m all agog.
The smearing sludge of purple, pink, and green
Resembles no dog that I’ve ever seen
Belated: “Wow.”
With wrinkled brow
She lovingly describes the scene.

-----

Format: Ronsardian Ode
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 25

Attic

There’s danger in the attic: it’s written on the wall
There’s danger in the attic, where nobody will play
There’s danger in the attic, and in the narrow hall
There’s danger in the attic, or so the children say
There’s danger in the attic, and it will not go away
There’s danger in the attic, that nobody can quell
There’s danger in the attic, quiescent in the day
There’s danger, say the children, and the children know it well

The grownups find the attic to be at best banal
The children all remember the screams of little Jay
Who wandered to the attic, and fell into its thrall
He trusted in the grownups — then shadows bade him stray
Then cast him out like wheat chaff — he never was the same
So now the children whisper of the fate that Jay befell
And nothing can console them, no words their fears allay
There’s danger, say the children, and the children know it well

They know the creaking corners where shadows gyre and sprawl
They know the vaulted ceilings where terror holds its sway
They know the lurching terror that grownups can’t recall
They know the slide to madness, their thoughts in disarray
They know the attic beckons, it calls and they obey
They know that there is madness that no-one can dispel
They know the danger waiting and face it with dismay
There’s danger, say the children, and the children know it well

There’s danger in the attic, that words cannot convey
There’s danger in the attic, the children’s whispers tell
There’s danger in the attic, and all is not okay
There’s danger, say the children, and the children know it well

-----

Form: Ballade
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 24

Duel Art

Two children painting is no game
Brings argument and brings disdain
Into feuds descend
Angrily offend
Safely mend?
Double frame

-----

Format: Clogyrnach
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 23

The City of Zed

On a shelf in a room in the city of Zed
Stand unfortunate bears who fell out of their beds
They are lined up in ranks from the small to the tall
While their bellies bulge gravid with stuffing installed

By the shelf, there are hooks, and a forest of socks
On the hooks hanging singly in colorful flocks
While their partners lie lonely in dark dresser drawers
All the lost socks of children abandoned in scores

In the city of Zed, there are library books
That were left in the corner or else overlooked
They are stacked up quite safely by author and name
Awaiting their owners, and to be reclaimed

There are mountains of broccoli, and other such foods
All were cruelly discarded by diners so rude
And then swept into wastebins, and then tossed away
In the city of Zed, all the lost things must stay

Like the rattles that tumble from strollers and cribs
Or the bottles and blankets and binkies and bibs
For the calming of infants that never are found
When their mothers and fathers most need them around

In the streets and the homes of the city of Zed
Are the lost things of children, the items misled
From their owners’ embraces to wander astray
And come here to the city of Zed, where they stay

-----

Format: Anapestic Tetrameter (Light Verse), with apologies to T. Seuss Geisel
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 22

Bower

While elegantly twine the flowers
With thick green vines and petals white
Around my lover’s secret bower
There she awaits me every night

With thick green vines and petals white
The verdant, shielding growth entwines
There she awaits me every night
For I am hers and she is mine

The verdant, shielding growth entwines
A comfortable nest for two
For I am hers and she is mine
When shielded from all others’ view

A comfortable nest for two
A favorable circumstance
When shielded from all others’ view
My lover calls me with her glance

A favorable circumstance
Which diligently I have sought
My lover calls me with her glance
Her hands have magic on me wrought

Which diligently I have sought
And night by night within the vines
Her hands have magic on me wrought
My wild desires she has divined

And night by night within the vines
Around my lover’s secret bower
My wild desires she has divined
While elegantly twine the flowers

-----

Format: Pantoum
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 21

Evening

In winter, in the gloaming, stars
Appear mischievously to wink
On virgin snow with hoofprints marred
In winter, in the gloaming, stars
Dance puckishly above, afar
While hearts below are interlinked
In winter, in the gloaming, stars
Appear mischievously to wink

-----

Form: Triolet
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 20

Critique

The vulnerable aspect of a writer’s soul
Is bared before the world, relinquishing control
When publishing an update to the waiting gaze
For editors and audiences to appraise
But art alone in secret cannot grow or thrive
It must be shared with someone if it’s to survive
So heavy though the task be, let this thought console:
If no one reads your writing, or your turn of phrase
Never did your work have the chance to be alive

------

Form: Trine, lines are Alexandrines
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 19

Popup

 

O provoking web design
Marketing by purpose: services to me
Shiny purchase! Where to dine!
Beckoning - I get one free!
Resisting limply, the ad-block calls to me.

-----

Format: Lira
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 18

Liber

Ere any syllable is writ
With line unmarked on empty page
The mind expands, imagining
All future tales yet to be told

Perhaps a wild beast, fraught with rage
Besets a maiden on her way
To gather flowers in the field
And interrupts her traveling

And then what next? A knight’s foray?
A caustic end for lovely maid?
With line unwritten, every tale
Can offer up its secret yield

For avarice a soul exchanged
A signature is scrawled in blood
A bargain undeniable
The devil lurks in the details

A bulging dike about to flood
A future world with flying cars
A dream awakened with a kiss
All unspun tales, still pliable

The page is blank, ere letter mars
Or to its surface words commit
And stories there may yet unfold
But for the moment, there is this…

----

Format: Domino Rhyme
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 17

fresh blood

fresh blood
at once, in sudden flood
now liberated from its host
becomes a ghost
detachable the soul
from dying whole
and harshly flows
the why  nobody knows
but falling here
the serenade of death rings clear
at once, in sudden flood
fresh blood

-----


Format: Inverted hexaduad
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 16

Rewrite

O blessed Editor, revise
My life in its first draft!
With cosmic pencil, analyze
And then perform your craft

I’m swamped with character and plot
I haven’t got a theme
This drama has me all distraught
I need to be redeemed

O Editor, help me rewrite
This tangled history
Trim out the dialogue outright
And cut the mystery

And then I’ll wake with vision fresh
And hope in new supply
O grant this editing request
And give me a retry

----

Format: Hymnal Stanza
Prompt: NaPoMoFo 15

Counting Sheep

Do electrons dream
  of ionic desires?

In the slow download space
  do they meet and exchange —
    Probable location
and momentum?  Or
   is the ignominious passing
all?

I hear them touching,
    in modem music:
   In the subtle hiss and crackle
speaking swift
         and slow.

Do electrons sleep chastely —
     Or not at all?

------

Format: Free Verse
Prompt: NaPoMoFo day 14

Loveless

Speak softly of your heart’s desire,
In whispers only speak that name
And chastely tend the burning fire
But nevermore your love proclaim

This pining so dolorously
For one whom you can never claim
Cry out your grief sonorously
But nevermore your love proclaim

No bardic music tells your tale
No woodcut pictures stand in frames
Of love such as you’d have prevail
So nevermore your love proclaim

So dessicate your surging blood
And bow your head in silent shame
Hold back your passion’s heated flood
And nevermore your love proclaim

------

Format: Kyrielle
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 14

Battlefield

Dappled in shadow beneath willow branches
Remnants of battlefields glories bequeath
Scattered they lie where the bright sunlight blanches
Dappled in shadow beneath

Shining in sunlight the swords of the mighty
Held in the bones of the hands of the lords
Rust on their pommels, their jewels shine brightly
Shining in sunlight the swords

Berry-bright uniforms torn into tatters
Waving the banners of soldiers forlorn
Flesh into dust, and the bones lying shattered
Berry-bright uniforms torn

Under the willow they lie, misbegotten
Soldiers who followed their masters to die
Laid in a gravelly grave, now forgotten
Under the willow they lie

Hostages held by the wind in the willow
Souls of the dead speak their myriad sins
Hovering under the boughs as they billow
Hostages held by the wind

-----

Form: Romantic Stanza
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 13

Siren

Thou green and lovely goddess of the sea,
Who hast my heart exploded into flames:
My full allegiance calmly thou hast claimed.

Where once I was adrift and floating free,
Before I found thee on my deck so strange
Thou green and lovely goddess of the sea,
Who hast my heart exploded into flames.

The passions licking at me hungrily
My judgment doth consume as they inflame
No other mistress than thee shall I name
Thou green and lovely goddess of the sea,
Who hast my heart exploded into flames:
My full allegiance calmly thou hast claimed.

-----

Format: (Short) English Madrigal
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 12

Carmine

A filthy urchin in the endless wood
A glint of mischief - underneath her hood
Lurks wild and hungry beast beneath the trees
Prepares to make himself misunderstood

The crimson-cloaked gamine no danger sees
So wavers from her path to sweet Granny’s
To pause and pluck some flowers in the glade
And play among the humming of the bees

And while our heroine is thus delayed
The wicked beast continues through the shade
To slink in through poor Granny’s cottage door
And swallow whole the unprepared old maid

At last replete with flowers by the score
The snub-nosed minx moves rapidly toward
Her granny’s house, with supper on her arm
Not knowing what new horrors were in store

She entered granny’s home without alarm
And brought to bear all of her childish charm
“Why Granny! See I’ve brought you such delight -
And bread and pudding fresh-made on the farm.”

The wolf in woman’s guise held back his bite
And cooed to see the flowers bold and bright
Until the little rascal’s piercing eyes
Detected something strange - that wasn’t right

With cunning questions aimed at the disguise
Our rapscallion unburied all the lies
Which left the beast with only one defense:
Devouring her whole with just one bite

Now stunned, the mischief waited in suspense
And huddled with her granny, pale and tense
Until a passing hunter found the beast
And with a mighty blow dispatched it hence

Imagine then the wicked thing deceased
The hunter bent to dress it for a feast
And slitting down the belly found inside
A hellion and her granny: shock, at least!

The imp and the old woman now outside
The beast; the narrator asides:
This story ends, as all good stories should:
And happy ever after they’ll abide

-----

Format: Interlocking Rubaiyat
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 11

Flying Fish

I know you find me whimsical in this:
That for excuse I bring a children’s tale
And seek to mollify you with a stolen kiss
And all your righteous anger to derail
But wait - my love - you must hear the details

This strange phenomenon has made me late
I know you have a right to be irate

I left the office half an hour past five
Intending to acquire a takeout dish
And then a flask of Chardonnay contrive
Intending to attend your every wish
I stopped to get your favorite - flying fish

But wait! Allow me to regale you more
This tale is strange, I promise not to bore

I thought the counter server rather strange
He wasn’t Ralph, who usually tends the place
But still he had the fish and made me change
Then thanked me so effusively, post haste
I quickly and politely left that space

So shaken was I by my strange ordeal
I took a wrong turn, wound up in a field

And this is where the story takes a turn
As I sat there considering my woes
The air in front of me began to burn
And up between the cornstalks there arose
A sight amazing - so much so I froze

A silver clamshell rose up before me
And turned, and hovered just above the trees

It opened up a lengthy landing ramp
And then I heard a flapping in the car
And felt myself assaulted by the damp
The box of flying fish had come ajar
I tell you this - I know it seems bizarre

The fish were sitting up upon their fins
And staring at the silver light within

So what else could I do? I took them out
And carried them toward the opening door
Before I had a chance to think or doubt
They hovered, and the fish began to soar
They swam into the ship I’d seen before

I’m not ashamed to say I climbed the stair
And only fleetingly thought to beware

Within the ship, I found myself the guest
Of every kind of life that haunts the sea
The walls were carpeted by brilliant crests
Of sea corals, and bright anemones
And very polite were they all to me

They bade me with their captain’s crew to dine
And fed me from a smorgasboard sublime

And then at last, when I was quite replete
The squid who served as captain thanked me well
And said he hoped we once again would meet
Although his ship was heading for the swells
And ocean depths where more of their kind dwell

They let the ship down at our own back gate
And that, my love, is why I’ve been so late.

-----

Format: Rhyme Royal
Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 10

Goddess

I chant myself, I sing
My glory, existing
My belly mimicking
The arc of Earth’s curving

Impertinently wry
No slender nymphet I
My breasts could resupply
The Milky Way on high

I am a shaman’s prayer
The glory that I bear
All others may despair
When I unbind my hair

The swinging of my hips
The parting of my lips
My thighs alone eclipse
All the old written scripts

And piercing with a glance
My eyes alone entrance
The sleepwalkers to dance
And reinvent romance

I chant myself, I soar
I’m by myself adored
They call me goddess-whore
I’m woman evermore

-----

Prompt: NaPoMoFo Day 9

Eppur si muove

One man’s clear observation of the stars
Would challenge all the wisdom of his age
With telescopic vision from afar

Inciting an appalling show of rage
From those who claimed divine-inspired truth
And named the earth the heavens’ only gauge

This bar was set, despite a lack of proof
On words ecclesiastical alone
Against the lone astronomer’s uncouth

Belief in what effects his eyes had shown:
The planetary phases in the sky,
The geocentric theory overthrown.

But mother church would not give up the fight
And sought with angry vengeance to erase
The man, and all his evidence thereby

And thus he fetched up in divine disgrace
And spent his old age gazing at the stars
From house arrest; within that prison space

He sat, recanted of the words they’d barred
And saw the heaven’s motions - as they are.

-----

Format: Terza Rima
Prompt: NaPoMoFo day 8

My Lover’s Charm

My lover’s charm begins in verdant eyes;
Continues in a smile I can’t resist
And then creates conspiracies of sighs
With how he lays his fingers on my wrist

Unsuitable the thoughts he brings to mind
With hints of mischief in his playful gaze
I seek no absolution, disinclined
To find regret in what that look conveys

My lover’s charm requires nothing more
Than momentary contact; brushing hands
And party to the depth of our rapport
I know my love’s intentions and his plans

And thus await the slow expiring time
Before my lover can again be mine.

-----

Format: English (Shakespearean) sonnet
Prompt: NaPoMoFo day 7

Muck

Spoke sourly and vengefully, Rose:
"The ooze has just ruined my hose,
    And my gold-buckled shoes
    I embossed and then glued
Reside where now? Nobody knows."

-----

Format: Limerick
Prompt: NaPoMoFo day 6

Millennium

Rootless hero, seeking no more than your share,
wand'ring through the galaxy without a goal.
Student cosmological, human, and rogue
     selling your service

Don't eschew the offers fantastic you get -
rescue damsels; you never know who they'll be.
Do good deeds audaciously, gather glory
     and for the money

Friends will find you whether you seek them or not;
you must choose your enemies wisely and well.
Earn the empire's enmity with your daring -
     or choose your safety

In your partner's bandolier lies your safety;
in your battered vehicle lies your comfort.
Some bewail the ravages of the battle -
     you fly outside it

Hero, though unwillingly, you are chosen
for adventure, glory, and for rebellion
Face your future equably or resist it
     the force has chosen

-----

Format: Sapphic Ode
Prompt: NaPoMoFo, Day 5

Simulated Infinity

In simulated infinity
The voiceless spirits roam
Call out to us definitively
 
Inferior to humanity
And even more alone
In simulated infinity

And voices whisper steadfastly
Sedately, softly moan
Call out to us definitively

What things we seek illicitly
We find already known
In simulated infinity

Misunderstood affinity
And roiling clouds unknown
Call out to us definitively

Our hearts misfire abysmally
The legends now dethroned
In simulated infinity
Call out to us definitively

-----

Format: Villanelle
Prompt: NaPoMoFo day 4 (I cheated on “leg”)

Waking Desire

The crass conceit of youthful zeal
Guides hands to grope and grasp and feel
In furtive darting seek their goal
To make their partner's pleasure full
The optimum technique reveal

And zone by zone the truth unseal
Restarting once again, reveal
That expertise may play a role
Waking desire

A tutor's touch will lift the seal
And teach a lover's true ideal
Though finding one may test your soul
Adulterous or paid with gold
The taut reward can't be concealed
Waking desire

-----

Format: Rondeau
Prompt: NaPoMoFo day 3

Behind the farmhouse door

 

Behind the farmhouse door my lover lies
Her sweet, illicit promise made to me
In photographs her body languidly
Displays its treasures, drawing forth my sighs

But just to open up the door's unwise
My lover's father guards her chastity
And keeps her under guard and lock and key
Necessitating us to improvise

Positioned on the trellis vines with ease
My luminescent lover meets my gaze
She reaches out her hands to contact mine

And landing with the lightness of the breeze
She kisses me, thus setting me ablaze
And there we both the cusp of passion find.

-----

Format: Petrarchan Sonnet
Prompt: NaPoMoFo day 2

Wake

And you and I
endless dichotomy
tonight,
imprecisely aligned.

Your hands haphazard,
momentary,
meaningful,
and I —

half asleep —
half waking
at your request,
unspoken.

Between us silent
as understanding
the unwritten journal
of desire.