Post Poetry Month 2023

 

 

Sliding

seeing it, feeling it:

slipping, sagging, leaning, lagging -

falling out, calling out:

failing, slowing, trailing, going -

down the icy, frozen path from which none return.

 ©2023 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO April 27, 2023

 

I’ve missed quite a few NAPOWRIMO days, but today, while at the AATH (Association for Applied & Therapeutic Humor) Conference I was inspired by an opportunity to follow my own advice.

 

Today’s disaster can be tomorrow’s funny story.

                                                                Noreen Braman

 

 

Powerpoint Disaster

There was thunder and lightning in my presentation.

No, really, it was a sound file

Carefully placed and timed, I thought,

To enhance the Laughter Lightning Round.

But Zeus was feeling disrespected

how dare I use lightning for humor

Only he can control its form.

And that is why lightning flashed

and thunder roared

at all the wrong times

in my 4-minute speech

that was rewarded with smiles and laughter,

instant reframing of a disaster

turning immediately into humor.

©2023 Noreen Braman

 

 

 

NAPOWRIMO April 16, 2023

 

Another Day to Die

Death lurks in the closet, in the attic, on top of the refrigerator, in a locked case with glass doors.

Death takes the children playing, in the classroom, on the street, sleeping in bed, watching a road race.

Death creeps behind a candy store trip, rains down over city and farm, ambushes from behind a patio door, in the middle of a birthday party, during a chat outside a home.

Death meets children betrayed, abused, stalked, ignored – absorbing breath and closing eyes, taking more killed by man. than nature.

©2023Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO April 15, 2023

Hungry Birds

 

Dear Michael,

you warned about the hungry birds

that circle overhead waiting

just waiting

to snatch the fruit from your hand

gleefully flying away

swallowing it whole

then returning to their incessant circling

with unquenched appetites waiting

just waiting.

 ©2023 Noreen Braman

 

NAPOWRIMO APRIL 14, 2023

 

Present Presence

only this moment is real

all else is memory or anticipation

pulling against the present

to distract, derail, and devalue

the influence of your presence

in this

the only moment that is real.

©2023 Noreen Braman

NANOWRIMO April 13, 2023

 a poem, a poem, my fountain pen for a poem!

 

Hop, Skip, Jump, Write

 

Words don’t form straight lines these days, they jump, skip, and hop around,

trying out each possibility

like shattered flecks of an enchanted broom,

rising up in some other place.

Some rudely demanding

shouting their names annoyingly,

others play hide-and-seek, refusing

to appear when summoned.

But when upon a golden page

they stop their motion and align,

In that final act of acceptance - their light worth every minute of chasing.

 

 

©2023 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO April 12, 2023

 

Rhymer Reasons

 

Actually you rhyme so seldomly

why is that?

And metered form you run from, panicky

no stomach for it?

Trying hard to write in rhymery

but just can’t find a reason.

 

 

©2023 Noreen Braman

From a NAPOWRIMO prompt: “write a poem that addresses itself or some aspect of its self”