Patchwork Prose and Verse
She knows he loves lights – flashlights, landscape lights, Christmas lights, headlamps, city lights. And so on our first rainy night in “her city,” she took us on the High Roller. A surprise with him in mind. And we loved every minute of the half-hour spin seeing the city lights!
High Roller surprise
nighttime Vegas exclusive
the city lights up!
Our host for the Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com this month was Stacey Joy, who inspired us to write poems honoring human emotions. Since I was traveling, I was off by a day, so I am posting the poem from one of those prompts today. You can click here to read the full prompt.
Emotions
I’ve had a few
severe ones came
on takeoff from
the Vegas airport
yesterday
My phone was in
airplane mode
with Delta wi-fi
but my soul wasn’t
it wasn’t the
proverbial placenta pulling
it was the heartstrings
as I watched my
daughter ping on
Find My Phone
our plane flying
away, away, away
so far home
my firstborn watching
planes from her window
beneath, asking
in her text
if the plane she saw
might be us
First, huge thanks and a hug. Second, I’m sharing my plan for March slicing.
I was sitting with my schnoodle Boo Radley in my favorite chair in the living room when the text notification came on Valentine’s Day. My friend, fellow Slice of Life blogger, travel advice guru, fellow Schnoodle Mom, and Stafford Challenge small group buddy Glenda Funk of Idaho sent a Valentine full of smiles and hugs to our writing group that meets the first of each month to catch up and write! One of the greatest blessings of a writing community is finding common interests among those with whom we share some of our deepest feelings and so much of our day-to-day lives. A huge thanks to Glenda today, to all the writers here at Slice of Life, and others in writing group crossroads for making life more friendly and for helping me find the smiles in unexpected places.
Valentine’s Day hugs
arrive from across the miles
arms wide as friendship!
A plan has been brewing. It’s been in my bones, and it has finally taken root. I find that if I have a plan for the Slice of Life Challenge, I’m more successful at completing the challenge ~ and not just finishing it, but actually enjoying it the same way some marathon runners are actually smiling when they cross the finish line.
My Plan
Living poets are near and dear to my heart. I want to not only read and celebrate them, but also have an opportunity to share their work. That will be my own personal March Slice of Life Challenge plan. Each day, I’ll feature a collection of poems by a living poet, and I’ll compose a short Cento poem each day from that collection. Cento poems are some of my favorites – they’re a form of found poetry where lines of existing poems are arranged to create new poems. I’m still curating my featured list, but I wanted to share this idea in case there is anyone reading who is struggling with an idea and needs a place to start. Perhaps there are seeds in this idea. Some of my favorite reading is about books and how they have changed lives – poetry collections included.
I’ll see you at the starting line on Sunday, ready for the journey!
Stacey Joy of California was our host for the Open Write on its final day of the February writing invitation. Here is her prompt and invitation to write, below and linked. You can read the poems of others today and visit the tricube form.
Inspiration
In the spring of 2025, Leilya Pitre introduced me to the fun poetic form called a Tricube. I wrote a spring poem to her prompt and had been eager to write a tricube poem again. If you want to revisit Leilya’s prompt and responses, visit this link.
Here we are in February with so much to celebrate: Black History Month, Snack Month, Library Lovers Month, American Heart Month, and Hot Breakfast Month. I’m inspired to write a tricube and I hope you are too.
Process
A tricube has three stanzas containing three lines, and each line has three syllables (3/3/3). You might choose one of the February celebrations or something else that speaks to you.
I’m reliving my visit to Las Vegas last week in my posts this week, and today’s tricube is about seeing The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere.
A 4-D Movie Experience at the Sphere
Dorothy
and Toto
a Wizard
a scarecrow
a tin man
a lion
in an orb!
L. Frank Baum
a classic!
We’d gone for a slice of pizza and looked west on our drive through the rural rolling hills of Georgia. What we saw took our breath away. Golden twilight peeking over the hill. I stopped at the end of our driveway and photographed it, hoping to capture the vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows like a brush stroke of melted crayons. The next morning, I opened the front door to the beauty of the sun over the recent harvesting of trees.
Beauty surrounds us in this place we call home, and I wanted to share the artistry of the skies. It’s not always able to be seen this way in cloudless ways, but even though the eye can’t always see through to it, I know it’s always there. It’s euphoric when it reveals itself in its full splendor.
Here is an EAST WEST poem to celebrate the skies!
Evening West, Morning East
W her E
E uphori A
S urmount S ~
T wiligh T
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and it’s the day of flowers, so I’m celebrating with flowers – three tiny white daisies in a windowsill vase, inspiring a small poem of three stanzas. A tricube poem is one that has three syllables on three lines in three stanzas. I have written one today to appreciate the small, simple things.
Valentine Tricube
small blush vase ~
windowsill
daisy joy
fresh flowers
greet the day
lovingly
simple blooms
standing still
keep things real
My older daughter sent us a digital photo frame to which family members can upload photos so that they will appear like magic on the scrolling screen in our living room. I set it up, added the app, and invited all the kids to upload their pictures, expecting the fun surprises of noticing the new ones each week or so.
“Wait,” one son interjected. “Let me make sure I understand. So we can add photos that will just show up in your living room when anyone may be visiting?”
I warned him not to get any bright ideas and to keep it clean. Imagine my amused horror when a daughter zoomed in on a family photo where she’d been standing with her thumbs in her belt loops but actually shooting a bird. And someone added a picture of some stranger in a jon boat holding his arms out to show off a fish, but the fish is photoshopped into the photo several inches from his hands. They also add their favorites through the years, right back to all the times that made us laugh so hard our stomachs hurt. And some of family members no longer with us that are especially touching now. It’s my favorite art in the house ~ photography entertainment where my family members are in the frames.
there we are, kissing in front of Cadillac Ranch
Johnson Rt 66 Trip June 2023
spray painted on a vertical hood
there we are, coffee and breakfast in Tulsa and
standing in front of the Blue Whale of Catoosa
brothers on a bench in El Reno
and our feet on a painted street sign
and look! there’s Boo Radley in the kayak
wearing his Nemo life vest
ready for adventure, whatever that means
oooh, and there we all are in
Tennessee in the VRBO on the mountain
playing dominoes and talking trash
and all the kids in the pool
rocking the place with waves
the littlest smiling, showing off two
recently cut bottom teeth
the others lined up on the front porch
steps eating watermelon
and us eating seafood listening to
Suno songs about us eating seafood
an engagement, a wedding, a cup
of coffee in Starbucks
and watching the Blue Angels
from the heat of a parking lot
and the oldest grandson
eating a Biblical meal
Poppy in the oldest pub in Boston
eating oysters
and us in the sun in Kennebunkport
each memory scrolls by
smiles in these moments
of living and holding presence
belonging for our time
as we live it
Our Christmas gift to each other last year will serve as our Valentine’s Day gift also, since we will be traveling for a long-awaited excursion next week. As long-time lovers of all things Eagles, we decided in October on a dream whim while playing dominoes during a family vacation that we should definitely go see them in concert at the Sphere. One of our daughters lives near the area and offered to pick us up from the airport and show us the lay of the land.
It didn’t take arm-twisting. We hopped off the Mexican Train long enough to buy two tickets, make a reservation at a nearby resort, and book airfare, then looked in each other’s eyes and said, “Merry Christmas.” One of our sons decided to join in the fun also, minus the concert tickets. That’s how we roll on the festivity meter. No gifts under the tree, but a memory-maker instead that will be appreciated long after whatever sweaters we would have opened.
My Favorite Eagles Song is Hidden in these Lines
my soul mate and I
went for an experience
instead of gifts
last Christmas
so next week we will
fly west
to hear The Eagles
at The Sphere
but I confess:
I cheated and
took it to the limit
with two
concert shirts
because, you know…..
stocking stuffers
Georgia Heard’s Substack offers writing calendars that work for both children and adults. Here is her February Valentine Mini Writing Calendar, inspiring us to fall in love with the everyday. Day 6 asks us to fall in love with love with a small ritual that brings us comfort or joy such as morning coffee, walking the dog, or lighting a candle.
Do Tell
for me, it’s when
we come home
from anywhere
even if we’ve
only been gone
three minutes
to check the mail
here they come
all three boys
ears flapping
tails up
pawing our legs
Come, play!
they say
but it’s when
they turn
take off
and hit full
speed down
the hall
racing for
all they’re
worth to
wait for us
in our
chairs like
old friends
ready for
coffee and
conversation
on the couch
that really surges
my joy meter
tell us, what is
did you do with
your wild and
precious day?
they ask,
licking our faces
and we tell them
My friend Margaret Simon shared Georgia Heard’s Substack with me, and I love reading about her travels and writing experiences – and her book recommendations. You can see her posts here.
I love that Georgia offers writing calendars that work for both children and adults. Here is her February Valentine Mini Writing Calendar, inspiring us to fall in love with the everyday. I’ll be starting this today and walking with Georgia through the week. Join me with a journal and a pen!
Day 3 asks us to notice light and how it lands, how it moves, and then to write about one moment of light that stayed with us.
Weekend Waffles
the hexagon window
in my reading room
throws a morning sunbeam
onto the wall
opposite my bed
its tiny square panes
within look like
buttery waffles
syrupy and warm
drizzled in sunshine
Common Threads 