Fingers, Fists, Knees or Noses

[a Gardenia poem pattern whose origin I couldn't find in a non-exhaustive online search]

HOT SPRINGS, (AR), September 24, 1939. --In an effort to reduce stealing of bird dogs, Police Lt...Kauffman began taking the noseprints of such animals at the Whittington Avenue fire station this afternoon. More than 50 owners had impressions taken of the noses of their dogs. A charge of 50 cents was made to cover actual expenses, and for this the owners got the dogs' noseprints...

The sheriff proposes
that printin' dogs' noses

will cut down on thievin'
and keep us from grievin'.

Let's stop all our riddlin'
and fork out a piddlin'

four bits (fifty cents)
to cover expense.

We'll keep those illegals
from stealin' our beagles.
~~~~

PL, published in variations, 1994

Summer poems before summer's gone again

Google image

 

HAIKU

 

a lone gardenia

blooming on a branch

I did not prune

~~~~
 

early morning--

robin forages from

newly-mown lawn

 ~~~~

 

SENRYU

 

a dose

of The Bobbsey Twins

before bedtime

 ~~~~
 

one month later

I restart my daily

haiku readings

~~~~
 

FIBONACCI

 

"At Dairy Hollow"

 

Long

dead

trees killed

by climbing

ivy grown so long

it falls. The vines sway in the wind.

~~~~
 

CINQUAIN

 

"Fragile looking"

 

Tiny

web between two

split-leaf philodendron

leaves at risk of demolition

by wind.

 ~~~~
 

"New Players"

 

The cats

chase each other

through the yard where children

and grown-ups used to play softball

work-up.

~~~~ 

c lovepat press, 2013





Time for reunions

REUNIONS

R  eunions--whether in families or for friends
E  voke ebullient anticipation or edgy dread.
U  nderlying our attendance is a vulnerability
N  atural to those who've grown apart. What if
I   'm too big, too bald, too bold, too shy? Can
O  thers accept what I've become? Alas,
N  o one is responsible for me but me.
S  ympathize, empathize. Life
                                                c
                                                   o
                                                     n
                                                         t
                                                            i
                                                               n
                                                                   u
                                                                      e
                                                                         s.
[from variations, 1994, c PL]

September Cinquains

Billy hosing the tree down before the brush pile is lit

AFTER THE REUNION
Little
white church alone
again, guarding headstones
of the early settlers until
next year.

BEGINNER BAND CONCERT
Driving
one-hundred miles
just to hear his grandson
play the trumpet for eleven
minutes.

BOTTOMLESS PIT
Waiting
for the pizza,
he eats the entire bowl
of tuna salad--his 13th
birthday.

CRITIQUE
Strange--the
paths our poems
take before coming out
of the woods near perfect, like our
children.

STILL TREMBLING
Two hands
to lift the mug
of tea after tumbling
down the steep grassy slope I was
mowing.

[from September Cinquains, 2003
 c Pat Laster]