Sunday Scribblings: Deepest, Darkest

Maybe it is due to the start of spring break or a deep dark fear or the yummy, rich mac n' cheese from Le Bistro Montage but I cannot think today.

The prompt, "deepest, darkest" makes me want to write a fairy tale but the words must be under a deep, dark spell.

So here's my offering.

Deepest Darkest Fears
**Having anyone touch, come near, or even talk about belly buttons (Okay, weird, I know, but my mother the nurse, made sure our BB's were squeaky clean).
**The dentist
**Tattoo needles (no tattoos for me)
**Silverfish

Deepest, Darkest Decadent Treats
**Bittersweet chocolate (I treat myself to a small piece of either Rapunzel or Dagoba bittersweet chocolate every day)
**French pressed Ethiopian Harrar coffee (or any quality coffee, Stumptown, for example)
**Creamy tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches (sensitivity to diary makes me limit my helpings)
**Allowing myself a day to be lazy and do nothing.

To read more about "deepest, darkest, visit here.

From This Window

The ladies at PT are taking the "imaged defined" a step further this week. Find a piece of art that you really enjoy, be in that art, and write, you know experience "ekphrasis"(verbal description of a work of art).

Georgia O'Keefe is mostly likely onr of my favorite artists. I love her work, stayed at Ghost Ranch(where she once lived) and walked the hills behind the ranch.

Okay, I hope this is okay to do. I got the image from http://www.artst.org/. I hope I am not violating copyright laws. Here's my poem:

1940 - The Patio - No. 1
painting by Georgia O'Keefe

From this window
Witness
Hills turning tangerine red
Each evening

From this window
Witness
Amaranth tumbling across the desert
Each evening

From this window
Witness
Wind and coyote howling at the new moon
Each evening

From this window
Witness
I wait for your return
Each evening

To see who landed in which painting, click here.

The Pantoum Poetry Form

Joyce Sidman has a wonderful pantoum poem in Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow. A source of inspiration to me, I have written three poems since discovering the form.

One thing I discovered about the pantoum form is that they create a mood of a slower, enchanting time.
Here are some places you might want to investigate to learn more about the form:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5786

http://www.baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/pantoum.htm

http://anitraweb.org/kalliope/pantoum.html

I have an earlier post from Sunday Scribblings that I may try and revise as a pantoum.

Happy Writing.

One Liners: Haiku

The prompt for this week is to write a haiku in one line. One liners ask for more to be written.

Crocus stars fall to earth, await moonbeams

++++++++++++++++++++++

Frogs' night music, shall we dance?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Pollen delivery waits for the bee carriers
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Yellow kites tethered to the ground

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Pink and white snow petals, spring blizzard today

For more haiku, please visit here.

Sunday Scribblings

In the kitchen
Family gathers round the table
“School was fine today,
Please pass the potatoes.”

Family gathers round the table
Anticipating a meal properly prepared
“Please pass the potatoes.”
A child sits in silence.

Anticipating a meal properly prepared,
Laughter erupts as the dad tells a story
A child sits in silence
Awaits retreat to her fairy tale room.

Laughter erupts as the dad tells a story
She forgets, giggles, then remembers
Her fairy tale room retreat
No one sees her depart as the moon rises.

She forgets, giggles, then remembers
“School was fine today”
No one sees her depart as the moon rises
In the kitchen.

I have been on a pantoum kick. I am not sure I followed the suggestion totally. For other kitchen tales, click here.

Poetry Thursday: Image Inspired

Dragonfly @ Glen Echo, 2005

Momentary rest
Dragonfly tranquility
Blink - vanishes

Just this week, the photo cd which contained this image surfaced. I am so happy to have found it once again. It's one of my favorite photos as I love dragonflies.

There are more lovely images and poetry here.

P.S. I have been asked some questions about the community of blogging, would love your input. The questions are at this recent post. Thanks.

Questions About the Blogging Community

I gave a presentation about blogging at my church this past Sunday. Some questions arose so am throwing them out to the blogging community to respond. Thanks.

How does the blogging community (responders, etc.) compare to other forms of community you experience?

Is your sense of electronic connectedness deeper and more fulfilling?

How does it compare to generating connectedness at church or "going out with friends?"

Could it be that serious bloggers are truly redefining "community?"

One Deep Breath: Breath/ Breathing

California coast, near Cambria, 2005

Summer morning breath
Fog exhales to the foothills
Retreats to the sea

Take a moment to read and breath by clicking here.

Sunday Scribblings: Inspiration

The prompt for this week is "inspiration". Sunday Scribblings is almost a year old. Happy Blogiversary!!


Inspiration comes
Whispers songs in your ear
Follow the breadcrumbs


Been thinking about this prompt for a couple of days. The above haiku came to me as I was driving this morning. Driving, for me, is a place where ideas and thoughts come. Yes, I have mastered the art of scribbling the thought on any scrap of paper nearby.


William Stafford said, “write every day.” He made it his practice to awake daily at 4 AM to write. Finally after years of reading about daily practice and talking about daily practice, I am edging closer to daily practice (am writing more than I have in years).


Morning ritual
Cup of coffee, computer
Haiku word play starts

Another source of inspiration is my photography. I record the seasons and am apt to pull over quickly to take a photo (I bet you are glad you don’t live in Oregon with a crazy person like me pulling over quickly for photos and writing things down while driving).

I hate staring at blank paper or a blank screen. There are days like that. That’s why being a part of a virtual writing community provides inspiration. I look forward to the writing prompts from three fabulous sources: Sunday Scribblings, One Deep Breath, and Poetry Thursday.


Prompt, take or leave it
Sit at the writing table
Inspiration comes


Read more inspiring thoughts here.

Visual DNA

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Poetry Thursday: Defined

From Poetry Thursday:
Look up a bunch of words in the dictionary. Look at the entries only, not the definitions. Don’t even peek at the parts of speech. What you’re after is some groovy, weird word that you don’t know the meaning of but that you like for whatever reason. You might want to make a list of several words. For your poem, select the word you like most and write a poem that defines it. Not like a real definition, which you couldn't do anyway because you don’t know what the word means. It can be a wacky definition, a way-out-there definition, an over-the-top definition, even a definition that contradicts itself.

Okay, easier said than done for "little-miss-I-must-read-the definition". So I had my husband give me a list of words from The Official Scrabble Dictionary. The two words that I like best were "ferula" and "brumby". I decided to use "ferula". After I was finished with the poem I looked up the words. I really wish I would have also used "brumby" or worked it into the poem but now knowing the meaning, I felt it would be totally cheating.

Ferula in the Distance

A ferula in the distance
Fog settles on the river
A furtive glance and
Foraging begins

Fog settles on the river
Ribbon like
Foraging begins
In the quiet moment of dawn

Ribbon like
Water sprites crisscross
In the quiet moment of dawn
Spirits bade farewell

Water sprites crisscross
A furtive glance and
Spirits bade farewell
A ferula in the distance

Stillness/Calm

Meditation breath
Inhale, exhale release fears
Anticipation

Meditation breath
Morning spirit surrenders
Awakening prayer

I am trying to practice this now as I prepare for a colonoscopy on Friday.

For more haiku on stillness and calm, visit One Deep Breath.

Dream Journey

Today's Prompt: Dream Journey "You could take this to mean the journey of your dreams, the place(s) you most want to go in the world, and the luscious details of that dream trip. Or, a journey in dreams. Dreamlife, hopes, wishes."

"So many dreams, so little time."

A local radio station gave away airline tickets to anywhere in the world for over a year. I always hoped that my name would be called. I would go to Scotland and Sicily.

My grandfather was born in Ayre, Scotland in 1863. He was 24 years older than my grandmother and thus, not around when I was born. I want to see the country he grew up in until he was 13 or 14. Around that age, he left home and travelled on a three masted schooner around the world. My heritage is also Irish and German but Scotland calls my name.

My husband's family is from the toe of Italy and Sicily. Just as I am drawn to Scotland, I am drawn to this part of the world. I absolutely love Tomie de Paolo's Strega Nona books. I imagine us walking along the streets that my husband's grandmother and grandfather did.

If I could time travel, it would be to spent time on the three-masted schooner as did my grandfather. My father and aunt regaled stories of my grandfather all though my life. One of my favorites was my Grandfather and his tattoos. His ship arrived in Calcutta, India. He and his ship mates all went to shore to get tattoos. Well, my grandfather, decided the tattoos were too spendy so once aboard the ship, he did his own tattooing on his hands. I dream of walking the streets of Calcutta in the 1880's.

I led our school in celebrating the first ever Earth Day, April 22, 1970. The"Earth Day" flag flew that day as classmates planted seeds, wrote poetry, and committed ourselves to saving the planet. To me, it was a rebellious and necessary act in raising the consciousness about our precious planet. I still feel this way today although, I, at times, can be lazy about recycling, reusing, and reducing. I dream that I continue walking lighter on this amazing place we call home.

Poetry Thursday: Red

Red lipstick tube
Streaking down the expressway
A traveling
Carnival ride on wheels

Whooshing wind
Blowing hair, songs, words,
Floating
Towards the sky

Looking up
Tree arms stretching over us
Creating
An emerald canopy

Your fingers dancing
On my skin, remembering Costa Rica
Driving
A ribbon candy road

This is a revision of a poem written years ago. I have been dealing with a naughty tooth. Root canal yesterday.

For more red, visit here.

Earth/Mud/Dirt

The prompt this week at One Deep Breath is "Earth, Dirt, Mud". My love affair with the earth began early:

Grandma, want mud pie?

Three year old holds grubby mess

Grandma receives gift.

These days, I play in my garden.

The weather was almost seventy degrees in Portland yesterday.

My young student poetry club went outside to photograph the school garden.

Leaf skeleton compost

Nutrient provider now

Nurturing root life

Tulip heads poking out
Sunny day, winter's late gift
Thank you, Mother Earth

Go play in the dirt here.

Superstition

Superstition

This week Sunday Scribblings’ prompt: superstition. “Do you have any? Do you scoff at them? Do you brazenly stroll under ladders and laugh at black cats? Do you know any really weird ones? Have you ever thought of what it would have been like to live in the Middle Ages, when superstitions were such a part of daily life, and could actually get you killed?”

I created my own superstition as a child. There was a Victorian type house, complete with the creepy wrought iron fence down the street from my house. A very old lady and her St. Bernard lived there. The neighbor children all believed she was a witch. My superstition was looking out my bedroom window every night. The houses that did not have any lights on were the house she had cast spells on.

Things I do because they were modeled for me as a child:

Slice the end of a cucumber. Take the sliced end and rub it in circular motions on the end of the cucumber to “get the poison” out. From my grandmother.

Remark to company “After three days, company smells like fish.” From my grandmother. I recently discovered she was quoting Ben Franklin.

Wish on falling stars along with the first star I see each evening.

If I give a purse as a gift, I put a penny in it. Same if I give a knife as a gift, I get a penny to not 'cut-up" the relationship.



Things I do today because I learned about them:

Pray to Saint Anthony when I lose something. I am not Catholic but I like doing this.

Have a variety of gemstones for a variety of things. I had a lot of muscle pain last summer. Every time I wore my necklace with green aventurine and unakite, I experienced less pain.

For more on superstitiions, click here.

Poetry Thursday: Beauty Without a Name

From the Window

Silver french knots twinkle on
midnight blue velvet
silent trees keep vigil
deep fuchsia-rose-flame scarves
tip toe in dance, signaling
feathered choir's performance,
lauds this canonical hour
Buttery essence arrives
Flickering new beginnings

It took me awhile but I did it. I knew from the first what to describe. The how without totally saying what it was; my challenge. Thank to Poetry Thursday and using Chris Sapp's idea. Sometimes we all need to stretch.