New poems available on the Patreon and last month's poems available on the blog? It's a poe-radeeeee!

I'll see myself out, but not before you keep up to date by subscribing to the Casual Ramble Patreon, deal? ;)

#workingpoet #freeverse #trialanderror #poetry #blog

http://thecasualramble.com/2026/04/16/casual-poetry-cairns/

"Go, Samurai.
Slash a throat,
And lick the blood from the crimson blade…"

• Samurái (Poem)

https://none-dc.neocities.org/Poems/Works/Samurai/

BORDER CONTROL

What do you do?

I’m an academic.

An academic? What’s that? What do you do?

I’m a professor. I teach, research, write, and attend a lot of committee meetings.

#poem #freeverse

Food & Emotion

A bowl half-empty,
Still, we clink our spoons and laugh—
Enough is plenty.

#Haiku #Poetry #Poems #Food #Micropoetry #FreeVerse

The Glass Ceiling

You have to have the attitude of a brick
in order to bring down the glass ceiling above you.
The strength of a madman
and the willingness to fail.

How easy it is to point out the failures of yesterday,
and how difficult it is to admit our own failures upon inheriting our parent’s success.
There is no perfect flower in the rose garden
only the perfume of the bloom, and the smell of fertilizer.
Your tears shall not feed the roots of tomorrow
for that blessing comes from higher up.

Instead,
try nurturing a thistle of your own to perfection
sharpen the colors with love and dignity
Watch it grow in the worst of times.
For it’s core strength stems from appreciation  
and determination.

Those that forge their life from your work
hold you in honorarium!
When they dance, they dance for you
when they sing, they sing to you,
when kind words and actions flow from their souls
it’s an acknowledgement of your attentiveness.

What feeds the stem will feed the soul
and what feeds the soul, feeds your God.

Image: A Blue Thistle taken from Nature and Garden’s web-page.
used without permission.
https://www.nature-and-garden.com/gardening/thistle.html

a new space is evolving between us
it swallows our history, pushing it into a dark place
that padlocks us in a new reality we don’t need

a new space has evolved in our old time,
the cracks in our reality have been widened,
now there are just thoughts and memories

© mvclarke, for much deliberation, February 2026

#poetry #poem #freeverse #freethought #writing #blogging #writingcommunity #writingprompt #PoetryWriting #shortpoem #space #selfevolution #time #Thoughts
https://formuchdeliberation.wordpress.com/2026/02/16/weekend-writing-prompt-455-padlock/

Another Beautiful #freeverse #poem by long time contributor, Deborah A. Bennett @d.a._bennett

Deborah draws her inspiration from the teaching of ancient religious philosophers & haiku poets who were also riveted by the purity & beauty of nature. #poetry #poetrylovers #mother