OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 31: endless

We try counting stars, and fail,
falling back instead on souls.

Stretching boundlessly into
our skies' sparkling seas, we see
our souls' infinite spaces,
spiralling unfadingly.



----

Today's prompt suggested inventing our own poetic form. I didn't set out to, but may have inadvertently done so.
I've ironically written quite a short poem today, figuring that less is more. I was inspired by yesterday's form - the Pleiade - with its seven lines, and Hortensia Anderson's additional restriction of 6 syllables per line. It occurred to me yesterday that 7x6=42, and that as all Douglas Adams fans know, 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything. So in reversing the form (today creating a sestet of 7-syllable lines, which I can't describe any more technically than this as the metre is so irregular), I created a short form that is actually the gateway to everything we need thanks to its 42 total syllables. You can call it the Deep Thought form if you like (as in Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy it takes the computer named Deep Thought 7.5 million years to calculate that 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything). Or one could even call it the Molybdenum form, since "The atomic number of Molybdenum is 42, as mentioned by Elliot Cooper. Coincidence? I think not, because molybdenum is a very important element for humans and plants in minute quantities for proper growth."

https://www.quora.com/Why-and-how-is-42-the-answer-to-life-the-universe-and-everything

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 30: dancing on the moon

Moondance

Moonshine through the window

makes our first night come back.

Mirroring in water,

moving with us, it soon

mimes our luminescence.

Mute, we tread our secret

measure, dancing again.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 29: by the numbers

We
add up
to all that
is right, meaning
the sum is complete.

In encircling me, you
are my diameter; like
pi, we continue forever.

Our sequence links irrationally.

Totalling infinity, we spiral
Fibonacci-style. Suddenly it all seems
so rational after all; we are symmetry.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 28: split in two

Form: the Anglo-Saxon riddle

The most famous Anglo-Saxon riddles are located in the Exeter Book. Unsurprisingly located in Exeter, UK, specifically in Exeter Cathedral. And who spent three years studying ENGLISH LITERATURE, OF ALL THINGS, in Exeter and never ONCE went to see it? *points at self* (...yep. Kick me now.)

I've been informed by someone with a master's in literature from Cambridge, and former education professor, that the gaps in the riddles occur at each line's halfway point - and each half-line is alliterative. So the split is not just visual - which for our purposes is very convenient.

But I understand if you don't feel up to writing a riddle. After all, the ones in the Exeter Book are so complex that many scholars have spent years unravelling them. If nothing else, Megan Cavell's British Library article on the subject makes an entertaining read that it would be a shame for you to miss out on.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 27: what colour is it?

I asked you what your favourite colour was
and you said it was me;
that I could be your rainbow
whenever I so pleased.

I photographed myself in emerald
and also in deep blue.

You said to come as I was,
in whatever colour I choose.

In the end, we were Impressionists.

We made a palette true.

You held me in your arms that day
to make a newer hue.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 26: inside out

The pale words of love were fledgling first:
they practised flying with their nascent wings.

They fluttered inside, struggling quite for birth
into a world unkind to weaker things.

I nurtured them, not ready to release
them into their first independent flight,
perhaps from fear of what they might unleash.

In opalescing, they grew strong and bright.

The words flew out from right inside my mouth
to form a hummingbird of pure desire
that colours now our every waking hour.

We do not cage its brightened, yearning fire;
our utterances now are ever freed,
and their true flight we never will impede.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 25: the door goes both ways

We longed for

that day when your office

door would lock from the inside. This is

what I wrote to you, or words to that effect. I

held my breath; pressed send. To which you said:

hope your heart opens from

the outside.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 24: opening

The door would open
and I'd flourish there, growing
from your glow with every breath.

When the door closed we'd
open up our souls; harness
light for later growth.

Opening our eyes
that morning we let love's light
stream in forever.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 23: see me

In my blue eyes, your brown ones, my blonde hair, and again your brown, we create a visual yin and yang. We make striking soulmates: like photographic negatives, we could say we are two bodies for one person, except that arguably you are the better person. Nevertheless, the paradox is that each of us makes the other feel like the very best version of themselves. Because of being the better person, we make the other into a better person; we make them see that they are better. Indeed, the best, as far as we're concerned. Perhaps perceptions are unreliable. But when your eyes meet mine, your perception is the only one of value, that I can rely on, which makes the world around me disappear, save you.

My blue pools meet your
dark midnight brown; in them, I
see my best version.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 22: betrayed

By creeping up with him to the garret room I borrowed from you,
each year of friendship creaked with every stair.

The neighbour complained about the creaking of the bed, and other noise.

Right away you phoned to
ask me for the truth, and
yes, I lied to you. Did my voice creak with the weight of the lie?

Each year of friendship creaked with every stair. For all my life, I'll wonder how I
dared.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 21: how will I know

Our tender time transcends what we can tell,
but we still will know
what we think to be true,
as we try to sight eternity
through narrow slivers of rain.

We absorb
as we awake above,
then dive for jewels.

We now discover
truly where we dwell
as we plunge into our place,
mesmerised by mirrory mists.

Now open, we brightly fly.

Soaring within a shimmering sky,
we shine divinely,
knowing the joy
of being beloved.

Azurely, surely,
we reflect on stagnant hazes
in our distant past
as we wallow, surge, then flow.

Now we sail in the sea of what we need,
no longer whispering why
thanks to clear, crystal bliss.

Ask.

The answers flood, radiate.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 20: time stands still

You bring me to a standstill
with your wit
that leaves me wondering why
you give me the time of day.

That same time
stands still when you whisper
words of wonder
that wander
within our shared space.

I stand still in front of your shared office,
making a memory of my
hand on yours,
in a moment
that will become love.

In love unending
we stand, still.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 19: what do you want

In wanting me
you wanted anew,
desire requickening
all that you thought to be dead.

In wanting you
I wanted to be.

Love was flickering
but steadied when we met.

In wanting us, we knew;
wanted the world to set
around us, glittering
with the shine of infinite possibility.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 18: Once upon a time

Once upon a time
I didn't dream of you.
You were solid background only.

Once upon your time,
you say,
you dreamed of me:
I flickered,
floating,
in fairytale fashion,
finding fantasy
the only foothold
in our day-to-day.

Once upon my time
I found myself flirting.
Not just with the fricative fuck
but fluttering from
friendship
to finding myself fixated
and fumbling
through depths of thought
with you;
seeking solace in secret smiles
with you
and knowing that we knew:
that I could be your princess,
and you my handsome prince.

Once upon our time
we did become enchanted
by our fine sublime whispers
as bells rang out.
We follow our future at last,
flying ever afterly,
foreverly.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 17: madness reigns/rains/reins

Madness rains
down around us
and fades into blue.

Our own insanity
reigns, yet makes perfect
sense.

We take life's
reins, heliacally
mastering mania.

We barely
notice chaos;
I fade into you.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 16: catch me when I fall

Neither of us knew we were falling,
so it was a good job that the other was paying
attention.

Falling
turned to floating
with the spreading
of wings

as we caught each other spiralling
like sycamore seeds
singing
and gently landing.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 15: If _______ were an umbrella

You rise above me,
shielding clouds
while letting through sunshine.

Together we shake off raindrops
with laughter that echoes
off gleaming pavements.

Your robust silvery skeleton
sees me through showers.

Faithfully folded beside me always,
you flourish magnificently
when needed
(which is to say,
in the Netherlands,
often).

You come in a variety of colours
to suit my every mood:
fierce leopard-print,
iconic bright violet,
Monarch butterfly on blue.

In short, you are my rainbow
for after storms have passed.

You don't even need to be
my umbrella for that.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 14: if I were me

The unfurling

took time.

There was a fear

of the sunlight

juxtaposed

with the knowledge

that you had to go there

if you wanted to live.

If I were to be me

I had to go there,

tendrils tentatively

touching the tops

of the houses and trees,

even if I were

to go there alone.

My leaves stretched into sun

at a moment

not even I can pin down;

perhaps it was your watering

that charged my sap

with the energy needed for life.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 13: if I were you

Letter from 2018 to 1998

If I were you I'd keep at it 
because a lot changes in 20 years
and though you'll never believe it, 
it'll all be fine in the end. 

If I were you I'd remember
that all of this will pass like a breeze that
somehow will sometimes still chill you
in between the glints of the sun.

If I were you I'd take a scarf,
or perhaps a towel, to discreetly wipe
away the odd tear, or just to 
wrap your soul in, when you are out.

If I were you, I would do that.
Not just for the breeze that strikes you alone,
but also to wrap others in, 
to bring them closer to your heart.

If I were you, I would share more.
Let your feelings flutter from the scarf to
meet others, who will love you. Then
you can wrap you both, in cashmere.

OctPoWriMo 2018! Day 12: tortured

Calystegia sepium

Tortured by myself
for years,
I tried to wring
inadequacy
out.

Hard to remove.

Torments had twisted
around me like vines,
or bindweed
without the flowers.

I barely felt you snip away
at the tightness of the
light green twine.

The warmth of sunlit relief
came in floods,
basking me in love.

Now we flower together,
uniting our heart-shaped leaves
as we spiral up 
into the newest of shoots,
our joint rhizomes rooting us
to our new-found freedom,
viable for many years.