"Open-Ended"

Ah, timing. And, rhyming. When a new prompt for a sonnet showed up at The American Scholar, I was ready. The theme? Resolutions or Regrets. It warms my heart that an experience of personal loss settled into a poem that David Lehman saw fit to share in his column "Next Line, Please."  Praise the art form (three quatrains and a couplet, abab/cdcd/efef/gg)! Your call on whether my poem rhymes... 

https://theamericanscholar.org/a-photographer-in-words/

Warm wishes,
Charise

"Bird's-Eye View"

 Bird’s-Eye View

 

An argument of birds

still sounds like song

though our daughter 

says we’re bickering

March 2020 into April

as we quarantine

 

from other company.

She’s missing the point.

How husbandwifery

hashes out territorial right 

through a thicket of sharing.

We’re still in the fight,

 

off-pitch or off-key,

a far cry from complacency. 

 

 

~LCMH

"Virus"

Virus

You’ve moved in like a mistress, 

unwanted houseguest, paramour

putting a marriage into distress.

More than anyone bargained for,

freeloading on the betrothed,

stealing their caress. In haste

you take breath away––know

that a debt will accumulate.

Needing someone to survive––

opportune partner won’t last

forever––you’ll have to revive.

Soon desperate for another host

and there’s a limited supply.

It’s ill-fated––your modus operandi.  

~ LCMH

"Alterations"

Alterations

I want a hero of a certain type,

            muse who gabs for newer garb

––custom-made for archetype

            of shape shifter, tarot card

hermit who emerges without hype

            or hardened heart,

orphan of city's strife tilting light

           by walking backward,

 

Magritte’s chapeau in flight

            across a gallery to weary guard

––surreal to set things right,

            a little prince to free the sword 

as words from stone, a seer   

             who notes the stone as philosophy.   

~ LCMH

"The Way"

 

"The way she moves, it's beautiful." 

This line from fellow poet Ricky Ray is the prompt for a sonnet, "The Way." The rest unfolds in the chapbook Muse in a Suitcase.

Statue Stand-Off

 Sonnet for a Statue, Wall Street

This poem is now published in the chapbook Muse in a Suitcase

Here's the backstory: the "Fearless Girl" statue by Kristen Visbal was installed March 7, 2017 as a representation of the need for more leadership by women in the financial industry. It faces the "Raging Bull" statue, whose sculptor has asked for its removal so that his art doesn't appear chauvinistic, according to recent news.

Sonnet

For Sure

We’ve been writing about love all along,

its thousand-fold colors and endless names,

indelible mark and cloying songs––

how it runs wild, goes astray, or tames.

Hope climbs faster once it descends

if the elusive sought-after soul mate
is a detour away from the last dead end.
We yearn and return to another date.

Soon to take chances, we mend on the go.

The odds matter not; we’re bound to get past

––wired to wake up, though ragged and slow.

Our faith and our folly get back in the sack.

“Not again” is lament as before leads to after;
we'll look for love to grant the next chapter.

~ LCMH