Pantoum and Cinquain

(besides that I got all wrapped up in life outside poetry, I had a more difficult time writing this pantoum than I had expected. It's a weaving pattern of lines as you'll be able to guess. A couple are altered--poetic license!)

Lazy Saturday Mornings

I kiss you just because I can
and the world melts away.
I smile at you;
smiling (at me
and the world) melts away
leftover patches of frost.
Smiling at me,
you pack away
leftovers. Patches of frost
gleam in the morning light.
You pack away
my grey and dreary thoughts --
I gleam in the morning light.
Your eyes conquer
my grey and dreary thoughts.
I could stare all day
at your conquering eyes.
I kiss you just because I can --
I could stare all day --
I smile at you.

(this was not so much an exercise, but rather, we did cinquain in one of the classes I aided yesterday, and I decided to write in hopes to alleviate... well the subject of the poem. I don't much care for it, I'm not sure how to write these without sounding lame and cliché)

Stress
Tensed, flighty
Snapping, fretting, agonizing
Sweat the small stuff
Anxiety

Acrostics

This one was made from an acrostic using the phrase "flipping switches". Then I "stirred", "added some ingredients", and got what we will call a poem. The "w" was too forced in the poem, but worked well for the title (imo). I may do another one later today, I think these will take some practise.

What is truth?

Self-hypnosis combats
heterogeneous thoughts.
Falsities and almost lies,
Pretending and performing,
nothing new really.
Trickery lends to equanimity and
the illusion is impressed
[impressive?]
The happiness is
No longer glazed over, ignorant of cares,
but staid.
False is real.

CrossOuts

(The point here is to take an old document and cross out and add words as you see fit. For the first one I also added a couple places where I had misread the word as a similar word. I think you can guess what the first document was, the second was two old and really shitty poems that I crossed out and combined. Still not totally happy, but it's better)

A Letter from Mama

Dearest Daughter,
pictures – redhead time
A day lovely…
not sure when it’s ending for me.
Keep open; want me to help?
Very bad news
Good news
Sad arms
Won’t use you tomorrow,
go help swans.

Confused Chameleon

A niche
for you.
Awkward.
Not your fault,
friendships shrink, gap.
You illusion,
confused chameleon.
How to care when
you don’t exist?

Two for the price of one

(The first one is easy: pick 20 words, half-rhyme them (some of them I went more for rhythm or syllables, most aren't even real half rhymes), add a colour and the name of a place. Stir until it becomes poetry stew. Usually I toss several of my words, but this time I made myself use all of them (though sometimes slightly altered i.e. laughter vs. laugh). That may explain the forced feeling. I include my word list at the end)

Nebulous vs. Nubilous

I am amassing a collection
of insecurities and little doubts.
Sensations – you are the cause –
fluttery frets: incipient.
Persnickety realism, the dreaming
fleeting.
Encounters, head rushes [maroon]
taciturn countering your brio.
Satin chiffon beach ball [my stability]
Delicate, crushed by ultra indigo night sky.
It’s summer,
sing along with the radio, happy
mental snapshots of the days.
Trembling, quiescent [we are…]
… internecine.
Chess game in the darkness [you laugh]
blast off in a hot air balloon – I fly high.
Your sapid beauty no match for my turquoise thoughts.
The mental moondance ends,
periwinkle porcelain crashes with mysterious celerity.
Sand castles, melon-coloured crayons [sweetness].
Trapped in Siberia
[you imprisoner not hero]
Freedom tastes like key lime pie – contradictions.
More than a little turbid.

My Word List: brio/hero, fleeting/chiffon, sensations/turquoise, mystery/persnickety, taciturn/sand castle, turbid/summer, freedom/moondance, darkness/laughter, internecine/hot air balloon, celerity/periwinkle, realistic/ultra indigo deraming/night sky, sapid/satin, quiescent/porcelain, dreaming/night sky, amassing/chess game, beauty/maroon, fluttery/key lime pie, incipient/sing along, snapshot/blast off, tremble/beach ball. colour: melon place: siberia

(This second one is another poem rework. It didn't come from an exercise, I just thought it would be fun to see if I could rewrite each line in one or two words. The original poem averaged 6-7 words per line, this one averages 3 and sounds less lame and emo)

What’s another word for sorry?

Choking on apologies
murkily interpreted.
Eloquence (attempt 2)…
“Sorry…” [for everything and then some].
Insomnia
monsters in my closet
(née Regret, Restless, Guilt)
Exhaustion … bleary eyes,
bleary brain.
You ignore my “sorry”
maybe I mumbled.
Actions speak louder;
what should I do?
Sorry sorry (I will keep saying it)
dreams ripen
forgiveness.

Insecurities

(I decided to try to rewrite a poem I wrote long ago using a half of a writing exercise. It turned out entirely different, and only vaguely about the same topic, but I got to keep a line that I loved, and I actually like this version better. It could still use some work.)

MISSING: fragment of heart

Memories fade – I remember your stare –
but the emotions like to stay,
try to suck me back into the game.
Mind is blank with the head rush
[it’s not for you]
and I loathe you for making me fear.
I meet him [casually?] and breath fails,
bitten by my terror [blackness].
Hard to safeguard what I do not have.
Please return what you took from me –
I think it’s in your trash.

Confused

(For this exercise you choose a word, write it down 6 times, and then use each letter as the first letter of new words. I used "confused" and thus had a total of 48 words. Then you choose an animal, a sound source, and some song lyric. Start writing and add in words as needed. The topic does not have to relate to the word you used, but since I was feeling a bit confused, I just wrote the poem about that! And for fun, I used some of my word list in the title)

Cursed Other Sex/Do Not Be Obscure

Cautiously sighs the discombobulated chameleon—
umber fire lit in the corner repels the dark but
escalates the secret ecstasies. Completely unglued
I am talking to myself out loud – fighting the negativity.
I cannot deny I am dubious about the ending.
Fork scraping a metal bowl – my ears screech,
I have come completely undone, ultra flustered.
I am fine friend [until I shutdown],
but never omniscient…
what explicitly are you orating in this silence?