When God Winks Haiku
When God winks on love
You can feel His eyelashes
Fluttering your heart
Godwinks
Day 20 of #VerseLove with Susan Ahlbrand
Susan Ahlbrand of Indiana is our host today for the 20th day of #VerseLove. She inspires us to write Noteworthy poems. You can read her full prompt here.
She shares the process for writing these poems: reflect on communications you’ve had in the past . . . notes like mine, phone calls, letters, texts, Facetimes, and then work them into a poem. Feel free to tinker with an inventive form.
Getting the Picture
there was this picture
this picture of a watermelon
A WATERMELON!
a watermelon sliced
sliced like cries
cries of a mother
a mother with cancer
cancer that consumed
consumed her, piece by piece
piece by piece, like a watermelon
like a watermelon, there was
there was this picture
picture a mother
a mother crying for mercy
for mercy denied
denied until the end
the end, after the pain
the pain of loss
loss of a body, loss of a family
a family broken, a shattered picture
picture a mother
a mother who mattered
mattered to her sons
her sons who loved her
loved her and listened
listened and heard
heard her pleas
her pleas for mercy
for mercy denied
denied by others
others who refused
refused to believe
believe she felt pain
pain that consumed, piece by piece
piece by piece consumed their mother
a mother who mattered
Day 6 of #VerseLove with Katrina Morrison
Katrina Morrison is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the sixth day of #VerseLove2024. Her prompt inspires writers to share a photo and write a poem from our photo stream on our phones.
She explains how: Select a photo from your photostream or capture an image of a photo you have on hand. Ideally, you should appear in the photo. If you remember what was going on in the photo, draw from your memories to recreate the scene. If you do not remember what was happening when the photo was taken, use your imagination to create a scene.
I chose a photo from yesterday’s wedding rehearsal. My baby brother is getting married today at 4:30 on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, and we could not be happier for him and his bride.
They Do
these two join hands, hearts
forever as one today
my brother, his bride
their blind date restored
hope, led to love, commitment ~
two become one flesh
Day 5 of #VerseLove with Leilya Pitre – Friday Night Date Night Poems
Leilya Pitre of Louisiana is our host at http://www.ethicalela.com today for our fifth day of #Verselove. You can read her poem here, along with the poem and comments of others. She inspires us to write a date night poem (about a memorable date or a standing date) using sevenlings. To write a sevenling, here is the form:
- Think about two contrasting ideas, concepts, people, or events (e.g., good/evil, humor/satire, war/peace, light/darkness, optimist/pessimist, flowers/weeds, etc.)
- Write a three-line stanza containing three things about the first one (description or explanation)
- Write another three-line stanza containing three other things about the second word. You may oppose the first stanza to the second or try to find some commonalities.
- The final line should present a kind of a punchline, a surprise, or an unusual, even oxymoronic conclusion.
- Add a title.
Here is my Sevenling: The Swing.
The Swing
I said NO to a third date.
NO WAY. NEVER AGAIN.
I was running scared, hurt.
But you waited.
You asked again:
Let's go to the park, sit in the swing.
And God winked on us forever.
Happy Anniversary, Baby! Stafford Challenge Day 73, Slice of Life Challenge Day 29
We celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary today. For a couple of divorcees who found each other a little later in life and had given up on ever marrying again, we realize now that when God winks on love, it’s a dream come true.
There we were, on a swing in a park, where he proposed while wearing a royal blue button-down shirt. There just happened to be a royal blue car driving by with a teenage kid cheering and fist pumping out the window as the love of my life was down on a knee asking for my hand (is there any wonder that I drive a bright blue Caribbean colored RAV4, even though my personality is more of a muted silver or pearly white?).
I think back to that day, on that swing, and count the joys.
Marriage Proposal Haiku
a swing proposal
with a smashed Cracker Jack ring
you'd resurrected
and still I said yes
with a yes-er yes because
you'd fixed the broken
They Know Me
For Christmas, my grandchildren made me hand-stitched birds. The love that went into each stitch is precious and was a labor of love and patience for them and for their mother. They will adorn my new office space as soon as we get moved into our new building. These are far too lovely to hang only once a year on a tree. I need them where I am reminded daily of my blessings, for those times I get caught up in the work day and forget that there are so many reasons to smile and take things in stride. I love that their mother is already teaching them that the key to the fine art of gift giving is in the heart of the recipient – and that handmade gifts are the most special of all!
A great big thank you to my grandchildren!
air love
Mid-air dragonflies
Upsidedownrightsideup love
Hanging in the breeze
Gratitude: Selena’s Birthday
My sweet daughter in law is celebrating a birthday today! She’s a homeschooling mom with four delightful children and another due in July. I wish I had a fraction of her energy and her patience. She shows her children how to appreciate the simple joys of every day, and she seizes every opportunity to show them love. She brings out the best in our son – and the best in all of us!
Soft-spoken and sweet
Easy-going
Laughing, loving
Eager to pitch in and help
Natural beauty
Adventurous outdoor kayaker!
Mother of the Year!
Always gracious
Energetic (even while expecting)
It’s Marshall & Selena’s 10th Anniversary!
It hardly seems possible that this sweet couple has been married for a whole decade. They work together as a team to raise their growing family, and they make us so proud. We love Marshall and Selena and wish them a Happy Anniversary!
#VerseLove April 18 – with Fran Haley
Fran Haley of North Carolina is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for Day 18 of #VerseLove, inspiring us to write a triolet. You can read her full prompt here and see the form for this 8-line short form with rhyme scheme. Fran is a fellow teacher, a bird enthusiast, poet extraordinaire, and she named one of my plants on my front porch: Leafy Jean (which led me to a name for the other plant – Leafy’s brother, Leon Russell – – children both buried in a cemetery Fran visited as a child). Today I am keeping yesterday’s blog writing topic with the Rose of Jericho and changing it to a poem – a triolet!
Choose to Live! Rose of Jericho ~ brittle, brown, dry unfurl your fingers! choose to live! mixed tears of grief and joy I cry Rose of Jericho ~ brittle, brown, dry my gaze drifts heavenward, eyes to the sky reassurance of faith and hope you give Resurrection plant ~ tears green you, oh my! unfurl your fingers! choose to live!
Common Threads 