Simple Snaps

[qimissung]

This is inspired by PrinceMyshkins' brilliant snapshots. Write a short poem in which you write your observations of people you encounter in the world around you. Describe them and make pity observations about them. These poems can be any length, short or somewhat longish. For more (and better) examples, check out PrinceMyshkins Snapshots thread on the Personal Poetry page.

Here is the first one:

The young woman and I walk through
the door together, she smiling at me
no smile for a mere stranger, but as
if she knew me. "You don't remember
me do you?" she asks. And I don't
have any memory of her as she must
have been, a student, on the cusp of
adolescence. Now she stands before me,
grown and poised, adult, and I think of
all the years in between, good years
that allow her to smile at me like that.

[PrinceMyshkin]

A woman sits in Texas
–in Texas! A place as exotic
and foreign to me as Latvia!
–and writes as if we lived
next door to each other

and we do!

[motherhubbard]

I love this and look forward to more

Texas exotic?

[PrinceMyshkin]

I love this and look forward to more

Texas exotic?

Not, of course, compared with the Ozarks! But honey-bunch, I live in MONTREAL, in Canada, to which a NY literary agent once referred as Pleasantville!

One of these days I hope to write a children's story that would begin:


It was a rainy day in Pleasantville...

[qimissung]

Hey! Thanks PrinceMyshkin, for inaugurating this thread! I love your snapshot-of me!? Cool!

Here's the next one::

He is a prince of a fellow;
he walks tall and everyone's
his friend, and when he
looks you in the eye,
you know that you've
been seen.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Hey! Thanks PrinceMyshkin, for inaugurating this thread! I love your snapshot-of me!?

Well, it assuredly was not of the former Governor of your Great State!!!



Behind your veil
of carefully cultivated modesty
I can almost see that look
in your eyes, but is it
mischief, or love?

Or both.

[Pendragon]

The Ozarks cannot hold
The love she gives to others
A heart big as Leviathan
Freely giving of herself
For others benefits...

[PrinceMyshkin]

Another day,
but outside my window
half the asphalt is in shadow,
yesterday,
still incomplete

[qimissung]

He sits, oh he sits
at his computer,
silent phone at his
side. At last it rings,
someone, once a friend,
needs the use of his
car.

[Nyx's Child]

a look, a smile, can mean the world
the gaze slides past, unfocused, uncommited
the world comes crashing down
...see through her and the world ends

[PrinceMyshkin]

He sits, oh he sits
at his computer,
silent phone at his
side. At last it rings,
someone, once a friend,
needs the use of his
car.



Somewhere,
in deepest outer space,
a finger taps in the area code
for planet earth,
and pauses

[qimissung]

Beautiful! :)

[qimissung]

She flies against the wind
and says "Nothing in the
universe can stop us."
She has a strong spirit-
I know she will prevail.

[Dark Muse]

Ok, I cheated a tad bit, this was done ofa portrait I caught a glance of, not a living person, but as soon as I saw it, it inspired me

I caught a glimpse
of sad, wise eyes
watching

and I wonder
what has been witnessed
in the passage of time
through half-closed windows

Can I deny
somewhere there in lies
a waiting soul

without words
spoken to me
in a moment

lingering longer
than the seconds
I took to notice

[schadenfreude]

He looks down at the book in his hands,
in the next carriage, through the next window.
That familiar tousled hair, how well I knew
it - a million years ago, it seems;
and a train of images rush at the speed of sound,
rolling like the wheels on the dusty rails -
dragonflies frozen in midair, footprints in sand,
ice cubes in water, the scent of grass in summer,
a cool hand on a warm cheek -
lingers for a moment.

[Pendragon]

The anger explodes, but she cries.
I feel so angry yet somehow humbled.
She cries, as she says she's sorry,
She weeps as she hugs my neck.
A fellow worker and a dear friend...
How could I hurt her
I cry also

[qimissung]

Wow! Beautiful, DM, Schadenfreude, Pendragon, so packed with with emotion, so powerful.

[qimissung]

Oh, beautiful girl
striding along,
everything you need
for your life's journey
packed in your
radiant smile.

[Dark Muse]

Thank you, and that was quite nice. Very touching

[qimissung]

"Somewhere there in
lies a waiting soul..." this was my favorite line. I especially like that you wrote it about the subject of a painting. Very original.

And thank you for your comment, DM-this girl is a former student of mine.

[paperleaves]

In the wake of plum sunrises,
the little birds weep
tears of exasperation
as the clouds roll in.
I wish sometimes
that I had time to weep
for things like that.
______________________________________

Torn jeans and sweaters
scarves and inkstained fingers
the portrait of the artist
as a young woman
becoming
a woman

[Dark Muse]

That is beautiful, I really like it

[PrinceMyshkin]

Torn jeans and sweaters
scarves and inkstained fingers
the portrait of the artist
as a young woman
becoming
a woman



Becoming a woman
you stand between two doors,
marked Myth
and Possibility

[qimissung]

the little one,
so fully formed,
his dark brown eyes full of
innate intelligence,
busies himself, as children will, taking
off his coat, handing it to his
mother, happily competent.
she with tired world-weary eyes,
has brought him to visit his
father. how many days left
before her son's eyes grow
the same?

[Dark Muse]

I glimpsed you
in a sliver of headlight
looking like a rock star
emerging from the darkness
at this late hour

There is something to be said
for the coolness of your threads
the flare in your long hair
your limbs long and thin
perhaps you are just an addict
or on your way to see
a fresh new blond.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Dark Muse: Beautiful and a lovely turn of wit at the end!

[PrinceMyshkin]

A woman known as “Saltydog”
and a sailor who’d never been to sea
slept together in separate beds
but dreamed of each other
night after night.

[Dark Muse]

Thank you,

I really like yours, I thought it was quite charming and amusing

[qimissung]

He stands patiently waiting for the
kindness of strangers. His eyes,
which once held laughter and
dreams, are now stubborn and sad.
How is it that you, who were born
to one who loved you, has become
a citizen of this city without hope?

[Dark Muse]

Figures, like shadows
mere silhouettes
standing on dark street corners
waiting for something it seems
to come to them,

or lurking perhaps
suspiciously
dressed in black
against the night sky
hiding behind some pretext

Lounging languidly
beside stop signs
perhaps with misbegotten thoughts
brewing upon the mind

in the dark, does innocence
ever truly exist
everything can be seen
as hiding some like.

[alakungfu]

When I wrote this, I thought, "Just how natural will this seem five years from now?"



Star Treatment

A pop star
Brought to mind
The excruciating
Bond of entitlement
In her lyrical interpretation.
In her encore
The pathos drizzled
And an acumen shifted
Through phases of
Mixed sentiment,
A melodic revue
To renew the musical fray
A single show away,
Before the friction is cooled
And the collection slips away
Into a shoddy production schedule,
The rhythm of the business
Cracks.
Anticipation
Running at a loss.
The schedule turns
The fame game into neutral.
The tour pulls into familiar hands
And suave demands
Jump start the moded image.

[alakungfu]

Raven

Rapt in her approach
Attenuated mien
Calculating she'll broach
Her quarry and careen
Dizzy into his chest
Then animated again
Introduce her best
Charms to her new best friend.
"I'm sorry, honey...
I just missed the curb.
Angel thinks it's funny
And she'll get what she deserves
Sooner or later."

[alakungfu]

Trouble Staker

Once upon a cad
a miscreant called
a scoundrel's bluff
hemming in the villain
in his own reprobate trail
making a rebel
of the malefactor
when the criminal turned and ran
leaving the offender
the suspected fugitive.

[alakungfu]

Morose Living

Sophisticated bearing
Misconstrued
In gloomy aspect
Led through crude
Debilitating
Miasma
Packaged
Roughly
In the variegated
All-consuming
Muffled wall
Of roguish fog
Enveloped finally
In a filmy haze
Of fragrant scented
Nightmarish tension.

[alakungfu]

Kimonoed Tattoo

Sensitivity steaming
from the pores
of grinning outlines,
riveting tenants gleaming,
under wraps
by silky shine,
the memory of the image
strikes the eye
through the glistening cover
like a snuggled village
resiliently eclipsing
one more neighbouring township.
The belt slips open
to reveal
guiltlessly
a human mural of hopin' and fishin',
personal testimonial to ambition,
a supreme
Odyssey --
its meaning intact
outright
freshly from the kimono,
suspended in tract
in a shifting
pro bono.
The wrap makes alone
its gleaming
complement
in its coral tone,
a gracious
tournament
of dewy sweat and audacity,
of lustre and
juxtaposition,
a message wrought tacitly
in the unhesitancy
of permission.

[alakungfu]

Connoisseur

Finery and
Nothing but
Surrounding
An immersion
Of talent
Trading in
Conpliments
Of the
Customary
Kind.
An artiste's
Delivery
Of accomplishment
Via
Entitlement --
The
Missing link
Between
Mundane and
Articulate --
Expressing
An enigma
With a confident
Stroke of a
Gilding brush.

[alakungfu]

Starstruck

Student of popular stardom,
Basking in the fluorescent glow
Of youths
Adoring their craft
In mid-stride.
A stage set up
On wooden shafts
Rings truly
With the weight
Of the fluent artists.
And physical rhythmic language,
Inviting a mesmerized audience
To languish is a delicious experience.
The dancers pose,
From play
To reply.
A telltale silence
Wraps up the show.
Then applause smatters into
A resounding cacophany
Of relapsing ovation

[qimissung]

Well as Gadget would say, Wowsers! I think I like "Kiminoed Tatoo" best along with "Starstruck," but they're all good.

[alakungfu]

Thank you, gimissung. Here are some more. I hope you like them, too.






Shifting sentences



Losing a grip
On what's valued,
Imposing a quip
That has mellowed,
Pursing a lip
Dried and yellowed,
Is a gutteral
Vocal pretence,
A laterally
Vaunted expense
Of irrecoupable
Gnarled defense
And that intermittently
Tacit, free guile
Of a patently
Resalving exile
And the extantly
Seasoned smile
Changing rampantly
Its fee all the while.






Hummingbird



Tuneless
in its reaction,
Timeless
in transaction
of its surrounds,
Priceless
in yon lieuful gait,
Tireless
in a treble rout
of pretense;
Hence,
the warbling
ricochet.





Noble Ranks


When I opened up my eyes
And fluid images did descry
Like the angels in Paradise
There did I think I did me hie
But when their voices soothed my pain
With their coated antiseptic smell
I turned my head and then did feign
Mistakenly to brush a belle
On the breast and then I knew
That I recognized my nurses
And somehow engineered a coup
While the warring soldier reimburses

His national haven for proud promises
To heart and home of justice’ kisses.





Renaissance angel



A touch of red
And gold filigree,
Warm autumn rose petals
On ivory visage free,
Ivy to frame
A tender cheek
Finished by a blossom
Yielding and meek
In its delightful essence.
Oh, sweet maiden august
And true in outline
Whence your aspect of beauty
Radiating love divine,
Here would I offer
In elegant stance
My promise of a humble
And courteous dance
Of your choice to submit.





Las vegas fix



Thrillseekers
Who appreciate the fast times
That have emolliated their cosmetic faces
And shine lucently from their cheerless eyes,
Carousers
Who shun the average glitch,
Who go beautifully for broke
And for the buff confederate who can bail them out.
Mingling in the rising crush
The stripling male studs hang out
With their girlfriends
All dolled up in their combustible gear,
Protesting that they are blossoming adults
And not ripened children
Supported by the dark circles under their eyes
And the rank alcohol on their breath.
Casual Vegas girlfriends
Trim the pulsating crowd
Full of experience and vigor,
Mirroring the showy exposure
In a glitzy tabloid press
Blocking out the weathered,
Including the tenured,
Composing a graduating list of good life memberships.





Kitten convention



Spewing from
Groomed tendrils
and costumes
and accessories
Tenderly outfitted
Premature felines
Frisk freely
or haunt the sidelines
headily
In the prime
Of their attractive
Natures
tares from
the frumpy mousetrappers
Waiting in their
Round middle-section-
Pampered frames.
Too kewpie;
cutie coos,
“What's to become
Of you?”





Officiating decision



A worn brown caftan
Woven plainly and simply
A disguise as he laughed and
Offered his plea.
Noone bought
The nonchalant manner
Of a man sought
In transgress of a police scanner.
Above the law?
Had he decided this was so?
He'd swallow that guffaw
And regret the show.
He drove a nice car
Nice being the operative word
But here he was a star
In a hand - me - down third.
Too cheap to pay the fine
That he had incurred
His voice would sink to a whine
Because he was a nerd.
Or just give this fella a break
And embrace a civil tryst.
A personality clash unmake;
Stop twisting the poor guy's wrist.
If he's laughing in court
Then he had a good day
And being a good sport
Sharing some nice things to say.
The real man in this state
Of mean affairs
Is the one who will not abate
In the country's cares.

[qimissung]

Again, impressive. I favor 'Noble Ranks' and 'Hummingbird,' and who can resist kittens? The Las Vegas one is also good and 'Renaissance Angel.'

[qimissung]

Hedgehog,
little wayfarer of life,
caught in a net
not of your own making,
snared in a snarl
of plastic chickenwire,
immobile,
until a shard of glass in a
fellow traveler's hand
freed you to
die a good death
in that kind stranger's hands.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/globetrodden/2888204596/

[Dark Muse]

Warning this one comes from a place of anger

I see you all standing there
yelling and shouting out your agenda
spewing the filth you have been brainwashed
to reproduce.

The poisonous dribble from your lips
because you have been fed on lies
that were only blubber

Now you will try and shove
it down the throat of others
not knowing what you are still saying
just babes indoctrinated in hate speech

But if anyone tried to strip away
your own rights, you would be the first
to scream and cry
stand in the corner and pout

You are no asset to society
or the world
you are an infectious cancer
festering
an eye sore
so pathetic

You are not worth the life you were given
the air you breath
the space you waste
you are a disfigurement
that should be lanced
away.

[qimissung]

Whoa! What power, what anger DM!

[Dark Muse]

Hehe yeah, it is a bit of a rant

[andave_ya]

Now how'm I supposed to compete with that?? :)

She read the poem and, lips pursed,
She decides that she'll stick to prose,
Only to find that the words spill out
Untamed, wild, and full of longing.
But for a voice!

[asilef73]

her eyes,
that pale green of jade,
transmitted her emotions
with clear and easy language:
watering with pride,
dancing with laughter,
brimming with love
for most of my life
and better to remember
than the last time i saw them
glazed with fatigue.

[Dark Muse]

I really like that.

[asilef73]

thanks very much DM!

[qimissung]

andave_ya and asilef, just beautiful!

[Dark Muse]

Was that a glimpse
of a ghost from the past
or only a shade of some
distant memory
I can no longer reach

For that moment
I was taken back
to what seemed
a whole new world
that even still
has a thread I cannot
release

Did I catch a reflection
of recognition or was
it only wishful thinking
a connection to something
always backward seeking

It seems I am haunted
as if under a spell
to always find flickers
just out of reach
of those days long ago
that will forever remain.

[andave_ya]

Thanks qimissung!

For a moment the tree stump looked like
the Venus de Milo,
With the mutilated branches reaching out
of a slender trunk.
But the vision faded into the
falling rain,
And I was left alone again
in an unkind, unbeautiful world.

[alakungfu]

The Riven

In loquacious form
The time clock trips
The working-crew norm
Adjusts its blips.
The girls' time on
To sweat the small stuff.
The men have gone
So, too, have comments gruff.
A factory job
Requiring lots of experience
From within the jittery mob
Enclosed in a fence
Of dedication,
Embattled densely
In home duties striation
By taskdrivers surly and motley.
When they finish off their duty shift,
There's a new one to fulfill.
The lock stock and barrel lift
Them up as high as Bill.
And when they finally fall away
And sleep a sleep of deliverance
They know that in the following day
Their unwieldy scourge is penitence.

[Dark Muse]

You are surrounded by
an aura of arrogance
something bread within you
which speaks of preppy wealth
oozy out of every pore

Something familiar
that cannot yet quite be named
but nothing original
it has been done before

All the more despicable
for the loathsome intrigue
which follows within your
pitiful wake

Such a shame
as you live within
your own bubble
logos, labels, titles
plastered all over your face.

[firefangled]

asleep and away,

then as he rose up,
pushed himself up,
the tear accepted
dust
that rose too,

a moment I watched it begin

to fall to earth
then as if by choice,
not fall, the tear
holding it
against the chalice edge
of his worn skin
before allowing entry

awake, away
he walked
the same earth cradled
between body and cloth
that would soon cradle him

[firefangled]

the old priest, with cotton ears,
hearing aids cushioned,
struggles up the altar stairs;

gold is heavy like a body,
echoes in his head;
the bells ring in threes

he drinks the wine, mumbles
(adoration and fear die with age),
sanctus, sanctus, sanctus,

in threes, the weight of sound,
outside the snow fills the shoeprints,
the ash falls from the chimneys.

[firefangled]

You look so fine, the sun setting behind,
the heat rising, the breath you took ripples
the air, I speak to wish away the day,
the tree shadows, a cage around my words.

[qimissung]

The kitten,
with enormous ears
and eyes, sits on my
chest, mewing. So
far she has shown
a knack for persistence.

The cat, 19,
has cancer.
She nods off.
All she ever asked
was for me to
pet her.
Good night, little
girl, good night.

[Dark Muse]

I see the look of dejection
upon your face
while trying to hide within
a public face.

A moment your head jerks
feeling you have been caught
trying to pass it all off
but only strangers pass
with little more then a glimpse

Fake smiles falling empty
as you bow you head
looking at the pavement.

A thousand possibilities
can be speculated
but only you shall
possess the truth.

Just on the brink of tears
it shines within your eyes
a thousand reasons why
but none shall ask.

Alone with yourself
among the crowd
on a busy Saturday night.

Just your thoughts
to keep you company
and force sanity.

[Dark Muse]

There sits a lonely figure
who has no name
cast just within the dark
where the night is still

But one wonders
what thoughts are in their mind
and what are they about
sitting out on the porch at night

Just watching life pass by
waiting for something untold
or escaping from the inside

It seems so out of place
yet an act on its own
so innocent, strikes as strange
and rises suspicion
and superstition.

One wonders if there is sadness
and pain or something untold
just a shadow left there
all alone.

[qimissung]

the old priest, with cotton ears,
hearing aids cushioned,
struggles up the altar stairs;

gold is heavy like a body,
echoes in his head;
the bells ring in threes

he drinks the wine, mumbles
(adoration and fear die with age),
sanctus, sanctus, sanctus,

in threes, the weight of sound,
outside the snow fills the shoeprints,
the ash falls from the chimneys.


I love this.

[qimissung]

You walk in,
a merry carnival
of one.
Your smile taps out
a happy beat,
Your hair bobs about
like little ducks afloat.
You work at play
so assiduously,
your smile ever present,
ever pleasant,
No one would ever know
your father was swept
away on a famous
storm-tossed day,
leaving you,
a merry carnival of one

[qimissung]

she's a laughing girl
bon mots trip from her mouth
like so many colorful
mardi gras beads

the coin of her kingdom is
a golden witticism or two,
should you desire admittance
to that elite confluence

and then you're given unalloyed
loyalty, whether you deserve it or not;
and she can give a compliment that
warms like the midday sun

meanwhile, she trips unconcernedly
down flower-petaled paths
"look at me! look at me!"
sing her happy feet

how ironic, then, that
the motif of her literary taste
lies in unalloyed death
and unrelieved night

[qimissung]

features delicate, hair a sable paintbrush,
her face glows with pride and passion as
she talks about her sport. Her life converges
at the point where adulthood and childhood
meet, and she perches there uneasily.

One day, trying to give unto Caesar that
which is Caesar's she says to me
"It's cool to help, it's not cool to give
answers." "You gave me the answers last week!"
her friend, laughing,tells her.

Embarrassed, she looks away.
A moment later she is laughing again,
face lit up, eyes aglow, the game is on again.

[Dori]

Hunchbacked,
Crabbed ol' man
walking out of the bank.
He finds nothing---
nothing that isn't
just
miserable.

[ampoule]

Willy Billy

Heavy, he spills over the small chair,
His smile filling the space between us,
But there is still room for more.
He places his harmonica to his lips,
I weep as I am engulfed with the sound,
That spills and fills the still room.

[ampoule]

Charlie...the Girl

She greets you at her door,
Smiles, a hug,
Deep blue eyes that ask,
"Are you glad to be here?"
Well, you better be,
When your singing is over
She'll serve you goulash
And luscious lemon cake,
Her song, her musical
Offering for this jam.

[Dark Muse]

Well this one isn't about a person...

Shoe

I see you there
alone and discarded
abandoned to the wayside,
a solitary figure growing
soggy in the falling rain
while cars whiz by careless
and uncaring.
What happened to your other
side, does anyone stop to
wonder where you came from
and how you arrived.
In your own right you have
a story to tell, now collecting
dirt and waiting without hope,
perhaps you tumbled off the back
of a passing truck unnoticed
or were dragged away from a happy
yard by Fido or Rex, but now
your days are done without an
even match, not longer have you anything
to offer but a question and
inspiration.

[qimissung]

A roller coaster ride complete
with swoops and swirls and screams,
she charges through the day,
a nuclear reactor of energy
that she gladly shares
the stars bow down
before her gilding light;
shine on, sweet girl, shine on!

[Dark Muse]

You emerged
from darkness
cast in a beam of late
fading in
as a phantom
splashed in white
swallowed by shadow
out of the night
a stalker of the streets
raising questions
and lingering suspicion
a single moment
out of time
gripped by suspense
marked in intrigue
and in an instant
gone
just as you
arrived.