Tadpoles Poems

I used to imagine I was Thoreau
Perched on a rock with my notebook or my copy of On the Road
Overlooking slopes of endless yellow fallen leaves
That descended to the brook side

As soon as I could drive I’d head out of...Read More

Summer in the country with sunshine on my back
I linger near the outbuildings, pretending to be a super sleuth
Like Nancy Drew, I look for clues, about my grandparents’ country ways

My twin sister is missing the grasshoppers, bullfrogs, and butterflies.
She is...Read More

The country, people, and the village,
All equal, as if, for the first time, 
All of that gave a fresher image,
Nay, 'tis but a relative vantage.
Save fresh road, to its left bears a sign.

"A few more feet and we will be...Read More

There’s a cult fever chill
in the Assyrian air
Coven chants of Rabshakeh croaks
are placebo heard
‘round the alabaster oval frond

Toadie tongues swallow
swarm of fly words,
a-blowing Nineveh ill
Maggot tone larvae of lies 
carried on an opiate pulse wind,
which conscience kill

Smell the fetid emanations
a-blowing...Read More

Sleeping Beauty move over, you got fierce competition

Ain't no vicious rumor,
but dead serious joke
cuz no princess
can kiss bajillion times

to get yours truly woke
ah... just one garden variety generic
Geico Frog Prince
(in actuality I
wanna be caveman bloke)

nothing will disrupt me,
not even minor...Read More

Long ago, in youth long gone,
I spent hours at a pond,
A clay base, sun adorning, 
Tadpoles swimming, half forming,
I spied with a magnifying glass,
Frogs finally hopped at last,
Now, no frogs, cause no rain,
Is it because of climate change?
That was our...Read More

Don't awaken me from this Summer spell,
the one that I have been waiting for
since freshets announced themselves
in Spring rivers and streams,
since crocuses began pushing their way
steadily up through almost melted
clumps of snow,
since brilliant black and yellow bumblebees
began darting about the...Read More

There is no part of life mine alone,
If regarding my whole existence.      
What belongs to me is only flesh and bone,
Therefrom this life has subsistence.

Down on the farm I was buying time,
The universe I studied...Read More

Translated by Przemyslaw Musialowski 6/18/2019

Paint, old painter, because pleasant to the eye
is a family portrait, like Colonel Zagloba*.
And don't forget about a mug of golden ale
emptied in the morning for good humor.

Paint me old grandpa and military equipment
in which along...Read More

The country, people, and the village,
All equal, as if, for the first time, 
All of that gave a fresher image,
Nay, 'tis but a relative vantage.
Save fresh road, to its left bears a sign.

"A few more feet and we will be...Read More

I’m facing a challenge and I’m taking bets
That I can remember the names of my pets

There’s Tommy and Jonnie and Sally and Barry
The one over there I believe might be Harry
Tiddles and Wriggles and Bruno and Gerry
Never stray far from...Read More

nestlings hungry chirps
dandelions smell lilacs
tadpoles bursting green...Read More

Long ago and far away
  In a marsh of murky waters 
Did two young tadpoles play 

Mired deep inside the bog
  Succumbing to relentless fog
~ Divers only found a pair of frogs

 


...Read More

oddly they swim where only yesterday
grass laid down and withered
having been subjected to the slasher’s blade

“Them be bin chickens” me mate once said
as we walked past them at the airport
not far from Tweed Heads

“bin chickens? I think not
as they plunge...Read More

from rural space                  to urban scar
no longer green fields             stretch afar
those...Read More

Translated by Przemyslaw Musialowski

A young willow swooshing that she is already a tree
and that she remembers the details: water yokes, tadpoles,
croaking of frogs, duckweed, mother kneeling in need
- lost maidens' midsummer wreaths.

Kite research flight - what for, where to?
But if...Read More

Perusing photos of old friends
rekindles childhood memories.
For their silly smiles draw me back 
to a great summer had by all.

A sultry sun dyed our skin bronze
as we chased tadpoles in the creek.
And pledged we'd be friends forever
while searching for buried...Read More

I can't play marbles in the rain -
Or even spin my top.
My skates will not roll in puddles,
And it's too wet to hop. 

Ah, but I can be a pirate,
And I can float my boat 
Up the river from New...Read More

Soaking up sunshine on sandy warm shores;
   sipping sangria while sampling smores.
Under umbrellas we’re putting to use;
   utterly euphoric as the day comes unloose.
Mid-morning mildness is making me muse;
   mild mannered time I must...Read More

Mosquito populations explode in murky bogs
Their larvae swim with tadpoles in this incubation
This ugly undertaking commanded by their nature
Constant as the day is long and just as distant
Marsh water echos soon produces frogs

As katydids reverberate through forest wilderness
A noise most...Read More

April’s Sudden Enlightenment 

By Stina Lu 

April walks down from the decaying Chinese rose
Pushes away the flirty wind
Neglects the sunlight’s sudden closeness and farness 

Leaves wear a shining green crown
which is granted by the season 
All charming flowers are ordered...Read More

Everything is just like yesterday
Same boat, same coat, same joke
The river is receding and deeds are reveling
This morning I got up with an uncomfortable feeling
I was longing for something that was not there
And it leaves me cold empty and bear
I...Read More

Toadlet

Sitting smoking at stupid am
well before coming dawns glow
disturbed from restless sweaty sleep
by spattering mill or two of rain
and as I sit on damp door steps
a toadlet hops into the light 
peeking out from my window.

Bedazzeled she freezes I watch...Read More

RAINBOW LADY

(Life begins at forty...  Walter B. Pitkin)

Yes, if you believe in miracles.
If you take lows for pinnacles.

I will turn the page tomorrow,
sign a fresh lease come what may,
forty windblown years behind me,
a few more to come my way.

I...Read More

male frog's loud ribbet
attracts female attention
tadpoles hatch in pond

haiku contest
sponsored by Mick Talbot

5-7-5 checked with how many syllables

3/11/18
...Read More