Tag Archives: Word of the Day Challenge

The Fruits of My Labors

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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

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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

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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

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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

Father/Daughter Discourse

33 Replies

Dear Daughter:

Your frenetic new admirer is not my cup of tea,
for even though I told him that he’d have to let you be,
he resorts to tactics like climbing that big tree
to gain visual access to our property.

You, too, must be incisive in telling him to cease
if you’d like his constant efforts to come to a surcease.
For though I am your father, he allots to me no power
but simply remains stubbornly in his leafy bower.

His persistent efforts prove that he is from that faction
that they label OCD, for he shows no reaction
to my constant pleas, so do you agree with me
that it’s necessary to just cut down the tree?

Dear Papa:

Alas, though my new suitor is not your cup of tea,
I find that his flavor is agreeable to me.
I am not your teenage daughter, for I’m almost thirty-three.
So please do not molest him, and do not cut down his tree.

It is a fact, dear parent, I’m of marriageable age.
So cease with your obsession and curb parental rage.
It’s time to cut the apron strings and set your daughter free,
for I prefer another perch to my father’s knee!

 

Prompt words are frenetic, incisive, faction, allot, and almost.

A Tinder Rebuttal

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A Tinder Rebuttal

Stranger conversations may have taken place,
presenting arbitrary details with vehemence and haste.
With insubstantial logic spouted too close to my face,
the slab of beef in front of me was sure to go to waste.
I rued the day I’d made the swipe on Tinder to the right.
I knew that if I answered it would end up in a fight,
but if I was too lenient in pointing out the flaws
in his conspiracy theories, it might be worse, because
one inch given, one foot taken with such crazy sorts of gents,
and so I shoved my plate away and jumped down from the fence,
packed my steak into my go-bag and decided not to linger,
shoving back my chair to leave, I proffered him my finger.
With folks like him, I’d realized, logic is absurd,
so I made my rebuttal without a single word!

 

 

Prompt words are stranger, insubstantial, arbitrary, lenient, slab and conversation.
Image by Alessandro Bellone on Unsplash.

Sobriquet

14 Replies

Sobriquet

He is an aficionado of all things fine and rare.
He judges friends on what they eat as well as what they wear.
His taste is never arbitrary. He knows what is right,
and contrary preferences are sure to cause a fight.

Intricate directions are issued to his staff
and any omission is a fireable gaffe.
So, though he showers every day and his name is Jack,
Everybody calls him “Old Sour Balls” to his back.

 

Prompt words today are aficionado, intricate, , arbitrary, contrary, bathroom and sour balls. Image by Yerling Villalobos on Unsplash.

Mutable

34 Replies
1949
1953
1955
1958
1963
1974 Addis Ababa
1987
2022

Mutable

No matter how we grovel, time marches staunchly on.
You do not need to call it, for it will come anon.
Moment after moment, we can’t avoid its flight.
It segues from each morning to afternoon and night.

We can’t exceed its time limits, for it determines when
we pass from pretty newcomer to become a has-been.
It is the plan of nature. We can’t escape the way
that time chooses to change us day to day to day.

Prompts today are flight, grovel, pretty, exceed, moment and segue. This post, I realize, seems a bit self-centered, but I couldn’t find photos of anyone else that showed this many stages. I had more photos that included people from different stages, but unfortunately I forgot to save it so after an hour of work, lost it. These are hurried photos briefly illustrating the mutability of life.

Idara

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Idara

Her very name meant organization. She exceeded all the rules
for unity and order. She didn’t allow curls
to pop up on her hair ends. Her locks hung lank and straight .
It was with trepidation that she allowed a date
to disturb their perfect order when venturing a kiss.
She could not help but worry something would go amiss.

Daily she checked her batteries, fearing one would fail.
She doubled her insurance for avalanche and hail
and taking due precautions, she exceeded sound and reason,
preparing many months ahead for every change of season.

She flinched at lights and shadows, expecting the worst—
some tragedy or danger for which she’d not rehearsed.
Her parents thought it their fault for giving her the name,
wondering if they’d named her Hope if she’d turn out the same.

 

Prompts today are lights and shadows, trepidation, battery, exceed, organization and name. The name “Idara” really does mean organized. Stock Photo.