Tag Archives: The Sunday Whirl

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

 

Affirmations, For The Sunday Whirl Wordle 700, Mar 30, 2025

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Affirmations

Poems rush to mind in a barrage,
then fade away like a mirage.
Words light as petals fall like rain
into a beautiful terrain

that forms a sort of sanctuary
where as I age I choose to tarry,
pretending that I’m going to miss
encounter with that grim abyss.

Another verse escapes my breath,
as with flushed face, I confront death.
Such affirmations reveal as sham
all that threatens what I am.

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle 700, the prompt words are: grim abyss flush raised mirage sham whispers light petals breath beauty

For Sunday Whirl Wordle, Mar 23, 2025

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The King of Chaos. I was on my way to a local hotel/restaurant to read my Trump poem when I saw a woman selling this pinata beside the road. I braked, turned around and went to buy it. A man, seeing me buying it, stopped to buy one as well. “Does it have anything inside?” He asked. “No, you have to cut it open in back and fill it,” I answered. “What should we fill it with?” asked his female companion. “I’d suggest filling it with baloney,” I answered.

The King of Chaos. I was on my way to a local hotel/restaurant to read my Trump poem when I saw a woman selling this pinata beside the road. I braked, turned around and went to buy it. A man, seeing me buying it, stopped to buy one as well. “Does it have anything inside?” He asked. “No, you have to cut it open in back and fill it,” I answered. “What should we fill it with?” asked his female companion. “I’d suggest filling it with baloney.”

Depression

A chain of glimmering wishes gleams silver as I free
my mind from all its worries of what is or what may be,
but moment by sadder moment, my sorrow flames again,
whipped up from fading embers of a sadness that has been
lingering like a trance that I cannot escape.
Faint shadows of those horrors that assume a larger shape.
I dip into my past to restore wild memories
that I naively hope will bring  depression to its knees.
But they do too little to trim away the fears
That hover all around me, holding pleasure in arrears.

The word prompts for today’s Sunday Whirl are: sorrow dip  chain wild silver free trance glimmer faint trim

(If you can think of a better title for this poem, please suggest it. Company arrived just as I was finishing it and gotta get posted.

Roll of the Dice for Sunday Whirl 698 Wordle

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Roll of the Dice

If you need to find those parts of you
particled off by life,
those strings of you that have spun off
in times  of  loss and strife,
address the world with that new you
and let it hear your voice.
A dirge becomes a rousing reel
depending on the voice
that chooses how to read the dice,
reflecting gain or loss
by their interpretation
of the numbers that they toss.

 

For the Sunday Whirl 698 Wordle Prompt the words are:
time hear lose world off string life particles reel need find