Tag Archives: RDP

Wordsmith

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Wordsmith

He manufactures, word by word,
sentences that are absurd.
Each construct is a little joke—
an irony or  equivoque.

If you wish, I’ll let you know
when he’s ready to stage a show.
I guarantee, his recitation
is sure to win your approbation.

Making each word serve as two
is something that he’s driven to do.
Each double-entendre an education
in the art of revelation:

one meaning clear to any child,
the other more obscure and wild.
Thus does a punster get his fix
by stirring up a wicked mix:

a word cocktail whose piquancy,
cleverness and frequency
in any form or any guise
promises a rare surprise.

So come with me and in two winks
my friend will tell you what he thinks—
his discourse rare and smart and funny,
acerbic and right on the money!!!


Today’s prompt words are manufacture, construct, revelation and equivoque (an expression capable of having more than one meaning; a pun.) Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/rdp-thursday-manufacture/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/02/07/fowc-with-fandango-construct/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/your-daily-word-prompt-equivoque-february-7-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/revelation/

Confusing Near Homonyms

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Confusing Near Homonyms

A meddlesome fellow is one who is bound
to mess in our business and boss us around,
while a mettlesome person is lively and gritty,
spirited, vigorous, gallant and witty.

They may be fine athletes, actors, or explorers,
but meddlesome people just tend to be borers.
Mettlesome’s interesting. Meddlesome? Deploring.
With one we’re enraptured. With the other, just snoring.

Why would a person who thinks up a word
Make opposites sound similar? It is absurd.
Mettlesome people turn out to be heroes.
They score a full ten to meddlesome’s zeroes.

Most mettlesome people please and amuse us,
but meddlesome people, by contrast, abuse us.
Considering this, our confusions suffuse us.
Was  the word mettlesome coined to confuse us?

 

mettlesome: full of vigor and stamina; lively, gritty, spirited, gallant
meddlesome: interfering, meddling, intrusive, prying, inquisitive, officious.

The prompt word today is mettlesome.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/02/06/rdp-wednesday-mettlesome/

Phonetics!!!

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Phonetics!!!

My neighbor wears her clothes too tight
which wins her dates most every night.
They do not mind her overbite
or that she’s not too erudite.

Her life just seems to hum along—
nothing too right, nothing too wrong.
And though her life is over-bitten,
No part of it is overwritten

except for the incessant drone
of her ubiquitous telephone.
As annoying as a megaphone,
it never ceases its loud drone.

The admiration of her crowd
of callers should not be allowed.
We wish they’d call less on the phone,
thus lessening its constant moan.

If just one suitor would ease our plight
and remain there overnight,
perhaps she’d take it off the hook.
We crave our peace by hook or crook!

A night without its incessant trilling
would, I must admit, be thrilling.
We do not have as many fears
for her morals as for our ears!

The prompt words today were hum, megaphone, overwrite and admire.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/02/05/rdp-tuesday-hum/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/02/05/fowc-with-fandango-megaphone/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/02/05/your-daily-word-prompt-overwrite-february-5-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/admire/

Cowboys

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Cowboys

When considering cowboys, there’s much to admire.
They’re tough and they’re skilled and available for hire.

Their style’s not eclectic. They all look the same.
They’re wild and they’re wooly. Not easy to tame.

They’re never clandestine. They’re out in the open.
Just  shootin’ and spittin’ and ridin’ and ropin’.

Made out of leather and chew and barbed wire,
nobody knows when cowboys expire.

For though they aren’t known for their tact or their heart,
there’s much to admire in how they depart.

No need for a service or funeral pyre,
no casket, no preacher, no flowers, no choir.

They merely climb up and sit straight in the saddle,
ride toward the horizon and simply skedaddle.

 

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https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/rdp-monday-skedaddle/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/02/04/fowc-with-fandango-eclectic/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/your-daily-word-prompt-clandestine-february-4-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/admire/

Modern Day Gladiators

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 “The Colosseum was used for entertainment for 390 years. During this time, more than 400,000 people died inside its amphitheater. It’s also estimated that about 1,000,000 animals died in the Colosseum as well.

Modern Day Gladiators

Violence is integral in our enjoyment
of  various genres of sportive employment.
Boxing and football are tops of their ilk,
wherein bloodshed and violence are mother’s milk.
It doesn’t take hindsight. Who couldn’t guess
that among all that brutal and terrible mess
of scrimmage and tackling and hitting and pounding
there wouldn’t be bone-breaking injuries abounding?

What is it in us that loves and enjoys
for mothers to sacrifice beautiful boys
for the vicarious pleasure of stove-up old men
who bask in the light of what they might have been?
Dressed up with cheerleaders, bands and  cold beer,
hot dogs and ice cream and the wild cheer,
we’re convinced it is festive, patriotic and fun,
then shake our heads sadly when injury is done.

Today college bigwigs and corporate scions
don’t fill colosseums with Christians and lions,
yet they send players to slaughter for our amusement,
and the logic of this is a source of bemusement
to rational humans who see the results
of blood sport on players—kids or adults
assigned to give glory to parents, team, country.
Their brutal sacrifice seems an effrontery.

Here is another post I did on statistics regarding  football-related injuries and deaths: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2019/02/03/some-statistics-on-football-related-injuries-and-deaths/

The prompt words today are gridiron, integral. tricky and hindsight.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/02/03/rdp-sunday-gridiron/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/02/02/integral/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/02/03/your-daily-word-prompt-tricky-february-3-2019/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/02/03/fowc-with-fandango-hindsight/

Not Dually Noted

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Not Dually Noted

He was an integral part of his community—
much more notable than either you or me.
With anything that mattered, he was associated.
His social calendar was full. Its pace never abated.

As they unrolled red carpets for notables to  enter,
he always made an effort to be there, front and center.
In short, he was ubiquitous—adept at being seen
in every newspaper column. In every magazine.

Yet when he slipped this mortal coil and reached the pearly gate,
standing at the back of lines became his final fate.
A shock, because the truth of it had not been very quotable:
In heaven, every denizen is considered notable!

 

The prompt words today were anything, integral and effort.

https://fivedotoh.com/2019/02/02/fowc-with-fandango-anything/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/02/02/integral/
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/02/02/rdp-saturday-effort/

Letting the Fish Guide the Way

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Letting the Fish Guide the Way

I have a side that is concise. It likes to plan and learn,
but it’s a side that I have found I sometimes have to spurn
to follow something else in me that doesn’t know quite where
it may next be going, and doesn’t really care.

Fate is a fish I follow: brilliant, sleek and swift.
It isn’t anything I’ve earned. It’s simply fortune’s gift.
If I give up and follow, the currents that it chooses
lead to healing waters that soothe my cuts and bruises.

I follow where it it leads me, sometimes swimming blind,
dealing with what ‘s dealt to me, working with what I find,
moving through life’s currents, living from day-to-day.
It works to turn the radar off. The fish can lead the way.

The prompt words today are fish, concise and learn. Thanks to my husband Bob whose line  in a poem “letting the fish guide the way” I have borrowed.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/02/01/rdp-friday-fish/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/02/01/fowc-with-fandango-concise/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/02/01/learn/

Levels of Agility

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Levels of Agility

As I crossed the meadow, I saw a large tree
that seemed to be perfect for climbing to me.
Its shade was inviting and seemed to create
a suitable topic for a debate.
Could I ascend its formidable trunk
and my lack of agility thereby debunk?
Or would I fall down with a tremendous clunk
and wind up in a heap in a terrible funk?

I’ve a poor sense of balance and that could create
a fall that could ruin my mobility rate.
I could fall on my head and get a sound crack
or break both my legs or my neck or my back
or get tangled in branches to such a degree
that they’d need a buzz saw to extricate me.
All in all, my decision finally made,
I spread out a blanket and lay in its shade.

Prompt words for today are balance, tree, inviting and create.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/29/rdp-tuesday-balance/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/29/fowc-with-fandango-tree/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/29/your-daily-word-prompt-inviting-january-29-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/29/create/

Unholy Fathers

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Unholy Fathers

Those who say they are  devout
but who  abuse their power and clout
to line their pockets, yet profess
to pardon sins their flocks confess
should note that they should be eschewing
acts that might prove their undoing
if they had to confess them to
the masses they are doing them to.

Holy men whose words are truthless
may be exploitative and ruthless
rather than the gentle men
their savior states they should have been.
Those truly holy do not resort
to indulgences meant to extort.
All such ill-gained filthy lucre
cannot give much grace and succor

to the ones collecting it
or for those detecting it
who cover up their loathsome ways.
Not one such sinner ever pays
for deeds for which they should atone.
Their “rules” leave these men alone
to exploit children once again
and go unpunished for their sin.

 

The prompt words today are note, resort and devout.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/28/rdp-monday-note/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/28/fowc-with-fandango-resort/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/28/your-daily-word-prompt-devout-january-28-2019/

Cruel Tranquility

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Cruel Tranquility

Welp, I would not have chosen this ending to the story.
It is a sad conclusion—distressing, sad and gory.
The hummingbird, suspended in its helicopter flight,
was brought down from the air with one swift lethal bite.
It was my adorable kitten who stopped its blur of wings.
Tired of scratching posts and batting balls and chasing strings,
she chose a task more difficult—a target ever-moving,
an irresistible challenge but one hardly behooving
a tiny kitten noted for its playfulness and cuteness.
I fear I underestimated her extreme astuteness.
Now she rests in sunlight. Her quarry, limp and torn,
here upon my doormat, I survey, forlorn
over loss of this small creature—its sheer poetry of motion—
as well as this reminder that in garden, air or ocean,
one thing feeds upon another in a constant mortal chain
incredible in beauty, indivisible from pain,
even in a garden where I sought for peace to reign.

 

Prompt words for the day are flight, forlorn, adorable and welp. 

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/27/rdp-sunday-flight/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/27/fowc-with-fandango-forlorn/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/27/your-daily-word-prompt-adorable-january-27-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/27/yelp/