A couple on a Sunday drive

[tonywalt]

There are no disagreements, as we drive along,

encased safely in the car, a road

split by the center line.

Practiced vowels, consonants and syllables

roll predictably with the hum of tires. Each topic

measured as the roadside poles,

the conversation’s selected tone

mirrors the

ca-thump ca-thump ca-thump

of the the paved highway joints.



We stare at the windshield and

think of things that must be said – instead,

the words shift, twist, and turn

in our mouths

like worms, then sit angrily,

before we

brood them out of separate windows in

silence and



continue down the road

somewhere,

the receding light of the sun

searching through glass then

fading

in the rear window,

frame by frame

until the light is

gone.

[tailor STATELY]

Enjoyed very much :) I found this part to be exceptional strong: "the words shift, twist, and turn / in our mouths / like worms, then sit angrily, / before we / brood them out of separate windows in / silence" :)

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[tonywalt]

Enjoyed very much :) I found this part to be exceptional strong: "the words shift, twist, and turn / in our mouths / like worms, then sit angrily, / before we / brood them out of separate windows in / silence" :)

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

Thanks Tailor. appreciated. i can never figure out why there are only 3 active members. And worse, the non-active members are in the dungeons of facebook, instagram or twitter - refusing rescue.

[tailor STATELY]

Yeah, it's not the community it used to be by a far shot when I first registered. As a fledgling poet when I registered in 2009 I only had 6-years of poetry under my belt, all on my own. I grew more from other peoples' poetry on this platform than I can express. I do the fb thing, eschewing politics as much as possible, a bit more than I should - but I have the poetry bug and even with, what?, maybe 6 or more of us that will drop in from time to time it's enough to keep me plugging along. The Thursdays at Two poetry I belong to helps also a bit, but the community we had here was what really made me want to explore poetry. I'd like to thank LitNet and we hangers on and those that might drop in occasionally, as well as the past members (I miss them all) who for what ever reason may ghost us or not, for their contributions :)

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[tonywalt]

Yeah, it's not the community it used to be by a far shot when I first registered. As a fledgling poet when I registered in 2009 I only had 6-years of poetry under my belt, all on my own. I grew more from other peoples' poetry on this platform than I can express. I do the fb thing, eschewing politics as much as possible, a bit more than I should - but I have the poetry bug and even with, what?, maybe 6 or more of us that will drop in from time to time it's enough to keep me plugging along. The Thursdays at Two poetry I belong to helps also a bit, but the community we had here was what really made me want to explore poetry. I'd like to thank LitNet and we hangers on and those that might drop in occasionally, as well as the past members (I miss them all) who for what ever reason may ghost us or not, for their contributions :)

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

It’s funny how those early communities shape you more than you realise at the time. . That kind of environment is hard to replicate once it thins out.

I get what you mean about it not being the same—these things rarely are—but there’s something to be said for the smaller circle that remains. A handful of voices, familiar over time, can still carry a lot of weight. Sometimes even more, in a different way.

And the fact you’re still at it—still writing, still showing up, still catching the “poetry bug”—that’s really the core of it, isn’t it?

Nice to hear Thursdays at Two is still part of the rhythm too. (Where is that? here?)

[Danik 2016]

Tony, this sounds like Edgar Hooper pictures in form of poetry. A shared isolation.

As for Litnet I registered 10 years ago. The forum was probably far from its prime but it struck me as a bunch of interesting and very different personalities who had their own locations, histories, and POVs. Where else would you find a sheperd doing stunning analysis of Dostojewski; or a lady writing a diary in some English Wilderness; or a Jewish Professor writing about science in a remote corner of Norway; or a British businessman writing short stories about the Orient. Not to forget the poets from all coners of the world and
picture threads which are a pride of this forum! Alas for our never achieved The Great Litnet Book! And so much more!
I thank you all who are somehow gone and those who still hang around, active or not for your participation!

[tailor STATELY]

Thursdays at Two is our poetry group at the library in Georgetown, California. The library itself is the bottom floor of an old two story building https://librarytechnology.org/library/14918 We are very rural - its fb page shows two horses hitched to the front railing, but ya got 'a sign in to fb to get content. We're up to maybe 10 poets that meet the 1st and 3rd Thursdays at 2:00 pm, a few more by email, and we're a very diverse group - we have two poets that are emeritus county laureates, I'm not one.
Our format is to bring a poem by another poet to share,,, then choose the next session's prompt for the creating our next sessions poems,,, then share our poems from the previous meeting's prompt,,, and lastly with maybe 20-30 minutes to go choose words from a word can (that has hundreds of cut slips of words) by each member one by one from which to compose an impromptu poem - then share it with the group - usually with hilarious results which ends our meeting :)

An email our poetry leader sends us after each session:

Hi Poets,

Here are today's word-can words:
text
brief
uphill
zone
mirage
millimeter
mutual
unsophisticated
leaping

Assignment for next session (5/7/26): medicine

Before the next session, please email us-all your poem-by-someone-else, your new take-home assignment, and (if you wish) your word-can poem from today.

Judy

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[tonywalt]

Thursdays at Two is our poetry group at the library in Georgetown, California. The library itself is the bottom floor of an old two story building https://librarytechnology.org/library/14918 We are very rural - its fb page shows two horses hitched to the front railing, but ya got 'a sign in to fb to get content. We're up to maybe 10 poets that meet the 1st and 3rd Thursdays at 2:00 pm, a few more by email, and we're a very diverse group - we have two poets that are emeritus county laureates, I'm not one.
Our format is to bring a poem by another poet to share,,, then choose the next session's prompt for the creating our next sessions poems,,, then share our poems from the previous meeting's prompt,,, and lastly with maybe 20-30 minutes to go choose words from a word can (that has hundreds of cut slips of words) by each member one by one from which to compose an impromptu poem - then share it with the group - usually with hilarious results which ends our meeting :)

An email our poetry leader sends us after each session:

Hi Poets,

Here are today's word-can words:
text
brief
uphill
zone
mirage
millimeter
mutual
unsophisticated
leaping

Assignment for next session (5/7/26): medicine

Before the next session, please email us-all your poem-by-someone-else, your new take-home assignment, and (if you wish) your word-can poem from today.

Judy

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

amazing stuff. there is hope