morning sun
frost on the window pane
yellows and blues
Copyright © 2022-02-02, by Liz Bennefeld.
Frosty mornings
Tag: poem-a-day
Anticipating Winter
anticipating winter
cold winds across the prairie
thick clouds promise a blanket
snow to cover woodlands
hidden burrows offer warmth
[gogyohka.] Copyright © Lizl Bennefeld, 2021/11/07
Ancestors
Day 29 – On the occasion | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
BIRTHDAYS
measuring time—
twenty-five or thirty-some years
yet to go … or less
looking at past records
of family births and deathsmy dad felt a hundred years
was too long to stick around for
my mother thought that ninety-four
was quite a bit too short
neither was pleaseddon’t know what I’ll think
when my world and I transform
when time becomes eternity
maybe I’ll notice, or perhaps I’ll
forget what came before
Copyright © 2019-11-29, by Liz Bennefeld. All rights reserved.
Day 24 – Butterfly Memories | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
cloudy skies
threatening late-autumn snow
leaves on the windmemories of butterflies
flower pollen, gentle breeze
Copyright © by Lizl Bennefeld,
2019-11-24. All rights reserved.
Day 23 – Listening | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
no more ideas
nothing to be done with that
but to keep still
listening from my silence
to the heartbeat of the world
Copyright © 2019-11-23, by Lizl Bennefeld. All rights reserved.
Day 22 – Between Seasons | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
in-between weather
too warm to wear the snow boots…
too cold for slippers
Copyright © 2019-11-22, by Liz Bennefeld.
Day 21 – A Powdered Sugar Day | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
powdered-sugar snow
too small to descend slowly
tumbles through the wind
blowing under inside doors
filling outside’s tiny cracks
Copyright © 2019-11-21, by Elizabeth W. Bennefeld.
Day 6 – Autumn Leaves | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
leaves in the front yard
brown, windblown collages
snow melted and gonelooking forward once again
to icy streets and soft snow
[tanka.] Copyright © 2019-11-18, Liz Bennefeld. All rights reserved.
Filling in for a missing day.
Day 18 – From Solid Ground | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
a
from the mountaintop
I was always looking down
in dells I look up
peaks provide a heady view
but in valleys, heaven’s light
[tanka]. Copyright © 2019-11-18, by Liz Bennefeld.
Written to #RonovanWrites #Haiku weekly challenge prompt: Valley & Peak
Day 5 – Pleasure | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
puppies on my bed
keeping warm my feet and heart
sheltered from the cold
[senryu.] Copyright © 2019-11-17, Liz Bennefeld. All rights reserved.
Prompt for day 5: “pleasure” poem
A bit of catch-up, here. Still behind more than a few prompts.
Day 14 – Respite | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
Day 13 – Unsettled Winter | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
restless leaves dance
across the newly white grass
never still for longerrant winds stir them around
shaking off the falling snow
tanka. Copyright © 2019•11•13, Liz Bennefeld.
Day 12 – Nature’s Puppeteer | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
swirling on the path
fall leaves dance to nature’s tune
just before the snow
haiku. Copyright © 2019•11•12, Liz Bennefeld.
Day 9 – Wardrobe Salvage | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
Prompt: article of clothing
kibbles…then dessert
threads tangled in teeth and paws
my sock in his mouth
salvage. Copyright © by Liz Bennefeld,
2019-11-09, all rights reserved.
Day 8 – Cupcake Winter | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
more than a dusting
but not a second layer…
frosting on the path
cupcake winter, senryu. Copyright © by Liz Bennefeld,
2019-11-08, all rights reserved.
Day 7 – Perspective | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
leaves upon the road
farther, the first quarter moon
clouds and tree brancheswayward breezes stir the waves
moonlight is lost in the sky
Copyright © Lizl Bennefeld, 2019-11-07.
Day 4 – Sky on Fire | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
warning sirens howl
baying at a veiled moon
mingled mist and smoke
Copyright © 2019-11-04, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Prompt: RonovanWrites Haiku Weekly Poetry Challenge for 2019-11-04. First posted to my Quilted Poetry blog on WordPress.
Day 3 – Stage Fright | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
standing on a stage
without a script or cue cards
feeling out of placeI wonder, what comes next?
when the final curtain drops?
Copyright © 2019-11-03, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Day 2 – Happily Ever After | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
Happily Ever Afters
Live ever after
with the happilies you find
Cherish the memories
that leach the pain from grief
Turn from dead regrets
to each experience
of presence freely given,
in joy still received
Copyright © by Lizl Bennefeld, 2019-11-02. All rights reserved.
Day 1 – Growing Up, Learning | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)
what’s the capitol
of the Peace Garden State?
where’s the garden at?we learned all the answers there
working for Dad, clipping grass
Copyright © 1 November 2019, by Elizabeth Bennefeld.
When we were children (there were seven of us, and I am assuming that others got roped into this, each in their turn), Dad hired us during May and as needed during summer school vacations to maintain the grounds of the village cemetery where he was the groundskeeper and sexton. He didn’t retire until he was in his 90s. There was particular need for us children to prepare the cemetery for Memorial Day and to refurbish things after the influx of visitors during the following months. My brother Tim and I worked together, being close in age, and we would pass the time by challenging each other with such miscellanea as state and country capitols and other interesting trivia.
My mother died three years ago, this month, and my father followed her three-and-a-half months later. Their ashes are buried next to the family monument, near two siblings whose lives were measured in days.
Warming up for NaNoWriMo, Day 2
and why would I live
beyond all kin and kindness
absent to their eyesso, one leaves a friendless warmth,
braving winter’s storms, to die
Copyright © 2019.10.31, by Lizl Bennefeld.
The many deaths of those most dear
within the past three years… Suddenly, I’m homesick
for a place I’ve never seen.
Mourning seems to come in waves. In the midst of happiness, remembered losses beg not to be forgotten. That’s a trap, I think. The insistence of the mind on revisiting those intense emotions, long after one has moved on. The bittersweet taste of loves and friends and family set aside until time ends, or else, renews all things.
Warming up for NaNoWriMo
I am once again planning to write 30 poems during November (NaNoWriMo)—hopefully, more than one a day, but we’ll see. November and December are cluttered months. Nonetheless…
Today’s and tomorrow’s poems are warm-up exercises. During this poem-a-day exercise, I am hoping not to resort to canned prompts, but to find poems in life as it happens.
the years and the days
ephemeral, but endless…
looking for the end
Copyright © 2019.10.30, by Lizl Bennefeld.
End of April’s Na/GloPoWriMo poems
I have written two of the last three poems for NaPoWriMo 2019. Laid low by an infected wound, and just now feeling up to writing, again, three or four days into a seven-day script for antibiotics. I hope to add the third poem to this page sometime before the end of Friday.
as I slept, the sun
appeared and warmed the ground
I woke to tulips
Copyright © 2019-05-02, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Prompt from Na/GloPoWriMo, Day 29: Write a minimalist poem.
rocks steam haze
clouds obscure the sun
no starlighttoo wet, sleeping on the ground
but all the trees have melted
Copyright © 2019-05-02, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Brewer’s prompt for Day 20: Write a dark poem.
Day 27 Late-Season Snow #NaPoWriMo
Prompt: “Take one of your poems and, in three places, insert a parenthetical comment…” I used only this much of the prompt found at Cuyahoga County Public Library website. Only three more days to go!
late-spring storm
{by now, I shouldn’t feel surprise}
snow on puppy legs…face…tail
{how did he get snow plastered THERE?}
don’t sit in my lap!
{ah, well! there’s towels}
Copyright © 2019-04-27, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Day 26: An Everlasting Pause #NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo
Prompt for Day 26: Write 10 one- or two-line poems on one subject, however loosely related to the subject. Put them together, arranging and rearranging, and title them as one poem.
An Everlasting Pause
Only eternity lasts forever
Be still and know
There are many mansions
and the perfect one is set aside for you
Passage of time and distance of place…
all is present in the Now
I cannot conceive of a moment of perfection
that never ends or varies
One thing that puzzles me is whether eternity is
a continuity, an instance of existence, or an object of art
Clarity persists in haunting the mind of the bemused
The eternal Here and Now overlooks the ebb and flow
of distance and time, not counting minutes or the miles
Satisfaction is a state of mind independent
of circumstances or the company we keep
Experiencing the tides of now, the gentle inflow and recession
of being and not being
Hypnotized by sensation and waiting for the feeling
to come again
Lost in the eternal pause between nothing more
and everything
Copyright © 2019-04-26, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Day 25 Springtime Joy #GloPoWriMo #NaPoWriMo
warm winds and raindrops
filling up the tulip cups…
sliding down long leavesCopyright © 2019-04-25, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Day 24 : Just different #NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo
complete as me
i’m just me
not alone…but separate
a narrow focus
what goes wrong outside this room
does not change what i can do
Lizl Bennefeld, 2019-04-24
dawn light scattered
trembling green-gold sparkles
dewdrops in the grass
Copyright © 2019-04-23, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Day 23, Waking Early #NaPoWriMo
Day 20 : Night’s Darkness #NaPoWriMo #Glo/NaPoWriMo
night’s soft cloak
sun’s lingering warmth
cloud-clad starssummer’s breeze is redolent
with scents of sleeping flowers
Copyright © 2019-04-22, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Brewer’s prompt for Day 20: Write a dark poem.
Day 21 – Easter Morning #NaPoWriMo #Glo/NaPoWriMo
sunrise
cleansing rain
on the grass
a hay(na)ku. © 2019-04-21, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Download free do whatever you want high-resolution photos from Jono Hislop at Unsplash.
For Holy Saturday, #NaPoWriMo Day 19
First posted this evening on my Quilted Poetry blog.
sitting on a hill
leaning back against the tree
waiting for a signso long ago, the trembling
that still echoes through the Earth
Copyright © 2019-04-19, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Day 18: topics not discussed #NaNoWriMo
Very loosely based on the Day 18 prompt from the Cuyahoga County Public Library. I am not sure that I’ll go back to rework this after NaPoWriMo is over for this year. I do know that I do not write poetry in four-line stanzas.
‘topics not under discussion’
sometimes I turn around to see
as though from outside human space
the larger patterns…masked by liesthen my heart catches…forgets how to beat
and I find myself hoping that it won’t
remember…how to start itself againin the longer run the gifts I wield
will make no lasting difference
all will die quietly…fade away in sleepwhat I can achieve is to be present
in this moment, acknowledging each
thing that lives and care…until we’re dead
Copyright © 2019-04-18, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Day 17: Saturday Matinee | #NaPoWriMo 2019
Inspired by Brewer’s POD prompt to write a reason poem and Permafrost, by Alastair Reynolds.
when the end does come
I will not be here to watch
the step off the cliffdocumentaries portrayed
as funny children’s movies
Copyright © 2019-04-17, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Day 16 – In Hiding: An Ode to Anonymity #NaPoWriMo
‘An Ode to Anonymity’
I live underwater, away from all
there’s a turn in the river
I’m shadowed by its banksthe river’s in my mind
my mind safely sheltered, here…
here I’ll remain to the end of all time
Copyright © 2019-04-16, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Form: kimo and kimo, reversed
Prompt from the Cuyahoga Library for Day 16.
Photo credit: See attachment page.
Day 7 – Words Fail Me | #NaPoWriMo2019
Prompt: Write a nonet, a nine-line poem, with the first line containing nine syllables, the next eight, so on until the last line has one syllable. (Cuyahoga County Public Library)
Words Fail Me
Sometimes the shape of each letter is
more compelling than words’ meanings.
Playing tricks on sore eyes,
they duck and vanish
into the mist
of fatigue.
Fail to
speak.
Copyright © 2019-04-07, by Lizl Bennefeld.
April 2: Quietly
Prompt from Brewer at Writer’s Digest:
And today is actually a special day: Two for Tuesday! Pick one prompt or use both…your choice! (1) Write a worst case poem. What’s the worst that could happen? (2) Write a best case poem. Take the worst and reverse it!
death of oceans
anaerobic luminescence
deserts without breathbright colors on the water
moonlight’s dance on silent waves
Copyright © 2019-04-02, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Cross-posted to my Quilted Poetry blog.
April 1st: What do you hear?
two geese overhead
flying low and fast…they cry
HERE… WE’RE COMING…HERE
Copyright © 2019-04-01, by Lizl Bennefeld.
Beautiful sight and sounds greeted me as I stepped into the back yard at late morning.
Quilted Poetry 