DAILY PHOTO: Warrior Figures Inside a Taoist Temple, Kaohsiung

The Labor of Shyness [Common Meter]

Turtles sun on pier foundations
at the very edge.
So that upon the merest glance
They can slip the ledge,
And sink down into the pond's depths
To hide amid the murk.
Those who aren't shy can never know
Just how hard is its work.

“I Sing the Body Electric” [1 of 9] by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

I sing the body electric,
The armies of those I love engirth me
and I engirth them,
They will not let me off till I go with them,
respond to them,
And discorrupt them, and charge them full
with the charge of the soul.

Was it doubted that those who corrupt
their own bodies conceal themselves?
And if those who defile the living are as bad
as they who defile the dead?
And if the body does not do fully
as much as the soul?
And if the body were not the soul,
what is the soul?

Starling [Haiku]

a starling stomps,
like a masked bandit,
across dusty earth.

DAILY PHOTO: Views from Windmill Viewpoint, Naiharn

“The Emperor of Ice-Cream” by Wallace Stevens [w/ Audio]

Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protruded, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

PROMPT: Ideal Week

Daily writing prompt
Describe your ideal week.

The first week of October.

DAILY PHOTO: Chicago River from North Wabash Bridge

The Lily [Haiku]

a single lily 
stands out in a pond of pads:
bright to browned.

Asunder [Haiku]

sprawling tree, 
laid asunder by its own weight:
a crack plus time