Tag Archives: Daily Prompt

Deprived????

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HA!!!!! The prompt for today is “deprive.”  Perfect.  I have been without internet since last night, my pool has no water in it, I  went to three banks before I could find one where the ATM worked and four restaurants before I found one open so I could use their WIFI to post my blog.  I would say I am the definition of deprived. Two mornings ago  I awoke to discover the water I had stayed up all night to pump into the pool as per instructions from Chino had vanished!  I opened the valves from the street water and alas, for two days,no water.  It rained all night but this morning when I went to look, still no water.  Luckily the rain wet the pool enough, I hope, to cure the new grout and concrete before we put the hot water from the street.  When Pasiano arrived this morning, I discovered he’d left the filter drain open.. something I had no way of seeing, so it seems to have emptied the water right back into the cistern!

I drove through pounding rain and flooded roads to I leave Morrie off for his summer haircut and a bath, then  went to four pharmacies before I could find the prescription I needed. I have two more days to prepare to leave for the states and have a million things left to do and it seems like one thing after another has happened to slow me down. Am I not meant to go? Am I just meant to go more slowly? I’ve learned this lesson again and again over the past few years and so now I need to listen again.  Nothing that has happened in the past week is life or limb-threatening, so I’m going to sit here, enjoy my eggs and take a bunch of deep breaths. How can I feel deprived in this beautiful place where we are getting much-needed rain and where someone has just cooked me a beautiful breakfast?  I guess whether we feel deprived or not is just a matter of which details we choose to concentrate on!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/deprive/

Mending Wall and Mending Pants!!!

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I agree that “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, ” but fences, schmences.  Although the topic today is “Fences,” I think walls are close enough to fences–just a matter of material and “I have miles to go before I sleep” thanks to packing, purchasing, organizing  and copying things I need to take to the states on Wednesday, so taking the further risk of alluding to Robert Frost three times in three sentences, I am going to avail myself of a link to an old parody of “Mending Wall” (entitled “Mending Pants”) that I wrote 2.5 years ago before most of you had even heard of my blog.  I hope you enjoy it and approve the streeeeeetttttccchhhhh of the theme for today.  Guess you could call them stretch pants???

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Robert Frost seemed to have a thing about boundary markers.  “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors,” and “Mending Wall” are the most notable indicators of this.  Several years ago when I had only a few faithful followers, I wrote a parody on “Mending Wall” which I’d like to share with you again.  Judging from the likes, the faithful Angloswiss was my only present follower who read it and if some of you are like me, even if you read it two and a half years ago, you probably won’t remember it, so please indulge me and go here:
 https://judydykstrabrown.com/2014/09/17/mending-pants-with-apologies-to-robert-frost/
and I’ll get on with my packing, ordering, xeroxing and house ordering for my housesitter.  Only three days to go!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/fence/

Precognition

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Precognition

I don’t want to know what I’ll do ’til I do it.
If it’s preordained, it’s too late to eschew it.

If it’s a surprise, I would say that I blew it,
for there’s no surprise when we simply redo it.

With each future sorrow when we must preview it,
there is no advantage—just more time to rue it.

The vase will still break and we’ll still have to glue it.
The syrup with spill and we’ll have to ungoo it.

Would I accept foresight or merely poo poo it?
When push came to shove, I guess that I would boo it!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/prophecy/

Now, Voyager

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Two years ago I helped a group place baby sea turtles into the ocean for their long voyage into life.  See photos and a poem about that voyage here:
https://judydykstrabrown.com/2014/12/05/putting-the-tiny-sea-turtles-into-the-sea/

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/voyage/

Not Perpetually in Awe

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I will admit that the howling dog in last night’s sunset was awesome, but the pizza wasn’t!!!

Remember back when “awesome” was a word applied to miles of glaciers breaking off in one fell swoop or solar flares or the birth of a child? A few years ago, I had something to say about my feelings over  its present usage, where it is more commonly applied to a good slice of pizza or a friend’s new dress. See my complaints here:

https://judydykstrabrown.com/2014/06/13/empty-prais/

 

If you want to see what others have to say or to tell us your own thoughts aboug “Awe,” go here: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/awe/

Emptying

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https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/empty/

Companionship

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My neighborhood gang.  I think we were all five or six years old.

Companions

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I did the above poem making use of a screen shot, but I’m not very happy with the quality.  I need to leave to go to Guadalajara so can’t fuss with it more, but when I get home will go back to my old method of printing it out, making a jpg file and posting it as a photo from the media file.  Back to the drawing board!

 

 

 

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/companion/

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/companion/

Summer Evenings Turn to Fall

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Summer Evenings Turn to Fall

Back when we drank summer through paper soda straws,
we played cowboys and Indians, hiding out in draws
that we imagined wilder. Our hearts beat with fear
of fictional opponents who might be drawing near.

We had no euphemisms for our enemies.
We only knew our fear of them, silent, on our knees.
Little did we know then, during childhood games,
imaginary enemies would assume other names.

No ditch big enough to hide, and no night dark enough.
No more cops and robbers. No more blind man’s bluff.
Strange that in those peaceful times the games we chose to play
were a mere foreshadowing of what is real today.

Back when summer filled our cheeks with melons and with berries,
why didn’t we fill balmy nights with princesses and fairies?
Back when life was summer smooth, we lusted after roughness,
as though we’d gain maturity through violence and toughness.

Feigning valor not yet gained, we knew not that tomorrow
we’d have the fears we’d feigned for real––the terror and the sorrow.
Childhood evenings filled with shouts and laughter interspersed
were in reflection adult games that we just rehearsed.

 

The picture is my sister Patti and her best friend Karen.  Note the saddle placed on the makeshift “horse.”  

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/summer/

Aimless

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Here’s a smaller version so you can see the shape on a smaller device.  I’ve been working on this shape for seven hours.  Sheesh! how time flies.  I have versions of four different birds, but I think I like the duck best.

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In case you are curious, here is another version of “Aimless.”  Same poem, different bird–a plumed exotic with its wings extended.


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And, for those who haven’t had enought, here is the first view I did:

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https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/aimless/

Perfectly Formed

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Perfectly Formed

We demand perfection in so many things––
performances most flawless, cars that sport no dings,
trophy wives to greet us at the door each night
with Ivory complexions and bodies toned just right.
My kid’s an honor student, your child a beauty queen.
If we have other children, they are more rarely seen.
In our quest for perfection, somehow the TV
Has become our standard for reality.
Silicone injections in our lower cheeks,
surgery reducing our stomachs, thighs and beaks.
If we’re not born perfect, thank God that we can buy it.
Every ordinarily attractive gal should try it!
I heard there was a sale on for tummy tucks and lifts––
promoting them as valentines and other midlife gifts.
And so I declared myself my own valentine
and began to plan a body that was really really fine.
I started with love handles and worked up to my neck.
‘Til I’d made a total rehab out of this old wreck.
If I had been born perfect, I’d probably be blue.
I would have had to figure out something else to do.
Perhaps I would have learned to make those statues on my shelf
instead of concentrating on adjustments to myself!

This poem is a spoof––no tummy tucks yet. When I was growing up, there was a feature in the “Reader’s Digest” entitled “The Perfect Squelch.” In it, they would share perfect examples of verbal “one-up-manship.” Now that’s the kind of perfection I can appreciate. I’d love to hear your examples  of perfect squelches you’ve made or heard in the comments section below. I also have a “perfect photos” piece I’m working on, but I’ve run out of time as I have a birthday party to go to, so come back later for the photos I meant to accompany this poem.

 

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/perfection/