parallel community

brown flits across path
hedge sparrow on an errand
black-capped chickadee
flips pine-tree acrobatics
instant later disappears

starlings group frantic
lift and land in unison
as if organized
by a choreographer
while I stay on the outside

living parallel
to seagulls, robins, flickers
watch them from below
I’m nonentity in their
rarified community

© 2011 by Violet Nesdoly

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This is poem is written and presented for the Tweetspeak prompt “Look Up, (and Don’t Blush)” which challenges: “Could you find a poem by looking up? If so, post your link on our Facebook Wall by Wednesday, November 16th, for links and possible feature here, at The High Calling, or at Every Day Poems. “

summer tanka

in tutus pink, rose
fuchsia ballerinas
slim stamens en pointe
pirouette as we applaud
lovely summer’s brief plié

© 2011 by Violet Nesdoly

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The July prompt at Poets Online was to write a summer tanka. The collection is up.  Summer has a lot of angles; take a look. My contribution, the poem above, is way down at the bottom.

Poets Online features a monthly prompt. August’s uses the poem “Starlight” by recently announced American Poet Laureate Philip Levine, to challenge us to use the stars to tell our stories. The prompt is here. The Poets Online blog goes into a bit more detail. Happy star-gazing — and writing (if you choose to accept the challenge)!