Click on first photo to enlarge and view all.
Oops, I missed a few. For more green, go HERE.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/it-is-easy-being-green/
photobyokcforgottenman
Life is More Wonderful
Concentrate on daily things—
the scent of toast perfectly browned,
new sheets gathered from the line,
this morning’s treasures spread on the ground:
a robin’s egg, inventing blue,
left on your doorstep, as though for you.
Seed of sycamore spinning down
to land with precision on your shoe.
Life is more wonderful with what
can come through serendipity;
and once we’re clothed and fed and sheltered,
what’s most valuable is free:
A child’s questing hopeful look
as he searches worlds within a book.
Heartfelt laughter dispelling pain
and friends who will return again.
Pity those for whom success
means piling gold in offshore banks;
whose quest for more will sacrifice
the health of children to buy more tanks.
They’ve gone too far to ever know
how much pain and how much woe
is occasioned by their status quo—
how much unhappiness they’ll sow.
Acceptance of their ignorant greed
will lead us down the path they’ve worn.
They’ll leave our world stripped and bereft,
her wondrous freedoms raped and shorn.
So as they pillage, ruin, and rape
an environment that can’t escape,
be glad that stubborn others insist
that we drive these bullies from our midst.
We know too much of the world’s ills
to ever fully feel at peace,
for that safe world that we have known
can not be lived without surcease.
Enjoy your happiness in each thing
that luck or your hard work might bring,
but share these things with everyone
lest all we stand for comes undone.
There is much in life that we
must learn to live with and accept;
but other things that we can change,
and leaders who are more adept
at giving us the basics for our health and happiness:
clean water, schools and health care. Never accept less.
If our quest for fool’s gold destroys what it can’t buy,
we’re simply fools caught building dream castles in the sky.
In times that are distressing,
millions of voices shout,
“To preserve simple pleasures,
drive these carpetbaggers out!”
The prompt today was acceptance. (Not.) The rather unusual use of two rhyme schemes in one poem came about naturally at first, as though some part of me rebelled against even the strictures of the poetic form. Then it seemed natural to vary the justification as well. Yes, we need justification, but it need not follow the rules we do not agree with. So, both center and left justification and next line and alternate line rhyme. Seemed right for this poem.
No. Everything in this photo except the light switch and plugin comes from a palm tree. The flowers are undeveloped and shrunken coconuts, the leaves are painted fruiting stem sheathes and the twigs are palm fruiting bundles minus the “fruit.” Even the vase is made from a fruiting bundle sheath, soaked, formed and sewn with raffia. It is one of the wonderful pieces by my artist friend Rick Cranston, who is doing amazing things with found objects here at the beach. It is 7 feet 8 inches tall.
For Cee’s flower prompt.
Empty Morning
Since the fish refuse to come and play,
the fishermen have gone away.
And since there are no fish to score,
the birds have found another shore
to swoop over and sit upon.
The beach is empty when fish are gone.
Yesterday a busy throng
milled on the beach the whole day long.
But today they’ve gone to job
or school or kitchen—the whole mob.
My world is quiet. The ocean swell
once more has a tale to tell
purely itself. No interlopers.
No beer-swiggers or docile dopers.
No kids squealing as they wade
with parents watching from the shade
of palapas strung along the shore
close enough to ocean’s roar
to grab a toddler grown too brave
from the grasp of an ambitious wave.
Once more, the beach is just itself.
The sand has formed an unmarred shelf
just outside my beachside door.
No beach shovels to scoop and gore,
no sandcastles along the shore.
No footsteps strung along the beach
extending far above wave’s reach.
No butts or bottles, abandoned sandals.
No beach graffiti by vandals
innocently written in the sand
with a stick held in the hand.
“Chuy loves Luz” erased by wave,
impossible, perhaps to save
in either beachside sand or heart,
their teenage love doomed from the start.
All these stories tucked away
by one of few who chose to stay
after the throng has returned home,
leaving only ocean foam
that overnight swept them away.
Every morning, a clean new day.
The prompt word today was minimal. I used the theme for the poem, but not the word itself. If you are a prompt-purist and feel the word must be seen, read on:
You won’t find the word “minimal.”
Its presence is subliminal!
Label Machine
Pure rayon or crepe de chine?
Trust the labelling machine.
It for sure will have it right
and easily can solve your plight
when you have that puzzling quandary
over what to call your laundry.
It’s easy. You are simply able
to look inside and read the label.
With people, it is not the same.
Labelling may unfairly blame
someone of a certain hue
for something they would never do.
You may as well class cleft of chin
as a mark of sloth or sin
as to choose one’s place of birth
as a determiner of their worth.
It’s clear we’ve failed our populace
when we see how many of us
trust bigotry and generalization
to determine policies of nation.
“Give us your tired and your poor”
has been swept right out the door.
The symbol of what’s free and fair
now stands forlorn with empty stare.
Behold: the Statue of Liberty—
a symbol of hypocrisy.
The prompt today was label, one of those maddeningly short and simple words in the English language that I have had to repeatedly look up to make sure I’ve spelled it correctly. “Lable” just looks right to me!!!!
Here is my photo for the Travel Theme prompt of Four.
Drying flower stalks, palm blossoms falling to the pool surface, crown of thorns in sparse bloom. Must be fall. https://ceenphotography.com/2017/03/18/flower-of-the-day-march-18-2017-peony-2/
I absolutely love this photo. The tables in this little cafe are actually set up on the side of the street, as you can see. I saw the milk truck coming and could see that its rear-vision side mirror was way too wide for comfort. The waitress saw this at the same time and sprinted for the table to take down the umbrella. For once, I was successful in getting my camera out in time. I should learn to wear it around my neck, because every day there are so many photo opportunities that I miss. Got this one, though!!!
For Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 