Saturday 31 July 2021

A Poem a Day (459): This hidden meaning

 

I'm doing a poetry course today, part of which was to do some automatic writing. Here is one result of that. It's also the weekend, which means it's time for JD Mader's 2minutesgo writing exercise on his blog, Unemployed Imagination. So head over to his website to read, write or comment. Cheers and happy writing :) 


This hidden meaning
 
We are wont to speak outside of cages,
outside the pressure of our minds.
We are spent where we stand.
We are pages ripped out and tossed
without question, the vowels + consonants.
We are sounds inside these spaces,
the rich strands of it all put together.
Life spills forth out of the edges,
seeking a stage to assert itself upon.
But where is the hidden meaning?
We wear it inside, turn it outside,
this eternal signal to everyone:
here I am. We are standing here,
making a point of being, of breathing,
ripped from wombs, all so unique.
We are the mix-up, the mishmash,
the dreams we envelop sometimes.
We are the trees that breathe anew,
summoning colours in the dark.
We spill forth, rattling our cages,
being all we can stand to be.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 31 2021


Thursday 29 July 2021

Poem of the Day #97 - 28.7.21 - Old Bea


Thanks to Graham Fraser for organising this series. 

This is Graham’s blogTales from the Grey Side, about poems and comics, and whatever is on his mind. He has a few series on YouTube about beer, walkies during lockdown, and music:
Thegreyman channel
Walkies during lockdown 

Wednesday 28 July 2021

Poem of the Day #96 - 27.7.21 - In Times of Terror


Thanks to Graham Fraser for organising this series. 

This is Graham’s blogTales from the Grey Side, about poems and comics, and whatever is on his mind. He has a few series on YouTube about beer, walkies during lockdown, and music:
Thegreyman channel
Walkies during lockdown 

Tuesday 27 July 2021

New release: A Poem a Day (poetry book)

I have a new book release today (the first since 2015!). It's a poetry book called A Poem a Day.

It's a collection of 446 poems, written between April 2020 and March 2021. In April 2020, I decided to try to write a poem a day on my blog, Vixie’s Stories, following prompts on NaPoWriMo.net. The following month I kept going. And I’m still trying to keep it up.

It has just published on Amazon. It's also on Smashwords (which will soon distribute it to places like Barnes & Noble).






Sunday 25 July 2021

A Poem a Day (458): Lemon peel


Lemon peel
 
Strips of yellow lemon peel,
pearls of white incandescence.
We are as we see in prisms,
shafts of light splayed so prettily.
It passes so we seek it out,
find a home for how it feels
inside the outside looking in,
inwards where our thoughts dwell.
In these times we feast as kings
on knowledge and inquisitive stars.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 25, 2021


Wednesday 21 July 2021

A Poem a Day (457): Gecko



Gecko
 
A gecko crawls on glass,
his shape blurs
inward without light.
His toes stick to surfaces,
spread out in a print,
his body but a shadow
as he swerves.
Light glows around
his green symmetry.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 21, 2021


Poem of the Day #95 - 20.7.21 - Ink Black Sea


Thanks to Graham Fraser for organising this series. 

This is Graham’s blogTales from the Grey Side, about poems and comics, and whatever is on his mind. He has a few series on YouTube about beer, walkies during lockdown, and music:
Thegreyman channel
Walkies during lockdown 

Tuesday 20 July 2021

A Poem a Day (456): Tracks

 
Tracks
 
A track runs through,
jogs through mountains
straight and true.
Stones line its two flanks,
markers evenly spaced,
the runners the carriers.
Life usurps the edges,
a border for noise + speed,
a rough yoke for it all,
seeking to keep time in.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 20, 2021


Poem of the Day #94 - 19.7.21 - Wings on the Wire


Thanks to Graham Fraser for organising this series. 

This is Graham’s blogTales from the Grey Side, about poems and comics, and whatever is on his mind. He has a few series on YouTube about beer, walkies during lockdown, and music:
Thegreyman channel
Walkies during lockdown 

Sunday 18 July 2021

A Poem a Day (455): Dandelions


Dandelions
 
She blows dandelions,
heads taking flight
in a field strewn with them,
travelling lost.
 
The white petals float,
transparent ghosts
telling old stories,
travelling so lightly.
 
The middle part stays,
stuck on the stem’s end,
a memory of the whole
withstanding Fate.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 18, 2021


Poem of the Day #92 - 17.7.21 - Man Under a Bridge


Thanks to Graham Fraser for organising this series. 

This is Graham’s blogTales from the Grey Side, about poems and comics, and whatever is on his mind. He has a few series on YouTube about beer, walkies during lockdown, and music:
Thegreyman channel
Walkies during lockdown 

Friday 16 July 2021

Poem of the Day #91 - 16.7.21 - Ink


Thanks to Graham Fraser for organising this series. 

This is Graham’s blogTales from the Grey Side, about poems and comics, and whatever is on his mind. He has a few series on YouTube about beer, walkies during lockdown, and music:
Thegreyman channel
Walkies during lockdown 

Thursday 15 July 2021

Poem of the Day #90 - 15.7.21 - The Whirr


Thanks to Graham Fraser for organising this series. 

This is Graham’s blogTales from the Grey Side, about poems and comics, and whatever is on his mind. He has a few series on YouTube about beer, walkies during lockdown, and music:
Thegreyman channel
Walkies during lockdown 

A Poem a Day (454): On strings

 
On strings
 
Suspended on thin cables
in the darkening round,
people on swings so slight
dangle in the wind,
blown up in a circle,
spinning ever higher
as the strings rise,
taking up passengers
where they glide out,
legs falling freely,
hands clutching chains,
birds flying in the breeze.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 15, 2021


Wednesday 14 July 2021

Poem of the Day #89 - 14.7.21 - There’s a hound in the street


Thanks to Graham Fraser for organising this series :)

A Poem a Day (453): Where we breathe

 
This is one about choices; how we make them and how we always doubt them. 


Where we breathe
 
Where we breathe it is tomorrow,
a misty morning rising so high
we can imagine the fall of the sky,
our expectations eager til the last.


This is where the road forks in two,
inviting us to choose a destination.
Whichever straw we draw
we’ll wonder where the other goes.


So it is, this human condition,
where we linger in the pullback
doubting every choice we make
as if mistakes are how we are made.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 12, 2021


Tuesday 13 July 2021

Poem of the Day #87 -12.7.21 - Seaweed


Thanks to Graham Fraser for organising this series. Cheers :)

I'm all caught up with them today and will now post them daily for this run. 

Poem of the Day #82 - 7.7.21 - Tango in Monochrome


Thanks to Graham Fraser for organising this series. Cheers :)


Poem of the Day #86 - 11.7.21 - Sparrows


Thanks to Graham Fraser for organising this series. Cheers :)


Poem of the Day #85 - 10.7.21 - Thunder


Thanks to Graham Fraser for organising this series. Cheers :)


Poem of the Day #84 - 9.7.21 - Sketch


Thanks to Graham Fraser for organising this series. Cheers :)


Poem of the Day #83 - 8.7.21 - Yellow


Thanks to Graham Fraser for organising this series. Cheers :)

Poem of the Day #88 - 13.7.21 - The Elephants


Thanks to Graham Fraser for continuing the series of me reading my poems on YouTube.

Today's poem is The elephants. 

Cheers :)

A Poem a Day (452): A life in packages

 
A life in packages
 
She carries her life in packages
tied to her back with straps,
pushing a cart in front of her,
piled up with bags and sacks.
 
A black cat sits on the sodden street
watching, his eye on it all, waiting
for something edible to drop.
her stick is poised but she waits
 
For the rain to peter out to naught,
the drains spouting water. It runs
down the cobbles, creating throughways
where she waits under a locked shop front.
 
The bell is silent, the owners asleep.
The cat moves closer to her heels,
rubs its flank against her lower legs,
and she bends to stroke his wet fur.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 12, 2021








Monday 12 July 2021

A Poem a Day (451): Gulls twist and two other haiku

 
 
Gulls twist on the turn,
returning on clouds and wisps,
meandering home.


 
The whole world listens
to the tick-tock call now heard
without debate. Found.


 
We are as we are,
walking, talking, fashioned out
of breathing colour.


Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 12, 2021

Tuesday 6 July 2021

A Poem a Day (450): A rail crossing

 
A rail crossing
 
A rail crossing
blurs into futility.
Daisies mark the bend,
delicate heads nodding.
Sprouting between tracks
they feel the tremble
of rusted carriages,
the rumble of wheels
not touching them.
They grow apart,
used to the noise & grind
of metal scraping,
their verdant stems
the only green.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 6, 2021


Monday 5 July 2021

A Poem a Day (449): A rush of daylight & 3 other haiku

 
 
A rush of daylight
disperses in lemon sheets.
We can’t set the tune.
 


A howl in the night.
Skinny frame tied to a post
waits for dawn’s biscuit.
 


We are more than total,
an uncalculated mass,
our spare parts moving.
 


This is day, uncut
into hours or minutes.
A wash of being.


 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 5 2021


Sunday 4 July 2021

A Poem a Day (448): Speckles of rain & 3 more haiku

 

Speckles of rain slide
in faint twilight. Rusted chair
rocks in rough rhythm.


 
Water shimmers down
edge, potters here, breathes in small
collections of haze.
 


Rainbows drip colour
scrawls across a humid sky.
Paint skirts through white clouds.


 
We are seconds, our
sight fuelled in night’s starlit spray.
Silver-dusted life.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 4, 2021


A Poem a Day (447): Lemons

 
Lemons
 
Black and white fruit,
sepia unscented, still life design.
A black bowl shines,
the arrangement hollow
and unheld, ripe but silent.
Leaves fall, one skin spiral.


Peeled, the flesh loosens
and spurts yellow, so bathed
in scent. The rind separates
and cascades like rain,
segments eager to separate,
warm juice trapped inside.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 4, 2021


Saturday 3 July 2021

A Poem a Day (446): Brush and bridge

 
Brush and bridge
 
We walk out,
a bridge over tranquil
water, cast in wood,
this fine unravelling
of even planks.
We walk on mist.
An artist sketches
at the end point.
Sat upon the horizon,
his brush pirouettes.
He paints the light,
the way it shifts,
scattering rich patterns
over this crescent lake.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 3, 2021


Friday 2 July 2021

A Poem a Day (445): Leaf


Leaf
 
Light scrawls on a leaf,
wets the surface,
a weave of lines
running, each one broken.


Water cavorts, drips long,
trickles from the stem.
Pools gather and slide,
tiny collections running


of glistening glaze.
It spills endless,
rivulets and streams,
bouncing to land.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 2, 2021