Tag Archives: Word of the Day Challenge

Why I Can’t Do The Prompts Today

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Why I Can’t Do The Prompts Today

I think I’ll be a morning grouch
and spend these hours on the couch
making lists of things for doing—
certain things that involve gluing,
cleaning, sorting, chopping, timing—
things that do not involve rhyming.

A sea of things I’ve been concealing,
chores that stack up to the ceiling,
divert me from acts of creation
with chores of limitless cessation.
Hobbies I’d rather pursue
put off by what I’ve gotta do.

Pay my house fees, cook the stew,
trim the bushes, find the glue
to fix the statue, sort my purse,
clean out the junk drawer, then rehearse
my poems for next Friday’s reading.
Fix my blouse. Restore its beading.

Answer emails, call the plumber.
Modern life is such a bummer.
Sometimes I think I exist
solely to check off a list.
At any rate, as I have ranted,
other parts of me recanted.

It seems I’m such a winsome elf
that this poem just wrote itself!!!!!!

Prompts today are winsome, sea, certain, list, grouch, hobby and concealing.

Obstruction of Poetry (The Wandering Muse)

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Obstruction of Poetry
(The Wandering Muse)

I’ve no wish to obstruct the truth. The fault is purely mine.
The reason why I’m having such a struggle, line by line,
is because my poet muse is taking a vacation,
having lately moved herself to a new location.

She took my genius with her, in spite of friends’ directions
that I should submit her to most vigorous inspections.
In my innocence, I failed, for though I checked her cape,
her briefcase, pockets and her purse, she made her great escape

by smuggling my genius out, displaying her fine wit
by tucking it into a place where I did not find it.
No place could be more obvious, yet I didn’t think to peek
in the place where genius often hides—between the tongue and cheek!

Prompt words are obstruct,  genius, cape, fail, innocent and direct. Image by Natasha Hall on Unsplash.

Failed Reformation

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Failed Reformation

In between sit-ups and stretches,
hubby moans and groans and kvetches.
For him there is no correlation
between fitness and elation.
Each new feasible solution
resulting in his diminution

though undefined, I think just might
bring about my spouse’s flight
to avoid any surprises
involving his exercises.
What he should look like and should weigh
bring disagreements every day,

for though I want him lean and svelte,
if you asked him what he felt,
he’d say a form more soft and paunchy
suits a man who is more raunchy.
While I tout vegetables and soys,
he wants to be one of the boys.

Hamburgers and fries and shakes,
baked potatoes and rib eye steaks
are the menus he prefers,
so when we order, it’s “his and hers.”
Chef salad is what I will choose.
His order? Pork chops, pie and booze!

Prompts today are flight, disagreement, stretches, feasible, undefined and correlation. Photo by ehimetalor akhere unuabona on Unsplash.

August Buffet

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August Buffet

Although we came for the buffet,
what harm is there if we delay?
That pile of leaves looks so inviting.
The kid in me it is inciting.

Piled up so deep and dense and crunchy,
even though I’m feeling lunchy,
still I have a need more urgent,
childish thoughts now more resurgent.

All of spring’s precipitation
prompted lush leaves and the inception
of my hopes for autumn joys
shared by kids—both girls and boys

in festering imaginations
for these countless generations.
And so, we take a giant leap
to dive into the glorious heap,

Rolling in their crisp and crunch,
forestalling  our urgency to munch.
Then, brushing off our fronts and backs,
we go inside for drinks and snacks.

2015

 

 


Prompts today are crunchy, look, buffet, August, spring and precipitation. Image of  leaves by Patrick Connor and buffet by Markus Winkler, both @Unsplash and image of me by Forgottenman. Other images by me.

That Last Infernal Prompt

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She said: Feeling sad.

That Last Infernal Prompt

She was the only casualty of the delphic clue
so obscure no other blogger knew quite what to do
with a word like “xiphisternal.” What other site was rude
enough to pose a prompt word so juvenile and crude?

She tried to write a ballad that would win her wide renown.
Instead, the stress of writing it was what brought her down.
That heart attack (her cause of death) was ironically infernal,
for the last pain that she felt on earth was sadly xiphisternal

 

Prompt words today are juvenile, casualty, ballad, delphic, xiphisternal and down.
To save your looking it up as I was forced to do,  the xiphisternal joint (or xiphisternal symphysis) is a location near the bottom of the sternum, where the body of the sternum and the xiphoid process meet.

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2022 Fashion

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2022 Fashion

There is a dearth of luxury in fashions of today.
All the garments made of fur have been tucked away.
Zibelline and beaver, chinchilla, mink and fox
hide in the back of closets or in the remnants box.

The most ardent fashionista wears clothes shapeless as kelp.
Shoulder pads and belts and pads do not seem to help.
They walk runways like branches stripped down to their bark:
minimal and twiggy, sparse and wan and stark.

Lace and ruffles banished, hot Goth is all the rage.
Tractor Trek-Sole boots and chunky loafers stalk the stage.
Sweater vests and crop-tops, shabby chic and Y2K
have replaced silks and satins, mohair and chambray.

Power Bohemian florals compete with color clashing
For what the trend-setters of the day find most chic and dashing.
The only good that I can see in these current fashion rages
is that fewer animals are being kept in cages!

Prompt words for today are kelp, ardent, branch, dearth, zibelline, shapeless.

 

Love’s Highway

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Love’s Highway

A pilgrim on this long highway of love, he quickly learned how to forsake what was lucrative in favor of what was genuine. He learned how to first cover-up his pain from love’s last skirmish and finally, how to heal.

“Faint heart never won fair lady” and “Hope springs eternal!” became his slogans and in the end, persistence won out. He celebrated his fiftieth wedding anniversary  today, and their celebratory cake read, “Still Companions on Love’s Highway.”

Prompts today are heal, lucrative, pilgrim, genuine, springs and cover-up.

The Embarkation of Miss Emily

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The Embarkation of Miss Emily

He strolled into her module acting all hale and hearty,
issuing an invitation to his birthday party.
He was throwing a big shindig like those raves of yore—
the kind where she was sure she’d be perceived as quite a bore.

They’d sail out to an island on a rented yacht.
A bikini would be clothes enough. The weather would be hot!
She’d have to take a day off work. There’d be no compensation,
but this was not the reason for her main hesitation.

She did not feel affronted. She felt no perturbation.
Rather, she debated her own qualification.
She was no party animal, nor had she ever been.
Her parents both regarded such revelry as sin.

She had no experience with pot, cocaine or gin
and even less experience when it came to men!
So her positive response, though wary, was wholehearted.
if she was going to be wild, ’twas high time she got started!

 

Prompt words are hale, affront, qualification, module, yore and compensation.

Ode to the Las Vegas Buffet

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Ode to the Las Vegas Buffet

After some poker and roulette and craps,
we return to our rooms for some well-deserved naps.
The gambler in me has been curbed at a cost.
One poker chip memento, and the rest has been lost.

As I sink into bed, worries float away,
heavenward-bound as I doze in the hay.
Tomorrow’s buffet—that iconic repast
will insure our regrets over losses won’t last.

We’ll pile our plates, then come back for more
until we pop out of the clothes that we wore.
We’ll recoup our losses, for the assets we left
we’ll take home again in our bodily heft!

 

Prompt words today are float, gambler, memento, repast, heavenward and iconic. Images by Aidan Howe and Kenny Eliason

Purple Passions

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Purple Passions

These purple flowers, blooming in profusion,
create a sharp tang, and at first some confusion
until I remember that purple on lips
painted by numerous slurpings and sips
of grape-flavored Popcicles, iced Koolaid,
andgrape jelly sandwiches that my mom made.

Then they rekindle other metaphors
for long-ago youth: those much-slammed screen doors,
watermelon pickles and lemon ices,
as substitutions, nothing suffices.
Withdrawal from these childhood passions
created lusts for other things— fashions,

Jewelry, shoes and purses and joys
even more luscious, resulting in boys,
contradicting beliefs that naught else would suffice
for grape jelly sandwiches and lemon ice!!!
Thus may a color rekindle fond thoughts
and return us to passions we had as mere tots.

Prompt words today are purple, rekindle, metaphor, contradict, withdrawal, lemon ices.