Fleeting

Magic morning light
paints me Yellow Submarine
bell bottoms

© 2017 by V. Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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This is my Summer Shorts poem for July 30th, when the Capture Your 365 (#CY365) photo prompt was Fleetiing.

For those who don’t remember those wonderful Beatles days and the art style that was all the rage, here’s the album cover this photo reminded me of.

This post is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Margaret Simon, who is celebrating a birthday today! So are Linda Mitchell and Julieanne Harmatz.  Couldn’t help but post a greeting from the band themselves!

 

7

Happy eve of New Year’s Eve!

Everywhere I tune in these days I hear people talking about what a terrible year 2016 has been and good riddance to it.

I don’t feel that way at all. For me 2016 has been a wonderful year. Hubby and I are still living together in peace, we visited our distant kids three times, had a fabulous summer holiday, welcomed another beautiful granddaughter, and were spared major illnesses, accidents, falls, fires, earthquakes, storms, and floods.

Poetry-wise it hasn’t been bad either. The number of poems I wrote this year is 97 and the number of times I participated in Poetry Friday is 37.

What’s with all the 7s?

I know! Seven seems to be my little buddy (in addition to those two, there are a total of eight 7s in our address and two phone numbers). Thus when I read the prompt “Write a number poem” in Diane Lockward’s The Crafty Poet II (a wonderful book for poetry craft and prompts, by the way) I had to choose seven. The threshold of 2017 seems the right time to share it.

Image: Pixabay

7

It’s not that it is a prime
number of perfection
the completion of an entire week
or that it’s the address of heavenly bliss.

And though its association
with itch and deadly sins fascinate
the reason I fall for 7
is how often it has fallen for me…

so often in address and phone number
I fear one day to find myself
at 6s and 7s to remember
where all those 7s belong.

© 2016 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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What number would you choose for a number poem?

And now I’d like to wish all my Poetry Friday Friends a 2017 so 7-perfect it deserves a 10!
This post is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Donna (the BOLD) at Mainely Write.

 

Tulip Festival (NPM ’16-Day 9)

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All photos © 2016 by V. Nesdoly

Tulip Festival

A few tulips are beautiful
acres of them stunning—
bouclé strips of colour
in the palette of Spring:
red, peach, yellow, pink
orange, variegated, white, wine,
varieties named for memories
and with imagination: Rhapsody, Lolyta
Christmas Gift, Graya, Kelly, Charade.

They are April wine,
goblets capturing light
suffused with light
petals luminous in morning sun.
No competition here, each variety
from giant orange decanters
to delicate pink thimbles
spreads its own elegant carpet.

We bow homage, lean in
kneel, prostrate ourselves
with cameras of every size,
wander into rows and selfie-stick-snap
smiles and natty hats
among the rainbow blooms.

On the highway, cars and trucks
thunder by this colourful miracle
while we wander down the sawdust path
towards the parking lot
hands full of U-Pick life
and a whole memory card of pixels
to brighten next January.

© 2016 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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A trip to the Abbotsford Tulip Festival yesterday was the inspiration for this poem. (Interestingly, yesterday’s prompt at NaPoWriMo—which I read after I wrote the poem—was to write a poem about flowers; I guess it was meant to be!) The slide show above contains only a few of the photos I snapped.

 

Sonnet to a Potato

A couple of weeks ago, I found inspiration for a couple of poems in response  to the found photo prompts at Laura Shovan’s blog (where the fun continues).  A photo of a “Loaded baked potato” was the prompt for February 14th.  That photo plus the fact it was Valentine’s Day and love sonnets were in the air of my brain inspired “Sonnet to a Potato,” a parody of the classic “How Do I Love Thee?”  by  Elizabeth Barrett Browning. (You can read the original HERE).

Collage from photos at pixabay.com

(With apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee boiled, peel-mashed, deep fried as chips
in gravy drowned, sweet, baked, spiced hot with dips.
I laud thee for thy subterranean days,
thy secret growth all hidden from sun’s rays.
Fair starchy flesh, thou’rt comfort to my lips.
They calories they fortify my hips.
Sweet staple nightshade fruit, I give thee praise
for skin of white or yellow, russet, red
for Yukon Gold, Kerr’s pink, purple or blue.
Thou give’s thyself in pancakes, latkes bread
skins, salads, hash browns, scalloped, soup and stew.
Though sometimes called tater or spud instead
to thee, Potato, my taste buds stay true!

© 2016 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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This post is linked to Poetry Friday, where you’ll find all kinds of delectable poetic fare. PF is hosted today by Elizabeth Steinglass.

 

January sunrise

Sunrise – January 21, 2015 (Photo © V. Nesdoly)

Walk in day’s first light
to a wild chorus of birds
sky grows more intense
surroundings come alive as
we stroll under milkshake clouds

© 2015 by V. Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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On clear days it’s so encouraging to see the sky begin to light up as early as 7:15. Spring is on the move!! This photo was taken on Wednesday, January  21st at 7:55 a.m..

We’re back into clouds and monsoons again now. But I console myself with how much longer the days will be when we next see early light under a clear sky. Our local weather lady said the days are getting longer by 2.5 minutes per day right now.

 

January, February

It’s January, all must change
my resolutions cry it!
I’ll clean the cupboards, shine the glass
completely change my diet.
The constant list of things I need
has changed from Christmas treats
to organizers, storage boxes,
and a set of sheets.

It’s February, nothing’s changed
the bathroom scales decry it
(that frozen stash of Christmas treats
has sabotaged my diet).
The hopeful list of things I pledged
discreetly tucked away.
Ten months to do just as I please
until next New Year’s day.

© 2004 – Time of Singing, Winter 2004-2005 (also published in Calendar, 2004)

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Happy New Year!

Today’s poem is a re-post. It first appeared here in 2009, but I wrote it long before that. I’m afraid it’s the ongoing story of my New Year’s Resolutions. Some things never change!

This post is part of Poetry Friday. You will find many more Poetry Friday poems linked at Betsy’sI Think in Poems blog.