Little Penguin

I just remembered the Saturday Mix: Lucky Dip prompt on MLMM from last Saturday! I actually wrote 3 (now 4) responses to the prompt but didn’t like them enough to post. So now, I have intentionally written a stupid poem, just have something to post, as the prompt expires in an hour or so. It was inspired by the front of my current poetry notebook. 😆 Also linked with FOWC: Scene.

Behold, the little penguin 🐧

Little Penguin guards my book,
Looking very cute --
What if there's a snowy scene, 
And it played a lute?

Penguins colored black and white, 
Like a music staff -- 
I hope that this silly poem
At least made you laugh! 

Literary Worlds

My effort for this week’s Sijo prompt, for which we are to use REALITY as our inspiration.

---

Much as this writer also loves to peruse many genres,
And she could read and write for hours each day, she does wonder if
She should do more living, instead of only writing about it.

My Two Cents

A stream-of-consciousness which I found fun and … interesting.

---

For this prompt I could add in my two cents,
To use those homophones to form a poem
Off the top of my head, a task immense.
Wait! Nevermind, ideas now are sent
From that nebulous space where they are born,
Yet now for these next lines I’m slightly torn:
For how to usher in a use for “scent?”

…

I’ll leave this meta-verse now and go home.

😀

Uplifting Ramble

For E.M.’s Sunday Ramble, on Tuesday. 🙂 Better late than never to write about “Uplifting Chatter.”

I was reluctant to post yesterday, even though I ended up writing 6 poems (“Reluctant” was yesterday’s MVB prompt word, and I didn’t even know that until this morning, since I didn’t read blogs either, yesterday). Thankfully, my fervor seems to have returned. I’d been thinking last night, “Just don’t post at all for this week; it doesn’t matter. 😦 😦 😦 ”

Okay, on to the Happy!

---

• When you feel negative, what techniques do you use to bring yourself up to feeling positive?

I try to reach out to friends but also don’t want to bring my friends down. Hugging my stuffed animals, especially my brand-new cute little crab. Going to see the ducks in the park. Looking at flowers. I don’t even have to go anywhere to look at beautiful flowers because my brother has filled our backyard with beautiful flowers and other plants. He has the greenest thumb you will ever encounter! I like to joke that he took all of my gardening ability in the womb, since I can’t garden to save my life, and he is the Plant Whisperer!

• What is a smell that made you smile when you woke up today?

It would be too easy to say “coffee,” although that is true. I suppose it was nice that my room wasn’t stuffy. Also, the lotion I used smelled flowery and fruity.

• An owl is known for its wisdom, what are you known for?

Being cute, for some reason. Even strangers call me “sweetie” all the time. In high school, I was known for being smart. I have probably gotten dumber since then, but that’s okay because I like myself more. 🙂

• Do you know any good recipes? If so, can you share one? (If you don’t cook, tell me your favorite food recipe that someone else makes for you.)

My family makes this chicken-broccoli casserole with rice, and it’s one of our favorite dishes!

• How do you console the people around you? (Online or in-person)

If it’s online or via text, I do love the hugging emoji. I also love actual hugs. I also try to be a good listener, and people have said that I am. If the person is a Christian, it’s also nice to pray together.

What Do You See?

It’s the last day for Sadje’s WDYS #135, and this is also written for MLMM’s Photo Challenge #415. This turned out pretty meta.

Why has it been so hard for me to write something about this? This picture is more open-ended than most; my response could go anywhere. Just like that path through the trees. Just like much of life. The plethora of possibilities, the branching pathways — they make decisive action more difficult, becoming paralyzing.

Let’s start. Just write. What’s through those trees?

After long walking
Find a place to cool and rest —
Tiger in the pool!

Photo credit Claudia Weijers

Thoughts on Success

Brian’s prompt this week is “success.” He gave us an extra challenge: to write a pantoum, which I finally did tonight. However! It turned out way too depressing and despondent! If we’re talking about success, I want my poem to have at least one note of hope or happiness (or success XD).

As it’s now the end of the day, I wrote a short cinquain to share for now.

There was a picture I wanted to share with you, but now I can’t find it.

---

Tiring.
Day after day
Challenges repeating:
Success comes from not giving up.
So don’t.

So Many, So Many, So Many

I started 4 poems this morning (and have a few unfinished from yesterday) without looking at any prompts. After looking at prompts, there are even more possibilities! 😅I love this, but it’s also overwhelming.

---

So many, so many, so many ideas
Become a traffic jam on the freeway of my brain;
So many spaces of notebook remain
Empty, causing a mind-crash and nearly a defeat:
Yet here the words flow finally, as a tenuous victory. 

---

Linked with MVB: Empty and also partially inspired by MLMM’S Saturday Mix: Opposing Forces. I like to try to use alliteration and assonance, the repetition of consonant and vowel sounds, in my poetry. 😁

Side note: THANK YOU to everyone who left a comment on my poem from about a week ago, “Something Inevitable.” I don’t always respond to comments, but I appreciate each one, and I was BLOWN AWAY by the response to that poem. Thank you. 😊 You inspire me to keep sharing. ✨️

Cherita: Epitaph

An old poem for Fandango’s Flashback Friday. I’ve started 4 poems (and a 6-sentence story 🙂 ) today with no conclusions. By the end of the night, I will finish at least one of those, because I am NOT breaking my 5- or 6-year poetry-writing streak! However, that is not right now!

---

“Epitaph: A Cherita” (written 5/1/2022)

Here lies unrealized poetic potential.

You will place yellow daffodils on the grave;
She previously thought them obnoxious, but lately…

She admired their unapologetic audacity:
These loud, happy, yellow blooms
Exuberant, speaking words she entombed.

Photo by Jessica Lewis Creative on Pexels.com

Sunday Happy-Ramble :)

Today is the first time I have participated in The Sunday Ramble, but as the theme is “Sunday, Monday, Happy Days” I thought it would be both fun and helpful for me to try it. 🙂 The Sunday Ramble includes 5 questions.

• What is at least one thing that makes you happy today?

One of the priests at my parish has a dog, a golden retriever, and I saw him and the dog this morning. The dog’s name is Mia. The priest joked once that her name is short for “Ella es mia, no es tuya” (“she is mine, not yours”). I love that dog, and most dogs, and she recognizes me and knows how much I love her. ❤ ❤ That doesn’t mean I appreciate when she jumped on me and got light-colored dog hair all over my black shirt, before I even went into the church building. 🙂

• What is one thing that happened last week that made you feel positive and happy?

I was really happy to see the chrysalis the other day and especially to write poems about it. Yes, poems, plural. I’ll share the other poems in a post right after this!

• What is your positive personal mantra? (Mantra means “a statement or slogan repeated frequently” via Oxford Dictionary.)

I don’t really have one, but I like to say, “Jesus, I trust in You.” Especially when I am finding it difficult to do that! Fun fact: It happens to be Divine Mercy Sunday today.

• What is the nicest act you secretly did for someone?

Well, I can’t say, or else it would no longer be secret, would it? 😉

• What is one hobby you would like to try?

I used to be really into needlepoint, cross-stitching, and crocheting. I would really like to get back into those.

• Bonus Question: What is your go-to song to belt out in the shower?

Although I love to sing, I don’t usually sing in the shower. The only exception is, when I was taking a singing class in college, I would sing whatever song I was practicing in there, in the hopes that other people in my family would be less likely to hear me over the sound of the water. I think my plan backfired.

This Ship

I am finally attempting a decent response to Brain Vos’s prompt this week: to use one of his sets of unfinished lines and finish it. His lines form the first quatrain of my poem.

---

Though captains come and go,
the ships can still sail on.
Though ships have found the bottom,
the destinations are not gone.

Through swirling storms of woe,
the North Star still exists.
Through batterings of the waves,
one escapes from ocean’s fists.

Though waters may be calm,
night lingers on the sea.
Sky shows a glorious star,
shining from a place of victory.

Photo by Taryn Elliott on Pexels.com