Misanthropist

30th April

TSL Naprowimo 30

Shabir Ahmad Mir

Write a poem from the point of view of the person or people who hate/s you most, a poem about yourself.  Keep it short.

Misanthropist 

I don’t know of anyone hating me

If you know of one 

Or are one of those

Let me know!

I don’t know why people would hate me,

I don’t know 

I don’t  really care

For it is their problem!

In the same vein

I don’t know why people love me

Some say they do 

I can’t fathom the reason why!

I am a misanthropist 

Living almost as a recluse

In the Australian bush

I’m happy roaming in nature

People are a constant irritation

Save for their entertaining value

That is maybe enough to hate/love me

Anyway ‘tis all in their mind. 

Lucette C. Bailliet 

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Absence

TSL Napowrimo 29

Dev Mishra

Absence

The bookcase is still there empty

Her books have disappeared 

So many hours reading aloud

The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Took us a year to go trough

What fun we had with the riddles

Singing the songs

Tripping on strange sounding names

So many discussions on 

What was going to happen next

Who was our favourite character

Our bed time ritual was a stretched affair

One more chapter she would plead

I was only too happy to oblige

All those years gone

 In the flick of a page

Later still even as a teenager

We would read a chapter each

During a rainy afternoon

It amused me 

How she took our latest volume

And put it in her bookcase

I stare at the empty space on the shelves.

Lucette C. Bailliet 

All rights reserved 

The picture

TSL NAPOWRIMO 28

With Bhuvaneshwari Shivakumar - Shankar

Today I thought of bringing to you a form that is found in Tamizh poetry called AndAdi –(Hindi -Anth + Adi) where a form / variation/ root of the ending word of the first line becomes the first word of the next line. This form has been long in use in Tamizh literature since the Sangam period. 

Andadi can be composed  as couplets quatrains or longer pieces – as long as the one rule is followed! 📷

Prompt 28

Nowadays in coronavirus time 

Time has somewhat slowed down

Down with superficiality of message

Message sent at the flicker of a thought

Thought quickly forgotten and lost

Lost like the present day 

Day passed and shot in its final colours

Colours of the sunset picture

Picture telling me she’s alive

Alive to sent me another one

One giving me hope

Hope we shall see each other again.

Lucette C. Bailliet 

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Travel

TSL Napowrimo 27

Travelling

Open your door
Step outside
You’ve gone that far
Just another step
Will take you farther
And there it goes
That’s travelling for you
No one knows where
Or when it will stop
You might think
You’re in control
Are you really?
 If travelling sounds so much
Like life, there’s a reason
In life you totter blindly
To a sure destination
With no time table known
Your trip could be short
It could be long
You’ve got no choice
In the matter
It could lead you
To the end of the world
Or never leave home
It could be a smooth
Or rough ride
And still at the end
You will have gone
On the journey of life
You might as well enjoy it.

The drifter
Lucette C. Bailliet
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Love lurking places

TSL Napowrimo 26
From Keats opening lines
"Places you can find love
Its sits around lurking in places"


Paris found love in Sparta
After having chosen Aphrodite
With dire consequences.

In Paris, the school of Notre-Dame
Hid Eloise and Abelard infatuation
Their love couldn’t be broken
Despite imposed separation

Orpheus followed his wife
To charm with music
Hades and Persephone
Unfortunately to lose her again

In Cornwall of all places
Tristan and Isolde
Carried their affair
A black sail put it to end

Antony and Cleopatra loved each other
Hearing of the news of Antony’s demise
Cleopatra in her Alexandria residence
Used the poisonous asp to join him in death

So wherever love strikes
For it sits around lurking in places
It is most important
To fall for the right person.


Lucette C. Bailliet
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Their eyes

TSL's NAPOWRIMO Prompt for day 25  is given by our cool suave poet Agnivesh Mahapatra

Please tag him in your prompt poem so he can read it.

"Hello, dearest TSLers!  Poets are quintessential seers. And what beats a window for the sights! The window has served the poets through eons to witness all sorts of things, beings, and happenings. Whether it was something mundane or extraordinary or rain, sea, storm, or snowfall a window shows it all.  Today I would like you all to write a window poem, whether looking through one or taking it as a metaphor. The window of imagination and opportunities is wide open...  But this sounds all too easy eh‽ Wait, conditions applied... Let's be brave to opt for brevity and make each word speak manifold. So I would like you to use each word with the utmost precision, only if it's absolutely necessary. And lastly, please keep your writes around 20 lines at the most.  Rush to your windows, folks... Happy Writing!"

It is said that the eyes

Are the windows of the soul

It is remarkable in old people

Some, unfortunately,

Can barely glance around them

Denying their mortality,

Eyes scanning their surroundings

As if on high alert 

They are afraid to face reality

It passes by them  

They don’t partake in it

They take refuge in their past

There’s safety in there

Everything is known

Death has no part in it

Or so they believe

At the sad announcement 

Of the passing of one of their loved ones

You can see the glee in their eyes

They have survived, they are needy,

They need our love, compassion

In their enforced retrenchment .

Lucette C. Bailliet 

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Gibberish

I tried is my only excuse

#TSL_NaPoWriMo_24 #Poem_24

Prompt by Sudeshna Mukherjee - Write a humorous poem dealing with any relevant/topical issue or on something that you feel like bashing your head against gnashing your teeth .

A MUST use of either

PUNS ,

MALAPROPISMS and/or

SPOONERISMS

is mandatory.

U av to rid alod

To anderstend zis giberich

Weed a frunzh akxint

I bit myself Avery Dey 

To rite inglich proparly

Note en ezy sing 

So meny

Lick an onion as

Two meny skeins 

I no inglich 

I lern in skul

I right pottery

Eats difikult

Beelive mi

I ken’t fined wordz 

In ze dikxionary

Ai neid elp!

Lucette C. Bailliet 

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Mirror

TSL Napowrimo 23

Prompt Mirror by Lopa Banergee 

Mirror, mirror

You might have no preconceptions

Still you’re a liar

How a plane surface

Can truly reflect

A three dimensional object?

Tell me mirror, mirror

How come what you show 

On my left is in fact on my right

Your reputation is falsely gilded

You’re such a liar

Your claim to be exact

Is false, a false truth 

I don’t trust you

For you’re a liar

I won’t look at you

For your game is to lie

You’re simply a waste of time.

Lucette C. Bailliet 

All rights reserved

Les voyageurs

 Les voyageurs

They come to our shores

In hope of a better life

They come to our shores

Hoping for a safer one

They come to our shores

Leaving behind them

Their inner core

Blown to the winds

They come to our shores

Seemingly intact

But soon the grind of life

Erodes them

They come to our shores

With high hopes

The cold reality meeting them

Leaves them fumbling in a fog

They comes to our shores

Half  body and mind

Left in the old country

Pondering if it was worth it.

Lucette C. Bailliet 

All rights reserved

Bruno Catalano (born :-1960 - ), is a French sculptor, most renowned for creating sculptures of figures with substantial sections missing.

Conundrum

TSL napowrimo 21
A prayer or friendship

Conundrum

If I have to choose
Between a prayer or a friend
The human wins easily
There’s no point to pray
To an invisible being.

Although being a misanthropist per se
I prefer to loose myself in nature,
To the immediacy of a sunset sky
Giving me the satisfaction
Of having had a moment of pure happiness,
To an immodest red moon disrobing
As she climbs the steps to the sky
Revealing her glorious body
To a sleepy world below,
Even an angry rolling storm
Frightening me to a shivering mass.

I love listening to the winds
Telling tall tales to the forest,
The rare sighting of three eagles
Disturbed during their feed
Rising above the paddocks
Is simply an awesome sight.

Beauty is all around us
Look at it!
We humans are so limited
Filled with mistaken hubris
Preferring to destroy
In order to acquire
Some ideological more
Another illustration of our illusions.


Lucette C. Bailliet
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Ode to my readers

TSL napowrimo 20

Ode to my readers


Thank you so much
Taking the time to read my words
It always tickles me to see
A red heart or a thumb up
Appearing on my posts
I’m elated to see a comment

Not so much a critic
Even a positive one
For I realise we aren’t
Often on the same page
Readers like to think
They know what triggers my pen


Readers I do love them
Readers I do hate them
The relationship is fraught
To be a complex one
Friend or fiend
It edges on a word.


Lucette C. Bailliet
All rights reserved

The Raven, the Cheshire Cat and the pesky rat.

A fable

#NaPoWriMo_19

Prompt- weird one- Talk between Cheshire cat, The Raven and pesky rat

The Raven was crowing to the world
From the top of the oak tree
When, who, but no other than the Cheshire Cat
Came strolling on the same branch
“Hello friend” crowed the raven
For he was a friendly one
“Hello comrade” purred the cat
Frisking his long whiskers
“Long time no see” he added
“And how is the world treating you?”
“Well , no surprise here
In this Covid-19 crisis
There no traffic to speak about
Therefore no road kill
And no juicy roo entrails to gorge on,
Let’s face it I’m starving
I’ve got to start hunting
I, king of the forest
The humans have stopped offerings
Can’t trust the bastards”.
“ I agree with you there” said the grating voice
Of the pesky rat hiding in the foliage
( ‘twas a stalker always interfering )
“ The humans have stopped
Throwing their half eaten food,
Now they eat every little bit,
Can’t find a crumb
To fill my tummy”
“I hadn’t see you there
I think we might ease your hunger”
Replied the Cheshire Cat
With a smile spreading on its face
The rat was stoked by it
‘Twas the first time
The cat had acknowledged the rat
The rat started to preen his fur
The Cheshire Cat slowly winked
To the wide staring crow
“Do you see what I’m seeing?
Feathery friend,
Do you think what I’m thinking?
The last one is a rotten egg!”
The Cheshire Cat had disappeared
A squeak was all that was heard
From the pesky rat
While the philosophic raven
Was crowing to the world
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch”.

Lucette C. Bailliet
All rights reserved

Blue butterfly

18/4

#TSLPrompt  Day 18

Prompt : The prompt today is to write a poem about the blue butterfly in the picture and include at least 5 elements/objects /words from Frost's poem ( spring, mire, flurry, flower, wheels, wind, sky-flakes, wing ). And if you can write a lyrical poem, nothing like it.

Blue butterfly 

Your sight greeted us Blue Butterfly 

Our world took on a brighter hue

Just by glancing at you

This morning in the garden

Tell us of the blue dusted cradle

Swinging in the spring wind 

Bringing you here

How many sky-flakes made portals

Did you cross in your travels?

Flowers are too common for you

And veggies too prosaic

 You and the mire orchids 

Are meant to meet

There’s a flurry of them this season 

Let the wheels of destiny lead you

With a flutter of your shimmering wings

Murmur your ephemeral love in this world

Blue butterfly before leaving us 

As a faint vision of a dream.

Lucette C. Bailliet 

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Don’t ask for forgiveness

04

#TSL_NaPoWriMo_17 #Day_17

Prompt by Lily Swarn - A poem about Forgiveness (giving or asking)

I am sorry 

You might be old and frail

You might need help

But I’m not ready to forgive you

I know time is a great forgiver

But in this case 

It is not applicable

I don’t feel generous

I remember every 

Verbal abuse and beating

I might not have been the child

You imagined deserving

I might not have the career

To flaunt to your friends

Flattering your ego

Believe me I haven’t forgotten

In a way your contempt

Freed me to live my live

But that’s not enough

To forgive you

Thinking, writing about you

Bring so much bitterness

That I know the time of forgiveness

 Is still a long time in planning yet

Although I might wish you

A happy birthday 

Believe me when I say

I still haven’t forgiven you.

Lucette C. Bailliet 

All rights reserved

.

Mishmash

#TSL Napowrimo 16

As usual aporia seizes me

I doubt everything I am to write

I will force myself to do what it takes

Do no fear I shall survive this.

Disinheritance is but a bitter cup

As Agathon ghost learnt 

When his works were lost to prosperity .

This roundaround will lead us

To a determined outcome 

Even if we have to forge

An afterworld alliance

 For Raymond Scott

With Captain Praxis

Where misology  will drive me 

To climb that mountain 

In the red desert

Reaching conciliation 

 And unlimited eudaemonia

In a state of ataraxia.

 Proud of my matronymic line

I will take the lead

In the Lydian Ring

To offer your glorious you

A backhanded cloud

As a palinodes to eternal bliss.

Lucette C. Bailliet 

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The Players Revisited

#NaPoWriMo2020  #Day15 TSL

Epilogue poem on novel

My Novella “ The Players”
Is way too short to make it
To novel status
Although I went thru
The napowrimo competition
My characters had to end
Their wreckful romping thru life
Just so I could win the certificate
The mistake was mine
I do admit to it.

So Tilly, Tilly, Tilly
We shall see more
Of your delusional skills
Hurting and destroying
Everyone you say you love.

And you Nick,
Con man per excellence
I’ll have to resuscitate you
From the grave to allow you
To continue to sponge from
The ladies who fall for you
And your unending scams.

Together we shall laugh,
Cry and sigh all the way
To your natural end,
To the final words
Delivering me with a complete
Uncut novel.
What an achievement It will be,
Can’t wait to write it!

Lucette C. Bailliet
All rights reserved

Do not wonder anymore

#NaPoWriMo2020  #Day14

Prompt : Today’s optional prompt asks you, like Alice Notley, to think about your own inspirations and forebears (whether literary or otherwise). Specifically, I challenge you today to write a poem that deals with the poems, poets, and other people who inspired you to write poems. These could be poems/poets/people that you strive to be like, or even poems, poets, and people that you strive not to be like. There are as many ways to go with this prompt as there are ways to be inspired.

Well, since you want to know

Let’s start by François Villon

Clément Marot, Ronsard

And most of the Renaissance poets

The seventeenth century

Was more theatrical than poetic

We hit the eighteenth century

The age of the enlightenment 

Was dedicated to philosophy 

And poetry took a second place

We had to wait to the nineteenth 

With romanticism for poetry 

To come back centre stage:

Victor Hugo, Lamartine,

Verlaine, Rimbaud, Musset

Baudelaire, to list a few

And then we arrive in the twentieth century:

Apollinaire, Supervielle, Breton,

Eluard, Aragon, Prevert 

And the list goes on.

All of these were my muses

At one point my inspiration 

And you wonder why

I call myself a mediocre poet!

Do not wonder any more.

Lucette C. Bailliet

All rights reserved 

Those few words

Napowrimo #13 stealing - non apology
Dedicated to Paul Verlaine


“Beside a humble stone, a tree”

I know I’ve stolen those words from you

Verlaine, I’m sure you’ll forgive me

You have committed more serious crimes

Shooting your lover in a brawl

Finding yourself in prison

And I’m not even speaking

About your inherent love

Of the alluring absinthe !

Where did it lead you?

You were a depraved human

So do not throw the first stone

To a mediocre poet

For copying is the best flattery

And you’re still are a divine poet.


Lucette C. Bailliet
All rights reserved
From last hope Paul Verlaine

How great is my fear

Napowrimo #12 triolet

How great to lose you is my fear 

If you’d know you’d crumble

Your mind would certainly cheer

How great to lose you is my fear

Our hearts apart would tear

Hubris would turn me humble

How great to lose you is my fear 

If you’d know you’d crumble

Lucette C. Bailliet 

All rights reserved 

A flowery week

 A flowery week

On Monday

I was so surprised

I received a bouquet

Of yellow pansies

With no card

I wonder who is it from

‘Tis lovely but a bit creepy

On Tuesday 

I couldn’t believe it 

A bouquet of hyacinths 

Was delivered

Still no card

No idea who’s sending me

Those bouquets 

On Wednesday 

A new bouquet was waiting for me

When I got home

Red tulips that’s lovely

But I am running 

Out of vases

I wonder if it’s a case

Of mistaken identity 

On Thursday 

You guessed it 

‘Twas daisies

That awaited me

Is he running out of money

He is certainly a determined one

On Friday

White lilies made it to my door

The florist and I are becoming 

Good buddies

She says she receives emails orders

She’s got not idea either 

I can’t send back an answer

On Saturday 

Cornflower it was

The florist reckons

It’s all about a love message

Today’s meaning 

“Be gentle with me”

All fine and dandy with me

On Sunday

Yellow marguerites 

Announced the visit 

Of my unknown wooer 

My curiosity is tickled pink

What a shame 

A week has but seven days!

Lucette C. Bailliet 

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