What Do You Love?

'Woman in Yellow Dress': Coloured pencil drawing by Nicole Moore

T(he)y tell me I can't wear bright colours. Who are those talking heads to tell me what I can and can't wear? Something about the stark contrast against my skin ... 'doesn't work' It works well for me. Oh and, 'Who do you think you are wearing that hat?' I'm at peace. Can you say the same? 

A breeze like the turn of a page keeps me poised on the might of the sea. I love my dress. I love my hat. What do you love?

5th poem for NaPoWriMo2017

(prose poem)

ⓒ Nicole Moore

Elegy for Adrian

Adrian Chambers, Italy, the 1980s.

I remember the first time I saw you
Your call and response failed five times
Until you managed to tap me on my shoulder
from the front room window

When I turned around and saw you
Your eyes threw me
We spoke gobbledygook 
as a way of tuning in

And when I asked you a random question—
'Do you drink or smoke?'
Your reply made me smile,
'No but I eat a lot of biscuits.'

And because it was easy to say it,
I asked, 'Any particular kind?'
And you said,
'Custard Creams.'

Your death remains a turning point
Our memories are safe
And We will always
share history.

4th poem for NaPoWriMo2017

ⓒ Nicole Moore

NaPoWriMo's day 3 prompt was an elegy, (I'm not sticking to posting in any particular order) 'but make it centred around something specific or unusual about the person or thing it's about'. I lost my partner Adrian in 1988 and our first meet, in 1980, will be something I savour as a special memory, but it's his confession about Custard Creams that will always make me smile!

Forever Breathing

Image from Pexels

I could be described as a sitting room
Yet I am much more
to the eyes that see
and those who live and love

For I can mirror beauty here
I am the faceless, silent witness
Forever Breathing within these walls,
contained I hold space

I feel those energies come, go, stay
I am the shadow at night
You choose the interior
but I am its ghosts

It matters not what shape I am in.

3rd poem for NaPoWriMo 2017

ⓒ Nicole Moore

'Home'

**29 Grosvenor Avenue, Highbury, London.

Shadows from street-lamps create a dance as she turns the key. She hears silence as she steps inside, engulfed by the incongruous smell, staggering slow into a minefield trance; searchlights beam. 

The kitchen has swapped places. The lounge has grown. There are no colours, light is upside down. Intensity mounts; her breathing becomes sharp and loud.

No pictures, no memories on the walls. No hugs, no laughter. Alone with her shadow, the sameness disconnects. She questions the emptiness, the boundaries of silence … how did home turn into a soul-less place?

within a fortnight

when the world turned upside down

she lost her footing

2nd poem for NaPoWriMo 2017

(*Haibun)

ⓒ Nicole Moore

*Haibun is a prosimetric literary form originating in Japan, combining prose and haiku. The range of haibun is broad and frequently includes autobiography, diary, essay, prose poem, short story and travel journal.

**Photo of the house I lived in as a child with my mother and grandparents, taken in 2008.

Forever Solid

'Forever Solid': Coloured pencil drawing by Nicole Moore

Forever solid

waiting in vain for the sun

the moon will suffice.

1st poem for NaPoWriMo 2017

(Haiku Art)

ⓒ Nicole Moore

Spirit

 My Spirit was downhearted one day

By another low spirit who

had unwise words to say

to make the day - an unhappy one

No boosting my ego

just lowering my spirits

I'd forgotten, how bad it felt

it's been that long

Words can do such dastardly things

Words matter - they reach you on

high or low levels

They can lead us to terror - if we let them

Words can cut like swords

are capable of hate

and of love

of war and peace

Words can mean so much

and so little

without a high spirit talking

words just die.

The really great thing is
I am a free spirit!

(30th poem for NaPoWriMo)

Notes on Bob

Notes on Bob

Bob said it; and it can be read as pure poetry

'So Much Things to Say' (Exodus)

'So Much Trouble in the World' (Survival)

He drew his power

from the sprightliness of his music,

which belies the seriousness of the words

Not even a question of 

No easy answers as

No answers at all are

put forward here in this

bleak vision of the way things are

So Much Things to Say

Bob's faith in God sustained him throughout

and his music continues to up lift.

(29th poem for NaPoWriMo)