The 50 Words Project

Fifty is Just a Number

They say that fifty is just a number
Well, I beg to differ my friend
You can tell that to my arthritis
And the fact that I'm going around the bend
Saggy eyes and the days of best have gone
And half the time, I don't know what's going on

By Matty Blades

A Sloth Sleeps

I can’t fall asleep tonight
so I imagine hooking on to a strong branch
like a sloth.
I close my eyes to make them sleepy;
open them slowly to see the dark.
I imagine being a yawn
high above everything
not afraid of falling,
but there is too much air.

By Sue Finch

All Change

I never knew a life like this
Connected
Sexual
Sexy
So much can change
If you will allow it
Just breathe and be
Feel everything there is to feel
I never knew a life like this
Alive
Abundant
Aware
So much can change
If you will only let it in

By Cindy Hobbs

Snow After Fire

love
a brief spark in the darkness
a flame, fed on hope and trust
the raw heat of passion
a controlled, steady burn
a furnace that slowly mellows
to the warming comfort of old age
then cools and crackles
sputters its last defiant spark
against encroaching night

By Marilyn Timms

In a Moment

In a moment
A meadow so full
Lies empty thanks to humans for the cull
once filled full of life
mice, birds, so much wildlife
A moment when life lived to the full
filled with nothingness, a moment so dull.
A heartbreak,
A moment from now we need to wake.

By Kerry Shillito

Apples Should Grow on Trees

apples are meant to grow on trees
for cider, pies and crumble
unprotected, gifted fruits and seeds
fall to ground, unused
we’re undone, corporate cores
gathering rails
trains, at super speed
bringing no more crumble
cider, pie, sweet
our feet kick leaves
as wasps sting
apples should grow on trees

By Patricia Camp

L For Leather

I see you in the rear view mirror
Riding pillion behind the reaper
Smiling, throttle hard down
Black leather in the sun
Hands gripping, white knuckles
While he chases me, you are quite safe
Time is a constant, even in a fairground
It just seems quicker, so seize every day.

by Trevor Valentine

50 Wishes

50 wishes I have had so far
From sweet treats
To midnight meets
To wishing upon a star
To wishing a day would never end
And a world so broken, I wish to mend
I still make another wish
Will or won’t it come true?
Well, I wish I knew!

By Kerry Shillito

Two Score and Ten

Two score and ten
is not so bad.
I found thirty
was the worst.
I thought it was the end
(it wasn’t).
I wanted to die
a beautiful corpse.
James Dean, 
Jim Morrison,
me at twenty nine.
Nowadays, 
fifty
is the new
thirty five.
Like a kind of
age inflation.

By Ivor Daniel

The Grain of the Land

Following the grain of the land,
Curving through the valley,
Over the convex field of the butterflies, 
Who dazzled me here in July.
The path rises towards the sky,
Where a hawk circles on high.               
I stride over the hill                    
And Time spirals.
It has no beginning
And no ending. 

By Geoff Yorath

Second Look

Ice lay across the silent lake
Like sheer silk stockings
Casually draped at the foot
Of their honeymoon bed
Frost blue and charming
In the delicate afternoon light
Stars leapt from the liquid plane
As if the stern night sky had lowered its guard
To take a second lingering look

By Marianne Tefft

In the Gardens at Night

In the garden
I danced.
And it was night,
and the moon was very
dim.


I was barefoot,
and how the cut grass
tickled me.


There was so much space,
and no one else,
anywhere.


Just me
in the black,
open mouth
of a safe place—
the gardens—
at night.

By Karen Schnurstein

The Moonlit Tree

In a quaint forest, where magic resides,
A hidden world where wonder abides.
A fae's soft laughter, a pixie's flight,
Unseen by day, alive at night.

Shimmering wings and twinkling glee,
They dance and play 'neath moonlit tree.
A realm of dreams, a secret domain,
Where enchantment weaves eternal reign.

By Priyanka Rudhra

Fifty Years

I've been touched
Loved much
Had my feelings torched
My opinions scorched

Had my work appraised
My expectations raised
My heart adorned
My actions scorned

Had thoughts so tender
Yelled “I surrender”
Felt loves pain 
Thrown money down the drain

I've struggled with my fears
And lived for fifty years

By Treva Ulysses

Nosing Round

Fish pout, lips out, nosing round underwater,
the shark’s pale snout an evil white 
and unencouraging. 

Better many-hued the speckled, frilled
and multi-finned, wet penny-eyed 
oblique, reflecting shapes’ emerging bulk 

and other mouths or slivers quick 
as tinsel in the dark which dart about, 
are difficult to catch. Try harder.

By Dominic James

Negative Impact

Always, I’ve been told
We need taxes to pay for the docks, the mines, the railways
We need to cut jobs like railway staff, bus conductors
Services need to be less, cos otherwise
Taxes can’t be cut and will rise 

Always taxes rise, services cut
Our quality of life diminished.

By Richard Harries

Proz Or Not 2 Proz 

Now That Is A Eulogy
How Do I B Gin 2 Write A Poem
How Hard Can It B 

Jumbling, Connecting Wordz 
Ann Acroztic, Concrete 3 Verz 
May B A Limerick

Why Not Try A Viennetta
God I'm Hungry, Meant 2 Say
Villanelle

Should It Rhyme, Have Rhythm 
Couplets, Tercets
Sorry I Don't Swing That Way

By My3VerZ