NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 29

The penultimate day of NaPoWriMo 2024. Couple days ago felt like the month had gone on about a week too long but it passed. And I signed up to be part of an Exquisite Corpse collaborative poem creation (May-June) and performance (July 28) – that will be a stretch and an exciting one!

Today’s prompt took us to a Merriam-Webster ten word list taken from Taylor Swift’s new release, Tortured Poets: clandestine, Machiavellian, incandescent, altruism, sell-effacing, albatross, antithetical, mercurial, elegy, cardigan. Quite the range, that. I pondered it on my ride to see Mom this afternoon, when I suddenly saw a sign that had a five syllable message. I don’t know why I didn’t take a photo. I was driving, all right?

long enough pause here
to compose an elegy
waiting for a sign

five cars stacked behind
watching ten cars passing
one lane road ahead

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 29

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 23

I have no idea what prompts were offered today. I messed around with bird feeders (one crook totally fallen apart, one squirrel baffle undone, hummingbird feeders hung albeit early). I transplanted the cheery little tulip ahead of a visit from the propane company. And indeed, he showed up today. Time will tell if the tulip survives.

it’s ok to be silent
to wait for something
to happen by
here is some sunlight
over there one red tulip
in the tree, many birds
it’s ok to be here waiting
being quiet amidst the birds
many clad in brown and gray
but there goes a cardinal
now the coffee is gone
and soon I go too.

And now, obligatory black cats.

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 23

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 17

Sunny and rain. Another April day at the edge of New England. Lately I keep thinking – I enjoy writing haiku, writing in such a small format, trying to snag a moment or an image, but I can’t pretend to be Japanese. Perhaps this is where the idea of American Sentences comes from. I cannot write to satisfy the ancient cultural ideas of a culture that’s not my own. So, bear with me in my haiku/senryu practice.

no cherry blossoms
i am not japanese
daffodil haiku

another day
another two pink lines
more isolation

easy to stay home
a gift of the pandemic
welcome lesson

coffee and take out
chili, spicy and so hot
fragrant car ride home

In other news, I let the two young cats rummage through a laundry bag of laundered toys and balls. This amused them for quite a while and then I heard them move through the house with new jingly noises. I was surprised to find that one of their choices was this big plushy racoon. Only the head is stuffed. This was not just pulled out of the bag, but carried all the way upstairs to the bedroom!

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 17

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 11

Well, yesterday I woke up with a sore throat. Thought process: I will wear a mask to the eye doctor appointment but just let me test so I can say I did. LOL – that second pink bar just FLASHED into place. So fast I re-read the instructions because I’d never seen that! I am pretty confident I had COVID-19 in the first couple weeks of March 2020 but no one knew then what it was, there was no test, no vax. I did my best to let all the people I’d been in contact with know, feeling rather sheepish. This time around it feels like a bad head cold, but with a little fever. I’ve napped (that is totally not me). The first time I barely got out of bed for ten days. So thank you for vaccinations and taking reasonable precautions. PSA: check your covid test expiration dates.

being infectious
i’ll stay home with the cats to
keep it to myself

black cat in sun patch
solar energy leaking
out all orange

occasional sun,
some daffodils and peepers are all
you need for spring

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 11

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 1

Mom and I are having a busy week of appointments and such but tonight we listened to Ada Limon host three other poets: Kevin Young, Patricia Smith and Ilya Kaminsky and an actor, Crystal Dickinson reading from her newly released book (part of her stint as Poet Laureate of the US), You Are Here.

The cat sits on me
pretending to listen as
poetry unfolds

And even better, came home to find three postcards from three wonderful folks that I was just thrilled to hear from!

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 1

Warez MB Been? But Exciting News!

I was doing a 30 day paint thing with a friend and posting more privately so apologies for the gap.

The last few days though I’ve had a little interruption – as two new kittens have arrived. Shout out to Kitten Angels and their fostering network and to Emily of Tiny But Mighty who fostered four black kittens and their black mama! We are taking it slow and steady and today spent some quality time downstairs. The little girl-cat discovered a nice cat bed with a view of a bird feeder and let her brother wander around downstairs giving pitiful wails without so much as a little prrrrt in response. The bed could easily hold four kittens but no – she didn’t feel like sharing or reassuring. I showed him where she was and he wasn’t interested.

So I used the time to update the cat cam. Stay tuned for future adventures with these two! I don’t know if we’ll be able to tell them apart once the collars come off but we shall see. (Names to be determined – in foster they were Maude and Frances.) And I better brush up my photo skills to accommodate two all-black cats.

PS Ginny and Harry are wonderfully ensconced with my Mom – but alas no cat cam there.

Warez MB Been? But Exciting News!

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 24

this month seems to be flying by with all the haiku and paintings stacking up. Today’s painting is not based in reality, unlike yesterday’s.

morning came too soon
because sleep spent the night
avoiding me

early breaking news
brought giggles to many
and schadenfreude

come out to the sun
in between the rain showers
look for new green shoots

Clouds hurrying past
One potted plant has new shoots
showing finally

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 24

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 19

Morning appointment with Mom. Tried to look at an electric car after we’d had some brunch but – sorry – we don’t have any. You could put a deposit on one and when it comes in, see if you like it. If not you’d get your deposit back. That might take six months. I’m short, so I prefer to actually sit in a car to see if I fit and can see everything but thanks. Restocked the freezer on the trip home and here I am. Between all that and the looming brush pile in my driveway, my brain is messy. But it’s that very brief interlude of daffodils and bluebells.

cut down the cedars
which the deer had pruned into
something scrawny

three misshapen shrubs
now piled up by the driveway
please deer, eat them now

defrosted freezer
so clean and strangely empty
fill it, start again.

Update on yesterday’s paint:

The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination. — Carl Rogers

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 19

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 18

I’ve been cleaning a lot inside and today I must have been overcome with a different sort of spring cleaning – that primal urge to prune. Tonight I am legit tired.

when least expected
you may be overcome with
an urge to clean

perhaps not cleaning
exactly but chopping
away the old brush

scarier to start
if it comes to a chain saw
I will be careful

evening finds a
newly cleared patch of ground and
a big pile of brush.

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 18

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 9

Two small girls
powered by grapes and candy
leave us all so tired.

Long stretch of trip home
Speed limit sixty-five
no other car lights

Inside the dark car
an audiobook speaking
about emptiness.

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 9