Category: Uncategorized

Golden Shovel inspired by Anna Roseboro uses last lines of Billy Collins’ “A Terrible Beauty” and “Irish Spider.” 

Irish Spider Buries Terrible Beauty With a Golden Shovel 

I hear the swoosh of her 

text, click to see the latest 

manipulative photo: a dripping 

bowl of juicy watermelon, silvery

veined, picnic crown 

of the sultry beaches of 

Florida – now pure ice 

on the screen – but 

I’m not swooned by memories, not 

stirred by her fooling 

manner to lure me 

to be wooed by 

this narcissistic bully, not a 

puppet in her show a single minute

 

Poetry host Denise Krebs inspired us at the ethicalela.com Open Write to use a mentor poem in our writing today – so I used Billy Collins’ “Irish Spider” and a stanza from Kevin Hodgson’s “Short Thoughts About Writing” (stories don’t exist until we speak) in today’s poem. 

Preacher Dad

It was well worth traveling home 

for Father’s Day 

just to sit at the ancestral oak table eating piping hot chicken pot pie, 

sharing wine and stories- 

 

stories 

don’t exist 

until we speak 

to laugh 

reminisce 

remember 

and reflect 

as he pretended 

to be any old average dad 

father of two ill-behaved 

         preacher’s kids 

like God hadn’t given him an extra sprinkling of love and wisdom 

         for the task

but not fooling us for a minute! 

 

Denise Krebs inspired me to write a Langston Hughes “I Dream a World” poem today. 
I was visiting my dad over the weekend for Father’s Day, feeling blessed to have a father I love and cherish – and then, driving home I saw an umbrella being held by someone standing by a grave in a cemetery this morning in the pouring rain at 8:47 a.m. That image inspired my poem today. 

i dream a world
of no goodbyes
of love and kindness
in our eyes

i dream a world
of no regret
of no grief tunnels
to forget

i dream a world
of family peace
where arms, outreached,
make quarrels cease

 

Juneteenth 
emancipation commemoration 
freedom, liberation, celebration

 

Father’s Day

Off to St. Simons

Visiting Dad on his day

Dinner and talk time! 

 

Stories

Savor the stories – 

memories of adventures

that sustain moments! 

 I need vacation

I need vacation

Bar Harbor, Maine sounds perfect 

for about five days 

Widdle Wooser Twumpwing

My, oh my!

Staged an insuwwection at the Capitol

Most with fwags and one with horns

Widdle Wooser Twumpwing

My, oh my! 

 

Trumpty Dumpty, Fuzzy Wuzzy, Bye Bye Bully Trumpster 

Trumpty Dumpty built a huge wall.

Trumpty Dumpty took a huge fall. 

All the clown’s puppets 

        and all the clown’s friends  

Stormed the Capitol when he’d reached rope’s end. 

Fuzzy Wuzzy didn’t care.

Fuzzy Wuzzy had orange hair.

Fuzzy Wuzzy’s Covid Kool-Aid: 

  said to swirl some bleach in there.

A little Jim-Jones-fuzzy, was he? 

Bye, Bye, Bully Trumpster 

What a sickening dumpster! 

Insurrection……

mass defection 

a Biden ballot bumpster! 

Two Dozen Ways to Dress a Hippie

peace-sign fringed vest for guitar strumming

bell-bottom jeans for Woodstock humming

halter top for quick hitchhiking

tie-dyed shirt for peaceful piping 

peasant blouse for sunlit meadowing

shoulder bag for camper van showing

Birkenstocks for pet rock walking 

Henna tat for campfire talking 

daisy chain for long hair crowning 

go-go boots for gettin’ downing 

macrame belt for chia pet growing

mood ring for answer-in-the-wind blowing  

platform shoes for mountain movin’

gaucho pants for soulful groovin’ 

mini skirt for disco lighting 

maxi dress for barefoot nighting

shag-cut wig for Deadhead-wilding

far-out shades for flower-childing 

hemp-bead choker for tree hugging 

psychedelic hip huggers for doing nothing 

floppy hat for sunshade-wanting 

boho headband for bouffanting

leisure suit for paycheck reaping 

birthday suit for ballgame streaking