stevencudahy

stevencudahy, 9 months ago to poetry

there once was an old man called steven
whose poems were very uneven
far too many a day
with so little to say
but he sadly shows no signs of leavin'

(I am so very very sorry. I'll stop now.)

#poetry #limerick #writing

stevencudahy, 9 months ago to poetry

'how to write a poem about a prompt'

get prompt
feel language strain, slice, split containment and split
worry
read clock
bury self in time, in work, in distraction
return to prompt
the word is noise is frozen fire razor-edged
worry
slice ribboned mind to bleed words through
worry more
words flood torrent drowns
write
erase
drowning, weep
write
erase
panic
repeat until there's no time
breathe shallow
post
panic
repeat

#Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt
Thanks @tanweerdar - sequence.

stevencudahy, 8 months ago to Haiku

private property
true, but you're welcome to stay
make my heart your home

#575prompt #senryu #haiku #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing

With thanks to @aethelshane for the prompt - 251 - trespass.

stevencudahy, 8 months ago to Haiku

safe, here, snuggle-drunk
trying not to think too much
of my cold lone friends

guilty ember heat
uncomfortable - i don't
know if they're okay

which helps nobody
but feeds my saviour complex
chilling the moment

#DailyHaikuPrompt - October 7th - cosy.

#haiku #senryu #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing #MicroPoetry

stevencudahy, 8 months ago to poetry

every photon hurled across
the hungry void
was sent to draw you
for the joy of those lucky
to be close to you
and every photon fired through
the lonely dark
wants to hear the crackle
of lightning in the voice
lucky enough
to need to describe you
for the benefit of
a distant friend
or a loved one
immune to the seduction
of ricocheting light

#Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt
Thanks @tanweerdar for the prompt - illustrate.

stevencudahy, 5 months ago to Haiku

streamlined sleek sleet rep-
elling, rappelling from cloud-
nine to office time

#DailyHaikuPrompt - December 16th - sleet.

#haiku #senryu #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing

stevencudahy, 7 months ago to poetry

breathe as best you are able
swallow
here is the plastic cup of tepid water
the paper straw too soggy now

you're a bit shoogly for safe sipping
diamonds on the gown
on your skin
a tissue to drink them up

there are machines here
i don't have names for
inscrutable guardians
of what time has left of you

while inside you
years of bramble-bloom
overwhelms the flowers
slowly

#Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt #vss365Today prompt - 25th October - bloom.

stevencudahy, 9 months ago to poetry

Tried something different today, a long poem knit from six prompt poems. The full version is attached.

#Poetry #Writing

3 memory is frail like a foreign tongue we spoke, long ago and have mostly failed to stay on top of meaning becomes soft threadbare and frayed-edged subject to query debate and power in ways that feel raw we fall into sheets the waves, each other the days, the roleplays we choose to believe we choose to follow drift symptomatic of how little known we are to ourselves from waking to sleep from cradle to grave 4 clean air, rain, distant school kids oak tree boughs, heavy leaf, shelter morning light soft on the mown grass "please..." you trail off, turn your face away ashes we spread here are long absorbed soil taking everything to change and feed souls, if they exist, don't inhabit the cremains neatly, gently, i lay the lilies empty, helpless, i hold your fingers selfish, selfless, we fight for each breath wanting, waiting, harsh sadness lingers
5 there's no escape from who we are even in waves salt stings fresh scars all those new voids that gape between before and now we can't ever go home you're distant, faint, somehow i can't reshape the days we spend from monochrome tales without end until time has her gentle way - we hold, kiss, weep, let the wind play 6 even all our weight can dissolve cleanly, briefly in that silver wash

stevencudahy, 7 months ago to poetry

would you like to know
how it feels to live
decades of always
being the one to initiate

i am afraid
of the sky
and the clouds
it has trained
to hunt me

you wouldn't
you couldn't handle it
and no one should
live with that weight

i am afraid of the dark
and the deep water
i dream of diving into
like a lover
never to surface

becoming treasure
only after the fact

i fear the trees
soft starlight on leaves
and love asymmetrical

#Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt #vssPoem Thanks @worded_art - sunken.

stevencudahy, 8 months ago to random

Yeuch. Travelling for work is the worst anyway, but having to travel on a Sunday for a Monday meeting is just wrong on so many levels.

stevencudahy, 7 months ago to Haiku

there are ways we touched
that forever haunt the bones
of my waking dreams

#DailyHaikuPrompt - November 2nd - haunt.

#haiku #senryu #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing #MicroPoetry

stevencudahy, 6 months ago to Haiku

it starts so solid
i plan, chip, slice, fail - it melts
and i am drowning

#DailyHaikuPrompt - December 9th - ice.

#haiku #senryu #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing #MicroPoetry

stevencudahy, 4 months ago to writing

I wrote 1,420 things in 2023 in response to various prompts. Poems? I hesitate to call them that. Fragments of meaning or response to meaning or the shadow of meaning's passing, perhaps. I don't know.

What does a person do with that kind of thing? A lumpy misshapen document full of half- or quarter-witted lines. Sixty-odd thousand words. A short novel by weight.

What's it for, something like that?

Manure, perhaps. Too easy? To equate the words with shit?

1/

#writing #poetry

stevencudahy, 8 months ago to poetry

against the dark
your words are stark
and darker still

heavier than
stars, lighter than
hopeful dreaming

clean cut sharp-edged
lovingly wedged
in my sore mind

shadows more true
being from you
bled through your heart

love songs for all
bless or appall
meeting our needs

gifts freely shared
such priceless care
freely given

#Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt #vss365Today prompt - 20th September - black.

stevencudahy, 8 months ago to Haiku

all that ruby rich
flooding my canals and streams
flows gold towards you

#DailyHaikuPrompt - September 30th - crimson.

#haiku #senryu #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing #MicroPoetry

stevencudahy, 8 months ago to poetry

open hands
empty
i am
falling
to my knees
a thousand
and one
times
i am
swallowing
myself
to take
less space
i am
covering
my tracks
to find
hiding
space
i am
offering
nothing
that's not
utilitarian
i am
sorry
my words
are so loud
and so brittle
so empty
handed

#Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt #vssPoem Thanks @worded_art for the prompt - frailty.

stevencudahy, 8 months ago to poetry

even that sacred blaze
time made semi-divine
each second's jewelled
breath in a silk damask pouch
detailed in beadworked tears
even that endless breath
feeding the cataclysms
of life unfettered by aging
even the spinning of multiverses
shivering through the dance
of fiercely imagined gods
glimmering in and out
of reality's spotlights
even the endless aeons
would not be time enough
to map the gift
of your skin

#Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt #vss365Today prompt - 8th October - aeon.

stevencudahy, 9 months ago to Haiku

remember our love
beg the oceans of the moon
as they reach for her

#575prompt #senryu #haiku #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing

With thanks to @aethelshane for the prompt - 228 - tides.

stevencudahy, 7 months ago to Haiku

swirling caresses
the world wears gauzy dust sheets
i forgot something

#DailyHaikuPrompt - October 24th - foggy.

#haiku #senryu #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing #MicroPoetry

stevencudahy, 8 months ago to poetry

i fell into the sky once
tripped and spread my arms
instead of hitting the ground
i gathered stars like diamonds
but they burned through my grip
roaring with silvered voices

i fell into the void
filled my pockets with planets
by the dozen to create a feast
of every cuisine in the universe
but they crumbled to dust
lint, a finger nail, a crumpled receipt

i fell into your laughter
at my tales and knew peace
stopped searching
began learning

#Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt
Ta @tanweerdar treasure.

stevencudahy, 7 months ago to poetry

i don't remember
declaring war on my heart
but what else explains
the violence i do myself
laying siege to its chambers

Thanks @FrostPoem for the prompt - heart.

#tanka #MicroPrompt #Poetry #MicroPoetry #Writing

stevencudahy, 4 months ago to writing

The #MastoPrompt for Tuesday 6th February 2024 is:

#journey

The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.

@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag, or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.

#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories

stevencudahy, 3 months ago to writing

The #MastoPrompt for Tuesday 20th February 2024 is:

#loot

The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.

@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag, or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.

#Writing #SmallPoem #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories

stevencudahy, 4 months ago to poetry

diffused in death
from the wrecked pine vessels
leached through rock pores
aquifer-massive

sometimes moonlight gets caught in old stones
to slide gentle to the dark water
summons you thirsty
to the well

memory is harder to gather
dust and sand dispersed too wide
too small to keep track of
or rebuild

so raw emotion
and the ache of loss
climb the ancient stones
to fill inexplicable needs

#Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 2nd February 2024 - well.

stevencudahy, 2 months ago to random

Limited poetry tonight as it's a night in the office for me.