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Three by Readers In Response to Wednesday’s Writing Prompt – Bravo! – Renne Espiru, Paul Brooks and Sonja Benskin Mesher

c Jamie Dedes
c Jamie Dedes

These intrepid poets shared their responses to last week’s Wednesday Writing Prompt. Enjoy!

I DREAM OF THE OCEAN

I dream of the ocean always and I am there

breathing in the depths of salt water
swimming above the coral reefs

I am the sea turtle and the sea turtle me

my journey is long with storms along the way
as I swim gracefully through beds of sea weed
and dine on banquets of algae

I am the sea turtle and the sea turtle me

sea anemones colored pink, green, orange, blue
every tentacle waving every imaginable hue
beauty surrounds me the power of the sea

I am the sea turtle and the sea turtle me

to be driven with determination and tenacity
to give birth thousands of time in a life
if only with you in my dreams

I am you the sea turtle and you are me

© 2017 Renee Espriu

c796b9e96120fdf0ce6f8637fa73483cRENEE ESPIRU: I am a daughter, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and seeker of Spiritual Peace and Soul Filled Freedom. I have been to graduate school at Pacific Lutheran University and have a Bachelors Degree in Sociology. I have also been to Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary from which I acquired a Certificate in Theology. I have eclectic beliefs that encompass many faiths and believe Nature to be the basis of everything that is and that everything that is is also a part of Nature.

Due to emergent open heart surgery in 2015 I am now retired and devoting more of my time to writing, which includes the writing of a fiction book and one that is solely poetry. I have a Blog site at reneejustturtleflight where I have been posting my writing since 2011. I have been a guest contributor to The BeZine and participated in The BeZine 2016 100,000 Poets for Change virtual event. I also have a passion for art. I draw and paint.

When Beast Comes O’er Thee

Trogging dahn r streeart
met a wolf going opposite
way

he clambered inside
r marth like it were his
home as he’d abandoned

not long since and climbing
in pissed off ma eagle
and dragon that’d

clawed way over
ma tussiepegs not half
hour since. Reight crowd.

a cud barely speeak.
eagle beddin’ dahn
in ma noas

dragon peggin’
in ma balls while
wolf stays in ma gob

© 2017, Paul Brookes

unnamedPAUL BROOKES was shop assistant, security guard, postman, admin. assistant, lecturer, poetry performer, with “Rats for Love” and his work included in “Rats for Love: The Book”, Bristol Broadsides, 1990. His first chapbook was “The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley”, Dearne Community Arts, 1993. He has read his work on BBC Radio Bristol and had a creative writing workshop for sixth formers broadcast on BBC Radio Five Live. Recently published in Clear Poetry, Nixes Mate, Live Nude Poems and others. Forthcoming in the spring 2017 an illustrated chapbook “The Spermbot Blues”, published by OpPRESS. You can read more of Paul’s work at The Wombwell Rainbow.

 

this bear

this bear appears without acknowledgement from you,

or you. not knowing the demands of an early life,

you cannot imagine the decisions, none made lightly.

you trip your tongue, then walk away. the bear arises

and sweats worry with torment until time tells.

it was assumed that if you had not tried it,

you may still understand.

these loads are not too heavy, the bear will find

other ways, then sleep again.

© 2016, Sonja Benskin Mesher

SONJA BENSKIN MESHER, RCA UA

sonjabenskinmesher2011SONJA BENSKIN MESHER, RCA UA is a British artist and writer.  She says about her visual art that  “The work is my statement.  I have worked full time as a visual artist since 1999, and have spent those years exploring ways to communicate thoughts and concerns with my paintings and drawings. Its not all you see on the surface, it goes deeper than that. The work goes back touched and collected. My present surroundings, here in Wales, and that of Cornwall where I spend much of my time, inform the work, and inspire the subject matter. Then with the work I remember, and try to make sense of it all.” Your may read more of Sonjia’s poetry and view her artwork – I love her dancing mouse – at this sites:

2015, Kevin Young at Library of Congress National Book Festival September 5, 2015 Washington, DC, by fourandsixty, CC BY SA 2.0
2015, Kevin Young at Library of Congress National Book Festival September 5, 2015 Washington, DC, by fourandsixty, CC BY SA 2.0

The recommended read for this week is The Art of Losing by Kevin Young.  I find this to be an extraordinarily beautiful anthology about grief and recommend it for all those who work with living and dying, clergy of all faiths, hospice workers, physicians and nurses as well as those grieving a lost family member or friend. It was conceived and edited by Kevin Young, a poet in his own right and the editor of four poetry anthologies. His book Jelly Roll: A Blues was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It won the Paterson Poetry Prize.

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