Andrea Gibson, Poet Laureate of Colorado. Sadly, she passed away on July 14. This is one of the best presentations I have ever witnessed in my life. Please watch it.
I must take umbrage over those words
that you have shared with all the world.
My deepest secrets, revealed, I thought, to you alone––
lie here, their magic lost,
trapped in tabloids––worthless
except as wraps for fish and chips.
A Cherita, for dVerse Poets Thanks to Matthew Reyes for use of his image on unsplash and to Forgottenman for his additional prompt “umbrage.”
See other poems for this prompt HERE.
The Magician
Through what I choose and where I give in,
I create the world I live in.
If I’m a trickster, I trick myself
and lay my talents on a shelf.
Magic’s not a thing without
or a thing to sell or flout.
It’s simply using the strength within
to play the game of life and win.
For Writer’s Workshop: Magic. Image by Aditya Saxeena on Unsplash.
Forest Shadows
A man is bending his wife—
melding their shadows with the green forest.
They do not listen
to the nearby cannon’s roar––
will not imagine
that their life together,
so new,
might
not
stretch
into
the
future.
When he looks at his pocket watch,
someday children
ringing a well-stocked table
vanish in
her imagination.
He lifts his musket to his shoulder,
trying to believe
in a future
and in it,
this memory:
two shadows
joined as one,
invisible against
the forest wall.
For dVerse Poets, the prompt is “Forest”. If you’d like to participate, go HERE.
Welcome to “The Numbers Game #84” Today’s number is 206. To play along, go to your photos file folder and type that number into the search bar. Then post a selection of the photos you find that include that number and post a link to your blog in my Numbers Game blog of the day. If instead of numbers, you have changed the identifiers of all your photos into words, pick a word or words to use instead, and show us a variety of photos that contain that word in the title. This prompt will repeat each Monday with a new number. If you want to play along, please put a link to your blog in comments below. Here are my contributions to the album.
Please click on photos to enlarge.
Welcome to “The Numbers Game #84” Today’s number is 206. To play along, go to your photos file folder and type that number into the search bar. Then post a selection of the photos you find that include that number and post a link to your blog in my Numbers Game blog of the day. If instead of numbers, you have changed the identifiers of all your photos into words, pick a word or words to use instead, and show us a variety of photos that contain that word in the title. This prompt will repeat each Monday with a new number. If you want to play along, please put a link to your blog in comments below. Here are my contributions to the album.
Please click on photos to enlarge.
Spreading Wings
Animals’ phases allow them to dare
to turn into something more special and rare.
Tadpoles swim landwards, developing legs.
Pupae to butterflies, chickens from eggs.
Rain falls and water runs west to the sea.
We try to go with it, my sister and me.
With leaves for our sails and vine pods for our ships,
what we wish for remains behind eyelids and lips.
The gutters are swollen and culverts are full.
We harness our boats, and we push and we pull.
But still they escape––rush away on their own.
I envy their future–unfettered, unknown.
In faraway places, I thought I’d be free
to discover new parts I was fated to be;
so I went after life like a kid at a fair,
from her carousel horse, reaching out through the air.
I could not resist the chance of surprise––
to grab the brass ring and capture the prize.
And yes, I did travel and how I did roam.
Life got faster the farther I wandered from home.
Now I’ve been through the phases from child to wife.
I’ve traveled and struggled and had a free life.
I’ve been on large vessels for months at a time,
and on most of my travels, I’ve had a good time.
If I’d known that the slow times were not going to last,
I would not have hoped for my time to go fast.
For now when the ending comes faster and faster,
The pace of my life is just courting disaster.
Though other seas beckon, my boat is well tethered.
My new dreams are tamer, my old dreams well weathered.
Now that I can go anywhere, do many things,
I wish for more time just to fold up my wings.
for Sadje’s What Do You See? prompt., Image by Hirzul Maulana. poem by Judy.
Some Advice for Touchers
Most people don’t mind a touch,
and though others may like it too much,
you have learned, I am hoping,
when it comes to groping,
that no one is fond of a clutch.
for Esther’s “Laughing Along With a Limerick” Challenge: Touch
The Couch Potato’s Creed
Though he who hesitates is lost,
impetuosity has its cost.
You should look before you leap,
because still waters might run deep.
Though early birds might get the worm,
rash actions trip up the infirm.
So all-in-all I think it’s better
if you aren’t a go-getter.
I guess the moral to this tale
is lest you lose or lest you flail,
if you’re up against the proverbial wall,
it’s best you do nothing at all!
I’ve discovered an interesting fact about Morrie. He frequently sleeps with his eyes wide open! In the above photo, taken at the house I rent at the beach, he’s on the couch, which I’d put a sheet on so a visiting friend could sleep there, but I snapped the below photo one morning when he had usurped my bed as well:
The boy knows how to make himself comfortable.
For Word of the Day: Couch
This is one of my very favorite photos..perhaps because I see so few sunrises. This one I saw on the road driving East from San Juan Cosala to Ajijic.
Click on Photos to Enlarge.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 