Looking to Hold Hands

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The laughter trickles to silence
The hand relaxes its grip
The gentle caress turns to violence
Love will eventually slip

The hand relaxes its grip
A cold fish finding its way to the sea
And from my hand yours does slip

The gentle caress turns to violence
A balled fist to the heart
Demanding I take offense

Love will eventually slip
A weary acceptance with tears
After love from my heart you rip

This is a Trimeric poem about hands to fulfill #6 – Write a poem about hands for the NPM21 scavenger hunt. I’ve been trying very hard to make all the poems for this months scavenger hunt about love. I’m just about over it. I’ve never been a mushy romantic and I don’t think I can keep doing love poetry much longer. Just be warned. I may go over to the darker side at any moment!

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67 thoughts on “Looking to Hold Hands”

    1. Don’t heap the praise on me – these love poems are really hard to write! I don’t think I’ve sweated so much over poems since Sandra introduced me to the sestina. And in some ways the sestina is easier!! I should have gone easier on myself and just limited it to the first couple themes!

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  2. Apoem Va, nut, like you, I had a go at love poems on my blog, but also like you, I an far from slushy and sentimental. I can’tvWAIT to see your darkercsude!

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    1. Hehe! Loraine I am really struggling to write these things. I consider many of your limericks to be love (gone wrong) poems! I get a perverse pleasure reading them! I suppose that eventually the darker side of love will show up – but I’m trying hard to keep it positive!

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    1. Gah! You too! In the words of Paul McCarthy – “You’d think that people would have had enough of silly love songs but I look around me and I see it isn’t so. Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs. What’s wrong with that? I’d like to know.” Substitute poem for song and you have the conundrum. Anyway you will no doubt get your way as I don’t think I can sustain the love theme to the end of the month BUT I’m going to give it a go!

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      1. I know that quote. It’s a good one.
        I’m not saying don’t write love poems, I’m saying the world has enough if alll poets suddenly stopped.
        Also, I think a love poem is like love itself: if you have to force it it’s not meant to be.
        Good luck with your month if love 👍

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        1. Thanks Mr. Mouse – This theme is an exercise and an attempt to write outside my comfort zone. Stretching the poetic muscles so to speak. I think the overarching theme for many poems is love – the lack, loss, search, sustaining, reveling in and all the many aspects therein. I’d never want to eliminate love poems or put an end to them… I do however want to stop writing them (but I’m not a quitter)!

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          1. Most welcome.
            I understand completely. If we are constantly pushing and practicing we never grow.
            I did the same thing over valentines, about 20 poems in a week. Looked at love from every possible angle. I feel your pain. Don’t quit 👍

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            1. Thanks for the support! I’m forging ahead and trying not to overthink the theme. “Just let your love flow like a mountain stream
              And let your love grow with the smallest of dreams…” hehe! It helps to listen to the old music back before rap was king.

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                1. Hehe! Love songs are perhaps the first songs sung. I think that makes it more than 50 years – but then again I’m not listening to all the music. It isn’t about running out of inspiration but how long I can stomach the topic. My muse is itching for something else…

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                  1. I’m sure there are thousands of years worth but I assumed pop songs from your quote.
                    Oh, that makes sense. I give myself a week on a topic and move on. Credit to you for persevering, more than half way now 👍

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                    1. Rock n Roll is king but real love songs go way back… seems love never goes out of style! I’m hanging in there but it is getting harder. I think I only have so many love poems available from my muse. I’m waiting for a “hate” poem to pop out!

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                    2. So true!
                      The well may be dry now it but flows with a renewable resource.
                      Love sprouts from hate and vice versa. I’m sure you will find some untapped material there 😉

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    1. My mother thinks I need to write a text book of poetry. The truth is I just read, a lot. And by reading I mean I have a thing for dictionaries, encyclopedias, and reference works. I started compiling a list (back in High school for an 11th grade English class) of poetry forms. I had it put aside in a folder with old report cards and unearthed it when I started writing a blog back in 2007. Since then, every time I find a new form I jot it down in a little notebook and then explore it. I like a couple of websites – The Academy of American Poets (https://poets.org/glossary) and Writer’s Digest (https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/list-of-50-poetic-forms-for-poets) for exploring different poetry forms. Though to be honest some of them are so difficult that I’ve never tackled them.

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  8. I see you’ve raised the bar on this simple form by adding rhyme. Impressive. I do that, too, make it harder, more of a challenge. I am not a fan of love poems, reading or writing them. That was one of the reasons I didn’t commit to this year’s NPM challenge. The prompt specifies a theme of hands and my first thought was, do paws count as hands? 🙂

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    1. Hehe! Yes I decided that it flowed better with the rhyme… and I’m a glutton for punishment! The rules are only a love poem and a jilted love poem only 2 – I am personally torturing myself with the love theme. The rules are pretty loose and as you know poets are an unruly bunch prone to flaunting the rules. So to answer the question – paws do count as hands.

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    1. Thanks Kim! I did think it had a bit of a darkness around the edges but some are not satisfied and want full on near horror poetry – or do you call it “goth” poems?? I may know a lot of forms but I am definitely NOT a master of them. I just like variety and a challenge! Your latest one is wonderfully exotic and takes you into another realm!

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        1. Kim I am completely enriched by the creativity all of the poets who attempt these prompts. I do like a challenge even when it causes me to grit my teeth – then the end result is that much more sweet!

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          1. Agreed and agreed. I began this journey long ago over on Xanga, and am so glad and grateful and so much more, than I was, when I began. 💜

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  12. Even I am tired of love poems. This one reminds me that my 19 yr. old grand-daughter is dating a 22 year old man she met on the internet. Not only does he have health problems (he’s on a waiting list for a heart transplant) but he is very possessive, so I hear. I haven’t met him yet. Her parents don’t like him. If she thought I would approve I know she’d bring him to meet me, but she hasn’t. I fear for her future.

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    1. It is hard when experience sees the trajectory but a youthful heart refuses any counsel… Your granddaughter may wise up suddenly and correct the course of her romance. Prayer is really the only avenue at this point.

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  14. Beautiful love poem, Valerie. But if you go over to the dark side, I completely understand! Sometimes life deals us hard blows and we’re in a dark place for a time. Allow yourself to feel and write about it. Sending you lots of love and light. ❤

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    1. Thanks Cherie! The poem is not autobiographical in any sense… I’m a keen observer of life and so draw on the situations of others! I don’t battle depression and I’m very happily married so I really don’t have a point of reference from personal experience. I am very gratified though that this poem is realistic enough to elicit concern!! I will however accept all love and light that comes my way!! Thanks Cherie!

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      1. You’re very welcome. I knew that you were happily married the last time I posted, so I was a bit shocked. But I figured it wasn’t my place to ask questions. I’m so happy that it wasn’t you that you were talking about. ❤❤❤

        And I will definitely keep sending you love and light. 😁😁😁

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          1. Yes. My scenes in my writing are not very detail kind of before and after instead of the intense parts. Some authors do that and I like it almost better than the intense stuff.

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  17. this does feel like the darker side of relationships Val!

    I leave the romantic mush for Mrs Cupid aka Mich, she does it well enough for us to bow out 🙂

    since when did they add tumeric to poetry … 🙂

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    1. I love this comment! Mich is my inspiration to attempt the love theme. And you are so right that she does it to perfection. I had to laugh because I think adding turmeric and or cumin to any relationship would improve it a little!

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  18. Pingback: Family, or: Qualifiers – The skeptic's kaddish

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