This draft poem was written in response to the NaPoWriMo early bird prompt https://www.napowrimo.net/almost-there-and-an-early-bird-prompt-2/ for 3/31/24.

The regularity of surf, the prediction of tides.
We try to measure the unfathomable, as if
to exert control over depths we cannot plumb.

Look as the moon rises, dusting the waters 
with diamonds. She rises to dance with the ocean,
a lover, or perhaps a friend with synchronized
cycles, moving in and out together, 

an intimacy beyond human ken. There’s the push and 
pull of remembrance, so long ago, when the earth was
young and the moon escaped its embrace. Separate/
together —a rhythm of immeasurable grace. No
Attempt to control, only to mirror and love.

Barbara Crary 3/31/24

Hello, friends. April is National Poetry Month and I’ve revived this site and sent out a few test posts to prepare for the “onslaught” of poems I intend to write this month. I’ll be looking at a variety of prompts, but will be concentrating on those at NaPoWriMo and Miz Quickly (links to be provided when I write.) I hope to see some old friends here, and maybe some new ones too.

Onward!

From my fingers a rainbow rises,

pages in bright hues emerging

from the strength of my hand and

the black ink of my pen.

Haiku

unfamiliar song 
overheard in maple tree 
strange bird summons spring



Senryu

anticipation
two steps forward, one step back
clouds form, but no rain


path narrows ahead
obstacle or adventure
only you can say


anger-tinged panic
scribbled papers everywhere
keys misplaced again


proof of life required
poetry beside the point
breathe in, now exhale


Barbara Crary, 3/29/24

Reflection

I peer into a fun-house mirror, clouded
with emotion, as I reflect

on chapped lips, straying eyebrows,
dowager’s hump.
.
The doppelgänger there, the me-not-me,
a face I know, but cannot place, so

like that

pretty girl in faded Kodachrome
who never recognized her own worth.

Upon reflection, I am never present 
in anything I think I see.


Barbara Crary 2/22/24 

After a long period in which I created very little, I have started writing a poem, or something poetic, every day since January 18 as part of the Stafford Challenge to write daily for a full (leap) year. To that end, I’m reactivating this old site, and we’ll see what happens going forward. I don’t intend to post every day, except during NaPoWriMo in April, but that will be a good deal more activity than this site has seen in months. Onward!

I am hoping to use this site for NaPoWriMo in April, but I haven’t posted in so long that I fear I’ve forgotten everything I ever knew, which, now that I think about it, wasn’t much at all. If this works, I plan to re-introduce myself and let my audience know what I’ve been up to. It’s been a minute.