Tag Archives: The Sunday Whirl

“Bad Tenants” for The Sunday Whirl, June 15, 2025

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Bad Tenants

Those caravans of daily life proceed at what a cost?
The breath of forests stifled by the clouds of their exhaust.
As we trace our progress mile on mile spent behind the wheel,
the tracks we leave behind us leave scars that will not heal.

We have bundled up our legends and published them in books,
sealed safe between those covers where no one ever looks.
“Oh beautiful for spacious skies and amber waves of grain”
mere lyrics, that though touching, may be sung in vain.

We tend to think that nature is simply meant for viewing,
as we overlook all of those other things we should be doing
to save our fields and forests from pesticides and other
misdeeds brought about by man, lest at last we smother

that Earth that feeds and shelters us in spite of what we’ve done
to bring about our end on this third planet from the sun.
We worry about meteors that pelt us from the skies.
Meanwhile overlooking where the greater danger  lies.

 

For The Sunday Whirl, the prompt words are: clouds caravan breath forests track trace wheel touch pelts tends legends bundles.

An Apologia for Indolence, For the Sunday Whirl Wordle, June 1, 2025

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An Apologia for Indolence

Those beasts that prowl the underworld with claws uncoiled to strike
assume the right to wander anywhere they like.
They thread their ways through canyons, all over the map––
through every twisting river’s course, through every mountain gap.
Stuck tight to their temples are their matted strands of hair.
Masked by tree limbs and tall grasses, they maintain their vigilance where
a hunter or a camper or a homeless, shiftless sort
unschooled in the ways of beasts, chooses to cavort.
Thus do those loved ones vanish who choose to exercise
while at home are resting those of us who are more wise!!!

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle, the words are: prowl beast claws shift strands twists  wander underworld map thread

 

Junior Prom, for The Sunday Whirl Wordle 708

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Junior Prom

Remember your first ball gown floating in the light
of the high school gymnasium, lit up for the night
with stars bound up in streamers  and even paper trees
wound around the trellises, leaves swaying in the breeze.

Bare shoulders on each teenage girl, stiff collars on each date
as they enter the prom’s runway with their chosen mate.
Rhinestone crowns fixed firmly to each mounded lock,
with pins that soon go flying to the strains of “Jailhouse Rock.”

Young spirits cool and groovy–feeling they might freak
decades before their need to present themselves as chic.
That one night of fantasy of all nights in the year––
slow music your permission to draw each other near.

For the Sunday Whirl, the words are: remember gown ball runway floating light mound crown bare chic stars spirit

This really is a photo of my junior prom. I’m the one in the shocking red dress and red heels! Looks like everyone else chose pastels and white shoes.

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle 707, May 18, 2025

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Origins

Does our legacy lie buried in altars far below
or in the sky above us in that universal glow
leaving signals of its visits in the shadows of those scars
that are the vestiges of planets or of stars
left by burning meteors that spin their gleaming trains
across the sky before they bury what remains
deep in the earth to rustle and come to rest in earth
and perhaps seed vestiges of an alien birth
so our world thus mimics some world that gleams above.
As we gaze at the heavens, training our thoughts on love,
do we intuit tender mercies that were our beginnings?
Are those specks of stardust our true underpinnings?
Our scientific knowledge breeds pollution and cancer
without ever really giving us an answer
as to what man’s origin was in the beginning
and what led us away from it and to our present sinning.

 

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle 707, May 18 2025 the words are: legacy scars altar sky mercy burn mimic rustle gleam gaze shadows train

Davy Jones Locker, for The Sunday Whirl Wordle #706

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Davy Jones Locker: Davy Jones’ Locker is a metaphor for the bottom of the sea: the state of death among drowned sailors and shipwrecks. It is used as a euphemism for drowning. Silver coins spilling from a pirate chest seem to be doing these victims of shipwreck at sea no good at all. I collected all of the shells and sand used in this piece from various beaches in Mexico. Even the plastic cup, once claimed by the sea, washed ashore covered in coral.

(Although I created the piece above for an exhibition 5 years ago,
the poem below is new, created for this prompt:)

Davy Jones Locker

Storytellers tell the tales of underwater realms
where sunken ships lie buried with sand up to their helms.
They lie countless fathoms beneath the emerald foam
of oceans only beasts and serpents of the sea call home.

There saints of the underworld have made more novel choices
other than announcing their presence through their voices.
Silver coins rolled to the beach, bones smoothed by ocean tides,
give hints of those deep regions where Davy Jones resides.

His ship now razed by currents that drew it to its death,
the ocean mist still carries vestiges of his breath.
He has become that element that once he sought to best––
a part of that great ocean that was his lifelong quest.

 

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle # 706  the prompt words are: underworld realm beasts raze maps storytellers saints emeralds hood voices serpent mist

Cloudburst, For the Sunday Whirl Wordle 705

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Cloudburst

Distant sirens justify our sloshing through the mud
to put the chains on tires that are filthy from the crud
of water mixed with father’s choice of topsoil for the garden
that crows have picked and worked at, so it couldn’t harden.
So when the rain comes, clattering the eaves troughs and the shutters,
sending muddy water swirling down the gutters,
there’s a short answer to the puzzle: that necessary bite
of the metal on the tires that will bring us through the night.
Raw courage and pure valor will guide us through the storm
back to our place of solace––safe and dry and warm.

For The Sunday Whirl 705 Wordle, the prompt words are: chain justify sloshing works clatters choice sirens distant crows puzzle short

“Solivagant” For Wordle 704

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Solivagant

I draw grief like a scarf around me, swaying from its force.
The clouds spark electricity, rain flooding from its source
like tears of the whole world that are issued from the sky
as thunder growls its protest that you had to die.

Cradling my memories, the secrets of your charm,
it is as though the hazy air shelters me from harm––
wraps around me like a blanket, as I stumble and I list,
recalling as I walk that It was here that we first kissed.

 

–A solivagant is one who walks alone–a solitary wanderer. Sorry for the fancy word, but it just fit.

For the Sunday Whirl Wordle 704, Apr 27, 2025 the words are:
grief scarf cradle list growl swaying sky force electricity charm secrets

“Revolution” For the Sunday Whirl Wordle 703

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Revolution

You’ve staged a friendly takeover of my willing heart,
and now you hold the power to upset the apple cart.
You are the despot of my dreams, plotter of all my hopes.
You share that flashy facade of other misanthropes.
By accepting without judgment all your base instruction,
I complied with your deception and shared in my destruction.
You are the low point of my life and now I must be free
to leave that life you cast me in to see what I can be.

For the Sunday Whirl Wordle 703 the words are:
flashy facades free takeover destruction power despots low hope heart hold how

“To Do List” for the Sunday Whirl 702

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To Do List

Shoot moonbeams at your heroes,
shoot bullets at your foes.
Sing songs of blended melodies
to exorcise your woes.

Don your hood and start a brawl.
Flick hound hairs from your sleeves.
Wear your racing stripes to prove
what nobody believes.

This present trip around the track
is not your first or last.
It’s only things we have not done
that make us feel aghast.

For the Sunday Whirl Wordle702 the prompt words are: races wear hound brawl song hood blend heroes flick shoot trip beams

“Salve for a Damaged World” for The Sunday Whirl Wordle 701 and Lens Artists Challenge, Apr 6, 2025

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Salve for a Damaged World

Our bruised world’s in need of magic
to soften all its edges.
Sage words to dispense shadows
and draw jumpers off of ledges.
To bring moisture to our deserts
and return our skies to blue.
To rewrite horror stories
with endings that are new.
Our distressed minds need stretching
and action is the key
to snap us out of sorrow
and set our country free.

These pictures were taken at today’s rally to protest actions by the current U.S. administration. It was held in Ajijic, Mexico and was well-attended and peaceful. Most of the attendees were U.S. expats living in Mexico.

 

My outing is a bit different from everyone else’s but I hope it qualifies for the Lens Artists Challenge to share our last outing.

Words for The Sunday Whirl Wordle 701 are: magic shadows key stretch sage snaps bruise edges writing blue world desert