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 Book of poems written for the second and third years of the Promptly Poetry Challenge. |
 Poems written for Promptly Poetry Years Two and Three. Year three is four poems short of being complete but, having reached 100, I have run out of room in this book for the last few of 2023. This overflow will be consigned to the previous collection of Promptly poems, named Promptly Poetry. |
| Waiting for Godot (apologies to Samuel Becket) Good things come to those who wait and patience is a virtue, reward is not devalued late, forbearance will not hurt you. Our ancestors believed in these, their outlook was not surly; this day may be the one to seize, the night before, too early. Yet now desire is instant sated, we fret and gripe when thwarted, with fury greet whene’er belated, and so our time’s distorted. Line count: 12 Rhymed abab For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 48 June 5 2023 Prompt: Waiting. Note: A cautionary ditty that might have sprung (but didn’t) from the mind of Mrs DoAsYouWouldBeDoneBy of the forgotten book The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley. |
| Brevette butter s p r e a d s bread Line count: 3 Brevette form For Promptly Poetry, Week 47 Prompt: Brevette, subject (noun), verb, and object (noun), in this exact order. The verb should show an ongoing action. This is done by spacing out the letters in the verb. There are only three words in the poem. |
| A Decided Argument What is it that, with certainty, we know has wings that fills enchanted ear with what it sings, that holds expected dreams of places far, and promises delights beyond all earthly mar? A bird you say, and yes, you may be right, it meets all these and flutters in our sight, sings upon the branch its songs of flight, of the steaming south and star-filled night. Yet angels, too, fulfil our stated attributes, their voices pure and never are they mute, with heavenly light they fill the empty sky and speak of what awaits us all on high. But now the bard awakes and bids us nay, delay decision until he’s had his say, and we should listen for he’s known as sage, what answers all these quests is just the stage. Line count: 16 Rhymed couplets For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 46 Prompt: Wings. |
 Monkey Puzzle All monkeys boast and flaunt their prowess in the trees; there is, however, one that taunts and brings them to their knees. This, being called the Monkey Puzzle, has spikes on limbs and trunk, so boasting monkeys now are muzzled and lofty claims are shrunk. I knew one once in tropic climes a stately, evergreen friend, and though each leaf was sharpened tine, its shade would welcome send. Line count: 12 Rhymed abab For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 45 Prompt: Plants. It's not necessary to use the word plants, but you must name a plant or flower in your poem. |
Six Points to my Star O by the bank of the somnolent Thames way down south where the breeze is sweet I sat for a while in the shade of a willow that trailed its tendrils in the waters as angling for a bumper crop of the silver stickleback hiding from the frowning pike flashing of sides in the rippling tide and the sun-dappled grass ‘neath the leaves nature’s secrets revealed in my I Line count: 16 Free verse in six-pointed star shape For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 44 2023 Prompt: Shape poetry. |
 Fast Flowers Felicity, the mobile florist, delivers on the run, on the beach or in the forest, and always dressed to stun. Flower power for every hour, at sea or by the river, down a mine or up a tower, she’s ever ready to deliver. She needs no shop nor stall, has flowers for her clothes, gathered before she calls, spreads seeds where’er she goes. Flowers for every occasion, in sprays and wreaths and bunch, both local and Eurasian, for weddings and for lunch. Line count: 16 Rhymed abab For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 43 Prompt: As per illustration. |
| Balance If uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, tranquil sleeps the ploughman in his bed, serene the thoughts of parlourmaid in town, in dreams the child wanders without dread. Power presents accounting of the cost, riches demand expenditure on guards, authority requires assessment of what’s lost, paranoia rules the lives by silver starred. Price is set by how much is desired, payment mirrors the need for what is sought, service signs the contract when it’s hired, the market owns the rules of sold and bought. Line count: 12 Rhymed abab For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 42 Prompt: Tranquil. |
Whew Seems to me a bit twee, this matter of syllables lengthy and many; if we had to pay, they’d cost a pretty penny, for each line to be twelve is much more than plenty - ambitious it seems but why not go for twenty? Take a breath or just death. Line count: 8 Form: Tigerjade - Syllable Count: 3-3-12-12-12-12-3-3, Rhyme Scheme: a-a-b-b-c-c-d-d For Promptly Poetry, Week 41 Prompt: Poet’s choice. Note: “Twee” is an English word defined by Oxford Languages as “excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental.” |
| Shadows For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 1 Corinthians 13:12 What then of these shadows, stretched long in the sharp angles of the evening of days, warped and twisted by the ripple in the glass of a world gone mad? Shall these empty echoes spring to life as though inspired by some oasis in the dark? No, it’s not as if they’re dead, and there’s no revival in mimicry of the living. Line count: 12 Free verse For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 40 2023 Prompt: Shadow(s). |
| Time Running Out My neighbour shifts, uneasy, he moves a step away, a tremor passes underground, we all begin to sway. The earth is moving underfoot, it’s running like a stream; I cannot hold, am forced to roll, our multitude it teems. The centre drags us inward, we’re drowning in the press, the undertow grows stronger, increases our distress. Now through darkness down we fall, a hurtling, struggling mass, and then in space descending, the sands in hourglass. Line count: 16 Rhymed abcb For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 39 2023, and First and Second Chance Poetry Contest, June 2025 Prompt: Your poem should be inspired by this phrase: "time running out.” You do not need to use the phrase, but you may if you like. Poems should be at least 12 lines long, no max. Feel free to use any poetry form you like or just wing it with free verse! |
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