Author Archives: lifelessons

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About lifelessons

My blog, which started out to be about overcoming grief, quickly grew into a blog about celebrating life. I post daily: poems, photographs, essays or stories. I've lived in countries all around the globe but have finally come to rest in Mexico, where I've lived since 2001. My books may be found on Amazon in Kindle and print format, my art in local Ajijic galleries. Hope to see you at my blog.

Broken Resolutions

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Broken Resolutions

I admire your resolution as you once more launch a new one.
Eying the lovely ladies, saying you’re not going to woo one,
but I fear your resolution is due to soon elapse
as you inevitably launch into your annual relapse.

The Miss America pageant should commence with a dire warning
lest an evening’s entertainment turn obsessional by morning.
Men such as yourself who are merely Cupid’s dupe
might find themselves trapped helpless like a fly drowned in the soup.

As you dream of Miss Missouri or fixate on Illinois,
you might find yourself transforming into just a boy
and imagine it’s your privilege, perhaps, to have a date
with the prettiest maiden in the next adjoining state.

But, alas, it’s only dreaming—the result of your illusions
that you can live out your most impossible delusions.
All those lovely ladies that you most desire to woo you
are the ones most likely to reject and eschew you

Prompt words today are admire, warning, elapse, launch, soup, privilege .

Nature will Prevail!! FOTD Oct 10, 2022

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Click on photos to enlarge.

I am always surprised about how in spite of all we do to contain them or repel them, plants will find a way to make their way into the world.

For Cee’s FOTD

WDYS 154 – Tools and the Man, Oct 9, 2022

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I can’t see tools without thinking of my husband Bob who had every tool on earth. Here is a poem I wrote about him. It’s been on my blog before so hope this is acceptable. Click on this link to read the poem:  https://judydykstrabrown.com/2016/11/27/you-have-become-the-art-you-lived-for/

Here is a photo of him at his happiest, in the studio creating:

For What Do You See Prompt

Arches

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Click on photos to enlarge and view as slide series.

For Jez’s “Fan of Arches” prompt.

Rebuttal

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Rebuttal

My waterfall of words is more than just conjecture,
so do not list my weaknesses in yet another lecture.
Misery begets misery. The truth of this is told.
So when you berate me, intimidate and scold,
the intermittent piercings of sharp words I spew out
are but a reaction to the cruelties you tout.

 

Prompts for today are  pierce, intermittent, weakness   conjecture, miserable, waterfall. Image by Kusuma on Unsplash.

Floral Alphabet Challenge, The Letter Z, Oct 9, 2022

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Zinnias!!! Click on photos to enlarge.

Please post your flowers for today both in comments below and in Cee’s FOTD.

Alone

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This was my favorite Glenn Yarbrough album and it seems appropriate to share it here:https://open.spotify.com/album/7gEsJaa39X17rzsLY59yrI

For the Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge: Alone

Back of the Fridge

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Back of the Fridge

Free from the air current’s rush and flow,
the fridge back’s where the spiders go
to spin their webs and catch their prey.
We should give thanks for them, ‘cuz they
 trap flies that land upon our snacks,
dive-bomb our faces, roam our backs
and cause us all so much dismay,
so let your resident spiders stay.
Better in their hidden place
than buzzing flies right in your face.

Trolling for flies in the kitchen.

For SOCS prompt: Back of the Fridge

Passion Writ in Blood (For Tourmaline’s Halloween Prompt)

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Passion Writ in Blood

The barker at the Carnival was handsome, dark and winning.
One hand signaled passersby, the other hand was spinning
round and round a roulette wheel covered with glassware jars
around them, painted pentagrams of circles around stars.

“Throw a penny in the jar and win your ticket in.
A Mephistophelian experience—a masquerade of sin.
An excruciating onslaught of abominable sights.
Scenes of hair-raising evil and abnormal delights.”

He pitched a hall of horrors with carriages to carry
all the thrill-seekers who might freeze in fear or tarry
too long before each spectacle of blood-curdling fright
set up to fill the need for fear this All Hallows’ night.

One maiden threw her penny and he drew her in with charm,
folding a gentle prodding hand around her virginal arm.
“My adorable mortal darling, please heed well my advice.
The hawks of evil here are set to feed on you like mice.

Get ready for their onslaught—the excruciating shock
of these All Hallows’ creatures who closely watch the clock
as its hands sweep close to midnight and that hour that decrees
that all the creatures of the night may frolic as they please.

A blood-letting bonanza, a nerve-wracking display
will unleash as midnight calls us to the fray.
So climb into my carriage to begin the eerie trip
that will take you through the fun house. I will keep you in my grip.
See these shadowy images careening through my globe?
they say they see your fortune flashing here beneath my robe.

The dagger that I carry seeks a home in thee,
but I have you in my power. I know you will not flee.
You scurry across the meadow with my shadow far above.
I swoop at thee, my pretty, my quarry and my love.

Some passion’s writ in flowers and some passion’s writ in blood.
I feel your life flow out from you and toward me like a flood.
I’ll drink it like the sweetest wine. With it I’ll take thy soul.
To keep it with me always will be my evening’s goal.

Life is a wicked carnival, my dear, now can you see?
When you threw your penny in the jar, the prize you won was me.”

 

For Tourmaline’s Halloween Challenge: Blood Image from the public domain. This poem, written by me, has been formerly published with a different name.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

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(Click on photos to see larger views.)

Things That Go Bump In The Night

On Samhain tiny goblins compete with tinier witches,
holding out their candy bags with pleading looks and twitches.
Trading in their own names like Sandy, John and Luke,
they go by their pseudonyms of Zombie, Ghoul and Spook.

They only have ’til midnight to cease their operation
of collecting candy, to their great consternation,
for it is at the midnight hour that real ghouls congregate
with witches, ghosts and zombies at the graveyard gate.

Old miners follow flume trails down looking for the gold
that seemed to evade them in the days of old.
Dead school marms lift their rulers looking for a kid to swat,
And zombies execute last haunts before their final rot.

Ghoulies swoop down from the trees and witches brew their brews,
vowing to force feed their glop to any kid they choose.
So best be in your beds before the midnight toll
lest you be absconded with by zombie or by troll!!!!!

Prompts for today are spook, twitch, *Samhain, *flume,  operation, pseudonym,

*Flumes were  wooden troughs elevated on trestles that ran down a mountainside to bring gold down from futher up the mountain.  They were also used in the transportation of logs in the logging industry. We used to hike up the flume trail at summer camp in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

*Our Halloween evolved as a combination of All Souls Day and Samhain, an early Gaelic and Celtic harvest festival which contained many of the elements that evolved into the custom of dressing up in costumes and trick-or-treating.