https://jennifernicholewells.com/2016/10/19/jnws-halloween-challenge-blood/
https://jennifernicholewells.com/2016/10/19/jnws-halloween-challenge-blood/

Writer’s Digest Prompt: Write a poem making use of at least three of these words: ghost, crack, free, hand, check, know. I used them all at least once.
Bar Stool Brush-Off
There’s not a ghost of a chance
that you’ll crack my code,
free-wheeling know-it-all
that you are.
But as your hand smooths
that errant strand of hair
back into its perfect place,
I’ll hand you this:
every time you check your reflection
in the mirror behind the bar,
it is clear no number of looks
will clue you in to yourself.
http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/wednesday-poetry-prompts-368
jdbphoto
Sand Castles
Under the sand are palaces. I’ve seen them in my dreams:
vast halls and empty chambers smoothly rounded at their seams.
Every wall is made of sand. Each ceiling, archway, floor––
as though carved by master craftsmen, digging at its core––
is so magnificent, you’d think they were the stuff of lore.
You may also see them, but you must provide the door.
Though the chambers are filled in, they’re there without a doubt.
You are the one creating them by what you will scoop out.
The beauty’s hidden in the sand, waiting in your sleep
for you to dig the castles out from where they’re buried deep.
All your day’s exhaustion your dream labor will abort,
for what you build in slumber is work of a different sort.
Sand brought to the surface is what you get to keep
of subterranean palaces dug out in your sleep.
As you build aboveground castles in the world that we all know,
you reveal the outward structure of the inner rooms below,
furnishing the magic that the world will see through you,
showing what’s inside of you by what you bring to view.
I’m going in for a medical procedure today, so no time to write a fresh poem. This is a rewrite of a poem from a few years ago that fits today’s prompt of “underground.”

Okay, this was just taken yesterday, so I know it isn’t a repeat as yesterday’s was. Sorry for that. Easy to lose track.
This one by Cee is really cool. Please have a look:
https://ceenphotography.com/2016/10/17/flower-of-the-day-october-18-2016-dahlia/
It’s the day after Halloween, and for some reason, I have re-donned my Halloween costume, which was the unlikely choice of a Cigarette Girl! Was this my mother’s idea? Mine? Seems a strange choice and I certainly hope the real Cigarette girls of this eras wore longer skirts or more interesting underwear. At any rate, I can’t remember whether my sister caught me in this pose or staged it. I think I was going for the caramels in the center of the table. Like spreading seed for birds.

Oh, wait! Now I can see that those were Halloween cookies in the shape of pumpkins that I was going after. My sister Betty, 11 years older than me, had a costume party in the basement the night before and I think I was dipping into leftover refreshments.
Of course, the prompt word was “Treat.”

I love that one ultra-shy petal that hasn’t opened at all and the other three, like observers in a vaudeville hall waiting for Gypsy Rose Lee to remove her veil!
For more dahlias go here: https://ceenphotography.com/2016/10/15/flower-of-the-day-october-16-2016-dahlia/
This was too good not to reblog and, refreshingly absent of vitriol, anger or debate. Just a clever representation of the personalities present on the ballot.

Someone is very artistic at Herman’s Produce right here in Lexington, Virginia!
These pumpkins made me smile until I came down with Sciatica!
Time out from blogging until further notice.
This is such an amazing article about an amazing project/community in Ehtiopia, where I lived in 1972-74 under very different circumstances. Thank you so much, Bernadette, for sharing this story.
A LITTLE DIFFERENT POST FOR FEMINIST FRIDAY. I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT.
The Commune in Ethiopia Where Feminism is the Law
How a village in Ethiopia has come to serve as a model for the rights of women, children and the elderly.
By Zac Crellin SEPTEMBER 14, 2016
The village center of Awra Amba. (All Photos: Zac Crellin)
Tucked away between the rugged gorges and valleys of the Ethiopian highlands is an egalitarian commune that defies the norms of traditional society. Awra Amba, founded in the utopian mold 44 years ago, has managed to thrive where so many other attempts have failed.
Awra Amba could be described as communist, puritanical, pantheistic, feminist, or even cult-like, but its 450 residents are wary of such descriptors. They believe their philosophy, as dictated by the community’s soft-spoken founder Zumra Nuru, is too easily distorted by cultural and linguistic differences to be labeled accurately…
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