For Cracking Open the Content Time Capsule

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Approaching Seventy

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Approaching Seventy

Careful near the pool edge, careful down the stair.
“Hurry” is disaster’s brand new nom de guerre.
All the things that in the past you might easily dare
are potential dangers hanging in the air;
so don’t stand on a ladder, or even worse, a chair.
It’s different being single than when you were a pair,
for there is no one  with you to see how you might fare.
When coming from the pool, be sure the shoes you wear
do not slip upon the tile–this is your worst nightmare.
If your feet are wet and if they’re also bare,
when you plug in your curling rod, I hope that you take care.
Although I know you’ve always been nimble as a hare,
things all change with age. I say this ’cause I care.
Bones become more breakable and muscles tend to tear,
so please take proper care, dear, in your single lair.
At seventy those second chances tend to be more rare.

(We were asked to reprint a post made on Oct. 9 of an earlier year.  Mine is from 2016.)

Fibbing Friday for Oct9, 2026

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Here is today’s Fibbing Fodder: from Fibbing FridaY:

1. What is frutti di mare? An apple fed to a female horse.
2. What is a rum truffle?  A bar fight staged over the disputed owner of  a Cuba Libre.
3. What is a spicy wedge? A piece of jalapeno pizza.
4. What is cock-a-leekie? An incontinent rooster.
5. What is baked Alaska? Our northernmost state, during a heatwave.
6. What is a battenburg? A sandwich sold at a baseball game.(See illustration.)
7. What is pease pudding? A three-year-old’s request for dessert.
8. What is laverbread? Bread made from edible seaweed.
9. What is a Welsh oggie? A breed of dog.
10. What is crempog? A creamy eggnog made from splitpeas. (I don’t recomment it.)

for Blast from the Blog, Oct 8

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For “Blast from the Blog,” Here is a post from this date (Oct 8) in 2018.

Meters and Rhyme

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Meters and Rhyme

I really cannot fathom a routine that involves running.
The meters that I deal with are in rhyming and in punning.
My decision to work out in feet that do not meet the track
stems from going with my talents, not pursuing what I lack.

For me, excessive exercise is simply not the norm.
I don’t have the deportment nor the interest nor the form.
To blog and not to jog is a decision that’s well-founded.
Apparent by my figure, which is plump and amply rounded.

Putting one foot before the other can be done with fingers, too,
for when  I’m forced to run, I find I’m likely to turn blue!
When it comes to exercises that we’re called to face,
every finish line need not be got to by a race.

 

The prompt words today are plump, routine, fathom and apparent. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/10/08/rdp-monday-plump/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/10/08/fowc-with-fandango-routine/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/10/08/fathom/
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/2018/10/06/daily-addictions-2018-week-40/apparent

16 thoughts on “Meters and Rhyme”

LOVESICK, for “Throwback Edition”

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  Lovesick

Memories of her
stretch out like a voluptuous lover
over the couch of his mind.
He takes refuge in them in his loneliness,
gathering
the aftereffects of her loss
around him
like a scratchy woolen blanket
drawn by habit,
offering little comfort.

 

FROM OCT 6, 2018

Empty Pockets at Fifty, for dVerse Poets

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Empty Pockets at Fifty

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Empty Pockets at Fifty

My pockets are turned inside out.
No riches do I have to flout.
This state of my intimidation
is perhaps an apt reflection
of my early hesitation
to obtain an education.
Perhaps if I had done my math,
I’d have pursued a richer path!

For the dVerse Poets prompt, we are to write a Quadrille (44-word-poem) on the word, “Pocket.” Strangely enough, I found a poem I wrote to that prompt 5 years ago and coincidentally, it is 44 words long, so I had to repeat it here. I’ve written nearly 5,000 poems over the past 13 years…I’m taking the license to repeat some of them.

Reclaiming the Ship of State, For the Sunday Whirl Wordle #777

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Reclaiming the Ship of State

Let’s show a little backbone and vote for what we believe––
that success is in the giving and not what we receive.
Of course, some think the opposite and I have a hunch
that those beings who think otherwise are a shifty bunch.
“You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours,these greedy shysters say,
tallying up their billions before they hit the hay.
They storm our capitols and courts, streaming in enmass
to do their bit by self-rewarding bills and laws to pass.
What care they for the needy––the aged, poor and ill?
So long as they have license their own pocketbooks to fill?
Their diamond rings and yachts and planes do not grow on trees,
so they will requisition your tax dollars, if you please!!!
Therefore, when casting ballots, please remember what you’ve read.
To reclaim our ship of state, you’d best vote Blue, not Red!!!

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle #777 the prompt words are: show backbone beings believe bit storm stream ring scratch hunch

For Cracking Open the Content Time Capsule––Oct. 4, 2016

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Daring-do

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Daring-do

Once from our comfort we are torn—
from the first moment we are born—
we’re put into this world to do,
to suckle, gurgle, bill and coo,
then to stand and tie a shoe.
To participate, and not just view.

From a broomstick with horse’s head,
we go on to bust a bronc instead.
Playing drums or clarinets,
clicking heels or castinets,
from paper airplanes to flying jets,
doing’s as good as living gets.

We start out small and then get bigger.
Vine pod boats grow sails and rigger
to sail the world and tell the tales
of seas like glass, whirlpools and gales.
Each time you try out something new,
it brings more world inside of you.

Some things work out, others we rue,
but still it’s better to try and do
than put ourselves up on our shelves
and simply analyze ourselves.
Daring-do beats daring-don’t,
for life consists of “will,” not “won’t.”

For Cracking Open the Content Time Capsule, Oct. 4, 2016

9 thoughts on “Daring-do”

“The Sporting Life” Blast from the Blog for Oct 3

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This is what I was up to on Oct. 3, 2017

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The Sporting Life

I’ve never had much interest in sports played with a ball.
Of games with pucks or shuttlecocks, I have no need at all.
Gym workouts, laps and chin-ups do nothing for me.
I simply have no talent for touching chin to knee.
The body part I work out with is of a different kind.
I like the sort of games requiring exercise of mind.
Dominoes or Mastermind, Bridge or Chess or Scrabble
are aspects of the sporting life discounted by the rabble.
Yet if you want to hold my interest, team sport is absurd.
Just woo me with a domino, a die, a card, a word.
Lay your mind upon the table, dear, I’ll trump it with an ace.
The contact I like in a sport is merely face-to-face.

Blast from the Blog for Oct 3

For Fibbing Friday, Oct 2, 2026

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For Fibbing Friday, Oct 2, 2026, the assignment is:

1. What is a calibre? A bachelor who lives in the longest state situated on the West Coast of the U.S. 
2. What is citrus?  The muscle that holds an eye in its socket.
3. What is phlebotomy? The removal of biting insects from a dog or cat.
4. What is pumpernickel? What you do when your coin gets caught in the gumball machine.
5. What is meant by nimbus? What an Irishman says to the bus driver when the wrong bus pulls up and opens its door.
6. What is a sea monkey? What you use to get into the men’s restroom.
7. What is an ambassador? A fisherman who gets up early in the morning to cast his rod.
8. What is a flywheel? One of those spinning devices put in the center of the table at restaurants that shoo flies away. (See illustration above.)
9. What is a catacomb? A feline grooming implement.
10. What is flamboyant? An oil slick aflame.

 

CHUY

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Bedtime Story

Here’s the new one curled up tight
ready for another night
in the one place on my bed
where I like to put my head.
Lucky I know what to do
to maneuver room for two.
I push him over, snuggle in
so our slumbers may begin.
And this is how my canine smartie
engineers our slumber party.

This is Chuy, who sneaked into the hotel garden where I was about to read to a twice-monthly reading group.  He made the rounds of the tables, then came home with me after devouring a packet of dog food I always keep in my car for starving doggies I chance upon  and then a trip to the vet for a checkup, shots, deworming and de-fleaing. After a very necessary bath to remove whatever was matting and crusting his coat and skin, he fit very quickly into the hustle and bustle of our house. He’s put on a needed pound or two and his coat is looking shinier and curlier every day. He gets along well with both cats and other dogs who reside in my house and is the favorite at the local dog park where they all go every day with my houseguest Julie and recently myself as well.

Present animal tally at my house: 4 dogs, 2 cats, 2 humans.