Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Poetry Challenge #24: Three-Legged Chair Poem


Before we get started this week, please do check out last week's tributes to the tragedy and heroic efforts we've witnessed in Haiti. You can read them here.

This week's challenge is once again borrowed from a terrific website, ReadWritePoem. They have offered up the picture to the right of this paragraph and encouraged their readers to devise a poem trying to explain or describe what is happening here. Why is the figure wearing a hood? How did the chair get there? Why is it broken? Why is the figure contemplating the chair? What is holding the chair up? You can answer any, all, or none of these questions, just use the picture as your inspiration this week.

Here is my poem:

Standing Still

Sometimes silence is the loudest sound.
This land has given up every trace
of life, save what I am clinging to
deep within myself.

My hood drawn up against
the whipping wind,
I cannot bear to break my gaze.
This chair appears useless,
yet in all its brokenness
it defies gravity and common sense
merely by remaining upright.

The same could be said
for certain human spirits.
Grief, disability, mental struggle
may be their “missing leg,”
yet they remain standing
in spite of all that would see them fall.

Merely looking at this oddity
gives me hope, regardless
of my own local tragedies.
It is almost as if someone placed it here
just for me to stumble upon,
a small sign
that all will be right with the world
if I can hang on.

So, take a look, have a think, and please share what you come up with here!
Photo credit: "December 21, 2007: #25" by Sepulture {Mood Disorder}.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Urgh.

So, a couple at our church who have been absent for awhile came back to baptize their two children, the younger of which is 7 months old. When the wife saw me, she asked if I was 6 or 7 months pregnant. Uh, no, lady, try 3 1/2. Sheesh, it's really nice to make another woman feel like a cow when she's nowhere near as big as she will get at the end! If my last pregnancy is any indication, I will be pretty large even at 7 months... but I guess that's what happens when you are short-waisted. There's nowhere for baby to go but out. :)

Haiku News

Toyota suspends
sales: a pesky problem with
accelerator.

Missing Tech student
believed found on remote farm;
sad news for family.

"Pants on the Ground" guy:
I seem to be alone in
being over you.

Friday, January 15, 2010

poetry Challenge #23: Haiti poem.

I'm sure many of you have been affected by the stories and images coming out of Haiti over the past few days. I think it appropriate to lend our talents in honor and tribute to the noble spirit of the aid workers and the fallen in the disaster-stricken country.

Here is my best effort for now; I may come back and fix this up at some point.

What remains when everything
is subtracted from a place
with nothing left to give?

A deceptive paradise;
pristine beaches embracing
shantytowns and starving people
praying for a ray of light.

Now all the poor have left
is hope; blind, yet determined;
groping, but tenacious;
stumbling, but stoic.

Pain-filled eyes lift up to the sky,
waiting for what horror might happen next.
Parched mouths open, gladly taking water
as they wait for medicine, bandages, food.

Slowly, a beleaguered people
find their way out of the rubble
of their past lives, seeking
for a new and better way.

After all, it cannot possibly
get any worse,
can it?

Milkshake day.

I've been looking forward to today for quite some time. Today marks the day I decided it would be safe to announce to the world that we are expecting again. I was a bit more cautious this time, since we've so recently been burned, but this one seems to be sticking around. I guess now you all know why I've been so flaky and tired lately.

I suppose I should explain the title of this post. It's Milkshake Day because I decided if I made it to 13 weeks this time I would celebrate with a milkshake from our local ice cream place, which are enormous but not super healthy, so I only indulge once in a blue moon. I don't think a milkshake has ever tasted quite so sweet. Now I feel like I can actually start looking forward to July with some degree of certainty and breathe at least a little sigh of relief.

Haiku News

a wrench in Haiti relief;
hope that straightens out.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Ohhh man...

So time got away from me again today. After 10PM lately my brain has been mush. I promise to put up a new poetry challenge tomorrow night; I just don't have the energy to do it tonight.

I am amazed at the beauty of this week's submissions for the poetry challenge. In addition, faithful reader and poster Paige has encouraged several of her children to submit rondeaus (rondeaux?) for one of my previous challenges. For now, please enjoy the snow poems here and the rondeaus here.

Finally, please, if you pray, pray for the people of Haiti. It was already among the most impoverished countries on Earth, and now it has suffered probably the largest natural disaster in my lifetime. If it is possible, please donate to the Red Cross's International Relief Fund, as my family has.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Poetry Challenge #22: Snow Poem

As I am running out of material from which to cull ideas for poetic forms, I am going to wing this one. I will let participants choose their preferred form of poem; I am just dictating the subject: snow.

Here goes:

Snow Day
At first glance it looks
like fog, but deeper
through the haze, reveals
the tiny flakes slipping
through the atmosphere.

The earth slowly draws up
its light, crisp blanket,
fluffy but giving no warmth,
blowing like down but
stinging the eyes like tiny needles.

With eyes closed, it sounds as if
the world has been paused,
snow muffling every ordinary
event to the point of nearly
deafening silence.

Biting wind takes its toll,
eyes and nose streaming,
begging to be returned
to climate controlled conditions.
Fingers reluctantly cede sensation.

What little can be smelled
is sharp, clean, and very cold.
If one could smell a smooth
piece of sharp metal,
this would be it.

Air nearly tastes of mint,
drawing a deep breath
produces the inevitable cough,
lungs protesting the arctic invasion
of their tropical environs.

Returning from the frozen
tundra, body confused
by the sudden intrusion of warmth
in the once-huddled mass,
the strip-down to human begins.

Snow Day.

Well, the storm our weathermen had been predicting hit as expected. I ended up counting my shoveling the front walk and sweeping snow off our porch and stairs as my exercise for the day. I love snow but I wish it knew how to keep itself off of the sidewalk and stairs all by itself. Sigh.

The boy was charming as always. He finally started singing again today--he'd taken a few weeks' hiatus--returning to his old favorite, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." He doesn't really know most of the words, so he makes them up as he goes along, but it is still the cutest thing ever, if I do say so myself.

Haiku News

Burned body in trash
identified as former
Playboy model--yikes.

Newark TSA
agent left post, allowing
security breach.

Do we really need
our cars to read Twitter feeds
aloud as we drive?

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

200th Post.

This here is my 200th post. In it I will have to offer yet another apology: I just don't have enough mental energy to get the poetry challenge up tonight. In all honesty, I didn't get any entries in the Christmas week one anyway (even my own!), so maybe you all can weigh in on whether to extend that one or create a new one tomorrow. I would love to hear your suggestions.

The boy is really being cute lately. He likes to pile his Little People animals into his little train-cars and say "bye bye!". If you ask him where something is, he'll say "Where go?" and if he finds it, he will say "There is!" with a really cute little lisp. Sigh. I think he is enjoying being home and back in his own comfy bed because he has indulged me with good naps and night-sleeps since we've been back from vacation. I hope that continues.

Haiku News

Thanksgiving gunman
who killed four, including tot,
nabbed on TV tip.

Hubble Telescope
looks back thirteen billion years:
baby galaxies.

Nexus Smartphone claims
it's not an "iPhone killer;"
I guess time will tell.


Saturday, January 2, 2010

Palindrome.

I was notified earlier today of the significance of today's date: 01/02/2010: a palindrome. I adore palindromes, whether words or numbers. I just love anything that is the same backward or forward. Probably my favorite two word-palindromes are the name Hannah and the sentence: A man, a plan, a canal: Panama.

I resolve to regain my old posting stamina shortly; the regular features of this blog will make their triumphant return hopefully this week. Thank you for your patience. In the meantime, if you haven't seen my blogs on my least and most-favorite Christmas carols, please enjoy those!