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.
spirit
galaxy
blue
fire
moon
Send us your poem via our Submissions page or post on Twitter or Facebook using the hashtag #lifelines.
Today’s words were contributed by guest curator Jane Ellen Ibur, Poet Laureate for the City of St. Louis. She frequently posts poems on this Facebook page.
Poems submitted for April 9
The blue moon is on fire,
a spirit moving through our galaxy
among the planets and distant stars
sparkling in the night sky.
I wish, I wish upon the moon
for the earth to heal
from rising tides and savage storms.
— Mary Ellen Benson
***
Virgo pauses to consider
The mysteries of September
Her skirts swirl around the sky
The dance of her spirit billowing
From galaxy to galaxy this night.
She leaps over the fire in the forest
Whippoorwills echo over blue water
The moon shimmers as bullfrogs call—
She is mistress of it all.
Jo Schaper
***
Creation Theology
Not just in a flash of galaxy.
Not just in the flesh and blood and dust of a moment.
Not just once in a very blue moon.
But over and over and over and over
A fire, a spirit, breathing in and then out.
Steve Givens
***
Amid the microparticles, neutrinos, muons, the curly, flapping strings,
where does the spirit reside? Does it hide in a galaxy, roam the shadows, the echoes of time,
a time it was fully embodied, flexing muscle, cooling in the evenings blue light,
or warming for a fight or for delight in the dawn's fire, but now a spark cast out of normal
human time, and present in some other world like the moon, just hung out to dry in thje Big Nothing,
but does it still worm itself into matter and moo or growl or breathe through a straw?
— Dan Cuddy
***
Clusters of galaxies, bound by gravity
Like the pen that rolled off my desk
Their red, yellow, and blue fire smudged by light years of travel
Blurry collections of stars, beyond the moon, beyond knowing
Trust in the spirit of inquiry to discover more
***
I'm 5 and Emmie holds me, mom's
mom, teaching me to tangle
with the spirit of the word from
the futon I dictate a fictive
encyclopedia entry on the "blue fire snake"
meanest under the forest moon
redacting galaxy from this early foray
in publishing my eyelashes flag
taxonomical dreaming
(Jay Buchanan)
***
I was feeling blue at the bar
at Three Kings on Delmar
when everyone else was so loud
and on fire and then
the spirit came upon me
and I shouted to no one
in particular,
"I'm going to be the first poet
on the moon!" And then
the room turned into
a spinning transcendent
galaxy.
— Matthew Freeman
***
Complaint Dept.
The galaxy too blue
For spirit to catch fire
What about the
Moon
james goodman
***
as ancients sat around the fire
pondering the immensity
of the night
blue sky gone to black
stars like bright points of fire
pale moon moving
in its slow arc
so still we search for
meaning in the galaxy
no nearer to the truth
Warren Hauff
***
The color of my Galaxy is Blue.
Its spirit is Fire.
Its ascendant, the Moon.
--Rita Winters
***
trans people struggle for equal rights
while “gender reveal” parties, out of hand,
kill not just one , or hundreds,
but a galaxy of tree spirits with their fire.
the moon, a hazy blue,
from the smoke of millions of acres dying.
d. bates
***
Albuquerque Balloon Festival
Out on the West Mesa
in the predawn light
of a cold October morning
a galaxy of beasts
lies limp upon the ground,
the slack shapes barely visible,
long shadows only.
People, muttering,
also shadows still,
attend to them.
And then - a rush of sound,
another and another,
fabric inflates,
bellies swell,
slowly the beasts sit up.
Light bursts over the San Dias,
illuminates the carnival colors
of translucent skins.
One by one the beasts arise,
swaying as on unsteady feet.
Then roars and bursts of fire
fill their throats,
and into blue and waiting skies,
they rise like moons,
my spirit with them.
J Kiefer
***
Merci - à notre poète lauréat
Writing a poem a day
Becomes a mitzvah in a way
Snatching pain away
Sculpting words each day
Recasts, in cathartic act, our choices
Seeking out the wisdom from often unheard voices
May your circle joyously swoon
Round the fire ‘neath the moon
Indomitable spirit helps others examine their galaxy of blue
A shared love of poetry and St. Louis both better because of you
Thank You
K.J. Boehler
***
Some days the world does not feel rare enough.
Surely this is a personal failing more than a planetary one, and yet
how often have I stared up with such bitter and perfect longing
at those distant fires, my heart consumed by visions
of blue soil, red cliffs breaking off into yawning craters,
creatures of new proportions embracing,
while I offered my spirit earnestly to the alien galaxy
begging an unknown moon to recognize in me
some small sliver of its own strange self
Gwyneth Henke
***
once
in a blue moon
a spirit will fire
through our galaxy
by Lloyd Klinedinst
***
Once in a blue moon . . .
in a galaxy far away
the spirit of time . . .
expands & contracts too soon
Earth in the line of fire will stay. . .
Its actions quiet as a mime.
Cat
***
the spirit of the moon
pulling the tide
a star’s blue fire
illuminating a galaxy
in the night
~M.A
***
Got the Blues, Baby
Baby, I’m blue
just a blue spirit
on a blue moon
in a blue galaxy
where it’s cold, so cold
Give me fever, Baby, Fe-Ver!
strike me a blue fire
for lost is my blue blankie
and I’m blue, so blue
Terrie Jacks
***
The blue swelled in me
Every time I saw the dust.
Everything was blue
The moon, the galaxy
And the earth.
My spirit dwindled
the fire in me subsided
And I accepted my fate
to be buried and be the blue ghost.
The sadness appeared beyond the galaxies.
Jey Sushil
***
A measure of moon
is lost in blue midnight.
Cold fire memories shine
Like the Perseids on August nights.
Across the galaxy, a dusty trail of comets enflame the sky.
Meteors fall in the blurred horizon of night and deep water.
The sea swells rise and fall. Time. Time. Time. Time.
Sometimes, the waves reflect the ephemeral light of beauty.
Always returning. Almost here. But, distant. And long since passed.
-jkf
***
NAMING RIGHTS
Due early July
She’d birthed late in June
One by one each appeared none too soon.
Surveying the brood
And in whimsical mood named them
Spirit, Galaxy, Blue, Fire, and Moon.
TED
***
sea of suffering...
poor spirits yearn for
the blue galaxy beyond
the gray moon and the world
of three fires
John J. Han
***
GAZING
As the planetarium glows blue
and a bright moon is on fire in
a clear night sky, my spirit soars
beneath the “Looking Up” sculpture.
Our wondrous galaxy pulls
like a magnet, compelling me
to view the stellar lights
and planets visible above.
Betty Springfield
***
moon sings to spirit
of resplendent galaxy
awash in blue fire
KWin
***
What is a galaxy in relation to the spirit's fire,
Or a blue moon's desire?
What does not tire
Is the plaything of that force
Which knows itself, and
Charts its own course.
-Jamie Moog
***
Under the spell
of a Parmesan moon,
blue garlic
tossed a whole galaxy
of spirit spaghetti
straight into
the baguette center
of a fine wine fire.
—John Randall
***
The blue cloudless sky disappears and just like that-
stars of a thousand galaxies shine like lights
from the fire of infinite matches, igniting the night.
In the early hours of morning, only the moon offers
condolences before she is spirited away.
The day's routines take precedence, leaving
the wonder of it all behind.
***
At night,
a still blue-black darkness reposes
while the spirit's fire ignites.
The lit moons of and in our galaxy urge
hushed tones into ramblings discarded
with dawn.
Lisette Dennis
***
The poet said, listen, blue fire on the horizon.
The poet said the blue fire fuels the spirit,
the spirt is a blue galaxy of fire and moons,
stars that have burned blue from other worlds.
The poet said my words are fire turning to blue
moving through the galaxy to a farther moon.
Language fuels star-flight, let the spirit propel you.
~~M.E. Hope
***
Sweat Lodge
On a vision quest
His spirit dances
Beyond atmospheric blue
Past 100 moons
Into the galaxy.
Borne on the sacrament of fire.
Peggy Jacobsmeyer
***
The blue sky fades and the moon rises.
The galaxy houses the spirit of fire.
Margaret Fourt Goka
***
Human
How irrepressible, the undefeated human spirit,
flashing in and out of existence;
lost in an ancient galaxy,
under new moons and starry metaphors -
a bright blue fire of resistance.
Susan Lively
***
ET
The fire blasting out from my
Rocket matters not to the stars,
Who have their own flames to nurture
The blue intensity of my spirit’s heat
Makes a mockery of the galaxy’s suns,
Which angrily attempt to explode
But my energy affects not the spirit
Of the moon, who holds fast to her secrets.
By Diana Haemer
***
The moon burns with blue fire tonight
Sending spirits of light
Streaming through the galaxy
Touching the stars
Then streaming to earth
to guide us through the darkness.
Carol Haake
***
The spirit springs forth with the ascending of the full moon
A single close-by globe in our galaxy by its nature
is like fire as its forces wisp, tantalize, and consume.
In the guise of the deep dark blue, where people feel so much safer,
they let the moon’s rays like puppet strings steer them into being celestial buffoons
Maureen Kleekamp
***
Oh Mighty Spirit and Mother Moon,
Please set me ablaze with an inextinguishable
blue fire
To inspire me
And all the poets in the galaxy.
~J. Thomas
***
When the moon is on fire
and the spirit spins
out of the blue
watching us
judging us
clueless to know why
we are the galaxy
blowing ourselves up.
into into into oblivion.
***
Destination Unknown
Dizzy from wildflower fragrance
we recline on a bed of Kentucky blue grass,
heads pillowed on folded arms.
Gaze at the galaxy, savor the full moon,
aged spirit on fire, I ask the dreaded…
“Think that’s where we’re headed?”
Linda O’Connell
***
Where the fire meets the coals
There is a place where the reds
Fade to blue without creating purple.
It is here I see the Spirit of the galaxy
Hard at work, creating energy out of destruction
Lit only by the light of the moon
Seen only by me
--Chad Savage
***
Ultramarine Dreams
Secure under covers, hidden from midnight’s blue
outside the venetian blinds, my footsore spirit slips
outward to a spinning cerulean absolute zero galaxy.
Sapphire fire freezes time. The indigo moon smiles,
beckoning my unearthly soul, my ultramarine dreams.
Rebecca C. Wood, Ph.D.
Fan of both Star Trek and Star Wars
***
O galaxy! Your seemingly infinite sparks
trail from the moon like a train of fire.
O cloudless day! Your bolt of sky
unfurls its eternal blue.
O indulgent spirit! On clearest days,
we comprehend forever.
***
To Galileo
With your new telescope, you smashed the blue Empyrean
And saw the moons of Jupiter that broke the crystalline sphere.
And then you turned your glass on
What was thought to be an interstellar cloud
And found a galaxy, and starry messengers infinitely expanding.
“Abjuring your opinions,” you narrowly avoided Bruno’s fire.
“E pur si muove”* was either your free spirit—
Or legend, speaking just as true.
*”And still it moves” (regarding the earth’s motion, supposedly muttered by Galileo after his recantation to the Inquisition)
Robert Henke
***
New Year’s Eve, Vermont, 2019
Shimmering snow glitters with the light of the Super Moon,
A communion wafer floating in an inky blue-black sky.
The sacred stillness soothes my spirit and sets it on fire,
A paradox.
The earth, only one planet in this immense galaxy.
I count my lucky stars.
Pam Hughes
***
as ancients sat around the fire
pondering the Great Spirit
and the immensity of the night
blue sky gone to black
stars like bright points of fire
pale moon moving
in its slow arc
so still we search for
meaning in the galaxy
no nearer to the truth
Warren Hauff
***
With renewed spirit
I revved up my new blue Ford Galaxy
buckled my seat belt
and opened the moon roof.
Heart filled
with the fire of anticipation
I drove it from the dealership lot
home to show my kids.
***
Headline image: Ricardo Gomez Angel via Unsplash