Click on photos to enlarge.
I know the U.S. is having every vagary of weather this week: snow, severe heat, tornadoes. Our weather during the rainy season in inland Mexico is pretty predictable. This rain came on quickly and with a vengeance this afternoon. Hard rain for about fifteen minutes and then departed as quickly as it came.
Jeannie did a great job of using all of the different objects presented to artists to use in the challenge. The mysterious rings that none of us knew the purpose for, bottle caps, wine corks, joker card, cardboard carton and buttons. If making this playful wall art collage didn’t cheer her up in her isolation, I don’t know what would. Hopefully, she’ll add some notes about her process in the comments.
(Click on photos below to enlarge)
To see the original challenge as well as links to the work of other artists who have sent in their photos of how they met the challenge, go HERE. If you want to join in, you need not start with the objects we started with. Choose your own media. Want to bake a Lonely Artist Covid cake? Great. Write a poem? Paint a painting? Do a mural? Make an intriguing mask? Snap a photo? Do a video? Sing a song? Do a dance? All are welcome. Just link your contribution via a link to this blog or to the link to the original challenge above.
Schmutzwortsuche
I’m a martyr to the language, a proponent of its usage.
Malapropisms shatter me. I cringe at their abusage.
I’m a verbal junkie. I use language every day.
Rare is the occasion where I don’t know what to say.
Yet, mere crude modern vulgarisms rarely cross my lips.
I cling to formal usage—give gratuities, not tips.
I need not stoop to schmutzwortsuche, for I’m never bored.
There are so many nicer words in books where words are stored.
But if a vulgarism is your quip of last resort,
at least please choose a clever one for your rude retort!
Prompt words today are martyr, verbal, schmutzwortsuche, gratuity and language.
Free the Birds
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” a psychic said to me.
Then my psychiatrist said the same, but for a bigger fee.
When people preach to me like this, I get set in my ways.
I’m never going to take advice from folks who spout clichés!
The birds that I have had in hand number very few.
I can’t recall a single time I combed a bush for two.
I have no wish to take a walk in another’s shoe.
I’m simply loathe to think in adages as others do.
I’ve never thought the grass was greener in my neighbor’s yard,
and spouting other people’s words does not make you a bard.
I don’t think quoting adages makes us any wiser.
If my neighbor’s lawn is greener, I’ll just use more fertilizer.
So please don’t give me your advice using a hackneyed phrase,
for all this glib advice just sorta puts me in a daze.
And if you simply must advise, my character to hone,
please do me a big favor and just use words of your own!!!
Donald’s Time Out
Everyone knows that you reap what you sow.
This platitude’s spoken wherever we go.
And when it is cotton you bury so deep,
It’s also true that you’ll sew what you reap.
You must get despondent when things don’t go right,
for the seeds that you’ve sown are what you must bite.
If you plant bitter melons, you’ll meet with defeat
if sweeter fruit is what you want to eat.
Whatever is planted at your behest
is what you will yield at your own request.
Whatever you’ve buried will rise to the top.
Benevolent actions will yield a kind crop.
But harm done to others, you’ll likely rue,
as the other one acted upon will be you!
You are part of the world where you’re planting your seed,
and you’ll bear the brunt of your terrible greed.
It’s a different dark harvest the world is now reaping.
It’s been getting a foothold while you have been sleeping.
As you wielded your golf clubs, its roots have spread wide.
It lifted its branches as millions have died.
It crept out of cages as children bemoaned
the fact they were hungry and cold and alone.
It was watered by rivers poisoned and polluted,
as reason was smothered and good sense diluted.
So reap your cruel harvest. What fate is now serving
is certainly what you have long been deserving.
So you’ll sit at the table until you’ve diminished
the junk on your plate, and once you have finished,
please clean up the beaches and oceans and air,
for the evils you’ve planted have spread everywhere.
You’ll sit at that table until you confess
your part in creating this terrible mess!
Pull your chair to the table and eat ’til you choke.
The evils you’ve done are more than a joke.
The fruits of your labor have made a vile stew.
Please forgive us if we refuse dining with you!!!
Words of the day are harvest, despondent, benevolent, behest and difference. Image by Joyce Romero on Unsplash.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 