News, Views, Clues, Woo-hoos!

It's Poetry Friday!
Hip-hip, hooray!
Such a special day
When get to say...
Yay!
Here's all the news,
 views
  and woo-hoos
Coming your way -

Now I have to remember all that I needed to say... and the rhyming MUST stop for now - quite enough... Okay.

Last Friday I left you with this teaser:

Next Friday: Sharing Buffy Silverman's Summer Poetry Exchange poem, maybe my anniversary poem, and a bit of news about a poem...

I have to add one item that slipped my mind.  The refrigerator magnet got forgotten in a shuffle.

1.  News - Tabatha Yeatts won the refrigerator magnet!  Not sure if she's sharing it today, too, but here it is.  It's the picture she sent, and my poem to go with it.

The term, "Ice-olated", is from about 30 years ago or more, when my son was 5 or younger, and used it when he was being a superhero and wanted to "isolate" me, or encapsulate me in ice - his meaning.  I loved it, and had to use it some day.

2. I'm skipping my anniversary poem that I said I would do.  But will say that last Friday, for our 44th wedding anniversary, we traveled down to PA to the Sight and Sound production of "Samson".  It was fantastic.  It was our second time going to a production there, and it was as impressive this time as the first.  The pillars crumbling at the end was especially well done!

3.  Views - Buffy Silverman's poetry exchange poem came to me just after posting a couple of Friday's ago.  She sent me a beautiful poem and some milkweed seeds.  I think I will be planting them this fall up at Gull Haven where we will hopefully be living by the time they are in bloom!

Waiting

Casting off her striped skin
for a green-and-golden case,
she reassembles puzzle pieces;

gone are the sticky feet
for clinging and climbing;
the jaws that unstitched milkweed leaves;
the anchor that clasped
while she twisted and turned,
devouring one leaf after another.

Here are the skinny black legs
that will linger on soft petals,
the antennae not yet sniffing sweet nectar;
the two dark strands, waiting to be zipped
into a single straw, curled and uncurled
that will savor and sip

when her tiny wings
swell and flap
into the future.

by Buffy Silverman, 2016, all rights reserved

How amazing to be a butterfly that has just emerged to a new life!  I often wonder what they think of this transformation - or if they do at all.
Thank you, Buffy, for a gorgeous poem full of the marvelous, mysterious ways of these milkweed munchers!  Thanks for the seeds, too!  September's treat at school was always the releasing of butterflies for their trip to Mexico.  Hope I can attract some to our new home.

3. Woo-hoos - Silver Birch Press is including my pantoum, "The Missing Mother's Message", in their Nancy Drew Anthology that is coming out later this month!  I'm very excited about seeing my poem in print in a real live book.  I am pleased as punch.  Oh, and it has a wonderful cover, that I cannot show just yet.

It will be available online through Silver Birch Press soon.  Here are some links to where the anthology may be purchased - for those interested in reading Nancy Drew inspired poems!  I'll post these links again when the Nancy Drew Anthology is actually available! 
Website: https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Silver-Birch-Press/374649912590182
Twitter: https://twitter.com/silverbirchpres
 (yes, only one "s" here in "pres".

Thank you for reading!  I know this was longer than one post.  Each item could have been one post, but it all had to be said now!

Stop by for more poetry goodness at Michelle's place - Today's Little Ditty!  You won't be disappointed!

Yesterday or Tomorrow?

As I visited Poetry Friday offerings ... a bit late because my husband and I made a quick decision to go to PA and see the Sight and Sound production of "Samson" for our anniversary Friday night! (amazing, amazing, loved it, loved it)... I went to Carol Varsalona's poem "Summer Moved On", and as I was commenting, I found I was beginning a poem.  So I stopped and moved it over here!
I should keep track of how many poems I've written because I've read a post and my comment to it became a poem.  It has happened a number of times.  I thought it was a fluke probably the first time, but now I'm realizing what rich soil I'm blogging in!  There is inspiration and motivation and instigation wherever I look, listen or read!


Yesterday or Tomorrow?

I remember it like it was yesterday
It was there just moments ago -
Remember yesterday,
When summer was here?
Did it lag behind us,
Get left in our dust?
Or did it move on past us
When we were not aware
Of it’s changing pace
Its need to race?
Were we the ones
That summer passed
Or could it be we
Went too fast?
No matter which.
The day will come
When we greet summer
Once again -
Either up ahead
Where it has sped
And now lounges
In the sun
Waiting for us to catch up
As we dig a path
Out of snow,
Plant those seeds
In a row,
To show up
Just in time;
Or from behind
It overtakes
Boldly,
Tapping us on the shoulder
To say, “Boo!”
“I’m here again!”
But you knew
It was creeping up;
It never really surprises you -
Except for that
Bit of yellow dandelion
And the shoots of green
That took you unawares
Yesterday -
That dewy morning,
When you dripped
some drops
Of salty tears as the
Butterfly stopped to
Reminisce
And leave a kiss
So you'll always
Remember
Tomorrow.


This poem was instigated by a couple of things:
reading Carol's post on Friday AND somewhere that I can't recall now, the word "yesterday" struck me.  And the two together started to mesh and mush into a question of where we are in the cycle of the seasons... are we the ones moving or are the cycles?  Are they coming up from behind or are they in front of us?  Either way, it seems like only yesterday that summer was here.

Poetry Friday Anniversary Post

It's Poetry Friday!  Today's poetic offerings are being hosted by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm!  Thanks, Amy!

First, I want to post a poem I wrote on the spur of the moment when I was looking for Kiesha Shepard's blog.  I searched and found her From Pens to Paint blog where she tells of refinishing furniture.  While on From Pens to Paint, I came across this post about some end tables she'd painted using "flour sack white milk paint". Some words came to mind which I had to write down.
And these are they:

Flour-Sack White

Flour-sack white cottage
In an unmown field -
Memories still linger
Where the paint has peeled.
Sheets and socks blow gently
Drying in the sun,
Barrel by the backdoor
Expecting rain to run;
Windows bring the day in,
Shifting shadow’s light
On worn bits of treasure
In flour-sack cottage white.
Wide fields, stretched forever,
Dry to golden brown,
As the sun of summer
Earlier sets down.
Autumn days of harvest
Must draw to their end;
Winter winds will whistle,
Milk white days to spend
Inside this hidden cottage,
Snow drifts all around,
Sitting ‘round the fireplace
Waiting for the sounds;
Welcoming the springtime,
Birds’ and breeze in tune;
Flour-sack milk white cottage
Joins the joyous croon;
White sheets slap on clothesline,
Stockings flap like wings;
Through another season
Flour-sack cottage sings.

Donna JT Smith, 2016


Then I can't not mention that today is our 44th wedding anniversary.  The love of my life and I have been married, happily, for 44 years today.  We met on the first day of my Junior year in college - his Senior year, were engaged by Christmas, and married a week before starting my Senior year and his Graduate studies.  When it is right, you just know it, so there is no wasting time.
I made my wedding gown, bought a yellow rose to carry, hand wrote in calligraphy (the best I could learn in a couple of weeks) all my invitations and reply cards, bought three different sized marble cakes to stack and decorate with yellow on my own, found a cute church, a willing minister to marry us and church ladies to supply sandwiches, chips, pickles, lemonade and coffee.  My brother took pictures of the wedding, my dad paid Guy Grube (the minister), we got hitched... and are staying hitched for life!  Staying married was a given.  The D word never got mentioned.  That was never an option.  And so we learned to grow together.

I think today, some or many just assume that divorce is an option if (and there is never an "if" because they will) times get tough.  We did not expect things to always run smoothly, but we did expect that we would see them through together and come out on the other side better for it.  Nowadays we too easily decide to give up.  Early on my parents told me that you can't run away from yourself.  A new place was not going to fix things.  What needed to be fixed was inside you.  And that is how I've lived my life, and so has my husband.  We do not live a drama-filled life, as we are led to believe is the norm from tv... there are no "in your face" moments.  There are no statements or ultimatums thrown out that are hard to come back from.

"If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all..." has always been our motto - thank you Thumper.



That said, though, I must say that my husband makes it easy to say nice things.  I think I chose well in the husband department.  I have a poem started that I wrote for him, but I'm not satisfied with it yet.  So it will have to wait.

I cannot always just make a poem happen, I guess.  Sometimes I can.  This time I can't!  So, again, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all!"

Next Friday: Sharing Buffy Silverman's Summer Poetry Exchange poem, maybe my anniversary poem, and a bit of news about a poem...

Poetry Exchange

It's Poetry Friday, hosted this week by Penny at A Penny and Her Jots.
And today I'm sharing the last poem exchange of the summer, organized by Tabatha Yeatts.  My last partner for this year's round is Carol Varsalona!  She seems to have done her homework and enjoyed the "assignment" in this year's summer poetry exchange.  Carol has kept up with my recent motorcycling adventures, as well as drawing from my April A to Z Challenge where I wrote poetry based on vanity plates in Maine!  Since Carol also has a vanity plate, she used her plate to write a creative acrostic and print it up on a bookmark with plenty of sparkle!

Donna is....

        Enthusiastic
        Learner
        Admitting

        Real
        Exciting
        Adventure
  founD on the road

By Carol Varsalona, all rights reserved

She also found a newspaper article on women bike riders and used the article to create a Found Poem.

"What? Wearing Motorcycle?"

"No confusion,

I'm a woman on a bike

who wears what's comfortable!"

Bold, Blonde,

Biker Babe

Journeying Through Life

By Carol Varsalona, all rights reserved

Carol also supports a charity that brings education and sustainable living to Masese, Uganda.  The women there make beads and string them into jewelry, selling them to raise money to care for their families.  Carol sent along a beautiful string of ocean blue beads - a certain conversation piece to wear and bring awareness.

Thank you, Carol, for your multi-faceted gift!  Sweet, sweet, sweet!

What a great summer this has been!  I'm going to keep on riding until the leaves fall and I get too cold to continue.  Tomorrow my husband and I are riding to the park (I say "park", but I mean ocean) on our bikes, with lunches tucked away in bags on the back.  Maybe I'll tuck a bathing suit and towel in there, too!  We're going to pretend we are tourists...on "Daisy" and "Retired"...
I still can't believe I did this... that I'm DOING this!
Neither can my husband.

If you'd asked me three years ago if I'd ever ride a motorcycle, I'd have laughed and not even have taken the question seriously.  Three years ago I was having trouble seeing.  I couldn't drive a car at night.  I could barely drive in the daytime.  My back hurt.  I could not walk or ride long distances easily.  I was having problems with gluten (though I didn't know what it was that was making eating an iffy thing).
Got my cataracts fixed in the fall of 2013... things literally started looking good.
In 2015, I discovered gluten was ruining my life and cut it out... things started working well.
In 2016, I lost 50+ pounds... everything became easier and less painful to do.

I can see, I can eat, I can move!  I am not the same person I was three years ago... but I'm kinda feeling like the person I was 30 years ago.

Thank you everyone for the wonderful poems this summer!  I feel so blessed to be in this group... why, 6 years ago, I wouldn't have said I was a writer (no commenters on anything posted for those first three posts!).  And I didn't know any writers.  But everything has changed.  And I like every single change.

Changing

Chameleon, caterpillar,
dandelion, me -
Look at us just one time
what is it that you see?
Look again another day,
scan us up and down;
Do we look the same to you
or have some changed their gown?
Leaves on trees, clouds above
Eggs about to hatch
Nothing stays the same it seems
always there's a catch...
Sprouting wings, changing garb,
gray to brilliant blue,
Cycled lives of wonderment...
What's in store for you?

by Donna JT Smith

Today is...

Today is...

Today is
lighter than
yesterday;
high clouds
split wide with
seams popping
show blue;
breezes
curl up into
my helmet,
dazzling me with
smells of fields mowed,
leaves burned,
roses blooming,
the tide turning;
the sun's warm hand
on my shoulder
makes me smile;
and for the very first time
I am thinking of
more than

  clutch -
    shift -
      break -
        throttle.

by Donna JT Smith, 8/27/16

by Donna JT Smith, 8/27/16

Is It Ever Late?

Happy Poetry Friday!  Today's fun is hosted by Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe.

Now, contrary to the poem below... there is a time-limit here.
Yes, there is such a thing as "late".  So, HURRY!  There are a couple of days left.  Four days before September 1!

I will be assembling materials to create a cool refrigerator magnet for someone!  Maybe it will be you. Get me your offering of a picture and a writing (preferably a poem, but prose is fine) about your refrigerator by end of day August 30 or point to it in the comments!

Next Friday, I will announce the winner and reveal the stone/tile magnet prize featuring your picture, poem or both picture and poem.  Or one I’ve just made up, just for you.  You can tell me which you’d like if your name is the one drawn from my motorcycle helmet.  It's the Great Refrigerator Race... of sorts.

Late

Look at the date

Me thinks the fate

Of leaves can wait

I’ve not yet cleaned my plate

Or slate -

Human condition -

Running late -

Is it innate -

A human trait?

Of all the creatures

We have clocks

Yet we’re the ones

With hurried walks

The others know

The time of day

And simply move

Within the sway

Of trees and breeze

And waves in bay

In harmony with

Making hay

With no confusion

No delay

They go about

Their day to day

Yet still they've found

Some time to play

And I am left with

Lots to do

And little time

To see it through

Perhaps I need

An un-timed event

And see how all

Time-freed is spent -

How slow the hours

and minutes went

When I've pursue a

Timeless bent

Just jotted this... punctuation is not done... maybe more to come or some to delete...
I've been busy lately so haven't been writing much.  Visited grandkids and have been riding some.  Been restless and less sitting as I lose weight.  Down 49.5 pounds as of yesterday... holding steady today.  I am over halfway to where I want to be... though I don't know where I want to be as I am pretty happy already where I am... a lap to sit on for grandchildren... able to walk a long distance... able to hoist a leg over a motorcycle and ride... finding chords on my mandolin that has waited for me in the corner of the bedroom... restless is where I am.  I have a feeling there is something I'm supposed to do soon, but it hasn't presented itself in full yet.  I'm getting glimpses and inklings, but it's too foggy and dim yet.  Meanwhile, I will put in another load of laundry, help some homeschoolers learn to read, try to focus on my houses - cleaning and selling this home and moving to Gull Haven soon (was supposed to be this summer, but looks like maybe this winter).

Tabatha's Refrigerator and a Poem

As you may or may not know, it is Refrigerator Month here, and I'm featuring refrigerator stuff all August long!  If you have a refrigerator "thing" you want to share - a picture, poem, prose - Link at the linky at the "Refrigerator" tab above, or send me an email.  I will put it right here, as I am doing with Tabatha's today!  And I will put all the names in a motorcycle helmet and draw one out for a grand prize of a stone tile refrigerator magnet, featuring something you sent in... or your choice of picture/verse... So far, Tabatha wins... I will check my email again, but I don't think there is another entry and we are half-way through the month!

Emailed refrigerator offering from Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference :

"Another Shot from my Fridge"

"I guess the subject line says it all. We got Walt Whitman finger puppet magnet recently -- I think of him as "Uncle Walt."

Joy's postcard is one that you read rightside up and upside down (it's an elephant upside down). Clever!"

It's Poetry Friday hosted by Julianne at To Read To Write To Be.  Go visit to find more poetry gems by poetry miners!

And now, a refrigerator offering from me:

Ode to the Odorous

Receiver, giver, preserver,
Made of plastic and metal,
Cool to summer's touch,
With pudding to settle
And good stuffs for kettle;
A heart of cold.
What's found beyond her
Closed thick door?
A place to wander,
Sweet calls to ponder
The icy depths where
Sustaining hopes lie
In bits to boil or
bake or fry,
Crispy or dry
For palate shy
or cuisine bold;
But toss the stuff
begun to mold
and gross to hold.
She cannot keep
Forever more
Sustenance
Behind her door
Cleaning is a dreadful chore. 
It must be done -
This is my plea
With sponge in hand
Why always me?
Do none else see?
No one steps up?
No volunteer?
I need your help,
Please come near;
Help me don
My hazmat gear!

Donna JT Smith, 2016

Today's fashion-forward gear.

Your grandma's gear...

Refrigerator Wraps

So I was just browsing around on the Internet today and came across Refrigerator Wraps.  And since this is refrigerator month, I'm featuring this.  I have nothing to do with this company, so if you decide to redecorate your refrigerator using a cool wrap, I don't get a penny!  Or a dollar... or even a cold drink.

They sell heavy duty vinyl adhesive covers for refrigerators, to transform them into vintage and custom designed refrigerators.  They look pretty amazing and seem especially good if you have a not-so-new looking refrigerator that you'd like to spruce up!  I imagine that refrigerator magnets would still work with this coating on it, but you may need slightly stronger ones, or just keep posts off the refrigerator so people can see the new look.
It might be nice to have a refrigerator that looks like a bookcase full of your favorite books, but the front of a VW is nice, too!

I'm hoping to have some refrigerator posts from some of you soon!  But if not, it's still been fun and I'll just order myself a stone refrigerator magnet, I guess.  I WIN!

Click on the REFRIGERATOR link above to put in your link to a refrigerator blog post, because I don't want to be the one to win.
If you don't have a blog but want to submit something, send it to d+J+T+s+1+9+7+2 then the at symbol and y+A+h+o+o+dot +com.  Is that cryptic enough not to get a bot's attention? I hate spam.  But that is my email that is full of commercial and spam emails.  I'll have to look carefully for yours so leave a comment letting me know you've sent me something!

Also check or tweet at #mycoolrefrigerator!
 

Posts on the Refrigerator

Postcards posted on my refrigerator...
These creations were sent to me for the Summer Post Card Exchange organized by Amy Souza of Spark!
I put them on my refrigerator to display them, then I studied my refrigerator magnets. I picked out words to go with each card first then decided to swirl them in a kind of free association poem (?).
From left to right the cards are from Cathy Pratt, Alisa Lasker, Amy Souza and Kim Cerrudo.

It's another fun summer!

I Wish You Rides & Refrigerators

It is Poetry Friday, hosted by Tara at A Teaching Life, and I have another sweet poem to share from the Summer Poetry Exchange.  This one is from Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, from The Poem Farm.  She sent along some yummy treats from her recent trip to Spain even - which will be eaten ever so slowly and savoringly!

Amy's beautiful poem full of wishes brings to mind some of the reasons I wanted to try this motorcycle riding thing!  I think you will understand the fascination perhaps when you read it.  I've had lots of warnings to be careful, and stories of falls, and sundry reasons for NOT riding a motorcycle.  But to temper those I've received lots of words of encouragement and looks of amazement; along with the exhilarating rush of air, the discovery of beautiful back roads, the shared special times with my son and husband, and the plain old amazement in myself for ever actually doing this!

Thanks, Amy, for your poem.  I like how it fits and feels!

I Wish You Rides

I wish you rides
on country roads
where children wave
as you zip by.
I wish you rides
through wind and sun
where you are one
with earth and sky.
I wish you rides
beneath bright stars
twinkling secrets
in your ears.
I wish you rides
to visit friends
you have not seen
for many years.
I wish you rides
full of thinking
full of beauty
strong and bold.
I wish you rides
and rides
and rides
from now
until
you're very old.

by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, all rights reserved

Thank you, Amy, for all your wonderful wishes...and for including my one little word for this year - BOLD!
Bold is how I'm feeling this year, how I'm living this year, how I'm seeing myself...

**********************************

Now, about that refrigerator of yours...
I'm looking for posts about your refrigerator this month.  I picture and a few words... poem or prose.  Inside or outside. What's on it, or in it?  On top?  Front, sides?  What does your refrigerator say about you?  I'm posting random things about my refrigerator and my life - sometimes a story, sometimes a poem.
When you have a post, link it under the REFRIGERATOR tab above (just below the title).  At the end of August there will be a prize - a marble refrigerator magnet with a picture and/or writing from your post.  If you post more than once, I will put your name in once for EACH individual post.  So more links to posts, more chances to win!  And winning is an exciting thing!  I've been posting since August 1 about this, so check back on the old posts for poems and pictures of all things refrigerator.