NAPOWRIMO 2014 April 25, 2014

Heirloom

a mother’s heart is
a patchwork quilt
of captured moments
stitched together with
threads of memory.
bright squares of joy
full of laughter and smiles,
tattered places worn thin
by the wiping of many tears.
Encircled by lace knit of
dreams both fulfilled and denied,
creating a haphazard pattern
woven with the textiles of life.

©2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO 2014 April 24

Pompeii


They had no word for volcano
and no oral history or mythology
about the mountain that
overshadowed them
and the tremors that
shook their town.
Even when the smoke
began to rise
it was a matter
of curiosity rather than
concern
even when ash rained down
they stayed
under roof, under shelter,
under ground.
Realizing too late
utter destruction had come
with the searing heat
that struck them
where they stood
and buried them as they died
with arms outstretched
and feet in motion
with babies in arms
and silver in pockets.

©2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO 2014 April 23

SOMNIPHOBIA

Soft warmth awaits
but she knows the truth,
silken pillows tempt
her to close her eyes.
Bedding that smells of
fresh laundering
beckon her lie down.
But she knows the truth,
the winding sheets
the enclosing shroud
the darkness deeper than night.
The morning sun grows dimmer,
the birdsong farther away
the struggle for life gets harder
with each trip into sleep.

©2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO 2014 April 22

Future Dreaming, Present Tense

Once on a Brooklyn street
I looked into the sun
and imagined my life
in the year 2000.
How far away
and futuristic
the world would be,
like the '64 World’s Fair
that I never went to,
but influenced
my fantasies
of rockets and flying cars
and mechanical wonders
powered by atoms.
How old I would be!
How easy my life!
Now 14 years past
I am tethered to my smartphone
make my living with computers
and pilot spaceships in my dreams.

©2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO 2014 April 21

Calendar Prayer

Oh many-faceted god of time
who rules my every movement
appearing to me in many forms
paper pocket planner,
networked program of days,
tiny screen of smart phone,
I appeal to you, keep me on track
guide me with your incessant reminders,
notices, bings and chirps,
and grant me the temerity
to give you offerings of my schedule
in as timely a way as you
give them back to me,
otherwise your good works
are all for naught
and I miss another appointment.


©2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO 2014 April 20

Easter 2014

holiday dinner
the clan gathers
now three generations.
traditional food
new savory dishes,
sports, politics,
and baby care.
Naps gratefully
embraced by
elders,
and fought off
by babies,
screaming in
protest.
Sights and sounds
and smells and tastes
the touch of love
as life goes on.

©2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO 2014 April 19

Here is a Spring Poem/Poster from a few years ago.

NAPOWRIMO 2014 April 14-18

Poetic Excuses

Monday the server went down again
Tuesday the phone calls were crazy
Wednesday I needed to reboot myself
Thursday the traffic was hell.
Today I write this Friday verse
early before things get busy
resolving to get back to daily poetics
or at least more creative excuses.

©2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO 2014 April 13, 2014

April Snow

At night, alone
she mourned
the April love that
slipped right through
her fingers,
with the flowers of May
to put on a grave,
and the Aprils to come
always threatening snow.

©2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO 2014 April 12, 2014

Premonition

I knew Death was stalking.
I could see it in her eyes
hear it in her speech
watch it in her movements.
i wrote it down
as if somehow
the words would
protect her.
And now I try again
though it didn’t work before.
I know Death is stalking,
and my words are powerless
to save him.

©2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO 2014 April 11, 2014

For Those Trying to
Escape the Rabbit Hole

falling, like Alice
grasping bottles
and drinking
on the way down.
The White Rabbit
has promised
a world without pain
just drink this
or eat this
until you grow
or shrink
and fit in
where you couldn’t
and see things you shouldn’t
knowing you will disappear
leaving nothing behind
but a smile.

©2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO 2014 April 10, 2014

Terra Luna

The glossary of "lunagraphy"
defines the lunar landscape:
maria — the empty seas,
battered mountains reduced
to breccia — moon rubble,
overlapping craters,
lava flows and rills,
formed by forces above and below,
ancient beyond understanding
mimicked on every road I drive.
©2013 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO April 9, 2014

Contemplation

Just because the universe is swimming in dark matter
doesn’t mean dark matters must preoccupy my thoughts
yet not attending to them doesn’t make them go away.
I hereby designate, bequeath
being of sound mind and body
but If I cannot speak for myself
my wishes are as follows…
My parents didn’t do these things
and it didn’t save their lives
and I am so much older
than they ever got to be.
Still such dark matters,
though currently invisible
have great mass and gravity
that cannot be ignored
even by someone
still waiting to see
what I will be
when I
grow up.

                                             ©2014Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO 2014 April 8, 2014

Rescuers

The lifelines that I cling to

when the ship is going down,

throwing out the life ring

when it looks like I might drown,

and even when the stormy seas

toss me wildly up and down,

hands reach out save me

and let me know you are around.

 ©2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO 2014 - April 7, 2014

A friend writes a poem for me today! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Birthday Haiku

Noreen Braman is
A smile of laughter and hope
Happy Birthday, Friend

©2014 Julie Bartha-Vasquez


 

NAPOWRIMO 2014 April 6, 2014

The Middle Ages

I am thankful for Arabic numerals
that reduced the year to four numbers
and keep most of our ages in double digits.
And mystified that animals were prosecuted
in the same manner as humans
yet see the parallel to today’s
declaration of corporations as people.
The persecution of rats still goes on 
as the scapegoats for the Black Death
but just this week they were declared
to not be the source of the plague.
But out of the war, famine and
consistently  religious paintings
came the refreshing breath of the Renaissance
and as I leave my middle ages
I can ask for nothing less.

©2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO April 5, 2014

Starlight

Millennia after my light goes out
in this tiny speck of the universe
it will sparkle still across galaxies
and perhaps eyes not unlike mine
will gaze into this light and see
all of us as we once were,
in the starlight we go on forever.

©2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO- 4-4-14

dark nights

watching you sleeping
listening to you breathe
feeling your body moving in dreams
Counting my blessings
forgetting daylight worries
drifting off to sleep
beside you.

(c) 2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO - April 3, 2014

“sticks and stones may break my bones, 
but words will never hurt me.”



word pain

Armed with words against words,
waving flags of false bravado
we declared impotent
the taunt, the name, the belittlement,
giving no satisfaction, no tears of pain
while inside, our very souls reddened,
shrinking backward into the darkness
where the real pain lives,
a caged animal with claws
less easily provoked with age
but still strong enough to bite.


©2014 Noreen Braman

NAPOWRIMO - April 2, 2014

"Slow down, you move too fast,
You got to make the morning last." 
Simon & Garfunkel
59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)


The Physics of Living

misplaced objects and frantic searching
reason for panic the week of my birthday
misfires from an aging brain
that instead of just flowing at the speed of life
is getting lifeyears ahead of itself.

©2013 Noreen Braman

It is National Poetry Writing Month 2014 - Let the versifying begin!

Here it is, April again: the day of fools, the cruelest month, the hours of daylight, the weeks of poetry. I begin the annual National Poetry Writing Month (NAPOWRIMO) following sage advice; writing about what I know. 

 

Never Give a Server an Even Break

Unless you backup your backup of the backup,
the day will come when you will find out
the backup you backed up so smugly
has been vaporized like a planet in Star Wars,
and you’ve no recourse but to rescan
pages and pages of things you hope you still have,
and you know you deserve what you got
from letting your data hang out in bad sectors.

©2014 Noreen Braman