Special Day (Spiritual Journey Thursday)

Welcome to Spiritual Journey (first) Thursday, hosted here today. This month we’re exploring the topic “special days.” Following my thoughts, below, is a widget where you can leave the link to your post.

Somebody’s turning seven! (Photo © 2018 by V. Nesdoly)

The look on the face of my four-year-old granddaughter—of excitement, anticipation, I’m-ready-for-the-spotlight—said it all. This was her special day.

It doesn’t take long for kids to realize that not every cake with candles and pile of presents is for them. How quickly they learn to let the special person of the day blow out the candles and, hard as it is, open all the presents.

But today was our little four-year-old’s birthday and the expression on her face, even though seen only on video, showed that she knew it was her turn.

I think it’s a great thing to celebrate each person one day a year. In our family we do that on the anniversary of their birth (birthday). Letting the child choose the food for a special meal, the guests to invite for a party, the party theme and decorations, the destination if the activity is an outing are ways to appreciate and affirm each little and bigger one.

We are all created in the image of God as one-of-a-kind beings. What a privilege and joy it is, then, to acknowledge this by giving each person entrusted to us, especially in the family unit, a day of celebration.

Special Day

Each year we celebrate Valentine’s Day
giving our hearts as a present.
Hearts gifted back make us feel special.

Other days we circle too, as special:
Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas day
occasions we want all to be present.

But there is no other like the one I now present
a different date for each of us to feel special
our cake, candles, make-a-wish Birthday!

The day we celebrate the present of each special self.

© 2018 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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Now it’s your turn! Please leave your link with Mister Linky.

 

A January week

I have returned to an old habit—following the Capture Your 365 daily photo prompt challenge (#CY365), and pairing the photos with a few lines. I’m finding it’s really quite doable if I keep up with it.

So, without ado, here are some of this week’s captures:

Last Saturday’s prompt was WITH WORDS. Here is the photo and poem I cobbled together from the week’s words in my 2018 Word-A-Day calendar.

(Photo © 2018 by V. Nesdoly)

On New Year’s Day the BENTHOS froze
under our polar bared toes.
Our Christmas treats we now CONTEMN
against our hopes of getting slim
(though with bold APPETANCE they still beckon
our calories we’ve resolved to reckon). 
PROCRUSTEAN as resolutions are
without them we won’t go as far
their value is at least HEURISTIC
and though our methods are simplistic
to fight holiday excess PIACULAR
our hopes still burn for the spectacular. 

Sunday, January 7th the prompt was WHITE.
We met our newest grand-dog on Sunday. His name is Henry.

Henry (Photo © 2018 by V. Nesdoly)

Tuxedo Henry— 
natty polka-dotted socks
fashion forward tail

Monday, January 8th’s prompt was SPLOTCHES (OF WHITE). This photo doesn’t really answer the prompt, but it had to be taken. (The next three photos are of my grandchildren.)

(Photo © 2018 by V. Nesdoly)

Little Santa girl
delivers the best gift—
herself

On Tuesday, the prompt was ODD ONE OUT.
Two moments made my photo day, and inspired a tiny poem:

(Photo © 2018 by V. Nesdoly)

(Photo © 2018 by V. Nesdoly)

Caught
in the act
of play

On Wednesday the word was MINIMAL.

Hooded Merganser (Photo © 2018 by V. Nesdoly)

Study in white, black, 
brown, with amber eye
Hooded Merganser

And finally yesterday, Thursday, the challenge was to photograph EXQUISITE. Oh boy… it was a very unexquisite day here but I did escape the dull and dreary indoors for an even more dull, dreary, and damp out. And I found something exquisite!

Nandina also known as “Heavenly Bamboo” (Photo © 2018 by V. Nesdoly)

Leaves of flame, embers
of berry warm this soggy
January day

(I just had a great suggestion from Joy in the comments below about making the verse above more comfortable in its skin…. changing it to a rhyming couplet or a quatrain. I’m opting for the quatrain. Thanks, Joy!)

Here’s version 2:

Leaves of flame
embers of berry
warm this soggy
January

(All poems above © 2018 by Violet Nesdoly – All rights reserved)

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This post is linked to Poetry Friday. Our hostess today is Jan, who directs the poetry traffic at the Book Seed Studio (what a fabulous name for a blog!). Thanks Jan!

 

 

Bear Scare

In the vintage Saskatchewan farmhouse where I grew up, a door that looked like every other in the house opened to a stairway to the basement. At the bottom of the stairs was another door to a dark and vacant cell that was once a coal chute. From somewhere I got the idea that that coal chute was inhabited. I scared myself many a time with that thought.

Image: Pixabay

 

At the bottom of the stair
in his secret coal chute lair
lives a black and hungry bear.

Fetching eggs or frozen pie
on an errand, do or die
up steep wooden steps I fly.

Feel bear’s breath hot on my back
any moment he’ll attack
when he does, I’ll turn and whack!

At the top the knob I wham
open door and close it. SLAM.
Once again escape bear jam!

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All Rights Reserved)

Image: Pixabay

 

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This post is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Brenda Harsham at her blog for all things whimsical—Friendly Fairy Tales.

This poem is also joining other poems about frightful things on the October DMC padlet at Michelle Heidenrich Barnes’ blog Today’s Little Ditty. The topic of the challenge this month, posed by Carrie Clickard, is to write a poem about a person, place, or thing that spooked you as a child. Read Michelle’s interview of Carrie and the original challenge post HERE.

 

Book Lover’s Day

I’m sharing another of my Summer Shorts poems today. August 9th was Book Lover’s Day. As soon as I saw that challenge on my list of Capture Your 365 prompts, I knew what my photograph would be. I pass this whimsical tree whenever I do my creek walk in the morning. He has always caught my imagination.

Father Forest
gives me that look—
he has a story
to share.
Perhaps someday
he’ll be a book
of history
ancient and rare.
A chapter
of earth,sea, and air,
or a tale
of a girl and a bear.
Mystery on the edge
of my chair,
or a myth
of a fair maiden’s hair.
A fable
with tortoise and hare,
or dystopian
sci-fi affair…
I’m very tempted
to come back at night
catch him spilling it
unaware.

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All Rights Reserved)

This post is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Kay at her blog A Journey Through the Pages.

 

Bridge

Image: Pixabay

The dentist has been drilling
deep inside my mouth
readying the pier holes
for a bridge from north to south.

My blissful gum’s been sleeping
through the whining and the fuss
but my thoughts are asking, Will it be
a bridge of beam or truss?

Maybe it will be a drawbridge
with spans that raise and lower.
Or a bridge that gives my chewing help
because it’s double decker?

Or suspension rope creation?
Cantilever or pontoon?
Will my mouth be full of cables?
Will I look like a cartoon?

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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I’m not sure why this poem jumped out at me from my stash. Perhaps because yesterday morning I got a text from my dentist, reminding me of an upcoming appointment. Or perhaps it’s because it’s “Take your poet to work” week and dentistry is definitely a type of work (for the doctor and the patient, I would say).

Thankfully, the bridge in my mouth is inconspicuous, as is most work done by dentists these days… and painless too (aside from the wallet).

This poem is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by  The Logonauts.

 

 

Parade!

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Parade—band, balloons
horses, bulls, flags, floats, tractors
and candy vultures!

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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It’s parade season! These photos were taken last year when we were visiting the kids/grandkids in Dawson Creek. The Friday noon parade introduced a weekend of rodeo fun!

For more poetry fun, visit Poetry Friday, hosted this week by Mary Lee Hahn at her blog A Year of Reading.

 

Thirteenth Summer

Image: Pixabay

It wasn’t that I could not get up
the nerve to water-ski

or that I hated
myself in a bathing suit

It was bare feet
of tanned twins

next to mine
in that Waskesiu boat

smoothly brown
as Indian princesses

nails polished
the pink of shells

beside my pasty
sandaled peasants

that made me feel
not one of the beautiful people.

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly

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Prompt – Inspiration

The inspiration for this April 2011 poem was Adele Kenny’s memoir prompt. It begins:

For this prompt, try writing a memoir poem about an experience that haunts you. This is not to suggest a bad experience but, rather, a memory that continues to inform the present.

Memoir poems are narrative because they tell stories. However, we often see memoir “poems” that “narrate” in what is essentially prose (with a couple of good images, a few similes or metaphors, and stanzaic arrangements). Most of these poems don’t succeed because they never reach beyond the poet’s impulse to “tell.” The poem has to be more than the story – it has to be about what happened because of the story.

Read the rest of the prompt and a sample poem HERE.

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This April I’m celebrating National Poetry Month by posting some not-as-yet published poems from my files, along with what inspired them. If the prompt inspires you to write a poem of your own, you’re welcome to share it in comments. Whether you write or not, thanks so much for dropping by!

Save

This poem is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Irene Latham at her blog Live Your Poem.

 

Ink Jet Printer (NPM ’16-Day 17)

Photo – pixabay.com

Ink Jet Printer

Printer fires up, then silence
thinks awhile, then putters…
pushes out the paper
in chugs and grunts and sputters.

We would mutter too
if we had his hard assignment:
Make the picture colorful
while staying in alignment.

As he complains and stutters
charges in his nozzle heads
are giving chip instructions
to make purples, greens and reds,

figuring out precisely
magenta, cyan, black
adding drops of yellow.
Get it right—can’t take it back!

I’m glad he knows just where to put
each microscopic bubble.
Dear Ink Jet, grumble all you like
we love you for your trouble!

© 2016 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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This children’s poem was inspired by the topic of ink jet printers at Wonderopolis. I learned a lot about printers through the Wonderopolis informational article—including why mine may sometimes need a little sympathy and patience.

 

Echoes full of knowing (NPM ’16-Day 14)

Graphic: pixabay.com

 

Echoes full of knowing

I look a lot like little mouse
little mouse with wings.
At dark leave attic of your house
to hunt for creepy things.

I swoop and swirl, dive and glide
but hardly use my sight,
prefer in dim moon-shade to hide
while scrounging food at night.

I have the rare ability
to somehow find my way
with sound waves and agility,
don’t need the light of day.

Sing little notes so high and fast
you humans cannot hear them.
Know when mosquitoes, moths fly past,
with my sharp teeth I spear them.

My little songs come back to me
in echoes full of knowing.
My ears and brain like eyes, you see
that tell me where I’m going.

© 2016 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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This month at the blog Today’s Little Ditty,  guest poet Marilyn Singer’s challenge is to write an echo-inspired poem. Today’s poem is my attempt.

This post is linked to Poetry Friday. What a lovely coincidence to have as our Poetry Friday host today Michelle  of the above-mentioned Today’s Little Ditty. Hop on over to enjoy the amazing poetic fare. During National Poetry Month it’s a veritable feast!

 

 

 

 

And we’re off with “Greener Grass”(National Poetry Month ’16 – Day 2)

Photo © 2016 by V. Nesdoly

Greener Grass

The discontented colt
longing for neighbor’s luscious grass
turns envy green.

“Count blessings,” Mother
says. “We’ve clover daisies, dandelions
and green grass!”

© 2016 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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And we’re off!

The poem above is my poem for April 1st. I’m even posting it here and linking it to The Poem Farm, because this is a Wonderopolis-inspired poem, following the challenge Amy LV set herself and invited us to join in.

To do these poem-a-day challenges, I use a variety of prompts. A document with links to Poetic Asides, NaPoWriMo, Adele Kenny‘s blog and now also Wonderopolis, sits  on my desktop. Every morning I check all four, collect the prompts and the let the ideas stew. Later in the day, when I find the time, I compose a poem. It may be based on one or a combination of several of the prompts, or something else entirely.

The subject for the above poem came from Wonderopolis. The lune form was the suggestion of NaPoWriMo.

(This is a word-count, not a syllable count lune—a Collom Lune [though the NaPoWriMo post describes it differently—5-3-5 words—than all the other sites I consulted which say a Collom Lune consists of 3-5-3 words]. This is a 3-5-3 word lune.)