Category: Experience

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Four Chaplains Roundel Poem – Stafford Challenge Day 21

Photo by Joseph Fuller on Pexels.com

The first Sunday in February is set aside across our nation to honor the Four Chaplains. I attended a service this past weekend to remember them and to honor their greatest sacrifice. Today’s poem is a roundel. 

Four Chaplains Roundel 

USS Dorchester torpedo attack
four chaplains lost at sea~
knew they wouldn't make it back
serving God on bended knee

price of freedom isn't free
singing hymns in arm-locked pack
Nearer My God To Thee

gentle souls in night so black~
beams for all of us to see
faith, not fear, on Heaven's track
serving God on bended knee
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Retirement Dream Pantoum – Stafford Challenge Day 19

last-minute feels unintentional
for a goal-setting success planner
but I'd love to be spontaneous
retire and travel in an Airstream

for a goal-setting success planner
always checking boxes: Done!
retire and travel in an Airstream?
is there an action plan for that?

always checking boxes: Done!
at the RV show, we sprawled across the bed
is there an action plan for that?
what's my 401K say?

at the RV show, we sprawled across the bed
I'd love to be spontaneous
what's my 401k say?
last-minute feels unintentional
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Hippie Scrapbook Stickers – Stafford Challenge Day 15

I’m having so much fun with The Stafford Challenge that I can’t bear to face my goal chart every month. I’m dropping back to quarterly reflections. Poetry offers more self-care, which I need more right now than thinking of all the things I’m not doing that I should be doing.

So I’m poeming instead.

Hippie Scrapbook Stickers

My childhood scrapbook, filled with stickers

psychedelic colors, hippie

Kim was here!! footprints, daisies,

seventies lettering

mushrooms, all the vibes

coolest era

best music~

Kim is

here!

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Hygge Pantoum – Stafford Challenge Day 14

Photo by Ioana Motoc on Pexels.com

Today’s Pantoum poem celebrates warmth and comfort in these cold, wintry days leading up to mid-winter. I have a little faith in our southern groundhog, so I’m holding out some hope for a thick blanketing of snow to keep us home for a few days, snuggled fireside with books and dogs, before warming up and staying warm so the peaches will survive. Georgia lost 90% of its crop last year to a late freeze, and what few I was able to find locally cost a fortune and ended up in Mason jars as preserves so we could enjoy them all winter.

For today, though, there is hot tea with honey ~ and so begins my poem. Stay warm, friends.

Hygge Pantoum

chamomile tea with honey
warm blankets, heated throw
sherpa slippers (ears of bunny)
beeswax candle's ambient glow

warm blankets, heated throw
heavy quilts of rag-stitched flannel
beeswax candle's ambient glow
flickering shadows on the mantel

heavy quilts of rag-stitched flannel
heirloom warmth of hand-stitched hugs
flickering shadows on the mantel
cotton-braided oval rugs

heirloom warmth of hand-stitched hugs
sherpa slippers (ears of bunny)
cotton-braided oval rugs
chamomile tea with honey

Special thanks to Twowritingteachers at Slice of Life for giving writers space and inspiration!

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Jenga Poetry – Stafford Challenge Day 13 part 2

I learned this form from Paul Hankins, who cuts letters from magazines and puts them onto blocks so that student writers can arrange them into words. I modified it by cutting out whole words and placing them onto Jenga blocks. Even the most reluctant poets have fun writing Jenga block poetry. 

As we look to the month of 💕 February, here’s a Love Jenga poem:

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Stuck in the Mud – Stafford Challenge Day 13

actual photo of where he got stuck last week

he got his truck stuck

in the mud last week

and had to call a buddy with

a chain to pull him out

so now we are dickering

bickering about whether rain spots

on the road are dark or shiny

because that’s what

married people do ~

we dicker and bicker over words

in the car

playfully draw invisible

boundary lines

down the middle

just like kids

spinning tires

stuck in our own mud

all the way to see his favorite 70s band

Atlanta Rhythm Section


we sing all the words

at the show

except that one song

we remember when

link fingers

sneak a kiss

hold hands

all the way home

unstuck

invisible lines erased

humming

It’s just like a dream you can’t remember
Even though you always wish you could
When it’s gone, it’s gone forever
When it’s gone, it’s gone for G – o – o – o – o – D

ARS singing one of their top songs of the 70s
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Grandchildren’s Tea Party Elfchen Poem- Stafford Challenge Day 11

I was so thrilled when my daughter in law texted me earlier this week to let me know that three of my grandchildren had a tea party with my childhood tea set I passed on to them. These pictures just melt my heart, seeing their little hands hold the cups I once held. What a joy and blessing! I’m also grateful for their mother, who creates special moments for them and shares them with me. She is an absolute treasure, and we love her so much!

My

grandchildren had

a tea party

with my childhood china

{{ pictures!!! }}