Patchwork Prose and Verse
Today is Day 24 of #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, and Susie Morice is our host. She inspires us to write poems using a junk drawer to determine things about who we are. You can read her full prompt and the poems of others here. I chose to write about the treasure I found in someone else’s junk dogs.
These Three Kings I found three castoffs betrayed, neglected, abused I crowned these three kings
Alexis Ennis is our host today for #VerseLove, inspring us to write poems about historical figures. You can read her full prompt here. I chose Teddy Roosevelt’s firstborn child as my figure.
As a preacher's kid (we seem to have a reputation to live down to, and I've always done my best to keep the trouble going), I was a reader drawn to the troublemakers like Queenie Peavy by Robert Burch in children's literature and Alice Roosevelt in biographies. So that favorite interview question about whom I'd bring back if I could go to lunch with anyone? Yeah, mine was always Alice Roosevelt, with footnotes about how she and I would have surely landed in jail together, cellmates somewhere for some crazy idea we hatched. She had her own eye color named for her (and the US Navy uses this color named for her on its insignia). So much more to tell about her, but here's the seed-starter packet: Eyes of Alice Blue not under MY roof her father TR told her of smoking her cigs she puffed on the roof her snake Emily Spinach there too, in her purse no Taft supporter~ a murrain on him! she raged blue eyes her namesake what a character! completely out of control she fascinates me! come sit by me if you don’t have something nice to say about someone! born two days before mom died upstairs, grandma down under the same roof death clouded her birth, Alice Roosevelt Longworth lived in those shadows For Alice Roosevelt Longworth https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/from-a-white-house-wedding-to-a-pet-snake-alice-roosevelts-escapades-captivated-america-180981139/
Darius Phelps of New York is our host today for Day 21 of #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, inspiring us to write poems of grief or disillusionment. You can read more about Darius and read his full prompt here. He mentions that the ancient Chinese believed that by burning the house down when relatives died, it would send the house to the place where they were so they could have their homes beyond this life. I reflected for a while on that idea this morning, even chuckling about the Calgon laundry whitener that I remember commercials for as a child – – an Asian actor would come into the frame holding a box, saying, “Ancient Chinese Secret” when someone wondered about how the clothes got so clean. I think the ancient Chinese had a lot of things right. Come join us and read today’s poems.
Up in Flames ^ Choose One: House or Legacy? ^ those ancient Chinese had it right: burn the house down! strike up the torch flame! better the house go up in smoke than the siblings killing each other who gets the dwelling? who gets the crystal timepiece? who "gets" anything? executor’s call: who gets to make decisions? who denies morphine? which one plans all meals? oh, but NO SUGAR, stage 4 cancer patient fat?!? what is this fresh hell?? give Mom a damn M&M! stop controlling LIFE! inheritance sucks some get fortunes, some get F(ORK$#) who "gets" anything??! those ancient Chinese had it right: strike the match and walk in peace from fire
Our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for Day 19 of #VerseLove is Dr. Stefani Boutelier of Michigan, who invites us to write a poem without a title and invite others to give the poem a title. You can read her full prompt, along with the poems of others, here.
Today, I've written a riddle-type poem (Haiku two lines short of a Haiku sonnet), open-ended, to invite readers to title this poem AND to add two seven-syllable lines to the end to make it a true Haiku sonnet if you wish. I'll add my title after the photo at the bottom so you can see what my initial title was. It's subject to change :). never have I met anyone who on first taste liked its bitterness sipping piping hot aromatic wakefulness swallowing its truth ah, but sip by sip its addiction is for real~ can’t live without it!
The title I initially landed on was Coffee and Poetry – original, I know! Perhaps you can figure out a better title for this poem! Leave ideas in the comments, please.
Susan Ahlbrand is our host today for Day 16 of #VerseLove. She inspires us to write poems about friendships that didn’t work out for whatever reason, whether there was a move or a disagreement or a divorce or another form of distancing. You can read her full prompt here. I wrote about a time I left a church because the views became too radical to accept.
Blind Ewe so you’re holier. new pastor said NO WOMEN his blind sheep believed not one stood with me not one challenged his iron fist not one saw the wolf wife who rarely spoke children white as untanned lambs always in the house I took a firm stand when I saw the truth. I left that mutton pasture one by one others did too, down to a dozen “disciples” who stayed brainwashed radicals worshipping legalism no grace, mercy, love so you’re holier? is that what you call yourself? guess again, girlfriend. Ewe blind
Wendy Everand of New York is our host today for Day 9 of the #VerseLove challenge this month as we celebrate National Poetry Month. She invites us to break all the rules or share of a time we broke a rule in her prompt, which you can read here. It’s Easter. I’m breaking every diet rule I can break today, so I’m just going to go ahead and turn myself in. I’m guilty, and the day has barely begun. Happy Easter, everyone!
living with grater purpose optavia rules say there’s no eating ice cream (i sho’ ain’t liss’nin) i might gain ten pounds who cares? it’s easter sunday it’s lemon. homemade. special recipe made with three ingredients ~ sugar, whipping cream and meyer lemons fran haley’s shared recipe from a march blog post today’s about life~ churn a zesty slice of life! awaken senses! glorious easter calls for celebrating life with grater purpose
If you’d like the recipe for the grate-est lemon ice cream ever, you can find it on Fran’s blog post here. Warning, though: you will not want store-bought ice cream ever again.
Denise Krebs of California is our host today for #VerseLove, inspiring to write poems about death. You can read her full prompt here. I think of the death of Jesus on the cross today, the resurrection, and promise of eternal life for believers. For me.
But in my travels on Wednesday up in North Georgia, I saw the strangest thing. And that is what I share today. I can’t get it out of my mind, can’t unsee and unwonder. And so I write.
Plummeting Chicken Death three dead chickens lay on I-75 South in North Georgia rain feathers everywhere chicken carcasses strewn out like castoff garments how did this happen? there were no farmlands nearby no livestock, no barns imagination kicked into full gear – these hens (I presumed) died fast all the better, really maybe a poultry truck door swung open, flinging these ladies groundward to the hard concrete below …or maybe they jumped thought they could still fly then realized the truth too late as cars tried to swerve most not successful they’re all three dead, either way these interstate hens
Glenda Funk of Idaho is our host today for the first day of #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com. You can read her full post here. She inspires us to write Haibun poems, which combine prose and Haiku poetry. This one was inspired by my trip to South Carolina yesterday to bring my grandson on a fishing adventure today.
Haibun
Rescue
On a birthday fishing trip with my grandson, we were booking it to get to water when we spotted a turtle in the passenger side tire path of my lane not booking it to water at his dawdling speed, so we swerved to avoid hitting it, BRAKED HARD, pulled onto the shoulder, and put it in reverse there on the roadside to rescue this traveler caught between the land and the water world ~ like us
Haiku
we brake for turtles
caught in the crossroads: roadside
reptile rescuers!
Since we were up early this morning, I asked him to write about the experience too – and here is what he wrote. He said, “I even gave it a title, Nana.” I love his title – – and his last line gives the emotional sigh of high-five satisfaction for terrific turtle teamwork.
I went home this past weekend to visit – and Dad has been hard at work cleaning out his attic. He‘d found a little treasure for me.
micentennial childhood art from Dad’s attic decade fingerprint
Yesterday was the last day of five days of January’s Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. Each month, this writing group gathers to write and give positive feedback to at least three other writers. I took a break yesterday to pause and give thanks for my daughter Mallory on her birthday.
Yesterday’s prompt was to write a Postcard Poem. Using a postcard or a blank index card, you draw a vertical line to separate the address and the poem on the writing side. Here’s my Haiku poem, prompted by a suspension bridge I crossed in December at Fall Creek Falls in Tennessee:
tracking feet suspension bridges crossable risk-taking feat empowering treks
Common Threads 