Tag: family

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Making Body Butter

My sister in law and I have been making various salves, lotions, balms, and body butters. It all started in April. She found a recipe for Bergamot Body Butter, and it’s been fun ever since. We each ordered some of the ingredients and a slew of containers, fired up the stove, and got to stirring and mixing, making our own magnesium and shea butter foot creams.

Today’s poem is a simple tricube – three stanzas of three lines with three syllables!

Sister Time Tricube

bergamot
shea butter
olive oil

lavender
mixing bowls
minerals

beeswax flakes
kitchen fun
sister time
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May Open Write Day 1 of 3

Today’s prompt at http://www.ethicalela.com for the first day of the May Open Write is by Dr. Sarah Donovan, who encourages poems related to the stages of forgiveness and pain. I’ve chosen a double haiku followed by a shadorma for today’s verse, blending madness and sadness of grief that lingers. I’m reminded that sometimes forgiveness is a long time coming.

For Today

all lies, no mercy ~
how can I choose forgiveness?
I’m still working through
things that can never
be replaced, lived out rightly
the way she’d wanted

perhaps in
time there will be a
change of heart
but for now
for this hour, for this moment
my soul can’t forget

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Where You Belong

I’m engaging in tiny writes this month, introduced by Georgia Heard on her monthly writing topics. Margaret Simon shared it on her blog earlier this month. Margaret also introduced me to the Shadorma form, which is a poem consisting of six lines with lines of the following numbers of syllables, in this order: 3,5,3,3,7,5. I’m using a tiny form for the tiny write topics and finding that it is a breath of fresh air after the marathon months of March with the Slice of Life Challenge at http://www.twowritingteachers.org and April with #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com.

Today’s topic on Georgia Heard’s calendar is Where You Belong.

Where You Belong

you belong

to adventure winds

that beckon

you to seek

all-new possibilities ~

discovery quests!

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A List of Last Times

I’m engaging in tiny writes this month, introduced by Georgia Heard on her monthly writing topics. Margaret Simon shared it on her blog earlier this month. Margaret also introduced me to the Shadorma form, which is a poem consisting of six lines with lines of the following numbers of syllables, in this order: 3,5,3,3,7,5. I’m using a tiny form for the tiny write topics and finding that it is a breath of fresh air after the marathon months of March with the Slice of Life Challenge at http://www.twowritingteachers.org and April with #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com.

Today’s topic on Georgia Heard’s calendar is A List of Last Times.

A List of Last Times

you hugged me

your body quivered

we both knew

this was it ~

the reason I’d made the trip

was to say goodbye

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What the Moon Might Say

I’m engaging in tiny writes this month, introduced by Georgia Heard on her monthly writing calendar. Margaret Simon of Louisiana shared it on her blog earlier this month. Margaret also introduced me to the Shadorma form, which is a poem consisting of six lines with lines of the following numbers of syllables, in this order: 3,5,3,3,7,5. I’m using a tiny form for the tiny write topics and finding that it is a breath of fresh air after the marathon months of March with the Slice of Life Challenge at http://www.twowritingteachers.org and April with #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com.

Wednesday’s topic on Georgia Heard’s calendar was What the Moon Might Say, but I missed writing that topic, so I picked it for today.

Goodnight Moon

moonbeams shine

Heaven’s messages

on pillows

sweet dreams, Love

is what the moon might say, a

ghostly kiss goodnight

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Pickled Egg Princess – Chained Haiku

For My First Daughter – A Pickled Egg Princess

pickled egg princess

boiled peanut queen of the south

moved to Nevada

left her roots behind

she’s a gypsy vagabond

sweet pea with sweet tea

missing her culture

while creating a new one

living her best life

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May 2: Winter or Warmth?

This Year, The Rodent Got it Right

just three months ago from today it

was Groundhog Day (my favorite

holiday, to tell the truth)

no gifts to buy, no food

to cook, no decor

just the stuff of

dreams of warmth ~

early

spring

as

forecast

by sleeping

(pulled out of bed)

prognosticator

who has only one job:

snooze all year, then toss a coin

like the regular weather guy

who still gets it wrong most of the time

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Avocado Kitchen of the 1970s

Rabbit, Rabbit.

May brings some notable endings. It’s the first day that it hasn’t been National Poetry Month for the past 30 days, and the first day that there is no organized month-long community writing group occurring. The Stafford Challenge continues, but Slice of Life and VerseLove have concluded for the year. May also brings the end of the school year for students and teachers, and there is a strange sense of winding down and gearing up all at once.

I’m ready for that pause. I have friends retiring this year, and there is a strange mixture of both fear and envy for them. I want to be at the point where I can load the camper and take off for two months and see parts of the country I’ve never seen, just my husband, our three dogs and me. My limited time in the summer, for this year, I hope will satisfy my traveling itch for the coming year.

Today’s paint chip poem is one that I wrote when The Poetry Fox, Chris Vitiello, visited my town. We sat together at the oval table by the window in the far back corner on the night of his visit and wrote several together, then shared. I saw the avocado green paint chip and went straight back to our 1970s kitchen on St. Simons Island, Georgia at 208 Martin Street, where the washer and dryer sat at the carport end of the kitchen.

Avocado Kitchen

avocado kitchen ~ matching

wall phone with a long cord

for those 1970s Velveeta

grilled cheese

Wonder Bread holy sandwiches

the kind made

in a cast iron skillet

by Mama with her black beehive wig

and sleeveless white and yellow daisy

button-down and green Pappagallo strap

sandals while she flitted about

and flipped the toast in the butter and

gossiped with her cigarette-smoking

friend Bonnie Jean about that new

lady vacuum sales rep who

brought skepticism and raised

eyebrows of all the wives…….

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#VerseLove Day 29 with Stefani Boutelier of Michigan – Titles

Stefani, our host for the 29th day of VerseLove 2025,, is an Associate Professor of Education at Aquinas College in Michigan. You can read her full prompt here.

She writes, “Poem titles are not discussed, practiced, or modified as often as the art of crafting a poem. Therefore, I wanted to remind us again about the power of titles and how they have the potential to hold the hand of the poem and lead it to new interpretations.”

Today, Stefani invites us to create a title centered on identifying or twisting the content, theme, or purpose of a poem. She suggested letting other readers offer a title for our poems today, so here is mine, awaiting a title.

(Readers, please suggest a title)

I learned to ride a bike at the corner

of Friar Tuck and Robin Hood Roads

next door to Doc and Mama Byrd

in Reynolds, Georgia at five

cradled by Coventry

and Sherwood Roads, steeped

in peach orchards

Baptist church

and skint

knees

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#VerseLove Day 27 with Alexis Ennis – Ode to Crochet

Alexis Ennis is a 6th grade technology teacher who calls herself a “bookdragon” because of her voracious appetite to read and hoard all the books. She is our host for the 27th day of VerseLove2025, inspiring us to write odes today. You can read her full prompt here.

Ode to our Schnauzery-Schnoodle, Fitz

our bonus home security

you never let us down

there will be no human intrusions

or squirrel, or lizard, or

God forbid ~ deer

thanks to you

our home security system

you’re always on high alert

sounding the alarm

on anything that moves