Category Archives: Uncategorized

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!

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..

Shards: NaPoWriMo 2022, Day 9 Redux

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Okay, I got it wrong the first time by counting words instead of syllables. Here is a Nonet, done correctly:

Shards

Plates crash—mneumonic contradictions
of last year’s “I plight thee my troth.”
Pushed to the brink, you speak back
in your own special Braille.
Shattered wedding cups—
your broken heart—
shards of my
broken
vows.

 

For NaPoWriMo 2022, Day 9

Shards: NaPoWriMo 2022, Day 9

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Shards

Plates crashing against the wall: mneumonic reminders of you.
Nobody does better this contradiction of wedding vows.
Pushed to the brink, you speak back
in this, your own special Braille.
Our wedding cup—my heart
shattered against the wall—
a ragged souvenir
of broken
vows.

 

For NaPoWriMo 2022, Day 9 the prompt is to write a Nonet. But, after writing this, I realized I did it wrong, counting words instead of syllables. See my rewrite HERE.

Other prompts used in this post are plate,  nobody, brink, mnemonic and contradiction.

How to Mend a Broken Heart (For Stream of Consciousness Saturday)

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How to Mend a Broken Heart

Pop a really big bowl of popcorn.
Don’t think of calories.
Just ignore the old maids in the bottom––
this is not a fortune-telling experience.
Lots of butter.

Locate chocolate.
If none is to be found,
there is likely a 7-11 within driving distance
no matter where you happen to be.
Get the biggest bar.
A bite of popcorn, then a bite of chocolate.

Locate an old Ma and Pa Kettle movie somewhere online and watch it.
Ma Kettle is you in ten years if your love affair had worked out.
Pa Kettle is who your lover would have turned into.

Find an old Sophia Loren movie online and watch it.
Sophia Loren is who you are now.
Don’t worry about the popcorn.
Sophia Loren wouldn’t.

Imagine Paul Newman eating popcorn
off your bare back.
Flip over.
Flash on making love to Pa Kettle.
Quickly flash back to Paul Newman
now eating popcorn off your bare shoulder blade.

Imagine your ex in a movie theater
watching Paul Newman make love to you
up there on the big screen.
Don’t worry about who your ex is with.

Well, maybe just one little peek.

Your ex is with Ma Kettle!

(If you don’t know who Ma and Pa Kettle are, go HERE.)

The prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “How?”

Fowl Play

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My neighbor David Bershad called me this morning and asked if I was keeping chickens now. I said no, puzzled that he would ask and he said he could swear he heard a rooster crowing in my yard. I told him it must be the people across the street as they had them in the past. I left and when I got back home, this was in my email.

Sure enough, that is a rooster strutting by on my terrace. The rather sinister looking iguana in front is actually the Quetzalcoatl sculpture that surrounds the water pipe that empties hot water into the pool. Its lower jaw is obscured by the tree so it looks like an iguana!!! I’ll never doubt anything that David says again and I’m amazed that the dogs didn’t kill it. No feathers in view so I take it it went back home. Note that there is a very tall wall around my entire house. I didn’t know roosters could fly that high.

Between Two Worlds ( Art Challenge # 4)

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I’m adding pieces to the show as pieces are sold and removed. This new piece and others are still on view at Jesus Lopez Vega’s Gallery on the corner of Rio Zula (Rio Bravo) and Ocampo, a block south of Casa Linda in Ajijic. Open M-F  10 to 6 through April 30, 2022. 

Between Two Worlds

This piece is about old and new, peace and conflict, blended cultures, freedom and confinement, the wide variety of what the world has to offer and the need to stay on target, to have fun and to spend our time wisely. The Luchador is wearing my All State Choir pin as a belt buckle? What’s that about??? I’ve recently added this piece to the show, along with several other new pieces, as work has sold.

 

My friend Linda Levy Challenged me to post a photo of a piece of art I created each day for ten days. Here is today’s share.

Winter Reunion

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Winter Reunion

Mom has popped some popcorn and Dad has built a fire.
Snow collects on window frames as flames lick high and higher.
With pillows piled on the couch and warm rugs on the floor,
it makes a cozy little nest for tired kids to explore.

With  temperatures lowering , it’s fertile territory
for a mug of cocoa and another Grandpa story
about their Halcyon years of youth when Grandma’s evening gown
set new stylish standards for their little town.

Her look representative of a wider world,
all the girls took notice of the way her hair was curled,
and what length her skirts were and what words she used
and when Grandpa came to town, they inevitably fused.

Grandpa in his Model T, raccoon tail on the mirror,
speeding down the main street, grinding every gear.
Grandma on the sidewalk in her flapper gear,
how they got together is why we all are here.

And we are representatives, each and every one
of the whole long story of how her love was won.
These familiar stories building our education
of how a family is built on each past generation.

Prompts for the day are fertile territory, temperature, stylish, Halcyon and representative.

Our Lady of Notions (Art Challenge #3)

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Click on photos to enlarge and view as a slide show.

 

Nuestra Señora de la Merceria
(Our Lady of Notions)

The wooden Madonna which forms the centerpiece of this retablo was hand carved and painted in Oaxaca. She is surrounded by both the “notions” and implements necessary to create beautiful clothing, quilts and other fabric art. Attached to the shrine are various pieces of handicraft, quilts and garments, many of them made by my grandmother. The three tiny much-decorated garments behind her have been presented to her as thank you gifts as well. On the top platform of the retablo, another drama is being enacted. Two tiny silk Chinese figures have cut themselves free of the pincushion they had been sewn onto and have rigged bobbins and thread into an escape device. One has nearly made it to the bottom of the box. Another slides over the edge, armed with a needle, as a third struggles to cut himself free with tiny silver scissors. There seems to be some animosity between those escaped and those about to escape, as signified by the somewhat threatening position of their weapons as well as their steely glares. Surfaces are covered by buttons, needles, thimbles and other sewing notions. On the platform is an antique Singer pattern marking wheel.

This piece was inspired by a church in Michoacan, Mexico where men bring their serapes to drape around the base of the male saint on the altar and all of the women bring gorgeously decorated aprons to drape around the base of the female saint. I had a woman make my basic tiny aprons and then I decorated them.

This was the first retablo that sold the day of the opening of my show. I’m posting photos of in in response to a prompt by Linda Levy, who challenged me to post a different photo of my art each day for ten days.

 

Cold

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Cold

Furniture leaves stick by stick.
His cold furnishings in the storehouse
while I put away my feelings
one by one.
He suggests we still be friends
while we wait for new friends to happen,
as though he’s drawing closer
as he pulls away.

I keep creeping closer to the truth
that lies
in eyes
cold.
Cold
eyes,
nothing written there.

His hand edges closer
on the seat between us.
Like a deaf-mute,
all communication
in his hands.

But those hands
don’t know all
my languages.

Handless bodies
in El Salvador
might think
my demands on them
less foolish.

My mother’s hands
drumming fingers
while she told a sleepy tale.
I was always in it,
in dark forests where the bears lived,
and although she acted
like she didn’t know it,
I was in the forest, lost,
expecting bears
while only drumming fingers
foretold the presence
of something
cold.

 

For dVerse Poets
To see the prompt, “A Little Repetition,” go HERE.