I know I haven't written on here since March and that is because I am very busy. However, I am going to start posting my poems here for April PAD Challenge from Poetic Asides. It wouldn't feel like April without writing at least a poem a day and I am enjoying it very much this year.
Still working on my poetry book, Losing My Love, Finding Myself, and hope to have that done soon. So many poems are necessary for a book and hoping by the end of April I will have enough to do it.
I will be posting these poems here as much as I can. Check each day for the new one.
April 1
Prompt: Write about a fool or a foolish experience
Foolish Fantasy
He played me for a fool
believing a grieving widow
would be fodder for his avarice
and strung me along a poor excuse
for a lover over the invisible strands
of the infamous internet
he plied me with foolish stolen verses
and lied with honeyed voice exclamations
as I the ubiquitous duped one
responded as a well tuned violin
singing my foolish song to myself
believing in fantasy as reality
until the reality extinguished the fun
my life hissing as the smoke rose
from the ashes of my dignity
copyright 2016 by Barbara Ehrentreu
April 2
Prompt: He said, she said
Political Dialogue – A Fictional representation loosely based on the current Democratic candidates
it was just political banter
the kind most candidates
engage in before the ultimate battle
when each wanna be pushes the other
hoping he or she will tip over like an egg
left too close to the edge of the counter
and fall splat with egg shells scattered
and he said she had taken from the rich
oil consortiums making her evil and tainted
as if she were a rotten egg he wanted to
push over to lie there
with the yolk of her soul
bleeding out for all to see
and she said he was daft
for she had not truly taken from the
companies, but she had from the workers
who toiled for those companies
and he said still there is the money
you have compared to my measly sum
and you are carrying the mantel of those
one percent into the battle
while I am representing the ninety-niners
who clearly adore my direction
and she said, but you have no experience
for you it is an entry level job
while I have traversed the world and nattered
with the finest of the leaders
and he said, who cares
if your country is starving and you are
hand in glove with the people who have
caused this?
copyright 2016 by Barbara Ehrentreu
April 3
Prompt: Finish the title: Three——
Three of Us Left
Where once there were four
there is only three
only three plates for dinner
only three tickets for a movie
only three and the empty space
where once you inhabited
a chair and a piece of the table
your part of the world where
you staked your claim and we
were observers for your life
and three for discussion
missing the opposing argument
you inserted into a neutral time
creating your drama and bringing
the world with its chaos and confusion
into the center of our table
swirling winds surrounded your voice
as you expounded upon this or that
but we listened as apostles
for your gems of truth
you cut through with your words
as if you were a word butcher
slicing into anything mundane or
trivial and tossing it aside
no small talk for you
though the three of us
would have liked to hunker down
and breathe out the silliness around us
envelope our lives in the mundane
now there is silence in the fourth place
an invisible space where no one sits
an empty leather chair that once held a
hulking presence complete with glass
in hand and papers -- always papers
and now we can watch the silly TV shows
and gossip about the mundane
but there is always a time we wish
you were here to makes sense of
the world that somehow no matter
how we try to keep it out
seeps through the cracks and
you are not here to explain it to us
your ever captive audience
and once more we three are left
to sort out the monsters by ourselves.
copyright 2016 by Barbara Ehrentreu
April 4
Prompt: Write a poem about distance
Across the Distance
We met across the distance of the internet
close in spirit and thoughts
in the dark of night our voices flew across
miles through the phone and you grew closer
each time we talked miles dissolved as if they
were written in disappearing ink
your warmth and sparkling wit created
a cocoon of comfort as if we two were chatting
across filled cups of coffee and nibbling on
sweet, soft pastries between sips
My mind cannot accept the length between us
refuses to see the long road from you to me
easily vanished by a short air trip
but it remains a distant dream for each of us
you surrounded by piles of written images and
worn books and I unable to escape the life I
must lead to survive in my northeastern domesticity
But my heart and my mind will always be yours
no matter if we ever meet
for you are the one who can make me laugh
Slide away the dark clouds over my soul and
bring the light back when it seems no one
can lift the fog away
your delicious humor and sarcastic words
remind me, though we’ve never met, of a
man who did that for me all the time
and since he is an infinite distance away
I will speak for him and admire you as he
would do with a twinkle in his eye as he
gave your hand a firm shake with a big smile
copyright 2016 by Barbara Ehrentreu
April 5:
Prompt: Write a poem about experience or inexperience or both - Two for Tuesday
I have done too much and not enough
felt the spark of true love and followed it
drowned myself in the hazel eyes of my love
the ripples reverberating as the years went by
walked on the Taj Mahal and danced in the rain
held a crying baby in one arm as I washed the older
daughter with the other–getting myself wet in the process
stirred oatmeal while a baby suckled on my breast
domesticated the wild spirit inside of me
taught eager faces and ones who jeered me
saw the light of aha as at last a child found the answer
created characters to live the fictional life I dreamed
no longer the naive girl, I am filled with experience
a long chain stretching over years and years
connecting me and yet I know there is more
more to write and see and be
there is still space for the unexpected
copyright 2016 by Barbara Ehrentreu
Until the next time my April radio show on Blog Talk Radio, Red River Radio Tales from the Pages will be on April 28 at 4PM EST -6PM and will feature Phillip Matthew Roberts, esteemed poet and dear friend who has recently published his book called Lost and Found and Nicholas Maze.
For anyone who would like to read their poetry on the radio you should tune into World Poetry Open Mic where you can read your poems and enjoy the poetry of others every Friday night at 8PM Central Time or 10PM EST.
