Great Gourd! [15 Words or Less Poems]

Hi, 15 Words-or-Less-ers!

Ready to wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less? (guidelines here)

Here’s a picture I took at the grocery store just before Thanksgiving.

gourds 15wol
Photo: Laura P. Salas

These gourds were huge! Granted, that mini-pumpkin with the crow on it is pretty small, but it was between tennis ball and baseball size. These gourds were like something out of an old sci-fi movie! So, this image makes me think of:

  1. Attack of the 50-Foot Butternut Squash! (I can see the movie poster in my head!)
  2. A giant carrying one of these in his lunchbox (Eat your veggies, George)
  3. I wonder if I could build a mannequin out of these?

And, here’s my first draft.  Boy, did my mind draw a blank when I tried to actually jot down a poem. This picture gave me ideas for stories, but I had trouble picking one image or moment to capture. I ended up picturing the moment when villagers notice that a pumpkin has grown from the ground with a raven mark on it. They’re all wondering if the pumpkin is some kind of sign of evil, and also wondering whose it is. I was picturing a community garden. Sigh. I don’t think my poem really captures all that at all. Oh well, there’s always next time–or a revision:>)

 

pumpkin-raven

It’s your turn! Have fun and stick to 15 WORDS OR LESS! (Title doesn’t count toward word count:>) If you leave a poem in the comments, and if it’s 15 words or less, I’ll try to respond!

25 Responses

    1. Oh, Amelia. Oh. My gosh. This just touches me today. Thank you for this. And have you read Nerdy Bird? It’s a funny picture book, and this would go so perfectly with it…

    1. Wow. I could only get her homepage to load for me, but those are a‑maz-ing! I hope to go back and learn how she makes them? I was reading a doodling book the other day that had some love gourd art in it, but it was all painting, not sculpting. Wow.

  1. Good morning all. Hectic days and few left in this year. Love the “earthy” picture. It prods me back to basics.

    Blank Canvas

    cinnamon, curry powder
    for color
    apple, onion
    for flavor
    puree, voila,
    “Autumn Squash Soup”

    1. This made my mouth water, Martha! Great details–and would you like to come make lunch for me:>)

  2. Pumpkin-pajamas
    ebony-wings
    cornfield-dreams
    October’s-moon
    squash-stew
    spiced-pies
    Pumpkin-pajamas
    November

    Poem By Jessica Bigi

    Love the last line of your poem

  3. That crow reminds me of “one of these things is not like the other”! So I ignored it…

    fat orange pumpkins
    left us behind—
    the white squash
    the green squash
    bitter old rinds

    —Kate Coombs

    1. A totally valid approach–we pick and choose what inspires us:>) This has such a feeling of despair or resentment to it for me. Those lovely pumpkins disappearing and only bitterness remaining. Sigh.

  4. Too many produce stickers kept turning up in our compost pile, so I became vigilant about removing them. Now my family has an annoying little game of hiding produce stickers on one another’s back (or on the poor dog’s collar…) so those stickers are what caught my eye.

    Squash Cycle

    Crumbly earth,
    sacred seeds.

    Luscious vines,
    pesky weeds.

    Giant blooms,
    gourds galore.

    Bar-code bounty:
    Superstore.

  5. BIG NIGHT OUT

    Let me rest
    Up on the top
    Otherwise my head
    Might flop

    Or simply drop !

    Anne McKenna

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