Bela's a Day Late and a Dollar Short

[Bela]

April 1 (just below!)
April 2
April 3 - Homemade Ice Cream
April 4 - The Bird-Man
April 5 - Mobile poem swiped with a bandaged thumb
April 6 - Tomorrow's Poem
April 7 - Looking Back
April 8 - Dialogue with a Physician
April 9 - The Captive Moth
April 10 - Zero minute egg
April 11 - The rusted bicycle
April 12 - The Art of the Petrumpan Sonnet
April 13-14-15-16 - Chase the horse
April 17 - Fury
.
.
.
April 26 - Retreat
.
April 28 - There are no links here.
April 29 - With the usual fizzle
April 30 - endeth my NaPo.



April 1

Call me Waffling Matilda, a scrap of plastic snagged
in the crooked limbs of a spring lilac
after the barrel went up with a bang. The bits flown and settled,
I'll let the wind take charge.

[5th column]

Bugger me.......no, surely not?

[Bela]

April 2

Without the iron clank and crackle, the house slips smoothly cooler
until the chill crystals to a baseline, a new norm bats the sun
to impotent rays, a glint that keeps its heat
secreted in an eyelid's tortured flicker. There's wood--
it's piled in the drive, protected, but the birch needs a hauler
and the hauler needs a back, and the stove has a gullet
and the gullet has a hunger
and the baseline has a crack.

[avalanche]

Waffling Matilda was a real little bottler.
Number 2 is shades of Sandburg.....nice work.

[Bench]

These are both great. The [cracked] baseline repetition sets up an echo that lasts until well after the kettle's boiled. What a start!

[M]

Bela!! Good to see you decided to go for it after all! The second one is fun to read aloud. I felt the absence of heat. The baseline has a crack, indeed. Glad you're in.

[Scavella]

Well, if Bela can slip in under the wire ...

Really like #2.

Cheers, S

[Bela]

Many thanks, guys. Good to be here -- seems like weeks since I participated or, for that matter, wrote much of anything. Possibly longer.

Scavella -- I was simply unable to resist the very compelling argument I made to myself to grant me leniency with regard to the timing. And I think it may still have been April 1 in Hawaii.

[Arlene]

First time ever having the honor of reading you...such a pleasure, the second one especially.

[cookala]

holy crap - you're in!! *big smile* it's been too long
I like the way you started April with a boom, and #2 is awesome in many ways.
such a pleasure to read you again!

[Andrea345]

At least the barrel gets banged in your pomelet. cool beans!

[Bela]

Thanks for popping in, krystalynn, Angela & Andrea!


April 4

The Bird-Man

His camo snagged as brambles crunch,
he slithers in the cloaking fog--
with booty smugly in his clutch
he chuckles through the nightly slog.

A feather here, a wisp of felt,
a twig to mark a limblike perch,
a dash of red, and thus his church's
congregation's hand is dealt.

For placement every care he heeds--
a tricky business--just enough
of mottled bracken, broken reeds
and smoothly half-obscuring rough.

A Bristled Curlew, Short-eared Owl,
a Kingbird cloaked in stately gray;
the rarest of the rarest fowl
so seldom spotted, night or day--

A Giant Ibis, Little Dodo,
Kakapo and Painted Snipe--
his masterpiece, a Noisy Scrub-bird
built of cleaners for a pipe.

And every night the proud creator
flits from marsh to wooded hills
and scatters like the eggs of Easter
peeking feathers, beaks and bills.

And one by one the sightings mount--
binoculars and telescopes,
their fuzzy focus gears of hope
proclaim the paucity of doubt.

A cheeky gift, the bird-man gets,
a tad deceitful, rather cheap,
but life's a tough enough conceit
so why not leave it what it's left?

[5th column]

I was looking for the hiccup in the meter of the last and couldn't find one I thought it was about to happen on the line break on church's ​*quietly envious of people who do form of any kind*

[anita.a]

Love the way you write, the best one so far for me... 'Dialogue with a physician'. See you on the other side of NAPO!

[cookala]

heya Bela! popped in to catch up – so glad I did. I’ve really enjoyed reading you after so long a time.
Homemade Ice Cream – well, mine is automatic (I don’t have to crank a handle thank God!) but I still enjoyed this a lot with the wordplay and repetition. and the end product is worth all that noise and exertion, isn’t it?
The Bird Man – you had me at Bird. love this, and I’ve recently been out all over the island bird shooting (with a camera, of course) and I have many of the birds you listed in my digital cache now. love the rhyme, the images, the everything else, too.
Mobile poem swiped with a bandaged thumb – Sit, I mean shit, I me want meant purity made me lol as did Torrent of crisp is shining fick duck fick fick rakt fuck! Imagining and killer lb there, btw. I really enjoyed this thus thick thack thuck, fuck! poem
Tomorrow’s Poem – more goodness here – nice commentary on Trump, Vinyl (I’m a fan), and other things on the telly all done with a lovely attention to sonics and rhyme.
Looking Back – honestly, the more I read here the more I’m blown away. I am so fucking green. maybe in 20 years if I keep at it and manage to live that long I’ll write half as well as you do.
Dialogue with a physician - great last line. and wonderful rhyming. nice
The Captive Moth – short, but so powerful. all the details are sharp and well captured.
Zero minute egg – sweet. you’ve made me look at an egg in a whole new way. love the comparisons, esp the linebacker one.
The rusted bicycle – lovely. and love you command of words and rhythm and sonics, and how you put them together.
The Art of the Petrumpan Sonnet – I’ll sue! made me lol. this is so well crafted, all I can do is sing kudos yet again.
Chase the Horse – I can relate to being thrown from a horse, I’’ve doen it and it’s painful! and it happens before you even know it. those ornery little sneaks will get the upper hand the minute you ease up on control. they’ll bite the bit and take off without you. another wow series of poems.
Fury – a quickie but a goodie, shown very well
Retreat – did you mean to leave it blank? or is that blankness a statement in itself? clever.