The year in light

15 Comments December 18, 2019 Phillip Knight Scott

The twilight of another year sparkles
with flashes — burning brilliance —
so I cannot leave them behind
as we place one foot into the future.

I pause now, lingering
on the twinkling moments,
savoring the sweet stamped imprints
while my month waters
in anticipation of more to come.

Even the sad, the hurt,
the bulbs I’d replace if I could —
I’ll take them with me. Sometimes
any light is a reminder
that life glimmers between bursts
of radiant light
whether we’re looking or not.

Written for Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Year’s End

My memory (to come)

30 Comments December 3, 2019 Phillip Knight Scott

My murky memory extrapolates the smoke,
pixelated recollections somewhere in the cache
that clears itself (a grasp slackens)
as I hasten to replace lost echoes
with reminiscences to come,
not forgotten among the ash,
rising breathless if we dare stretch.

The future — always fuzzy like sleep
that won’t rub out of our eyes — changes
every time we look at it, as we push forward
carrying the momentum of those better angels
urging us to grow our own wings
and launch ourselves to join those
refusing to leave progress to others.

Time will tell what tales we create,
proceeding weightless where we dare.

Written for Go Dog Go Cafe’s Tuesday Writing Prompt Challenge (leaving) and Free Verse Revolution’s December Writing Prompt #1 (time will tell) and dVerse Poetics “Less is more, more or less“

About time

33 Comments October 24, 2019 Phillip Knight Scott

We wink at infinity every time the clock
sounds its alarm, unbending as it howls
as if timelines drive forward between
well-marked lines.

Hours turn
but always circle back.

Sometimes we notice the period while
standing in it but in a lifetime shared,
these eras softly merge,

blurry in places though
the color flashes in focus like leaves in Autumntime.

And the clock shouts, begging for timeliness
while eternity ticks
its pulsing heartbeat simply
a moment in time.

Written for the dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar: Polyptoton

This Thursday, Frank is our host, and the challenge is to use a polyptoton somewhere in our poems. A polyptoton is a rhetorical device used for style and persuasiveness; it’s a special kind of repetition where the common base of a word is repeated, but not the whole word exactly.

Mark of time

9 Comments August 16, 2019 Phillip Knight Scott

The clock prefers
a polite tree,
stretching
over time,
one more

ring with each
revolution,
content, marked
for the trouble.

The corridor reads
all mundane nameplates,
lusting
over time,
the future

unspooled before it
like ribbon,
slowly marking
time’s dance.

The flame pretends
it cares, ice
tickling
wax, alive
only now

indifferent to
ephemera,
acerbic mark
in time.

Partially inspired by the Ragtag Daily Prompt – “acerbic“