Mainely Write

I am combining my first Thursday of the month, Spiritual Thursday's post hosted by Irene Latham , and Poetry Friday with Tanita as hostess !  You can read the Spiritual Thursday's writers' posts about their OLW "One Little Word" for 2019 - a recap of the words that directed lives this year, and poetry for a Friday. Thank you, Michelle Barnes, for sharing my poem today at Today's Little Ditty .  You have so much on your plate that is delicious and savorable!  And I am so pleased to have contributed to your newest anthology!  I'm enjoying the reading and rereading! I have not been up to speed on my blog, but I blog when I can, and when there's inspiration. Here's today's time and inspiration.  Perhaps you can guess what my One Little Word will be for next year. Wordless? I did not     have a word. But I did have days and weeks of     treading; fortnights and months of     searching; hours of waking; minutes of sleeping;     paci

Time goes by, and I realize I have not put much online lately.  It isn't that I haven't been writing, but because I have.  And I have been busy with life. I don't know if anyone has invented this poetry form or not.  I will have to research it.   I would call it a Shuffle.  I have written the poem to have alternating lines.  The first Stanza is non-rhyming, the second has the same rhyme throughout, then the lines are alternated to make the third stanza.   Better understood after reading it! Time and Space So much time,   . Wait... short the time,   Something's wrong - Each battered soul   Desires as I     
       A contented walk   No stress or grimace

       Though time runs short      In joyful Autumn    I dare to linger     so little space    but long the race    confounded pace    in need of grace       to find a place    without dark trace    clouding face    so much is chase    such a fickle embrace    ere sweet flakes of lace. So much time,    so

Michelle H. Barnes of Today's Little Ditty interviewed sloth fan, Rebecca Herzog, who gave the poetic challenge of writing about what a monster might be afraid of.  I started with one thing in mind, and it grew and twisted by the end.  Hope you had a scareful Halloween! Scareful Upstairs in my darkened room I love to scatter dust with broom, Then eat a snack of lovely bugs Like beetles, worms and slimy slugs. I pet my rat, I catch my bat; Content with where each web is at. And I am hummy-glum in gloom…    Until… I hear the dreadful chilling sound    Of children -      Up the stairs they bound With awful, joyful sounds of giggling - Their bodies, hands and lips all wiggling - A disgusting and revolting sight Made worse when they turn on the light! I shiver-hide behind a box Avoiding sounds of happy talks Trying not to be so scared Of children with their shiny hair. Why don’t they have a webby do? Why do they scream a silly “boo!” When will they all

I had little time to write this week, but I did go buy beads for a couple more necklaces and bracelets that my grandchildren want to make.  We made some this past week with beads and supplies that I always have, but I got a hankering to get a few more beads, so my granddaughter and I headed to Jo-Ann's for some sparklies (and some not quite so sparkly for her brother). As the background image for my words, I have the 4 strings she picked out for beading.  I wish I had a recording of her voice as she looked at all the beautiful beads to choose from!  I was surprised that it didn't take long to choose them - after we inspected every shimmering facet and glittery swirl of every bead in the store anyway! As my 5 year old granddaughter says matter-of-factly, no hint of ego or vanity - "I'm pretty on the inside, because I like to be kind to people."  And that she is. When a kindergartener on the first few days of school was crying as she waited for the school door

This was written a week and a half ago... and I updated the tense... life continues to be ever so slightly busy and off kilter... "Yesterday" was a chaotic day of trying to decide if we had time, and could that time be stretched to cover all the bases.  It was decided that time would tear if stretched that far unless we used two people. So my husband went alone to his dying mother's side, he was already more than half-way there in Southern Maine.  I'm glad that we could stretch it that far.  But I missed supporting my mother-in-law and my husband in this hour.  She was not one to stand on ceremony and would tell you that you didn't need to attend any old funeral for her.  But I know in her heart she still would care.  My daughter and I made the 11+ hour drive to Presque Isle a week and a half ago for her service.  It was a long but leisurely drive once we got into Maine.  Half of the trip is outside of Maine, half is just Maine. Northern Maine

I had a late start to summer...like I'm starting it now.  I could have just skipped it, but theoretically and in reality, it doesn't stop until autumn begins, and that isn't for a while yet...especially if you aren't a student or a teacher, or a parent of a student.  I was all of those things (or people), but now I'm retired and seasons according to the rulings of a school district don't apply.  For most of my life they have applied, and it is very freeing to think about summer extending as long as it feels like summer and at least as long as the actual calendar says it is summer and not autumn. So today, I am celebrating summer and the deliciousness of summer swaps (thanks, Tabatha!).  I received some awesome and encouraging swaps this summer.   The words sent me have been beautiful and just what I needed to remind myself to keep on swimming, riding, being strong. in no particular order, I received the following precious poetic packages: From Linda Mitche

I so want to apologize to my Poetry Swap buddies.  I should have just taken this year off.  Every post from May 1 on has been a journey outside of the daily stuff.  And most times I just can't get past the daily stuff.  Even this moment I am eyeing the clock...gotta be somewhere in a few minutes so I don't want to get so involved that I get lost in time. After the purchase of the home in PA, we had to return in spring to prepare the home in ME for sale.  Now that is sold, I am back in PA and my husband is in ME helping renovate my son's home. A variety of extraneous issues that I don't want to go into have drawn attention from one thing to another in rapid succession.  I can't discuss all of it, but just know, it has been mind-boggling and randomly concerning.  If it isn't one thing, it's another.  However, there have been enough good things to keep smiling in between...just not enough TIME smiling to relax.  I'm always waiting for the next shoe to

It's time to celebrate poetry.  Today's topic is trees if ya got one....and I remembered this one I have on my blog...so I'm reposting it.  Yesterday I just happened to take a picture of this tree in the schoolyard where my grandchildren were learning to ride their bikes. It is a spectacular oak - so huge!  What a great thing for a school playground.  Though it was hot and muggy, the tree's shade made it the perfect temperature and you could feel a breeze sitting beneath its sheltering boughs. Poet Tree  A little word I wrote one day I really had too much to say I could not write it all I was much too small but then I learned about Haiku so short and stout and then I knew that would do so I wrote a little poem that said more than it’s words and from that grew a wish and need to spread my words like apple seeds and learn not to rhyme all the time one day my tree grew branches and I had more to say so much more and so much white space so I

Climbing Once I was young And free of most cares Now that I’m older I find that the stairs Are higher and steeper Than any I’ve known But still I look back On the garden I’ve sown Everything’s good Though perfection it’s not Yet there is a story Back there with a plot It’s taken me here To the next thrilling act The cliffhanger page where You’re missing some fact So I lift my right foot Then likewise my left I drag myself up Till I rest in the cleft Yes the steps are much harder The higher you climb But the view from the top Will be something sublime. By Donna JT Smith 8/4/2019

Back 30 years ago, I drew these two portraits of my children from memory...not a copy of a photo.  I found them in our move.  Sometimes you just have to make some changes to find treasures you forgot you had. Hannah, at age 5 Adam, at age 8 My grandchildren are these ages now. Time,Treasures and Trains When you thought you had it all and you wanted time to stop it didn't. Thankfully it kept on going to the next precious station. Life, holding to the track, even when switching rails treasures abounded with more around every corner clutching your ticket your journey with twists, turns, jolts and shifts continued to reveal treasures Remember to look, listen and live in each time, for each treasure on each train. by Donna JT Smith, 8/2/2019 It may not be my best....it may be my fastest though!  I have to go get a van for moving more stuff this morning.  My train is barely slowing down today. Hope I can get to read more posts tonight in a v

We are in the midst of some life-changing events lately.  And when you make big changes, you need to keep connections.  I kept coming back to connections in the middle of change.... Connectedness keeps you grounded.  When spaces change, people change and conditions change, you need to rely on the good connections you have established to keep you grounded yet moving forward.  That is my life now.   I thank an unchanging God for the change to my life He brought, and for giving me all the connections we have established to draw on in daily life and in misty memories.  And that is all I can say.  I started this poem yesterday when I was contemplating our move and its many complications, and the connections to the past it is evoking and enabling as we go through the changes.  It's all just a part of a whole picture unfinished, a leg of a journey you are still walking, a chapter yet to be read, a dot-to-dot to be colored in. Change Pieces and parts Layered together H

Thank you for visiting today.  I make it to as many Poetry Friday's as I can.  Lately it has become difficult to pop in.  But I am making an effort this evening (Thursday) to prepare a post for Friday.  I am in Maine and working with a number of fantastic people to help me prepare our Maine home for sale.  Never fear, we are keeping the home we are renovating elsewhere in Maine - but are selling our log home on an island on the coast.  So much to sort and move. Some pictures in case you know a buyer!  Lol...kinda...lol! I don't remember where this thought came from, but in cleaning out things, I came across a notebook with bits and pieces of an unfinished poem, and I put it together into this now finished poem.  I am including my ocean watercolor, started, but not finished, of Hatchet Cove in Maine, where our home we are renovating is located.  For now we will be elsewhere.  I will finish it when we get back. Ocean's Hunger The hungry mouths of waves b

Have a wonderful Sunday. I want to learn to play this song...seems easy enough with lots of goodness in it.

We are joining Carol Varsalona for a springtime Spiritual Journey first Thursday today for thoughts about the topic Spirit of Spring  paying homage to the earth and the Lord for creating it.  Seriously, I have been so busy lately that today's post is being done in a rush.  And I don't feel like it should be rushed.  No one should rush spring! Spring is the setting up of the maturity of summer.  If you don't plant in spring, what harvest will there be? So though I like to sit back and enjoy the warmer days and the hidden gifts beneath the dead leaves, there are also things to do before it is over and summer sets in.  Summer is the time to enjoy the fullness.  Fall is the time to harvest for Winter.  But Spring is the awakening again, and the start of...eeesh...getting ready for Winter, really.  Don't rush Spring.  Pay attention to it.  Nurture it.  Feed it.  So Summer will gladly arrive and you can THEN watch it unfold into what you set it up to be. Wow. 

If you are here for the progressive poem - click here to get there ! This month has been lots of fun.  I don't know what NEXT April will be like.  There are not many vanity plates in PA at all.  Maybe road names...those are interesting here!  Guess you will have to check back in April, but hope you will check back before that! Z is for ZZZZZ and Zuchini... Sleeping Zucchini Zucchini seeds slept in the garden Planted in early spring. Zucchini seeds dozed in the warm soil Heard the robins sing. Zucchini seeds yawned venturing a root down into the warming dirt. Zucchini seeds stretched their seed leaves unfolding green and pert. Zucchini plants spread from here to there awake and doing fine. Zucchini plants grew gold blossoms and twisted round and twined. Zucchini fruit (or vegetable?) grew sleeping in the field. We got more unteeny zucchini than one garden should ever yield. Next year there'll be no zucchini; it's too much a garden boss. Forget

The entire Progressive Poem is here today! (if you are here for Z - go HERE ) These are the poets that contributed a line each to Irene Latham's brainchild, the Progressive Poem.  This year's poem was begun by Matt Forrest Esenwine, with a great idea: using found lyrics from songs.  Each day a new poet added a new "found" line from a song...right up until today.  Today is the last day, and it is my turn to supply a line.   I have written a rather lengthy explanation of what went on in my head and on paper.  You can, of course, read it, or skip down to the ending...well, not the ENDING... save that.  Go to the middle where the poem is, to read the last line.  Then go to the END if you are in the mood for - um - a laugh?  more music? something different?   April 2019 Progressive Poem Contributors and their lines:   1 Matt @ Radio,Rhythm and Rhyme   2 Kat @ KathrynApel   3 Kimberly @ KimberlyHutmacherWrites   4 Jone @ DeoWriter