Featuring cherita!


July 30, 2015

Poetry Friday--Whole Lotta Swappin' Goin' On!


This is my fourth year participating in the Summer Poem Swap, the brainchild of Tabatha Yeatts.

Today, I'm going to share, with permission of the swappers, the first three poems I received in the swap. (Please click on the images to enlarge for easier reading.)

The first came to me from Buffy Silverman.

© Buffy Silverman, all rights reserved.

If you click on Buffy's name above, it will take you to her blog. The banner picture is of a dragonfly. I took inspiration from that dragonfly and sent an illustrated poem to Buffy. She sent me a dragonfly poem in return. Look at the fabulous photo and you will see the skin that the insect has molted. It's an amazing photo, and an amazing poem! Many thanks, Buffy.

The second is from Linda Baie.

© Linda Baie, all rights reserved.

The sun is a cut paper illustration created by Linda. She also told me that where she lives in Colorado, there are no fireflies! I am stunned! I thought fireflies could be found everywhere except Antarctica!

And the third is from Margaret Simon.


Margaret sent me a little haiku notebook. She knows I write a lot of haiku and other short poems. Her thoughtfulness is much appreciated, as is this haiku she included:

© Margaret Simon, all rights reserved.

I'm so very pleased by the gifts of poetry I've received! There are two more rounds of swaps before the end, so I'll be posting more later in August. I will also post the poems that I sent this summer.

Head down to Mississippi to visit Keri Recommends where Keri is rounding up this Friday's poetry links!

July 28, 2015

Haiku Sticky #316


© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

I won 4 tickets to the Red Sox game tonight! The Sox have played abysmally so far this season, and although the tickets are for the cheap seats, I'm planning on having a fabulous time!

July 26, 2015

Happy Haiga Day!

Starring Gracie, the curly-tailed flash! (She's not headless, just too fast for my camera skills.)


© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

July 23, 2015

Poetry Friday--"Wait!"

Click to enlarge. © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. "Young Woman Watering a Shrub" by Berthe Morisot (1876) courtesy The Athenaeum.

This painting is oddly puzzling. Doesn't the patio floor look wet? Doesn't the woman look overdressed for doing tasks around the house? I can only imagine her as "wasting time." She may be watering a wet plant because her mind is occupied by thoughts of an assignation--one she has prepared for much too early. Or, she could be dragging her feet--delaying a social obligation she isn't looking forward to. I could be totally off, and she is simply a house maid, forced to wear a heavily petticoated uniform, shoes that are inappropriate for the job, and who is obeying her mistress by making sure everything is just right for the evening's soiree. This is why I like writing ekphrastic poems--I get to imagine a scenario based upon a work of art. I'm never confronted by the "I don't know what to write about" problem!

Now it's time to head over to Margaret's blog, Reflections on the Teche for even more poetry!

July 21, 2015

Haiku Sticky #315

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Memory time: the luncheonette soda fountain and the frosty glass taken from the deep freeze. Lime rickeys or root beer.

July 19, 2015

Happy Haiga Day!


© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. "Girl at the Duck Pond" by Paula Modersohn-Becker, courtesy The Athenaeum.

You've probably been feeding the ducks stale white bread, too. Don't do it anymore, there is no nutritional value to it. Better to try one of these options: frozen peas or corn, uncooked oatmeal, rice (raw or cooked), birdseed, salad greens, vegetable scraps, or earthworms (a messier choice requiring digging). I feel like the girl in the painting--really bad that it's taken me so long to find out about better treat options for ducks.

July 17, 2015

Poetry Friday--"Angel on Bicycle" (1968)

One of my all-time favorite photographs, "Angel on Bicycle," was taken by Josef Koudelka. The first time I came across it, it stopped me cold. "What a hoot!" I thought. I found it delightfully humorous, but, the more I looked at it, the sadder it became. You can view it here.

Now that I'm working on angel poems, I knew I had to pay tribute to the photograph and the photographer.


© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. The original photo, from which the angel was borrowed, is by Josef Koudelka, © 1968.

You can't see it from the portion of the angel in the illustration, but, if you look at the original photo, you'll find the angel wears sneakers...which puts me in mind of Elvis Costello:



If I had used the whole angel, I would have tinted his sneakers red!

The Round-Up for this week is being hosted by Kimberley.

Next week, I'll take a break from angels! So please come back.

July 14, 2015

July 12, 2015

Happy Haiga Day!


Click on the image to enlarge. © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Stereograph courtesy NY Public Library Digital Collections.

July 9, 2015

Poetry Friday--"After the Battles of Heaven (and Earth)"

Another angel poem for the 2016 Sketchbook Project. The angels are only implied.

Click on the image to enlarge for easier reading. © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Figures from "The Gleaners" (1857) by Jean-François Millet, courtesy Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Gettysburg (Smith's Battery and Round Top) battlefield photo courtesy Library of Congress.

I had fun illustrating this poem, but, it took me four versions of the art before I was relatively satisfied! The poem itself kept getting whittled down. It went from about ten stanzas to this version with three. I tend to realize, after a while, that I needn't explain everything! After years and years of writing haiku, you'd think it would have sunk in by now! Please let me know if you think I've pruned away too much, in other words, does this terse version make sense to you?

The Logonauts are hosting the Poetry Friday Round-Up this week. Be sure to stop by!

July 5, 2015

Happy Haiga Day!


© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

I wouldn't call this a haiku ("the essence of a moment keenly perceived"), it's more of an aphorism!

July 2, 2015

Poetry Friday--"Proverbial Wisdom"

This poem will be added to my Sketchbook Project collection of angel poems. I bought my first peaches of the summer. They were a bit hard. I figured they would ripen--if I waited patiently. It happens to me every year. I never learn.


Click on the image to enlarge for easier reading. © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Here's the text in case you can't read it:
Proverbial Wisdom

Her mother always said,
"Patience is a virtue,
possess it if you can."
Yet, the first peach
to ripen has a soft spot.

She cuts away the rot,

chops what's left to
have on a bowl of cereal,
and tells her daughter,
"Sometimes even angels
in heaven are full of shit."

Head downeast where Donna at Mainely Write is hosting the Independence Day weekend Poetry Round-Up!