Ekphrastic poem written for Colleens weekly poetry challenge, based on photo by Annette Rochelle Aban.

I have decided that I need to get back to my poetry writing, which I dearly love but for some reason I have veered away from it, and it seems as though I am looking at enter these challenges as a stranger timidly seeking acceptance into the group. Really? Back to the drawing board, or more specifically: back to the blank page awaiting a poem.

I never heard of Ekphrastic poetry, but I like it. It just means describing a photo or art work in words, aside from the image. Often a picture has deep meaning which may have little or nothing to do with the actual visual picture. This is true of the photo by Annette Rochelle Aban, which features a collection of starfish and sea shells. The first notion that came to my mind was of a collection accented or contained within a border that is simply a string of beads. The meaning (for me) was one of a collection of personal treasures which remains private to me and unknown to anyone else. Those treasures of course may be actual things acquired sometime in life, or memories that have nothing to do with the sea or any things of the sea.

Here is my contribution, in the form of a Haiku. Although I am especially fond of free verse, Haiku is my go-to form when I want to poetize (is that a word?) a thought or a vision in a succinct and intuitive form.

secrets

my treasures abound
safely forever obscure
secured in my heart

(Sometimes, 2021)

a bit of haiku…because I like you

Topsy Turvy
twists and turns happen
each day the world turns tighter,
like a spinning top

©Sometimes, 2017

 

Connections
What can be made of them…
the funny snaps and buttons
…old-fashion Velcro?

©Sometimes, 2017

 

   Join Me
Come and dance with me
across the hills and time streams
let’s echo always!

© Sometimes, 2017

 

light
a sliver of moonbeam
winks warmly in the night sky
…brightens dim places

© Sometimes, 2017

 

inheritance
hair of yellow sunshine
flowing gently in the breeze
reminds of Vikings

© Sometimes, 2017

 

Fading Eyes… a Haiku for Rodovan’s challenge

Here is a Haiku I wrote for the Rodovan Writes weekly Haiku poetry prompt challenge.   The prompt for the week is the words– Fade, and Eye.

Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge Image 2016

 when eyesight fades, like memories

when my eye sight fades
memory banks are ready
to enter mind’s eye

(Sometimes, 2017)

https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/ronovanwrites-weekly-haiku-poetry-prompt-challenge-136-eyefade/

Miracle Year, a Haiku for Day 4 2017

Some of us believe
the World needs a miracle
we have one–still here!

My heart has a song
renews each year without fail
may all share my joy!

Here it is at last,
once again a brand new year
hopes and dreams shine.

Another new chance
for turning out right at last
fresh new beginning…

Twenty Seventeen
magical number this year
for all optimists.

Another new year
promises always renew
our World is still here!

© Sometimes, 2017

Lament for lost words…or where did that #$%^* Post GO? (re-posted original)

Once when I was a grad student taking a mandatory Historiography class I lost my final exam essay. It was written and ready to print for handing it in to the professor the next morning. It was late at night (isn’t it always?) and I was too tired to take the time involved in dealing with the printer, all bleary-eyed from cramming for finals.

I loved the class, don’t get me wrong. The history of History and Historians is very interesting. My favorites were Herodotus, The Beards, and of course The Venerable Bede, who wrote the first non-Church-based histories about secular matters—such as War.

The assignment for the writing portion of the final exam was to expound on the following proposition: “You are in your coffin, and ten of your favorite Historians stop, in turn, to pay their respects. Who are they and what do they say?”  If anyone really wants to read it I intend to load it into position from its current state (on paper) and post it on this site. This is my all-time favorite paper which I wrote at university, and is even more remarkable because of circumstances.

Well, by the time of the incident, the excuse that “my computer lost the paper” was already old, in a category with “the dog ate my homework” in legitimacy.
So I knew that there were NO saving graces here, no Fail Safe protocol to fall back on, and there would be no possibility of an A for a late paper. SO, I had no choice but to re-create the paper from scratch—in about an hour.

Fortunately, thanks to my annoying and anal study practices, I was writing my paper from note cards. Known as the “Note Card Queen” among some of my professors, I had a stack of more-than-ten [smug smirk] note cards out-lining in great detail of Historians through the ages.    An aside: to me, study habits that most consider busy-work were as important to me as the finished product, so my obsession was something of a life-saver.

The finished paper was finished in time, handed in at the zero-hour, and produced an A on the graded paper. I was pleased as punch, and to this day that is my favorite all-time work of writing.

I admit that it is pretty localized in readership…only students who REALLY like History (and not even a lot of them) would be chomping at the bit to get their hands on a term paper about the lives of people who wrote History over the years…most of them quite dead. I rather think that it might be like a gathering of Mathematicians…hanging out at a Math convention chatting brightly and with animation about Pythagoras and other Math greats. (Sorry, I am not up on Math history.)

SO…yes, there is a point here! Today I lost a post that was all ready to go…in fact it was posted on my site…but the CONTENT was all missing: the poem, a haibun, a picture of a tree, and a poem about the tree, which I wrote last year.   All my formatting, capitalization, clever title, indents and centering—gone. I searched and searched…but that post is GONE!!! I do have the haiku poem itself, written in my notebook. But I pooh-pooed the Muse when she whispered that I should write the prose part of the Haibun in my notebook also, and I just winged it and composed the thing right into the machine.

Alas! ….no notecards! I am just becoming too complacent…

HOME…Haiku Challenge

Here’s a fun challenge that I am participating in, and inviting a blogger to make the next link in a chain that will eventually have 21 links.      I am inviting Carol Campbell, of writersdream9.wordpress.com  NOT because I like her more than the rest of you guys, but because she is the first poet I thought of that might play along.

The poem is shaping up very nicely…the theme HOME.   Following is the first five stanzas (Haikus all) and.  Mine is first in my post, (and last) because that’s the way the others did it, and it works for me.

I am including Spiritualdragonfly’s post… which FYI I tried to re-blog, but lost… following my own contribution.   The other entrants are listed in order, and I hope Carol will join up.

Gradmama’s Haiku:

within my heart
there exist no boundaries
and no exclusions

Sometimes, 2016

 

HOME…..Haiku Challenge

 

                                    
Home is a feeling

Of comfort and belonging

I found it within…              

Safar over at Blisters, Bunions & Blarney came up with a Haiku Challenge. The baton is being passed down the line – from Calen to Jane and now to Raili…..Raili has so kindly passed the baton to me……Id like to invite Gradmama2011 to join in. I hope you do!!! 😊

The way it works is:

Person 1 (Safar)

1. Create a haiku – no constraints

2. Pick a person to create the next link in the chain.

3. Person 2 (Calensariel)

Person 2 (Calensariel)

1. Create a haiku with one constraint

2. The first word of the haiku you create is the last word of the previous haiku

3. Pick a person to create the next link in the chain

Persons 3-20

1. Repeat the instructions for Person 2

Person 21 (that’ll be the last person in the chain)

1. Create a haiku with two constraints

2. The first word of the haiku you create is the last word of the previous haiku.

3. The last word of the haiku you create is first word of the first haiku in the chain.

And so the circle is closed.

A couple of ‘rules’ so that we get to keep track of the links in the chain:

When you participate, you agree that others are able to share your haiku, using the credits and the link back to the post that you provide.

Post all previous haiku on your blog, including all the credits and links provided. Add your haiku to the chain.

Credit yourself, and include a link back to your post. You might need to edit your post and add the link in retrospect.

Create a link back to this post.

Have fun!!

OH! And if you’d like to join in, please leave a note in the comments!

So shall we see how far we can get??? Here we go!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mountain of paper noodles,

earthworm fodder to

keep mycelium

(Safar Fiertze…Blisters Bunions and Blarney)

running down life’s path

many trails beckon my heart;

which one leads to me

(Calen….Impromptu Promptlings)

me and the old oak

communicate silently

at one with the earth

(Jane…Making It Right)

earth a pearl of blue

hidden in the shell of space

the pearl is my home

 (Raili…Souls Gifts)

home is a feeling

of comfort and belonging

I found it within

(Linda…Spiritual Dragonfly)

within my heart
there exists no boundaries
and no exclusions

(Gradmama…Sometimes)

………..

continue…