Month: May 2025

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Loaded Tea Demi Sonnet

We wrote Demi Sonnets earlier this month, so today I’m thinking of the Loaded Tea craze that has Starbucks a little on edge, I’m sure. My current favorite is a Pink Starburst, with collagen and half caffeine (lit). But that can change tomorrow.

Loaded Tea Demi Sonnet

I think I’m addicted to loaded tea

as I sip a Watermelon Crawl

yesterday’s was Pink Starburst

last week, a Lit Trainwreck

I tried to quit, but what the heck??!!

caffeine brings out the best in me

……..so, tomorrow, I’ll take them all

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Making Body Butter

My sister in law and I have been making various salves, lotions, balms, and body butters. It all started in April. She found a recipe for Bergamot Body Butter, and it’s been fun ever since. We each ordered some of the ingredients and a slew of containers, fired up the stove, and got to stirring and mixing, making our own magnesium and shea butter foot creams.

Today’s poem is a simple tricube – three stanzas of three lines with three syllables!

Sister Time Tricube

bergamot
shea butter
olive oil

lavender
mixing bowls
minerals

beeswax flakes
kitchen fun
sister time
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May Open Write – Day 3 of 3 with Sarah J. Donovan for Demi Sonnets

Today’s host at http://www.ethicalela.com for our final day of the May Open Write is Sarah J. Donovan, who inspires us to write Demi-Sonnets about something we almost missed. You can read her full prompt here. Sarah says, of Demi-Sonnets:

  • 7 lines.
  • It’s formal without being, you know, strictly formal.
  • They are encouraged to end with a full or a slant rhyme. (An Emily Dickinson approved form.) Instead of a perfect rhyme where the ending sounds match exactly (like cat and hat), slant rhymes have slight variations in sound like hope and cup, bridge and grudge.
  • Erin describes them as “aphoristic” and something of an “elongated fortune cookie” 
  • There’s no set syllable count.

Call Interference

front porch phone call late at night

unfurling starburst: opening show

caught my eye in the moon’s spotlight

petal by petal, revealing its brilliance

conversation ~ a bloom interference

most never see this nocturnal sight:

Queen of the Night crowning waterlily-bright!

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May Open Write Day 2 of 3

Dr. Sarah J. Donovan is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for Day 2 of the May Open Write. She inspires us to write poems of our heritage through place and culture. You can read her full prompt here.

Home is Changing

here in rural Georgia

on my front porch

on this drizzly Sunday morning

on the Johnson Funny Farm

with my coffee

and banana protein shake

I sit in my nightgown

and a pair of flip flops

hair in a clip

computer in my lap

listening

hearing

feeling

crying inside

what has been home

is changing

what has brought comfort

is falling

in sickening thuds

what has brought deep peace

is disappearing

by the log-truck load

birdwatching

here

is almost over

what remains

is perhaps

five more mornings

and my heart is sick

grieving with loss

for my birds

and their nests

and their eggs

and their choir

but this morning

those in trees

still standing sing like

all those Whos in Whoville

in the absence of place or thing

not knowing their tree

is next

today’s song is in joy of overcoming

others are

singing their goodbyes

one by one they’ve come

to the single row of pines

closest to the porch

and perched

like a last hug at the airport

said farewell

and flown off

no luggage in hand

to the next life

my tears here on this porch

don’t stop

won’t stop

how do I live in the absence of

morning birdsong

deep in the woods?

more important~

how do they?

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May Open Write Day 1 of 3

Today’s prompt at http://www.ethicalela.com for the first day of the May Open Write is by Dr. Sarah Donovan, who encourages poems related to the stages of forgiveness and pain. I’ve chosen a double haiku followed by a shadorma for today’s verse, blending madness and sadness of grief that lingers. I’m reminded that sometimes forgiveness is a long time coming.

For Today

all lies, no mercy ~
how can I choose forgiveness?
I’m still working through
things that can never
be replaced, lived out rightly
the way she’d wanted

perhaps in
time there will be a
change of heart
but for now
for this hour, for this moment
my soul can’t forget

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The Meaning of Your Name

When I saw Margaret Simon’s blog post on May 1 with Georgia Heard’s calendar inviting tiny writing, my soul breathed a sigh of relief. Tiny writing. Yes, I need a month of tiny writing after the double marathon months of the Slice of Life Challenge in March and VerseLove in April. Tiny writing sounds dreamy right now, like a shade tree with a hammock and a warm, gentle breeze.

I glanced at the topics, and one caught my eye. May 16’s prompt is the meaning of your name. It’s been with me all my life – since I was a curious child who wanted to find answers to things like that.

Kimberly. From the Royal Fortress Meadow.

From the Royal Fortress Meadow

Kimberly

means from the royal

fortress meadow ~

and I’m no princess here,

but I drink my

velvety green

rolling hills

cloaked in wildflowers

crowned with a sunshine-drizzled

scepter of rain clouds

casting a gold-tipped

swing-choir grass breeze

strumming harp strings

across my countryside kingdom

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What the Wind Carries

I’m engaging in tiny writes this month, introduced by Georgia Heard on her monthly writing topics. Margaret Simon shared it on her blog earlier this month. Margaret also introduced me to the Shadorma form, which is a poem consisting of six lines with lines of the following numbers of syllables, in this order: 3,5,3,3,7,5. I’m using a tiny form for the tiny write topics and finding that it is a breath of fresh air after the marathon months of March with the Slice of Life Challenge at http://www.twowritingteachers.org and April with #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com.

Today’s topic on Georgia Heard’s calendar is what the wind carries. I thought of the recent death of a juvenile sperm whale that washed up on the beaches of a former hometown, Hilton Head Island, SC, and wrote this poem about the pictures I’d seen.

What the Wind Carries

heartache is

what the wind carries

when a whale

washes up

emaciated, singing

her waterless death

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Where You Belong

I’m engaging in tiny writes this month, introduced by Georgia Heard on her monthly writing topics. Margaret Simon shared it on her blog earlier this month. Margaret also introduced me to the Shadorma form, which is a poem consisting of six lines with lines of the following numbers of syllables, in this order: 3,5,3,3,7,5. I’m using a tiny form for the tiny write topics and finding that it is a breath of fresh air after the marathon months of March with the Slice of Life Challenge at http://www.twowritingteachers.org and April with #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com.

Today’s topic on Georgia Heard’s calendar is Where You Belong.

Where You Belong

you belong

to adventure winds

that beckon

you to seek

all-new possibilities ~

discovery quests!

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From Georgia Heard’s Small Writing Calendar: A Promise

I’m engaging in tiny writes this month, introduced by Georgia Heard on her monthly writing topics. Margaret Simon shared it on her blog earlier this month. Margaret also introduced me to the Shadorma form, which is a poem consisting of six lines with lines of the following numbers of syllables, in this order: 3,5,3,3,7,5. I’m using a tiny form for the tiny write topics and finding that it is a breath of fresh air after the marathon months of March with the Slice of Life Challenge at http://www.twowritingteachers.org and April with #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com.

Today’s topic on Georgia Heard’s calendar is A Promise.

I wrote this poem on May 5 when one of my small groups of writers met. We were missing Glenda Funk, but Barb Edler and Denise Krebs and I gathered on Zoom and wrote Shadormas, a form introduced by Margaret Simon.

Broken

a promise

retracted, unkept

changes lives ~

not just yours

your family trusted you

but you let us down

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A List of Last Times

I’m engaging in tiny writes this month, introduced by Georgia Heard on her monthly writing topics. Margaret Simon shared it on her blog earlier this month. Margaret also introduced me to the Shadorma form, which is a poem consisting of six lines with lines of the following numbers of syllables, in this order: 3,5,3,3,7,5. I’m using a tiny form for the tiny write topics and finding that it is a breath of fresh air after the marathon months of March with the Slice of Life Challenge at http://www.twowritingteachers.org and April with #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com.

Today’s topic on Georgia Heard’s calendar is A List of Last Times.

A List of Last Times

you hugged me

your body quivered

we both knew

this was it ~

the reason I’d made the trip

was to say goodbye