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Bombs Drop With Caution
Bombs may drop if we
Stop dropping rock
And roll –
Listen to these
Words of caution
Write them, memorize
A slant and curve –
First world children
Take your time.
Take all of it.
It’s yours.
___
© Ben Ditmars 2018
The Huntress with Helle Gade
Blue hearts hum
With ceiling fans
Free as coils
Burning casually
On unsocked feet
The huntress comes at night
Her silent voice
Carried by the northern wind
Listen carefully
For she whispers
The secrets of the dark
She hunts the truth
The fears you harbour
She will alleviate
For she is all there stands
Between you and the evil
That hunts in the dark hours
Winter is approaching
With thunderous steps
Gale winds of cold fury
Following from the frosty
North It is time to go to ground
To cover up and wait longingly
For spring to chase away
The harsh breath of frost
I wish I could hibernate
Like a grizzly bear
Awake to budding flowers
And the promise of light
I fear an icy wind, and collapsing through the narrow skin –
Perhaps it is possible to bloom below subzero or survive in stasis
If not thrive.
___
© 2017 Helle Gade and Ben Ditmars
Poetry at the Delaware Library
Every month poets meet at the library in Delaware, Ohio to read, workshop and discuss their work. We usually include a writing prompt as well. I would like to share a few haiku written by the group and its members. Feel free to join us next month on November 5th at 3 PM. Find the Facebook event here.
dog and board struck hedge
red board wheels tail legs stick out
fell in hedge. think hard.
~
where am i? in hedge?
feeling free in the darknenss
relax or struggle?
~
soft hedges blur in-
sanity, new places to
find metatarsals.
~
We wrote these haiku together:
`~
grass escapes inside
sabrina falls into fog
brioken like a branch.
~
wind blows orange leaves
two friends sit upon a bench
no longer lonely.
Haiku in Memory of Tom Petty
~
i smell of the moon –
one last time to kill the pain
and taste rock candy.
~
no, i won’t back down
among the wildflowers
we belong to them.
~
music and chaos
free fall into nothing, the
sounds of nineteen guns.
~
she was an american girl…
a nurse, a teacher, a veteran.
~
© Ben Ditmars 2017
IVD 5: My Journey in Haiku
Indievengence Day is a yearly event in or around Dallas, Texas. Indie authors gather from across the state and sometimes continent to hangout and sell books to the public. This year was my fifth year attending. I decided to do something special and haiku my journey from Ohio down South.
***
It’s an adventure,
Bilbo Baggins would be proud
Smaug flies United.
~
Look at me awake
Before the airport crawls to
Life, ha, ha, ha, ha.
~
Coffee with a shot
Of espresso wakes me up
Before I go go.
~
Aggressive pat downs
And judgement for my wallet
Left outside the bin.
~
She carries a small
Generator, her home lost
To the hurricane.
~
A boat captain ret-
Urns to the Virgin Islands
Bringing them supplies.
~
They handed me a
Cookie in the dark and I
Ate it willingly.
~
Turbulence tells me,
“Welcome to the friendly skies”
As the light turns down.
~
The stars at night are
Big and bright deep in the heart
Of Dallas, Texas.
~
The prairie sky is
Wide and high deep in the heart
Of Dallas, Texas.
~
I bounced on the bed
And promptly rolled off, because
I’m a Hufflepuff.
~
No hot water but
I get to see my friends and
They think I’m Batman.
~
Orange sherbet sassy
Pink hair attitude rocks that
She’s got on cape cod.
(Written with Susie Clevenger)
~
Blood sugar was all
Right despite a breadstick scare
Now I can drink juice.
~
A shot of orange juice,
Quesadillas for breakfast –
Makes it old fashioned.
~
Grumpy bear needs Ad-
Vil PM before his C-
PAP or he’s cranky.
~
Books are ready to
Sell but I’m thinking of clash-
Es in St. Louis.
~
It’s on with bells and
Scattered inky residue
Conveying mischief.
~
Searching for Mc. D’s
Hoping for a bagel sand-
Wich or a coffee.
~
Discussing landscapes
Of Yosemite makes the
Day more interesting.
~
Let’s go, poetry!
Reading, sharing, loving it?
That’s the money shot.
~
Behind the scenes, yo
Slaying rhymes up at a desk.
I’m that freaking cool!
~
It isn’t shots of
Kamikaze or Sex on
The beach, but what is?
~
People are flying
To Chicago but I hear
It might be windy.
~
Attention, there will
Be a prayer service across
From D-22.
Throwback
I wrote this back in the dark ages of July 2017. Has it really been that long?
____
Starry Isolation
pulses rising in the
desert sunset
branding us with vapor,
starry skies
we survive against
the night, entwined
becoming one.
____
© Ben Ditmars 2017
Photograph Courtesy of Amber AquaIntense Norrgard
Stockade Blues
flowers trained to grow
on the stockade
espalier in vibrant hue
keep memories,
erases time.
© Ben Ditmars 2017
Revelation
i consumed the jabs
at my demeanor, because
i knew no other way
~
now others risk
self-worth to wash their hands
or take a piss?
~
it ends, humiliation in all forms,
or hell begins.
___
© Ben Ditmars 2017
