Slow Jets [15 words or less]

Photo: Laura Salas

Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)!

15WOLs

For Christmas, we gave our nephew a glow in the dark ant farm, and the ants finally arrived last month during a “warm spell” (aka above freezing). Nifty!?Here are?3 things this photo makes me think of:

1)??the contrails from jets
2)??an underwater fireworks show
3)? the Challenger explosion, which I watched in person as a college student

And here’s my?first draft.

Poseidon’s Fireworks
rockets burst:
inky coral blooms

cheerful torpedoes
rip seas apart

merfamilies gaze
toward their sky
–Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved

Now it’s your turn! Have fun and stick to 15 WORDS OR LESS!??(Title doesn’t count toward word count:>)??

P.S. I’m teaching at a Young Authors Conference all day today, so I won’t be able to comment on poems. But I’ll read them all on my phone during lunch:>)

72 Responses

  1. Surprise

    Fingers of light
    Feel through the deep
    To the homes of merpeople-
    WHAT’S THAT??? EEP!!!!

    I liked your use of merfamilies, Laura! I had to steal it 🙂 Cool picture, though I was surprised it was an ant farm! It looks too pretty 😉

  2. Surprise

    Fingers of light
    Feel through the deep
    To the homes of merpeople-
    WHAT’S THAT??? EEP!!!!

    I liked your use of merfamilies, Laura! I had to steal it 🙂 Cool picture, though I was surprised it was an ant farm! It looks too pretty 😉

  3. I saw chimney smoke in the photo.

    one by one
    the neighbors come home
    winter dusk

    Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

    1. I can visualize the lights against the white snow. It does produce a blue hue.

  4. I saw chimney smoke in the photo.

    one by one
    the neighbors come home
    winter dusk

    Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

    1. I can visualize the lights against the white snow. It does produce a blue hue.

  5. Last night I watched a Nova show on Venom. Fascinating! I went to bed with images in my head. Now this picture looks just like one of those images of toxins, having been treated with fluorescent dye. I just had to write about that.

    Searching for Anti-venom

    Through the microscope
    scientist observes venom
    hoping to save lives.

  6. Last night I watched a Nova show on Venom. Fascinating! I went to bed with images in my head. Now this picture looks just like one of those images of toxins, having been treated with fluorescent dye. I just had to write about that.

    Searching for Anti-venom

    Through the microscope
    scientist observes venom
    hoping to save lives.

    1. I like the blue messages makes me think if making pic with light brights

    1. I like the blue messages makes me think if making pic with light brights

  7. Laura, I love the term “merfamilies.”

    Underwater Ballet

    Dancers twirl, leap, bend,
    pushing water aside
    for the perfect
    pli?, turnout, arabesque;
    fluid motion.

  8. Laura, I love the term “merfamilies.”

    Underwater Ballet

    Dancers twirl, leap, bend,
    pushing water aside
    for the perfect
    pli?, turnout, arabesque;
    fluid motion.

  9. SPACE WALK

    One tenuous tether
    links me to life,
    floating through cerulean,
    dancing over Earth.

    Andria W. Rosenbaum/all rights reserved

  10. SPACE WALK

    One tenuous tether
    links me to life,
    floating through cerulean,
    dancing over Earth.

    Andria W. Rosenbaum/all rights reserved

  11. Photo flashes
    Acid rains from sky
    White lights
    White carbon writing
    In the sky
    we breath

  12. Photo flashes
    Acid rains from sky
    White lights
    White carbon writing
    In the sky
    we breath

    1. Buffy, you hit pay dirt with that. Yards in our neighborhood are inundated with moles and it drives our dog insane. He has been caught digging, thus scolded, so many times that he now whines for us to go out with him to protect him from himself. He knows he can’t resist. Your last two lines are wonderful.

    1. Buffy, you hit pay dirt with that. Yards in our neighborhood are inundated with moles and it drives our dog insane. He has been caught digging, thus scolded, so many times that he now whines for us to go out with him to protect him from himself. He knows he can’t resist. Your last two lines are wonderful.

  13. Pardon me for posting twice today, but I just can’t get those images from the Nova program on venom out of my brain, and Laura’s picture reminds me so much of what I saw.

    Australian Box Jellyfish

    Tendrils undulate
    searching for prey.
    When in the ocean,
    stay out of its way.

    P.S. I must stop watching programs like that. My son is a surfer.

    1. I liked both portrayals of venom. It just proves that danger comes in pretty disguises.

  14. Pardon me for posting twice today, but I just can’t get those images from the Nova program on venom out of my brain, and Laura’s picture reminds me so much of what I saw.

    Australian Box Jellyfish

    Tendrils undulate
    searching for prey.
    When in the ocean,
    stay out of its way.

    P.S. I must stop watching programs like that. My son is a surfer.

    1. I liked both portrayals of venom. It just proves that danger comes in pretty disguises.

  15. Wow Laura, yours is exquisite.

    Overnight it grew from a cotton ball
    And gave the fish an early wake up call

  16. Wow Laura, yours is exquisite.

    Overnight it grew from a cotton ball
    And gave the fish an early wake up call

  17. It DOES look like the Challenger explosion — I wouldn’t have seen that if you hadn’t said it. And I, too, watched it live in college — one of my most vivid college memories. Here’s my take:

    THE MARINER’S ADMONITION

    This is no squid -
    don’t be mistaken!
    The Krakken’s child
    has been awakened…

    - ? 2014, Matt Forrest Esenwine

    1. Where were you in college, Matt? I was at UCF, and we all went out of the pizza place on campus to watch the launch. The whole event is just so clear in my memory… I have a terrible memory and don’t really remember that many specific events, ever. But that is one that my brain kept…

      1. I know what you mean about college memories…there are some you might not want to remember! I was in my freshman year at Castleton State in Vermont and had just finished lunch the dining hall when suddenly everyone was talking about the shuttle blowing up. And of course, the immediate reaction from most of us who heard this was, “What are you talking about? The shuttle wouldn’t have just ‘blown up’!”

        Unfortunately, it had — and we spent a good part of the afternoon glued to the TV in our dorm’s lounge. Keep in mind, this was in Vermont and many of us were New Hampshire residents who had a connection to Christa McAuliffe, so it was especially heart-wrenching to witness the events that unfolded.

        1. Ah, gotcha. I thought you meant you were in Florida, too. We all just stood there staring up into the sky, trying to figure out what the heck had just happened. And then we all raced back inside to check the tv news. My only personal connection was that my dad worked at NASA and had for my whole life. Our family had gone to the Cape to watch many launches live. This one, I was just watching from central Florida, so I didn’t see the actual launch live. But we watched it rising in the sky, and we were all cheering, and then…

          How awful for those who felt extra personally invested it through Christa McAuliffe. It was a devastating thing. Have you read Joyce Sidman’s poem about McAuliffe in DARE TO DREAM? It is absolutely stunning.

  18. It DOES look like the Challenger explosion — I wouldn’t have seen that if you hadn’t said it. And I, too, watched it live in college — one of my most vivid college memories. Here’s my take:

    THE MARINER’S ADMONITION

    This is no squid -
    don’t be mistaken!
    The Krakken’s child
    has been awakened…

    - ? 2014, Matt Forrest Esenwine

    1. Where were you in college, Matt? I was at UCF, and we all went out of the pizza place on campus to watch the launch. The whole event is just so clear in my memory… I have a terrible memory and don’t really remember that many specific events, ever. But that is one that my brain kept…

      1. I know what you mean about college memories…there are some you might not want to remember! I was in my freshman year at Castleton State in Vermont and had just finished lunch the dining hall when suddenly everyone was talking about the shuttle blowing up. And of course, the immediate reaction from most of us who heard this was, “What are you talking about? The shuttle wouldn’t have just ‘blown up’!”

        Unfortunately, it had — and we spent a good part of the afternoon glued to the TV in our dorm’s lounge. Keep in mind, this was in Vermont and many of us were New Hampshire residents who had a connection to Christa McAuliffe, so it was especially heart-wrenching to witness the events that unfolded.

        1. Ah, gotcha. I thought you meant you were in Florida, too. We all just stood there staring up into the sky, trying to figure out what the heck had just happened. And then we all raced back inside to check the tv news. My only personal connection was that my dad worked at NASA and had for my whole life. Our family had gone to the Cape to watch many launches live. This one, I was just watching from central Florida, so I didn’t see the actual launch live. But we watched it rising in the sky, and we were all cheering, and then…

          How awful for those who felt extra personally invested it through Christa McAuliffe. It was a devastating thing. Have you read Joyce Sidman’s poem about McAuliffe in DARE TO DREAM? It is absolutely stunning.

  19. When we were young
    Our Television was blue
    I wondered where
    It did get to !

  20. When we were young
    Our Television was blue
    I wondered where
    It did get to !

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