Challenges & a few PINK poems

I love challenges. I find myself eagerly jumping in to writing and art challenges of all kinds. Keeping up with them is another thing though!

This year my one-little-word is FOCUS, I’m trying to put it into practice by actually imposing some focus on my life. One area of focus is to eliminate some of the extras I get myself into that then end up becoming a burden when life gets busy. Snapping a photo a day and then using that photo as a poem prompt was one thing that I thought perhaps could go. So at the end of January I neglected to download the next month’s list of photo challenges I’ve been using.

I didn’t intentionally not download it—it just slipped my mind. As I started on my walk Thursday, February 1st, I reached automatically for the notebook with the photo list that I keep in my camera bag to see what the prompt was for the day, then realized, there was no point. I hadn’t copied it. In fact, I recalled, I was considering not following it any more at all.

Those thoughts brought on the most surprising feelings. I felt sad, bereft, abandoned, even disoriented. Now what would I look for on my walk? I would miss the mental stimulation of connecting an image with the prompt and thinking of what to say about it.

Then I remembered that I had missed a walk several days earlier and hadn’t snapped something for that prompt. I would do that. I immediately felt better.

The first thing I did when I got home was—you guessed it—downloaded the February photo challenge list. Even FOCUS will not rid me of this little lifestyle habit.

For a while I was sharing these photos and poems every day on Facebook, but it felt a bit much. So I have decided to, from time to time, post some of them here on the poetry blog. No promises, though, so there won’t be any to break!

I’m following the photo challenges from Capture Your 365 (#CY365). The February list is HERE.

Here, are a few photos & poems from last week’s prompts, which was a color week featuring PINK:

February 4 – PINK

Soft intersection
of red and white
Heather confection
Spring delight.

February 8 – SOFT PINK

Morning sky
sheets tousled, covers half off
still flushed from sleep.

February 10 – SHADES OF …

The pinks of winter are a little blue
from shivering in north and east wind’s strew.

The pinks of winter are a little green
with dreams of leaves to fill the in-between.

The pinks of winter are approaching reds
As spring soft-whispers: “Wake, you sleepy-heads.”

All poems & photos © 2018 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

 

Shannon Falls Haiga

My sister takes amazing nature photographs. When I saw these on her Facebook profile yesterday, complete with haiku she’d written (her first she says), I told her she should write more and my thought was, I’ve got to share these with other lovers of nature and poetry.

Poetry Friday is the perfect place. So here for your visual and reading pleasure is a suite of Shannon Falls Haiga – photos and haiku by Bea MacPherson (shared with her permission, of course).

********

This post is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Kiesha Shephard at Whispers from the Ridge.

 

Spring Collection

Collage of Rhododendrons (Photos © 2017 by V. Nesdoly)

Polka dots, ruffles
salmon pink haute couture
let’s hear it for Rhodos
sweet, classic, demure,

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All Rights Reserved)

************
Prompt – Inspiration:
Around this time of year, the rhododendrons start opening in all their glory around here. This carries on through May. This April 2014 poem was inspired by rhododendrons.

~*~*~*~*~

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

 

Cattails

fluffy, pale, shapeless
with just a hint of young self
cattails in old age

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

**************

Prompt – Inspiration
This haiku was inspired by the photo taken on a walk in March 2015.

~*~*~*~*~

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

 

carpet

ground cover
carpet fit for royalty
purple periwinkle

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

**************

Prompt – Inspiration

A walk outside in spring is always inspiring!

~*~*~*~*~

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

 

Spring’s punctuation

Blossoms (Photo © 2017 by V. Nesdoly)

magnolia
asterisks punctuate
spring’s green and black

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

***********

Prompt – Inspiration
Spring, particularly blossoms on a March walk in 2014.

Today also happens to be International Haiku Poetry Day. Read about it HERE.

~*~*~*~*~

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

 

Life between the rows

Pink hyacinth–appreciated indoors (Photo © 2017 by V. Nesdoly)

I look down at my garden
at tight pink hyacinths ready to pop
green spears of tulip
clumped in the randomness
of fall planting
but nothing stirs in me
except guilt.

I should be out there
softening the soil
letting in the air,
stirring it to a rich black backdrop
that will show off the colour to come.

But my healing hip
holds me in its prison
of ache and slow motion.
My body begs to sit and relax
stretch out, watch TV

like the May long ago
when newly received
perennial roots
grew dry and lifeless
as my body insisted
on time to grow strong again.

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

****************
Prompt – Inspiration

This is another poem I wrote in the spring of 2014 when recovering from my broken hip. The “between the lines” idea came from the poem prompt “Reading between the Lines” posted at Adele Kenny’s site. The poem begins:

While you were sleeping in the chair, perhaps
dreaming of an ageless character
from the unfinished novel in your lap,
the sunlight through the window lit your hair
surrounding your face in a brilliant halo.

Read entire…

~*~*~*~*~

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

 

pink elephant corn

Blossoms at last – photo from Sunday,  April 2, 2017 (Photo © 2017 by v. Nesdoly)

pink elephant corn
childhood’s quick-vanishing treat
branches pop pink spring

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

************
Prompt – Inspiration
This April 2012 haiku was prompted by Spring, of course. What more is there to say?

~*~*~*~*~

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

 

Note to Spring

Photo © 2017 by V. Nesdoly

Note to Spring

The monsoons of March
with their downpours and douses
are greening the sides
of the fences and houses.

Yes, we love green   (it is St. Paddy’s Day, after all!)
but we’re eager for more
colors to brighten
the outdoor decor.

Purple and yellow
red, blue, pink, and white
we’re longing to find
in the lengthening light.

Please don’t delay,
feeling bound by the date.
The welcome mat’s out, Spring,
we’ve unlatched the gate!

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

*************

Goodies on display at Scoop ‘n’ Save – Langley, BC.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

This post is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by the incredibly talented Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge.

 

 

 

 

Seasonal haiku

Though right now I’m giving my main attention to another writing project, daily walks still inspire haiku-length ditties. Experience the season with me…

Back gangrenous snow
approves bitter new day clenched
in freezing’s headlock.

Frigid morning—still
Winter’s hit the snooze button
while we watch for Spring.

(Photos © 2017 by V. Nesdoly)

White quilt melted.
Cover’s off for all to see
baby-Spring pink.

*********************

This post is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Carol at her Beyond Literacy Link blog. As usual, there’s a wonderful variety of poetry and poetry-related fare available there!