Monthly Archives: December 2010

Twenty Questions

Poetry 26 Comments

Here’s what comes of it when I have too much time on my hands, and a Big Tent prompt to write a list poem. I can happily make lists of questions until the cows come home! These barely skim the surface…

Twenty Questions

Why do I only remember some of my dreams? Will people be routinely
microchipped one day? Why is it called wonder in a child, and nosiness
in an adult? Can the human mind truly grasp infinity? Will it ever stop
raining? If we all looked before we leapt, would we have come this far?
Would I have become a different person if I hadn’t eschewed Dick, Jane,
and Sally for the Cat in the Hat? Where indeed are the snows of yesteryear?
Will time tell? Does life imitate art, or vice versa? Does it matter? Will
the generation gap ever close? What is the actual proportion of inspiration
to perspiration? Does it vary from person to person? What if Big Brother
really is watching? Is it possible to be too connected? Is a miss as good
as a mile? Can words really fall on deaf ears? Do we add layers to ourselves
annually, like the grown rings of a tree? Will I ever run out of questions?

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100 Things I Like

Poetry 12 Comments

100 Things I Like

puppies. chocolate. poodles. cats. dahlias. blue skies. warm sunlight.
gentle rain. green shoots. crocuses. irises. daffodils. the color yellow.
books. bookstores. reading. my name. the color pink. spiral notebooks.
owls. candlelight. falling asleep. being awake. yoga. tai chi. stretching.
shiny things. being home. remembering dreams. day dreaming. making
lists. writing poetry. reading poetry. food. family time. vacations.
occasional silence. music. Mozart. Brahms. Paganini. Pachelbel. The Trout.
Simon and Garfunkle. Chad and Jeremy. Distant Shores. the beach. sand.
seashells. polished rocks. memories. free associating. writing. thinking.
doing. planning. carrying out. anticipation. new experiences, in moderation.
the familiar. little things. babies. jellybeans. dobosh torte. eclairs.
macaroons. gugelhupf. sweet things. hot tea. ginger lemon. licorice. spices.
cinnamon. paprika. sweet and sour. music boxes. early spring. rabbits.
milkweed seeds. maple seeds. clouds. snowflakes. snow that doesn’t stick.
trees with leaves. trees without leaves. trees in general. departing geese.
returning geese. fat robins. speckled baby robins. robin eggs. birds nests.
the sky at sunset. the sky at dawn. bayberry candles. flickering light.
fireflies. dragonflies. crickets. stars.

A River of Stones

Poetry 2 Comments

After a lovely break from writing (okay, so not strictly a break, but more of a slowdown), I am ready to re-emerge from my self-imposed cocoon and get fired up for my next writing challenge. I learned of Fiona Robyn’s project, A River of Stones from several poetry friends on Facebook, and it sounded intriguing enough to check it up. My general rule is that if one trusted person recommends something, I consider it seriously, if two recommend the same thing, I’m 90% convinced to give it a try, and if a third independently recommends it… well then it’s a go!

The general idea of the “small stones” project is to write a little snippet everyday, based on a moment of awareness. Each of these writing is a “small stone”, which will then be combined with all the other participants’ “small stones”, to create a “river of stones” on a river of stones blog. And the challenge is to create one such writing for each day of January. What a lovely way to ring in the new year! Four days now, and counting…

 

Winter Hiatus

Poetry 4 Comments

Life has a way of interfering with even the best of intentions. But although I haven’t been posting here lately, I have been writing and firing off submissions. Another submission to Chicken Soup for the Soul, lots of haiku, and some poems in the new poetic form I recently discovered: the sevenling. You can read some of my sevenlings and those of others at the  Poetic Asides blog, and even enter a few of your own (by 1/15/11), if you feel so moved.

November 2010 Recap

Poetry, Prose 2 Comments

Another month! My list of  writing accomplishments  for the month of November:

– I wrote 33 poems in 30 days for the 2010 Poetic Asides November PAD Chapbook Challenge. I extended my repertoire, by trying new poetic forms, including a rondeau, triolets, a pantoum, skeltonic verse, a shadorma, a hay(na)ku, bell curve Fibonacci, and a blitz poem.

– Took 1st place in the November 2010 Shiki  Kukai, free format section, with my “garden spider” haiku.

– Took 4th place in the November 2010 Shiki  Kukai, kigo section, with my “departing year” haiku.

– Submitted three haiku to the November/December Sketchbook “first snow” haiku thread (#1, #20 and #22).

– Took part in the 19th  Caribbean Kigo Kukai , with my “December again…” haiku.

– Wrote  “Under the Harvest Moon” and “Passing Through” to Big Tent Poetry weekly prompts.

– Had two Chicken Soup for the Soul stories make it to the finalist round. “Expert Advice” will appear in Chicken Soup for the Soul: New Moms in March 2011, and “Taken by Storm” will appear in Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Cat’s Life in April 2011.

– One of my haiku was accepted to the winter issue of Frogpond.

– Did a guest post about Kukai for my haiku buddy Kirsten Cliff’s wonderful Swimming in Lines of Haiku blog.

– Put lots more into the pipeline.

Time to edit my PAD poems for the chapbook challenge!

2010 November PAD Wrap Up

Poetry 2 Comments

Another PAD Challenge completed. If there was a theme to it at all for me, it was to try new forms. And I did! Here’s my stats:

I wrote 33 poems in all, including:

  • 4  haiku
  • 1  tanka
  • 4  triolets
  • 1 rondeau
  • 2 limericks
  • 1 blitz poem
  • 1 pantoum
  • 2  skeltonic verses
  • 1 shadorma
  • 1 hay(na)ku
  • 2 bell curve Fibonaccis
  • 13 free form poems

And I wrote about: resolutions, dawn, yoga, matryoshkas, cancer, glasses, rain, frogs and crickets, time, love, greetings, adages, daylight savings, crossroads, the big bad wolf, triolets, teens, memories, the universe, snow, shopping, yoga (again), snow (again), hay(na)ku, still more snow, ice, chutes and ladders, turkey, more turkey, more shopping, Goldilocks, writing poetry, and poetry titles!

 

It was fun, it was exhausting, and given the chance, I’d do it again in a heartbeat! Just not immediately…

 

I think my next poem-a-day challenge will be in February, when I will try my hand at NaHaiWriMo (National Haiku Writing Month). I probably already write a haiku a day anyway!