Scream [Free Verse]

The Scream (1893); Edvard Munch
brain numb.
 voice dumb.
 
a wicked harmonic
 builds in the core -

tuned to volcanically
 vibrant skies.

flash fires of feeling
 riffle through the body.

the tone dials
 into a whine
 
that bursts into 
 a scream.

The Garden [Haiku]

the well-groomed garden
 holds nature at bay, only
  through constant effort.

DAILY PHOTO: Ha Long Sunrise

Image

Limerick of Richard Dadd

Titania Sleeping (1857); Richard Dadd
An English painter named Richard Dadd
 went completely stark raving madd.
  He stayed in asylums -
  Broadmoor to Bedlam.
 For stabbing to death his dear old dadd. 

PROMPT: Comfort

What strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life?

I don’t, but I have a lot of strategies for being more content in the face of various situations and environments — including uncomfortable ones. These include the yogic practice of dispassionate witnessing, minimalism, travel (and specifically minimalist travel to places – the less familiar the better,) and intense physical activity.

I think comfort as a major objective in life is overrated, and virtually insures a discontented life. A life in which one can be content, whatever may come along, is a happy life.

Under the Falls [Haiku]

cold water pounds
 on back & shoulders: some nerves
  numb; some fire wildly.

DAILY PHOTO: Kingfisher on a Riverbank

Image

Dark River [Lyric Poem]

flow on, Dark River;
  slip through the night.

midnight's thick clouds
  block the moonlight.

your voice drowned out
  by insect chirr.

a Huck Finn raft
  drifts by at a blur:

the rafters unseen;
  their secret stays hush...

but for those red eyes
  in the underbrush.

PROMPT: Future #2

What are you most excited about for the future?

The surprises. Who knows what the future might bring? Utopia. Dystopia. Technological breakthroughs might save us, or kill us all. Or maybe there’ll be no technological breakthroughs as we descend into a Luddite-driven dark age. Whatever happens, we’ll never see it coming. SURPRISE!