Patchwork Prose and Verse
Amber of Oklahoma is our host at http://www.ethicalela.com today for #VerseLove, inspiring us to write poems that connect concrete to abstract. You can read her full prompt and the poems of others here.
Cutting Eyes post-ripple small talk~ reconnecting after a hard conversation but eyes tell the truth might as well pass out peanuts feed the elephant which just grows bigger eyes that will no longer meet resentment sets in
Today our host for #VerseLove is Chea of Texas, who inspires us to write poetry with regional dialect ~ to tell something as it really happened, in our home language. You can read her prompt and the poetry of others here. I’m sharing a phone conversation with my dad one early morning not too long ago and wrote it in prose during the Slice of Life Story Challenge.
Hopin' Folks Out my phone rings early Dad I have a story I need to tell while it’s fresh on my mind before I forget I grab my pen It was back in the old days in rural Georgia when I was preaching at Ohoopee This was down around Highway 19 where you’d go through Wrightsville meander over to Tennille and then head on out to Sandersville a sea of cotton fields roads all red clay Ohoopee was a church of miracles a cured drunk who loved the Lord led the singin' “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks,” only he pronounced it Jurdan’s. and he weren’t wrong. a fellow named Noah in the church needed help finding where to dig his well even with a name like Noah back in those days people were people folks’ existence was all about helpin' their neighbors out now old Elvis heard about it “I’m coming over to hope you out” I went over there too to see Elvis hope his neighbor out Elvis said he had a divinin' rod – a hickory branch – to find water Elvis walked it tremored I saw it with my own eyes they dug that well right there they called this place Possum Scuffle back over in Harrison by Raines Store over yonder by Deep Step and Goat Town by Margaret Holmes's cannery ~ black eyed peas and collards. in Acts 27 Luke is in a ship in a storm using stabilizing ropes ~ also hawsers or helps a help is a hope rope on land or at sea it's Biblical, Kim now you remember that write it down
Today is Day 24 of #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, and Susie Morice is our host. She inspires us to write poems using a junk drawer to determine things about who we are. You can read her full prompt and the poems of others here. I chose to write about the treasure I found in someone else’s junk dogs.
These Three Kings I found three castoffs betrayed, neglected, abused I crowned these three kings
Alexis Ennis is our host today for #VerseLove, inspring us to write poems about historical figures. You can read her full prompt here. I chose Teddy Roosevelt’s firstborn child as my figure.
As a preacher's kid (we seem to have a reputation to live down to, and I've always done my best to keep the trouble going), I was a reader drawn to the troublemakers like Queenie Peavy by Robert Burch in children's literature and Alice Roosevelt in biographies. So that favorite interview question about whom I'd bring back if I could go to lunch with anyone? Yeah, mine was always Alice Roosevelt, with footnotes about how she and I would have surely landed in jail together, cellmates somewhere for some crazy idea we hatched. She had her own eye color named for her (and the US Navy uses this color named for her on its insignia). So much more to tell about her, but here's the seed-starter packet: Eyes of Alice Blue not under MY roof her father TR told her of smoking her cigs she puffed on the roof her snake Emily Spinach there too, in her purse no Taft supporter~ a murrain on him! she raged blue eyes her namesake what a character! completely out of control she fascinates me! come sit by me if you don’t have something nice to say about someone! born two days before mom died upstairs, grandma down under the same roof death clouded her birth, Alice Roosevelt Longworth lived in those shadows For Alice Roosevelt Longworth https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/from-a-white-house-wedding-to-a-pet-snake-alice-roosevelts-escapades-captivated-america-180981139/
Emily is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for Day 22 of #VerseLove.
Today is Earth Day, and Emily encourages us to write about an island of our choice. I grew up on two islands – one in Georgia, one in South Carolina. I love today’s topic, because I’m back on St. Simons today spiffing up our rental unit here, remembering my youth softball league playing in the ballpark across the street, walking the village where I crabbed on the pier with my mother. It’s a perfect day to enjoy the island vibe with three out of control schnoodles who can’t get enough of all the salty sea smells. St. Simons Island, Georgia Childhood Memories splash Time-faded photographs Redigitized to present-day Beach walks sea smells salty schnoodles savoring Saturday still snoozing, sunrise sand dune soon spoiled sons
Darius Phelps of New York is our host today for Day 21 of #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, inspiring us to write poems of grief or disillusionment. You can read more about Darius and read his full prompt here. He mentions that the ancient Chinese believed that by burning the house down when relatives died, it would send the house to the place where they were so they could have their homes beyond this life. I reflected for a while on that idea this morning, even chuckling about the Calgon laundry whitener that I remember commercials for as a child – – an Asian actor would come into the frame holding a box, saying, “Ancient Chinese Secret” when someone wondered about how the clothes got so clean. I think the ancient Chinese had a lot of things right. Come join us and read today’s poems.
Up in Flames ^ Choose One: House or Legacy? ^ those ancient Chinese had it right: burn the house down! strike up the torch flame! better the house go up in smoke than the siblings killing each other who gets the dwelling? who gets the crystal timepiece? who "gets" anything? executor’s call: who gets to make decisions? who denies morphine? which one plans all meals? oh, but NO SUGAR, stage 4 cancer patient fat?!? what is this fresh hell?? give Mom a damn M&M! stop controlling LIFE! inheritance sucks some get fortunes, some get F(ORK$#) who "gets" anything??! those ancient Chinese had it right: strike the match and walk in peace from fire
Our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for Day 19 of #VerseLove is Dr. Stefani Boutelier of Michigan, who invites us to write a poem without a title and invite others to give the poem a title. You can read her full prompt, along with the poems of others, here.
Today, I've written a riddle-type poem (Haiku two lines short of a Haiku sonnet), open-ended, to invite readers to title this poem AND to add two seven-syllable lines to the end to make it a true Haiku sonnet if you wish. I'll add my title after the photo at the bottom so you can see what my initial title was. It's subject to change :). never have I met anyone who on first taste liked its bitterness sipping piping hot aromatic wakefulness swallowing its truth ah, but sip by sip its addiction is for real~ can’t live without it!
The title I initially landed on was Coffee and Poetry – original, I know! Perhaps you can figure out a better title for this poem! Leave ideas in the comments, please.
Fran Haley of North Carolina is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for Day 18 of #VerseLove, inspiring us to write a triolet. You can read her full prompt here and see the form for this 8-line short form with rhyme scheme. Fran is a fellow teacher, a bird enthusiast, poet extraordinaire, and she named one of my plants on my front porch: Leafy Jean (which led me to a name for the other plant – Leafy’s brother, Leon Russell – – children both buried in a cemetery Fran visited as a child). Today I am keeping yesterday’s blog writing topic with the Rose of Jericho and changing it to a poem – a triolet!
Choose to Live! Rose of Jericho ~ brittle, brown, dry unfurl your fingers! choose to live! mixed tears of grief and joy I cry Rose of Jericho ~ brittle, brown, dry my gaze drifts heavenward, eyes to the sky reassurance of faith and hope you give Resurrection plant ~ tears green you, oh my! unfurl your fingers! choose to live!
Susan Ahlbrand is our host today for Day 16 of #VerseLove. She inspires us to write poems about friendships that didn’t work out for whatever reason, whether there was a move or a disagreement or a divorce or another form of distancing. You can read her full prompt here. I wrote about a time I left a church because the views became too radical to accept.
Blind Ewe so you’re holier. new pastor said NO WOMEN his blind sheep believed not one stood with me not one challenged his iron fist not one saw the wolf wife who rarely spoke children white as untanned lambs always in the house I took a firm stand when I saw the truth. I left that mutton pasture one by one others did too, down to a dozen “disciples” who stayed brainwashed radicals worshipping legalism no grace, mercy, love so you’re holier? is that what you call yourself? guess again, girlfriend. Ewe blind
Allison Berryhill of Iowa is our host today for Day 15 of #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com. She inspires us to write poems about what we missed, or what could have been. You can read her full prompt here.
What You Missed
what you missed
you’d have never seen anyway
the way he looks like his mother
the way he casts his line
the way he asks with concern
the way he answers with passion
the way he doesn’t miss a beat
the way he marches to his own
the way he loves animals like Mimi did
the way he rescues turtles
the way he named his baby duck Steve
the way he knows departure
the way he feels betrayal
the way he talks all scholarly
the way he tells books start to finish
the way he hugs his cousins
the way he thinks in waves of blue
the way he ponders nothing new under the sun
the way he sees the world
the way he doesn’t see the world
five years from now
he’ll carry fewer memories of you
because you were absent
off praying for all the others
at a ballpark
again forgetting your own
that depth finder could see fish
but will never show the depth of
what you missed
Common Threads 