Poetry exercise for Conejo Valley Writers' Group

Assignment:  Write a 10-line poem in 10 minutes, using a common phrase but adding a twist.  Use 5 of the following words:

• cliff
• needle
• voice
• whir
• blackberry
• cloud
• mother
• lick

Katherine Hamilton of the group's Poetry Read and Critique sub-group created the challenge.  Here is what I wrote (with a tiny edit):

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I looked to my mother,
A cloud over her face like no other;
Steel in her voice as she said,
But for luck I'd be dead.
I insisted it wasn't that bad.
I couldn't see why she was so sad.
"But Mom, everyone else does it too!"
Her needle-sharp gaze stabbed me through.
"If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you?"
I did, and survived it too!

Hitchcock's Birds, a poem.

The thundercloud of small beating wings

Signals the approach of flying things

Death is the only song the flock sings

Strange what such a simple sickness brings

Yet there - between us and them - it sits

Temptation just too great to resist

Avian plans just cease and desist

Our fates delayed, our good fortune kissed

A freshly washed car summons each bird

Beating wings stop and silence is heard

Could it be that the disease is cured?

Nope. They just had to take a small... break.

-Mark Gronwald, 2013