life – Phillip Knight Scott

Discolored past

January 9, 2020January 9, 2020 Phillip Knight Scott

The rocks mark the ground
between prospering weeds enriched
by the warmth of a sun surging overhead,
encircling those of us interred
on a planet whose
percussive heartbeat rocks me to sleep.

I sense the presence of wildflowers,
of ants scurrying together in the dirt,
of life — too bountiful to count or name —
thriving in the darkness or
at least out of sight —
I dare not note a difference in perspective.

Photos remain after we pass on
a gentle breeze that thoughtlessly turns
blacks to sepia, discoloring too many memories
otherwise cruelly lost
in darkness
though the sun shines tomorrow.

My first poem of the new year! Submitted to dVerse Poets Pub Open Mic Night #257

Written for:

Sue Vincent’s Thursday photo prompt: Presence #writephoto
The Poets and Storytellers United Weekly Scribblings #1: January is here, with winds that blow kisses: “warmth” “percussion” “darkness” “sleep”
Free Verse Revolution January Writing Prompt #2: “interred”

Poems

Cosmic quiver

October 21, 2019 Phillip Knight Scott

He chose life because he did
not consider the alternative
viable,
poor man.

He quivered
with the thought of the after –
overwhelmed – life,
a cosmic conviction
that on such scale
(weighing on him still) he is
insignificant but

remains a light in the void.

Written for the dVerse Poets Pub Quadrille #90 – quiver

Poems

Parachute questions

September 23, 2019 Phillip Knight Scott

The broken ventriloquist parachuted
beyond the road, past even the living greens,
a wanderer in a straw hat
seeking life’s spark – that fire
that animates existence fully
and follows no formation.

Who paints the living? Who plants
the dead? In the end where do we go?

Asking questions with motionless lips,
he failed to hear the smoke
or any other meaning
and missing his traveling companion
returned to the road, lost after Genesis,
holding only clay.

Written for Sunday’s Whirligig #232 : clay, end, follow, painter, straw, wanderer

Poems

Fade to

September 10, 2019September 10, 2019 Phillip Knight Scott

The mouse crept beneath a window,
hushed footfalls ringing with regrets –
cheese (oddly placed) left untouched,
cats (strangely absent) go unseen,
cold mists (often intoxicating) left outside.

The moon acts traitor to the day,
exiling sun pillars to memories,
its cryptic desire for dark
in a world teeming with low-lying rodents
(best left unnoticed) puzzles the thoughtful.

We chose the sun (tickling our necks)
as we face another day living
in the audacious light where yesterdays
fade to
today fade
to regrets
fade
and we get another chance
another choice
between cheese or cats or cold mists
or creeping in the night
clamoring for the sun.

A few prompts on this one:
Putting My Feet in the Dirt : “sun pillars“
Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Get Listed! with Helen Dehner : “absence” “audacious” “exile” “clamor”
Word of the Day Challenge : “traitor“

Poems

The sailor

August 29, 2019 Phillip Knight Scott

The day fades to amber.
A sailor scampers toward shore,
fearful of being lost on the billowy blanket
where warmth in wet ripples
soothes an otherwise fierce soul,
longing to be three
sails to the wind.

But pause, the sailor.
She called to him from behind,
crying calm waters whose
deep bold blue blended with the sky,
shades of blue amid specks of red
cascading beyond
his imagination.

Or maybe he merely wanted
to touch the sky
and turning upside-down,
adrift among the waves
and the clouds, stretched his sails
once again.
The night grows black.

Written with the following prompts in mind:
The Word of the Day Challenge – “Lost”
The Putting My Feet in the Dirt August writing prompts : “bold and billowy”