A mainstay of haiku and much of short form poetry is seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. This issue?s writing prompt features the interaction of charged particles with atoms in the upper atmosphere (that’s the textbook definition). But we know them as the aurora borealis, or the northern lights. For those who have seen the aurora borealis in person there certainly is an element of the other-worldly going on. Some form of natural magic. Or maybe you see something else. Let us know in a poem. We invite you to put your best inspired efforts in the comment box below. We?ll select the best of the best to start the next issue of tinywords, due out in mid-March.
Keep in mind, we will continue to accept regular submissions for the next issue (issue 17.1) through the end of February at our Submit page.
Thanks for dropping by and for sharing your poems.
All best,
too long for haiku
aurora borealis
poems in motion
the last star
straight into morning
kingfisher dreams
clouds of breath
a stranger in the night
feeding swans
taking the blues
out of this goodbye
winter river
how beautiful
Thank you! That's extremely kind. Britain certainly has a long winter.
warmest regards,
Alan
shifting, surreal forms
light dancing across the sky
hints of higher planes
popsicle picnic
grandmothers whisper
over our heads
particle leap in collision damp on pine
above the forest
northern lights ripple
greenlighting space
Nice! See mine?
fingerpainting
in the sky
dancing with
charged particles
aurora
Beyond reach
My grandchilds
Paint box
distant memory –
in the northern lights
the Big Dipper
great image!
northern lights
a boy makes a ladder
out of his telescope
Alan Summers
Publication Credit: Blithe Spirit 24.3 (August 2014); Scope (Fellowship of Writers, Queensland) April 2015 volume 61 no 3
YES Alan, wonderful! And a response…
arriving –
the constellation
in slow motion
Thank you!
Ah, yes, the constellations a constant wonder for many of us. :-)
ursa major
a plane's navigation lights
leave the system
Alan Summers
Publication credit: Asahi Shimbun, Japan (September 2016)
starlight –
she receives her eyes
in her womb
It's amazing what the human goes through in the womb. And how we are made up of so many things including stardust. :-)
another blind date aurora borealis
Late winter trip north
Sky like a bruised eye all day
Too early for lights
Above the treetops
Red Yellow Green draperies
Frame heaven's proscenium
Batting the window
Shut out like gnats in summer
Strange shadows within
Distress
bad water
death
his finger traces
the pattern of my bruise
…northern lights
in the end we go
our separate ways…
northern lights
after our first kiss
aurora borealis
against a black sky
sky colours…
a kingfisher's call
moves in the forest
skyward
within pine needles
cricket song
graffiti splatters spirit
spray paint space
aura marks matter
northern lights
the forgiveness of sleep
dreams pale jade
lush brushed sky
tears in my eye
a long slow sigh
looking up
from our screens
we feel small
mischievous midnight
raids the cosmic crayons…
green and red missing
needles and branches
zing alive
reaching for color
shimmering sky
what a promise
might look like
stars are falling out of your pocket
Green and red
heave almighty
across a lint
speckled sky
a candy sky
we taste a hint
of something unseen
Sealing up my eyes
against the city's sharp gaze
I thought of the woods
aurora borealis
once again
only a photograph
Just when you thought
Everything was black and white-
Aurora borealis
ah yes…beautiful
Yes! Attended a lecture tonight on brain science… your synthesis is applicable in so many ways.
my favourite
Love this!
a new hope :-)
Extraterrestrial visitors
dally at the edge
of our senses
Aurora borealis –
We are but guests at
The great cosmic soiree
On this cold winter
night warmed to the core by the
fires in the sky
out of darkness
bright fringes of heaven
astonish
Aurora Borealis-
the only gift I bring to
this party is my awe
a sonata in
soundless waves of light–
aurora borealis
we and the trees
stretch up toward the lights
fall quiet
Trees reaching
to the sun's bright shadow . . .
winter night
Imagining
the cold wind on my face
frost flowers
fragile
yet clear
the ultimate dream
wondering…
did Van Gogh ever see
the Northern Lights?
I love that question.
This wild world
Whispers
Over the damned
mystic skies amid
tree-filled horizons-
imbue ghostly grace
when I was a boy…
did I see the Northern Lights
or was it a dream?
dreams are still alive
:-)
The sky loves the forest
it reflects its beauty back
and everything is twice a good
the Aurora forms
a benediction for
all live below
__ While watching the Northern Lights, seers may imagine the light's rhythm is the guide of their pulse. _m
lights throb
above this north forest strand
the seers pulse
aurora borealis . . .
beyond any
words
peace be with you
spirit of the north
blesses our world
jade buddha
the aurora plays
in the upper atmosphere
cat's eye
slipping into the swirls
of a marble
-Marianne Paul
Ethereal hijab
hovers over night forest
tresses
the lives of trees
daylight
nightlight
spectrums of light
explode in the air
above our heads
that's not okay
call
someone
Chlorophyll absorbs
aurora skyglow. These trees
know more than you think.
Lights of heaven
contain
all colors.
skyfire
somebody else's war
not mine
heaven's path …
an old spirit
lights the torch
Only if
I could see you
aurora borealis
spirit dance …
the light in a dead
deer's eye
stunning
Thank you!
eventide muse bows
silent rogue audience sways
starlit rainbows throb
another
butterfly
in heaven
ancestor spirits
the child throws chalk dust
into the night
love this one, too
aurora owl
feathered night wings
silent
image I can see…
nirvana . . .
one strand of color
at a time
kaleidoscope . . .
if only the evergreens
would sway
northern sky
the road diverges
without a sound
ancient thought –
a fiddlehead fern
unfolds
the giraffes neck
so long peeks
stripping the leaves
camouflaged in the northern light
as trees take climb
the heights of the sky
escape
escape
the illusion
incandescent sky
beyond the trees that shed the snow
near Rovaniemi
Silent light show
Absolutely free
cosmic weather
as predictable
as grace
Alcohol
And blotter acid
Fuels the liquid sky
God IS real , far now
Rubber band magnet pings, free
Radicals alive
aurora in the sky –
may be message from
the future …
enigma
from the heaven
aurora
colors of life
our sky reminds them –
aurora
even heralded by greens, reds and yellows
have they arrived?
empty forest
children's coloring book
the colored spots exceed
all the bounds
star-gazing
within Salome's
seven veils
sublime sonata
Beethoven would have
penned the notes
northern dawn
the artist's paintbox
overflowing
northern lights
God's
fireworks
aurora
in light of all
that's happened
north wind
the sparks of the bonfire
rise to the sky
my late night
mystery caller
Northern Lights
a wonderful sense of an untold story here
as if the speaker awoke to the phone ringing.
Was it a wrong number? dead air? static?
and looking up perhaps a bigger mystery revealed . . .
the curtain
comes down on the final act…
night of stars
graveyard shift
a trucker’s ham radio
crackles to life
her musical ecstasy
highlights strings of
a springing beauty _
the mirror transformed
I find myself
lost in luminescence
glowing emerald
night time river in the sky
enchantment above
northern lights
the sound of pines
on the ridge
silence of stars
an ethereal dream
of iced green tea
mystical air
at the edge of sky
winter pines
Silent pines
limbs reach upward
Worship Aurora
spiral dance
the swirling skirt
of a lenten rose
northern lights
a child runs screaming
from the ghost train
red, yellow, green sky
over towering pines.
a firefly blinks
your last line, so exquisite
northern lights
the many colors
of my bucket list
open windows
what dreams may waft in
on the breeze
my dowsing wand
dips downward
aurora borealis
tree phantoms
warning of blight
smeary mirror
reflecting
evening breeze
page of dreams
a child and I
color the night sky
heaven
made manifest
northern lights
northern lights…
the lingering wisps
of last night's dream
Message from the gods
ephemeral, transformative
majestic Northern Lights
into the mystic
I dream beyond
the veil
my dowsing wand
dips earthward
aurora borealis
Other worldly
Our nightlight symphony
Aurora Borealis
A dream and hope so far away, a promise of peace for us all one day.
Northern Lights…
in the beginning
was no word
i open my mouth
and leave it at that
very nice interpretation
Thanks
soothing night breezes
worlds energy flies by
lay back absorb time
beyond black and white . . . Aurora
white pine woods
basking in starlight
rainbow aurora
The Patience of a Terraformer
Waiting on stern glaciers
to fashion fjords from granite;
genera to flower, fruit;
the aurora-abiding longmind
composes luminous veils of sky.
Mountains rise. The garden grows.
translucent colors
highlighting skywards
in lucid textures.
OR
Other worldly
Our starlit symphony
Aurora Borealis
standing trees
they keep their innocence
amidst the commotion
arboreal
the dreams of trees
above our heads
the forest trees
backlit by coldest fires
northern lights
midwinter
ribbons of aurora
u n f u r l i n g
we tie up the loose ends
of our divergent lives
cattails, January 2015
solstice
the northern lights
shape-shift
over frozen prairie
I curl my hand into yours
More Grows in a Crooked Row, Tanka Conversations, Inkling Press 2016
(found poem from Kate Lyon’s 2/202017 message from Manitoba)
green dancing
with bits of pink
a blizzard coming
the brilliance
of New Year's fireworks
at forty below
the colder it gets
the warmer we are
Neon Graffiti, Tanka Poetry of Urban Life, 2016
winter sky
memories among the stars
rocket ice cream pop
winter stillness . . .
time again
to rotate my tires
Aurora's last dance frost garden
Please change the spelling in my final line to ether rather than eather…typo….Thanks
space invaders
?coloring outside the lines?
northern lights?
looking up
at the light
in the dark
In this sacred time
Earth and sky beckon each other
Aureal delight
Somewhere over
the rainbow bridge
aurora …
once again the Earth rejoices
without us
the height
of my grandmother's shawl
Northern Lights
warm shifting colors
sensuous shifting shapes
we love again again
angel wings
I worship
the sky
not
in so many words
northern lights
if i didn't
know better
northern lights
luces del norte
cantan la alabanza
de su gloria
Bach's Magnificat
the forest rapt
in silence
dream remnants
in morning sky
the swans cry
clearing the air
between us
a sweep of pines
Edge of Alaska
I'm watching the TV show dedicated to a bunch of people settled in the abandoned miners' town McCarthy, isolated from the whole world during the long winter. When asked about their motives, some of them mention the unspeakable beauty of a wild nature, or a chance to prove themselves in the struggle for survival. But above all they treasure the seclusion, when there's not a soul for miles around, no need to talk to anybody, and one can live upon his own rules.
I find it strange that someone needed to get to such a wilderness to achieve it. Alaska is all around us. The light years of loneliness, deep snow-white banks of silence, depleted resources, a signal lost in the vast ether.
smoky saloon –
a glimpse of northern lights
in the empty glass
aurora borealis greener treetops
star night
the eyes of a stray cat
isn't from here
the trees
the turning
the kaleidoscope sky
now saffron
and scarlet
the sky remembers itself
trees bow
to the beaming spindrift sky
cinnabar citrine new-green
evening
night lights
in a Star-Child's
nursery
of this
I am sure
time and space
forged in ice
and auroral light,
the Snow Queen's
crown of creation
Imagination turned into reality
Bright colours spread everywhere
Spread far and wide
Like painting on a canvas.
Everyone is taken by surprise
Everyone has got the same question in mind
Definitely what's this?
Nothing else, but it's aurora borealis.
brilliant brain
flying high in colors
reaches sky space..
aurora borealis
crème de menthe
on the rocks
light streams
in the darkness
coloring my life
gleams on the blade ~
the fallen vikings' names
sound like aurora
my daughter paints the sky
her magic show for all
belle surreal
shimmers of night sky neurons
these neon strands of thought
skip, skittering and fluttering
as if sun, a primal and collective love
were surging across the cold
through windswept drapes
a child colors
our imagination—
aurora borealis
they new it was coming
the trees gathered
by the hundreds
oops. spell check did it to me again. "new" should be "knew". I re-posted a corrected version.
aurora borealis
the man with an iPhone
finally looks up
sky models
nature's latest fashions —
trees watch the show
stars playing dress-up…
look at ME!
imaginary numbers i swerve like the rest
eye sockets weep…
an ancient mammoth
out of melt-water
shimmering above
those old ice-floe hunters
curtains of mystery
how many more millennia before we
truly know the ways of Earth and sky
the science
of gossamer
northern lights
The spaceship landing
A prism of stars and light
We run from praying
they knew it was coming
the trees gathered
by the hundreds
color blind the wind whistles
Aurora
dancing in the lights
this urge
to skip with you
my darling
gurgles
through the baby monitor
winter solstice
morning's palette
shatters my dream
sky ablaze
breastfeeding
his eyes discover mine
aurora borealis
Arctic Lights Carnival
Charged Particle Popcorn
Greenish Glow Sodas
Ride the Solar Wind
Frozen Fun House
Crazy Coronas
Geomagnetic Storm Alerts
Sled Dod Parking
winter breeze bent with color
frozen sheets hum
beneath a pin-cushion sky
northern lights
my laptop jumps
to screensaver
dark night
of heated words evaporate
colors of forgiving
northern lights
those moments
when we know
cold borealis flames in his eyes —
I and the wolf look at each other
turn and go our own ways
gobsmacked
coloured flares cruise
the freezing night
angels
in flight
…alleluia!
this ain't no disco
yet the sky
is dancing through your hair
swamped in tar
scientists seek words
for skylight
northern lights
an autistic child shapes
meaning out of words
windswept
his sermon to be
existential
solar wind
her last breath
joins the fray
northern lights
she wants to hear the fairy tale
over again
*
northern lights
she weaves herself
into the fairy tale
northern lights
she reads the fairy tale
over again
You
Falling on me
mixing the palette
with brighter hues…
heartbreak
northern lights–
an early god
in the mountain's face
electric night
I am as restless
as the sky
northern lights take me
beyond words, beyond myself
beyond my being
the curtains flutter …
northern lights touch
one another
empyreal bridge
a solar winds' coarse caress
mercy from malice
Tracing the shafts of light
making their way in through the
blinds of my mistakes
as if the sky
will soon sing a song-
aurora borealis
one more reason
to look at the sky-
aurora borealis
viewing northern lights
is also
a pain in the neck
(after Soin)
early morning
the neighbour's lights
still flickering
the colours of disco or
some kind of devotion
forcing
my way into your dreams
northern lights
sighing
an orgiastic sky
fans out all the cards
childhood in Iceland
the aurora borealis
pulsing in my veins
black out
filling the empty room
northern lights
ether rains
whets the appetite–
shadowlands
The aurora borealis –
Greetings from space
Of the unspoken
all the tea
in China, spills
from this cup