Thursday, February 11, 2010

Words Make for Pitching Dreams (Poem)

The following poem is composed entirely of the tweets I contributed to my TweetSpeakPoetry group's most recent poetry jam on Twitter. The lines appear mostly the way I tweeted them the night of February 2; some I have combined with other lines or words I tweeted. I did not use all of my tweets in this poem. I did add punctuation and capitalization and overlaid the structure you see here.

The Twitter jam produced scores of tweets to the prompts we were given and TweetSpeakPoetry's talented editor Glynn created from our words poems (or twoems) that will surprise and delight you. Go here and here and here to read the words of all the contributors spun into the gifts we call TweetSpeakPoetry.


Words Make for Pitching Dreams

I

Of sorrow
unspoken words
held long
filling space
holding refrains
lie in heart
as weight unbearable.

Borne as they are
where souls dwell
in the face of the moon
along the Milky Way
from high atop camel's back
where I might reach
for stars within the heavens deep

Words
what we count for meaning
anchor us.


II

Under moon's light
words
a love song
be
words
a poem
be.

From a mouth in anger
words be
dreams colliding.


III

A whirling dervish of words
full-mouthed words
add up.

White with loss
unexpected
of red
the venom of love lost
words light up the sky
too long.

And regret
finds its home
in a well of words
harrumphed and rocky.


IV

Spilling the place
the time
the occasion
stone-words
surface
to leave you wondering
how words made to stay
the heart
make for pitching dreams.


V

Dark opens into words.


VI

Words surface.

At day's break
words' time comes near.

Rites played out
once words land
turn us
inside out
stop us cold.

We'll just blow them
from our hands

As dust
or snow

Into air.

Come what may.


VII

Snow fills the air.
Our minds shut down.

Jam of words
spread thick
clings too long
before the end.


VIII

A mother's song
a father's heart:

What words do they share?


IX

Words
held long
as memory
etched on stone
surface
rise with new life

Turn us
back to the beginning

Tell stories of loss:

Dreams begun
merging
dreams too long
colliding.


X

I would trade
a poem held
in hands
for love

But that my own be
fiction
questions

A mouth empty
a mouth filled
with words

For words to spare
a mother's song
a father's heart.


XI

On tips of stars
where I might reach
for words to spare
for love

A love song
finding its way
with every push upward
into the light

I would give you.


XII

So many poems
seeking release

Years of words
seeking release

Collect them not
in schemes of other poets
nor rhymes not your own.

Free words
from mind.

Free words
from heart.

Be more than yes
and no.


XIII

Words
from remembrance
sweetly held
a love song
be.

Caress sound.

Get lost
pushing away the cold.

Copyright © 2010 Maureen E. Doallas. All Rights Reserved.

5 comments:

Glynn said...

Lovely by themselves; lovely with all of the others in the poetry jam.

Anonymous said...

i agree with Glynn.

Kathleen Overby said...

XII section is my favorite. :) Lovely Maureen.

Kelly Sauer said...

"Be more than yes
and no."

Profound. I'm going to be replaying those two lines for a while...

Laura said...

Maureen!

YOu know what I think of your poetry. Seeing these here...a second time beauty!

They flow.

Just lovely.