Cups of Java or Cups of Tea? Me, I just need my:
Morning Couplets
Every single day for years, my morning’s not replete
until my poem is published—polished and complete.
I meander through my sentences until I think they’re done,
and then I herd them into shape—each metaphor and pun.
My need is pathological to get them all just right.
I love words’ sensuality, their pathos and their bite.
Though some have a reluctance to show up when I call them,
there’s a satisfaction when I finally recall them.
What would I do with mornings if I had no words to play with?
There’d be nothing else for me to find to fill my day with!
Prompts for today are meander, sentence, pathological, replete, reluctance.
Rules of Order
(Mom’s Note Taped up on The Fridge)
I have a part time passion for things in their right place.
Shoes go in the closet. A nose goes on a face.
An Oxford comma bothers me when placed before an “and.”
An apostrophe in a plural word? Something I can’t stand!
“Me and her,” though common in modern print and speech,
is a solecism that I must beseech
you not to make. The use of it is bound to cause a screech.
Such errors unforgivable—a gross grammatical breach.
When issued from an errant tongue, it’s sure to cause a rise
in my pulse and blood pressure and pitchforks in my eyes!!!!
When I was a teacher, I’d put squiggles through a word
like “awesome” for its overuse was one I found absurd.
In striking out such errors, I felt most justified,
to save its proper usage for times more bonafide.
Right things in right places just somehow soothe my soul.
Sorting out the universe is my heartfelt goal.
Forks all on the left side, spoons and knives all on the right.
Bowls all stacked up on a shelf are a lovely sight.
Ants all neatly marching in their single rows.
Orderly arrangements? Even Nature knows
are the proper way for all the world to go,
and now that I’ve informed you, even you must know
enough to know that order makes me a happy camper,
so after this, please put your dirty socks into the hamper!!!
Prompts today are part time, passion, striking, solecism (a grammatical mistake in speech or writing), rise and squiggles. Photo by jdb
Preparing for Summer
When your appetite starts knocking and you crave a light repast,
even though the time since your last meal seems too vast,
tie your cravings to a stanchion and curb their niggling prompt.
Do some calisthenics or take a forest romp.
Defenestrate those Oreos. Resist that peanut brittle.
It takes a lot of will power to make yourself more little.
Dieting’s not easy. Resolution is the pits,
but it will all be worth it when your favorite swimsuit fits!!!!
Prompts for today are: knocking, vast, defenestrate, stanchion, forest and peanut brittle.
Click on photos to enlarge. Explanations of the sculpture are given below the poem.
Anima/Animus
The sword of guilt is something I continually hone,
and in this I feel that I am surely not alone.
Guile and temper are not exclusively my sin,
for animus is something that we all carry within.
In the early nineteenth century, animus was used to mean “temper” and was typically used in a hostile sense. In 1923, it began being used as a term in Jungian psychology to describe the masculine side of women. The anima as the unconscious feminine side of a man. (Excerpts from Wikipedia)
The photos are of my mixed media sculpture entitled Anima/Animus. The detail in the second photo symbolizes the shattering of the male side of the ego by a feminine consciousness. The metal object in the glass case is a small replica of the instrument used to sever heads from bodies in sacrificial preHispanic temple ceremonies. The hammer shattering the glass is meant to symbolize the gentling effect of the feminine on the masculine.
Prompt words today are animus, guilt, guile, exclusive and alone.
Election Year Blues
This is nuts!
No ands or buts.
Change is brewing,
voters stewing.
Economic crunch,
most of the bunch
Half-Baked choices,
crazy voices.
Urban jumble
about to crumble.
The Yellow Brick Road
Soon to erode.
A Dastardly Mash
of rich guys’ cash
Make Rocky Roads
of mother lodes.
Cool Britannia
wins the day
as the rest of Earth
Just melts away!
For dVerse Poets Ben & Jerry prompt. The italicized words above are all Ben & Jerry flavors and yes, I admit I sneaked in one non-B&J flavor as well!!! Plus, changed the rhyme scheme in the last stanza. I should run for public office, changing the rules like that!!!
Here are the flavor choices:
Change is Brewing – current
Half-Baked – created in 2000 -still going strong
Urban Bourbon – 2017 -still going strong
Coffee Coffee Buzzbuzzbuzz – current
Wavy Gravy – 1993 – 2001
Urban Jumble – 2000 -2001
Dastardly Mash – 1979 – 1991
Miz Jelena’s Sweet Potato Pie – 1992 – 1993
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – limited edition available July 18 to 25, 2008
Late Night Snack – 2010 – 2014
Imagine Whirled Peace – 2007 – 2013
Sugar Plum – 1989 – 1990
Cool Britannia – 1995 – 1998
Economic Crunch – only in 1987 during the stock market crash
This is Nuts 2001 – 2002
To see other posts that feature Ben & Jerry flavors, go HERE.
Click on photos to increase size.
Moonlight Reflection
The radiant moon invites me to meander to the pool.
To miss its cloud-scrimmed drama would reveal me as a fool.
Its flickering light reflected in the pool’s steaming glass,
I part its even surface asunder as I pass.
Clothed in liquid light, I walk a smooth straight line,
reflectively immersed in this world that is all mine.
I have no other idol except this ghost of moon.
I feel that I could taste it if I only had a spoon.
Its taste would be ambrosial upon my earthly tongue—
the first to taste a lunar menu formerly unsung.
I bundle up my prayers and toss them overhead,
leaving all my worries unthought of and unsaid.
The stone steps lead me up again from its steaming mass
and I shed off moonlight around me as I pass.
I take its memory with me as I return to bed,
the splendor of the moonlight forever in my head.
Today’s prompt words are: reflective radiant immersed meander idol line taste drama ghost flickering stone. The photos I took two weeks ago before leaving my house to travel to the states for my school reunion. A glorious scene. One of the shots is the moon and trees reflected in the surface of my pool that is fed by hot mineral springs that pass through the magma layer fed by the Colima Volcano, 80 miles away. I swim in it almost nightly.
For the Sunday Whirl Wordle 562
Reality Redefined
(From Reality Shows to Reality Politicians, the meaning
of the word seems to have shifted to its opposite.)
Your underwhelming comments on my photographs should shame me,
but if they foster apathy, you really cannot blame me.
Timeless snapshots can’t be made of subjects that are boring,
and ordinary truth, it seems, leaves viewers merely snoring.
“What seems to be” has turned into the new truth that we seek—
reality becoming something we can tweak.
A pantomimed emotion, sadly, I must confess,
if one is good enough at it, is good enough, I guess.
So bring on the kitschy actor, the reality show clown.
Their entertainment value will bring them wide renown.
They are what is called for in this modern cyber world.
“Reality’s” new meaning therein has been unfurled.
Prompt words are snapshot, underwhelming, timeless, kitschy, foster and pantomime.
Born-Again Gourmet
Once I was a candidate for gourmet school flunky,
sporting the dubious honor of number one food junkie.
But now I’m basically looking for a way to curb
my appetite for junk food in favor of superb
cuisine that suits the palates of gourmands and gourmets.
I’ll impress headwaiters with my knowledge of patés,
place orders for obscure foods that will startle and amaze.
Then I can claim my trashy choice in food was just a phase.
Prompt words today are: head, basically, candidate, activate and superb.Image by Mads Eneqvist on Unsplash.
Restorative Rhyme
When life gets too busy and I wish that I had wings
to get me free from obligations and off to greater things,
away from lists, committees and everything that’s pending,
everything that in the modern world seems to be trending,
I fly off in my thoughts instead and write a silly verse
in words I put together, absurd and even worse.
And yet in its reciting, somehow it’s rehabilitating,
wiping out those serious thoughts that were debilitating.
Prompt words are: wings, trend, great, debilitating and busy.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 