Tag: Poetry

Free Verse, My Poetry, Na/GloPoWriMo 20264 Comments

Saturdays on Soul Train

Charlotte Hamrick

Saturdays on Soul TrainPlatforms, bell bottoms & paisley printsFunky Chickened & Bumped the Soul Train line,one hour once a week cool moves & us glued to a rock & rolling tv & music in mono but all so special in its scarcity.Now then every granny, toddler, & all in between TikTok, Facebook, Instagram their moveson phones, tablets, laptops, streaming & streaming& streaming into infinity,on tv every consumer-driven product sells itself dancing,none of it special, it all blurs into flailing arms & legs,white noise & puppet images —Click Na/GloPoWriMo day 14 prompt: Today, we challenge you to write a poem that … Continue reading Saturdays on Soul Train

Free Verse, My Poetry, Na/GloPoWriMo 20263 Comments

Basket

Charlotte Hamrick

Basket After Jane HirshfieldIf my eyes fall on the basket sitting on my dresser,I marvel for the millionth timeat the skill and time it tookto create a vessel of such beauty and strength, echoing the beautyand strength of the hands thatshaped it and I marvel at the timewe visited the little shopon the reservation where it was sohard to choose just one and I marvelnow at the beauty and strength of you,how I took it for granted, how hard it is to choose just one memory of us together, happy I don’t have to. Na/GloPoWriMo day 13 – I’m off … Continue reading Basket

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Springtime Freshness in Every Puff

Charlotte Hamrick

Springtime Freshness in Every PuffHalf-used, a green and white crinklypackage hides amid a twilight of dust bunnies.A set of five small fingers grabs it out into light & air, an alien environment.I am confronted.O little sister. I see the beginningof your life in this moment.Whether by instinct or observation,you knew and you cared. You weresmarter at 6 than I was at 16. Na/GloPoWriMo day 12 prompt: Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own poem that recounts a memory of a beloved relative, and something they did that echoes through your thoughts today. Continue reading Springtime Freshness in Every Puff

Cento, My Poetry, Na/GloPoWriMo 2026, Poetry1 Comment

Lost Purpose Dancing Backwards

Charlotte Hamrick

Lost Purpose Dancing BackwardsNeeded: amends for an old ghost, some form of recompense.Red light travels the most milesthrough the atmosphere & bitterto no end, we become the red tapewe rue. If we name this in our headsWill it go away? I’m dancing this ghostpen between you and me; I’ll writeyou into a place as your face foldsinto your crane neck. I will returnat night and stare into your eyes.(Your warm spot is not yours; this I know.You live by the fact of the sun; this I know.)Credits:“Local Legends” by Kare Head in Lost on Purpose“There are No Warning Signs” by … Continue reading Lost Purpose Dancing Backwards

Free Verse, My Poetry, Na/GloPoWriMo 20261 Comment

All I Want

Charlotte Hamrick

All I WantI am not a starfishI’m a woman of earth and boneOf rock and rocky wordsWhich I do not hide behindI speak clearly which sometimesIs perceived as bluntBlunt is good, there’s no confusionWith bluntI am not a starfishI have always had a plan althoughSometimes I floatI suppose that is starfish-ishWe should be flexible when neededI am not a starfishButWe both have predators so We both keep our eyes openHer five and my twoStarfish will sacrifice a limbTo evade a predatorI will sacrifice complacencyI am not a starfishI cannot change colors butI can change my mindIf respectfully presented with facts … Continue reading All I Want

My Poetry, Na/GloPoWriMo 2026, Poetry, Rhyme3 Comments

My Backyard

Charlotte Hamrick

My BackyardBirds & squirrels & cats on the prowlTwo dogs running, hear them howlSun & flowers & butterflies galoreAll the things that I adore Na/GloPoWriMo day 7 prompt is to write a sing-songy rhymed poem. I’m not good at rhyming and it’s not a form I particularly like so mine is short today. I didn’t get around to yesterday’s prompt but I really like the example poem. I hope to make it up. Continue reading My Backyard

Erasure, My Poetry, Na/GloPoWriMo 2026, Poetry5 Comments

A Tropical Fever

Charlotte Hamrick

A Tropical FeverOn the island nightwas a wall of flameascended, receded, opened,disappeared again.He was feverish,vague, unsettled —preparation was almostexecution.Pleasure bound, all was ready,minutes doubled into desiremore poetical in the obscurityof the night.Thoughts, illusions, anticipation,the island loomed large.He could not close his eyesfor a moment. Na/GloPoWriMo day 5. This is an erasure created from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas via Project Gutenberg. See screenshot below of the selected page. I’ve been watching th PBS production so it seemed a good idea to use a page from the text. Happy Easter! Happy Passover! Continue reading A Tropical Fever

Free Verse, My Poetry, Na/GloPoWriMo 2026, Poetry1 Comment

Air So Still

Charlotte Hamrick

Air So StillOctober 2005Parched ground, wind-burned foliage,you’d think there was a droughtinstead of a storm of rain falling like sheetsblown sideways on a clothesline.Hurricane’s winds blew everything away.Plant, bird, animal, human.But flies soon returned – coffin flies,they were called – everywhere,everywhere, crawling on everything.Everything being the debris of livesscattered everywhere.Then, dragonflies by the hundredsreturned. It was so odd when the groundwas so dry, the air so still, a dearthof activity by animal and human and yetthe beating of wings by my ear.* I went off prompt for day 4 of Na/GloPoWriMo because I was inspired by my friend Matt Dennisons … Continue reading Air So Still

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