Tag: National Poetry Writing Month

Dashboard light tells me

tank empty, you’re out of gas

Dashboard light…you’re right

---

 

Poem ©2022, Jen Payne. #NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

NOT TODAY

 

There isn’t a poem today.

 

My mother bit it off

and chewed on it.

 

She hadn’t had her lunch,

She hadn’t slept well,

She was frustrated and angry,

today, last week, last year

when I was 15,

so she bit down hard

forgetting all of the idioms

the hands

the wolf

the bed

left me to tend to the wound

when I was 15,

last year, last week, today

I’m too tired to write a poem.

---

 

Poem ©2022, Jen Payne. #NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

MEANT TO SHINE
For Max

in the yard

the flowers glow at night

you can follow the path of a snail

there’s fairy fire

in the old man’s crook

and sparks in the belly of a whale

in the sky

the sun does yeoman’s work

as it polishes half the moon

and the stars

they glimmer on for us

their facets roughly hewn

good heavens,

all the world’s afire

if we only take the time

to look up from our

whirligigs

and see the vast sublime

---

Poem ©2022, Jen Payne. #NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Protego Totalum

When the healer asked at my illness

I explained

the permeable membrane

that is my heart space —

how compassion

and empathy have

always been allowed

free and unlimited egress

it is the mark of a good girl

a good daughter

a good sister

a good Catholic

to a fault, a good person

to a fault and this time

to a gait hobbled by the weight

by too much give, and not enough take

And so she prescribed for me

a Protego Totalum,

a silent incantation

complete with a swish and a flick

that seals up the leaks,

and saves the good for healing.

---

Poem ©2022, Jen Payne. #NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

OVERNIGHT

It rained all night

and I sunk into dreams

so deeply, I left a worn spot

like deer in a meadow,

magic and memory

crushed beneath

a weary soul

weaving milkweed threads

for warmth,

the star a lantern

to light her path

to morning.

 

---

Poem & Photo ©2022, Jen Payne. #NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

THE MUSES KEPT KNOCKING

 

Not today, I told them

I don’t need what you’re selling.

 

I’ve got no pedigree,

I’m just a worker bee

and I don’t bow to the queen.

 

Not today.

 

But they wouldn’t let up.

 

So I let them in enough

to take a message —

a first line, a title, an idea.

 

Stuffed it all in a folder

and went on to other things.

 

Not today, I told them

I don’t need what you’re selling.

 

I don’t teach

I don’t preach

And I don’t have a voice.

 

Not one that counts.

 

So, not today.

 

But they wouldn’t let up.

 

I’m a fake.

It’s a mistake.

I don’t have what it takes.

 

No, no — not today.

 

But they wouldn’t let up.

Not at all, not once.

 

So I opened the door,

and the windows some more,

and out came my first poem in months.

---

Poem©2022, Jen Payne. Painting, Open Door, Brittany, by Henri Matisse. #NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

UNTETHERED

I am girl on the moon

present

and accounted for

you even see me       sometimes

half the time

but I lose footing

more often than I should

feel weightless

meaningless

not much holds me fast

keeps me in place

things come       and things go

round and round

round and round

 

but I suppose we’re all spinning

these days

find ourselves on the dark side

watching for something to hold onto

---

 

Poem©2022, Jen Payne. #NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

LOST PLEASURES

the view from room 217 as the sun rises

her laugh

the longevity of certain conversations

     and certain daydreams

silence

the fact that he knew how to cook (ribs)

     and our Sunday mornings

the nostalgia of comfort foods and ample wine

how she understood me with a nod

the shade of pines after the first hill

(before the storm)

being unreachable, there

      or anywhere

things to believe in

belonging

---

Poem©2022, Jen Payne. #NaPoWriMo,  National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

SCREEN PORCH SOLO

My cat on the screen porch

is meyowling sing-song

with the birds,

a chorus of Cardinal

and Crow and Grackle

Jay, Jay, Jay

and Lola…

 

Meyowwwwl 

Meyowwwwl

Meyowwwwl

 

It’s spring fever on the screen porch

and she in a sunbeam spotlight

plays center stage.

---

Poem©2022, Jen Payne. #NaPoWriMo,  National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

LOOK, UP IN THE SKY…

It was hard to miss,

though I did wonder

if anyone else

saw in awe

the two turkeys

up in a tree

their awkward

balancing act

on the finger-thin

branches,

the safety dance

of neck and wings

the fulcrum legs

as their resting spot

swayed

and they stayed

the night

safe from all

but my curious sight.

 

Poem©2022, Jen Payne. #NaPoWriMo,  National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

ENCHANTRESS

I have watched her dance

 

watched her lose herself in a song

among the crowd

on a wet city street

 

seen her cry

dream

soar through the clouds

guided by only a voice

the rain

a song

a beat

a heartbeat

 

magic

---

Poem©2022, Jen Payne. Photo by Heloisa Vecchio on Pexels.com. #NaPoWriMo,  National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

THE SCIENCE OF WOMEN

There are small pink marks

softened with age

that only she will recognize,

knows how they adhere to time

and memory and this odd, shared path.

She has seen me as no one else —

vulnerable, prone, afraid —

allowed trust and autonomy

to dance even step with

training and science.

Partners,

she ages with me now

gray for gray and line for line,

our nods of knowing

the flash, the sweat,

the weight of it all,

speak more than we ever have

in these brief encounters

these long precarious years

of waiting and watching

tell-tale scars fade.

 

Poem©2022, Jen Payne. #NaPoWriMo,  National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.