Telling Stories

Bought Optimism

Shari Smothers — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:37:24 +0000

Optimism is a commodity
bought and paid for
on life’s open market.

All the salt and
disappointment,
the ointment worked
into my wounds
lasts until my watery tears
dilute them sufficiently
and I can again feel confident
this too shall pass.

Hero Factor

Shari Smothers — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:15:37 +0000

One luminous, still summer day,
you said it was perfect to paint the shutters.
To my delight you let me, even though mom said
only use my brothers. Well into the job,
I beamed brighter than the sun’s rays
when you said my work was outstanding.
That day, I thought I could be
a professional house painter.

A very different summer day was
imbued with my own heavy countenance.
My small shoulders drooped with the weight
of what I’d witnessed.
My opened, young eyes stung as
the early light seeped into the dew-kissed morning;
Memories played
of your raucous argument with Grandmama the night before;
I learned it would be hours more
‘til mommy and daddy would come to collect us, and,
Tears of sadness flowed because
your hero status was no longer so nosebleed high.

That day, Granddaddy, you were almost
just a man.

Prompt: #117 Create a Hinge, by guest celebrity poet, Zachary Schomburg, at Read Write Poem. Write a missive (letter) to a departed loved one in the first part of the poem. Then write a confession unrelated to the missive.

Inaction

Shari Smothers — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:10:42 +0000

Looking over my wishes list
I wonder why I don’t
act on shit that could
bring these into being.

Some call it fear.
When I’m near it I can
see that’s part
of what keeps me silent.

Far worse than that is
the habit it creates of inaction
encouraged by feigned comfort
from never being rejected.

Incongruous I know but
this hateful, insidious peace can be
more powerful than
life spent doing without.

Guide Me

Shari Smothers — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:39:01 +0000

Even my own voice
offends my ears of late, all
I want is Your words.

Bad News

Shari Smothers — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:37:24 +0000

Family
disturbs my worrying and fretting
over what I can’t control.
Impatient, defensive
hyper logical commentary
highlight the fact that
there’s not shit else we can do.

However
bad news, too much cop TV
and a predisposition
toward intense panic attacks
speak loudest to me.

All the strong, controlled blustering
and feigned aloofness
does nothing to me
to allay my fears for one in trouble.
Instead it reveals
they’re fearful as me
only fully unwilling to admit it.

Mine may not be the best
course of action for dealing either,
accepting my anguish and my hope
for difficulties to be righted.

But
I’d rather be in my shoes
if the situation fell apart
and something much harder
arose to be dealt with.

And now
after facing my fears
in the time they came
I can fully embrace my joyful relief
that everything worked out quietly.

Stale Cookies

Shari Smothers — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:02:42 +0000

PHP’s mostly a foreign language to me
I learn as I go along
to direct my blog
to do things the way I want it.

Hours pass like minutes as I
discover and recover from tests
that work different than
I’d planned them.

When I brought them up here,
these cookies were noticeably fresher.

Today’s Web Surfing

Shari Smothers — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:40:39 +0000

Overwhelm stole the helm.
It tricked with the availability
of a plethora of multimedia
that spoke directly to me
so I sat and ingested all I could
to the point of sensory overload.

All I read and heard and saw and felt
is churning chaotically in my mind
with excess overflowed to unconscious storage,
floating and spinning fixing itself
to come out later in some sensible rendition
of all I got and how I related to it.

It was a good session!

I had a Rough Day

Shari Smothers — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:45:17 +0000

It’s already the second of March.
I’m a day behind on the easy stuff.
And what’s worse, this day
seems not to want me to catch up.

No poetry no prose got posted
yesterday.
No verses edited yet today
as, important stuff is in my way
to execute them.

Slightly under the weather
I’d like to self-diagnose
but can’t quite place the ailment.
I talk to my stomach to barter for
a break in my discomfort.

This morning’s business quickly expedited
had me off to next things in
less than thirty minutes.
At home, papers got filed and
computer folders were created.
I even prepared some documents
updates and ones newly-made to populate them.

So much for the busy work,
then came time to create something.
Every damned thing jumped ship
including my creativity
and this is what I was left with.

I’m sorry and I’ll try again tomorrow, if not later.

Winter to Spring

Shari Smothers — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:52:01 +0000

Winter’s blowing out
rain’s increase between brilliant
days, heralding Spring.

I Turned to Me

Shari Smothers — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:21:52 +0000

The world didn’t stop
I just stepped off.
It wouldn’t pull up
so I took a break

from people telling me
who were my idols,
why they’re now fallen,
demanding from them
the apology I don’t need.

I stepped back from
the sound bytes from
leaders bereft of sound advice,
like play yard fighters
screaming “No, Mine!”
only with lives at stake.

My spirit was affected
flashed flaming red hot
then flash-frozen iced
then to a melted, wet pile of ash.
And, with no invitation for me
of a word from me
I understood my voice
was not sought.

So I stayed unplugged
logged off when not working
and I wrote.

Infectious Joy

Shari Smothers — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:11:56 +0000

Exceeding joy presents, for
no particular reason
than seeing a new sunrise.

Walking out heading
to the library, to the store,
even just to the mailbox;
it starts
as a tickle in my tummy,
incites a wide grin.
It creeps upwards.
My eyes almost close
in chorus with
the other happy signs.

I even feel my ears
move my glasses
as my whole head is
affected in happy
joyful resonance
rolling in from
nowhere in particular.

And I feel warm
—and good.

Rock Bottom

Shari Smothers — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:22:44 +0000

When you can do no
worse than what you do, only
thing left is better.

Still Awake

Shari Smothers — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:21:04 +0000

Floor, bed space mined with
pens, books, tablets—toothpicks that
prop my lids open.

Computer screen light
keeps me typing and reading
beyond lucidity.

Worth little early
awake returns too soon, I’m
again caught at ON;

progenitors of
awake time still at their on
positions on floor bed screen.

A Little More Haiku for You

Shari Smothers — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:00:00 +0000

I was going to pick a new poetry form for February. But, I’ve decided to continue the exploration of Haiku because my month is shortened. Two trips to New Orleans in thirty days, (I’ll be back in Houston on Wednesday), and new website work (for a site I built) mean that I must focus my attentions away from this blog for a short time.

I’m still writing. In fact, I’ve been working on several Haiku verses that I’ll post when I return home. My Haiku exploration was interesting and fun, and quite a pleasure to explore. I do believe I learned a few things. So, with all this in mind, I’ll extend my foray into Haiku instead of starting on a new poetic form.

For now, I just want to share a quick post about the excitement in the city of New Orleans.

Local Attractions

Super Bowl Forty-
four, Saints in it for the first
time in franchise life.

Mardi Gras has a
diff’rent winter taste with the
Super Bowl at stake.

Traffic’s rerouted
parades and crowds family and
friends celebrate.

Revelers blend two
saying “Who Dat!” to get beads;
“Throw me something’s” out

Election results
reported, visitors checked in,
French Quarter is packed.

New Orleans Saints
fans full of Super Bowl glad
anticipation.

I’ve taken a lot of liberties here with the Haiku form. And I hope it’s not too painful to read. But, these lines reflect some of the many things that jumped out at me since I got here on Friday.

November PAD Challenge Winner 2009

Shari Smothers — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Nancy Posey Wins

The 2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge results.

I had to post this before the month’s end. It’s been out since February 2nd, but I was too busy running between here and New Orleans and working.

The PAD Challenge from November 2009 was a lot of fun to participate in, even though I didn’t win it. The winner, Nancy Posey did win and above is the link where you can find out more about her poetry. Using the link above, you can read about the winner and sample her poetry. You can also connect to the list of the 21 finalists.

If you like to write poetry sporadically, you may want to consider a writing a poem a day. It’s a good practice. And, writing in groups can provide a great impetus to carry on when you want to just stop.