The Cruelest Month NAPAWRIMO 2016 April 20, 2016

Spring Morning Birds

Urban roosters herald a new day,

escaped again from their enclosure

to feast in the overgrown yard next door.

They compete with the tiny Carolina Wren for volume,

their music discordant and distracting,

winning the contest for annoyance.

later I will chase them out from under my car,

while the crows call each other impatiently

and the woodpecker fruitlessly hammers on someone’s metal roof.

When the Canada geese pass overhead,

they dominate the feathered orchestra

trumpeting their arrival in a rising and falling crescendo,

to end the Get Out of Bed symphony.

©2016Noreen Braman

The Cruelest Month NAPOWRIMO April 16,2016

Another inspired by haikubes.

Love Life

The Cruelest Month - NAPOWRIMO 2016 - April 12, 2016

Decisions
debating…
debriefing…
determining…
details, details, details.

reviewing…
reworking…
reconsidering…
repeat, repeat, repeat.
©2016 Noreen Braman

The Cruelest Month - NAPOWRIMO 2016 - April 11, 2016

Out of Step

There was trick we used in marching band

to get back in step.

It took some practice, especially if

We were playing a tune at the time.

Far harder is finding the footwork

to get back in step with you,

difficulty magnified by rarity

discomfort multiplied by contrast

to our normal synchronicity,

despite agreeing that agreement isn’t constant

different drummers are playing for us.

©2016 Noreen Braman

The Cruelest Month - NAPOWRIMO 2016 - April 8 & 9

Haikube Experiments

#1 A Tirade About My Romantic Life

Happy heart with you,
I have life balance through time,
stay inside my home.

#2 A Dream About My Future

Glorious dancing,
I return for her smooth charm,
silly baby cheeks.

 

The Cruelest Month - NAPOWRIMO 2016 - April 7, 2016

Maiden, Mother, Modern Woman

Through the wealth of experience

lived as maiden, mother and modern woman,

my time now is for guiding, creating, learning,

with a heart living in the realm of loving family, friends,

And spirit flying free above traumas of the past.

©2016 Noreen Braman

The Cruelest Month - NAPOWRIMO 2016 - April 6, 2016

Toll Booth Nostalgia

Ez-Pass allows zooming without delay

a technological thingy insures you pay

the usage fee for turnpike or parkway

or bridge or tunnel, you understand

the required toll that they demand.

It’s easy! It’s quick! Over in a blink!

As long as you have credit you don’t have to think!

But gone are the days when it was fun to sink

A quarter in the basket, tossed over the car

From passenger window, not really that far.

But requiring timing, skill and repetition

And a driver who slows the car with precision

And goes along with the risky decision

To try this maneuver which may not succeed

But then again could be a remarkable deed.

Today with the tolls going higher each day,

Tossing handfuls of quarters wouldn’t work anyway.

©2016 Noreen Braman

The Cruelest Month - NAPOWRIMO 2016 - April 5, 2016

Uneasy Seas

the undercurrent of life
flowing motion of darkened waters
where self fluorescent creatures dart
too quick for the eye, too slow for the spirit,
their unknown intentions breaking the surface
leaving swirls spiraling outward,
contrary waves against the flow
causing heightened awareness in the depths
and fearful pauses on shore.

©2016 Noreen Braman

The Cruelest Month - NAPOWRIMO April 3 and 4

4-3-16

Distances

spaces of longing and mourning

what was, what is, what will be, what will never be.

beginning where once only one walked the world

then others who shared the blood, the air, the milk of life,

arms reaching, legs walking, eyes looking for how far to go –

pushing how large their orbit will be,

while those on the ground wait to see

how much time for the comets to return,

blazing in the sky of home.

©2016 Noreen Braman

4-4-16

April City

Not the Spring day of years before,

no red-shoed woman sipping coffee in the sunshine,

no flowers handed out to young performers at Carnegie,

and the spired aeries are shrouded in clouds.

the great lady has set aside her jewels

and her gaze is cold and sullen

she refuses to shine on opening day

as her rain-splashed children dash between shelters

while Spring plays hardball with the city.

©2016 Noreen Braman

The Cruelest Month - NAPOWRIMO 4-2-16

©2016 Noreen Braman

4-2-16

Zelda

Companion and protector

comedian and mischief maker,

shredder of garbage

digger of gardens,

she of guilty eyes

and wagging tail

grows old in front of me.

Hesitant of step

except where squirrels are involved,

failing sight and hearing

unless forbidden treats are unattended,

still joyous doorway greetings

and toys flung across the room,

canine behavior once taken for granted,

and sung in poem and story,

now cherished as time counts down.

©2016 Noreen Braman

March flew past in a windy blur, and now, April, the cruelest month, begins

©2016 Noreen Braman

April is here, the month of my birth and all manner of celebrations and commemorations. Here, in New Jersey, it is the month where we expect Spring to kick into full gear, but snow and freezing temperatures can still make an appearance. Yellow, in the form of forsythia and daffodils, creeps across the landscape, followed by the whites and pinks of flowering trees and shrubs. Hyacinths, tulips and other early spring bloomers fill in the palette with assorted hues of purple, fuschia and orange. Before most trees have leafed over, there is a riot of color in my area.

Yet, T.S. Eliot referred to April as "the cruelest month" in the opening line of The Waste Land, and what he means by that is the stuff of college literature classes. For me, I have adopted his line as the working title of the collection of all my poetry written in April for National Poetry Writing Month as a sort of tongue in cheek complaint about how difficult it is to write a poem every, single, day.

And that brings up another April designation - it is National Humor Month. So appropriate for the month that starts with April Fool's Day and concludes the first Sunday in May with World Laughter Day. This makes April almost the perfect storm of creative outlets for me. If I find out there is some photography or graphic design designation for this month I may need to take a month off from my job just to keep up! Out in Arizona the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor is holding its yearly conference, and in Ohio, the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop (both of which I have previously attended) is holding theirs. Much of what I do as a Laughter Wellness Instructor is important to emphasize because April is National Stress Awareness Month. My plate is getting fuller by the minute! The more I look on the web, the more things I find that have declared April as their awareness month, and all are deserving of attention: autism, animal cruelty, jazz, volunteers, mathematics ... and on and on.

So welcome to The Cruelest Month, where I will endeavor to keep up with writing a poem a day, as well as focus on humor. This doesn't mean every poem will be funny. (or good, for that matter). And I will try to stay away from telling jokes. The reality is, I piled up a bunch of life experiences in March which may bring a smile to your face, if only because it didn't happen to you.

In the fashion of Rod Serling's introduction to an episode of The Twilight Zone, submitted for your approval is my first, brief, poem of 2016


April

An assortment of declarations
Provided by various sources
Revealing special interests
Issues and commemorations
Leading to events and challenges
For those who follow the cause.
Oh what a list of celebrations
Observations and awareness campaigns
Leaping for our attention and sometimes
Soliciting our donations.
                                        ©2016 Noreen Braman