Over at Laura Salas' place, she does 15 Words or Less on Thursdays . Today the picture is of a red and black hued funnel shape. It inspired a short piece there, and then kept nagging at me until I finished it. I changed the raise to be at the end of the first stanza, so I could use the rhyme to enhance its structure. You need to go to Laura's place though, to see the picture AND to read other interpretations of the image. Lots of wonderful work!
A
time to
leave this earth
a day to be released -
hands in hallelujah raise.
An
escape from
tears and sorrow
no more worries and despair -
long forgotten worldly days.
A
path to
a cloudless sky
above the whirl below -
voice lifts up in praise.
A
way to
a cloudless sky;
no more worries and despair -
hands in hallelujah raise!
© Donna JT Smith
Ok. Done. The structure on this is a bit pantoumish, with repeating lines from previous stanzas (in order going up) in the last stanza. Maybe I will call this new form smithoum...
And tomorrow - a lighter note! A Mortimer Minute! Come back for Mortimer's visit to Maine!
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Wednesday: Wanted...Now Found!
 |
| This has nothing to do with anything...doesn't it just look SO good, though? It was. |
On Friday I will be entertaining Mortimer for a minute or two.
Found: A Children's Poetry Writer for next week! I'm so excited! Thank you, Marileta Robinson. I tagged Marileta, and she has graciously accepted the invitation to host a Mortimer Minute. She will be interviewed by the bouncy bunny next week. See my interview this Friday!
Friday, October 11, 2013
Revisited
So, I know some have read my prior version of this poem. But as Andrew mentioned there were bumpy parts, and I had to agree - there were parts that still bothered me. So I have edited again. I think it is to my liking now. And I am going to leave it alone. If some day it bubbles up from the deep again and screams at me to fix it, then I will discuss it with myself and the poem. But for now, and a long time, this is it. And when you are done, go by and check out more poetry links for Poetry Friday hosted today by Laura Purdie Salas at Writing The World for Kids.
Days of Roses
Yellowed walls meet her eyes
Where lives ago were roses.
Faded shades lie below
Where weary paint reposes.
It wasn't always yellowed walls
It wasn't always faded
For once upon a time she knew
A world that wasn't jaded.
Oh, rose of youth, short days ago
Or maybe it was years?
How could it be that long ago
To ring now in her ears?
The laughter and the singing,
The warmth of hugs and touch
Though taken, oh, so lightly then
Today would mean so much!
She almost sees the faces
She almost hears their voices
If she had time to give again
Would she make different choices?
The faded roses tell her "no,
Life was what it should be";
She loved and it returned to her
Much more abundantly.
Paint and time may dim the rose
But her eye still discerns
The days of love and life gone by
And happiness returns.
© Donna JT Smith, 2013
Days of Roses
Yellowed walls meet her eyes
Where lives ago were roses.
Faded shades lie below
Where weary paint reposes.
It wasn't always yellowed walls
It wasn't always faded
For once upon a time she knew
A world that wasn't jaded.
Oh, rose of youth, short days ago
Or maybe it was years?
How could it be that long ago
To ring now in her ears?
The laughter and the singing,
The warmth of hugs and touch
Though taken, oh, so lightly then
Today would mean so much!
She almost sees the faces
She almost hears their voices
If she had time to give again
Would she make different choices?
The faded roses tell her "no,
Life was what it should be";
She loved and it returned to her
Much more abundantly.
Paint and time may dim the rose
But her eye still discerns
The days of love and life gone by
And happiness returns.
© Donna JT Smith, 2013
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Days of Roses
I had the first stanza of this written a while ago, earlier in spring, and had used it for something else. I found it this morning just after 4 am - my cataract surgery is at 8:30 - so I guess I couldn't/can't sleep (been up since 3:30). I added quite a bit to it and then edited the original part some. Now I'm hungry and can't eat until they give me a muffin after the surgery. Oh, well, I'll survive...I have plenty stored up for use in times like this! Now, if I could only store up sleep.
Days of Roses
Yellowed walls meet her eyes
Where lives ago were roses
Faded shades in layers below
Green paint now imposes.
It wasn't always yellowed walls
It wasn't always faded
For once upon a time she knew
Her world had not been jaded.
Oh, rose of youth, short days ago
Or maybe it was years?
It seems so very long ago
But still rings in her ears
The laughter and the singing
The warmth of hugs and touch
Though taken, oh, so lightly then
Today would mean so much
She almost sees the faces
She almost hears their voices
If she had time to give again
Would she make different choices?
The faded roses tell her "no"
Life was what it should be
She loved and it returned to her
Much more abundantly
Paint and time may dim the rose
But her eye still discerns
The days of love and life gone by
And happiness returns.
Donna JT Smith
Now head on over to the Slice of Life offerings at Two Writing Teachers!
Days of Roses
Yellowed walls meet her eyes
Where lives ago were roses
Faded shades in layers below
Green paint now imposes.
It wasn't always yellowed walls
It wasn't always faded
For once upon a time she knew
Her world had not been jaded.
Oh, rose of youth, short days ago
Or maybe it was years?
It seems so very long ago
But still rings in her ears
The laughter and the singing
The warmth of hugs and touch
Though taken, oh, so lightly then
Today would mean so much
She almost sees the faces
She almost hears their voices
If she had time to give again
Would she make different choices?
The faded roses tell her "no"
Life was what it should be
She loved and it returned to her
Much more abundantly
Paint and time may dim the rose
But her eye still discerns
The days of love and life gone by
And happiness returns.
Donna JT Smith
Now head on over to the Slice of Life offerings at Two Writing Teachers!
Friday, October 4, 2013
It Isn't Summer
After reading this, head on over to Poetry Friday being hosted by Doraine Bennett at Dori Reads for links to more great poetry and poetry related posts!
It's finally fall here. We have had some nice crisp nights and days, scattered with some warmer days, with lots of sun. We had had a rainy stretch a while ago, but now it is fine fall feast, an awesome autumn offering...a sweet season sensation! I could try to go on, but it's getting forced now. So I will end with this - something I wrote a while back and stuck away in Pages on my iPad. I must gather these things together someday and see what I have.
Last of the Colors
Summer's ending
Last strains of green
Reds overtaking
With autumn's scene
Smells of last hay
And spiced goldenrod
Apples now ripened
Give fall a cool nod
It's time for the last of
The colorful things
The last before snow's
Frosty white zings
Where mittens and hats
Are the only displays
Of color and warmth
Till return of spring's days.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
No Surgery Today
Sorry to bore you with another post about sight...but I'm still amazed and delighted. You know my husband and I have all new clothes now, what with this color in my life again. They aren't actually new clothes, but they have been given a new lease on life with the added benefit of seeing them in color! I just love the blues and reds in his "new" old tie! (see pictures below, especially if you don't want to read more about eyesight drivel)
I've been looking forward to having my second cataract removed today. Well, I woke up yesterday with a sore throat. I let it be, using the technique of ignoring, but in the back of my mind I worried that it was a cold coming on. I still held out hope that it was just the eye drops irritating my sinuses and back of my throat. It got a bit better as the day went on, but last night it was sore again. This morning I awoke with a headache and chest congestion and cough...
So much for my second cataract being chipped away and replaced today. Guess I'll have to go with disparate vision for a bit longer.
I'm still not totally convinced that it isn't the medicine that I have to put in my eye two days before the surgery. The nurse says it isn't. I guess we'll see if it happens again when we try for the second date.
In a way, it's nice to delay the second one for a bit longer. I get to continue to appreciate and be fascinated by the difference in vision quality. I'm afraid in some ways that I will forget how bad my vision was after a while and take it for granted again.
The timing for my cold was impeccable. Such precise timing. There must have been a reason. And for that I am glad. I want to have the second cataract done and my vision restored to all its former glory, but for some reason it has been delayed. It will most likely never be my privilege to know the reason. But I am thankful, and know that soon it will be time.
But for now I want to continue to appreciate the before and after difference, and later I'll have lots of time to enjoy the forever difference.
Funny story - another person and I were having a discussion in church some time ago about the stained glass windows and our favorite parts. She mentioned an oval with grapes in it as her favorite. I asked her where that was. She pointed it out. I could not see grape shapes anywhere in that window.
Last Sunday morning, I looked with my right eye only at the stained glass windows with the sun streaming through and exclaimed over their beautiful blues and reds.
"Can you see the grapes now?" she asked.
And I looked where she was pointing. Yes, I could! I could see the vibrant purple against the deep red, using my good eye.
My left eye (with a cataract I hadn't been aware of before my surgery due to the fact that my right eye was sooooo much worse) still can not see it. Both colors, the red and purple, are a muddied brown-red.
I wonder how long I've been colorblind and haven't realize it. I wonder what other wonders there are out there.
I PROMISE my next post will NOT be about my eyes!
But I couldn't resist this before and after simulation I created. I took a picture and using my left eye with the cataract and my right eye that has been fixed, I edited the pictures to show what I was seeing before (and still see with my left eye) and after (with my right eye).
Left eye view with cataract (that I thought was wonderful vision - though it's actually a little more jumbled than this - with some double vision going on with it - and the red and blue are a little more muted than this):
You can see how I might think that my left eye was wonderful, if you just looked through my right eye with the cataract. But then the above view was replaced with this view!
My husband's "new" tie after removal of the cataract in my right eye:
I've been looking forward to having my second cataract removed today. Well, I woke up yesterday with a sore throat. I let it be, using the technique of ignoring, but in the back of my mind I worried that it was a cold coming on. I still held out hope that it was just the eye drops irritating my sinuses and back of my throat. It got a bit better as the day went on, but last night it was sore again. This morning I awoke with a headache and chest congestion and cough...
So much for my second cataract being chipped away and replaced today. Guess I'll have to go with disparate vision for a bit longer.
I'm still not totally convinced that it isn't the medicine that I have to put in my eye two days before the surgery. The nurse says it isn't. I guess we'll see if it happens again when we try for the second date.
In a way, it's nice to delay the second one for a bit longer. I get to continue to appreciate and be fascinated by the difference in vision quality. I'm afraid in some ways that I will forget how bad my vision was after a while and take it for granted again.
The timing for my cold was impeccable. Such precise timing. There must have been a reason. And for that I am glad. I want to have the second cataract done and my vision restored to all its former glory, but for some reason it has been delayed. It will most likely never be my privilege to know the reason. But I am thankful, and know that soon it will be time.
But for now I want to continue to appreciate the before and after difference, and later I'll have lots of time to enjoy the forever difference.
Funny story - another person and I were having a discussion in church some time ago about the stained glass windows and our favorite parts. She mentioned an oval with grapes in it as her favorite. I asked her where that was. She pointed it out. I could not see grape shapes anywhere in that window.
Last Sunday morning, I looked with my right eye only at the stained glass windows with the sun streaming through and exclaimed over their beautiful blues and reds.
"Can you see the grapes now?" she asked.
And I looked where she was pointing. Yes, I could! I could see the vibrant purple against the deep red, using my good eye.
My left eye (with a cataract I hadn't been aware of before my surgery due to the fact that my right eye was sooooo much worse) still can not see it. Both colors, the red and purple, are a muddied brown-red.
I wonder how long I've been colorblind and haven't realize it. I wonder what other wonders there are out there.
I PROMISE my next post will NOT be about my eyes!
But I couldn't resist this before and after simulation I created. I took a picture and using my left eye with the cataract and my right eye that has been fixed, I edited the pictures to show what I was seeing before (and still see with my left eye) and after (with my right eye).
Left eye view with cataract (that I thought was wonderful vision - though it's actually a little more jumbled than this - with some double vision going on with it - and the red and blue are a little more muted than this):
Right eye view with cataract:
My husband's "new" tie after removal of the cataract in my right eye:
I'm loving these colors!
Let's not even think about how it was for driving at night...
Time creeping
Turning pristine
To worn;
Reds are brown,
Life toned down -
Forlorn;
Landscapes frayed,
Tattered days
And torn
Oh, for light,
Untarnished sight
Reborn!
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Stained Glass
Stained eyes
Eyes strain
And we don’t know
The creep of sepia
Into our world
But then
He comes
And whittles away at
The years
And tears
And shows us what
Our eyes could not see
Blind to the brilliance
Right in front of us
All the time
And curtains
Are parted
And the world becomes
Clearly defined
With millions of twinkling shades
Of color
Of light
That were there
All along
Though only now
Can we see the glory of
Stained glass.
Eyes strain
And we don’t know
The creep of sepia
Into our world
But then
He comes
And whittles away at
The years
And tears
And shows us what
Our eyes could not see
Blind to the brilliance
Right in front of us
All the time
And curtains
Are parted
And the world becomes
Clearly defined
With millions of twinkling shades
Of color
Of light
That were there
All along
Though only now
Can we see the glory of
Stained glass.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Making the Wrong Timing Right
(This has taken me FOREVER to write. I'm still
juggling glasses for reading and light. No one pair works for
everything. BUT my sight in my cataractless eye is coming along just
wonderfully. So if anything is written wrong, let me know. I just
can't go through and try to reread it. Time to go do eyedrops again. The links are just in case you are interested in some of the spots to which I've referred.)
We often have the best times when our timing is all wrong.
For our anniversary yesterday, we had decided to take the train from Brunswick to Rockland, enjoying the ride in the old time cars, and then walking to The Brass Compass for the Lobster King Club sandwich (which is to die for good and probably one of the best kept secrets of lobster sandwichdom in Maine).
We were late getting out of the house, but would make it in time for the 10:00 departure, however my husband discovered that he had no handkerchief, nor tissues, and his nose was running like a faucet due to some newly blossomed weed evidently. So we had to stop at Reny's and grab a new batch of handkerchiefs and some tissues for good measure. And decided to take the train from Bath instead, as it left there at 10:25 and we were right there, early now.
We went inside the train station that sits by the bridge over the Kennebec River and next to the Bath Iron Works, wandering around and waiting. A few other people came in, picked up brochures from the Visitor Information Center there, and left. I finally went up to the counter to check to make sure we could buy tickets on board. The kind, but not from Maine, volunteer spoke with a foreign accent as she told me "Oh, no. There are no trains on Mondays."
How did I miss that? Oh, maybe because I am fumbling with sunglasses, bifocals, print size on my iPhone and two disparate eyes - that's how.
Okay, so our anniversary trip has suddenly been cancelled. What to do? Go with the flow. Improvise. Make it up as you go. Do something else completely. Wing it.
So we wung it. We just started driving, looking and thinking, and making it up as we went.
On Sunday I heard of a nice lobster place in Sanford, but what was its name? I had to text someone to find out. Yeah, Shain's - ooh, Shain's also makes ice cream. It's about an hour or so away. So off we went to Shain's of Maine, for a $5.99 lobster roll, the way it should be - not too expensive. I had a Shain's Root Beer with it. Even the sodas were only $1.
I tried to take a picture, but I ate it before I could snap one. I didn't even remember to take a picture of the chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich for dessert. They were both very good.
Then we continued our drive, south to Kennebunkport and looked at the ocean as we drove by. We couldn't stop, though there was plenty of parking. As a non-resident, we needed a $15 parking pass for the day from the town office. It isn't free until September 15. It was a beautiful drive though.
We almost stopped at the grocery store and picked up steaks to take home, but before we could do that we changed our minds again and headed farther north and inland...all the way to Farmington. We stopped on the way for some crackers and soda and iced tea to tide us over.
Before we had finished our drinks, we discovered a wonderful lake with benches right up to the water's edge where we could sit and sip our - whoa there's the yearling doe by my window, munching on leaves and grass -
anyway -yes, sip our drinks and relax, watching the water and boats being launched into the lake for fishing excursions. It was a great, relaxing time as the sun was going down.
We finished our drinks and got back in the car, heading into the college town for some real food. I really wanted to find a place with some atmosphere; not a college hangout, but we'd take what we could find. As we drove through the town, I spied a "storefront" restaurant that looked like it had candles on the tables. So we went around the block once to find a spot to park and go in.
It was just what I was looking for, even though it looked as if it had been a Woolworth's in it's former life. It was quiet, with subdued lighting, candles, and a nice menu. Just before our meals came, a woman began playing medleys of relaxing music on a baby grand piano. Wow. What an awesome surprise!
We had been talking about what movie we might like to watch when we got home and couldn't come up with any ideas, so I texted my daughter who is a library of obscure but great movies. She gave us some ideas. And then I got a text from her saying before you get a movie, check your email. So I checked my email.
Wow, again.
She had sent us a gift card from iTunes to buy or rent movies - our anniversary gift.
Nothing had gone as planned today.
We ran out of time to see a movie last night. But next Saturday we are taking the train to Rockland, and getting a lobster roll or club sandwich at The Brass Compass. And then we will come home and watch a movie.
I wonder what will REALLY happen...
We often have the best times when our timing is all wrong.
For our anniversary yesterday, we had decided to take the train from Brunswick to Rockland, enjoying the ride in the old time cars, and then walking to The Brass Compass for the Lobster King Club sandwich (which is to die for good and probably one of the best kept secrets of lobster sandwichdom in Maine).
We were late getting out of the house, but would make it in time for the 10:00 departure, however my husband discovered that he had no handkerchief, nor tissues, and his nose was running like a faucet due to some newly blossomed weed evidently. So we had to stop at Reny's and grab a new batch of handkerchiefs and some tissues for good measure. And decided to take the train from Bath instead, as it left there at 10:25 and we were right there, early now.
We went inside the train station that sits by the bridge over the Kennebec River and next to the Bath Iron Works, wandering around and waiting. A few other people came in, picked up brochures from the Visitor Information Center there, and left. I finally went up to the counter to check to make sure we could buy tickets on board. The kind, but not from Maine, volunteer spoke with a foreign accent as she told me "Oh, no. There are no trains on Mondays."
How did I miss that? Oh, maybe because I am fumbling with sunglasses, bifocals, print size on my iPhone and two disparate eyes - that's how.
Okay, so our anniversary trip has suddenly been cancelled. What to do? Go with the flow. Improvise. Make it up as you go. Do something else completely. Wing it.
So we wung it. We just started driving, looking and thinking, and making it up as we went.
On Sunday I heard of a nice lobster place in Sanford, but what was its name? I had to text someone to find out. Yeah, Shain's - ooh, Shain's also makes ice cream. It's about an hour or so away. So off we went to Shain's of Maine, for a $5.99 lobster roll, the way it should be - not too expensive. I had a Shain's Root Beer with it. Even the sodas were only $1.
I tried to take a picture, but I ate it before I could snap one. I didn't even remember to take a picture of the chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich for dessert. They were both very good.
Then we continued our drive, south to Kennebunkport and looked at the ocean as we drove by. We couldn't stop, though there was plenty of parking. As a non-resident, we needed a $15 parking pass for the day from the town office. It isn't free until September 15. It was a beautiful drive though.
We almost stopped at the grocery store and picked up steaks to take home, but before we could do that we changed our minds again and headed farther north and inland...all the way to Farmington. We stopped on the way for some crackers and soda and iced tea to tide us over.
Before we had finished our drinks, we discovered a wonderful lake with benches right up to the water's edge where we could sit and sip our - whoa there's the yearling doe by my window, munching on leaves and grass -
anyway -yes, sip our drinks and relax, watching the water and boats being launched into the lake for fishing excursions. It was a great, relaxing time as the sun was going down.
 |
| Here's the evidence. |
Wow. It just doesn't get any better than this.
We finished our drinks and got back in the car, heading into the college town for some real food. I really wanted to find a place with some atmosphere; not a college hangout, but we'd take what we could find. As we drove through the town, I spied a "storefront" restaurant that looked like it had candles on the tables. So we went around the block once to find a spot to park and go in.
It was just what I was looking for, even though it looked as if it had been a Woolworth's in it's former life. It was quiet, with subdued lighting, candles, and a nice menu. Just before our meals came, a woman began playing medleys of relaxing music on a baby grand piano. Wow. What an awesome surprise!
We had been talking about what movie we might like to watch when we got home and couldn't come up with any ideas, so I texted my daughter who is a library of obscure but great movies. She gave us some ideas. And then I got a text from her saying before you get a movie, check your email. So I checked my email.
Wow, again.
She had sent us a gift card from iTunes to buy or rent movies - our anniversary gift.
Nothing had gone as planned today.
We ran out of time to see a movie last night. But next Saturday we are taking the train to Rockland, and getting a lobster roll or club sandwich at The Brass Compass. And then we will come home and watch a movie.
I wonder what will REALLY happen...
Monday, September 9, 2013
A Radical Love - Our Story
Sometimes I think we're so conservative we're radical. Happy anniversary to us!
Our lives could have been written so, so differently, if not for one night long ago:
A friend of mine at college had locked herself in her room, threatening to commit suicide. She finally let me in. I talked to her for hours in that dark room that night. No one told me I couldn't counsel in a life or death situation, so I did. Everything turned out fine. My dorm mother, who didn't really know me before this, suggested that I apply for a Resident Assistant position that was opening up for the Fall Semester. I did, and I was hired. That night was a turning point for my friend, but it also changed the course of my life, and that one special guy that I didn't even know yet.
In the second week of September, at the beginning of my Junior year in Child Development, I, an antique dealer's daughter, met my "husband to be", a potato farmer's son. He was a Senior in Electrical Engineering, and we were both Resident Assistants in neighboring dorms. We met at the first Resident Assistants' orientation meeting the week before the rest of the students arrived. He saw me and decided to ask me for a date. I was seeing someone else at the time, but decided to get to know this farmer. I broke up with the someone else a few days after meeting my future husband.
By Christmas we were engaged. We were going to wait to get married after I graduated, but decided in July that we'd get married before school started again in September. We figure it was pretty nearly a year to the day after we first met, that we married. No one told us that it couldn't or shouldn't be done in that amount of time. No one said you should get to know them longer before you get married. We knew each other just fine. We decided on September 9th, a week before classes started again, to get married in a little church we'd never even attended, but was near the campus. It looked nice, so we went with it.
I found a pattern and made my wedding dress and veil, and helped bridesmaids make their dresses using the same pattern in different colors. No one told me you didn't make your dresses, especially your wedding gown, so I did it.
We ordered three marble cakes - round, in different sizes - from the local bakery.
I stacked the cakes and decorated them myself, though I'd never done a layer cake and had never decorated anything but family birthday cakes, kind of. But no one told me that I needed a professional, so I did it.
I hand-wrote my 100 wedding invitations, envelopes and reply cards. I learned basic calligraphy so they would look nice. We didn't have computers and printers. I didn't know it would be too much work for one person, so I did it.
I carried a single yellow rose for a bouquet, and made candles for the bridesmaids to carry for our evening ceremony. Not much of a bouquet, but just right, and candle making was big back then. So "ta-da"! Did it.
We had tuna, chicken and ham finger sandwiches and chips and pickles and olives and fruit punch that the ladies of the church prepared. No one told us that wasn't fancy wedding food, so we ate it. Everyone sat in folding chairs and held their plates in their laps and set their cups on the floor. No one told me that we should be sitting at tables, so everyone was able to mingle and chat and move about happily.
Except for paying the preacher (which we'd totally not thought about, and my father did), we paid for the whole thing out of our own pocket. No one told us that the bride's parents typically paid for the wedding. I did not expect them to, and I would not have wanted them to. So we did it out of our summer job earnings. Including my dress, invitations, candles, cake and food, I think our wedding cost almost $200 back in 1972 (which was still not much back then for a wedding - maybe two months' apartment rental payments).
We lived apart for almost a year, during the gas crisis, while my husband finished his Master's degree and then started his first job, and I taught my first year of school up in northern Maine in his potato farming hometown. We'd meet on Friday nights at a motel halfway between our two apartments - each of us driving about 2 hours - and head back home early Sunday morning. There were no gas sales after 5 pm Saturday, and all gas stations were closed on Sundays, so we had to be careful not to drive around too much so we'd have enough gas in our tanks to get to our respective apartments again. We got a good deal at the motel where we'd meet for Saturday. I'm sure we looked questionable with the name of Smith, meeting for the weekend, two cars, no real luggage...
I quit my first teaching job mid-year, so I could go with my husband out to Wisconsin where he'd gotten another job, after quitting his first. No one told us it would be a bad idea to quit jobs. When we got to Wisconsin, we got new jobs and bought our first home - a little ranch with attached garage in a little development. It had heat, water, carpet, 1200 sq.ft, 3 bedrooms, a garage and a nice big basement. We sold it in less than a year. No one told us it would be best to live in your new home for a lot of years and build up equity before you sold it.
Instead of the ranch home, we now had a 40 acre farm with a 600 sq.ft. unheated one bedroom stone and stucco home on it (well, there was electric heat in the uninsulated shag carpeted kitchen). We heated the house with wood after finding out how expensive it was to heat the kitchen with the electric baseboard. There was only an electric space heater in the bathroom. Sometimes, if we came home late, there was an ice skim on the water in the toilet. Those nights I slept with my down jacket on until my husband could start the woodstove and get it a little warmer than the evidently 32 degrees it was. I wonder how we didn't freeze the pipes? Oh, yeah. No one told us it was a bad idea to let the house get so cold.
Do we even need to discuss the scritch-scratchy bats living upstairs between the ceiling and roof, the mouse droppings in the kitchen cupboards, those cute mouse-sized (with just as much hair as a mouse) spiders and the transparent snake skins in the basement...it was a very, very old German farmhouse.
No one seemed as impressed with this home as we were. It had 40 acres! It had a barn! We could have horses! And we did. We didn't know anything about horses, except that I liked them and had always wanted one. So we had ten. And some rabbits. And a few dogs and a couple of cats. My mother-in-law was worried that she would never have pictures of grandchildren. I'm sure my parents were concerned, too, but they never said a word. No one told us we should hurry, so we didn't.
When we were about to have our 1st child in our 7th year of marriage, we built a new home on the same property, about 100 feet from the old house. This new house was "taken" by a twister when it was framed in and roof on, scattered around the county in the valley below us. We thanked God we hadn't been ahead of schedule. We rebuilt it. The day after we moved out of the old house, the chimney collapsed onto the floor right where our bed pillows used to be. We thanked God we were not behind schedule.
I had two totally natural childbirth experiences. We were in the hospital, but in a low key, natural birthing room - brass bed, sheets with yellow roses - no meds at all. And finally baby pictures instead of cat pictures for our parents.
We moved shortly after our second child, a daughter, was born. We again quit good jobs. Would it have mattered if someone had told us you shouldn't quit jobs with two little children? Probably not. Though we loved Minnesota (just across the Mississippi from our jobs in Wisconsin), we wanted to be closer to family. We ended up in NH for a bit, and then RI. When our home was broken into in the middle of the day and my husband was out of town and I was taking our youngest to preschool, we determined that we would move out of RI and go straight to Maine, where family was and where our roots were.
We bought a home in a fairly busy neighborhood. We liked the house, but it wasn't ideal. We would live there while we looked for a better place to settle down. Then we proceeded to live there for 10 years! Yikes! We hadn't realized that time was marching on. We bought a 5 acre parcel in a rural, wooded development close to the ocean. Then we planned out how to accomplish this next build and move.
We decided on a log home, which we chose to build when we were describing our two options for homes to our teens. As I described the houses, I told them option 1 was a log home, with huge windows and cathedral ceiling, and option 2 would be very much like the house we were in at the time, a cape...as soon as the words came out of my mouth "very much like this house", my husband and I looked at each other, and we knew that would not be the house we would build. It was time for different than anything we'd done before.
Living in this spot, in this house has been wonderful...even with the year (well, 11 months) that we had to leave it while a major soot cleaning was done after a fire. We lived in a motel for all that time, and realized that our little stone house in Minnesota had been big, and that we didn't need half the stuff we had. Okay, more than half the stuff we had wasn't necessary. With one three-foot wide closet that housed our clothes, an ironing board and an iron...oh, and a 1 foot tall Christmas tree... we realized that we had too many clothes in our life, and too large a Christmas tree in our garage. Life was about life, not stuff.
And now we are about the business of doing something totally different again 14 years after building. We are renovating an old house, not much bigger than that old farmhouse in Wisconsin. When we first saw the house, it was being used for storage. It had no heat, no bathroom, no insulation, no chimney. It had old paneling that was rippled and falling off. We have given it new everything, except the skeleton. It is no longer a gray cedar shake exterior, but sporting cheerful yellow cedar shakes with a touch of green in the peak, and a vibrant day lily orange-red front door. We have included some radical new ideas for the inside. First, there will be no falling down chimney...no chimney at all with propane and radiant in-floor heat.
Other radical ideas: two dishwashers (one for clean, one for dirty, no intermediate cabinet storage), toilet tanks in the wall, toilets mounted to the wall (for easy under and around cleaning), a washer/dryer combo unit (no, not one up, one down - one unit that does both). Then for ambiance all wood floors of full 20' length fir, rejuvenated interior doors and hardware, stained glass ceiling and sconce lighting. I am excited to be able to live there.
I have retired. My husband will be retired in another year and a half. We have two wonderful grown offspring. Our son has bought a house and it's so exciting to see him working on it. My daughter and her husband are living in a home pretty much like the old one we lived in, but are looking ahead to a larger house now that Grandson is moving around - a lot. Oh, and they are expecting their second child in May.
Happy anniversary! I'm glad my husband-to-be, became a husband-to-me! I pray that things move along not too fast and not too slow...that we are always in the right place at the right time in our lives.
So far, so good.
41 years is a long time if you are miserable,
but oh, so short
when you are radically in love.
No one told us it wouldn't last, so we are forever together.
In radical love,
Unlike peas in a pod,
But still both green,
A shared path trod.
Unseen likenesses
Burst to the fore
And we continued
In love some more.
Through years of days
And days of hours
We trod our path
Of sun and showers
Feet and eyes set
Toward the goal
The prize of Life
Names on the role.
Renewed, relieved,
Redeemed, reborn -
In Radical Love
We'll meet that morn.
 |
| Said Quilt to the Potato, "Seams that you have your eye on me!" |
````````````````````````````````````````
Our lives could have been written so, so differently, if not for one night long ago:
A friend of mine at college had locked herself in her room, threatening to commit suicide. She finally let me in. I talked to her for hours in that dark room that night. No one told me I couldn't counsel in a life or death situation, so I did. Everything turned out fine. My dorm mother, who didn't really know me before this, suggested that I apply for a Resident Assistant position that was opening up for the Fall Semester. I did, and I was hired. That night was a turning point for my friend, but it also changed the course of my life, and that one special guy that I didn't even know yet.
In the second week of September, at the beginning of my Junior year in Child Development, I, an antique dealer's daughter, met my "husband to be", a potato farmer's son. He was a Senior in Electrical Engineering, and we were both Resident Assistants in neighboring dorms. We met at the first Resident Assistants' orientation meeting the week before the rest of the students arrived. He saw me and decided to ask me for a date. I was seeing someone else at the time, but decided to get to know this farmer. I broke up with the someone else a few days after meeting my future husband.
By Christmas we were engaged. We were going to wait to get married after I graduated, but decided in July that we'd get married before school started again in September. We figure it was pretty nearly a year to the day after we first met, that we married. No one told us that it couldn't or shouldn't be done in that amount of time. No one said you should get to know them longer before you get married. We knew each other just fine. We decided on September 9th, a week before classes started again, to get married in a little church we'd never even attended, but was near the campus. It looked nice, so we went with it.
I found a pattern and made my wedding dress and veil, and helped bridesmaids make their dresses using the same pattern in different colors. No one told me you didn't make your dresses, especially your wedding gown, so I did it.
We ordered three marble cakes - round, in different sizes - from the local bakery.
I stacked the cakes and decorated them myself, though I'd never done a layer cake and had never decorated anything but family birthday cakes, kind of. But no one told me that I needed a professional, so I did it.
I hand-wrote my 100 wedding invitations, envelopes and reply cards. I learned basic calligraphy so they would look nice. We didn't have computers and printers. I didn't know it would be too much work for one person, so I did it.
I carried a single yellow rose for a bouquet, and made candles for the bridesmaids to carry for our evening ceremony. Not much of a bouquet, but just right, and candle making was big back then. So "ta-da"! Did it.
We had tuna, chicken and ham finger sandwiches and chips and pickles and olives and fruit punch that the ladies of the church prepared. No one told us that wasn't fancy wedding food, so we ate it. Everyone sat in folding chairs and held their plates in their laps and set their cups on the floor. No one told me that we should be sitting at tables, so everyone was able to mingle and chat and move about happily.
Except for paying the preacher (which we'd totally not thought about, and my father did), we paid for the whole thing out of our own pocket. No one told us that the bride's parents typically paid for the wedding. I did not expect them to, and I would not have wanted them to. So we did it out of our summer job earnings. Including my dress, invitations, candles, cake and food, I think our wedding cost almost $200 back in 1972 (which was still not much back then for a wedding - maybe two months' apartment rental payments).
We lived apart for almost a year, during the gas crisis, while my husband finished his Master's degree and then started his first job, and I taught my first year of school up in northern Maine in his potato farming hometown. We'd meet on Friday nights at a motel halfway between our two apartments - each of us driving about 2 hours - and head back home early Sunday morning. There were no gas sales after 5 pm Saturday, and all gas stations were closed on Sundays, so we had to be careful not to drive around too much so we'd have enough gas in our tanks to get to our respective apartments again. We got a good deal at the motel where we'd meet for Saturday. I'm sure we looked questionable with the name of Smith, meeting for the weekend, two cars, no real luggage...
I quit my first teaching job mid-year, so I could go with my husband out to Wisconsin where he'd gotten another job, after quitting his first. No one told us it would be a bad idea to quit jobs. When we got to Wisconsin, we got new jobs and bought our first home - a little ranch with attached garage in a little development. It had heat, water, carpet, 1200 sq.ft, 3 bedrooms, a garage and a nice big basement. We sold it in less than a year. No one told us it would be best to live in your new home for a lot of years and build up equity before you sold it.
Instead of the ranch home, we now had a 40 acre farm with a 600 sq.ft. unheated one bedroom stone and stucco home on it (well, there was electric heat in the uninsulated shag carpeted kitchen). We heated the house with wood after finding out how expensive it was to heat the kitchen with the electric baseboard. There was only an electric space heater in the bathroom. Sometimes, if we came home late, there was an ice skim on the water in the toilet. Those nights I slept with my down jacket on until my husband could start the woodstove and get it a little warmer than the evidently 32 degrees it was. I wonder how we didn't freeze the pipes? Oh, yeah. No one told us it was a bad idea to let the house get so cold.
Do we even need to discuss the scritch-scratchy bats living upstairs between the ceiling and roof, the mouse droppings in the kitchen cupboards, those cute mouse-sized (with just as much hair as a mouse) spiders and the transparent snake skins in the basement...it was a very, very old German farmhouse.
No one seemed as impressed with this home as we were. It had 40 acres! It had a barn! We could have horses! And we did. We didn't know anything about horses, except that I liked them and had always wanted one. So we had ten. And some rabbits. And a few dogs and a couple of cats. My mother-in-law was worried that she would never have pictures of grandchildren. I'm sure my parents were concerned, too, but they never said a word. No one told us we should hurry, so we didn't.
When we were about to have our 1st child in our 7th year of marriage, we built a new home on the same property, about 100 feet from the old house. This new house was "taken" by a twister when it was framed in and roof on, scattered around the county in the valley below us. We thanked God we hadn't been ahead of schedule. We rebuilt it. The day after we moved out of the old house, the chimney collapsed onto the floor right where our bed pillows used to be. We thanked God we were not behind schedule.
I had two totally natural childbirth experiences. We were in the hospital, but in a low key, natural birthing room - brass bed, sheets with yellow roses - no meds at all. And finally baby pictures instead of cat pictures for our parents.
We moved shortly after our second child, a daughter, was born. We again quit good jobs. Would it have mattered if someone had told us you shouldn't quit jobs with two little children? Probably not. Though we loved Minnesota (just across the Mississippi from our jobs in Wisconsin), we wanted to be closer to family. We ended up in NH for a bit, and then RI. When our home was broken into in the middle of the day and my husband was out of town and I was taking our youngest to preschool, we determined that we would move out of RI and go straight to Maine, where family was and where our roots were.
We bought a home in a fairly busy neighborhood. We liked the house, but it wasn't ideal. We would live there while we looked for a better place to settle down. Then we proceeded to live there for 10 years! Yikes! We hadn't realized that time was marching on. We bought a 5 acre parcel in a rural, wooded development close to the ocean. Then we planned out how to accomplish this next build and move.
We decided on a log home, which we chose to build when we were describing our two options for homes to our teens. As I described the houses, I told them option 1 was a log home, with huge windows and cathedral ceiling, and option 2 would be very much like the house we were in at the time, a cape...as soon as the words came out of my mouth "very much like this house", my husband and I looked at each other, and we knew that would not be the house we would build. It was time for different than anything we'd done before.
Living in this spot, in this house has been wonderful...even with the year (well, 11 months) that we had to leave it while a major soot cleaning was done after a fire. We lived in a motel for all that time, and realized that our little stone house in Minnesota had been big, and that we didn't need half the stuff we had. Okay, more than half the stuff we had wasn't necessary. With one three-foot wide closet that housed our clothes, an ironing board and an iron...oh, and a 1 foot tall Christmas tree... we realized that we had too many clothes in our life, and too large a Christmas tree in our garage. Life was about life, not stuff.
And now we are about the business of doing something totally different again 14 years after building. We are renovating an old house, not much bigger than that old farmhouse in Wisconsin. When we first saw the house, it was being used for storage. It had no heat, no bathroom, no insulation, no chimney. It had old paneling that was rippled and falling off. We have given it new everything, except the skeleton. It is no longer a gray cedar shake exterior, but sporting cheerful yellow cedar shakes with a touch of green in the peak, and a vibrant day lily orange-red front door. We have included some radical new ideas for the inside. First, there will be no falling down chimney...no chimney at all with propane and radiant in-floor heat.
Other radical ideas: two dishwashers (one for clean, one for dirty, no intermediate cabinet storage), toilet tanks in the wall, toilets mounted to the wall (for easy under and around cleaning), a washer/dryer combo unit (no, not one up, one down - one unit that does both). Then for ambiance all wood floors of full 20' length fir, rejuvenated interior doors and hardware, stained glass ceiling and sconce lighting. I am excited to be able to live there.
I have retired. My husband will be retired in another year and a half. We have two wonderful grown offspring. Our son has bought a house and it's so exciting to see him working on it. My daughter and her husband are living in a home pretty much like the old one we lived in, but are looking ahead to a larger house now that Grandson is moving around - a lot. Oh, and they are expecting their second child in May.
Happy anniversary! I'm glad my husband-to-be, became a husband-to-me! I pray that things move along not too fast and not too slow...that we are always in the right place at the right time in our lives.
So far, so good.
41 years is a long time if you are miserable,
but oh, so short
when you are radically in love.
No one told us it wouldn't last, so we are forever together.
 |
| Quilt and Potato - a few years ago... |
In radical love,
Unlike peas in a pod,
But still both green,
A shared path trod.
Unseen likenesses
Burst to the fore
And we continued
In love some more.
Through years of days
And days of hours
We trod our path
Of sun and showers
Feet and eyes set
Toward the goal
The prize of Life
Names on the role.
Renewed, relieved,
Redeemed, reborn -
In Radical Love
We'll meet that morn.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Poem Rewritten and Excuse Given
Hope everyone is having a great start to the school year. It's the first day of school here in our town. I'm going in town for cookies and tea with another retired teacher friend, so that we can watch the buses leave the schools and take kids home on their first day. It is still fun to watch the first day excitement.
Oh, the end of the first day in first grade...can't say I miss that!
"How am I getting home?"
"It says you are on bus 21."
"Which one is that?"
"The same one you came on this morning."
"My mom drove me to school today."
"Don't worry, we will get you to the right bus."
"I think my mom is picking me up."
"I don't have a note from her about that."
"Oh, yeah, it's in my lunchbox."
"No, she's not, the note says today you need to go on whatever bus will get you to your sitter's house..."
Sobbing sounds begin - from both the child and the teacher...
I came across my notes for a poem for March Madness 2013 and reworked some of the lines. We saw two owls a few weeks ago in a tree on our front lawn. They flew off as I was trying to focus a camera on them. I love seeing owls. They remind me so much of cats. Flying cats. Another poem for another day.
A quizzical fowl
Was Sir Rhett the Owl
His question was always the same.
Whoo, whoo?
Simply rhetoric
To a rabbit cadaveric -
Why befriend "what's his name"
As you chew?
Of course, owls don't really chew, but rather tear and swallow...but it doesn't rhyme. I guess I could have used a bit more poetic license and said "swallooo".
On a personal note...
I'm having one cataract done tomorrow! And the next the first week of October! That will perhaps make it easier to read blogs and write my blog again. Looking forward to that!
Though these glasses helped me see better than I could before, my right eye has continued to get cloudier, and it isn't easy to read with or without glasses on - so I've slacked off a bit. Looking forward to "seeing you" again!
Oh, the end of the first day in first grade...can't say I miss that!
"How am I getting home?"
"It says you are on bus 21."
"Which one is that?"
"The same one you came on this morning."
"My mom drove me to school today."
"Don't worry, we will get you to the right bus."
"I think my mom is picking me up."
"I don't have a note from her about that."
"Oh, yeah, it's in my lunchbox."
"No, she's not, the note says today you need to go on whatever bus will get you to your sitter's house..."
Sobbing sounds begin - from both the child and the teacher...
I came across my notes for a poem for March Madness 2013 and reworked some of the lines. We saw two owls a few weeks ago in a tree on our front lawn. They flew off as I was trying to focus a camera on them. I love seeing owls. They remind me so much of cats. Flying cats. Another poem for another day.
A quizzical fowl
Was Sir Rhett the Owl
His question was always the same.
Whoo, whoo?
Simply rhetoric
To a rabbit cadaveric -
Why befriend "what's his name"
As you chew?
Of course, owls don't really chew, but rather tear and swallow...but it doesn't rhyme. I guess I could have used a bit more poetic license and said "swallooo".
On a personal note...
I'm having one cataract done tomorrow! And the next the first week of October! That will perhaps make it easier to read blogs and write my blog again. Looking forward to that!
Though these glasses helped me see better than I could before, my right eye has continued to get cloudier, and it isn't easy to read with or without glasses on - so I've slacked off a bit. Looking forward to "seeing you" again!
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Feeling a Little Blue?
So, here's my dog, Pippi, sitting by her stuffed moose, Retrievering, as usual. All in a day's work.
My daughter and grandson left this weekend after visiting for two weeks.
Pippi was very fond of my grandson's toys, though the books were of very little interest to her. This twinkling ball was wonderful, and she also kept sneaking off with a small, blue stuffed whale of his. I discovered that she enjoys retrieving paper airplanes, too. Fortunately, she is a Golden, so her mouth is very soft. We get her chew toys, and she keeps them for years. I think she still owns every toy we've ever given her. We try to only give her children's stuffed animals, as she doesn't like the squeak in all the dog toys. She hardly ever makes a toy squeak though. But if we accidentally step on it, and it squeaks, she gets concerned for its health and well-being.
Pippi has enjoyed having this cracker dropper/toy hauler around.
I think she misses him, almost as much as I do.
The cat...not so much.
Bye-bye! Thanks for sharing!
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Osprey are Learning to Fly!
Mabel is about to fly today! Maybe! Check out the Osprey Cam today. Tory already flew off. They will return to the nest for a while before migrating south. They have a long way to go, so after the first few weeks of August they will be gone, heading off to their winter homes in places like Jamaica, Mexico or Florida.
There are a number of osprey nests around the area that you can see from the highway, from the river, and from the bridge. They are in the tops of trees or on very expensive platforms built specifically for the osprey nests. Sometimes it takes years for a pair of osprey to build on a new platform. The pair stay together for their lifetime, though they "vacation" separately when they fly south. They return to the same nest each year, returning to the same spot within days of each other.
They are fun to watch, so a few places have put cameras close to nests (which doesn't seem to bother them in the least). Osprey are protected, so there are fines for disturbing them in any way. Of course, a few years ago when they wanted to paint a small bridge joining the island to the mainland, the State had a problem...the osprey were about to return. They had to put off painting the bridge for a year while the osprey raised a family. Then they built a platform, moved the nest there, and put cones on the overhead bridge framework so they wouldn't begin a new nest in the spring.
So go visit the nest in Bremen, Maine! Hopefully you will get to see her fledge!
There are a number of osprey nests around the area that you can see from the highway, from the river, and from the bridge. They are in the tops of trees or on very expensive platforms built specifically for the osprey nests. Sometimes it takes years for a pair of osprey to build on a new platform. The pair stay together for their lifetime, though they "vacation" separately when they fly south. They return to the same nest each year, returning to the same spot within days of each other.
They are fun to watch, so a few places have put cameras close to nests (which doesn't seem to bother them in the least). Osprey are protected, so there are fines for disturbing them in any way. Of course, a few years ago when they wanted to paint a small bridge joining the island to the mainland, the State had a problem...the osprey were about to return. They had to put off painting the bridge for a year while the osprey raised a family. Then they built a platform, moved the nest there, and put cones on the overhead bridge framework so they wouldn't begin a new nest in the spring.
So go visit the nest in Bremen, Maine! Hopefully you will get to see her fledge!
Friday, July 26, 2013
Remember when I made that cake...
I still remember the first cake I made all by myself. I was probably 12? It was my mom's birthday, and she was at work. I was the "babysitter" for my three siblings at the time. I remember thinking what a surprise it would be if I made her a birthday cake to surprise her with when she got home. I had made frosting with my mother's help before, and I'd seen her make cakes. Of course, this was before cake mixes and canned icings were available, or at least not in our household.
The cake turned out...interesting. When I think back on it, it was kind of a disaster, but I remember it as not only funny, but a bit of a creative problem-solving event. For some reason, I really didn't see it as a disaster. It was a "go with the flow", "one mistake after another" type of project. I'm so glad it happened.
Wish Mom was still around today...I'd love to make her another birthday cake!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She won't be home for hours.
There's time to bake a cake.
It'll be the best surprise,
And not too hard to make.
Just get out some ingredients-
No "packaged cake mix" days-
Some sugar, flour and water;
Sure measure always pays.
Grease pan and heat the oven,
Pour mixture, scrape the sides;
Then put it in the oven
And watch it start to rise.
The sweet smell fills the kitchen
As it sets out to cool.
Begin to make the frosting
But it ends up a pool.
The yellow lumps of butter
Can't hide in chocolate soup
The icing must be poured on
It's more like icky goop.
Tip pan to get the cake out,
Oh, no! It broke in two!
It makes it worse to fix it,
It's turning into stew!
Quickly arrange the cake clumps,
Pour chocolate butter lumps,
Yell "Happy Birthday, Mom!"
And add surprise-y jumps!
Those mountain cakey mounds
With chocolate soup for icing
Must still have been to my mom
Just a bit enticing.
I wish I had a picture
Of Mom's birthday mis-cake
And her loving over-look
Of my multiple mistakes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wishing everyone an ever-loving, over-looking mom!
Check out more poetry links at Sherry's place Semicolon . Thanks for hosting this week's Poetry Friday!
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Bird Watching
We have a few osprey cams in Maine for viewing the young in the nests and their parents bringing them food - fish, that is. The huge nests built of very uncomfortable looking sticks are found up on top of dead trees, bridges, power line poles - any high perch near a river. This camera is in Bremen, Maine, and has some month olds.
I'm blogging from my car on a road trip....
Just saw a momma duck and her ducklings trying to cross the road. The car in front of us never flinched. Just ran over two or three. We and everyone else went around them. I think she made it with the rest. I am going to assume the person that ran over them just wasn't paying attention and didn't see them until too late. Momma duck was frantic trying to decide which way to go. I hate when that happens.
Anyway, enjoy the osprey, while I try to get this out of my mind....
Saturday, June 29, 2013
WRiTE Club 2013!
So write or read and vote, but go to DL Hammon's WRiTE Club 2013 to get more information, rules and regulations, and to register for a really fun writing bout!
Friday, June 28, 2013
I Told You I Would
 |
| Shiny, wet leaves this morning, looking out my window from my "blogging post". |
I told you I would repost. But I'm not. Today is Poetry Friday over at Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Poetry Farm, and I have linked my post from Sunday to it today. So Poetry Friday people will be going to my post about the e-zine, Shadows Express to read "Two Rainbows and the Moon", while we stay right here...
So what shall we do?
We're here in Maine, Vacationland...ah, a trip to the beach, a picnic, hike the trails, go fishing, pick strawberries, kayak the bay, eat some Gifford's ice cream, do some hammock stretching exercises...
Oh, it's raining outside... again?
It's actually cold enough in the house to turn on the heat. A while ago there were a couple of sweltering, days and nothing was funny. It got so hot in the middle of June, we broke down and bought an air conditioner. That was evidently all we needed. I was amazed by its cooling effect. Most people have to install the air conditioner to have it work. Ours is still in the box. I may have to return it, it's making it rain now, too. I don't know how to turn it up with the box still sealed.
Well, time to get that sweater and some socks...
and a puzzle or the cribbage board...
and hot chocolate.
Ok, really, I'm getting my socks and sweater. And Gifford's is going to have to wait (yes, we eat ice cream even in winter here, but that's when we're wearing socks and not standing in the rain... well, wait... no, rain doesn't matter).
Anyway, I'm freezing. But it's better than being hot, I think.
Totally unrelated event as I finished this post:
HA! I just saw something out of the corner of my eye... a big ole' wild turkey was looking in my sliding glass door at me (remember the one with no porch). I guess they don't mind the cold, rainy weather. Barefooted, too.
I love it here.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Elevator Gate Photo - 15 Words or Less Poetry
Laura Salas has 15 Words or Less picture prompted poetry today. Go there to see the picture and read more poems inspired by this iron elevator gate. I had to write three....sorry! I'm stopping before they become four, or five. You are welcome.
Eight arrows flew
Into the air
And landed in
A row right there!
~~~or~~~
A fancy comb
for Queenie's locks?
Or the elevated part
Of argyle socks?
~~~or~~~
Elevator eliminator = stairs
Procrastinator terminator = deadline
Incubator hibernator = egg
Instigator propagator = gossip
Alligator motivator = hunger
Eight arrows flew
Into the air
And landed in
A row right there!
~~~or~~~
A fancy comb
for Queenie's locks?
Or the elevated part
Of argyle socks?
~~~or~~~
Elevator eliminator = stairs
Procrastinator terminator = deadline
Incubator hibernator = egg
Instigator propagator = gossip
Alligator motivator = hunger
Sunday, June 23, 2013
E-Zine Published
Shadows Express e-zine has their Summer Edition out and available here free. And my poem is in it! Yea! "Two Rainbows and the Moon" was written one year ago (less about a week) right after I saw that beautiful sky after a rain shower. It just struck me as so beautiful, that I had to write about it. Here's what I wrote the day I saw two rainbows and the moon, before writing the poem:
"But let me tell you what I saw.
On my left, the horizon was sporting puffy golden and pink clouds with upper highlights of silvery white on the light blue watercolored sky. To my right, there were heavy gray clouds, threatening rain. But in the middle of those gray clouds was a rosy deep pink glow, like the flushed cheeks of a child with a fever...the glow seemed to emanate from the cloud, but in reality it was the reflection of the setting sun on that cloud...and then...
two rainbows over that fevered cloud!
As I made a turning exit off the highway, almost reversing my direction, I saw now between the two sun creations, the bright white, almost full moon in the clearing between the clouds of the setting sun and the reflective clouds with rainbow.
How much beauty can you take at one sitting, I wondered.
I was mesmerized and wished that I could somehow get this recorded.
I guess I did in a fashion...
I hope my memory of it remains clear. At least I've written a photograph."
Then I wrote the poem. To read the poem, go to Shadows Express, and then read lots of good short pieces and poems by new writers... Hey, I'm on the last page! How great is that!?!?!?! I love it! And I love the photo they put as a background. It isn't quite as lovely as what I REALLY saw that day, but it's still pretty great!
Thank you everyone who has encouraged me in my poetry. I love doing it, and though sometimes I am still scared inside that people are just being nice to me and tolerating my okay poems, I'm beginning to believe that some of them might really be pretty ok. Why is it so hard to believe in ourselves sometimes? I'm still sure someone someday is going to step forward and say, "Who do you think you are, girl? You aren't a writer. We've just been letting you write and making you feel good as best we could. But your time's up. Put your pencil down and get the laundry done." Oh, wait, that "someone" saying that is me.
Anyway, I am going to be so bold as to say: I liked this piece - I am pleased with this poem - I hope I have more in me that can fall onto the page as well as this one did.
And it is so absolutely neat that on the last possible submission day, which also happened to be my husband's birthday, I accidentally re-discovered this ezine as I was blogging around. And then I got so bold as to think "why not?" And submitted a poem. AND got it accepted.
If you saw this today, you will see this as a repost on Friday. Readership is down on Sundays, and I'd like to have it posted for Poetry Friday. So I'm pre-posted for two days. I was going to wait until Friday to post this, but I just CANNOT.
Have a great day, all!
Wishing you two rainbows and the moon today!
Embedding it here:
"But let me tell you what I saw.
On my left, the horizon was sporting puffy golden and pink clouds with upper highlights of silvery white on the light blue watercolored sky. To my right, there were heavy gray clouds, threatening rain. But in the middle of those gray clouds was a rosy deep pink glow, like the flushed cheeks of a child with a fever...the glow seemed to emanate from the cloud, but in reality it was the reflection of the setting sun on that cloud...and then...
two rainbows over that fevered cloud!
As I made a turning exit off the highway, almost reversing my direction, I saw now between the two sun creations, the bright white, almost full moon in the clearing between the clouds of the setting sun and the reflective clouds with rainbow.
How much beauty can you take at one sitting, I wondered.
I was mesmerized and wished that I could somehow get this recorded.
I guess I did in a fashion...
I hope my memory of it remains clear. At least I've written a photograph."
Then I wrote the poem. To read the poem, go to Shadows Express, and then read lots of good short pieces and poems by new writers... Hey, I'm on the last page! How great is that!?!?!?! I love it! And I love the photo they put as a background. It isn't quite as lovely as what I REALLY saw that day, but it's still pretty great!
Thank you everyone who has encouraged me in my poetry. I love doing it, and though sometimes I am still scared inside that people are just being nice to me and tolerating my okay poems, I'm beginning to believe that some of them might really be pretty ok. Why is it so hard to believe in ourselves sometimes? I'm still sure someone someday is going to step forward and say, "Who do you think you are, girl? You aren't a writer. We've just been letting you write and making you feel good as best we could. But your time's up. Put your pencil down and get the laundry done." Oh, wait, that "someone" saying that is me.
Anyway, I am going to be so bold as to say: I liked this piece - I am pleased with this poem - I hope I have more in me that can fall onto the page as well as this one did.
And it is so absolutely neat that on the last possible submission day, which also happened to be my husband's birthday, I accidentally re-discovered this ezine as I was blogging around. And then I got so bold as to think "why not?" And submitted a poem. AND got it accepted.
If you saw this today, you will see this as a repost on Friday. Readership is down on Sundays, and I'd like to have it posted for Poetry Friday. So I'm pre-posted for two days. I was going to wait until Friday to post this, but I just CANNOT.
Have a great day, all!
Wishing you two rainbows and the moon today!
Embedding it here:
Friday, June 21, 2013
Cat and Mouse Game
Today is Poetry Friday and it's being hosted by Carol at Carol's Corner. Go there after
you leave here and read some other great poems and things about poetry
linked on that page!
A couple of days ago, we watched a robin in the middle of the road readying a caterpillar for its meal...not the caterpillar's meal... the ROBIN'S meal OF caterpillar. I have to get better at the English language. It's the only language I speak, so there are no other options or excuses. Maybe I should learn French. I might be better at it, who knows?
I wish I'd gotten a picture of this incident though. It was cute in a kind of cruel way... but it was just nature's food chain thing:
The robin ignores our car to do what he does
We wait a few feet away hoping no one comes
While he keeps a beady eye on the stretchy fuzz
- and we wait.
The robin sees nothing but his prey in his path
As he keenly keeps his focus pointed then - jab!
Curled caterpillar bounces and rolls like a ball
He plays with it like a cat with mouse until - stab!
- on the plate.
"Like a caterpillar!" declares Robin...
A couple of days ago, we watched a robin in the middle of the road readying a caterpillar for its meal...not the caterpillar's meal... the ROBIN'S meal OF caterpillar. I have to get better at the English language. It's the only language I speak, so there are no other options or excuses. Maybe I should learn French. I might be better at it, who knows?
I wish I'd gotten a picture of this incident though. It was cute in a kind of cruel way... but it was just nature's food chain thing:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Intent on a caterpillar crossing the road The robin ignores our car to do what he does
We wait a few feet away hoping no one comes
While he keeps a beady eye on the stretchy fuzz
- and we wait.
The robin sees nothing but his prey in his path
As he keenly keeps his focus pointed then - jab!
Curled caterpillar bounces and rolls like a ball
He plays with it like a cat with mouse until - stab!
- on the plate.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cute image, huh? Okay, now for the short version:
Caterpillar crossin' -
Robin starts a'tossin'!
Caterpillar bounces -
Robin pecks and pounces!
Caterpillar's fate -
Robin's dinner plate!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's short and sweet..."Like a caterpillar!" declares Robin...
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Thank You for Yesterday
I was overwhelmed by the blitzing yesterday. It was so incredible to have that many people visit my site. I hoped that no one was disappointed in their time spent! It occurred to me that it could have been a silly waste of time - a nice gesture - but still a waste of someone's time. For those who don't like poetry it probably WAS a checklist item... go there, grit your teeth when you see it is poetry time, read it (maybe), comment, done, get on to something else. And for anyone who was looking for tips about writing... not here. For a paranormal experience? Nope. Won't happen here. For a funny, squirt milk out your nose laugh? Not yesterday anyway! For a cute cat picture? Sorry, not yesterday - Purrsee wasn't posing in our frying pan again. For a cute, young blogger with fluttering eyelashes? Ha! She's been here, but left a few years ago.
So...SO...for all of you that visited yesterday and read my poems of trees and sight, whether you got what you came for or just checked off a list item, I want to thank you. Thank you, because whether YOU got what YOU needed...you were willing to give someone else something that THEY needed!
And I am so grateful for this experience and happy that I have blitzed others alongside you. It's an incredible experience and I wish it upon everyone!
So...SO...for all of you that visited yesterday and read my poems of trees and sight, whether you got what you came for or just checked off a list item, I want to thank you. Thank you, because whether YOU got what YOU needed...you were willing to give someone else something that THEY needed!
And I am so grateful for this experience and happy that I have blitzed others alongside you. It's an incredible experience and I wish it upon everyone!
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
In Celebration of Seeing Trees
At long last all the trees in Maine are sporting fresh greens, and I have sprouted glasses. These coinciding events have made me doubly appreciative of each. See yesterday's post "The Blessing of Sight".
I got carried away and decided to literally focus on trees for today. I pulled the first rhyming poem from my file of poem parts and finished editing it, and then the second one, non-rhyming, is hot off the press, having just popped out of my brain and plopped out on the page.
So now the two Poet Trees to celebrate Seeing Trees... that would be ME seeing trees, not trees that actually SEE... but you knew that.
Poplars never stand alone
Where one is there’s another
And if the other’s not a friend
It’ll be a sis or brother.
They shake their green well-spangled arms
When winds begin to shout
They flutter-dance and clap and swing
Till leaves laugh inside out.
A happy lot the poplar is-
So friendly and quite popular
From spreading roots below its trunk
To the upper tippy-topular.
I never saw you
this way before
or maybe I have
but it's been so long
that I forgot -
I forgot
how your arms
could reach out
to greet me
how up and down
your rough exterior
valleys were created
for ants and caterpillars
and made harsh lichened wrinkles
that skinned my elbows and knees
I've rediscovered how
shadows play with you
and make you
twinkle and shimmer
I seem to remember
how crisp your leaf edges
could be
I am fascinated at
the perfection in
all your imperfections
elegant
flora of forest
with fantasy
roots housing
woodland fairies
and chattering
chipmunks
providing lofty shelter
for birds and
cupping feathered nests
shading turkeys and deer
that scratch and browse below
while overhead
squirrels make their
way on unnamed roads
and highways
overpasses
without stop signs
or speed limits
I want to see
all the splendor
of your world
If I were younger
I would climb
as I did in years past
to look at the world
surrounded by a leafy frame
but today I sit below
leaning against
the solid
age concealing bark
age concealing bark
my head tilted skyward
looking up
at your leafy
kaleidoscope
world
Monday, June 17, 2013
The Blessing of Sight
 |
| Baby grasshopper by a small water bottle cap. |
This morning, as I stood on my porch, I saw things. I have new glasses. I've been wearing reading glasses for quite some time. Years. And I just got bifocals. I have a cataract in my right eye and my left has had double vision for a few years now. I've made do with readers, refusing to succumb to the authentic need for vision assistance. The cataract will be dealt with in a few months, but I decided I really would like to see before that. So now I have my glasses.
I almost cried in the office when I got them. It wasn't a good cry. It was not a cry of "Oh, how wonderful, I can finally see again!" It was a cry of, "Oh, no, I still can't see and it's even worse with glasses on!" The 200 pairs of glasses on the wall in front of me looked like 400. The words she put in front of me to read, floated from large to small and wide spacing to narrow. I could see nothing, and was nauseous to boot.
These can't be the right prescription. She checked the numbers. Everything checked out; it was my prescription. Maybe the doctor had made a mistake? I would have to go back to see him and get this straightened out - literally.
I put the glasses in their case and left the store with my son. As we got to the parking lot, I told him that if these were supposed to be the right prescription, maybe I just needed to put them on and see if my eyes would adjust somehow. It would have to be a miracle though. These glasses were terrible and I didn't know that I could have them on long enough to even find out if they were ever going to work. But I put them on anyway and made my way to the car. I drove with them at the ready...ready to take them off, that is. I didn't think driving was the best place to experiment, but I did it anyway. Actually getting out of the office with all the glasses on the wall staring at me had helped immensely. It was about a 25 minute drive home, and I took the glasses off a couple of times, when I really needed "familiar" depth perception - like pulling up behind someone at a stoplight. But then I'd pop them on again. My eyes actually started getting used to the distance vision.
As I pulled into our driveway, which is a wooded setting, I could see the light playing deep in the forest that I hadn't seen in years. I could see the full roundness of the tree trunks, even the sharp edges of the leaves as they moved in the breeze. It looked like the branches were reaching out to me now. I laughed. The whole image was surreal. I made the comment to my son that it was like being in a 3D movie...at which point he asked, "Mom, do you really think you should be driving?"
I was in my own personal stereoscopic viewer world. Yes, I should be driving. I was going to keep my eyes open forever.
I realized because of the glasses I had been wearing, one eye had become dominant over the other with them on, and the other was dominant with them off. They were never working together anymore really. And now, with these glasses, my eyes were learning to work cooperatively again.
The optometrist says it may take a few weeks to be fully comfortable with the glasses. The close vision is still weird at times, but it's getting better. I don't have to squint and rub my eyes all the time now. I can see to read fairly well, and better than I could. I'm excited to see things I didn't know I was missing.
The great part is, I can see how beautiful the world is again.
The not so great part is ... I have wrinkles.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Friday, June 7, 2013
I Wonder...
It's Poetry Friday! Yea! Tabatha Yeatts of The Opposite of Indifference is our gracious host today. Go find some great poetry links to sunny up your day and make your toes sing! (oh, yeah, they sing...ask my kids)
Okay, here are my poems for kids at heart... all wondery today. The first one, posted before but read very little, was instigated by Father Goose. It in turn instigated the others poems. I wonder what will be next.
How and Why
Are you supposin'
a rose is chosen
by a honeybee's nosin'?
Or thinkest thou
the hue is how
and why a rose gets chosen?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ant Bee
An ant's as busy as a bee
without the wings to fly.
Do you think ants would love a chance
to strap on wings and try?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I Wonder
I wonder what a fish would do
if he had shoes like us.
Do you think he would walk to school
or ride in a school bus?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Who Is It?
When I was just a little one
I knew my momma’s voice;
And if I saw a hundred mom’s
There'd only be one choice.
I’d know my momma’s face and sound,
And run right up to her;
I’d snuggle close to go to sleep,
And then I’d start to ...
purr-rrr-rr.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have a few more "wonders"...
Okay, here are my poems for kids at heart... all wondery today. The first one, posted before but read very little, was instigated by Father Goose. It in turn instigated the others poems. I wonder what will be next.
How and Why
Are you supposin'
a rose is chosen
by a honeybee's nosin'?
Or thinkest thou
the hue is how
and why a rose gets chosen?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ant Bee
An ant's as busy as a bee
without the wings to fly.
Do you think ants would love a chance
to strap on wings and try?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I Wonder
I wonder what a fish would do
if he had shoes like us.
Do you think he would walk to school
or ride in a school bus?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Who Is It?
When I was just a little one
I knew my momma’s voice;
And if I saw a hundred mom’s
There'd only be one choice.
I’d know my momma’s face and sound,
And run right up to her;
I’d snuggle close to go to sleep,
And then I’d start to ...
purr-rrr-rr.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have a few more "wonders"...
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Drama in the Woods
 |
| Squirrel 1 on seeds, Squirrel 2 on empty corn holder - staring at each other. |
Finally, I will see one chase the other up and down and around tree trunks until someone gets too tired and leaves. I never know if it's the one doing the chasing or the chasee that gets tired...they look alike and it's a bit like a NASCAR race to me as to whom is ahead of whom. I mean, when you are going around and around a tree trunk, how do you know who's being chased?
Anyway, as I was chatting...you know, with my daughter...I told you that. I'm hearing all sorts of commotion in the woods outside. Scampering, leaves and brush moving, squirrel barking. Yes, they bark. My husband is a squirrel eater and he knows.
This commotion seemed to go on for a bit, but I couldn't see anything happening, until suddenly this large bird flew quietly through the trees, and out toward the house. Now the chattering, barking squirrel was really upset, wherever he was. I grabbed my camera and went outside (not through the sliders though - and why not?) and slowly went around to the back of the house. There in the tree just a few feet into the woods was a big ol' owl looking down at me (at this point I remember hearing the owl call just about 10 minutes earlier).
The squirrel was barking at me now, too and I could see him on the tire of the old lawn tractor, hiding under the fender of the rear wheel. I took a picture of him and then looked back to take one of the owl, but he was gone. Just like that. No noise, no commotion. Just gone.
The squirrel stopped his barking. I guess he was no longer mad at me. He just stared at me from under his John Deere roof. I went back inside and finished my chat. The squirrel after a bit came out and raced up and down the closest tree three or four times. On his last run up the tree he kept going.... hey, now I know why they call them routes and branches...well, roots and branches... they misspell root on the maps.
 |
| A blue tarp has been pretty much removed and its fabric backing torn off for some plush nests. |
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Sunshine
Thanks, Mary Hill of Maryeandering for passing on the Sunshine Award to me. I would love to now pass on a little sunshine if I could today.
Here are my answers to the questions posed -
1. What inspired you to start blogging?
I actually started blogging on a couple of my other sites, one being "Wireless in the Wilderness" which was the start of a blog telling people where they could have a cup of coffee and be wireless in Maine - which are not always easy to find in the wilderness, and the other is "Talk n Tech" which was to pass along tech tips for teachers. I then got involved with Two Writing Teachers through their Slice of Life daily blogging in March two years ago, and from there I just kept on writing.
2. How did you come up with the name of your blog?
Well, my site is main(e)ly my writing in Maine. It just fit and no one had the name already. Can you imagine if I lived in California...Californialy Write...nope.
3. What is your favorite blog to read?
This is not a blog of one of my blogger friends out there. It's just a blog I've enjoyed reading and recommended to my new mom of a daughter. I haven't visited it much lately. The title is almost worse/better than the blog: Crappy Pictures. A mom draws simple pictures to go with her all too real stories about her life with young children and family pets. I find it hysterical most of the time. You need to read more than one post to get a real feel for the reality of it. Maybe start with this one.
I have many other favorite blogs written by bloggers I've come to know a bit, but I hesitate to name them all, as I will undoubtedly leave out someone's blog. So suffice it to say, if you know I'm talking about you, I am.
4. Tell us about your dream job:
Being a writer and writing something really, really wonderful that even I like to read, as well as people who don't even know me, so they don't have to think it is wonderful because they know me, but think it is wonderful in spite of the fact that they don't know and love me already.
5. Is your glass half-full or half-empty?
My glass is at least half full. It's usually running over. I really need to pay attention when I turn the water on. A couple of days ago I was cleaning the kitchen sink and I left the water running. Good thing there was that second drain...
6. If you could go anywhere for a week's vacation, where would you go?
I would teleport to Newfoundland. I don't want to go by boat or plane and a car is out of the question. So I'd teleport as soon as that becomes available to people older than 6. I've taught first grade. They teleport.
7. What food can you positively not eat?
It seems that I have developed an allergy to strawberries and grapes. And I hate egg whites. Uncooked they are gross and cooked you can chew them all day and you can't swallow them. They just turn to fine particles that stay in your mouth forever.
8. Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?
Yes, please. (you know, for the longest time I was reading it as chocolate milk and couldn't figure out why the question would be worded that way)
9. How much time do you spend blogging?
I don't think this is important for anyone to know. I can quit any time I want to. I quit before. I could quit again. I'm fine. I can quit chocolate, too.
10. Do you watch TV and if so, what are your favorite shows?
We are on AppleTV and watch mostly old shows on Netflicks. We watch all the episodes of a couple shows at a time, one episode a night till it's over. One of my very favorites is a British show called Doc Martin. He's a surgeon who has developed a blood phobia and has moved out to a private practice in a rural coastal area. He's a bit autistic, so it makes for very interesting viewing.
Here are my answers to the questions posed -
1. What inspired you to start blogging?
I actually started blogging on a couple of my other sites, one being "Wireless in the Wilderness" which was the start of a blog telling people where they could have a cup of coffee and be wireless in Maine - which are not always easy to find in the wilderness, and the other is "Talk n Tech" which was to pass along tech tips for teachers. I then got involved with Two Writing Teachers through their Slice of Life daily blogging in March two years ago, and from there I just kept on writing.
2. How did you come up with the name of your blog?
Well, my site is main(e)ly my writing in Maine. It just fit and no one had the name already. Can you imagine if I lived in California...Californialy Write...nope.
3. What is your favorite blog to read?
This is not a blog of one of my blogger friends out there. It's just a blog I've enjoyed reading and recommended to my new mom of a daughter. I haven't visited it much lately. The title is almost worse/better than the blog: Crappy Pictures. A mom draws simple pictures to go with her all too real stories about her life with young children and family pets. I find it hysterical most of the time. You need to read more than one post to get a real feel for the reality of it. Maybe start with this one.
I have many other favorite blogs written by bloggers I've come to know a bit, but I hesitate to name them all, as I will undoubtedly leave out someone's blog. So suffice it to say, if you know I'm talking about you, I am.
4. Tell us about your dream job:
Being a writer and writing something really, really wonderful that even I like to read, as well as people who don't even know me, so they don't have to think it is wonderful because they know me, but think it is wonderful in spite of the fact that they don't know and love me already.
5. Is your glass half-full or half-empty?
My glass is at least half full. It's usually running over. I really need to pay attention when I turn the water on. A couple of days ago I was cleaning the kitchen sink and I left the water running. Good thing there was that second drain...
6. If you could go anywhere for a week's vacation, where would you go?
I would teleport to Newfoundland. I don't want to go by boat or plane and a car is out of the question. So I'd teleport as soon as that becomes available to people older than 6. I've taught first grade. They teleport.
7. What food can you positively not eat?
It seems that I have developed an allergy to strawberries and grapes. And I hate egg whites. Uncooked they are gross and cooked you can chew them all day and you can't swallow them. They just turn to fine particles that stay in your mouth forever.
8. Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?
Yes, please. (you know, for the longest time I was reading it as chocolate milk and couldn't figure out why the question would be worded that way)
9. How much time do you spend blogging?
I don't think this is important for anyone to know. I can quit any time I want to. I quit before. I could quit again. I'm fine. I can quit chocolate, too.
10. Do you watch TV and if so, what are your favorite shows?
We are on AppleTV and watch mostly old shows on Netflicks. We watch all the episodes of a couple shows at a time, one episode a night till it's over. One of my very favorites is a British show called Doc Martin. He's a surgeon who has developed a blood phobia and has moved out to a private practice in a rural coastal area. He's a bit autistic, so it makes for very interesting viewing.
Okay, now for 9 out of the 10 bloggers possible, that I have nominated for the Sunshine Award - take the button and answer the questions, if you feel up to it!
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Saturday's Poetry Friday Continued
Well, Friday morning came way too early for me. I was congested and up by 2 am and attempted to sleep in a chair. That didn't work out. So I was pretty tired for Friday.
While I was awake, I wrote my poems for Poetry Friday and posted them along with some tired drivel that I decided to leave up.
After I posted my poet/poet tree poem, I visited other Poetry Friday posts. When I got to Father Goose's I read his poem about a bee, and then wrote the following poem as a comment. I changed my mind, and didn't submit it as a comment. I'm posting it now as a poem inspired by the poem written by Charles Ghigna at Father Goose's.
Are you supposin'
a rose is chosen
by a honeybee's nosin'?
Or thinkest thou
the hue is how
and why a rose gets chosen?
Oh, goodness. The title that I was just about to write for this post has inspired me to write something else. So I have to think of a different title, just in case I use the one I'm thinking of on some other piece of writing. I'm becoming consumed by another idea now. I should be sick all the time.
While I was awake, I wrote my poems for Poetry Friday and posted them along with some tired drivel that I decided to leave up.
After I posted my poet/poet tree poem, I visited other Poetry Friday posts. When I got to Father Goose's I read his poem about a bee, and then wrote the following poem as a comment. I changed my mind, and didn't submit it as a comment. I'm posting it now as a poem inspired by the poem written by Charles Ghigna at Father Goose's.
Are you supposin'
a rose is chosen
by a honeybee's nosin'?
Or thinkest thou
the hue is how
and why a rose gets chosen?
Oh, goodness. The title that I was just about to write for this post has inspired me to write something else. So I have to think of a different title, just in case I use the one I'm thinking of on some other piece of writing. I'm becoming consumed by another idea now. I should be sick all the time.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Poetry Too Early
I woke up at 2:00 AM and it is now 4:23 AM. These are not hours one should be aware of. Or - These are not hours of which one should be aware. Oh, dear. I'm getting tired when a preposition at the end of a sentence bothers me. I'm sneezing and coughing and stuffy. I haven't been sick since a lot of time ago. I don't think I'm going anywhere tomorrow/today. Mucinex DM, please kick in. I want to go to sleep.
While sleepless, I did manage to be somewhat fruitful, crawling out to the computer and writing these for Poetry Friday hosted by Betsy at Teaching Young Writers. I don't know why, but poetry and poet tree and po-or tree kept floating through my mind. I stopped them for a bit to mull them over and try them out. So this is very early morning poetry...and there is no poet tree in sight. I am not sitting under it. I'm in the kitchen 'neath a bright o'erhead light. Oh, I'm tired. I need to breathe.
I'm posting this and then maybe sitting upright in the living room to fall asleep before the dawn's early light...which should be happening any minute now. Oh, no. I hear birds. It isn't even light yet, and the birds are awake...I'm doomed!
Poet
Poet tree
I sit by thee
and write a bit
of poetry
I'm happy to be
poet me
instead of
little
poet tree.
I'm a little poet tree
Where poets come to sit by me
And wrestle with their poetry.
I wish that I had words as fruit
And ripened they'd fall at my root
And poets could pick ones that suit.
But I've no words so cannot try it
I only have some shade and quiet
I cannot help a poet write it.
I'm just a peaceful poet tree
Where fruitful poets sit by me
And words submit to poetry.
PS: I wrote another poem that I will wait to post tomorrow. It isn't about a poet tree, thankfully.
While sleepless, I did manage to be somewhat fruitful, crawling out to the computer and writing these for Poetry Friday hosted by Betsy at Teaching Young Writers. I don't know why, but poetry and poet tree and po-or tree kept floating through my mind. I stopped them for a bit to mull them over and try them out. So this is very early morning poetry...and there is no poet tree in sight. I am not sitting under it. I'm in the kitchen 'neath a bright o'erhead light. Oh, I'm tired. I need to breathe.
I'm posting this and then maybe sitting upright in the living room to fall asleep before the dawn's early light...which should be happening any minute now. Oh, no. I hear birds. It isn't even light yet, and the birds are awake...I'm doomed!
Poet
Poet tree
I sit by thee
and write a bit
of poetry
I'm happy to be
poet me
instead of
little
poet tree.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Poet Tree I'm a little poet tree
Where poets come to sit by me
And wrestle with their poetry.
I wish that I had words as fruit
And ripened they'd fall at my root
And poets could pick ones that suit.
But I've no words so cannot try it
I only have some shade and quiet
I cannot help a poet write it.
I'm just a peaceful poet tree
Where fruitful poets sit by me
And words submit to poetry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm out of here. Ear plugs for the birds. I mean for me... so the birds can't be heard. I don't even know where their ears are. I think the Mucinex is working. I'm breathing and sleepy.PS: I wrote another poem that I will wait to post tomorrow. It isn't about a poet tree, thankfully.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
15 Words or Less: Returning Thoughts
In 15 Words or Less - my response to Laura Salas' challenge for Thursdays....Go there to see the photo prompt and read other responses to it.
Currents of thoughts,
like water through
a trap,
with turning tides,
return
yet untapped.
Currents of thoughts,
like water through
a trap,
with turning tides,
return
yet untapped.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
One More Thing!
 |
| This is not a real lobster. Do not eat it. |
But now, there's one more thing.
When a group of singers came to sing this Sunday at church, the lady that travels with them saw the program in Sunday School and really liked it. She's an editor of an ezine, and asked me if I'd write an article about the why's, how-to's and what's of this program. It will still be for no pay... but it is writing. Wow. I am amazed.
And now I am just a little bit busier. I have one more thing to write...750 words or less...I hope I can be concise. I hope it can be used. I think I'd better get busy, I have a script to write first...it's Tuesday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Zero
Each day (except Sundays) in April, I'm writing poems with some obscure words starting with the letter of the day, and then doing a sm...
-
This summer we have had some spectacular sunsets. Here's one from a couple of nights ago over Wiscasset. We pulled off into the grocer... -
Squealing Laughing Crying Baby Attentive Sticky Tired Parents Grateful Amazed Waving Grand...