A dVerse Quadrille prompt on the word coax sent me down a path of wondering—about rumor, belief, outrage, and whether wisdom can still be persuaded to show up.

A simple poem in a Chaucerian structure that conveys the simple innocence of a childhood along the Texas Gulf Coast.

A poem reflecting the bad news of today. Now is the winter of our discontent.

A quadrille poem for the dVerse prompt dives into the tales that shaped me—Puff’s fading magic, Gulliver’s sharp satire, Jonah’s stubborn faith—and the beachy wonder where I first heard them. Fish, wish, and childhood spells: stories that still shimmer like sunlight on the water.

A quadrille, a poem of exactly 44 words using the word “honest”, captures a surprising realization: feelings of joy on a sad day.

An indigo-inspired poem about sunsets.

An ekphrastic poem celebrating the Blue Chair by artist Don Mathison that hangs in the Glover Gardens kitchen.

Seagulls’ simplicity and single-mindedness lays bare the basic necessities of their lives, their groundhog day existence: eat, mingle, survive, forage, fly together, chase shrimp boats, sleep, make raucous noises—and repeat.

Short recording of a poem that’s whimsical, slightly naughty, is like an old-style fairy tale with villains (think the Brothers’ Grimm’s Snow White), and has a cat (shades of T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats).

Winter storm Enzo brought record-breaking snows to the South along the Gulf of Mexico. Brrrr! It’s poetry-worthy!

My childhood at the beach is a constant muse for poetry and a guide for how to live, an everlasting gift from my parents, who chose to leave suburbia for a life on the coast that would their children to be children and their lives to authentic and grounded in nature.

A quick poem in response to a prompt from the dVerse Poets Pub about newspapers.

Beatnik poem written in response to today’s dVerse poetry challenge, requiring that we use the Villonnet format, which was entirely new to me.

A lament in quadrille form about the picnic-ruining, blood-sucking tiny Draculas that plague the South in the summer: mosquitos.

I haven’t suffered from narcissistic abuse, but I have seen it and the damage it can do to a person. This poem in quadrille format describes the darkness and manipulation, and there are links to help resources.

A poem about wandering the streets of Paris alone, taking in the culture via the sights, sounds and smells, written at Charles de Gaulle airport just before heading home to Houston.

A poem in the “Magic 9” format that highlights the characteristics both positive and negative cultures and promotes diversity.

A bitter and melodramatic mashup of two tiny poems in response to a dVerse Poets Pub prompt about being stood up. But hey, I learned that I can buy my own flowers.

Gleaming pictures and a poem about “place”, inspired by the exquisite place settings at Andrew Carnegie’s Skibo Castle in Scotland.

A love poem to a special ingredient that rises from slumber and transforms magnificently.