A daily poetry practice to generate and sustain the Life/Lines among us, for published and novice poets alike
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Prompt
Write a short poem (rhyming not necessary) that includes each of the following 5 words (anywhere and in any order). Poems should not exceed 7 or 8 lines.
un ange (“angel”)
une glace (“a mirror,” “an ice-cream”)
fier (“proud”)
un enchevêtrement (“entanglement”)
une saison (“a season”)
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Today’s words were contributed by guest curator Lionel Cuillé and the students enrolled in FREN 325 “Defining Difference.” Cuillé is founding director of the French Connexions Cultural Center at Washington University, which was recently elected to the Centers of Excellence of the Embassy of France.
Poems submitted for April 15
Summertime
Descend upon us now,
O angels of this ice cream season,
And free humanity from the
Egoism with which we view
Our entanglements with others
And let us be proud of our lounging
By the sea!
by Diana Haemer
***
Mirror, mirror on the wall
I am proud, I will not fall.
No entanglement is the reason.
This little angel is always please'n
Cat
***
J'ai fier parce que j'ai de la sante pendant beaucoup de la maladie.
Peutetre j'ai un ange qui me defend.
Dans une glace, ma figure me regarde.
Quand est la saison de liberte?
On est sauf sans les entanglements.
Margaret Fourt Goka
***
L'été est une saison
qui est aussi varié que des goûts de la glaces.
Classique? Le chocolat, la vanille, les fraises.
Plus créatif? Les citrons à la menthe,
ou le vin de bordeaux
assaisonné avec des résines.
Une création dont les gens ont fiers.
Même un ange veut participier
à cette entanglement savoureux.
Yixuan Chen
***
"Merci, mon ange"
Je lui dis
Prenant la glace à la vanille de sa main
Il m’observa la savourer
Sans rien dire
Doucement, il avoua, "Je suis fier de toi
de t'éloigner de l'enchevêtrement qui te consommait"
C'était le printemps, ma saison préférée
La saison de ma renaissance
Tara E.
***
She looked into the mirror,
Her strands no longer the blonde entanglement of youth.
Instead, crinkles and wrinkles and wisps of gray,
Evidence of an older season.
Not the countenance of an angel,
but of a woman, fierce and proud.
Pam Hughes
***
Spring,
a season of romance,
creates the temptation
of devinely erotic entanglements.
Looking in the mirror,
I feel proud
to have resisted
like the angel
I want to be.
***
NO REFLECTION ON HER
As she regarded the reflection
The mirror seemed to lie
Was there really no one there but her?
No angel standing by?
But speaking with and for her muse
Her entanglement was proud
It’s not too late this season
She muttered to no one not real loud.
TED
***
après
une saison en fier
j’a besoin d’un ange
comme une glace
pour me retirer de cet entenglement
by Lloyd Klinedinst
***
Entanglements with angels are not good.
They have a caste-like spiritual pride
that tastes more like vanilla than raspberry sherbet
There presence in you sits like frozen ice cream.
You shiver like in the winter season, not summer,
and all you want is to modify reality with butterscotch
or rich, rich chocolate. The spirit world tastes
like a quick spoonful swallowed, licked dry.
— Dan Cuddy
***
“Ma langue souffre de cette pratique.”
Your tongue suffers? You need ice cream,
une glace chocolat? No tongue should suffer.
Listen, une saison sans toi me ferait souffrir,
you are un ange sur terre. We have un entanglement,
so you say, though I suspect more,
once you understand the conjugation
the subtleties, je suis fier de toi mon amour.
— M.E. Hope
***
Romance Une Glace
Ah, the season of romance. A glimpse of a sweet angel
on the subway or the street, an unexpected entanglement
of purse strap, briefcase, and fine worsted gray overcoat.
He is proud to escort her to the ice-cream shop, to watch
the back of her glorious chestnut hair in the mirror behind
her head as they share a dessert, and then magically a life.
Rebecca Carron Wood
***
Sweet as une grace, the sweetest there ever was
I call him "un ange", skin glowing like bronze.
So fier, I bow like plie, and reach
For the cord
The cutting has begun
In this beautiful entanglement.
He came through me for a reason
And much more than une saison.
But now, it's time for him to move on.
— J. Thomas
***
Fifi
Elle était fier.
Elle ressemble a un ange
Son regard pourrait faire fondre la glace
Fifi était son nom.
Elle avait un entanglement
C’etait une mauvaise romance qui se terminait trop tot
Et pendant la saison de l’Amour
Au mois d’Avril
Sara Burke
***
Le viellard regardait attentivement la glace
Et dans les rides taillées a vu encore
La pression de ces vieux entanglements:
Obsessions fières, poids inflexibles
Qui—on n’oublie jamais--
Une fois l’avaient envoyé a une saison en enfer.
Puis, tout d’un coup, mystérieusement,
Une espèce d’ange s’est approchée;
Quelque chose s’est levé, et il a tout accepté.
Se regardant encore une fois dans la glace:
Un petit arc.
The old man peered at the mirror
And in those cragged lines saw still
The pressure of those old entanglements:
Proud obsessions, unyielding weights,
Which—he could never forget--
Had once taken him to a season in hell.
Then suddenly, mysteriously,
A kind of angel approached:
Something lifted, and he accepted everything.
Looking back in the mirror:
A barely perceptible curve.
Robert Henke
***
Indulgence
Our entanglement began with a
Victoria’s double-sized drumstick
rolled in chopped almonds.
We intended to engage in
a season of indulgent pleasures.
Quarter century later I am sweet on him.
He’s still proud of his angel in my mirror.
Linda O’Connell
***
Un ange
I need an angel
with me in the shadows-
so that in every entanglement,
I will stand fierce and proud
in this season and into the next.
I turn to the mirror to observe my stance
and there you are.
Laurie J
***
Chez nous
Un ange, avec ou sans ailes,
jamais vu, mais perçu, de temps en temps
comme une légère lumière matinale.
La glace au centre de notre mur blanc
évite tout emmêlement verbal
dont nous ne sommes pas fières.
Lisette Dennis
***
Ange insipide, de glace, de chasse, déclassé
Qui boit à grandes gorgées toute la belle saison,
Qui oubliait les mots de sa propre chanson
Et ne prend qu’au sérieux sa propre fierté.
Entanglements sanglants se trouvent au littoral
Sans droit du sol, du sang, il garde le droit de pendre
Si ses os deviennent cendre, sa poudre est à vendre
Dans les marchés aux puces de la Méridionale.
-Nick Henke
***
Love has fooled you. Were she truly
an angel, her light would crack the
mirror. Reflections are for
vain girls who make a debut,
have their season, spend
the rest of their lives trying (it is futile)
to be whole again,
and holy,
comme un ange.
~Jeannette Cooperman
***
he was so proud of his little angel,
as she stood in front of the mirror, practicing her warm-ups.
ethereal melodies floating out of her like silver cotton candy.
despite his legal entanglements
he was committed to supporting her, in a season of new prestigious solo opportunities.
d. bates
***
La nature est une cathédrale
La nature est notre cathédrale
Un sépulcre pour la douleur et le doute
Une saison à retenir
Après beaucoup d'autres à oublier
Le reflet de la pleine lune comme un ange
sur le lac placide de haute montagne
Reflétant - un flamboiement de brillance
Comme le feu dans un miroir, pour apaiser toutes les âmes brillantes.
Fier de nous tirer de l'enchevêtrement
du linceul des ténèbres
Dans les profondeurs de la nuit la plus sombre
Nature is a Cathedral
Nature is our cathedral
A sepulchre for pain and doubt
A season to remember
After many to forget
The reflection of the full moon like an Angel
on the placid high mountain lake
Reflecting - a blaze of brilliance
Like fire in a mirror, to still all glowing souls
Proud to pull us from the entanglement
of the shroud of gloom
In the depths of darkest night
K.J. Boehler
***
it is the season
for my proud angel
to eat ice cream
he adores the entanglement
of chocolate and vanilla
it’s une saison
for my fier ange
to eat une glace
ju adores un etanglement
chocolat and vanille
Terrie Jacks
***
entanglement in which
Jacob subdues
un ange
fier saison for him!
une glace for him!
(entanglement in which
Jacob subdues
an angel
proud season for him!
an ice cream for him!)
John J. Han
***
My brother took me after dark to the Île Saint-Louis
and bought me an ice-cream, thinking it would please me.
It did please me, until the next morning
when I ducked into a church by the river and an angel
glared down at me sullenly, like I was intruding.
I'm sorry, I said. I'm not quite sure where I'm meant to go;
life, you know, has proven to be such a stubborn entanglement,
one which I am too proud to leave. At this the angel seemed
to soften. It's all about the seasons, she said, rather primly.
Paying mind to them. Letting them change you.
I nodded politely and failed to understand. Outside
the sun was too bright and all the wrong things stank.
Gwyneth Henke
***
Not proud to admit:
I cause my own entanglements;
but an angel brings me ice-cream,
soothes my soul,
and sends me on
for another season.
J Kiefer
***
Tuxedoed with ring securely pocketed,
he walked the hall to the chapel
a proud new season of life ahead of him.
Yet he couldn’t ignore a momentary entanglement,
a distracting reflection of a passing angel in a mirror
beauty catching his eye like sudden spring
but not his heart,
which was already taken.
Steve Givens
***
I was proud of myself
for telling my angel
what was going on in my head.
I never thought
it would end in an entanglement.
Now it makes me sick
to stare at the mirror.
It's become the season of misprision.
— Matthew Freeman
***
Prayer for un Ange
Fier
Un entanglement avec
Une saison
Une glace
Claire
Une glace
Couverte
james goodman
***
Spring is the season for seeking angels
In winter you may get a glimpse in the mirror
Of one following behind you
But in the spring they are out and about
They love the warmth of the sun
On a cool April day
An entanglement with an angel is tricky
They are fiercely proud
of their shape-shifting skill
Their love of bright colors
May cause them to blend in
With a patch of red and yellow tulips
Or to rest in the top branch
Of a redwood tree
Wind chimes delight them
So that may be a sign
I swear I saw one as a cat
Sitting on a porch waiting
For the next wonder to pass by
If your search remains fruitless
You may need to set a trap
Find as many colorful flowers
As you can
Put up a windchime
Sit quietly listen carefully wait
A strawberry ice cream cone may help
Get comfortable
It may take a while
Carol Haake
4/15/21
***
This long season of separation stands as a mirror
What are our true needs?
What have we fooled ourselves into believing are necessities?
Too proud, before, to admit our ontological entanglement
Time to unclip the wings of our better angels
KWIN
***
The angel ate the ice-cream
The creamy-white ice-cream
in a season of death
The entanglements lay bare
on the mirror of life.
Who is proud of proclaiming?
God is dead when
Everyone around us was dead.
Jey Sushil
***
Silver Hair
Looking in the mirror, my silver hair
Ghosts my coming transition to angel,
The proud entanglement with this world
Melts like sweet ice cream in summer;
There is a season for everything.
Jo Schaper
***
Headline image: Daniel Oberg via Unsplash