I would like to invite all those interested in posting an original poem to post it on this thread. Otherwise the poems tends to get lost in the larger forum and no one notices them. I also think sometimes it is not clear that what is being posted is an original work.

This is draft #2 of a poem I've been working on all day. Feel free to reply with feedback (I am pretty thick skinned about my poetry, so don't worry).

A walk in the woods (Making my way to Rod Hollow shelter)

A break in the weather calls me out into this December day
The air is fine, gentle and soft
My plan is to make a little circuit
A mile in and mile out to Rod Hollow Shelter and back
The low slant of white light hurries me though
Trying hard to stay on the path, but in the winter wood every way is a path
The guide strings that hung down in the spring have been wind tangled into the branches
No longer in easy eye’s view
I am grateful for those few that still dangle
Assuring me that I am still moving toward the shelter
Between those markers anxiety lay in the brambles that crackle under foot
Uncertainty crouches

The fear of being lost, of losing myself
Of wandering off course
Elevates alert to Jittery
My body is jazzed, attending to every sound
Ears alert, scanning for what my eyes might miss
Then chuckling
I am
The noise in the wood

the winter wood (Making my way to the shelter)

A break in the weather and I must get out
My plan is to make a little circuit hike
A mile in and mile out to Rod Hollow Shelter and back
The low slant of white light hurries me
Trying hard to stay on the path, but in the winter wood every way is a path
The guide strings that hung down in the spring have been wind tangled into the branches
No longer in easy sighting
I am grateful for those few that still dangle
Assuring me that I am still moving toward the shelter
Between those markers anxiety broods
in the brambles that crackle under foot
My fear of losing myself
Of wandering off course
Elevates alert to Jittery
My body is jazzed, attending to every sound
Ears alert, scanning for what my eyes might miss
Then,
chuckling I am
--The noise in the wood

Any better? I think I am getting closer. It usually takes me a month of fiddling around to get a poem knocked out. This is try number 3 and I still in the first week.

The last version is much improved and quite nice. It makes me feel as if I'm with you on the hike.

Chris OConnor wrote:The last version is much improved and quite nice. It makes me feel as if I'm with you on the hike.

Thanks, Chris, that was exactly my aim.

4th iteration:
the winter wood (Making my way to the shelter)

A break in the weather and I am out
My plan is to make a circuit hike
A mile in and mile out,
Rod Hollow Shelter and back
Before the low slant of white light is lost
Trying hard to stay on the path,
But in the winter wood every way becomes a path
The guide strings you hung in the spring
Are now wind tangled into the branches
No longer in easy sight
I am grateful for those few that still dangle
Assuring me that I am still moving toward the shelter
Between those few markers
anxiety broods
amplified by all that crackles under foot
The fear of losing myself
Of wandering off course
I am electric, ears alert, scanning for what my eyes might miss
Then I am chuckling, for
I am the noise in the wood

A little better I think...

Do an Ice Cream Poem

President Camacho wrote:Do an Ice Cream Poem

This just fast off the top my my noodle --

Ice Cream for the President

I like cinnamon, chocolate and coffee
Cream, cream, I dream, dream,
dream of crisp cookie
crunch and soft cold
cream
in my
mouth

Haven't written in at least a decade, but the one I do remember wasn't titled:

The creeping fist of rage unfurled
is seeping through the mist.
It crawls along the mud until
it finds someone to kiss.

Who knows, maybe it should be called "Kapow!!!" lol