CCCXCVII - The Birthing Day

We all celebrate our birthdays.

But do we celebrate the women who were there too?

The Birthing Day

Mothers recall it very well

The pain, the joy, the feel, the smell

Of all the times when they gave birth

And received a child (and lost their girth).

So much joy from a day of hell:

The need to push.  Or not.  Or yell.

Rewarded more than they can tell.

When nightfall drapes across the earth,

Mothers recall.

On the date that this blessing fell

Drinks and cakes weave a sticky spell.

The child delights in all the mirth

And milks the day for all its worth.

Watching with a pride that none can quell,

Mothers recall.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2012

---

CCCXCVI - Spherically Impeded

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the first line, the rest is up to us.

The actual first line given was "A man who was rather a nut…"

but, working with the rule that the sentence may be altered

as long as the rhyming word must remain unchanged, I came up with this:

A fellow with only one nut

Made movies (plain wrapped and uncut).

The reason he succeeded

While spherically impeded

Was he had the most beautiful butt.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2012

---

CCCXCV - Taurus, of course.

Taurus, of course.

All the stars except, oddly, the closest,

Will, I'm told, impact on our daily grind.

While the universe is an amazing place:

Is this really how it was designed?

Why should some distant lump of rock,

Or flaming star in the vast abyss,

Influence the choices of my life:

What to eat, where to work or who to kiss?

The followers of this pseudo science

At best are vague and ooze crackpottery:

And I’ve yet to see that banner headline:

“Astrologer wins the national lottery!”

I foolishly answered an email once

And now get regular, teasing billet doux:

“I know your future” the emails say

“Pay me money and I’ll share it with you!”

(Not to be confused which those Russian ladies

Who email they too will reveal all, for a reward)

It appears my psychic lady is not receiving 

My message that I consider that she’s a fraud.

As I see the papers print the daily horoscopes,

I can’t but sit and idly wonder:

If astrology has an ounce of truth:

What sign are all the sceptics born under?

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2012

---

CCCXCIV - The Country Pub

This is not so much a poem as notes from a field trip.

The Country Pub

Wide streets, 

Wide verandahs, 

Decaying shops selling clothing and bric-a-brac from last century.  

Who but a farmer would buy a ceramic budgerigar? 

A pool of light spills from a doorway, onto the footpath.  

Stepping into the pool takes you through the doorway,

- into the Farmer’s Arms.

Noise.  White noise.  Blue noise.  Babble.

Farmers, families, friends, loners, transients, salesmen.

All ages. Together and yet apart.

Children play games with mobile phones:

small glowing  pools within a larger pool.

The dress-code is freestyle.  Dressed up.  Dressed down. 

Shorts, singlets, trousers and pressed check shirts.

Brylcream still has a market here.

Beer, more beer.  The drink of choice.  A cocktail list seems out of place.

Who here would drink a Margarita?  Who would order one?

Barmaids take orders, give cheek and stay behind the safety of the bar.

Big screens give flashing Technicolour sports highlights to a brownish room.

A notice board offers rabbit traps, dance lessons and a diesel pump, as new.

Large plates of basic food, nothing special but lots of it.

Parma and pot, the deal of the day.  And yesterday.  And tomorrow.

The roast of the day comes with roast vegetables.  And noodles.

Drowning in a clear brown, mucoid gravy.

A sullen cleaner takes away the empties.  No emotion.  No response.  

Mind elsewhere.  Where?  I wonder but don’t ask.

Walking home, passing through pools of noise and light,

spilling from other doorways onto the footpath.

Different pubs, 

Different people, 

Same gravy.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2012

---

Repost: Transports of Delight

dVerse prompts us to write a Villanelle.

Here's one I prepared earlier:

Transports of Delight

Gently they are rocking at evening rest,

Tarped in blue, moored for the night,

These romantic vessels of love finessed.

Coal black ferries to a town possessed;

Venetian transports of delight.

Gently they are rocking at evening rest.

Gondoliers, traditionally dressed

Sing songs of love, of passion bright,

On these romantic vessels of love finessed.

Young women doing what they do best,

Playing Princess to their kneeling knight.

Gently they are rocking at evening rest.

How many a girl has acquiesced

To heartfelt deliveries of a lover’s plight

On these romantic vessels of love finessed?

Sleek confidants to the mating rite —

(Can we, should we, will we...tonight?)

Gently they are rocking at evening rest

These romantic vessels of love finessed.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2012

---

CCCXCIII - The Façade

Three Word Wednesday invites us to use

three nominated words in a written work.

This week the three words were 

‘dangle’, ‘labour’ and ‘neatly’. 

The Façade

Life is a sham and far from pure;

A terminal illness without a cure

(Four parts chaos and six parts bored).

Heaven is offered as a reward,

Dangled like an attractive cure,

To encourage us to endure

A life spent waist deep in manure;

Never mind what you can afford:

Life is a sham.

We labour on, to help ensure

That no-one sees we’re insecure.

The façade is there, the cracks ignored,

Neatly presented and not explored.

One thing of which you can be sure:

Life is a sham.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2012

---

CCCXCII - Refined Limerick

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the first line, the rest is up to us.

A girl who thought she was refined

Had her underwear made fur-lined.

Her breasts, round and pink,

Were nestled in mink

While sable embraced her behind.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2012

---

Repost: A Dream

A Dream

Reposted in memory of 

Elizabeth Roberts, 1915-2012.

I dreamt about a distant place,

All white, yet strangely warm;

Where all was elegance and grace:

There was presence but no form.

Into this quiet and peaceful scene

A man stepped into view;

Handsome, strong and cut quite clean.

A woman stood there, too.

He looked at her, and with a smile,

Remembered when they’d wed;

“I’m glad you’ve come. It’s been a while.”

“A friend sent me” she said.

Happy with the eons spanned

They embraced and gently kissed;

Then they turned, and hand in hand,

Slipped off into the mist.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2012

---

CCCXCI - Remote and Detached

Three Word Wednesday asks us to write a piece using three nominated words.  

This week they are 'Miserable', 'Brisk' and 'Detached'.

My first haiku.

Please note that this is an exercise to use the three words.
It is NOT a psychological assessment!

Remote and detached,

Feeling quite miserable.

A brisk walk needed.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCXC - Night Hangs Heavy

Posted for Real Toads Open Link Monday

Night hangs heavy.

Night hangs heavy.

Beside me, rhythmic breathing.

Sensibly dressed, demure.  Asleep.

Spoons.  Nestled together.

My arms encase, finding their way to skin.

Words come and go in my mind.

The night passes.

Dawn.

A wattlebird chants matins:

Repent-repent-now-now-now

A tram grumbles distantly.

The passing car, a magpie,

Urgent steps, going somewhere.

Beside me, rhythmic breathing.

I wonder what she is dreaming about?

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXXXIX - The Feud

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the first line, the rest is up to us.

A man was involved in a  feud

And displayed a bad attitude:

And, though he protested,

The act he suggested

Is widely regarded as crude.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXXXVIII - Running Hot & Cold

Her thermostat was totally shot,

Swinging wildly between cold and hot.

Her husband, though caressing,

Had no way of guessing,

If he was responsible or not.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXXXVII - Six Thirty For Seven

dVerse prompts us to write on some aspect of food.

Here is an offering about a dinner party.

All comments are ficticious.  I don't even have a cat.

Six Thirty For Seven

Oh darling!  So lovely to see you!

Do come in!  Here, let me take that.

Now, who can I introduce you to?

Just put them over there.  Ignore the cat.

…Tell me, what would you like to drink?

…He’s out playing with the barbecue

…Never mind, there’s a cloth over by the sink

…Hi!  I’m in banking, what do you do?

…This dip is absolutely delicious!

…Of course it’s true, it was on the news

…I thought he was needlessly vicious

…Tell me where you bought those shoes!

…Opinion polls are always skewed

…The umpire’s decision cost us the game

…No salad for him – he calls it ‘rabbit food’

…Now she’s left, the show's just not the same

…I think the whole system’s on the nose

…I’m the same size as on my wedding day

…There’s always next year, I suppose

…Can you pass the dressing down this way?

…Oh, that cake is superb, it’s just divine!

…We must see the war through to the end

…Nothing in a box should be labelled wine

…Talkback hosts are expected to offend

…Things are clearly rotten at the top

…Did you see they’ve made a mechanical cow?

…Some friends took me to a sex shop

…Would anyone like a coffee now?

…I wasn’t really asking your advice

…That is a really unusual ring tone

…Those chocolates are far, far too nice

…Look at the time!  The night has flown!

The folk depart with well-meant wishes,

Things in the house return to norm;

The dishwasher battles with the dishes.

And the cat is sleeping, somewhere warm.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXXXVI - The Emperor's Clothes

Three Word Wednesday asks us to write a piece using three nominated words.  

This week they are 'ripe', 'dignity' and 'lacerate'.

The Emperor's Clothes

Fooling no-one, seen as lewd,

Considered strange and rather crude;

Do you think the crowds are blind

To the delusions of your mind?

That they will not quickly conclude

That you are ripe for being screwed?

That you have now become unglued? 

You are, sadly, you will find,

Fooling no-one.

Your character is harshly viewed

And your dignity, exposed and nude,

Is lacerated and assigned

To be mocked by the unkind.

You are, we must sadly conclude,

Fooling no-one.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXXXV - In Absentia II

Two prompts lead to this work:

1. One Single Impression's prompt for this week is 'Absent'.

2. Imaginary Garden with Real Toads had the prompt to use a tercet or villanelle.

This poem started out as a Villanelle but I cribbed a bit on some of the rhymes

(eg: using -ar and -art) and then sliced and diced it a bit, losing the strict tercet shape.

But I still liked it.  So here it is, for all to see:

In Absentia

In the privacy of my heart

A simple truth is starkly cast:

You are not here.  

And yet you are in my thoughts and never far

From first waking, to the last.

In the privacy of my heart 

I lament there was the need to part

Life becomes an odd contrast:

You are not here.  And yet you are.

I knew in time you would depart

And couldn’t but be overcast,

In the privacy of my heart.

But there’s always hope in ‘au revoir’,

That separation will not last.

You are not here.  

And yet you are,

Like the light from a distant star

That can be seen but not held fast,

In the privacy of my heart.

You are not here.  

And yet you are.

.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXXXIV - Tiramisu

.

A lot of things came together for this post.

1. A friend made a delicious Tiramisu and suggested the recipe sounded erotic.

2. A 'Baby Shower' for my daughter-in-law turned thoughts to Dr Seuss.

3. Theme Thursday had a food prompt.

So two Tiramisu offerings:

Dr TiramiSeuss

A wonderful beast

is the Tiramisu

Not to be found 

in the average zoo.

It has sponge fingers 

But nobody knows

If this magical beast

has any toes.

◊◊◊

Tiramisu, for Two

Organic ingredients

Softly, oh so 

Lightly whipped

Smooth and creamy,

Fingers then, 

Sweetly dipped

Continue then, 

Layer upon layer

Until complete.

Lay, to rest, 

To refresh

Lightly dusted, 

Bitter-sweet.

.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXXXIII - What Comes By Chance

.

Three Word Wednesday asks us to write a piece using three nominated words. 
This week they are 'entice', 'chance' and 'savour'.
I chose to do a rondeau.  Again.

What comes by chance

What comes by chance should not displace
But add to what is first in place.
Our life cannot be ‘either-or’,
Nor should we be keeping score,
But enticing the new onto our shore
To savour and to soft encase
And, with an absence of disgrace,
Be willing to oft explore
What comes by chance.

There is an element of grace
In taking the new into our space,
In being willing to ignore
The risks of opening up some more
And with a joyous heart embrace
What comes by chance.

.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXXXII - A Whining Fellow

.

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the first line, the rest is up to us.

A Whining Fellow

A fellow who tended to whine
Went into a terminal decline.
His wife seemed distraught
‘Til she was taken to court
For the arsenic she put in his wine.

A fellow who tended to whine
Would daily worship the divine.
But his god couldn’t brook
The whinging little sook
And consigned him to Hell, the swine.

.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXXXI - The Open Gate

.

I don't normally do composite prompts but this one fell into place.

Imaginary Garden with Real Toads had the prompt: 'Fences'.

dVerse had the prompt: 'The Unexpected'.

The Open Gate

There is comfort in a fence
That keeps the world at bay;
Your inner realm is well corralled
In a safe, unchanging way.

We all create our fences
Both the mental and the physical,
To protect our mind and matter
From intruders and the quizzical.

But are we just like those dogs
Who yap in territorial defense –
Only to stop dead in their tracks
When there’s an opening in the fence?

What would you do if you found
An opening in your wall?
What if what was out there
Was not so bad at all?

.
---
© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery
---

CCCLXXX - Absolute Acceptance

.

Two thirds of  a Three Word Wednesday. 

I found this photo when searching for an illustration for the previous poem,

submitted for this weeks Three Word Wednesday challenge. 

I was taken by the photo and attempted a second entry. 

The words I had to work with were 'nestle', 'fall' and 'absolute'

but when I had finished the work, a pantoum, there was nowhere

for 'absolute' to go but in the title.

Absolute Acceptance

When the hot ash begins to fall,
Spread like a blanket upon the town,
Into loving arms they crawl
And so embraced, they calmly drown.

Spread like a blanket upon the town
It smothers couples nestled below
And so embraced, they calmly drown,
Accepting what the fates bestow.

It smothers couples nestled below,
Hoping that they will come through,
Accepting what the fates bestow.
There’s little else that they can do.

Hoping that they will come through,
Into loving arms they crawl.
There’s little else that they can do
When the hot ash begins to fall.

.
---
© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery
---

CCCLXXIX - The Nestling

.

Three Word Wednesday asks us to write a piece using three nominated words.  

This week they are 'absolute', 'fall' and 'nestle'.
I chose to do a rondeau.

The Nestling
Dedicated to a most lovely lady.

I do so love to nestle in,
To feel the touch of skin on skin.
Few pleasures are so absolute,
So in touch with my primal root,
So full of love, devoid of sin,
So touching of the needs within,
As melding with my matching twin.
It is a base need, felt acute,
I do so love.

To fall in to their arms’ akin
To both submit and then begin.
It is a delight, sweet and cute,
The entwined result of a pursuit,
Embracing the love found therein,
I do so love.

.
---
© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery
---

CCCLXXVIII - Cosmology

.

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the first line,

The rest is up to us.

Cosmology

A fellow was trying his hand
At a science that few understand.
While the pain of the thinking
Caused cerebral shrinking
The Universe continued to expand.

.
---
© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery
---

CCCLXXVII - Seconds

.

dVerse has a prompt about 'first times'.

I took a slightly obtuse slant to it:

The Second Time

I’m told you remember your first time,
Though some memories are easier to store,
But the test of the first time experience
Is whether you returned for more.

Many experiences are spontaneous,
Where opportunity seductively beckoned.
Everything can be engaged for a first time
But it’s the nice ones that are given a second.
.
---
© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery
---

CCCLXXVI - Dissenting Views

.

Dissenting Views

Would you, could you, kill someone
Because they like peas and you don’t?
Should a vegetarian be put to death
As they eat tofu and yet you wont?

Should other football teams’ supporters
Be dispatched from these earthly shores?
And would your opinion change
If their taste in music was the same as yours?

Should someone of a sceptical stance
Be sent to the gallows and the noose
For not believing in fairy tales
And poking fun at Mother Goose?

For those of you, with a religious twist,
Who kill because you’ve received the ‘news’:
Is your God, or Allah, or Ra, or Zeus
Too small to accept dissenting views?
.
---
© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery
---

CCCLXXV - Odd Bird Out

.

 A Villanelle.

Odd Bird Out

You are different, with all that that implies:
You fly independently from the rest
And you always manage to surprise.

You command your own space in the skies
And, as those who care for you can attest,
You are different, with all that that implies.

We all have some facets that we disguise
But there are sides to you few would have guessed
And you always manage to surprise.

To underestimate you would be unwise:
You have a toughness, with which few are blessed,
You are different, with all that that implies.

Beneath a composed exterior lies
A passionate heart that beats with zest
And you always manage to surprise.

Who you really are, I can but surmise
But the truth of it is simply expressed:
You are different, with all that that implies,
And you always manage to surprise.
.
---
© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery
---

CCCLXXIV - Life's Hinges

. .

Three Word Wednesday has the prompt that required us to use

'hinge', 'lethal, and 'need' in a work.

Here is one:

Life's Hinges.

Like one of those flip-flop, click-clack, toys
That you used to get on show days,

Life is hinged at multiple points and it cunningly
Will offer alternate choices, alternate ways

To proceed through life.  These  choices
Can vary from the mundane to the truly

Lethal, from the insignificant to the cusp
of disaster and even beyond; do not unduly

Worry about the consequences that flow
From these decisions, they are built on a need

That you may only vaguely be aware of

 And you may be enslaved or you may be freed. 

Your only role is to cope with where they lead.

.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXXIII - Angst

.

Acrostic Only has the prompt to write a limerick where

the lines start with the letters of the word ANGST.

A fellow who feared being spurned,
Not meeting expectations that burned,
Got comfort when the lady
Said ‘Let’s cuddle somewhere shady’
Then relieved him, when they adjourned.

.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXXII - Planning a Spread

.

The first line comes from Mad Kane's limerick challenge.

A fellow was planning a spread
To be eaten off a lady in bed.
Then, after the cuisine,
He’d lick the plate clean
And did a fine job, it is said.

.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXXI - The Blackbird of Remorse

.

You've heard of The Bluebird of Happiness.

You've heard of the Pigeon of Discontent.
You've heard of the White Dove of Peace.

A Rondeau 

 The Blackbird of Remorse

With steely eyes, it watches you
Despair mistakes and endlessly rue
The choices made, now viewed aghast;
Right at the time but time has passed.
The bird is harsh and oft untrue
In the scorn it piles on you
For things you cannot now undo.
It cares not and attaches fast,
With steely eyes.

What’s done is done, the options few
To retrace our steps and start anew.
You can but endure the questions asked
By the watching, critical cast:
These birds don’t leave, they just accrue.
With steely eyes.

.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXX - A Menage Afar

.

The prompt given related to a "virtual menage a trois".

I opted for a rondeau.  It seemed appropriate.

A Menage Afar

If both were here then we would be

Entwined as one, comprised of three.

But distance plays a spoiling part

And blocks our meeting from the start.

Across the world, across the sea,

Prisoners of reality;

Just fond thoughts of sweet esprit

That such a union would impart,

If you were here.

Dispersed, remote and absentee,

We are a trio by decree

And even though so far apart

I feel the beating of your hearts

And ponder how the world would be -

If you were here.

.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXIX - Infinitely Diluted Nonsense

.

I was horrified to learn that the new Secretary of Health

 in the UK believes in homeopathy.

It's like having a Treasurer who believes in the Tooth Fairy.

Infinitely Diluted Nonsense

Nonsense appears in many forms
Ranging from the silly to the weird.
But few come close to the stupidity
With which homeopathy is revered.

Chorus
Just one fact is for sure
One that annoys,
One that irks:
Homeopathy is a magic cure!
The less you use it, 
The more it works.

First you decide what caused your ills
And then dilute it, using all due care:
Ten-fold, ten-fold and ten-fold again:
Until statistically it’s not even there.

Chorus

Coffee keeps you awake at night
So a little will have you snoozing;
And if you’re mugged in the street
A gentle tap will cure the bruising.

Chorus

Ipecac Syrup makes you chuck
So, diluted, calms your stomach down;
And if you are feeling a bit depressed
They’ll administer a little frown.

Chorus

But homeopaths are canny folk
And would not think it funny
If you were to pay your bill
With infinitely diluted money.
.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

Repost - The Letter

Poetry Jam has a prompt "Letters".

Here's one I wrote earlier.

The Letter

I got a letter yesterday
Handwritten by a friend;
On crisp and starchy paper,
A signature at the end.

No, not a love letter
But lovely, none the less,
For the surprise of its arrival
And the thoughts expressed.

I can see her in my mind -
Sitting at an escritoire;
A coffee at her elbow,
Some flowers in a jar.

Caring, tangible thoughts
From someone, far away.
I put it carefully in a drawer,
To reread another day.

---
© J Cosmo Newbery 2012
---

CCCLXVIII - The T-Rex & The Lamp

.

Trifecta had the prompt to use the word dinosaur and the third dictionary

definition of dinosaur ('one that is impracticably large') in a work of between 33 and 333 words.

The T-Rex & The Lamp

The dinosaur known as T Rex
Pined for arms with bulging biceps.
The original pair
Just hung in mid-air
And were useless for eating or sex.

Though he went to the gym and the staff
Worked at building his arms by a half,
The results just annoyed
And he became paranoid,
As little mammals would see him and laugh.

But three wishes there to be hadin’.
When he chanced on the lamp of Aladdin
But his arms were too teeny
To awaken the genie,
A tale most certain to sadden.

.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXVII - Peeved

.

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the first line, the rest is up to us.

A fellow was peeved at his mate

When she said that he wasn’t so great.

While the harsh truth annoyed,

It was the method employed:

He found out in a Facebook update.

A woman was peeved at her mate

Who thought that foreplay negates

The masculine control

Of the ultimate goal,

And went at it like a bull at a gate.

.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---

CCCLXVI - The High Country

.

Sunday Scribblings has the prompt 'Explore'.

I thought I would try something a little different to my usual:

The High Country.

Grazing lazily on the silky pastures,
with lips, gently pulling at the growth.

Moving, untended, along the ridges and glens,
Up to the tree line and down again,
To the shoulders of the savannahs, extended. 

Working the meadow.  Rhythmically. 

Nibbling.

Slowly.

Somewhere, a flank trembles.

.

---



© 2012   J Cosmo Newbery

---