Category Archives: Uncategorized

Dressed to Kill the Blues

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Dressed to Kill the Blues

If you’re feeling washed out like your blossoming’s through,
feeling less than capricious and aged and blue,
why not ransack your closet to find something gaudy,
colorful, crazy, a little bit bawdy?

Don’t nurse a depression that you can dress up.
Why be a sad dog when you could be a pup?
Wilder clothes make you happy. Put joie in your vivre.
Tight clothes and stilettos—a  trick up your sleeve.

That impulse to give up is something to hide.
Folks will respond to what they see outside.
So when life deals the doldrums, why give in and mess it up?
You will feel better if only you  dress it up.

Prompts for the day are washed out, nurse, capricious, ransack and  blossoming.

 

Lest you think this is how my friends and I always dress, I’ll reveal that this was a Poor Taste party I threw one New Years Eve. Friends were to come dressed in the worst possible taste and to bring a dish that was tacky but delicious. It was a fun party!!!! 

Neighborhood Rhythms–Then and Now

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I’ve been down swinging in the hammock, listening to the neighborbood sounds and talking to my friends Marti and Patty on the phone and writing to Forgottenman on Skype. This was part of our conversation:

Judy: Lots of bats flying around right now..soaring around in droves.some poor doggie howling and howling a distance away glad my two haven’t joined in. Frogs, katydids and rainbirds making a din—plus some drummer down below. Rainbirds just started up again LOUD….have you ever heard them?

That led him to send me these two links:

Judy: Both of those sound just like what I’m experiencing now.. Right down to the music coming from across the street. I think you should reblog those. So nostalgic. Wish you were here doing the same now.

What he describes in them is exactly what I’ve been experiencing for the past hour or so, so I decided to reblog his pieces. It is now fully dark after a long lovely sundown and leg and foot cramps ousted me from the hammock so I’m about to go in for a swim. Hope you will enjoy Forgottenman’s eight year old posts as I did. The world doesn’t change that much after all, except for the fact that I’m the one in the hammock now.

Just click on the links above to see what he had to say way back when.

Moon’s Eclipse. May 26, 2021

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I woke up very early this morning after only 4 hours of sleep. I collected the day’s prompts–those that had been posted this early–and decided to check my Facebook. Thankfully, someone had posted a notice that the moon was in almost total eclipse. Thus began a hour’s flurry of activity, first trying to photograph it with my hand-held iPhone, then searching the house for my long-neglected Canon with 80X Zoom, only to find all of the SD cards were full or nonfunctional for one reason or another. I erased one, then went in search of my tripod and spent another 15 valuable minutes trying to get the horizontal pivot to work.. No success. Finally, I took it out to the terrace again only to find that I didn’t need to pivot it to get a shot of the moon, but at that exact moment, the sky started to lighten from pitch black to a pale gray and the moon vanished entirely! Luckily, I earlier managed to capture one sliver of moon on my iPhone, and here it is–the blood moon almost totally drained.

Arete Flower FOTD May 25, 2021

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For Cee’s FOTD

Birthday Heist

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Birthday Heist

The rumors are untrue. He is a scurrilous liar.
I did not steal the birthday cake. I did not start the fire.

My serenity is not a ruse. I’m innocent of error.
I swear I had no hand in your recent birthday terror.

The dog has done his utmost to brand me as the thief,
but the fool is barely lucid. Could you not see his relief

when you started to upbraid me as he chased me, headed south,
crumbs falling from his chest hair, frosting around his mouth?

Oh that I knew your language and I could tell you that,
but instead, for ever after, you’ll be blaming “that damn cat!!”

Evidence of an earlier crime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvtfDaBi8XE

Prompt words today are liars, lucid, scurrilous, utmost and serenity.

Tsundoku

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Please click on photos to enlarge.

Tsundoku

What is tsundoku? Dare we guess?
I’m not too sure, I must confess.
We may surmise what it may be.
Perhaps a sushi canapé?

A puzzle type or summer storm?
A Japanese poetic form?
A kimono sash or even, maybe,
a plush Godzilla made for baby?

All this time in speculation
has given rise to consternation.
It’s clear that since I have no clue,
I must find something else to do.

And so I’m driven to express
there is a truth I must address.
What, in the end, tsundoku is,
is just an irritating quiz.

If you don’t know, what good’s expressing
all this speculative guessing?
Such stressful thoughts may lead to cancer.
Use Merriam Webster for the answer!

 

All photos by me except the image of the books, which is a photo by Forgottenman and the photo of plush Godzilla, which I found on Amazon.

Bricks and Bougainvillea: FOTD May 24, 2021

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I love this photo of the bougainvillea spilling over my wall into my lower lot with Jose in the background, erecting a ladrillo border around the boulders spilling down from the corner of the lot. He is such a cheerful worker and we’ve found project after project for him to do over the past year.

For Cee’s FOTD

Highlights of Travel for Sunday Stills

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Please click on photos to enlarge and read captions.

When I was little, life seemed like one long summer day,
Mom and Dad in Australia. He finally got to travel–to come visit me.
Singapore Tiger Balm Gardens with silly friends.
1973, Sri Lanka
With Andy in Ethiopia
1986
With new friends in Bali.
With Blue in Peru
With Pasiano and Yolanda and families in Tapalpa, Mexico
With Gloria and Rachel in La Manzanilla, Mexico

For me, the best travel memories always involve people. Here are some of my favorite people in some of my favorite vacation spots of my life. I could have gone on with this all day, but had to stop. Other memorable vacation spots but too little time..

 

For Sunday Stills: Favorite Vacation Spot

“Flutter” : The Surrogate

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After seeing the green moth in my last blue/green post, Forgottenman directed me back to the time many years ago when I first posted the photo of the green moth that lit on my screen, causing me to write a poem around it and then photograph the result. He encouraged me to reblog it, so here it is. I hope you enjoy it. It was such a unique experience forming a poem around an actual creature clinging to my screen. I can no longer remember why I named it “The Surrogate.” Any ideas? I invite your comments.

lifelessons's avatarlifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown

Surrogate w pic 6

The Prompt: Sounds Right—This is clearly subjective, but some words really sound like the thing they describe (personal favorites: puffin; bulbous; fidgeting). Do you have an example of such a word (or, alternatively, of a word that sounds like the exact opposite of what it refers to)? What do you think creates this effect?

I’ve always loved the word “’Flutter” as it applies to a butterfly or moth.  What better word could be used to describe the motion of their wings?  The moth described in my poem, however, was noticeable because of its lack of flutter.  It landed upon my computer screen like a magnetized object to metal and remained there for over two hours.  The moth pictured in the poem is the actual moth.  Tiny and green, it became part of my writing experience. Since it had chosen to remain in one position, directly on my screen, I was…

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Sad Movies

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Sad Movies

This movie’s so sad it should come with a tissue
and  a spare one as well with the first one they issue.
I blush to admit how my tears are just gushing. 
I’m surrounded by neighbors complaining and shushing.
It’s uncanny that I’d pay good money for this.
Nine dollars for me and nine dollars for sis.
I don’t need the mood swing. I don’t need this sadness—
exchanging for tears my earlier gladness.
If they’re going  to produce such sad entertainment,
a least they could provide adequate containment
for all of the tears and the blowing of noses.
Entertainment this year was no bed of roses!

Prompt words today are swing, uncanny, blush, issue and spare.