I watched it happen:
this night-blooming cereus
popped open and bloomed!
Night Blooming Cereus
Written during our Book Launch Celebration on Sunday
On Sunday, we had our book launch celebration, and we began with……well, what else? Writing! I wrote a 20 Questions Poem, falling short by about 9 questions. Our first 23 minutes includes a writing prompt, and then there is discussion about our books. Enjoy!
How do we celebrate this excitement of our book?
How do we scream and yell loud enough?
How do we jump high enough? Run in place fast enough?
Smile big enough? Laugh loud enough?
How do we let the joy out slowly enough without bursting wide open?
How do we keep our feet on the ground?
How do we remember our names and where we live?
How do we keep our faces from hurting, with these smiles too big
To fit on our faces?
How do we contain all the sugarplums that danced in our heads,
Now here on the pages of our book, our words, our joy, our being?
Open Write September Day 5
Barb Edler of Iowa is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the final day of our September Open Write. She encourages us to celebrate our writing group through poetry of any form today. You can read her full prompt here and read the poems of others. On the heels of a celebration of the Labor Day launch of our books Words that Mend and 90 Ways of Community earlier this week, I can’t think of a better way to write today than in thanksgiving and heartfelt gratitude for a group of writers who make a difference in how we live and how we think.
If you don’t have a writing group, I encourage you to find one ~ and you can use this one as a great model for a face to face group in your own corner of the world after spending a few hours looking back at the prompts and the feedback. Get the books, read them, and feel the deep need to fix places you never knew were broken. Too many of us have lost our footing and found ourselves floundering and then discovered the power of writing and what it can do. Today is a day to celebrate the power of the pen and the ways it connects us with others. Anna Roseboro said it best at our celebration: if poetry can do this for us, imagine what it can do for our students. We all need poetry and writing in our lives.
Belonging
we step from shadows
into glowing candlelight
from our scars
we discover soothing balm
from mourning and grief
into reassurance there is
reason to go on
we come from loneliness
to take a hand of belonging
from disconnectedness
to welcoming acceptance
we leave our fears
step into the fold of peace
we leave disappointments
find spiritual hope
we feel our hearts
pulled at the words
someone else’s
shadows
scars
mourning
grief
loneliness
disconnectedness
fears
disappointments
are our own moments
our own memories
and we know
we know
we know
this is no ordinary
writing group
these are
our lifelines
our people
our friends
our family
Open Write September Day 1 – Cheering the Fight
7:30 a.m. – Today at http://www.ethicalela.com, we are writing poems in our writing community. Join us and read the poems, and maybe write your own. Check back later to see how I’ve spun the prompt for today.
Maureen, our host at www.ethicalela.com, has offered several prompts in celebration of our book launch party tomorrow. I have chosen three to write today, and I share them below. Please join us tomorrow for our book launch. I’ll be wearing light blue for prostate cancer and dark blue for colon cancer to cheer Dad as he begins his treatments in the coming days. Ironically, one of our book covers is light blue, and another is dark blue.
Tomorrow – September 22, 2024 – we are having an Online Publication Party to celebrate this bounteous time in our poetry community. Please join us for a live event on Zoom/YouTube at 12 PM PST/2 PM CST/3PM EST and bring friends with you…we are going to celebrate!Â
Guts (a triolet nod to Fran)
adopting a diet for healthier guts
black beans and yogurts and probiotics
changing our diets for glands and but(t)s
adopting a diet for healthier guts
cheering on polyphenols in nuts
guarding our colons from xenobiotics
adopting a diet for healthier guts
black beans and yogurts and probiotics
Jiu-jitsu Dodoitsu For the Win (a dodoitsu nod to Mo)
I’m shopping today for blues
two new cancer-ribbon hues
for dad’s diagnosis news
this fight he won’t lose
Bonny Blue Naani (a naani nod to Leilya)
a light blue ribbon
worn through September
on a dark blue shirt
we’re cheering Dad’s treatments
A Place at the Table
five of our seven
ate fried alligator tail
with us last weekend
posed with a pirate~
Silas comes in December,
to our big table
already belongs
here playing with his cousins
tasting key lime pie
Vegetable Soup Nonet
when my family is feeling down
when it’s rainy and cold outside
when we don’t know how to act
when the world is broken
when we want to sleep
when the wind blows
we eat a
pot of
soup
Grandparent’s Day Breakfast
it’s Grandparent’s Day Breakfast for us
with our always-reading grandson
a fourteen-year-old freshman
born only yesterday
today, he plans to
be a pastor
of a church
someday
soon
but
for now
he teaches
Sunday School class
holds Bible studies
with his youth group mid-week
and volunteers as leader
his great grandfather (and great-great)
were also called into ministry
Owls
when we came home
from our camping
weekend, there he was
hanging out in the
pine trees slated for
clear cutting
in these trees he’s loved
for years, where I too
have loved watching him
soon his mate appears
and they swoop
from tree to tree
and I hope to God
there is no little
owlet tucked away
in the safety of
a doomed tree
Honeybee
a honeybee
took a liking
to my Cayman Jack
margarita
climbing into
the bottle
taking a long swig
then a dip
then a plunge
then a swirl
and died
a senseless
death as I
tried to help
her back
to a better life
but she
refused to
admit her
problem ~
she’s buried
at campsite 301
by the fire pit
a pollinator
extraordinare
her life cut
short by
the delusional
pleasures of
this world
Belonging in the Change
a tiny black wet
Schnoodle nose
nudges my arm as
marble-black eyes
covered with wild brows
peer up at me
from the camper seat
when I lift my arm
to raise my mug,
drink cold brew coffee
from my Halloween
Snoopy mug I truly
believe will make
the cool temperatures
arrive sooner ~
Fitz is slumped
against me,
seeking, too, all
the magic of
forthcoming fall
the changing
of seasons, gentle
wind blowing outside,
a tad early for the
acorns peppering the
camper’s roof but
all the rest of
the comfort of rituals
he knows as
reassuring trust
and belonging
in his forever family
