Week 37 – photograph by Eleanor Bennett
The photograph above inspired some quirky, original writing and it was a hard task to shortlist and I imagine a harder task for readers to choose between the ten very different poems below. There can only be one winner and this week it is Herman’s Test by Tomas Bird. This poem will accompany the poem in the published book of poems and photographs. Poems coming close were Perspectives by Martin John and Glimmers of Light by Angie Butler.Congratulations to Tomas Bird and well done to everyone who had a go at the challenge.
Poem 1
Herman’s Test
The card is turned.
“What do you see?” I am asked
for the tenth time.
My love / hate knuckled-hands
rotate the photograph.
Twitching eyes stare
at the non bilinear image,
a debut to the pack;
I see that much at least.
Finally, a cognitive response looms
so I quip:
“Silver monkey’s auditioning for a spot
on the Sgt. Peppers sleeve.”
“Globules of mercury on stalks of barley
before the wind shakes them red.”
“The T-1000’s tears after being outsmarted
by Arnie Schwarzenegger in Judgement Day.”
Dr Rorschach looks pleased
as he sharpens algorithms
to dissect my thoughts.
Buzzed attendants lead
me away to my snow-bleached-bubble room
to rest.
Tomas Bird
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Poem 2
The dream of a Virgin
Shattered
She will try again
Bringing movie stars
Cricketers
Musicians
To help the seduction.
Mars waits
And smiles.
For just now
God gathers the sparkles
In his hand
And eyes them
With sorrow
And tenderness
The universe is endless
Anita Pinto
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Poem 3
Blood swept lands and seas of red
We should remember them, all who lived or died in war;
Soldiers, sailors, airmen and women, wardens
And guards, the doctors, nurses; ones whose gardens
Grew the food; wives and mothers; many more.
We should remember them; although so long ago,
What we have came from them. They made us, truly,
Who lived and died, or suffered after. Like holy
presence in a church, they surround us and we know.
We should remember them, though with each year
And each new untouched generation it gets harder,
Like when travelling in a country, the border
May appear for miles and hours, then one time not appear.
We should remember them. For, not close, and not here,
But now in another country somewhere a mother
Cries for a lost son; there are things to die for: other
Wars, other reasons. The same smell, same, matchless fear.
We will remember them. Though young, or old,
Not understanding war, or only too well knowing,
Not wanting to, or never able to forget, or always trying.
We will remember. To this quiet duty we are called.
We will remember them; in hope and simple trust
That peace and joy may one day and for all happen
Here, and in the world true peace will sharpen
Where it’s found and where not, peace come at last.
So plant a poppy by a wall or wear one for your dead
But remember today’s war in this blood swept land,
Children cower in damp rooms from leering men, and understand
This: the blood of former oceans can’t hide these seas of red.
Michael Docker
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Poem 4
Stolen
We gathered round the teacher,
some next to the gas taps,
Bunsen burners, others round the sink
with its stains and smell
as Miss took a heavy jar
from the store room.
‘This is expensive,’ she said.
She tipped
the shining liquid
onto the counter top.
At that a juggernaut thundered
past the chemistry lab
making the windows shake.
The mercury
quivered and split
into a thousand rolling marbles.
Jessica kept a couple
which was against the rules,
but we loved playing
with it, shivering and quaking
in her wooden pencil box.
Vicki Morley
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Poem 5
When God Plugged in the Universe
When God plugged in the universe
It was like this:
Dizzy, effervescent stars fizzing in the dark places
Of His boundless mind;
Daisies rising in the first grass
& nodding sagely in the early interstellar winds;
All untraveled, all untrodden—
Just waiting to be discovered.
Lizzie Ballagher
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Poem 6
Glimmers of light
If I can see glimmers
of light
in the days of darkness
and don’t give up,
but keep on searching,
maybe I’ll find
the light
in
a murmur of starlings
rain drops on a cobweb
the smell of toast.
a card from a friend
a bunch of wild flowers,
and it will help.
If I can find that glimmer
in my life
I’ll try to give
light to another
and the light reflects back
then I don’t have to search
so hard for glimmers of light
in the days of darkness.
Angie Butler
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Poem 7
The Thousand
A thousand eyes watching their future,
as cells woven on a meiotic spindle
replicate
and turn from a fertilised cell
to complex life.
Perfect spheres reminding us
of fragility,
out of a thousand eggs only one
will see maturity,
the rest will fuel the feast
living just a moment before obscurity.
Clint Wastling
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Poem 8
~The painting of life~
filled with colors
of Black and White,
like the moments of peace and sorrows,
like the cycle of light after darkness and darkness after light our life goes on….
making it more beautiful.
Dulen Gogoi
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Poem 9
Perspectives
‘Bubbles here, bubbles there,
‘Wretched bubbles everywhere,
‘They sting your eyes, they stain your clothes,
‘They get in your face, they get up your nose’
The thoughts of a businessman on his way home,
His mind on his work and his eyes on the phone.
Said the little girl making them, having such fun,
Enjoying the park and the warmth of the sun:
‘My bubbles look just like tiny new worlds,
‘The sun makes them glisten like diamond and pearls.
‘They’re beautiful, most of these people agree,
‘So sad that the man can’t be happy like me.’
(Inspired by William Blake’s The Clod and the Pebble.
Martin John
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Poem 10
Silver World
Silver faces
to admire
the multitude
a swaying choir
Shining brightly
in the dark
they gently sing
for us to hark
Sounds radiate
at points of light
to soar, majestically
taking flight
Soft songs
of praise
to heaven
upward raise
Melodic waves
released, unfurled
to celebrate
their Silver world
Phil Criddle
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