Little Mysteries
The essence of attachment is discovery,
but there’s also much allure in a mystery.
So sometimes when an answer seems definitely certain,
it might behoove us just this once to sagely pull a curtain.
Word prompts today are curtains, essence, discovery, attachment.
Doldrums
Divorce yourself from worry—that tangled skein of stress.
Most of the problems in your thoughts are ills you can’t address.
Tasks collect in clusters that dry out in the sun,
so concentrate your efforts on things you may get done
and shove the others in a drawer or stack them on a shelf
where they can be seen by no one but yourself.
Don’t let their hidden status be cause for delay.
Accomplish at least one task every single day.
Thoughts peripatetic flit from thing to thing.
Nothing is accomplished by resolve on the wing.
Make a list and stick to it. Tick off what you have done,
and then forget your worries and go and have some fun.
Life’s not just for doing or accomplishing or working.
Life can be made richer with a little quirking.
Loosen up your hairdo. Paint your toenails blue.
Turn around and talk to strangers in the movie queue.
Take some time off from your work and plan a small vacation.
No telling what adventures lurk in a new location.
If you’re wishing for excitement, it won’t come to you.
There’s so much more that can be done, and done begins with do.
In between the “musts” of life, inflict some “want to do’s”
and make them happen. Take a chance. What do you have to lose?
The longer that you wait, the more life becomes a ruse.
Have the courage to go out and live the life you choose.
Prompt words for the day are delay, cluster, peripatetic, skein and divorce. The painting is acrylic on canvas board. I just noticed I didn’t sign it.
Traveler’s Advisory
An explorer most intrepid, while plodding pole-to-pole,
one day declared this wish to be his penultimate goal.
He wanted to increase his pace to maximal extent
by carrying less luggage everywhere he went.
He found a weightless backpack that, sadly, was inflammable,
into which he stuffed all his possessions that were crammable.
He then set off upon his trek at a healthy trot,
on a day the sun was inordinately hot.
Glancing off his zipper, it started a small fire
near the bottom of his backpack that quickly traveled higher,
igniting matches in his pack, and then the gasoline
he carried to start fires with set a magazine
stuffed into his bag top gloriously afire,
turning his whole backpack into a funeral pyre.
The moral of this story is, if your travel pack
isn’t fire retardant, don’t bear it on your back!!
Prompt words for today are inflammable, pole, explore, maximal and pace.
Serial Lover
He was skillful at his art: a lover and romancer.
For every question of the heart he had a valid answer.
Pivotal to all his charms was his savoir faire.
He had a knightly bearing—a quality most rare.
No lady could resist his charms or deny the thrust
of his passionate ardor. He always won their trust.
And although perhaps at first they might have hesitated,
In the end, each maid he wooed at last cooperated.
But when the heat of passion turned inevitably cold,
and he wiped the slate clean, though he never kissed and told,
he’d move on to another challenge of the heart,
forget his last night’s ardor and make a brand new start.
Prompts for the day are clean slate, answer, thrust, pivotal and cooperate.
Be Careful What You Wish For
The sky was dark and oorie the day of the premiere,
and approaching the red carpet, the star expressed a fear
her gown hem would be sullied as she passed through the morass
and the tabloids would just note the stains instead of her fine ass.
“Please tell them not to mention my less-than-perfect garb,
she spat out at her agent in her customary barb.
And her look was sullen as she left her limousine,
less glamorous than that depicted on the movie screen.
And as she slogged her way through puddles to the gala scene,
through photographers and writers from every magazine,
of course they all reported on that look of arch disdain
instead of any mention of her garment’s spreading stain.
Prompt words are oorie, premiere, disdain, morass and arch. Image by Raychan on Unsplash.
Working Out in My Seventies
I badly need a product that will make me indefatigable.
I have not the energy to blow, and less to bat a bubble.
It is just unfathomable that I ever walked
twelve miles through the jungle and barely even balked!
At the high point of my youth, adventures were my thing,
but lately I feel much deprived of energy and zing.
Swinging in my hammock is now enough for me.
It seems to mark the zenith of my energy!!!
Prompt words today are zenith, unfathomable, indefatigable and product.
School Dance
As much as things have changed in life, one veritable truth
is that when boys drink alcohol, they will become uncouth.
This truth first became evident to me at school dances
as all the shy boys lined the wall, estimating their chances
and we wallflowers, ill-at-ease, sat lined up on our chairs
trying to pretend we were ignoring all their stares.
We tittered and we giggled and if we knew the song
the school band was playing, we’d try to sing along.
But chances are that now and then, our eyes would shift their glance
to try to see our prospects for being asked to dance.
Time and again we knew for sure there wasn’t any chance
that this would be the evening we experienced romance.
Until, that is, the gym door opened with a bang
and the school bad boy entered with his gang.
The bottle that he carried was passed from hand to hand
from schoolboy to schoolboy and finally, to the band,
and suddenly the music got somewhat more loud
as our shy young classmates became a raucous crowd.
To our great satisfaction, each boy then took his chance
in asking every one of us if we would like to dance.
And all we prim maids in a row needed no incitement
of nips of raw grain alcohol to add to our excitement.
We jitterbugged and slow danced. We twisted and we bopped.
We gyrated to every song until the music stopped.
That night became a legend we remember to this day
as the time we all put childhood away
and learned to flirt and boogie and break our parents’ rules.
To let ourselves be teenagers: partiers and fools.
And though the boy who started it came to no good end,
nonetheless, our thanks to him we’re driven to extend.
For though his actions were illegal and we knew that they were wrong,
each and every schoolgirl was glad he came along.
Prompt words for the day are song, alcohol, chances, verity and satisfaction.
It Can’t Go On Without Us!!!!
Moss will not grow on a stone if someone’s there to spin it.
The genipapo needs a hand to squeeze the ink within it.
No finish line is ever crossed in one proverbial minute
without those legs that join the race and set a goal to win it.
No job has ever botched itself unless a human blows it.
Knowledge is not knowledge until somebody knows it.
A car without a human foot can’t pick up any speed.
What good are pears or apples without a mouth to feed?
No tail’s pinned on a donkey without a hand to pin it.
What transgression could exist without a man to sin it?
Even guilt would not exist without human compunction.
In short, the Earth’s in need of us to fulfill every function.
The Gods must be mistaken when they censure us and cuss us.
In truth, we make the world go ’round. Where would it be without us?
Prompts today are moss, minute, genipapo, botch and speed.
Poem inspired by the film “Don’t Look Up.” Too, too close in its depiction of our present day world.
Protest or Assent?
The ratio between dissent and absolute compliance–
the odds that we’ll react with order or with strong defiance—
depends on several factors, but the stats insinuate
a majority of people will just equivocate.
If they feel one or the other will work out in their favor,
they’ll take the medicine dished out, no matter what the flavor.
Or if there is a bargain to be gained by compromising,
or a sure advantage that’s outlined by advertising,
they will sublimate their feelings and just go with the flow.
If to do so bends their ethics, well, who will ever know?
Thus, our ethical behavior may change from day to day
depending on temptations that fate may send our way.
Prompt words today are insinuate, medicine, bargain, dissent and ratio.
Gestalt and the New Year
Sweep out twenty twenty-one with a mental broom.
Don’t let it be a harbinger of dissent and of doom.
Accept a new beginning. Set out looking for the light.
Don’t rate the whole dinner by your initial bite.
Life is a varied banquet of bitter, sweet and salt.
Those who succeed best at life fall in with its Gestalt.
We must season what is in our heads with what is in our hearts.
The whole of anything, it’s true, is greater than its parts.
Prompt words today are light, harbinger, beginning, dissent and dinner. The illustration was made using LunaPic. Start the year out right and try it out. It’s free!!! I like using the Art editor.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 