The Tangled Branch Discussion Forums

Hello to all of you oldies and newbies. I look forward to participating for another round of 30 days, 30 off-the-cuff poetry efforts. I am Vaughn Neeld (female, by the way, although one website claims no women in the U.S. have been named Vaughn since 1900), and I live in Canon (pronounced canyon) Ci...

Today I went back through April's offerings and enjoyed everyone's work all over again. One poem in particular stood out for me this time because I failed to "digest" it the first time around. 4/12 poem When Night Comes stars swarm, collide and I stand on my deck— I do not enter the grass, my yard f...

Thank you all for the exciting National Poetry Month entries. I finished up the last one, and then became so ill I wasn't able to come back and visit until now. I see that some of you have posted since my last entry, and I like this last sip of delight for 2019. May you all create wonderful images a...

Hello all. I will comment more later, but I have to be away from home for a while today. Atop Trail Ridge Road The mountains laugh as sunshine spills from an azure sky. Columbines and lupines dance in the wind, taunting boulders for their immobilioty. Atop the world, I stare down upon a frozen lake,...

Just name the place.

Good morning to you all. I came to the computer today with sorrow that we have only two days left in this wonderful exchange of ideas and companionship. Thank you all for your comments and indulgence. I hope we can continue this "branch" after tomorrow, but if we must go our own ways, I want all of ...

Day 29 In Times Like These In times like these, can be find in ourselves sympathy for the man down the street who just lost his job; empathy for the woman whose son just died in a drive-by shooting; generosity to the homeless man shivering on the corner; magnanimity toward the politician with whom w...

Day 28 Hazy Reflection In the mirror I see a face I no longer recognize. Where has the mirror hidden my sloe-shaped eyes, my newly kissed lips, my shell-thin ears? Who is this who stands before me searching for what isn't there? How cruel of the glass to reflect time-worn skin and bottle-brush brows...

27 Being someone   A rose without a name would smell as sweet So I adrift in a sea of namelessness would still not eat meat, love my neighbor and count character over skin colour, have sex with those I prefer, believe gods are chimera and the label liberal is bullshit invented by those who keep the...

Moments It is a notion. It doesn’t heal – it’s not a doctor. You can tell it, but it can’t hear. Some say it will tell but has no voice It measures everything we do; naps, work, vacation, study, school, travel.  It doesn’t have legs so it can’t ‘run out' yet it marches on. You can’t keep it, It isn...