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!

 

 

Dear After-Christmas Leftovers

I love this week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day! After the busy time of shopping and gifting and cooking and hosting, it’s wonderful to sink back into the chair of “it’s all over!”

These days do have their hazards, though. This little breakup note to the Christmas leftovers is a poem I wrote a year ago today.

Where the leftovers live (Photo © 2017 by V. Nesdoly)

 

Three days ago before the Christmas feast
I eyed you, in your cling-wrap-covered bowls
and labelled cartons, with anticipation.

On that night I gave your contents unrestricted
access, made a holiday food exception
in all its buttery, crispy, tart and tasty,

poultry, stuffing, cabbage-rolly
glory—then savoured
trifles of cake, eggnog, those very

rich chocolates filled with brandy
melted by sips of creamy
fresh-brewed coffee.

But now I view your half-full cartons
with a different eye, though they still
tease and mock: “A spoonful

of cold dressing, dollop of cranberry
doesn’t really count. Surely you wouldn’t
throw out half a dessert!”

I’m sorry, but I would.
We’ve had our little fling
though just three days ago
I said yes to everything.

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All Rights Reserved)

This post is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Heidi Mordhorst, who takes us into the wonderful world of trees.

 

 

Take a hike

A week ago today the Capture Your 365 photo prompt was “Take a hike.” On my walk that day I photographed several woodsy hiking paths, pondering all the while what other ways I could interpret the prompt.

Then, walking through Portage Park, past a newly installed shelter and picnic tables (probably saw them for the first time a week prior), I noticed pink graffiti everywhere. Yuck. What a mess. Take hike indeed!

Graffiti in the park (Photo © 2017 by V. Nesdoly)

Graffiti boy
on your bike
we don’t like
you using your spray can
as a mike.
Shoo, boy, shoo!
We’ve had enough of you.
Take a hike!
Stay out of our park
for your after-dark lark
we don’t want your mark—
of anti-us snark!

 

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

Thankfully the city crew was on it quickly. When I went by a  few days later, it was all cleaned up.

This poem is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme. Thanks Matt (author of the just-out and already highly acclaimed Flashlight Night).

 

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.

 

Tablet Life

Kindle collections on my tablet (one of my happy places in tablet life) – Photo © 2017 by V. Nesdoly

Tablet life is swipable
expandable and squeezable
pushable and snappable
all at your fingertips

Clickable and searchable
tap and type and drawable
a workout for your head and hands
but not the best for hips.

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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Do you own a tablet (or smartphone—that might be even worse)? Have you fallen under its spell, so that you can’t be without it out let it out of your sight? I must remind myself of the truth of the little ditty above when I’m tempted to linger too long with my very fun, versatile, addictive but sedentary tablet.

This post is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Tara at A Teaching Life.

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“Glider crash lands on store”

BC-CTV: Glider plane crashes in Langley (Photo from CTV news story)

The kid set his glider
down on the roof.
No, I’m not kidding
it isn’t a spoof.
He’s a registered pilot
not prankster or goof.

It sounded like lumber
that fell off a truck.
The plane made a hole
and the pilot was stuck
near traffic lights, wires—
incredible luck!

So what brought this glider
out of the sky?
Was the pilot a thrill-seeking
daredevil guy?
We guess and conjecture
and postulate. Why?

I think it’s his mom’s fault
again and again:
she’d say “Passing by Meadows Mart?
Please drop in
for a bag of this
and of that a tin…”
So this once he actually
gave it a spin.

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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Prompt – Inspiration
This poem was inspired by the November 27, 2013 prompt on the Poetic Asides blog:

For today’s prompt, write a local poem. By local, I’m thinking of something that happens or has happened in your neck of the woods, but you know, I’m never against poets bending and/or breaking my rules. So feel free to play with the concept of local however you wish.

The local news story I chose was about a glider landing on the roof of a little corner store, just down the block from us. The news story as it appeared on the BC CTV website is 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!

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Texture poem

Image: Pixabay

CORduROYcorDUroyCORduROY
WHICKwhackWHICKwhackWHICKwhack
taDAtaDAtaDAtaDAtaDAtaDAtaDA
warmCOLDwarmCOLDwarmCOLDwarm
HAPPYsadHAPPYsadHAPPYsadHAPPYsad
SUNmonTUEwedTHUfriSATsunMONtue…
janFEBmarAPRmayJUNjulAUGsepOCTnovDEC

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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Prompt – Inspiration
Write a poem that highlights (puts in relief like braille) a particular texture: gritty or smooth, rubbery or sharp, slimy or dry. Do whatever you can with language and imagery to achieve this sensory effect but DON’T cue the reader by saying “This is gritty” or “This is slimy.” Make the reader feel it, almost physically, without being told what to feel. – John Drury, Creating Poetry, Writer’s Digest Books, 1991.

~*~*~*~*~

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!

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Limelight

On Saturday the writing prompt at NaPoWriMo included a Paris Review interview of Kay Ryan. In it I discovered that she enjoys using clichés as inspiration:

I often find myself thinking in clichés. I’ll urge myself on with various bromides and chasten myself with others. When I want to write they’re one way to start thinking because they’re so metaphorically rich. For instance, take the word limelight, or being in the limelight—not really a cliché but a cherished idiom. Before electric light, they heated lime, or calcium oxide, to create incandescence for stage lights. In my poem, “Lime Light,” the limelight comes from a bowl of limes. It’s ridiculous, but it’s not nothing, not just a joke. It’s thinking about how limelight doesn’t work very well. You can’t do anything by limelight. – Kay Ryan (entire interview…)

It reminded me that I have a such a poem. Today it gets its place in the limelight…

Clematis blossom in the spotlight of the sun (Photo © 2014 by V. Nesdoly)

I am in the limelight
not the head,  red,
blue or black light
but the light produced by a flame
of mixed gases
directed at a cylinder of lime
this being not avocado or sage
kelly, chartreuse or pea
but egg-shell white
with a lens that concentrates
that light onto me
guaranteed to turn you
lime with envy.

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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Prompt – Inspiration

This word-play poem  began with the prompt: “Take a dead metaphor and get specific with it in a poem.” It took off when I did a little research into limelight, which Wikipedia describes as:

An intense illumination is created when an oxyhydrogen flame is directed at a cylinder of quicklime (calcium oxide),[2] which can be heated to 2,572 °C (4,662 °F) before melting. … Although it has long since been replaced by electric lighting, the term has nonetheless survived, as someone in the public eye is still said to be “in the limelight.”

~*~*~*~*~

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