poetry

The Leap

Sally17 Comments

Exhilirating is the word I’d use
Walking on the beam to reach the loft
Yes, barefoot! I had no use for shoes
Down below, I knew the hay was soft

Walking on the beam to reach the loft
Having climbed up, up, up in that old barn
Down below, I knew the hay was soft
My brother grabbed my arm as if to warn

Having climbed up, up, up in that old barn
What we were about to do seemed unsure
My brother grabbed my arm as if to warn
But we both felt the danger was the allure

What we were about to do seemed unsure
The warm and musty hay beckoned below
But we both felt the danger was the allure
The pigeons cooed, outside I heard a crow

The warm and musty hay beckoned below
Would we do it? Would we take that leap
The pigeons cooed, outside I heard a crow
Our knees shook, we took a breath quite deep

Would we do it? Would we take that leap?
A silent prayer, a silenter amen
Our knees shook, we took a breath quite deep
And once done, we’d do it all again

A silent prayer, a silenter amen
Exhilirating is the word I’d use
And once done, we’d do it all again
Yes, barefoot! I had no use for shoes

This is my response to the W3 challenge this week: write a pantoum about a childhood memory. A pantoum is made up of a series of quatrains rhyming ABAB in which the second and fourth lines of a quatrain recur as the first and third lines in the succeeding quatrain; each quatrain introduces a new second rhyme as BCBC, CDCD. At the end, you loop and grab those A lines again.

When I was 7 years old, my parents bought a non-working farm with 100 acres and 4 barns to explore. It was idyllic — truly. One of the things my brother and I did was climb up into a hayloft in one of the barns and jump down into the pile of hay below. So scary. So much fun.

The middle barn held the hay loft where we jumped.

fiction

The Eyeball Band

Sally16 Comments

She ran as if her life depended on it.

In fact, she thought it did.

She couldn’t put her finger on any answers to all her whys. Why did he scare her? Why did he approach her to begin with? Why did he follow her when she veered away from him? Why did he quicken his step when she quickened hers?

Now she was running. Cutting through alleys, slipping through hedges, afraid to look over her shoulder in case he was still there.

She paused as she emerged from yet another alley. She could no longer hear him, but she was thoroughly lost. It looked like Uncle David’s neighborhood, but all the houses looked so much the same.

What was that rhyme he used to tell her?

If ever you’re lost in Uncle-David-land
Keep your eyes open for the Eyeball Band

She had been so little when he made her memorize those silly words and showed her the secret door on the side of the garage.

Now she was, indeed, lost in Uncle-David-land. She stared around the street trying to decide where to go when she saw the scary man again. She ran in the opposite direction and ducked down another alley.

When she emerged, she spotted the Eyeball Band painted on the garage door. She ran straight to it and found the secret door.

Inside the garage stood Uncle David and her dad. They seemed to be waiting for her.

“Told you she was ready,” said Uncle David.

This is my response to this week’s Unicorn Challenge. It’s a simple challenge every week: no more than 250 words based on the photo prompt.

Is that a strange photo or what?

But, being someone who navigates using landmarks, I could SO picture someone using that door as the landmark where you should turn or stop or something.

What’s the meaning of my story? I have no idea.

poetry

Oh, to be a flower

Sally19 Comments

“Please select
Me!” She wanted to direct
The gardener as he scanned,
Hand

Already
Full of flowers, gaze steady.
He looked for one final bloom.
Gloom

Just settled
Over her. Her gold petaled
Head drooped in an oh-so-sad
Bad

Way. Downcast,
Rejected, again outcast,
Passed over. But then he stopped
Dropped

His pruner
“I wish I’d seen you sooner,”
He said to her. “You are sweet!
Meet

Your sidekicks.”
[snip!] She joined the spray, transfixed
By the beauty around her.
“We’re

Delighted
You can join us!” She sighted
A welcoming rose and mum.
“Come!”

This is for the W3 challenge this week. Heather (Sgeoil) challenged the participants to do a little personification. I had an idea for a flower being plucked from the garden for a bouquet (inspired in part by the bouquet that was on my bedside table when I stayed at my son’s house). My idea involved going in that sacrificial direction of losing life for the sake of something bigger. But, as you can see, it went in a totally different direction.

I wish I understood my own process.

AND — because I like Celtic forms, I went with a Deibide Baise Fri Toin, and Irish form with aabb rhyme scheme and syllable count of 3-7-7-1 for each stanza. The first two lines rhyme on a 2 syllable word and the last two lines rhyme on one syllable.

Life · photography

Visiting British Columbia

Sally3 Comments

It even says it on their license plates, Beautiful British Columbia, as if our eyes are deceiving us. Yes, this is a beautiful place.

I had to fight the urge of pulling over on my drive up from Seattle to take some pictures. The mountains are breathtaking. The trees stand tall, erect, pointy and somehow brave.

It’s so very different from the Northeastern US, where the mountains are lovely, but older. The trees are also lovely, but more are deciduous; they seem to go with the flow of life instead of the unmoving strength of those giant pines.

Ah, I know, I’m probably way off base. The oaks and maples have deeper roots, right? And I’ve seen tall pines toppled with their root system, shallow and broad, turned on edge like a wall.

But this is my submission for Stream-of-Consciousness Saturday — a day late — and I’m not going to go back and correct what may need correction. When I saw that the prompt was “Photograph,” I thought, Yup, I’ve taken a few photographs over the past few days.

We’ve gone walking every day. Two days ago, my son and his wife wanted to take me to see some glorious vista — which I’m sure would have led to not a few photographs. However, we started up the logging road and it got steeper and steeper and steeper.

“Are we there yet?” I quipped two minutes into the hike.

Twenty minutes in, after a couple of rests, I asked them to guesstimate if we had gone a quarter of the way yet. He studied the map on his phone. “Umm…. maybe just under a quarter,” he said.

We turned back at my request. I walk A LOT, just not straight uphill.

Instead we walked along the Fraser River which was lovely. The only photograph from that walk was of an immature eagle who stared down on us as we passed.

Yesterday, we walked along the Vedder River, a river which changes its name to Chilliwack once it passes under a bridge, so I saw the Chilliwack River, too. In fact, I only photographed the Chilliwack.

Chilliwack River

But my favorite picture of the day was one I took immediately as we started on the path. It made me laugh — and it still makes me laugh.

I love when people have a sense of humor.

I really want to know who thought of the poop fairy.

In Beautiful British Columbia.

poetry

Thoughts on Travel

Sally12 Comments

I have just
One wild life —
So should I
Avoid strife?

When roads di-
Verge, should I
Choose safe? or,
Wonder why

I paused at
All — and plunge
Headlong in
A great lunge

Of faith. I
Think I’d like
To rise, go,
Walk, swim, bike

Encounter
Life in all
Its pain and
Joy. Enthrall

In being
Alive! Yes!
I needn’t
Second-guess

Brains in head
Feet in shoes
This must be
Life I choose

Tiny nods to a few poets who inspire me.

I was beyond honored to have been chosen as Poet of the Week by Kerfe who blogs at MethodTwoMadness for The Skeptic’s Kadish W3 prompt.

What does that even mean?

  1. She liked my poem “A Dance for the Lonely“
  2. I had to come up with the next prompt (I chose an unpronounceable Irish form – Cethramtu rannaigechta moire – which requires 4 line stanzas with 2nd and 4th lines rhyming, and strict 3 syllable lines)
  3. I have to choose the next Poet of the Week

Well, I’m traveling this week, so I chose a theme of travel.

Easy, right?

Wrong!

I’ve scrapped so many poems this week! The pressure is on! Between walks in beautiful British Columbia, I’ve tried to write and the struggle is real.

But I started a Lenten devotional on Ash Wednesday based on the poems of Mary Oliver so I tried to let her inspire me a little.

fiction

The Days of Masks

Sally18 Comments

She couldn’t have imagined ever seeing the station filled with masked people.

Every single person — children, parents, elderly, middle-aged, travelers, security guards. It didn’t matter who they were; all were masked.

She was a studier of faces, now she became a studier of hands, of postures, of gaits.

Hands tell so much about a person. That young woman must have treated herself to a spa day recently. Her hands were as coifed as her hair. The gnarled hands of the older woman told of painful struggles with arthritis. The bandaids on the little boy’s hands (and knees) spoke of lessons learned hopefully amidst fun. Wedding rings (or lack thereof) said something, but she knew not to trust that clue. The rough working hands on the one security guard suggested a second job or hobby; she wondered which.

She watched an older man, his shoulders slumped, as he studied his phone. Was he lost, she wondered, or had he just received bad news?

A little girl was tugging at her father’s hand, peering up towards his face, clearly wanting something from him, but he was engaged in conversation with another adult and paid her no mind.

Then she watched the older woman bury her face in those arthritic hands. Her shoulders heaved.

Was she crying? she wondered. Can I help her?

Her nature was to reach out and help, but this damned pandemic had handicapped her handicap. Without the ability to read lips, she was even more isolated in a crowd.

This is my response to the Unicorn Challenge. Each week they post a picture. Those who take up the challenge write no more than 250 words based on that prompt.

fiction

One More Lap

Sally14 Comments

One more lap, she told herself, and I should have it figured out.

The “lap” was a strange triangle of steep uphill, steep narrow stone stairs, and a broad, flat straightway.

She was on the hill segment. Her legs, lungs, and heart always complained on this part, but she would lean into it and push herself to continue the pace and ignore her body’s complaints.

It was that leaning in that made the laps so worthwhile. If it was easy, she wouldn’t think twice about anything. She would just la-di-da her way along and miss something significant.

No, the pushing-pushing-pushing, her heart beating harder and faster, her breathing strained, and her thigh muscles contracting and extending as she fought gravity to propel herself up the hill – that’s what helped.

This is my life, she thought.

Halfway up the hill, she almost allowed herself a rest. Almost. She pushed through it though because she didn’t want to lose momentum. She shifted her thoughts away from her ever-more-hurting body.

If I do this, she thought, he might respond with that. That would be bad.

But… if I don’t do it, she continued, we’re just stuck where we are.

She reached the top. The stairs beckoned — an easy step-step-step down to the bottom.

Walking the broad road gave her no insight, so up the hill she began again.

Push. Push. Push.

If this … then that.

Step-step-step-step-step down the stairs.

Walk the broad road.

One more lap, she said to herself.

The Unicorn Challenge: no more than 250 words and inspired by the photo

poetry

A Dance for the Lonely

Sally25 Comments

He placed his right hand just back of her waist
She placed her left hand on his shoulder
They danced with hands clasped in a stiff, awkward way
Space between them? Well, it was well-spaced.
That space closed midst the dance, he leaned in and told her,
“Thank you for dancing. My wife died last year.
Today is quite hard, our anniversary day.”
Adding a hug, “Thank you for being here.”

This is my response to the W3 prompt this week: Write a San San poem.

The San San poetic form has three requirements:

  1. Eight lines;
  2. Rhyming: a-b-c-a-b-d-c-d;
  3. Repetition: Three terms or images in the verse must be repeated 3x each.

For this challenge, it also needed to be inspired by a dance or a song about dancing. The song below was my inspiration. It always gives me that ache-y feeling.

fiction

Love is in the Bike

Sally9 Comments

She opened the Valentine he had left by the bed.

“This year no hike.
Go ride your bike.”

Last year’s hike had been a disaster. They walked along the edge of the jetty. He clowned around, until he fell right into the ocean. After floundering to the shore, she wrapped him in her pink jacket as they hurried back to their apartment.

Oh, the looks they had gotten! He was soaking wet and wearing a pink jacket; she was wearing a thin shirt. They laughed all the way home, and sneezed for the next month.

On her bike she found another note:

“You know where you want to go —
Ride on down to the studio!”

She rode to one of her favorite places — the clay studio.

She parked her bike by their unused door and saw her next Valentine taped to it.

“The clay is ready; the wheel’s all set —
Go make something, my Coquette.”

She rolled her eyes. She hated that nickname, but the clay and wheel were both waiting for her as the note had said.

She was soon absorbed in her work. Time stood still as she shaped and reshaped the vase. She was startled when the studio owner tapped on her shoulder and handed her another card.

“Come outside and you will see
A special valentine from me.”

She washed her hands and stepped out the door. Her bike was covered with flowers, all her favorite kinds.

He knelt beside it, holding a small square box.

Too corny? Probably.

This is my response to the Unicorn Challenge this week. It’s an easy challenge (in theory) — no more than 250 words and base whatever you write on the photo prompt.

poetry

They are just boys

Sally7 Comments

They are just boys; do they understand
This greater good they’re fighting for, the issues here at hand?
What thing that draws them to this fight?
Is it some deep deep sense of right?
Or, did someone paint a picture that was golden-tinged and grand?

Ah, to fill the lists — recruitment, drafts, all planned
Each regiment, platoon, division must be manned
Focus on the good they’ll do; keep their prospect bright
They are just boys.

Send them off with pageantry — a drum and bugle band!
Remind them that they’re going to a far-off glorious land!
And never say a single word that might evoke some fright –
Pump them full of pride! Ah, ’tis such a glorious sight
To watch them while they board the ship and leave their motherland –
They are just boys.

The W3 Challenge this week was to write a rondeau on the topic of Freedom. This is less about freedom and more about war. Does it bother anyone else that here is the United States we fill our military with kids; they can fight for us but we don’t allow them to legally drink a beer!