Mainely Write

*It's Poetry Friday early!* I was going to wait until noon to post this, but I'm just so excited I can't wait.  I have to do it NOW! Spoiler Alert: My poem is at the end, in case you want to wait to read it until after you are finished your own poem. So any time now you may reveal your poems all based on that line I stole from Buffy Silverman a month back!  The Poetpourri Challenge is condensed below and there are links to the "history" for review in case you missed what this was all about. . Remember, we are revealing for Poetry Friday, but I'm posting this early for those who need an earlier than USA time or just anyone who is ready. Don't forget to do your Poetry Friday link up to Carol at Beyond Literacy Link , too. And here's Mister Linky, for another way for others to find our ferocious poems easily.  Hope to read your poem soon! *********A review of the challenge ********** *********and how it started is here *********

Such ice this morning!  So loud it woke the dog and then me... She (the dog) was barking fiercely, so probably the plow came in and sanded our hill early.  I just checked, and schools are closed today.  It is quite an unpleasant weather day.  It is still dark, so I don't really know what has transpired out there, but it is SO noisy!  We don't have outside lights in our neck of the woods, so I can't see what it is doing out there.  I know that is foreign to some people, but we like living out where there are no street lights.  The stars are much nicer that way! Manic Morning Such knocking I'm rocking Waking to cello-pained Cellophaned Window panes Rhythmic glass Ice enmasse Window's tattling Sleet is battling Weather's shattering Sky-flaking Early-waking Making me Insane - With noisy, iced-up rain! We may lose power at some point due to heavy branches on power lines, or someone hitting a pole sliding on the icy roads (heaven forbid!).  With

For this past Poetry Friday, I was visiting Greg Pincus' blog and read his poem .  I just had to replicate its format.  So here's my poem for today. What Can We Do? Plant a tree, Build a boat, Give someone a nice, warm coat; Make a pie, Bake some bread, Knit a hat for some cold head. There is much That we can do Under    the stars    in sky of blue. by Donna JT Smith, Jan. 2017 And here's another "What Can We Do?"  We can write ferocious poems! Hope you are writing something ferocious for the Poetpourri Challenge!  ( Here's where it started. ) Below are the guidelines again. Below that are the contributors to credit. Below those are the lines to copy and paste to work with if you need them. Posting on your site is this Friday!  Link here on Thursday/Friday's post and link at Carol at Beyond Literacy Link where Poetry Friday is being hosted, for double coverage! The guidelines : You may break the given lines up into phrases, esp

Good Monday morning... or afternoon... or evening... or some other day if you are not here Monday morning... My poem for today?  Let's see. Dog's ear splitting quake Wakes me, shakes me; mistaken - Lots of nothing there. Donna JT Smith, Jan 23, 2017 It was probably a squirrel I couldn't see.  She sure has an amazingly loud, sharp and sudden bark, and a quick but heavy trot across the house to a window.  How could she have seen anything?  Squirrel must have been doing a low growl out there that only dogs can hear.  I have put a barricade of chairs in front of the sliding glass doors now, so she can't get as good a view and a running start to a barking frenzy. Here is the Poetpourri Challenge condensed below.  Remember, we are revealing on Friday, January 27, 2017, for Poetry Friday!  Link up to Carol at Beyond Literacy Link that day, and on my link list here that day, too, for more visibility! If you choose to accept this assignment/challenge, here are

There is nothing remarkable about this image, except that there are no shadows.  Shadows make all the difference in how we see things. Using ColorSnap, I see this morning's winter palette... Sun filtered morning Rays grayed out, shadows dispersed No highlights, no depth Looking out my window as I write, I realize that the long shadows of trees are not stretching out before me.  They are still in bed, I guess, waiting for the sun to wake them. I have just talked my way into my second haiku for my file... ding.  So far, I'm on track for an unpublished poem a day.  They are mostly haiku, and I try to make them somehow about the day or what I've noticed that day.  I'm also trying to remember to write a quick note with it as to my inspiration for it and taking a picture if that works, but doesn't always lend itself to doing this. Hope you are thinking about joining in this ferocious challenge. There are some pretty fierce lines that have been su

 If you got to here on January 27th, this is an old post.  Sorry for the confusion, I linked wrong on Carol's site today!  Please redirect your comments and reading to today's post and poem at https://mainelywrite.blogspot.com/2017/01/poetpourrie-friday.html Happy Poetry Friday!  As you finish here, visit sweet Violet who is hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup today! News regarding the Poetpourri: I am having SO much fun with this Potpourri of Poetic lines that I am going to open it up to one and all!  Here is what I wrote last Saturday about it: New thought.  NEW THOUGHT! (Yes, I'm yelling.) What if anyone who had a mind to, composed a poem at the same time I am?  Same lines used, same reveal day? Raise your hand if you think that would be fun!  You know it would! I am closing the submission of lines now, so everyone will see them today and start asap if they are interested. I will post the lines, and rules at the end of each blog post this week for

i have at least one poem a day so far this year. On the days I don't have one posted here, I have my "keeper".  I have also been working on postcard poetry and the Poetpourri Poem. The days have been full of writing in one way or another. Please check Saturday's post ((which I'll link when I get home and am not posting from my phone!) and I didn't because I got home too late...) It's an idea for you!

Regarding the Poem Potpourri: I couldn't wait.  I had to try it out. I have a very rough draft now...and I am goosity-bumply!  I can barely wait to share it on Friday, the 27th!  I'll wait, of course, to see if there are any more lines to come - but right now... oh...my...word!  I'm loving this process! Please feel free to add your line in the comments below or on some other day this week if you haven't yet.  There's still a week to go.  I'll happily harvest more lines if they sprout! At this point I've kind of determined that I am going to make this a New Yearly thing - cause it's so much fun! New thought.  NEW THOUGHT! (Yes, I'm yelling.) What if anyone who had a mind to, composed a poem at the same time I am?  Same lines used, same reveal day? Raise your hand if you think that would be fun!  You know it would! Line submissions deadline would be by midnight, next Friday (21).  I would make sure all the lines were posted on my blog

I have a few lines for this.  I'm asking for more today, and next Friday I'll assemble/compose! So far, and in no particular order (especially not in poetic order yet!): Buffy S: "ferocious women who never bring you coffee" created from refrigerator magnet poetry Donna S: "always leave a wild song" - created from refrigerator magnet poetry Linda B: "dreaming women do art in poetry" - from her pile of poetry blocks Buffy S: "where wizards and wolves rush by in a blur of green and gold and gray" - patched together from Kate Dicamillo's Where Are You Going Baby Lincoln Kay: "Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones." from Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five Linda M: "waking the world to a new day" Margaret S: " Steam that climbs like smoke from a fire" - this was in the comments the first week, and I'm not sure if it is a comment or a line... but I'm using it!  Carol V: &q

Haiku Number 11 is at the end, if you make it that far. I love you all, but I just thought you should know; there's a dissident in your midst. I know I am not the only one.  We rarely speak out. I've listened to, or perhaps rather, read lots of posts and comments lately about politics and related depression, sadness, apprehension, fear, etc. I need to say something - something that will probably offend, but no more so than I've been offended lately. I am tired of having people speak as if the world as we know it is coming to an end, and assuming that everyone thinks the way they are thinking.  People who think as I do are not at the ready to fight or put down others with differing opinions, and thus, we are not only not heard, but are invisible to those who are belittling our choices, decisions and intentions. I am intimidated by the outspokenness and intolerance of many around me, by the very people who would say we all need to embrace diversity, uphold

It is getting late for posting, but I promised myself I would reach 365 poems this year - maybe not all posted online, but 365 in my files. Here's number 10 (and I will have 10 more in my files after this one)! Today it was cold and clear out.  It's supposed to warm up a bit for tomorrow and maybe we'll get some rain.  On the coast we often get rain mixed with snow, which then freezes nice and solid, though chunky. My sister-in-law just fell on the ice and broke her leg.  Today is pin setting day for her.  Metal is being installed in her leg today to help strengthen her tibia.  I guess back a number of years that kind of a break would make it so someone limped forever after that.  Or I suppose even losing the leg could have been the outcome.  It is so wonderful that now we can have most maladies and injuries remedied fairly well, if not perfectly. So I guess this should be a winter and ice kind of poem today.  Let's see if it is. Winter Wilderness Icy moun

It is Monday, January 9, 2017. I am stating the obvious here.  The first sentence is how I would start my Monday morning chart in first grade, and then introduce something we would do or have a note about the weather.  It was a structure that held our days together and grounded us in our steps together that day. Since I retired, it has become harder to remember what day of the month it is.  Days of the week aren't as obscure, because there are still markers for me, like church on Sunday, breakfast at Blueberries on Saturday, and Poetry Friday on...well, Friday.  The other days may mingle together, but my weekend days are pretty stable and anchor me throughout the rest of the week. I've recently thought I might put a "morning message" on my refrigerator to help me set my day's schedule and thoughts.  I think I will go get that little white board I have stashed away and start writing the date, weather and what special thing I have planned for myself for l

Night's snow left our world Lumpy, all color erased Diamonds evolving. I've written this first thing this morning while it is still dark.  When the sun comes up it's going to be so pretty and sparkly... just black and white

What a strange feeling.  My husband has just retired, for real.  Phones and email for business shut down.  No more travel each week to Rhode Island for a couple of days.  That has been going on for years.  I'd accompanied him on a few trips down after my retirement.  This would be the last "company" trip. On Wednesday, I went down for a quiet dinner at the Capitol Grille in Providence with the company's ad agency.  We said our good-byes to the staff at the hotel where he always stays.  They left a gift in our room while we were out for dinner.  They know us fairly well now, and I think I'll miss having these "strangers" as friends.  Our drive down was leisurely, but the drive back home was even more leisurely.  We had a wonderful time and caught up with our son to have supper at home. Now we find ourselves deciding what to do.  We have plenty to do.  We need to get the  house we're in ready to sell this spring.  We need to pare down to move int

Ferocious women who never bring you coffee Always leave a wild song;  *See below for more info*   Haiku 6 REACH Shifting focal points Recycle golden moments One heart at a time I had announced that my OLW was COMMIT, but I had a sudden change of heart.  Actually, I'd complained aloud to my husband that I wasn't enthralled with it. Then when writing on Wednesday morning, I suddenly was struck with the word "REACH".  COMMIT wasn't active enough still for me.  REACH gives me so many more possibilities in life. I had watched a movie this past week, "Savannah Sunrise".  The woman in it was so good at reaching out to people and caring, that it inspired me to try to be more like that. I realized that morning that I had a desire to reach out to others more. On Wednesday morning during our breakfast in the hotel dining area, I heard a gentleman ask a woman if she would like assistance with her luggage.  She had a number of bags sh

Hello. It is the fourth day of January. And it is the fourth poem of the year.  I'm not sure why I'm putting this one up yet.  I haven't written my "save" poem yet.  There's so much more to the day though, so I'm sure I will have time to write again.  We are going out to dinner tonight, so that should be fun and fodder. Revolting Revolution Tapping unnoticed  Revolutionary tech; Thanks, paper and pen! Sometimes my fingers seem to be either too cold, too lotiony or too something, or I'm being jostled in the car enough to tap the wrong letter so my iPad or iPhone give me a jumble of letters instead of words.  Those are the times I am grateful that we have not made pens and pencils a thing of the past! And sometimes it just feels good to be writing with blue ink on a paper napkin at a restaurant. Have a great Wednesday!  Let's start rolling up our sleeves and working to make this year one of dropping differences, embracing humanity

I'm writing a haiku or poem a day for the year.  That's what I've committed to anyway! Remember, if you see one here, there is an unpublished one - that is hopefully better than the one you are reading (that's the plan) - in my files, for my "Book". (Yup, there's another one in my files...written on the road today.) I'm late publishing today, but still - so far, so good!  If I write 2 a day, I will have... um... more than 365 poems in a year...  730?  Whoa!  That's possible?? Time to get on the road today - heading for a small get-together retirement dinner for my husband. Side mirror in the rain Haiku #3 A Ride in the Car Traveling afar Rainlight glistens on the car Cruising with my star. Donna JT Smith, January 3, 2017 See you tomorrow!

It's my husband's first official day of retirement - really yesterday, but he wouldn't have been working anyway.  Or maybe tomorrow is, because it would have been a day off today, too. We are not BOTH retired now.  We've never been retired together before.  We've either been in school or at a job FOREVER.  I guess we were retired up to the age of 5 or 6, but not together.  No commitments up until then.  And now no more commitments again some 60 years later.  There's that word again. I thought more about my OLW on Saturday and Sunday.  The word "commit" came up at church in a reading.  Then it came up in a song.  It was a sudden and unexpected request to sing at morning service when the scheduled person was ill. - "for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed, unto Him against that day"... So when commit came up AGAIN in a scripture reading.... and I'd written COMMIT as a p