Tag Archives: Word of the Day

Morrie

7 Replies

Morrie

He displays such fierce bravado, barking at the man
who dares to try approach me. He’ll bite him if he can.
If he does not get his nuance, perhaps he’ll get his grasping.
If he can’t heed the exposed teeth, perhaps he’ll get their clasping.

If that human could but read the globes of Morrie’s widening eyes,
he’d need no communication in any other guise
from this dog that has decided he is his only rival
for his mistress’s affection. Every time, there’s a revival

of his barking and his lunging should this man dare approach me.
It’s as though he fears he’s coming with intentions to come poach me.
With everybody else, he is a charmer through-and-through.
He cannot wait to make a friend of anyone who’s new.

His emotions are a crazy-quilt of trying hard to please—
of greeting you with ball in mouth and jumping at your knees.
He cannot wait for you to sit to jump up on your lap
and insists on long ear rubbings before he takes a nap.

He’s every visitor’s best friend. Greets strangers on the beach,
and will bring a ball to anyone he finds who’s within reach.
Never will he wear out when chasing after balls.
He goes to bed when I demand and answers all my calls.

But why he feels my gardener of nineteen years duration
is a threat to me, and such a threatening aberration
that he flies to my defense whenever he is near,
is a mystery that I’ve not solved, and never will, I fear.

 

Prompt words today are bravado, globe, quilt, nuance and grasping.

Tableau

14 Replies

Tableau

She found him obnoxious, he found her inane.
Their thirty-day marriage, suddenly insane.
Both were fatigued by exhausting routine.
The breakfast, the paper, the washing machine.
A giant moth fluttered, beating the screen
and the window glass— imprisoned between.
The cryptic message it beat with its wings
sang of detachment and other sad things.
Both heard its struggles and both moved to free
anxious to end at least one tragedy.
Her hand touched the clasp and his moved the screen.
The moth vanished into the fresh morning green.
A brush of his knuckles on the hair of her arm,
his gentle reminder that he’d meant no harm.
Her turning toward him, a touch and a kiss.
Their world straightened out with nothing remiss.
A silent tableau—solution with no words.
A moth soaring free. A chorus of birds.

 

 

Word prompts today are flutter, screen, obnoxious, cryptic and routine.

Empty Spaces

4 Replies

mathew-schwartz-4GXtM_XR5zo-unsplash

Empty Spaces

The world has stilled its hectic pace, although its clocks tick on.
We stand at windows peering out, imagining what’s gone.
Rapid passings night and day, our reachings and attainings
have made way for the meantime to leave us our remainings.
There is a little secret the Swiss learned long ago
that has to do with leaving space—the worth of going slow.
Their cheese that is the richest is full of empty spaces—
its flavor made the tangier by what nature erases.
The holes are not just emptiness, for factors that have made them
create a richer cheese than the cheeses that evade them.
The blocks with larger spaces have a better taste.
In short, the empty room they leave is anything but waste.
Perhaps it is the same with the new spaces in our lives.
Perhaps the empty spaces are where the meaning thrives.

Note: Holes in Swiss cheese are created by the bacteria which change milk to cheese. Propionibacterium uses the lactic acid which is produced by other bacteria, and produces carbon dioxide gas; the gas slowly forms bubbles which makes the holes. In general, Swiss cheeses with larger eyes have a better taste.

Prompts today are Swiss, hectic, attain, secret and clock. Image by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash. Used with permission.

Gifts

12 Replies

IMG_2517 2.jpeg

Gifts

Every day
is the anniversary
of something,
our lives a potpourri
of past occasions
left to dry in memory.

We traverse
the calendar of our lives
like a game of hopscotch,
dipping into pockets
for a means to play the game
and one day finding chocolates,
the next bitter almonds, 
one made sweeter by that other
that is made more bearable
by the promise of  its opposite.

Today is the anniversary
of seventy-two other days
that added to the rest of the days
granted me by a generous fate,
add up to 26,403
 anniversaries
and a life that daily 
has been given to me
like a present
whose contents
I get to choose.

Prompts for today are anniversary,potpourri, generous, traverse and chocolate.

Travel Wisdom

3 Replies

IMG_3622.jpeg

Travel Wisdom

A fearless warrior one must be to navigate the world,
for in foreign climes you’ll find vast challenges unfurled.
When you start your journey you may count yourself a tourist,
yet in the end if you don’t fold, you’ll end up an endurist.
You’ll find out it is ludicrous to think bans will be lifted
and for you that ancient laws and mores will be shifted. 
You leave the life you knew before back in your former quarters.
Your world does not go with you when stray across your borders.

Prompt words for today are ban, warrior, ludicrous, navigate and tourist.

The News

12 Replies

IMG_7460My friends Jesus and Jesus Eduardo who are spending their isolation time by helping to make my house more beautiful. Project still in process.

The News

I swore I would not write about our narcissistic president
or any other White House or Washington D. C. resident.
I’d avoid mention of the Dow and boycott themes ubiquitous,
stuffing down objections to tweets famously obliquitous.
I thought it was a piece of cake I’d slice off with a knife
to avoid this elephant that dominates my life,
but then the daily prompts came in and blew my plans away.
Could it be more obvious what they want me to say???
And so here is another diatribe against the present
truths that dominate our lives and make them less than pleasant.
To compensate I’d like to try to give an antidote,
so go down to the link below and share an anecdote
of something someone’s done that’s helped to make your life worth living.
Something non-self-serving that was heartfelt, loving, giving.
The world is not made up of only villains in the news.
News is only life and we can live it as we choose. 

Go HERE and tell us about something wonderful someone has done for you or those around you in this time of forced isolation. And while you are there, see the good news others have shared.

Prompt words today are cake, boycott, knife, astray and president. See? They made me do it!!!!

 

Jesus painting door jpg

Yes, we are keeping our distance. They are outside. I am inside. They live in the same house, so no problem with their being in close contact.

Easter Hunts

12 Replies

IMG_4046

Easter Hunts

My toy cannon muffled by an egg stuffed in its snout.
Easter grass and sugar eggs hidden inside and out.
My parents’ Easter soirees were things of grand design.
The pink nests were sister’s and the yellow ones were mine.
One disappeared behind the mirror, one behind father’s chair.
At the end, still one nest to be found, I knew not where.
Suckers, Peeps and sugar eggs, jelly beans and gummies—
sought out and stuffed in Easter baskets, then stuffed in our tummies.
My folks went to such bother, whereas I must say in truth, 
If I’d been asked, I’d rather have just had a Baby Ruth!

 

Prompt words this Easter Sunday are truth, soiree, disappear, cannon and mirror. (You didn’t make it east this time, folks!)

Holding Back the Moon

2 Replies

DSC09339

Holding Back the Moon

Standby. I think I love you, though I’m not completely certain.
But when I see the ship of moon  through my bedroom curtain,
then watch it disappear as the sky takes up its space,
as though its crew has moved it to another time and place,
I hope that you can moor yourself and stay your bullish pride
while you wait for my decision. Please stem restlessness. Abide.

IMG_0643

Prompt words today are standby, moon, disappear, crew and pride.

Memory Management: Prompt Poem, 4/10/2020

10 Replies

Memory Management

I’ve finally calculated the amount my head can hold—
sorted, classified and filed, folded, stacked or rolled.
It’s just enough to get me by and leave room there for me.
If you want to learn some more, you’ve got to leave space free.

Don’t jump to the conclusion I don’t prioritize.
One’s got to be selective in what they memorize.
Keep the best stuff handy in your mental cache.
Put some stuff on a higher shelf and throw away the trash.

Heads do not get bigger like hips and waists and ears,
so if you are forgetting things, let me calm your fears.
It’s nature’s way of making room for more important thought.
Emphasizing what we are, erasing what we’re not.

Prompts for today are finally, head, jump, cache and  amount.

A Tropical Illusion

9 Replies

Building Paradise

A Tropical Illusion

They’ve spiffied up the island. It was a piece of cake.
No one will ever know that the volcano is a fake.
No amount of protest would stay them from this action
even though of course there was a non-supportive faction
who thought  the former real grass was better than the new
which never needed mowing and was such a lovely hue.
The battle raged throughout, but in spite of it, by June
They had all the equipment for the holographic Moon.

They’d planned their big Grand Opening and advertised online.
From all the folks who liked their ads, they knew that they’d do fine.
They’d made their Island great again. Not one guest disagreed.
Every problem engineered, there was no lack or need.
An homogenized vacation, a prefab honeymoon—
Every month of every year went by the name of June.
Ships came in and ships went out and zombies came and went.
on simulated adventures where life was just for rent!

Prompt words for Thursday are cake, ship, island, battle and amount.