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!
Homemade lemon ice cream with grated lemon zest ~ like a glorious Easter sunrise! Zoom in!
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.
Today at http://www.ethicalela.com, Emily Yamasaki is our host for Day 8 of #VerseLove. She invites us to write Something You Should Know poems in the style of the great Clint Smith. You can read her full prompt and poem here.
Note to readers: try this one! I just rambled. Sometimes I use a Sarah Donovan strategy I learned several years ago: just write for 10 or 15 minutes and see what you get. Don't worry about editing or word choice or anything - just draft. That’s what I did today. Please come write with us!
Something You Should Know
is that I only moved my lips when Mrs. Flexer
played Living For Jesus all those Sundays
in the big group before small group
because I can’t sing except with
my heart
and that I just acquired the old oak secretariat that
has been in my parents’ home since I was
a baby in Kentucky along with the old red
milk can for my porch, but back to the
secretariat: I love that it shares
the name with the greatest horse
who had to win in Kentucky first
to win the Triple Crown
and that as a child I was mesmerized by Harold Monro’s
poem Overheard on a Salt Marsh
from Childcraft Volume 1 Poems and Rhymes
with the nymph in the green dress
and it’s framed by my bed today because
I’m still mesmerized by it
and that I savor Saturdays with morning coffee
and good conversation
and that I love plants but can’t grow them
because they all die except Leafy Jean and
Leon Russell, who are thriving on the front porch
and that I have four bluebird eggs in one birdhouse
and baby Carolina Wrens in my garage
up over the garage door apparatus
and Brown-Headed Nuthatch hatchlings in another birdhouse
and fledgling cardinals in my Yellow Jasmine vines
and a nest under the porch eave
and I saw an eagle a week ago
and that all three of my Schnoodles have literary names
Boo Radley for obvious reasons
Fitz because of, you know, the party animal F. Scott
and Ollie for my favorite poet Mary Oliver
and that I blog daily and call all my writing group
people my friends
including you.
Ollie, all tucked in while campingFitz, a true party animalBoo Radley, who recently lost his beard for running through the pasture and getting matted with field spurs
Our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for Day 4 of #VerseLove is Jennifer Guyor Jowett of Michigan, who invites us to write grammatically ungrammatical poems, using mixed up parts of speech in place of others and made up words without regard for rules. You can nounify verbs, verbify adjectives, or whatever you want to do to write this type of poem. Come meet Jennifer and read her poem and prompt here!
A daughter of mine on a desert hike with a peace sign
Birkenstock Peaced-Up Pipe Dreams
when we wander Birkenstocks
corkbed frolic nope to socks
camouflagely sherpa’d arch
hippiescuffle guitar’d march
bellishbottomed denimly jeans
knowexactly peaced-up means
leatherfringe’d-up gauchovest
showsly braless halter’d chest
macramae’d-up shoulderbag
carefree pet rock tail-she-wag
daisychainedup tousled locks
when we wander Birkenstocks
Stacey Joy of California challenges us with a fabulous prompt on this first Monday of April, when we can feel all the promise of spring and the budding words, when shimmers of dew sparkle on the morning grass. This is a lovely way to start the day at www.ethicalela.com for the third day of #VerseLove. Her mentor Haiku Sonnet abounds with all hope and promise, restoring my morning of a sleepless night. I took her second line ~ Ancestors’ prayers and dreams ~ and meditated on this as I considered the quality of sleep that plagues me for weeks on end after the spring time change, last night especially. I also added one extra Haiku to the mix because I can’t ever count, so my Haiku Sonnet might actually be a Haiku Syllable Sonnet since there are 17 lines.
Life at Times
sleeping country nights
overhead ceiling fan whirs
windows open wide
blurred nightmare airing
my life hangs in layers on
laundry line in dreams
night fog, striated slices
dense as fear, tense as monsters
past, present, future
random rumblings
REM: impossible journey
uncertain murmurs
billowing slumber
sheets dancing, ghostly breezes
whipping, wrestling, wavering
woeful, restless angst
real nightmares play out
"....no, there is not more beauty here than elsewhere....but there is much beauty here because there is much beauty everywhere."
"....most people only get to know one corner of their room..."
-Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
Reading: About a month ago, I got a 6 a.m. Facebook Messenger post from a friend and co-worker who shares my love of reading. She wanted me to see the new challenge from a Facebook group called Read with the Book Girls ~ to Read Around the USA in 2023. The January Challenge includes the New England states of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont (Connecticut, they say, will be included later this year). The site administrators even provide a curated list of book recommendations, along with brief blurbs about the books for those who would like some suggestions. Each month, I’ll read a book from a different area of the United States throughout the year. Here are two links: here and here.
As a predominantly nonfiction reader, I’ve chosen Stephen King’s On Writing to read as my January book. Though I think the focus is more on the landscape and setting of place, I vividly see the King home as I read the words of his books. I see the roots of the thinking that goes into his writing. I have two other New England-setting recommendations if you’re contemplating this challenge and love nonfiction: Following Atticus by Tom Ryan (and the sequel, Will’s Red Coat) and The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery. Two of my favorite authors!
I’ll be reading around the USA this year for 2023, and my goal is to complete the 12-book trek over 12 months. I love the way the book challenge supports my experience goals – I’m taking a journey around the nation, but relaxing the pace through the power of books – it’s a peaceful endeavor.
I’ve also chosen a book for each category of my goals this year. For example, I’m rereading Sarah Ban Breathnach’s Simple Abundance as my gratitude guide, Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic as my creativity guide, Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project as my self-improvement guide, Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet as my literature guide, Bhavana Gesota’s The Art of Slow Travel as my experience guide, Women of Faith Daily Devotional by the Women of Faith as my spiritual/inspirational guide, and a yet-to-be-decided book as my reflection guide. My One Little Word (Pray) guide is The Meaning of Prayer by Harry Emerson Fosdick, a gift from my father.
Writing: Every single day this year, I have written and posted on my blog. On the last day of February 2023, I will celebrate two full years of daily blogging, and my blog celebrates its 10th birthday TODAY! Here is a link to my very first post back in 2013. Again, my goal is to blog daily throughout 2023. I'll continue to participate in Open Write and #VerseLove at www.ethicalela.com, and also to share on Slice of Life at www.twowritingteachers.org. I also hope to present at NCTE this November in Ohio as part of the speaking and listening parts of my Literature goals for the coming year. A huge thank you to Glenda Funk for her gifts of time and talent in writing proposals!
In 2023, I will continue to do what I started in the fall of 2022: I’ll give away at least one book a day with a handwritten note to the recipient. I’m paring down my collection, and my goal is to get down to two and a half bookcases by the end of the year. My current book hoarding number will remain my secret. If you’re reading this blog and would like to receive a book with a handwritten note from me tucked inside, please send me your name and mailing address on Facebook Messenger at Kim Haynes Johnson, along with some of your hobbies and reading preferences. I can’t wait to share the gift of a book with you this year!
I'll also continue to send out postcards, as I started doing in 2022. When I purchased some in the gift shop at Red Top Mountain State Park the last week of December, the clerk said, "I don't think in all my time here I've ever sold a postcard. It's a dying thing. I'm glad to see someone is still mailing them."
Yes, ma'am, I thought to myself. Let me be the change I wish to see in the world.
In 2022, I mostly wrote poetry. This year, one of my goals is to vary my writing more. I am a fan of Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project, and I love the structure of her book and all that she does to focus on establishing order to create happiness in her world. I reread her book (again) and simmered my thinking down to seven blog categories, hoping to adopt a cycle of writing that will broaden my net and inspire me to listen and to share in some different ways. My dad, Reverend Dr. Felix Haynes, Jr., will share as a guest blogger as he has done in the past, helping me to preserve family stories. While I have loved working my way through two book studies in 2022, I plan to pull the wider angle lens out and take a broader perspective rather than a deeper one this year.
I'm ready for writing through 2023!
Common Threads 