Did you know the sun is always shining, even if behind a cloud? Frowns can be turned upside down into a smile, just by remembering that. There is no distance looking blue, when we walk barefoot in dew kissed grass that tickles our feet.
Call me Pollyanna, many do, because I choose to believe there is no top to any steeple if I make up my mind to climb. Be it with strong legs or, at my age, a little blusher, mascara, a pen, and a plethora of words.
Written for Tuesday Poetics at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today Sarah hosts and asks us to consider the poem November by Thomas Hood. One option in today’s prompt is to use a line from his poem and include it in our poem. I’ve chosen two lines from his poem: “No distance looking blue” and “No top to any steeple”. Image from Pixabay.com
When the world is a blur we reach out. Grab a hand we trust to steady ourselves. In today’s world the question becomes, whose hand can we trust?
Must we ride a mad bull, bucking twenty-four/seven careening through disasters, red flags hurled at us? Deafening roars blocking out the rational in a cacophony of noise?
Some days I seek the easy chair, slump contentedly, eyes closed, listen to nothing, just breathe. I know you are in the next room ready to provide the steady hand. You are the reminder, there is good in this world.
Like young colts galloping through wildflowered fields, all legs in a blur. These teenage grandchildren rush in laughing, talking, a whirlwind of energy. Fast hugs for me, quick words of endearment and they’re out the door.
I sit down, coffee cup in hand, and chuckle at what just was. I marvel, smiling, at what is to come and what will be. The world is theirs to explore, to grapple with, to improve, to endure. But for now, let them gallop in the wildflowered fields.
Posted for Open Link Night at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. AND we are LIVE today from 3 to 4 PM Boston time. Read below how to join us!
EXCITING NEWS FOR dVERSE! Mr. Samuel Peralta announced the selection of dVerse Anthology, Chiaroscuro, for inclusion in the LunarCodex Polaris time capsule going to the moon in 2023! It’s true! Not a hoax! Chiaroscuro will be on the moon — I have six poems in the anthology! I’m going to be on the moon! Go to lunarcodex.com to learn more. At the Menu on the right click on MORE….scroll down and you’ll come to an image of Chiaroscuro! Mr. Peralta is interviewed on YouTube about the technology. Google “We”re flying to the moon samuel Peralta” you’ll find it. It’s rather lengthy, but very interesting to read about the technology!
What is OLN LIVE? Go to https://dversepoets.com at 3 PM or shortly thereafter. There will be a link right at the top of the page…Click on it and it will take you to the dVerse pub! You’ll meet many of the dVersers who post here weekly, and some who just come when the spirit moves them (or the prompt does!). Each attendee has the opportunity to read one poem aloud as others listen and appreciate. Alternatively, if you are not comfortable reading for the group, simply join us and listen in! The more the merrier!
I hope to see you at the pub today!!! https://dversepoets.com at 3 PM Boston time or shortly thereafter. We’ll be live until 4 PM.
Society’s expectations? She doesn’t give two hoots about being who she’s not.
It’s taken her a while to get there, seven decades to be exact. Wrinkle creams and hair dye be damned.
She wears flat shoes on every occasion, air-dries her hair in all its grey glory and orders dessert, which is mandatory.
Happily sleeveless when it’s hot, just stare if you dare at her crepe-like skin and notice her knees with those very high hems.
Stereotypical sayings are bantered about, she’s older and wiser and been round the block but look at her now as she picks her own route.
Written for NAPOWRIMO, Day 15. Today we’re asked to “write a poem about something you have absolutely no interest in.” We’re invited “to investigate some of the ‘why’ behind resolutely not giving two hoots about something.” Although my poem is written in third person, this is how I feel at seventy-five.
Things sometimes manifest themselves in clouds Are they real shapes, real creatures others see as well? Not only my machinations, but some unexplainable cumulus creation? Always I wonder, is my mind crazed or simply too artistic for the mundane? What occurs to me as perfectly easy to discern, may or may not be for others. They perhaps simply see white fluffs surrounded by blue and I seem rather odd to them, as I ogle over a fire-breathing dragon in the sky.
Written for NAPOWRIMO, Day 6. The prompt for today is “write a variation of an acrostic poem. But rather than spelling out a word with the first letters of each line, I’d like you to write a poem that reproduces a phrase with the first words of each line.”
I’ve chosen a line from Aesop’s Fable, the Bee-Keeper and the Bees: Things are not always what they seem.
I choose flat dress shoes instead of stiletto heels. My balance isn’t what it used to be. I choose a romance novel or best seller. Headlines raise my blood pressure and I don’t want to take another pill. I choose strolling the well-worn path. Young people can push the boulders up hill. I choose biting into a blushing velvet peach, sectioning an orange takes too long. I choose creating my own sunshine on a cloudy rainy day. I choose to be me. My age, right here, right now, with you by my side.
Written for Tuesday Poetics at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets where today Sarah asks us to consider anaphora: a rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending emphasis. She gives us a list of verbs to choose from for the word we’d like to repeat. I selected the word choose.
The second half of joy is shorter than the first. Emily Dickinson
everyday a gift wildflowers along the road – snow falls silently
Written for the NAPOWRIMO prompt given the day before National Poetry Writing Month begins. We are to respond to one of Emily Dickinson’s lines of poetry. Several are provided or we may choose our own.
Also will appear at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today is OLN: Open Link Night. Ingrid is hosting and we may post any one poem of our choosing. Pub opens at 3 PM Boston time. NAPOWRIMO begins officially tomorrow. April is National Poetry Writing Month and the challenge is to write a poem every day of the month. Photo is from our trip to Ireland a number of years ago.
She adored attending church, not to finger her rosary beads or murmur prayers upon her knees, but to wear her finest hats for all to see. Purposely arriving late she strutted down the aisle showing off her plumage, much like the Tall Crowned Crane and the Secretary Bird she visited often at the Diego Zoo.
We’re trying on hats today at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. First two photos are from the San Diego Zoo: first is the Tall Crowned Crane and second is a Secretary Bird. That old bird in the third photograph is me some years back. I always say, if you’re going to wear a hat, wear a HAT! Poem is fictional….I’m not Catholic, don’t use a rosary, and certainly don’t strut in church.
lillian the home poet 