Tag Archives: poem

Awarded

Awarded

Transforming an opponent from a rival to a friend
might not affect the outcome of who wins out in the end.
Whatever escapade you face—
what bout or match or game or race—
your gains can’t be identical. The trophy you may lack.
You might not be the leader of the athletic pack,
but you’ll still be a winner when all is said and done,
for though you’ve lost the race, it is a comrade that you’ve won.

 

The prompts  today are: friend, opponent, escapade and identical. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/rdp-thursday-friend/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/10/25/fowc-with-fandango-opponent/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/escapade
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/2018/10/21/daily-addictions-2018-week-42/identical

Bogged Down in Blog

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Internet Infraction: Bogged Down in Blog

The only way I’d ever stop
is flagged down by a cyber cop
who says my blogging cannot last
if I continue to go so fast.
He’d give a lecture and a ticket
and then he’d actually stick it
across my screen with strict instruction
to cease this method of destruction.

If life had meant us to go on line
hour after hour––eight or nine
hours or more day after day,
with always one more thing to say,
why would it give us legs to go
and feet to walk on, heel to toe?

Day after day, it’s grown obscene––
my eyes plastered upon my screen,
my fingers stiff with my attention
over what I might next mention––
fingers drumming, tapping, bending
all the while sending sending––
typing out, first fast then slow
my life as a reality show.

Until I wonder if I log
its details daily on my blog
because I want to recall life––
its joys and sorrows, pleasures, strife––
or do I only move about
to give me something to write about???

My friends all say this can’t go on.
I’m growing flaccid, weak and wan.
I need some exercise and sun––
some movies, dancing or other fun
aside from snapping pictures of
each bougainvillea or mourning dove.

Life’s meant to live, not to record.
It should be shouted, screamed or roared––
not typed out softly on the keys
of a laptop spread out on my knees!
The truth of this I’ve clearly seen
now that this sticker obscures my screen.
“Do not remove” it clearly reads,
“Go live your life! Go do some deeds!”

I’ll put on sneakers and do some laps.
I’ll exercise ‘til I collapse,
then do more laps around the pool
‘til I’m an exercising fool.
I’ll call twelve friends up on the phone.
I’ll never ever be alone.
I’ll live my life until its end
without a single blogging friend!

My dedication will never lapse;
and yet, how temptingly it gaps–
that sticker, unstuck at its edge
so easy now to pick and wedge
my fingernail beneath and tug,
to drop its shreds upon the rug
and free my screen of its obstruction––
this taboo not of my construction.

To push the button, light up the screen––
to see its colors from red to green.
Black words on white, Cee’s daily flower––
no longer do I pine and cower.
I peck the keys, upload some pics––
once more getting my daily fix.
The truth of modern life leaks in.
To blog is not a major sin!
I’ll give up blogging, become a rover
precisely when Hell freezes over!!!

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Daily Inkling’s prompt is: 

Has technology affected your ability to communicate with other people? If so, to what extent, and are there any examples of when it affected you for better or worse? (I confess, I wrote this poem three years ago but it meets this prompt so well that I’m going to subject you to it again, if you’ve been around this blog for that long.)

Here’s the link: https://normalhappenings.com/2018/10/23/social-outage-daily-inkling/

Stalker


Stalker

The spectre of your memory haunts me less with every year.
Those things I feared so long ago, I no longer fear.
I do not flinch in public when I think I see your face.
No resemblance flags my terror as I wander place to place.
To reinforce my courage, I have wiped you from my mind,
changed my modus operandi to avoid your type and kind.
Although you haunt my past, you have no presence in the present,
where I admit your absence is what makes my life so pleasant.

 

Today’s prompt words are flag, public, spectre and reinforce. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/10/23/rdp-tuesday-flag/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/10/23/fowc-with-fandango-public/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/10/23/spectre/
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/2018/10/21/daily-addictions-2018-week-42/reinforce

Stand Up For Verity

Stand Up for Verity

A fabulist can take the truth and spin it, change it, plan it,
but then it is no longer truth, for truth is carved in granite.
The real truth is indelible. Permanent. Etched in stone.
Don’t mess with it and call it truth. You must leave truth alone.
It can’t accommodate a stretch. It’s fierce in resolution.
It’s not right to bend it simply to find a solution.

Truth is truth and fabrication is another matter,
so do not conjure up a tale and claim it’s not the latter.
Though presidents and kings and poets scratching in their dormer
might for their single purposes stray away from the former,
there must be someone willing to call out their acts as ruthless,
for there’s no folly greater than to be led by the truthless.

 

The prompt words today are fabulist, fierce, accommodate and granite. Here are links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/10/20/rdp-saturday-fabulist/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/10/20/fowc-with-fandango-fierce/
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/2018/10/13/daily-addictions-2018-week-41/accommodate
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/10/20/granite/

Snow’s Epilogue

 

 

Snow’s Epilogue

We can’t codify the snowflakes nor put them into order.
They fall to make a blanket or a pile or a border.
They come in a blizzard and leave us in a trickle. 
There’s something about former snow that is so very fickle.
It drips in drops from icicles and surges down the gutters.
Our attempts to modify it end in futile mutters.
I need not be prophetic to state the truth of snow.
It starts out in a flurry and ends up in a flow.

 

 


I’m finally in Missouri after a day on planes, airports and car. Ready to tackle today’s prompt words which are: blizzard, former,modify and prophetic. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/10/18/rdp-thursday-blizzard/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/10/18/fowc-with-fandango-former/
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/2018/10/13/daily-addictions-2018-week-41/modify
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/10/18/prophetic/

Shooting Hoops at the Class Reunion

 

Click on photos to enlarge.

Shooting Hoops at the Class Reunion


Lest I be less than discreet

and be accused of gross conceit,
I’ll go where it can be repeated
that our team was undefeated
way back then in sixty-four.
The swish of hoop, our fans’ loud roar—
nothing can erase the blast
of this fine victory of the past.

The crowds we drew. The way we toiled?
Nothing since has ever spoiled
the memory of that group endeavor.
Back when we were fresh and clever,
young, athletic, fit and tall,
we all excelled at basketball.

Fifty years later, though it’s true
we may be a decrepit crew,
our memories are still intact.
We well remember every fact
as one by one, we each relate
our memories of winning State.

If I were at home, I could publish a photo of one of our glorious small town basketball teams, but since I am not in the proximity of my old annuals, I’ll make do with photos of one of the school reunions, fifty years later.

The prompts today were blast, draw, conceit and spoil. Here are the links:

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/10/15/rdp-monday-blast/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/10/15/fowc-with-fandango-draw/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/10/15/conceit/
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/2018/10/13/daily-addictions-2018-week-41/spoil

Negative Impact

Version 2

Negative Impact

When all the slimy little trolls
have popped their heads out of their holes
to converse with more humane souls,
they go about filling their roles,
moving their dirt like little moles.
Who knows their purposes or goals?
They do not build. Do not extoll.
Do not contribute to the whole.
Their words not clever, wry nor droll.
They simply seek to take their toll.
They represent the negative pole!!!

Word of the Day’s prompt today is “troll.”

Exorcising Memories

When I first watched The Exorcist, I had to call my sister and keep her on the phone as we each watched from our own house. Later, I put the receiver on the pillow beside me and we stayed connected until I fell asleep.  I was in college!!!

For Matt’s prompt: How do you get to sleep after watching a scary movie?

Mother

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Mother

Her frame is gigantic. Her hands are immense.
The moment the day dawns, her labors commence.
No manifesto determines her actions.
She doesn’t subscribe to man’s rules or factions.

Silent and rugged or noisy and splendid,
everything everywhere in her is blended.
She cleans up our messes and creates our splendors:
our challenges, races, environments, genders.

We think we’re in charge, but this brands us naive.
For each thing we mess up, there’s a trick up her sleeve.
As we seek to improve her, we tell ourselves lies.
She bats us away—as annoying as flies.

Our air churns in fury, our polar caps moan.
She tries to instruct us to leave them alone.
Like recalcitrant children, we refuse to mind—
as we play at our game of destroying mankind.

 

The prompt words today are rugged, silent, manifesto and immense.  Here are the links:

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/10/09/rdp-tuesday-rugged/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/10/09/fowc-with-fandango-silent/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/10/09/manifesto/
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/immense

3:00 A.M.

 

3:00 A.M.

I think I’ve reached my limit. Not one inch left to pack,
and since I leave in just six hours, it’s time to hit the sack.
Ta ta to all my blogging friends, I’ll soon be on the wing.
All I have to do is edit, correct, “save” and ping!!!!

Hasta La Vista.  Tomorrow I’ll be writing to you from a different country.

https://fivedotoh.com/2018/10/01/fowc-with-fandango-limit/