After being gone for three weeks, I had to check out the state of the garden–at least around the pool. Certainly not as lush as the cactus flowers in Arizona. These will, however, remain the year through.
Click on flowers to enlarge.
For Cee’s FOTD
Cowboy on an Off-White Charger
You say I’m queen of your affection, yet your ambit has grown larger.
I hear you’ve put some extra miles on your faithful charger.
You say she is exhausted, her endurance sorely taxed.
She may need reshoeing and your credit card is maxed.
The extent of your travels and the speed with which you charge
have lately increased greatly—to have doubled, by and large.
If our love’s become monotonous, perhaps you seek new favors.
Perhaps you choose to taste delights of various other flavors.
You say your boots are dusty and nonchalantly stroll
out to find a shoeshine boy to cleanse your dirty sole.
Yet what you seek to polish may be a point that’s moot.
I think that what needs polishing may not be a boot.
Prompt words today are dusty boots, monotonous, ambit, speed and queen. The NaPoWriMo prompt today discussed different poetic devices. In lieu of just using one of them, I decided to try to use metonymy, polysemy, synecdoche and metalepsis in one poem. Image by Karen Cantu on Unsplash, used with permission.
Wanted to share with you this essay by Jan Wilberg.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Where there is one police brutality case that hits the news, there are 10,000 others that no one hears about.
We’d be fools to think otherwise.
Everything went right to convict Derek Chauvin. Had Darnella Frazier run out of battery on her phone or gotten jostled by another witness or been intimidated by the other officers present, there would have been no video and this case would have gone the way of thousands – police officers’ word against everyone else’s and the police officers would have prevailed.
Had the prosecution stayed local instead of being taken over by the Minnesota Attorney General, Keith Ellison, the chances of conviction would have been hugely reduced. Try as they might to be separate, independent entities, local police and prosecutors know each other by name, chat sports in the hallways, and consider themselves on the same team. Their language…
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Irrefutable
The fact is irrefutable
that time is immutable.
It does not quit.
We roll with it.
As typical,
unflippable—
awakening to
every hue
of morning sun.
When day is done,
more colors run
’til night has won
and spreads its pall
over all.
Then, at earth’s awakening,
our world is restored to green.
We delve into each day anew
as we have nothing else to do,
for it is irrefutable
that time is immutable.
Prompt words today are delve, roll, awakening, green, immutable, typical,
And for NaPoWriMo
words
Prompt words today are encephalopathy, such, cattywampus, comminatory and partner.
Bad Words!!!!
I’m feeling vengeful toward “comminatory,” a term I find absurd.
Fatigued by “encephalopathy.” Who heard of such a word?
Has the world of prompts gone “cattywampus?” Have you all gone mad?
Can such words be shaped into a poem that isn’t bad?
How can one partner such weird words? What’s a scribe to do?
Except to face the challenge and write a poem she’ll rue!
White Owl
All these years I ‘ve done without your heavy breath and gentle touch.
My mind turned to other things. Sounds in the night, the call of birds.
But it’s time. The owl asks “Who? Who?” Leaves me to find the answer.
The NaPoWriMo prompt is to write a sijo.
The sijo (Korean 시조, pronounced SHEE-jo) is a traditional three-line Korean poetic form typically exploring cosmological, metaphysical, or pastoral themes. Organized both technically and thematically by line and syllable count, sijo are expected to be phrasal and lyrical, as they are first and foremost meant to be songs.
Sijo are written in three lines, each averaging 14-16 syllables for a total of 44-46 syllables. Each line is written in four groups of syllables that should be clearly differentiated from the other groups, yet still flow together as a single line. The first line is usually written in a 3-4-4-4 grouping pattern and states the theme of the poem, where a situation is generally introduced.The second line is usually written in a 3-4-4-4 pattern (similar to the first) and is an elaboration of the first line’s theme or situation (development).The third line is divided into two sections. The first section, the counter-theme, is grouped as 3-5, while the second part, considered the conclusion of the poem, is written as 4-3. The counter-theme is called the ‘twist,’ which is usually a surprise in meaning, sound, or other device.
The sijo may tell a story (as the ballad does), examine an idea (as the sonnet does), or express an emotion (as the lyric does). Whatever the purpose may be, the structure is the same: line 1 of the 3-line pattern introduces a situation or problem; line 2 develops or “turns” the idea in a different direction; and line 3 provides climax and closure. Think of the traditional 3-part structure of a narrative (conflict, complication, climax) or the 3-part division of the sonnet, and you’ll see the same thing happening.
Bothersome Friends
I can’t be bothered caring about the way I dress.
I wear my clothes in wrinkles and my hairdo is a mess.
I don’t file my ragged nails. My cuticles are snaggy,
and please don’t bother telling me my pants seat is too baggy.
The only thing that bothers me is folks who are persnickety––
who adjust my collar, smooth my tie or pick at me.
If only they’d leave me alone to be who I am.
Why obsess about my looks when I don’t give a damn?
The dVerse Poets prompt today is to write a “bother” poem. Image from Unsplash by Daniel Pascoa, used with permission.
Anything closed can be opened and anything open can be filled, be it the last space in a picture puzzle, an open basket, a piece of hollow bamboo. and open basket or a drainpipe. Flowers open, a dog’s ears perk up, open and listen, mouths open, wings open, and we in turn fill our eyes with all of these openings.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 