Category: Free Verse

Free Verse, My Poetry, Na/GloPoWriMo 2026, Poetry10 Comments

Hollywood

Charlotte Hamrick

HollywoodAfter shedding the skin of another the wine bottle winks from the fridge, garnet liquid slides down a throat where words written by others clog their own.Adulation and awards are determined by cliques and closed parameters, deviation from a set ideologyis cancellable.Pretty faces bow, keep their opinions in line with the establishment.Go home and drink it all away. Napowrimo.org prompt for today: Today, we challenge you to write a poem in which a profession or vocation is described differently than it typically is considered to be.  My poem is on the cynical side today but I call it as I … Continue reading Hollywood

Free Verse, Na/GloPoWriMo 2026, Poetry4 Comments

Edinburg on the Pearl

Charlotte Hamrick

On a long, sleepy Sunday afternoonI succumb to my heavy eyelids,leave the adults chatting and reminiscing on the porch as I make my wayinto MaMaw’s bedroom. Her featheredmattress covered in white chenille enclosesme like angel wings and clouds, soft laughter and chatter from outside, soothing soundsinviting me to sleep. But instead, sleep hovers over my mind, joining low murmured names drifting in the window -Ruby, Lessie, Aline, Shelby, Hattie -sharing their growing up memories, together stillon this sultry Southern day. And I, lying there,still growing up without a thought for time,how fast it flees, how much it changes us, believing … Continue reading Edinburg on the Pearl

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NaPoWriMo & Something Small, Every Day: An Insomniac Remembers

Charlotte Hamrick

An Insomniac RemembersI used to fill my ears in the haunting hourswith booming hair metal I didn’t even like to drownyour floating face behind my eyelids, butstill the memories rose like ghost-vapor where I’d lie by yourside once again when … Continue reading NaPoWriMo & Something Small, Every Day: An Insomniac Remembers

2025, Free Verse, My Poetry, NaPoWriMo 2025, Poetry, Something Small Every Day2 Comments

NaPoWriMo & Something Small, Every Day: Spring Morning

Charlotte Hamrick

Spring MorningUnfolds as soft as the lushestcashmere, a light breezeflows over skin as cool and sweetas the clearest, most virgin waterat the beginning of time.Squirrels, birds, and tiny insectschatter, tweet, and wiggle in adoringluxury where time matters not at allexcept in anticipation of tomorrow’s dawn.NaPoWriMo 4/23/25 – 9:45 am sitting on the patio with Buddy Continue reading NaPoWriMo & Something Small, Every Day: Spring Morning

2025, Free Verse, My Poetry, NaPoWriMo 2025, Poetry, Something Small Every Day6 Comments

NaPoWriMo & Something Small, Every Day: Auntie

Charlotte Hamrick

AuntieSitting on the old porchwhere so many have sat,the almond tree bloomingher white flowers likeAngel wings covering the yard in a magic carpet,the aroma of our coffee and cigarettes mingling with the muskiness of the old woodunder our bare feet, you reached out taking my hand in yours, telling me something about my own self, cushioning the shock in your breezy-soft voice,leaving my mouth dry as the swirling ashes of the secret revealed Today for NaPoWriMo I used this Sensory Prompt from Poetry Today by Maya C. Popa: #1 — In “How Far Away We Are,” Ada Limón writes: I … Continue reading NaPoWriMo & Something Small, Every Day: Auntie

2025, Free Verse, My Poetry, NaPoWriMo 2025, Something Small Every Day2 Comments

NaPoWriMo & Something Small, Every day: Why I am Not a Piece of Cake

Charlotte Hamrick

Why I am Not a Piece of Cakewaiting to be eaten,sitting on a delicate plateringed in roses while the tea steeps.I could never be so obedient, resigned to sliding down someone’s throat after frosting and sponge were gnashed and tumbled by teeth and tongue.I do not like dark, moist placesthat bypass the heart and stomachsare full of acid – I refuse to land there!In fact, I’d only agree to be a lemon cakeimmortalized by Wayne Thiebaud’s arttall, proud, yellower than the sunon a July day and so tart as to turn away the tongue and shrivel the teeth,nothing like a … Continue reading NaPoWriMo & Something Small, Every day: Why I am Not a Piece of Cake

2025, Eckphrastic Poetry, Free Verse, My Poetry, NaPoWriMo 2025, Poetry, Something Small Every Day5 Comments

NaPoWriMo & Something Small, Every Day: All Summer Long

Charlotte Hamrick

Artwork by Jenn Zed via The Wombwell Rainbow All Summer Long Breaking the surface, we jettisonedourselves toward the skyBodies bound in summer’s long kissincandescent droplets falling fringefrom our sun bleached curlssliding smooth like your hand in mine down curves and angles to slip backin the gentle waves rippling out and out and outthrough generations of fallow fleshthat loved in this lake before usEach second lasting a lifetimeSo kindSo cruelSummer lovers still floating through timeand memory* I’m following several websites for poem prompts and decided on this artwork from The Wombwell Rainbow for inspiration today. I love the image and it … Continue reading NaPoWriMo & Something Small, Every Day: All Summer Long