This week let’s write a poem with the words add, kind and maple in it. This is another of those prompts where I randomly choose three words from a list of the top 1000 words in the English language plus a few of my favorites. (Rolling maple a week after the tree prompt was mere coincidence.) Post your poems in the comments below.
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is one of the organizers of Living Poetry, a collection of poets and poetry lovers in the Triangle region of North Carolina. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he makes money as a computer programmer to fund his poetry habit.
Wishful Thinking
I wish life is
as kind as
bland breakfast cereal
A spoonful of maple syrup
will add sweet taste
and a big smile
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Sweet! Literally!
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Very nice! A little maple syrup goes a long way.
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Yap
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Just found out that Chris Clarke’s work mentioned a breakfast cereal, Maypo..it was unknown to me, but the idea of a sweet meal is universal it seems.
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Ha I will check out Chris’ Maypo
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It’s really from before my time… 1950s. The brands motto “I want my Maypo!” was hijacked twenty years later by some upstart company… “I want my MTV!”
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Goes to show how deprived we were not to watch TV! I love enlarging my world with Xanthanite and Maypo. Also ‘chronodimentional’- as if there is a divided mention in time.(of something)
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I just made that word up 🙂 I have no idea if it’s been used before… But to quote Morrissey of the band “The Smiths” “… I’ve heard said a thousand times maybe more”
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Cool, and in good company with Brillig, Chortle, and Jabberwocky and frumious!
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Please, kindly do not
provide maple syrup for me
I do not like the smell or taste
In all fairness, though
the trees are beautiful
and that is sweet enough for me
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Those autumn leaves make up for the overly sweet sap. Well done.
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Of Olmecs and Quebec
Randomness is not what it seems,
a current flows through the world we know,
bolstered by the world as it seems,
and framed by the world below.
Thus poetry prompts sometimes arise
behind the scenes of cultural eyes
from deep in a shadow world surmised,
and yet oblivious, we exercise
Our craft of connection, a magic move,
as tying lines into a grid, or following vines
tangled in the forest of the mind
can lead to victories, over time.
Thus, Maples can be added to kindness
padded with green in summer, red in fall,
and syrup sweetness over all,
or just over your waffle.
Don’t neglect the truffle, maple sugar
dipped in chocolate is Canada meets
Olmec, or kitchen tech, or treats galore,
that will send you to your knees; there, on the floor,
You best can send a prayer,
for tropic god meets nordic plantation
sweet, dark, and so very kind,
a cosmopolitan melt-in-your-mouth creation,
that can truly change your mind.
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Impressive. I especially like the fourth stanza.
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Thank you!
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You make me want to have pancake stacks
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Me too! Cassa, pass the syrup!
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Here is comes!!!
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Sitting
To withdraw
Or perhaps to enter
The world around me
I sit
Under the Maple tree
Its crimson leaves
Tired from their summer existence
Fall gently around me
To add to their journey
A gentle breeze
Unannounced
And unseen
Works to ease their connection
To the branches
And they float along
Enhancing my solitude
I in kind
Float to another place
Allowing the breeze
To transport me
Away from the clutter
Of my mind
Into the peace
Of my heart
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This is lovely, with its calm and friendly tone. Nice to think of leaves drifting down as thoughts, or even levitating bodies? rise to peace.
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Very soothing. Thanks for sharing!
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I can feel the zen. 💚
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Sugar Maple Bliss
What kind of sweetness
Do you add to your pancakes
Use Maple syrup
~ Haiku ~
Poetree ©️ May 16, 2022
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Indeed! Love the title. Thanks for sharing!
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I looked into the artifact
and saw an image of the past
as if pulled out of the aether
kind of like a
chronodimentional crystal radio receiver
if there was such a thing existed
resonating on the echoes of emotions
experienced by those who were
and likely are no more
“Can I have some more Maple!”
the child said mysteriously
in the moments before
the alien circuit blew
and returned the dead to their peace
safe from the curious eyes
of voyeurs with good intentions
I hammered the circuitry
with a palladium mallet
said aloud to the lab
“This one will never work!”
raising a chuckle from the crew
as I moved to the next artifact
I have slept well since that day
knowing that the past is truly gone
and safely locked away
allowing time to be immutable
on the arrow it is on
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Such a nice story with an original twist in the statement about the Maple. Also the details like palladium hammer are fun to consider as well as the cheerful crew of what is presumably future archeologists. Fun.
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Thank you! That use of “Maple” was a play on words to the correct/original “Maypo”, which the researchers wouldn’t have had any cultural context to recognize the difference…
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Interesting! I did not know about the cereal either, I just thought it was a cute non sequitur. Perhaps it is a regional concept, we did not watch much TV.- Nice to learn. TS.
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Smashing the artifact was probably for the best. (Though next time try crystallized xanthanite if you want to conduct electrons across realities.) Well done!
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Ah, Bart C-137… I should have known…
I guess the next time I need a heroine’s name it should be Jessica. : )
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Indeed. One of my favorite lines goes like this (with a minor edit) “Nobody exists on purpose. / Nobody belongs anywhere. / Everybody’s gonna die. / Let’s read poetry.”
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Looked up xanthanite and am confused..but its ok. I think just a kiss will conduct electrons across realities.
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@ts19page… Sometimes, our tendency to play on inside jokes and cultural references can actually obscure rather than illuminate.
“Crystallized Xanthanite“ is a reference to an episode of Rick and Morty, a wacky cartoon series about a dysfunctional family that just happens to include a uber-genius multidimensional-traveling alcoholic grandfather. (Yes, it is as wild as it sounds… ) It has quite a cult following.
Though we craft words into expressions that try to span beyond the simply literal. In that, I find the temptation to use cultural references that can lead to greater connection can be tough to resist…
But the danger is that when the reader/listener doesn’t have that connection, the true scope of your writing is lost. Today, everyone in America will know what 9/11 is… Most Americans will have some connection to the date December 7th. But what about November 5th? March 15? Not so much (certainly some thanks to writers…)
Bartholomew’s comments were wonderful if you got the Rick and Morty reference and absolutely confusing if you didn’t. I personally laughed out loud and really appreciated it.
Thank you for asking. Reading other people’s poetry is always like an insight into the mind of someone else, always different from me. And that is why I do this.
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I agree that allusions are fun, and do carry the risk of being missed by some readers. This reader is happy for that however.
One cannot think she knows everything, I personally dropped that illusion after I found out at age 14 that I did not, in fact, know everything. The realization dawned.
Being heard, read, and hopefully appreciated once in a while suffices for me, as my long life and several children have brought home to me the awareness that we don’t all live in the same universe after all, yet there is great joy in traveling to new neighborhoods. It requires expansiveness of mind, and brings great rewards. -TS.
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Alexa
kindly add
to my bucket list:
journey to Vermont
in the autumn
To see the
maples
turn
a
vibrant
progression
from green to
saffron rust and red
before loosening
their hold to
drift and
fall
to
the
ground
to leap and
bound across
lawns and pathways
fall’s last dance
before
snow
fall
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The shape poem and flow remind of leaves drifting down in undulating paths, like the ending with the one word ‘fall’ as it echoes beautifully.
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Lovely poem. Worthy addition to the bucket list!
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Love it! And as a former New Englander, I can vouch for the experience.
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Love this shapy poem!
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Be kind to your guests
Add more maple syrup
Pancakes need love too
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Hear! Hear!
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In the forest wild
Adding fire of its kind
Maple undresses
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Nice little haiku. Thanks for sharing!
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Enjoyed all the work. My contribution is here: https://2ndactblogger.wordpress.com/2022/05/20/add-kind-maple/
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Tow poems for the price of one. Nice job!
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I am not good at this. Intended to reply to your comment. Jean Marie will probably laugh at me.
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Initially only thought about Frost’s nasty farmer. The hope chest came to me and it needed an owner
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