emotions

Test Pattern

Claudia McGill 6 Comments

From Refuge, 2017.

Test Pattern
The special effects department
ordered a scintillation
fancy name for
crazy swirling confetti
for the inside of your head
Delivered just now and
like a demented snowstorm it keeps on coming
Someone should think of the budget
is all you can think to say and
so they indulge you
thin it out a little
a break in the blizzard
only that
because you know
they have a whole planet-wide
weather system full of it
stored and ready to go
every last scrap
seeking out your face
stinging when it hits.
2/16/17

Never a Beginning I Can Find

Claudia McGill 7 Comments

From Rearrange, 2018.

Never a Beginning I Can Find

I only want to say the one thing
it’s impossible not to say something
the one thing I want to say
I am saying
It is what I want to be saying
I only
what is difficult to understand
is
now that you’re listening
why I can’t seem to say it
public speaking
is just too public
and involves speaking
out loud
to people
even if that public is numbered
as less than two
one who listens
it is one too many
and
I only wanted to say the one thing but really
it’s not just the beginning
it’s the keeping on

11/2/17

Tribute

Claudia McGill

From Autumn Opens a Door, 2015.

Tribute

That wretched idea.
That difficult, exacting task.
The waste of time. The tediousness.
What stupidity. What misery.
You said it and I quote you.
Everything you said and
this version of things and
you said it and I heard it
and I quote you.
Too late.
It’s not permitted
to distribute criticism
unless you have a license.
Now.
Pay up.

Envelope - I had no idea 9-17 small

Pen and ink on a small envelope, 2017.

Too Sharp

Claudia McGill 16 Comments

From Generous With the Details, 2017.

Too Sharp

What time I had left before dinner
I spent
sitting out in the yard
thinking
uneasy in a lawn chair
sprung in the seat and three strands broken
someone had
used it to stand on
to trim the hedge
and
coming up short of topics
I could stomach
the drifting clouds
occupied me
Puffy bloated things
floating in the sky
setting an agenda
I didn’t like.

9/8/16

clay tile lady sitting in a chair on terracotta @6x6 12-17 small

Clay tile, 2017.

I Got in My Way

Claudia McGill 4 Comments

From Generous With the Details, 2017.

I Got in My Way

Plenty outraged, you were.
The long angry walk
you took your feet on
resulted in swollen joints
bruises
possible stress fracture of the second metatarsal
of the left foot.
Your unlucky feet
pounded out a punishment
coming down hard and each strike strike strike
meant to do some damage
but missing the target and turning out to be
a punishment
you assigned it to yourself.
Was all this damage worth it
you say.
You say,
You bet it was
you say, because you have to
Or apologize to your feet.
And that’s just for starters.

9/8/16

Feet KP 2-25-18 small

Feet, 2018.

Fend Off

Claudia McGill 3 Comments

From Generous With the Details, collection published 2017.

Fend Off

The angry getting in front of
the blue the yellow
the turquoise. The tense
fingers strangling the paintbrush.
The hand careless of what the paper is asking
Slapping at it
Knocking it unconscious
retaliating for hurts
it had nothing to do with. Things
have gone too far.

The angry
needs to be going away
Soon. The angry is
random reprisal
settling of scores
scattershot
off-target.
The angry hurts
what isn’t angry. Leading me
astray. Please
help me
finding my way back

to the blue the yellow
the turquoise
the healing away
of the
angry.

10/27/16

Landscape Dark fields turquoise rocks 11-15 small

Small landscape, 6″ x 6″, 2015.

Remembered

Claudia McGill 5 Comments

Here is another of those two-sentence stories with poetry added. I’m thinking of them as “Minuscule” and quick to read.

Read the first Minuscule, the explanation of why I wrote it and got started on this idea, and search under the category Fiction/Poetry Combination for others in the series.

Remembered

The small bare tree, a dedicatory plaque at its base marking the life of a student of some years back, unknown to those of us here now and therefore nonexistent, stood in the small garden behind the library.

I watched as one dried brown leaf fluttered in the chill breeze, separating itself from the small drift where it had spent the winter and landing in a clump of daffodils just about to bloom; turning, I walked the few steps to the tree, and began to read the inscription on the marker.

Forgotten
and standing alone
until not.
Remembered
Our hands clasp, hold on, release
Never far apart.

(Shadorma 70)
2/28/18

ATC people and their hands 3-18 small

Artist trading card, 2018.

 

Veneer

Claudia McGill 6 Comments

Here is another of those two-sentence stories with poetry added. I’m thinking of them as “Minuscule” and quick to read.

Read the first Minuscule, the explanation of why I wrote it and got started on this idea, and search under the category Fiction/Poetry Combination for others in the series.

Veneer

The soapiest influx of obfuscation yet, Sophie thought, smiling at the red-faced man across the counter from her, mentally categorizing him: Sewers, bile, and noxious gas are more honest than this guy.

“Sir,” she said, in the calm voice she had been trained to use in these situations, “I apologize, but I can’t help you with your return unless you have the receipt, no matter what you tell me about the purchase.”

A true self tied up
double-knotted heavy wire
and for good reason

(Haiku 385)
2/22/18

Clay tile small faces 5-18 small

MALAYSIAN HAIKU/SENRYU ECHOES 321: SMILE — wonkywizard

QuoteClaudia McGill

MALAYSIAN HAIKU/SENRYU ECHOES 321: SMILE Claudia McGill, in Shadoma 39, compose her poetry thus: your old face is scribbled over with wrinkles when you smile your whole face participates underlined in joy I click “like”, and respond with a haiku to show my appreciation of her work: flowering furrows grimaces of […]

via MALAYSIAN HAIKU/SENRYU ECHOES 321: SMILE — wonkywizard

My reply continues the theme in Shadorma 67:

eyes glance up
mouth curves. a sparkle
catches hold
all around.
a smile is so contagious
we are are smiling too.

I hope so much that many smiling days are ahead for all of us.