Tag: The Stafford Challenge

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March Open Write Day 5, Stafford Challenge Day 64, Slice of Life Challenge Day 20

Special Thanks to Two Writing Teachers
Photo by Daniel Reche on Pexels.com

Shelley of Oklahoma is our host today for the final day of the March Open Write, encouraging us to write poems to help us relax. You can read her full prompt here. I have one of those conferences today – the kind in a town with a gas station and a stop sign and maybe a hot dog in the gas station and nothing else, and I’m driving in with coworkers from an hour and seven minutes northeast, and I’m not overnighting so I have to leave early and get home late and I know the coffee’s gonna suck because it always does when they have those plastic canisters of powdered creamer and only pink-packet off-brand sweetener.

But I’m trying to relax.

Really.

Frumpy

Relax - no one cares
whether your pants match your shirt
or that they're wrinkled

Relax - no one cares
that the tops of your feet are
white as unbaked bread

Relax - no one sees
you picking at your fingers
of chipped nail polish

Relax - no one knows
your Odor Eaters are now
expired by three months

Relax - just because 
you forgot to tweeze your lip
doesn't mean don't go

After all: you're the 
driver....others are counting
on you to get there

Relax - your oil got
changed, your gas tank's full and your
car is vacuumed out

Relax - your riders 
might find your car is cleaner
than theirs (not driven)

Relax - wait, is that
.....is that a seam coming out?
It's right on the butt

Nope, don't relax.  Go
change pants. Nothing clean? That's what
long sweaters are for.

Heck, grab a blanket
and wrap up like a student
.....relax for a change!




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March Open Write Day 4, Slice of Life Challenge Day 19, Stafford Challenge Day 63

Special Thanks to Two Writing Teachers

Rex Muston of Iowa is our host today for the 4th day of the March Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. He inspires us to use our kitchen junk drawer to inspire poetry. You can read his full prompt here.

A kitchen junk drawer is second only as frightening to me as forgetting a piece of clothing and showing up at work for everyone to see all truth. It’s downright scary except for the drawer I did clean out last weekend. I still have one to go, and it’s the worst one. An invitation to explore those quirky drawer corners is fantastic! I love that even in the oddities, the junk, there are revelations of life and memories.  

Unbanded

One junk drawer
is empty
~the middle one~
but the one
on the edge
is chock-full
of random bits
and pieces

a years’ supply
of 9V batteries
for the
smoke alarms
we change
often
because
Boo Radley shivers
at the smell of
toaster heat and
smoke alarm chirps

plus the goat ball
banding tool
and bright orange
bands
as if the
whole horrid
thing
needed a
screaming
fluorescent
proclamation
across the farm

and a vintage
unfiltered
cigarette-
sized box of
Happy Family
ceramic pigs
from England

a mama
and twin
piglets
but no daddy
there was never
even a space
for his
unbanded
self

now
from the
Funny Farm
kitchen
windowsill
Mama smiles
with a sparkle-eye
bats her eyelashes
and thinks….

freedom!
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March Open Write Day 2, Slice of Life Challenge Day 17, The Stafford Challenge Day 61

Special Thanks to Two Writing Teachers for the Slice of Life Challenge!

Katrina Morrison of Oklahoma is our host today for the second day of the March Open Write at http://www.ethicalea.com. You can read her full prompt here. She explains that misheard lyrics are called Mondegreen. I’m a fan of Coxy.Official, and when the whole bed is shaking with my laughter at night, my husband knows I’m watching Nathan Cox on Tik Tok. He’s the king of music Mondegreen, and so thanks to Katrina, I now know this misheard lyric genre has a name. Coxy’s short clips are for adults, and it’s not the words as much as his reactions that get my tickle box turned over. Now it makes me want to go find the exact lyrics for all those songs I often mis-sang growing up. I was never sure whether Clapton was saying she don’t ride, she don’t ride, she don’t ride cocaine or she’s alright, she’s alright, she’s alright cocaine, but either way you sing it, it works in the song.

My poem is about a text that became our own new phrase shortly after we married.

Photo by Torsten Dettlaff on Pexels.com

Loyding On Purpose Now

notification
his familiar text ding~ I
knew what it would say

same time, each morning
and his words never get old
or lose their meaning

I pulled up his text
unaware it would become
our new word for love

his ear-clogged iPhone
or else his autocorrect 
sauced up his message:

I loyd you, he’d sent
over and over I laughed
trying to respond

in all-cap letters
I replied: I LOYD YOU, TOO
we’ve been loyding since

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Slice of Life Challenge Day 16, Stafford Challenge Day 60, March Open Write Day 1

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers for the magic of writing
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

James Coats is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com, where on this first day of the March Open Write, he asks us to write about the anarchist in us. You can read his full prompt here. When I was reading the prompt, my fingers were already running to the computer before the rest of me had even left the bed. I’m convinced that the most compelling poetry, and all writing really, lives in those shadows, lurks in the pain. My sympathies ahead of time to any PK parents out there and sincere apologies to any well-behaved PKs who turned out good.

When You Want to be Gryffindor But Your Slytherin Roots Say No…….. Slythindor

Okenfenokee swampland mud

plus Southern Baptist preacher’s blood

mix them and you’re bound to find

they breed an offbeat, lawless mind

this reptile in me, like Slytherin magic

broke dad’s sermons something tragic

stealing church chalk so I could play teacher

(kind of what you expect from the kid of a preacher)

I learned to smile, doodle tie in my hair

when I wanted to strike and crawl out of there

but

let me assure you, if you’ve ever wondered

there’s an upside to this P.K, life I’ve encumbered

Parseltongue’s real in this parsonage child

who early in life felt outcast and defiled

born in swampland of snakes

I was raised among serpents

now I speak both the language

of saints and insurgents

Photo by Szabu00f3 Viktor on Pexels.com
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St. Patrick’s Day Charms – The Stafford Challenge Day 59, Slice of Life Challenge Day 15

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers for making writing magical!

Earlier this month, Margaret Simon shared a post about a book of poetry by Georgia Heard and Rebecca Kai Doltish entitled Welcome to the Wonder House. Each featured room is full of wonderful things – the room of science, the room of imagination, the room of nature, and so many more! I ordered a copy right away, and I discovered what a charming book it is…..hence, today’s visit to the Room of Charms. Thank you, Margaret, for sharing the book. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone, and may all good luck and charms be with you all weekend.

Tomorrow begins the March Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com, and I hope to see you there. James Coats will be hosting with a prompt to inspire us on Saturday morning. I like to blend all of my daily writing into one blog post that serves as a poem for the Stafford Challenge, a slice for Slice of Life, and a poem for the Open Write so that I can triple-dip into three different writing groups with one poem or slice. That’s my writing strategy when multiple writing opportunities intersect on the calendar.

Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

Welcome to the Room of Charms

step inside this room with me ~

let's take a look at all we see

locks and keys and pretty please

pixie dust  and rosebud teas

pearls and gold in velvet case

satin masks and angel's lace

gossamer wings and sparkly things

royal flush of queens and kings

seashells with the ocean's roar

oak tree with a fairy door

talismans and amulets

spirit-filled dreamcatcher nets

poetry and chanted verse

rabbit's foot and mermaid's purse

leprechauns and unicorns

green shamrocks and capped acorns

mood rings and milagros

horseshoes and mist rainbows

 carp scales and ancient runes

crystal balls and pan flute tunes

welcome to the charming room!
Photo by Achira22 on Pexels.com

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Countryside Charms – Slice of Life Challenge Day 14, The Stafford Challenge Day 58

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers for inspiring writers.
Photo by frank minjarez on Pexels.com

Countryside Charms

daffodil daybreaks rouse meadow-mist eyes
bluebird sings blessings with praise-reverent cries

daylily sunbursts coax seedlings to rise
paint carpets of clover in emerald surprise

marigold sunsets kiss rolling hill skies
lift sweet bedtime prayers on wings of fireflies

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Luc-Bat Family Gatherings – Slice of Life Challenge Day 13, Stafford Challenge Day 57

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers for inspiring writers.

As I move through the challenge of writing a poem a day for a year, I’m trying different forms and experimenting. Today, my poem for The Stafford Challenge is a luc-bat, a Vietnamese poetry form that alternates six and eight syllables with internal and end rhyme scheme. I refinished my late grandmother’s table recently, and I often think about all the family members who have ever sat at this table – and all the stories told here. I wonder, sometimes, whether family members in Heaven get passes to visit and check on the living. And whether there is a kitchen full of spirits listening in, checking on us to see what we’re doing.

I hope so! 

Family Gatherings

table transformation
for our congregation of folks
family pride evokes
stories build laughs and jokes from past
so those long gone will last through time
ancestors living ~prime of life
conjured husband and wife ~spirits
pasts with presents - - its future
gatherings to endure ages

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Daffodil Swing Choir – The Stafford Challenge Day 54, Slice of Life Challenge Day 10

Many thanks to Two Writing Teachers for giving writers space to bud and bloom!
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

Daffodils on Highway 109 in Meansville, Georgia

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

#countryside charm. #daffodilsmiles. #momsstillspeak

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Tea Latte Sonnet, dedicated to Denise Krebs – The Stafford Challenge Day 53, Slice of Life Challenge Day 9

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers for inspiring writers.

Earlier this week, I was drawn to a post by Denise Krebs, who shared her tea latte as a jumpstart to her hiking day. She inspired me to visit my local coffee shop, where they made me an oat milk tea latte. It was divine! Thank you, Denise, for introducing me to this new favorite!

dairy-free tea latte (not beer)

Tea Latte Sonnet

I heard it from a friend so dear

perfect jumpstart: tea latte

(it looks a lot like heady beer)

what a way to start the day!

stopped by the local coffee shop

ordered a lavender, dairy-free

beamed as the oat milk bubbled atop

eagerly sipped my first taste of tea

I’m sending Denise a cross-country high-five

certain I’ve found a new favorite drink

to help me hike mountains awake and alive

I’m raising a toast with cheers ~ and a wink

at first glance, it looks like this drink is naugh-tay

……..

Wait….could I get fired drinking frothy tea latte?!

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Stargazer Paint Chip Elfchen Poem – Stafford Challenge Day 52, SOLC Day 8

Many thanks to Two Writing Teachers for giving writers space and inspiration to reach for the stars.

I love to go wandering through the paint sample section of a store. I sometimes bring a fabric swatch with me to look legit, like a real painter who knows exactly what she’s doing.

Truth is, I’m a paint chip thief, I don’t know what I’m doing, and I have no remorse over any of it.

I look for the best-named paints and pocket the chips. They’re free, but this isn’t why they are the best deal in the entire store.

The names of the colors are pure gold. Even though I bought a set of Paint Chip Poetry words a few years ago with enough chips to last me a lifetime, I can’t just saunter past the paint aisle without challenging myself to a short poem using a named color when it’s there for the choosing and word-amusing.

I chip-lifted Stargazer on a recent trip to WalMart, and I went a wee bit alliterative with a paint chip elfchen poem.