Category: Spirituality/Inspiration

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VerseLove Day 16: Beginning Again

Stacey Joy of California is our host today for VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, inspiring us to write poems of starting over or redefining ourselves in some new way. You can read her full prompt here.

Stacey has me thinking about freedom and restraints – and the presence or absence of them in their many complex forms. She’s the second person to recommend The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad since yesterday, explaining that one of the writing exercises in the book prompted her etheree form today – a form with ten lines with that many numbered syllables on each line (1-10). I have the book coming my way on an interlibrary loan and hope to be holding it without a wait very soon. I used her etheree as a pattern today, letting her footsteps guide the way as I thought of retirement as a freedom to travel and see more National Parks from coast to coast. I’m in the process of trading my InTech Aucta Willow Rover for a small Class C Tiffin Wayfarer – not quite like Steinbeck’s “Rocinante” truck camper van of 1960 like I camped in with my grandparents in the early 1970s, but one I can drive without a tow vehicle so I can take to the road even if my husband stays back for work and needs his truck. And I’m getting the twin-to-king conversion bed so I can take my husband (king) or a friend (twin) along for the ride, complete with a dog or three. And sip coffee, read, write…..and learn to breathe.

Rocinante

when
freedom
(retirement)
comes in August
I hope to behold
Steinbeck’s Rocinante
packed and ready to explore
Open Roads of America
enjoying the journey as much as
the destination: learning how to breathe

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VerseLove Day 15: Cascade

Our host today for VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com is Erica Johnson, who offers inspiration here in a new-to-me form of poetry called a cascade. These remind me of Pantoum poems. Erika explains: It’s a form created by Udit Bhatia and asks that the poet take each line from the first stanza of a poem and makes each one the final line in the stanzas that follow. This results in the poem resembling a tumbling waterfall, which was when I knew I needed to go look through my photos of waterfalls for inspiration!

Erika shares the process with us: Read over the cascade form and write out the pattern you wish to follow: tercet or quatrain.  I found that having the structure written as a reminder helped guide my writing.

My mind went straight to Gibbs Gardens, where I’d rather spend the day in flowers than at work. Here, you can check out the bloom report and see where I’d take you if you were spending the day with me. We’d have lunch at The Burger Bus and order daffodils to plant next season.

Let’s Play

I did not want to get up today
I’d like to sip coffee with friends in a cafe
talk books, catch up, paint daffodils, play

I’d drive to Ball Ground
stroll Gibbs Gardens’ spring blooms
I did not want to get up today

the tulips have opened, Monet’s pond awaits
I’d load up the girls for a quick getaway
I’d like to sip coffee with friends in a cafe

we’d laugh and share stories
take off work for the day
get a slow start, talk books, paint daffodils, play

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VerseLove Day 12: The Poetry of Everyday

Rita DiCarne of Pennsylvania is our host today for the 12th day of VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com. She inspires us to write list poems, prose-style or with line, about all the things we love. It makes me think of Tom T. Hall’s song, “I Love.” You can read Rita’s full prompt here.

You can hear Tom T. Hall’s “I Love” here.

The Nest

I like going places~

camping, girls’ trips, weekend getaways

but I love coming home

I love bone-tired sleep, the kind where

you don’t move all night and have sheet imprints

on your face from the weight of

not carrying anything with you to bed

putting it all down at the foot

climbing in, clocking out, cloud-drifting off

I love waking up to dog noses

in my face saying Let’s Go Outside!

I love Skechers Slip-Ins for when the grass

is too tall and wet with dew for the regular slippers

I love opening the front door for the sun

to barge in, full of life and light and laughter

I love checking the bird nests, finding

a clutch of four brown-headed nuthatches

snuggled under mama bird on a

bright, cool Sunday morning

like a prayerful blessing of their own

a place where they will learn

to fledge, fly, and face a lifetime

of setting out and coming home

to their feathered nests

the places they’ll grow to love best

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VerseLove Day 1 ~ Landscapes of Our Lives

Today is the first day of VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, and many of the Slice of Life writers and Stafford Challenge poets will be joining this robust group of poets who write during Open Write throughout the year and VerseLove every day in April. We’ll be joined by writers from Poetry Friday and Spiritual Journey Thursdays and those belonging to many other writing groups – from all across the continental United States and from other countries as well. I love March and April because there is a convergence of writers from different groups all coming together.

Today’s host is Sarah Donovan, creator of EthicalELA and human being extraordinare. You can read her opening prompt here, inviting us to write about the landscapes of our lives – along with the response poems of others throughout the day. By the afternoon hours throughout April, there will be an amazing collection of poems all on a theme. Come write with us. Or come read what we’ve written.

the page and the pen

inside me there is a boxcar
bent fork and family
there is a farm
radiant web overhead
there is Golden
Fedder Fountain and Verbivore
there is River Heights
old clock and mystery
there is Mitford Village
Barnabas and covered dish
there is a mountain
Swiss cabin, goats, grandpa

Inside me there are pages
some filled, some blank
where the reader writes the story
but I

I hold the pen

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Poetic Valentines…and a SOLC Plan

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!

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Falling in Love with a Simple Sweetness

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

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Small Rituals

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

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Loving Light

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

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Falling in Love With The Ordinary

My friend Margaret Simon who blogs at Reflections on the Teche shared Georgia Heard’s Substack with me, and I love reading about Georgia’s travels and writing experiences – and her book recommendations. A couple of months ago, she shared that she was reading The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life, and recommended it on her post. I picked it up and loved every page of it. I think what I enjoy most about her book recommendations is that they are journey-related and not necessarily bestsellers that everyone would naturally pick up and read. I like books that take me down back roads, and she does a splendid job of sharing sacred places, both inward and outward.

Georgia Heard 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 1 asks us to fall in love with love with something ordinary: the sky, a pencil, a crack in the sidewalk, and to write a few lines about what we noticed.

Sunday Brunch

chickadee chirped

from the wreath on the front door

I could see her

through the swirled glass

seeking shelter from the icy wind

diving in and out of the bucket of seed

I’d left on the porch

I scooped up two handfuls

scattered them on the sidewalk

she invited her friends

to Sunday brunch

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January 27: In the Middle of a Long, Cold Winter

This company also publishes “Write The Poem” which I will also share in an upcoming blog post

I was browsing through our local used bookstore on a lunch break last week when, on my way out the door, a book caught my eye. Its title, Write the Story, glimmered in gold lettering down the spine, as if to plead: Hey, over here! See my sparkle? Take me home with you!

Already reaching for the doorknob, I changed course and went back to check it out. I expected a how-to on the writing process. Instead, I discovered the hidden treasure of a delightful writing challenge. Each page bore a titled topic with ten pre-determined (seemingly random) words to be used in the writing of a story.

The pages appeared to be blank except for one on which someone had penciled a story to satisfy one singular challenge and apparently moved on with life, abandoning the book and donating it to the bookstore, where it now rested in my hands. Treasure, indeed!

Poems to be written. Winter seeds of poetry, all scattered between the covers of one book. Destined for me, cast off like a stray no one else wanted, knowing all the while that a cultivator of words and writing would be most likely to pick it up, fall in love with it, take it home, and feed it.

I bought it and realized that other members of my small-group Stafford Challenge writers must have a copy. When we commit to writing a poem a day for a year, we all need a little prompting from time to time when the well runs dry or life gets too busy to think deeply like a poet. Once back inside the car, I turned on the heat and warmed up. I ordered three more copies online from the parking lot to send to Glenda Funk, Barb Edler, and Denise Krebs upon their arrival. Then I took a few snapshots to send them in the mean time.

Today’s title: In the Middle of a Long, Cold Winter

Words: opera, redeem, razor, lungs, grace, futuristic, tread, vest, powder, milkshake

In the Middle of a Long, Cold Winter

like that one lingering note

concluding a futuristic opera
treading frozen spring water

winter cleanses our lungs

razor-sharp alveoli icicles fall
sun breaks out in a crescendo
of seasonal transition
melting the white powder
milkshake from the mountainside
grace of its forgiving kiss
beckoning crocus, groundhog-like peepers
stretching up through frozen ground
ready to crawl out of bed
emerge from quilted slumber
shed their corm-sewn bud vests and
sing a new song