Patchwork Prose and Verse
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
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
hardscape~
easier maintenance
for two aging
bodies to maintain curb
appeal on a farm house……
We started re-thinking the hardscape bed right outside our front door back in August. We fiddled around in Home Depot and Lowe’s, checked out designs shared on social media and websites, and thought of our own needs for a low-maintenance bedding design that will require less care than the one we just pulled out that had been there for 17 years. A Confederate Jasmine was running rampant, taking over the entire brick wall out front and serving as a nesting ground for birds. The one shrub we left was a gardenia bush just because I love the smell wafting by when I sit on the front porch reading in the late summer. I carefully dug up the Giant Elephant Ear bulbs to replant them in pots instead of the ground.
Once we finally decided on the rock we wanted to use, we set off to Lowe’s with the truck and trailer to get two pallets. Little did we know that it would not go as far as we thought it would. Our entire budget for this project covered only a third of the bed. We reconsidered using pine straw for budget purposes, but decided ultimately that the bugs it brings to the foundation (and Copperheads love it, too) was not in line with our original decision, so we went back to the drawing board.
Ultimately, we will have a black and white hardscape design with evergreen shrubs in pots, along with several gray hardscape boulders. We like the straight lines rather than the waves, but we are considering a curved line to account for the additional white rock we will have to purchase to make the straight line work.
Chat doesn’t understand that our sidewalk runs in a different direction, but it does understand that we needed to see the concept of the design. We’ve decided on small black polished river rock to finish the bed, and we will work to that end…….meanwhile, we will have to re-vamp the budget and decide when to add the additional features.
For today, we have a half-finished hardscape and high hopes we can get it finished before the landscape fabric blows away!
And here’s a blooper to end the day on……just for giggles. Chat GPT has the driveway going completely in the wrong direction and added grass in the hardscape bed. At least it shows us how badly we can goof up if we try hard enough.
In Dad’s final days, he told us all the stories of his life – – so many stories! He and his friends weren’t orchid guys – – they were white sport coat with pink carnation guys.
Money mattered, and they didn’t have much.
He and his cousin Porky sold crawfish – and a few snakes – to support their love life. back in the days when corsages cost $2.50 to $2.95. That’s what swamp folks did, and Dad grew up in Waycross, Georgia – home of the Okefenokee Swamp.
Back in the Day on Creswell Street in Waycross
we weren’t orchid guys
I wore a white sport coat with
a pink carnation
Tammi Belko of Ohio is our host today for the 18th day of VerseLove 2025. She inspires us to use a random word generator to generate words to work into poems. You can read her full prompt here, along with some suggestions for online word generators.
Recently, we had The Poetry Fox visit our local coffee shop to celebrate National Poetry Month by writing poems for people on his vintage typewriter. After his visit last year, I learned that he keeps a list of all the words that people give him. I asked if I could take a picture. I’m using his words today as my random words, but I’m only taking a few of them: dogs, hurry, kindred spirits, wisteria, tulip, watercolor, enchantment.
Watercolor Enchantment
I come to the garden
late afternoon
with the boys
– my kindred canine spirit dogs ~
in no hurry to be
anywhere but here
in this watercolor enchantment
of yellow, red, white and pink tulips
vibrant against the lavender wisteria
fragrant, spellbinding,
deeply rooted
in the business
of being what
they were meant
to be
Anna Roseboro of Michigan is our host for Day 23 of #VerseLove. You can read her full prompt here. She inspires us to write April Showers Bring May Flowers poems about the idea that good things come from the not-so-good.
Her challenge: Think metaphorically, about a teary time or not so nice incident that preceded or evolved into a cheery time in your life, and then in sixteen lines or fewer, describe the time or incident that could be an affirmation that “Yes, April showers do bring May flowers” or the opposite.
What Makes them Rescues
their misfortune makes
them rescues ~
the kind
with serious baggage
where cell phone dings
and the
smell of heat
bring flattened-ear,
tucked-tail trembling,
the kind that
gaze into your
eyes, wishing
they could pour out
their story but
certain you
already know
The earth laughs in flowers. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Today’s poem is a triolet, inspired by Barb Edler’s post yesterday. Before Barb’s mother died, she planted daffodils, and these are Barb’s favorite flowers. I, too, lost my mother (December 2015) and miss her very much – my mother’ s favorites were wild petunias and yellow roses. When I need to count blessings and decompress, I take my keys off the hook by the door and start up my little blue Caribbean RAV4 and go riding the country roads. I look for the blooms, the rolling hills, the hawks on wires, the cows in the meadows. It puts the world back in perspective for me – – I am here but for a blink of an eye, and whatever is worrying me, too, shall pass.
Today, let’s remember our mothers who have gone before us but who still wave to us in flowers! We still see you, Moms! #flowerhugs
Daffodil Swing Choir Triolet
countryside daffodils dance and smile
their friendly welcoming rural hellos
across hills and meadows, mile after mile
countryside daffodils dance and smile
swaying in their swing choir style
robed in greens and sunshine yellows
countryside daffodils dance and smile
their friendly welcoming rural hellos
I visited a garden yesterday for the second time in a week, and my soul is thanking me.
I made the decision as I was leaving work and saw a Facebook post from a friend who’d visited earlier in the day and encouraged everyone to go see the gorgeous daylilies in bloom at The Country Estate in Williamson, Georgia, just a few miles from my home. I had no idea that this garden even existed, yet it is a historical garden and an official American Daylily Society Display.
I darted home, let the boys out for a few minutes, and grabbed a pair of sneakers in case of mud. When I arrived, I met the owner and his partner, who showed me around and told me about all of the different daylilies that they grow and hybridize. One of them had officially registered two new hybrid daylily varieties last week, and the other had officially registered a new hybrid variety the previous evening.
As tempted as I was to give in and buy some foolproof flowering nectar plants for the butterfly garden and the many hummingbirds that come to feast at the Johnson Funny Farm all-you-can-eat buffet, my eyes landed on the birdhouses – specifically, the wren houses.
I didn’t have any wren houses, and these were the kind made of sturdy wood with the extended screw to clean out the house each season. Plus the cute little perching peg that sits beneath the front door hole like a welcome mat, which I later learned should be removed to deter predators from gaining easier access to the box. I made a note to clip these off.
“These are hard to find,” the owner told me. I nodded in agreement. Other than ordering from Amazon, I couldn’t think of a time I’d seen any wren houses in the places I buy my birdseed. The owner also told me that between Halloween and Thanksgiving, The Country Estate turned into the Hallmark Christmas Movie atmosphere, with different tours and events during that month, encouraging me to add that to my calendar and return. And, he added, they were offering a fairy garden building workshop on Friday and I should come to that also. I looked over and saw a little assortment of gnomes, fairies, mushrooms and fairy signs ready to enchant the creative energies of those who’d have time on a Friday to participate. Unfortunately, I would not be able to be among them with my work schedule.
We settled on three, and I brought them home and found just the right trees to hang them facing east and south, away from the northerly and westerly winds. Since wrens apparently like their homes to rest beneath the branches of shade trees or at least be close to shrubs, we picked three different trees so that each family could have its privacy and avoid confusion over whose house was whose, since they’re all the same model home.
The fate of a recent wren who’d built a nest in our garage had ended tragically when we’d arrived home and one of our dogs discovered her dead body by the window. The babies had already flown, but I still can’t bear to look in the nest resting on the garage door apparatus to see if she had laid more eggs. I’d like to think that a few wren houses will turn their attention away from the garage, over to the trees with the free housing units that are turn-key ready.
And so we wait!
Sunday was nothing short of fabulous! I’d visited Gibbs Gardens in Ball Ground, Georgia with my sister-in-law in April 2022 on our way to Asheville, North Carolina for a girls’ trip over Spring Break. The daffodil hills and the flowering cherry trees, at that time, were in full bloom. The thing about Gibbs Gardens is that no matter when you go, there’s something different on the blooming menu. Even their website tells you what is currently in bloom and lets you scroll pictures taken the previous week or so.
So I texted my driver early Sunday morning from my side of the bed: Want to go to Gibbs Gardens and stroll through the wildflowers and poppies?
Sure, he texted back across the dogs snoozing between us.
I can be ready in 15 minutes, I replied, prompting a mad dash race to be the first one dressed.
We tied for the win. Jeans, shoes to climb the hills, sunglasses. We set out on the one hour and 45 minute drive north as I bought tickets en route online just in case they were nearing garden capacity. During peak season, I didn’t want to take any chances.
We took in the sights – the Manor House, the Japanese Gardens, the poppies and wildflowers, and the rose garden. The highlight of the day was a hummingbird’s appearance in the wildflower garden, where I was able to capture a few seconds of video before it flew off to another section. The butterflies were flitting about in rich abundance as we strolled the gardens, and the dragonflies darted around shimmering their wings faster than twinkle fairies.
After our visit to the gardens, we drove into Historic Ball Ground for a visit to Feather’s Edge Vineyard where they were having live music as we rested and cooled off with fresh mint mojito wine slushies, and then on to The Ball Ground Burger Bus, a hamburger joint made from an actual bus that ran its last route in Atlanta, Georgia in 1965. We saved room for ice cream after dinner, since our indulgences had already left no room for any more guilt.
Come stroll along with us as we show you the sights on a photo tour.
I’ll be re-living these moments jam-packed with memories for a long, long time! We’ll return in the fall when the bloom list offers a whole new lineup of sights to enjoy.
Today’s host for Day 10 of #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com is Brittany Saulnier, who inspires us to write whimsical science poems. I chose to focus on outdoor science – nature and all its discovery and wonder about the world! I have just gotten my flower presses out of the old barn over the weekend and can’t wait to gather flowers and greenery to press on a long walk one afternoon this week. So much of science is soothing, just pure medicine for the soul. Brittany’s gift of a prompt that invites peace is particularly appreciated on this Monday back to work after spring break. Today, my poem is a first-word-Golden Shovel Tanka (5-7-5-7-7) string. I took my striking line as a quote from a birding journal by Vanessa Sorensen: “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Bloom! adopt a mindset~ the practice of noticing pace your amazement of observing more fully nature: less is so much more her covert moments secret discoveries ~ what is our big hurry? its blessings beckoning us patience blooms on every stem
Common Threads 