Tag Archives: Word of the Day Challenge

Scrabble Quibbles

7 Replies

Scrabble Quibbles

I move the tiles back and forth but still I cannot lick
the secret to which words may be made from my weird pick.
I cannot spell “memorial” without another “m,”
so instead I settle and simply spell out “rim.”
Before too long I find another perfect word to make,
but, alas, I do not have the “u” to spell out quake.
I spy the final “u” when my opponent shifts her rack,
and so I skip my turn to return some letters back.
And this segment of the story will prove I was to blame
when my sister drew the “q” and spelled out “quick” to win the game!

Prompt words today are segment,lick, memorial,back,spy and tiles.

Not the most thrilling poem ever, but at least it used up all the words. Mea Culpa.

Epitaph on a Hilly Gravesite

6 Replies

Epitaph on a Hilly Gravesite

Claim custody of the mourning that has led you to this place
and cease your arduous journey so that you may face
that foggy veil of sadness and the fiery coals that burn
deep in that place within you as you sink into the fern.

The sentence of your heartbreak becomes a paragraph—
that surety you’ll never love again, or smile, or laugh.
But nature is a circle that spins us on its wheel,
balancing the joy and pain of what we feel.

What we have been given will be taken in the end,
for all of nature’s riches are only here to lend.
Give thanks for what you’re given and accept what must be rendered,
for every happiness is preordained to be surrendered.

Prompt words today are fern, paragraph, mourning, arduous, fog and custody.

Quartets of Memory

4 Replies


Quartets of Memory

To what extent
do you lament
losing the blush
of teenage crush?

Tease and chuckle,
tight-gripped knuckle,
that challenge of
teenage love—

to cultivate
a future mate—
dawdling where
a certain stare

might meet with yours.
These sweet amors
left in the past,
nonetheless last.

Some afternoons
listening to tunes
of a past kind,
they come to mind.

 

Prompt words today are knuckle, challenge, lament, cultivate, dawdle. Image by Eric Krull on Unsplash.

Breakfast Sandwich

32 Replies

 

Breakfast Sandwich

My puppies heed no boundaries. They flop down where they  will.
Coco crowds me, head on shoulder, in my bed until
I need my arm for writing and to gratify my need,
I nudge her very gently, but still, she does not heed

the necessity for space between us on the bed,
so promptly she moves closer to lie on my arm instead.
She appreciates its flavor as she licks it fondly, then,
extends her pastel tongue to lick it all again.

Then Zoe comes to join us from her place down by my hip,
and expresses her love likewise with a little lip.
Then her tongue extends as well so I am doubly tasted.
massaged with love’s caresses until I’m thoroughly basted.

At length, both fall asleep again, their energy depleted,
and our morning’s sandwich is finally completed.
I wedge myself out gently so our sandwiching is done,
extracting my meat from between  its canine bun.

 

Prompt words for today are boundary, gratify, flavor, likewise, pastel and promptly. It is almost impossible to get photos with one’s arms pinned to the side but this was as close as I could get. 

Walking Wounded

11 Replies


Walking Wounded

I have a giant blister growing on my foot,
and I’ve had a breakthrough about what’s at its root.
Its cause is not a secret, no mystery at all.
The truth is that I buy my shoes at least a size too small.
Blame it on my vanity that’s making me a gimp.
My need to wear a daintier size is why I have a limp.

Today’s prompt words are breakthrough, giant, blister, root.

The Fruits of My Labors

17 Replies

The Fruits of My Labors

I drink smoothies for stamina. Somehow, they maker me brighter.
If I skip one for one day, I’m a more mundane writer.
I grow the fruit right in my yard: papaya plump and round,
and the freshest bananas—as delicious as they sound.

Together, they form food for thought and make me much less grouchy.
My skin acquires a healthy glow. My eyelids are less pouchy.
When I mix these fruits together with oat milk and some berries
and drink them down, all editors respond to my queries.

What we put into our mouths comes out in our thoughts.
Mixed up in our blender or boiled in our pots,
they form a magic elixir, a wild creative brew
that when you imbibe in it, will inspire you!

Today’s prompt words are stamina, drink, mundane, grouch, mix and writer.

Day of the Dead

4 Replies
1953

Click on photos to enlarge.

Day of the Dead

It is that spooky time of year when dead folk walk about.
They lasso wild horses to ride, without a doubt.
They leave their earthy prisons and slake their appetites
with dead bread and with other toothsome proffered bites.
Their crimson eyes shine brightly this one night of the year,
as they slake their year-long thirsts for mescal or for beer.

Each year their thoughtful mortals replenish altars nightly,
putting out their favorite brews and foods for them, politely.
They fill town squares with altars that honor friends departed,
revealing that their memories have remained open-hearted.
Candles light their way for them and marigolds form highways
that mark their paths toward friendly altars from their ghostly byways.

Dia de los Muertos is that night that spirits roam,
renewing those past pathways that have led their footsteps home.
If you doubt their coming, view their pathways in the morning
to see how they have visited you, silent, without warning.
Some say it is the field mice that have nibbled on the bread,
but those of faith know that it was their beloved ones instead!

Prompt words today are replenish, prison, crimson, spooky, and politely.

His Hopes: Love Messages

2 Replies

 

His Hopes: Love Messages

Long after sleep is over and you’ve made your morn’s retreat,
I find an image of your kiss pressed into my sheet.
It summarizes passion and the pounding beat
of two dazzled lovers united in their heat.
I gently kiss your absent lips and smooth the cover neat,
hoping that tonight you will return for a repeat.

 

Prompt words today are sleep, summarize, dazzle, beat, lipstick.

Dearly Missing Diego, Oct 29, 2022

31 Replies
First there was Frida, then Diego.
He loves his cage and enters it willingly for a little snooze or just for comfort.
Diego has had a few embarrassing periods he thought unbecoming to a top dog.
I leave to go grocery shopping, but Diego remains to inspect that all goes well in the pool repair..
Then there was Morrie,luckily, to join our family, for a few years later, Frida passed away..
In spite of Diego’s best efforts to win me away from Morrie, Morrie had the advantage of being small enough to lie in the hammock with me. Once he tried to jump up with us, which created a lot of excitement.
Cousin Kirk and Diego, bonded.
When Zoe arrived in February, Diego proved to be a good nursemaid, stopping herwhen she got remotely close to the pool.
In spite of my worst fears that they’d think she was a rat or opossum, they were never once more than watchful and tender with her.
After a few hours of active Zoe duty, I think Diego has run out of energy. I took Zoe into the hammock with me….
and surprise, surprise, Diego sorta missed her..
Schmoozes with Little Duck,
Waiting for breakfast.
2022

Dearly Missing Diego

No amount of paranormal could make this holiday worse.
It carries with it sadness I don’t have to rehearse.
I do not fear the skeletons who wander far and near
Has-been-dearly-departeds are not the ones I fear.

Made-up horrors all take flight and vanish o’er the hill
as I recall his silent passage over the kitchen sill
to steal three dozen cookies that no doubt he found yummy
since when he next passed over it, they were in his tummy.

Whole chickens and entire plates of Christmas eats
vanished as he made them his own personal treats.
For eleven years, he upgraded my life
with gentle affection that mitigated strife.

Life oscillates between the pleasure and the pain
as I have to lose a much-loved one again.
Dear Diego passed from us this morning suddenly,
with a brutal speed that I did not foresee.

R.I.P. my lovely friend. Milk Bones are piled up
under your altar picture, just there for you to sup.
My neighbors say when I drive up after it is dark,
they will not know I’m safe at home without your greeting bark.

You won’t be there to moderate Zoe and Morrie’s spats.
And there will be one fewer to bark at owls and bats.
No one will nudge my hand for pats quite the way you do,
and you’ll be missed forever in the family queue.

R.I.P. Diego, Oct 29, 2022

Prompt words for today are oscillate, flight, hill, paranormal, upgrade and fear.

Art and Acquisitions

10 Replies
Bob Brown, Artist
Carol Lopez, artist
DePaul Durham, artist
Art Studio
Jan Golik, artist
Pablo Picasso
Bob Brown sculpture and visitor
Young artist
Accumulated
Tree House Art Studio
Art Studio
But, to be fair, the root of all evil is also what feeds the artists who create so much beauty in the world.

(Click on photos to enlarge and read captions.)

Art and Acquisitions

Those who patronize fine art
start out congenial at the start
but then upset the apple cart
by arriving early at the mart
and increasing rate and pace
so they can win the prestige race
by obstinately using cash
to win the collector’s ten-yard-dash.

Marble statues and fine oils
are thus simply used as foils
used within the competition
between those whose one ambition
is to amass all those things
that a pile of money brings.

But in fact, it is the making
of great art, and not the taking
that produces joy in living.
Buying can’t compete with giving.

Prompt words for today are congenial, race, marble, obstinancy,   patronize,  art