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.

Mirror Image

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Mirror Image

She’s a dingy sort of doppelganger, lackluster and fretful,
and when I’ve caught a glimpse of her, she seems to be forgetful.
She looks surprised to see me and although it should be magic,
when she catches sight of me, it seems she finds it tragic.

It’s a shame she never catches me when I am at my peak,
and so I seem to be an image that she’d like to tweak.
We both look in the mirror and we don’t like what we see,
the irony of that being that both of us are me!!

 

Prompt words today are doppelganger, tragic, forgetful, dingy and peak.

About the assemblage:

              “After Picasso: Self-examination” 

The watch part that serves as the womb to the woman beats with the pulse beat of the child within, whereas the mirror reflection contains no moving parts.  An antique “Tabu” powder tin  is imprisoned in an old  pocket watch case.  A tiny portrait of a woman is framed by one of the watch parts that make up the rest of this collage.

Tiny Obsession: NaPoWriMo 2022, Day 12

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Food
People
More People
Dishes
Animals

Tiny Obsession

I like things in miniature—
those things more likely to endure.
Tiny cars to put in pockets,
diamond rings and heart-shaped lockets,
fragile wee ceramic dolls
and buttons pulled off overalls,
game pieces and Sunday school pins—
things to fill up drawers and bins.

Bits of lace and fabric swatches,
antique keys and locks off boxes,
seashells and fossils in small sizes,
plastic Crackerjack surprises,
tiny well-formed souvenirs,
caps off foreign-labelled beers,
swizzle sticks and matchbook covers,
love letters from bygone lovers.

What do I do with all this stuff?
Collecting it is not enough.
Accumulation is a bore
if you don’t know what it is for!
The junk that’s stored in my garage
turns into riches in a collage,
where all of these assorted pieces
unite to form a visual thesis.

In jars and boxes, drawers and bowls,
reside future creative goals.
Pick a watch. Rip it apart
and reunite it into art.
Find a theme and work it out.
That act is what it’s all about.

A nasty rumor I must debunk
is that what I collect is junk.
These things from junk stores or from ditches
may be transformed into riches.
In life it’s not what you may start with.
It’s taking those things you don’t part with
and taking necessary measures
to transform them into treasures.

Anything imbued with heart
becomes, in time, a vital part
of what you make of what you may
come across from day to day.
In short, it’s what you’ve filled a life with
that ends up what you build a life with.

 

The NaPoWriMo prompt today is to write an homage to something small.

Scarlet Firespike: FOTD. Apr 12, 2022

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Scarlet Firespike against a fiery sky. I’ve been trying to identify this flower for twenty years. Now, thanks to a generous commenter who suggested a flower identification site, I’ve done so!!!! If you are the one who sent me the suggestion and you see this, please identify yourself, and many thanks.

For Cee’s FOTD

Juguetes: Art Challenge #5

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Juguetes
(Play Things)

I snapped the central picture of this retablo in the home of Rudolfo Moralez, a famous Oaxacan painter now deceased.  It was a very large doll, sitting in a nicho on the stairwell up to his studio. It had obviously been exposed to the elements and in fact was breaking open.  For years, I tried to think of an association to begin a retablo dedicated to this wonderful man, as well as to the image itself.  Finally, the image won out. Toys and elements of board games old and new surround her image. The blue rectangle with the silver star on it under the silver-leafed toy horse is a harmonica. That may give you some idea of the scale of the piece.

My friend Linda Levy challenged me to post a different photo of my art each day for ten days. I’ve skipped a few days thanks to a faulty memory, but here, at last, is day 5!!

 

Culinary Apologies

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Culinary Apologies

Though some would say that I’m a flake
when I’m called upon to bake,
and though I qualify just barely,
I feel I’m typecast most unfairly.

True, I rank with all the rookies
when it comes to baking cookies,
and my cupcakes don’t win prizes
at anything but worst surprises.

Nonetheless, my precedent
at providing less than I had meant
is never intentional.
It’s just that I am rather dull

when it comes to pleasuring
by sifting, baking, measuring.
I lack that culinary calm
so never cook without a qualm.

When I baked banana bread
and measured powdered sugar instead
of flour, yes, I must confess
it created an awful mess.

And when I burned the chicken stew
because I had so much to do,
I hope that you remember that
I trimmed the plants and fed the cat,

wrote a poem and made some art,
(scorched the toast and burned the tart)
took the puppy for a walk,
phoned a friend and had a talk.

So though my fridge is lacking stuff,
I find my life is full enough
All in all, what I’ve got cookin’
may not be where you are lookin’.

Prompts today are flake, calm, intentional, typecast and precedent. (If you want to read about the powdered sugar debacle, click on the link where it is mentioned in the poem.)

Panegyric for Pachyderm: NaPoWriMo 2022, Day 11

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Panegyric for Pachyderm

Which one among us says I can’t
eulogize an elephant?
Oh thou of ears floppily gray,
of thee I have so much to say.

Words invented will not do.
I have to coin new words for you.
Your skin, in fact, is so abundant
that I must call you epibundant.

And other words unbunkable?
Tuskidopherous and trunkable.
Unchallenged monarch of the zoo,
parades aren’t complete without you.

Your trumpet fills the savanna air
to tell the world that you are there.
Rip Van Wrinkle might better name
thee, monarch of the great untame!

And though by any other term,
loxodonta or pachyderm,
we do not know thee quite as well.
in size and fame, you still excel.

 

For NaPoWriMo Day 11, we are to write a poem about a very large thing. And yes, that is me on the back of that elephant!

Bougainvillea: FOTD Apr 11, 2022

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For Cee’s FOTD

Asparagus Fern Blooms: FOTD Apr 10, 2022

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For Cee’s FOTD

Early Release

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Early Release

He barely saw the morning view, he was in such a pother.
He skipped his juice and pancakes. He simply couldn’t bother.
Today no one could find a way to dispel his grief.
His nervousness was clear to all. He couldn’t find relief.
His summer bliss was over. The truth blatantly cruel
as his worst fears came true at last with the first day of school!
He dragged his book bag in the dust and lagged behind the others.
He’d be out at the fishing hole if he had had his druthers.
Pencils his ma had sharpened, he broke against the wall,
so when he had to write things down, he’d have no way at all.
He used his brand new ruler to pry up stones and rocks
to catch red ants and spiders to tie up in his socks.
He caught a lizard just before it zipped under a log,
and put it in his pocket with a field mouse and a frog.
So when he got to school he’d have ample ammunition
to bring the brand new school marm to a sure state of contrition
for imprisoning them all inside on such a nice fall day,
and school would get out early if he had his way!

Prompt words for today are grief, nervous, pother and morning view.

Dim Sum: NaNoWriMo 2022, Day 10

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Dim Sum are little love poems. I challenge every reader to write one and send it to me! For the fun of it, I made mine into a chain of hearts.


Dim Sum

When you rise hours early
to stand in front of the window
and watch for the UPS truck,
I shift my dreaming over
to your warm pillow.
If you are a child,
I am a
cat.
The Computer
has become the new hearth
and heart of our home, now
glowing out in the darkness
long after we have moved
to the room next door
to try to sleep
in vain.
A Clock
on the wall of every room
speaks its midnight language
and intrudes into my dreams,
each one telling me I am
another hour closer
to leaving
you.

 

For Day 10 of NaNoWriMo 2022 we have been asked to write a love poem. Here are three for someone who is never forgotten..