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.

For Flashback Friday, Feb 21, 2025

For Flashback Friday we are asked to rerun an earlier blog published on this day. I’m reblogging one from Feb 21 of 2017. Click on link below to see the blog and then on each photo to enlarge the photos:

https://judydykstrabrown.com/2017/02/21/looking-down-on-things/

 

 

“In Person” For SOCS, Feb 21, 2025

 

In Person

I am the emptiness in you that glues the parts of you together.
I form those other worlds that are the universe inside of you.
I have a language all my own that speaks through your voice.
There is something holding us together, something keeping us apart.

You are that part of me that only I can search for.
You are the part I wrap myself around.
You are the mystery that forms the game of my life.
When I am alone, you create in me the opposite of loneliness.

They are the full cast of my life.
They  come together when I am willing to let both of them go.
I let them take turns being my guide.
It is in getting lost in them that I let myself be found.

For SOCS  the prompt is “in person.”

Fibbing Friday, Feb. 21, 2025

For Fibbing Friday, Feb 21, 2025 the challenge is to define the following:

1.   What is a quaver? It is an over-the-shoulder receptacle for arrows in Louisiana.
2.   If you didn’t know a door as a door, what would you call it?  An In-or-Outer.
3.   007 has a license to kill, but what would an 010 have a license for? To drive a ten-speed bicycle.
4.   Define Corybantic. One member of a comedy duo known for their ribald humor..
5.   What does Crinkum-crankum mean?  An invitation to come witness Rin and  Ran in an X-rated movie.
6.   What is a Cacodemon ? Satan with dysentery.
7.   What would you do with a collop? Answer it.
8.   What is a curlicue? A cookout for doggies.
9.   Who or what is a cootie? An attractive young pigeon.
10.  What is an erf?  The sound made by a dog with a speech impediment.

Image thanks to z-grills Austalia.

For Cee’s FOTD

“Dropped Glove,” Madrigal Poem for dVerse Poets

Dropped Glove

When love first blooms it seems eternal love
Impossible that it might fall away
What use is love that doesn’t choose to stay?

At first love seems to fit one like a glove
that warmly cloaks our hand both night and day
When love first blooms it seems eternal love
Impossible that it might fall away

We know not what love’s garment is made of.
We only note when it begins to fray
and loosens more and more along the way.
When love first blooms it seems eternal love
Impossible that it might fall away
What use is love that doesn’t choose to stay?

For dVerse Poets we were to write a Madrigal poem. Here are the rules for an English Madrigal: :Content: Often includes a theme of love
*Usually written in iambic pentameter.
*Comprised of three stanzas: a tercet, quatrain, and sestet.
*All three of the lines in the opening tercet are refrains.

Form: A thirteen-line form in three stanzas:
Stanza 1] Tercet -Three lines
Stanza 2] Quatrain – Four lines
Stanza 3] Sestet – Six lines

[L1] A (refrain 1)
[L2] B1 (refrain 2)
[L3] B2 (refrain 3)

[L4] a
[L5] b
[L6] A (refrain 1)
[L7] B1 (refrain 2)

[L8] a
[L9] b
[L10] b
[L11] A (refrain 1)
[L12] B1 (refrain 2)
[L13] B2 (refrain 3)

Go HERE to read other poems created to this prompt.

ORNAMENTAL CABBAGE AND FRIENDS, FOR FOTD, FEB 20, 2025

FOR CEE’S FOTD

Simplicity for Moonwashed Madness, Feb 20, 2025

Simplicity

Trying to keep it simple is harder than you think.
Each time I straighten out my life, fate adds another kink.

 

For Moonwashed Musings,
To see other responses to the prompt, go HERE.

Collective Show at the Ajijic Cultural Center

I will be showing three mixed-media pieces in this Collective show in the Cultural Center in Ajijic Plaza. Information on the opening reception is above. Below is one of the pieces I’ll be showing.

Mulberry

Mulberry

Vincent, what skewed your branches, streaked your sky,
and drew tormented waters from above?
What crops, obscured by grasslands
pressed to earth?
What part of you
at rest beneath that tree––
now only your marker
left for us to see?

For dVerse Poets
To see other responses to this prompt, go HERE.

Rum Dumb for RDP, Feb 19, 2025

Rum Dumb

Beer is tacky. Wine’s a joke.
My preference is Rum and Coke.
Squeeze a lime in. Take a sip
to cool your throat and wet your lip.
My favorite form of inebriation
is always Cuba Libre-ation.

The RDP prompt is Tacky. Can’t resist that one. Went back 11 years and found this ditty I wrote that just happened to contain the prompt word. I didn’t remember writing it, so perhaps you don’t remember reading it.  Does anyone???