Hello Treeleaf Poets!
Going forward, I'd like to start a new thematic poetry thread every week or so. Each thread will serve both as a writing prompt and as a place to share your work related to the theme.
For our first theme, let’s keep it relatively simple and focus on the current seasons. Yes, I do mean seasons with an “s”. While it may be winter for many of us, we have many members living where it is currently summer.
Feel free to write about your current season, write about the opposite season, or write about both! This prompt is just to get you started. Write what YOU write.
It’s also fine to share older work that fits the prompt if you so choose. Sometimes a fresh look and small revisions help to make an older piece really shine.
All forms of poetry are welcome. Anything from short forms like haiku, senryu, lunes, etc.:
screaming from the sky
each flake lands
without a whimper
memories of youth
wet footprints
on the hot sidewalk
...to longer form poems such as this older contemplation on impermanence:
Midnight Prophets
Beneath anemic streetlights
Partially veiled by curtains of shadow
Lurk the sun-crippled spawn of winter
Involuntary harbingers of Springtime
Born of childhood innocence and joy
They stand now drooping, limp and sad
Dressed in reckless atrophy
Spirit and flesh in rapid decay
Unblinking, their vacant stares
Pierce the mild March air
Chilling both body and soul
Of all whose gaze they ensnare
Clinging to life by a wintry thread
Their very decline is prophecy fulfilled
Nothing left but to bide their time
Till they surrender to the dawn
As a side note, if you prefer to write poetry in a language other than English, that is fine too! If you can, please include an English-language translation to help more of us enjoy your work, but it is perfectly acceptable to share your work in the original language as well.
Happy writing!
Gassho,
Seikan
-stlah-
Going forward, I'd like to start a new thematic poetry thread every week or so. Each thread will serve both as a writing prompt and as a place to share your work related to the theme.
For our first theme, let’s keep it relatively simple and focus on the current seasons. Yes, I do mean seasons with an “s”. While it may be winter for many of us, we have many members living where it is currently summer.
Feel free to write about your current season, write about the opposite season, or write about both! This prompt is just to get you started. Write what YOU write.
It’s also fine to share older work that fits the prompt if you so choose. Sometimes a fresh look and small revisions help to make an older piece really shine.
All forms of poetry are welcome. Anything from short forms like haiku, senryu, lunes, etc.:
screaming from the sky
each flake lands
without a whimper
memories of youth
wet footprints
on the hot sidewalk
...to longer form poems such as this older contemplation on impermanence:
Midnight Prophets
Beneath anemic streetlights
Partially veiled by curtains of shadow
Lurk the sun-crippled spawn of winter
Involuntary harbingers of Springtime
Born of childhood innocence and joy
They stand now drooping, limp and sad
Dressed in reckless atrophy
Spirit and flesh in rapid decay
Unblinking, their vacant stares
Pierce the mild March air
Chilling both body and soul
Of all whose gaze they ensnare
Clinging to life by a wintry thread
Their very decline is prophecy fulfilled
Nothing left but to bide their time
Till they surrender to the dawn
As a side note, if you prefer to write poetry in a language other than English, that is fine too! If you can, please include an English-language translation to help more of us enjoy your work, but it is perfectly acceptable to share your work in the original language as well.
Happy writing!
Gassho,
Seikan
-stlah-