Posted tagged ‘manicddaily’

Grasping At Straws (And Contentment) – “There”

July 16, 2013

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There

There is so much we cannot fix:
a dear friend massed
with yellow glads; the green baize that masks
the upturned earth; the tumor
that takes over the torso;
time spent
more carelessly
than change
(loose minutes
rarely found
in turned-out pockets);

all those difficult years
when contentment was there–
there–there within our grasp had we just
grasped less;
the
flotsam straws we gripped,
drowning rafts, that sparkle now
in the current of all that’s past,

catching against far shoals–
there–there–

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Here’s a revised poem for dVerse Poets Pub second anniversary. Congratulations to dVerse, headed so skillfully and generously by Brian Miller and Claudia Schoenfeld, wonderful poets in their own right, and incredibly thoughtful and energetic teachers and mentors, in their commenting and their example. They, and the other dVerse staff, both past and present, as well as the many poets who participate in the community, have helped me a great deal in my own poetry, and certainly in my sense of myself as a poet. Great thanks!

The photo above by the way is the one I took the other day of a spider web by a stream bed, knotted with water droplets, over that beautiful stone, which to me at least, looks like a heart. If you cannot see full image, please click on it.

Malala Yousafzai – links to videos of U.N. speech and “Class Dismissed”

July 15, 2013

Malala Yousafzai is the young Pakistani girl who was targeted by the Taliban, pulled from her school bus in the Swat Valley in Pakistan in October 2012, and shot in the head and neck because of the advocacy of herself and her father of education for girls in Pakistan.  Here she is speaking to the U.N. yesterday last Friday, July 12.  (I believe it was n her 16th birthday.)  Her recovery if, of course, remarkable, but what is even more remarkable are her words and her delivery of them.  (It’s worth taking a look at some of the terrible comments that have been made to this remarkable video.)

We talk about a war against women in the States – and one is very conscious of this as a woman.  But it seems important to keep the context of the bigger picture in mind, which involves the subjugation of women, girls, children all over the world.  This subjugation relies on the denial of education for girls as well as opportunity  and freedom of women – every day, there are stories of  schools being blasted, teachers, social workers, students, parents, threatened and killed.   The speech is about 17 minutes long.  Even a few minutes is well worth your time.

If you do not know Malala’s story (or much about the plight of girls’ education in Pakistan), here is the link to the original New York Times documentary that initially garnered attention to her; a wonderful film by Adam B. Ellick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F5yeW6XFZk

Here’s finally a link to a not-very-good poem by me (well, okay poem) written about Malala right after she was shot.

Finally, we are, thankfully, in a whole different ecosystem re women and education in the United States.  But here too there are continual assaults on education, especially on education related to science, but also on education generally:  school budgets slashed, early childhood education attacked, teachers demeaned, loans for college made unaffordable, and a culture that increasingly denigrates the importance of facts, knowledge, study.   This is important stuff.  We are so lucky to have the possibility of education here – let’s take advantage of it, and try to help others also (i) have a chance for it, and (ii) see the importance of it.

Why Are Some – Rhapsodic (Maybe) Flash 55 (Um….)

July 12, 2013

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Why are some….

so imprinted
with insufficiency; souls
lost fowl, cross-hatched between
chicken scratch and duck
waddle, the self-appointed undeserving, serving
an exacting God whom we carry in our foreheads
as an ache.

How escape?
In the ta-Dada of rhapsody,
chance of dance,
deep swallow;
through the reverse blink
of fireflies, pilots in night’s
blue sea.

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This is another version of my Post-Eden II poem posted yesterday, written for Kerry O’Connor’s prompt on With Real Toads re Rhapsody, and for the G-Man – Friday Flash 55 – do not tell him I cheated by calling the first three words my title.  

(For those interested in process, the initial version of the poem called “insufficiency”  “original sin” but I realize many people are not so involved with the concept of original sin these days – probably a good thing .  Besides, it is two words.)  

Post-Eden (II)

July 11, 2013

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Post-Eden

Why are some skins so scarred by sin, original?
Birthright bungled as an abandoned fowl’s
that bustles, bristling, behind anything
with wings or whitewash; wavering between
a cross of chicken scratch, chested waddle,
and that batter of bleach and burn that just might
unsully the soul, sanitize, or at least, cover
the cicatriced core of the cast out. Instead
its feathers fletch in-flinted barbs because
from naught to now, they are not right–
not feathers, not fleece, not feelings– because
from when to whenever, they are wrong; because
some species, some space, of paradise,
was once their own, and they its one and only; because
the rind of them remembers; really, it does.

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Hmmm… Here’s a draft poem of sorts for dVerse Poets Pub’s Form For All, hosted by Tony Maude, about alliterative accents – something like that. Tony’s written a very interesting article about Anglo-Saxon poetry.  Check it out.   I do not think I’ve followed the format of four accents per line (three alliiterative), but I have tr-tr-tr-tried.  (I have also edited since first posting.)

I call it Post-Eden (II) because I have another Post-Eden poem that can be found here.

A Difference in Egos (Sonnet)

July 8, 2013

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A Difference in Egos

I played the role of your hillside, rolling from
lowing seas. I played the role of mossless stone,
as free as you seemed to be. I played a bone
that was not a rib, no Eve from Kingdom come,
aping what I thought you wanted, and then some.
I played me like a viola, whose braised tone
might fit your style. Even polished up a moan–
a true enough moan – but with consonant hum.

But none of me sufficed. Not my hill nor cry–
yes, I cried too–true oceans of ill-toned tilt–
you viewed that bit as an act, a ploy, a lie.
And then I could play no more, the infused lilt
leaving me as you would, for I could not ply
your rolling ways in such salt-plowed earth, bound silt.

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Here’s a rather whiney draft sonnet for Kerry O’Connor’s wonderful sonnet challenge on With Real Toads. Kerry inspires with the example of two July-born sonneteers, Petrarch and Neruda. This was a bit of an experiment for me — no, I couldn’t get sensual, cool and quirkily profound like Neruda –but I went for an eleven syllable line which was apparently typical of Petrarch, and did not even try to think of iambic pentameter. See Kerry’s article for more on these remarkable poets.

I am also linking this to dverse poets pub open link night, hosted today by the very energetic Bjorn Rudberg.

Headbanging

July 7, 2013

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Headbanging

Bang bang bang
beat the conundrums,
timpani in my head,
tom-tom-tom and a dumdiddy dum,
with a side cowbell of dread.

Should I should I should I-ting–
Oh why oh why why why why why–bing!
Hiss siss siss
sighs the swirled snare,
boom boom bah
pounds the bass,
stretched skins trapping all care
in the rhythms of life’s chase.

Rum sounds a quest for the just and fair;
pum rumbles queries about my hair–
(what miracle might curve its flat to waves?)
bum swerves to whether Jesus saves.

Jig jig jig
jags each puzzle,
seesawing with the brums
of those fee-fie-foe diddy
fie-foe-fum fiddy
mind-numbing conun-drums.

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Here’s a little draft ditty for Brian Miller’s prompt on puzzles on http://dVersepoets.com (dVerse Poets Pub.) I call it a draft because I haven’t really fixed the verse form.

Since posting, I’ve added a recording of the poem, since I have a particular rhythm in mind.  If you’d like to hear it, click below.

Thanks!

Family Trip – Keeping Up Even Contingent Appearances

July 5, 2013

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Leaving on Family Trip – The Keeping Up of Even Contingent Appearances

We waited long after morning’s blue departed
the backseat we fought over,

for a mother who approached a trip
as an honored guest–scrubbing, vacuuming–
the left house like clean underwear to be worn
in case hit by a car–

like the one where we sat sweating, my brother and I,
out of her way.

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Setting off on a car trip was a very long process in my family, my brother and I sometimes waiting a few hours in the backseat of  ourcar before my father cajoled my mom into the front.  This rather odd portrait, however, is probably a bit unfair to my mother who, rather naturally, liked the idea of having a clean house to come home to, even though, as the poem suggests, there was also probably an element of wanting to have the house look good in case we somehow didn’t make it home. 

My unfairness allowed me to whittle this down to 55 words(minus – okay, lengthy title)–so go tell the G-Man.  I am also linking it to With Real Toads, “words count” with Mama Zen, and is there atmosphere?  I’m not sure you can feel how hot the car or how big my brother’s feet as he claimed backseat territory – still I am linking to dVerse Poets Meeting the Bar prompt hosted by Anna Graham. 

As always, all pictures posted are mine, unless otherwise attributed, and, like the text, can’t be used without my consent.
Have a great weekend.
 

Happy Fourth

July 4, 2013

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Happy 4th of  July!  This is a reposting–but then it is also a repeated holiday!  Have a great evening.  Stay safe.

Weeding

July 3, 2013

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A Night Out

July 1, 2013

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Someone is not having a good time. (That someone is not me.)

(I am posting from an iPhone, and sometimes the picture is too big. If all three elephants don’t show up, please just click on pic.)