Promptly 4, 5, 6 and 7 (Book)

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Rated: 13+ · Book · Cultural · #2299350

Poems for years 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the Promptly Poetry Challenge.

A year's worth of poems, every week for 52 weeks, spanning 2023 and 2024, plus the years following, from August 2024 to August 2025, 2025 to 2026 (provided I live that long, of course).
July 30, 2026 at 11:03am
July 30, 2026 at 11:03am
#1120292


Book Shop

Secondhand book shop
weathered like its wares
faded in the sun and
dampened by the rain.

Last of the Mohicans
a pebble in the stream
refuge from the future
defender of your dreams.

Gigabytes and binaries
stooping from the cloud
geriatrics thinning out
as reading dies within.

Line count: 12
Free verse
For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 48
Prompt: As per illustration.
*Thought*  Comment
July 27, 2026 at 11:04am
July 27, 2026 at 11:04am
#1120144
Colours

You tell me that it’s mazarine
to which I say, “What do ya mean?”
and, if it seems the answer’s blue,
I’ll wonder why I askèd you.

And now you tell me quercitron,
I really think my hearing’s gone -
but you insist it’s sorta yellow;
much more of this and I shall bellow.

Then follow this with annatto
to make my understanding go,
and when you tell me it means red,
you surely know you should have said.

Tyrian purple, dragon’s blood,
ponceau, puce, gamboge mud,
all colours that I’ll never know,
their names they do confuse me so.

Line count: 16
Rhymed aabb
For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 47
Prompt: Write a color poem.
*Thought*  Comment
July 13, 2026 at 12:39pm
July 13, 2026 at 12:39pm
#1119402
Why Not

To leave these wearied cares
and lay aside this form
sweet relief caress my face
without theatric bow
the final scene unfolded now
and down the lights so low

waiting for the lights to go up

Now there for once
in the midnight fretful bed
came chance to hold desire
the moment rich with decision
and fortune favoured will
to be within that silent crowd
with soul released
rejoicing happy even

waiting for the lights to go up

Came grudging thought
to weave upon the wish
mere reason to go on
the groping hand
released from death
still searching for the gun.

waiting for the lights to go up.

Line count: 23
Form: The Bop
For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 46
Prompt: Write a bop, any subject. This is actually an amalgam of two poems (entitled Why and Why Not) I wrote in about 1970, together with extra lines written today to meet the demands of the form. I don’t remember all the lines but needed to write them down so that they were recorded (in the hope of eventually recalling the others) and the prompt was a good way of killing two birds with one stone.
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