If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. ~ Charlie Parker
Billy Collins? Dogs? Poems? Watercolor artwork?
You had me at hello. Or maybe, woof.
Dog Show — a collection of short poems by Collins and beautiful artwork by Pamela Sztybel — is a quick trot of a collection that, as often is the case with Collins, seem light on the surface and then suddenly a line comes along that will just floor you. There’s even a cat poem in here.
Peace (take it for a walk already),
Kevin
I am doing a little catching up of poems from the last few days. The one above is from this morning’s one word prompt off Mastodon (creek).
This next one is from yesterday’s Daily Create, in which we were prompted to use found words of old documents for a “franken-poem” format.
And then I saw that John J had created a randomizer blackout poem generator just for the prompt (which I find pretty amazing) so of course I had to give it whirl.
And then yesterday’s one word prompt was “soup.”
Peace (with poems),
Kevin
I wish I had never seen the video but I did. And then I read about Renee Good this morning and saw this in reference to her Instagram bio: “poet and writer and wife and mom and shitty guitar strummer from Colorado.”
Peace (please),
Kevin
This is from a phrase prompt this morning.
Peace (and winter),
Kevin
The imagery of gossamer came up in a book of Thoreau.
Peace (invisible as it is),
Kevin
The Daily Create prompt was to write a poem, inspired by sounds in the room. But I thought of the moon, which was big and beautiful this morning.
Peace (looking skyward),
Kevin
PS — here is my morning haiku, too – the prompt was “New Year”
These are two poems from the morning — one from a one-word haiku prompt and other from DS106 Daily Create.
Don’t ask me to explain the second one. I can’t. It just is.
Peace (and sharing),
Kevin
This morning’s haiku — from a one-word prompt of “icicle” — came out nice.
Peace (like frozen poems),
Kevin
A Colorful Year (poem collection)
January
Silver sings
such sweet songs,
a whisper of moonlight
February
Red might shout
but what red’s really about
is something akin to passion
March
Yellow unfolds in morning,
leaning into the blue of sky,
a reminder of why we find joy
in small moment
April
Green sleeps unbidden,
a hidden seed in the weeds
waiting for a moment to dance
May
Pink is punk,
the unexpected beautiful voice
of a passionate embrace
June
Blue, like strings
on a beat-up guitar;
strummed chords that find you,
wherever you are
July
Orange burns
from its center, first,
and then extends itself
outwards
August
Purple hides and hints
at transformation,
a small creation of wonder
and love
September
Teal and turquoise –
color cousins –
holding hands
as twilight calls
October
Brown, fingers dirty
from digging,
the Earth is singing
something sweet
November
Gray days,
but not always gloom;
there’s room for all
emotion
December
Gold holds us in
the magic of each moment;
collaboration
Collection of poems for the 2026 CLMOOC Calendar Project
https://clmooc.com/clmooc-calendar-project-2026-a-colorful-year/
Peace (and verse),
Kevin
This is my final poem for the 2026 Advent of Joy calendar that Deanna put together. I’ve been reading the poems she curated each morning, stealing lines for inspiration for a poem. You can find her calendar and explanation and more resources here.
I appreciated the break from my morning haiku writing and feel refreshed to return to the three lines. With the Advent poems, I noticed the joy and explorations of love and appreciation that Deanna pulled together and I tried to keep that going in my poems.
Lord knows we could use some light in our days.
Peace (in explorations),
Kevin