Category: Spirituality/Inspiration

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For What it’s Worth – The Stafford Challenge Day 43

Forget finery.

Could we value family?

Prioritize worth.

Because in the end

~when life’s regrets take firm hold~

possessions don’t care.

OLW = Pray. Diopter Word = Release. Today I’m praying for things to always take a back seat to the people in my life. The worth or value of possessions can demand more of our investment of time and energy, and I’m praying that this never takes root in my own life. The stories many of my friends share in their challenges with their aging parents who struggle to let go of the past and move forward shines an unwelcome spotlight on priorities – and the degree to which they are a priority. Enough is plenty and preferable, as Robin Wall Kimmerer in Braiding Sweetgrass explains, and I pray I never amass an anchor of belongings that gets in the way of what is most important.

Today, I begin a season of release and pre-spring cleaning. Starting in my own attic. 

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The Quarreling Songbirds – Stafford Challenge Day 40

Today’s poem is a Haiku, inspired by the footage on my Netvue bird camera. We always seems to find such joy in watching birds, but the truth is that they argue and antagonize each other as much as people. Perhaps we laugh because they help us see the humor in human nature and how ridiculous we look.

The Quarreling Songbirds

quarreling sparrows
bicker, spar over birdseed
like squabbling siblings
Chipping Sparrows spar for the Johnson Funny Farm Birdcam
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Day 5 of February’s Open Write with Amber Harrison of Oklahoma, Day 36 of The Stafford Challenge

Ollie, tugging a stolen sock

Today’s host at http://www.ethicalela.com for Day 5 of the February Open Write is Amber Harrison of Oklahoma, who inspires writers to write a borrowed form poem using a fill-in-the-blank approach. You can read her prompt and the poems of others here.

Amber writes:

Today, I invite you to fill in the blanks in these lines by Whitman, or create and refill blanks of a stanza by another poet of your choice (this could be a time when you fill in the blanks expressively or reflectively in zine form):

I celebrate ________,

And what I _____ you ______, 

For every ____________________ me as good

___________________ you.

Original lines by Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

Boo Radley, Stolen Sock World Champion, taunting with those eyes
Stolen Socks

I celebrate stolen socks
And what I tug, you wrangle
For every muscle moved by me as good
as hackles you.
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Slice of Life, Day 4 of The February Open Write, and Day 35 of The Stafford Challenge – Epistolary Poem/Letter to My Younger Self

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers

Today at http://www.ethicalela.com, Britt Decker of Houston, Texas is our host for this fourth day of the February Open Write. You can read her full prompt and the poems of others here as she challenges us to write letters (epistolary poems) to our younger selves.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

When anyone with human flesh

gives you advice

look them straight in the eyes

and say ~firmly~

I’ll take it into consideration.

Do not take it as gospel.

Guard yourself.

Do your own research.

They aren’t experts.

Live your own life

not the one they choose for you.

Notice more,

especially the

hands

in photos (it’s the unseen key

that will slap you

~hard in the face~

like a wet whaletail

when you finally see).

Don’t believe a single promise.

Above all,

practice your mother’s discernment.

She knew.

She knew.

Photo by Andre Estevez on Pexels.com

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Remembering Miriam on Her Heavenly Birthday – Stafford Challenge Day 34

Today’s host at http://www.ethicalela.com for the third day of February’s Open Write is Dr. Sarah Donovan, who inspires us to write poems that experiment with broken lines. You can read her prompt here, along with the poems of others.

I took the ghazal form today of 5 couplets with AA BA CA DA EA rhyme scheme and measured meter, reframed the whole form, relaxed the rules and broke the lines as I thought of my mother’s 81st birthday and the moments I’m so glad my camera captured before she left us in December 2015 with Parkinson’s disease. Above, she reads to her great grandson from The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss. 

Shaping Future Tense

when nothing else
made any sense

when family strangers
made you tense

your lap unfolded
picture books

that tore down 
every guarded fence

great grandson's 
heart and mind you shaped
each page
a moment so immense

your fingers curled
his eyes unfurled
his focus on you
so intense

when nothing else
made any sense
picture books
wrote future tense
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Da Pup Een Da Snow Storm (Day 2 of February’s Open Write, Day 33 of The Stafford Challenge)

Photo by Julius Weidenauer on Pexels.com

Today, our host at http://www.ethicalela.com for Day 2 of February’s Open Write is Linda Mitchell of Virginia. She inspires us today to make a mash-up poem. You can read her prompt here, along with the poems of others. Here is the basic process she describes:

Read two works, perhaps poems you have loved for a long time. Find lines that speak to each other. Take a line from one poem and mash it up against one from the other. See how many lines complement each other as a new work. Write these lines, or copy and paste these lines, into a new work.

My all-time favorite poet is Mary Oliver, and my favorite poem is The Storm, from her collection Dog Songs. My father gave me a book of poetry entitled Poetry’s Plea for Animals by Frances E. Clarke, and in it there is a poem by T. A. Daly entitled Da Pup Een Da Snow, which may have actually inspired Mary Oliver’s poem The Storm. Oliver’s lines are in bold, and Daly’s are not.

Here is my Mash-Up:

                                                                          Da Pup Een Da Snow Storm

Eef you jus' coulda seen -

                                running here running there, excited

gona wild weeth delight

                                now through the white orchard my little dog

ees first play een da snow

                               with wild feet

all around' da whole place

                                hardly able to stop, he leaps, he spins

an' fall down on hees face

teel hees cover' weeth white

                                until the white show is written upon
                        
                                in large, exuberant letters

w'en he see da flakes sail

how he chasa hees tail

                               the pleasures of the body in this world

deed you evra see joy

gona wild weeth delight
 
                               with wild feet

mak's heem crazy excite'

you would know w'at I mean

Eef you jus' coulda seen -
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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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Cast Iron Awakenings

Nightstand Before
  • Cast Iron Awakenings

still flipping old things ~

hotcakes in cast iron griddles

old wood awakens

a new lease on life

repurposed for the future

strong memories past

I’ve joined The Stafford Challenge to write a poem every day starting tomorrow for the remainder of the year. It’s free, and it looks like a great way to connect and encourage other writers, according to their website. If you’re participating in the challenge, I hope to see you there! I’ll still be regularly participating in all the writing groups I have grown to love – and adding one more! I deeply appreciate all of the writing groups and those who share their ideas and slices of their lives with me.

Nightstand After

Heartfelt thanks to Two Writing Teachers for hosting the weekly Slice of Life , giving writers inspiration and space to share.