decreased daylight, rain, cold,
and, oh, the state of the world
a surfeit of tears
at the sound of a carol
the squish of a bug
The blues can do a number on you. Sit under a therapeutic light, wrap yourself in a fuzzy sweater, brew a pot of tea, stay away from the news. Cry if you need to. Just remember, after December 21, the days will get longer again. The holiday rush will slow to a halt. And, after December 25, holiday chocolate will be "priced to go!" Stock up!
Visit Carol's Corner for this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up--you may find poetry is even better than chocolate!
I'm sure you were expecting yet another haiku or cherita, or maybe one of my Robin Hood poems--surprise! None of the above.
There are people who have a visceral effect to images of spiders, so, if you are one, it's probably best to leave right now.
The following video supposedly went viral last week on the internet. I can understand why! It is amazing. And utterly fascinating!
As you can understand if you've watched it, the spider video has been spreading under the name, "dog head spider." I find the name a little sinister, don't you? Bunny Harvestman, its "real" name, takes my imagination to innocuous springtime themes.
So, without further ado, although it's nearly Thanksgiving, let's celebrate Easter!
Teeny tiny jelly beans in
flavors exotic or plain
picked by bunny harvesters
in sun or in the rain
fill the empty spaces
between your Easter treats
of dark chocolate eggs
and marshmallow Peeps®.
I imagine a whole crew of bunny-headed spiders, working for the Easter Bunny, harvesting jelly beans from beanstalks, and then dropping them into waiting baskets. I see the spiders' webs and silk functioning like cranea in a shipyard.
A word about the rhyme. I know "treats" and "Peeps®" are slightly off. I would have been better served using "treats" and "sweets," but, I'm a big Peeps® fan, and those little yellow marshmallow blobs are my Easter candy of choice. (Unfortunately, Peeps® have been so heavily promoted over the past few years for every holiday and poor-excuse-for-a-holiday, that they are no longer something to look forward to. But, I digress...)
I'll probably kick myself next April when I have to scrounge around for an Easter post!
Linda at Teacher Dance will undoubtedly have more seasonally appropriate poetry links today at the Poetry Friday Round-Up!
It's been a crazy year, and I'm so glad that the frenzy of Election Day is over.
I had been particularly bothered by the constant labeling of the media as "fake" or as "the enemy of the people." I thought about how easy it had become to dismiss the watchdog of democracy. Then I thought about what would happen after the press had been devitalized. Would libraries--books--art be targeted next?
In order to distract myself, I played with form. I wanted to write a short poem of hope. A 3-line senyru (haiku form but about human nature) wasn't going to be long enough. I had enjoyed writing a poem using a form that Margaret Simon introduced to us last month called an octaiku (2-4-8-2-4 syllables), but I was looking for slightly more complexity. What I ended up with is something I'm calling a "Robin Hood."
I developed the following rules for a Robin Hood:
subject should be determination, persistence, opposition, survival, etc.
no title
2-4-8-4-2 syllables (the reader should see it as an arrowhead)
punctuation and capitalization is optional
In old Robin Hood movies, Robin showed off his archer prowess by hitting a bullseye and then aiming a second arrow at the same spot. Robin Hood's second arrow was so accurate, it hit the exact same spot as the first, splitting the shaft of the first arrow. That shot became known as a "Robin Hood." I have named my form "Robin Hood," since the arrow of endurance splits the arrow of whatever adversity besets the human heart/natural spirit. Does that make sense to anyone other than me?
Text:
words we
can commit to
memory may be rewritten...
yes, hell will be
survived
Here's one, written on Election Day:
two years...
truth and justice,
empathy, kindness, all but gone
--twenty-eighteen
we vote!
Text:
cold rain
wet fallen leaves
hidden acorns trodden berries
and one cheery
chipmunk
I completely missed posting last Tuesday, but this Tuesday is so important, there's no way I'm going to forget. I don't care what you do when you get to the polls--cross your fingers, say a little prayer, or wear your lucky underwear--the important thing is to get to the polling place and VOTE!
The month of October is over, and with great trepidation I look forward to November. Since the Spark postcard exchange creation period is completed, I am posting the three cards I made for exchange participants. I've worked with a theme of "autumn rainbow," and I posted three colors last week. Here is the rest of the rainbow:
