Tag: W3

poetry

One Candle

Sally6 Comments

created using AI

(For clarity sake — the picture was created using AI. The poem is 100% me.)

Deep inhale
Seventy-eight years travail
For what to wish? A new roof?
[poof]

I’m confused
One candle still lit! Excused
Not extinguished. Did I goof?
[Foof]

Voice speaking
From the flame. Eerie. Creaking.
“ElAinE” – glimpse of frilly rouche
[SWoosh]

If even
I blow harder, believing
It will work, I hear “SHhhHsh“
[WHOosh]

Oh, terror!
Who is this message bearer?
She speaks again — one word — “iF“
[WHIFF]

“iF ToDaY“
TODAY?? Today is my day?
My lungs are squeezing for breath —
Death?

[gasp weakly]
NO! It can’t end so bleakly!
At once — candle smoke, voice spoke
“jOkE!“

This week’s W3 is an interesting prompt:

An old woman blows out 78 candles on her birthday cake, but one refuses to go out, no matter how hard she blows. It burns with a blue flame and whispers a name she hasn’t heard in 40 years. Your poem is her conversation with that candle. What does she decide to do: let it keep burning, or pinch it out?

I found the prompt challenging and didn’t exactly follow it.

The form I used was Deibide Baise Fri Toin, an Irish form. It is written in quatrains with the following syllable count per line: 3-7-7-1 . The rhyme scheme is aabb, with the first two lines rhyming on a two syllable word and the last lines rhyming on a one syllable word.

The last word in the first five stanzas is supposed to be the sound of her attempting to blow out the candles.

Leaning In · poetry

Again

Sally8 Comments

It seems natural, so simple
Impulsively holding
Hands — an honest symbol
Nimble fingers folding

Intertwining; act of sharing
Bearing with a person
Touch that asks, how are you faring?
Caring lest things worsen

Could be a sister or a mother
Hovering and steady
Or a new romantic other
Druther — am I ready?

Feeling again perhaps tingles
Mingles with fear sincere
[oh dear!] back among the singles
Fingers, hands — meet, cohere

2014 — When my father told my mother that my brother had died, he reached for her hand.

The week’s W3 prompt is to use the word “again” in a very specific context: Write a poem about experiencing something familiar as though it were happening for the first time again.

I thought about the act of taking or holding a hand, the simple spontaneous touch between two people who care for each other.

The dechnad mor is an Irish poetic form that employs quatrains with these guidelines:

  • Four-line stanzas.
  • Lines one and three have eight syllables and end rhyme with each other.
  • Lines two and four have six syllabes and end rhyme with each other.
  • Each end rhyme is a two-syllable end rhyme.
  • Each line features alliteration between at least two words. (I did not do this one)
  • The end of the first line rhymes with the beginning of the second line.
  • The end of the third line rhymes with the beginning of the fourth line.
Life · poetry

A Presidential Weave

Sally24 Comments

At 80 Mom “rested” her eyes
As did Joe Biden — no surprise
Trump “rests” his in many places
Meetings1, funerals2 — sans disguise

Trump weaves a lot (not string or laces)
Mixes lands for US bases3
Iceland? Greenland? Does it matter?
Pinky? PeeWee?4 Meh – same faces

Tic Tac, Tik Tok5 — chitter, chatter
Covfefe6 served on a platter
Would you drive down The Hormuz Street7?
Hormuz Strait all bombs and splatter8

Dumb has a “b”.9 Who knew? How neat!
Dumocrat10 — such a silly tweet
Islamic Republic — Japan11?!?
Defeat him? No! Obvious cheat!

Shithole countries12 we ought to ban
Not Norway, places African
Discuss terms telephonically13
Big nuclear button14. Oh man.

So rest your eyes; the world can see
We’ve become a hostile country
You’re all about making money
This is not who I want to be

Feel free to fact-check me —

1 – One example: at a cabinet meeting on December 2, 2025, Trump was photographed with his eyes closed while various cabinet members spoke. The cabinet members said that he just blinked.

2 – Trump was caught on camera with his eyes closed at Lindsey Graham’s funeral on July 28, 2026

3 – Trump confused Iceland and Greenland at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January 2026

4 – At a rally in Marietta, GA on July 24, 2026, Trump compared Jon Osoff to Pinky Herman.

5 – On July 28, 2026, Trump declared himself Number 1 on Tic Tac. I think that’s a pretty small platform. He might have meant Tik Tok.

6 – What exactly is covfefe? He has never told us since he coined the word May 31, 2017.

7 – On July 22, 2026, while addressing students in metro Atlanta, Trump refered to the Hormuz Street.

8 – On February 28, 2026 the Strait of Hormuz was closed by Iran after they were attacked by the USA

9 – On July 16, 2026 (and multiple other times), Trump explained, “Dumb. You take the the B out. Most people don’t know that dumb has a B.” I feel like this is a case of pots, kettles, and the color black.

10 — Trump first used this term in May 2026 at a speech in New York.

11 – Yes, on July 8, 2026, at a NATO summit, Trump refered to Japan in this way. He probably meant Iran.

12- January 11, 2018 in the Oval Office, thus spake the president, who is strongly backed by conservative evangelical Christians, in the beautiful language of noble world leaders.

13 – On April 30, 2026, Trump stated that negotiations regarding Iran were being conducted “telephonically,” noting that this approach eliminated the need for lengthy 18-hour flights for in-person meetings.

14 – On January 3, 2018, Trump tweeted that his “Nuclear Button” was “much bigger & more powerful” than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s.

This week, the W3 challenge is to write a funny roast or a strong complaint about a government leader or another person who has power. I don’t know how funny this is. I mostly feel angry.

The poem should use a form called an interlocking rubaiyat.

Here is how the form works:

  • Write between 4 and 8 stanzas.
  • Each stanza has 4 lines.
  • Each line should have 8 syllables.
  • The rhymes link one stanza to the next.

The rhyme pattern looks like this:
AABA / BBCB / CCDC / DDED

poetry

The Creativity Cure

Sally12 Comments

Whatever became of Sir Swellimpedeedoo?
Though his fingers were swollen, he needed something to do —
So he crocheted a chicken
And his thumbs ceased to thicken
Soon the rest of his hands slimmed down too

He didn’t change his diet
Nor did he sit quiet
This much is true!
Idle hands lead to riots
While creativity is so good for you

This is my response to this week’s W3 challenge.

POW, Matt Snyder, challenged us to write a nonsense poem with a specific structure:

The poem must have two stanzas of five lines each.

​Stanza 1 (Limerick)
Whatever became of Sir Swellimpedeedoo? (A)
____________________________ (A)
__________________ (B)
__________________ (B)
____________________________ (A)

Stanza 2
He didn’t ______________________
Nor did he _____________________
This much is true! (C)
____________________________
____________________________ (C)

The italicized words must appear exactly as they are written. The picture is to serve as inspiration.

poetry

Sunscreen

Sally9 Comments

Fair and freckled skin have I
Is sunscreen really necessary?
Just one more cream that I must buy
Fair and freckled skin have I
Forgot the sun block; cloudless sky
I look like maraschino cherry
Fair and freckled skin had I
Sunscreen really is necessary

This week’s W3 challenge is to write a Triolet.

In a triolet, the rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB. The first line repeats as lines four and seven, and the second line returns as the final line. We were further challenged to choose a summer moment or a summer theme.

My first question was “Does triolet rhyme with violet or chalet?” I tried to look it up. Three out of four you-tube pronunciation experts opted for the -et ending instead of -ay. There was one tree-oh-lay. Then then options were tree-oh-let vs. try-oh-let vs. trial-et. Go figure.


family · poetry

Gravy

Sally8 Comments

I learned from my mother
Who learned from her mother
Who presumably learned from her mother
How to make gravy
The finishing touch to a homemade family dinner

On the Starship Enterprise
The crew got their food from a replicator
They could order anything they wanted
It came out piping hot or cold, cooked to perfection
3-D printed nourishment

But
Replicated gravy
Made without love
Won’t taste
Right

Star Trek replicator

This is my response to W3 Challenge. Here are the rule which I sort of bent.

Write one three-line stanza poem that brings together a cultural tradition and modern technology.

Your poem can be playful, thoughtful, imaginative, or personal. Each line stanza may contain any number of syllables, so feel free to follow your own natural rhythm.

Structure

  • Line Stanza 1: Mention something traditional from your culture, such as a craft, art form, festival, song, food, or dance.
  • Line Stanza 2: Connect that tradition with technology, such as AI, an app, a digital tool, a virtual space, or a smart device.
  • Line Stanza 3: Show how the tradition and technology can work together, inspire one another, or create something new.

Most importantly, enjoy exploring how the past and the future can meet in just three lines stanzas.

poetry

WYSIWYG

Sally7 Comments

I never speak with candor
My words are lies — not some words, every
I am selfish to my core and care naught for any man
Look! It’s obvious that I’m not who I pretend to be!
Gah! People choose to be blind —

This is my response to the W3 Challenge, which this week is inspired by Emily Dickinson’s famous poem:

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —

For this prompt, write a poem in which every line is a lie — except one.

You may take this playfully, seriously, mysteriously, or emotionally. Your “lies” might be obvious falsehoods, gentle self-deceptions, exaggerations, masks, evasions, myths, dreams, denials, or things the speaker wishes were true. Somewhere in the poem, however, let one line tell the truth plainly.

Extra credit: Try writing your poem as a Golden Shovel.

A Golden Shovel poem borrows a line from an existing poem and uses each word from that borrowed line, in order, as the final word of each line in your new poem. For example, if you use Dickinson’s line “Tell all the truth but tell it slant,” your poem would have eight lines, ending with: Tell / all / the / truth / but / tell / it / slant.

Life · poetry

The Pussy Willows

Sally8 Comments

Many years ago
During a very dark time
A shroud hung over my thoughts
Lost and confused   
I got into my car
And started to drive.

Like a horse that heads to the barn
When given free rein
My green VW bug drove me home
To Cooperstown.

My parents were away
The house was locked up
I knew where the key was hidden
If I had wanted to go inside
But I didn’t
Instead I walked across the street
Down through the pasture
Behind the barns

It was late April
Most of the field was brown
With the remnants of grass and current spring mud.
Fallen stalks of goldenrod
Broken by the heavy snows of winter
Criss-crossed in a mat beneath my feet

I can still feel that moment
Arriving at the pussy willows
In the spring of 1983.

Ah, pussy willows
Bare sticks with furry gray catkins attached
No spectacular color
No showy strength
Soft wet ground underneath

I absorbed their presence for the longest time
Reaching up
Stroking the catkins
Walking slowly through the little grove
Sighing
Pondering
Weeping

As the sun dipped lower
A chill settled over the field
I got back in my car
And drove back to Syracuse
Nothing had changed
Yet everything had
Thanks to a grove
Of pussy willows.


This poem is in response to this week’s prompt for W3:
When life becomes overwhelmingly busy, we often dream of having time to ourselves. … Have you ever experienced such a moment? …What did the quiet teach you? …What thoughts, memories, or emotions does it awaken in you?

poetry

Roots

Sally6 Comments

So hardy
This darn garden weed party
They send out underground shoots
Roots

I’m rooted
Genetics aren’t muted
Love for this ancestral throng
Strong

This is a deibide baise fri toin, an Irish poetic form

  • The poem and/or stanzas within the poem are quatrains (or 4-line stanzas).
  • Rhyme scheme for each stanza is a simple aabb pattern.
  • Lines one and two rhyme on a two-syllable word; lines three and four rhyme on a monosyllabic word.
  • Line one has three syllables, line two has seven, line three has seven, and line four has one.
  • 3-7-7-1

I’ve had a crazy week with little energy for writing. This will have to do for the W3 prompt which was to use the garden for inspiration and go below the surface.

family · Life · poetry

Coat of Many Colors

Sally16 Comments

Middle son put three batteries
Down bathroom sink drain (C size fit)
Then squeezed toothpaste, added water —
A disaster! I laughed at it

Then there was the time when some sons
Dammed the creek, flooded the backyard
Learning experience, thought I
As I squished through lawn water-scarred

Mud-smeared faces, markered-up arms
Colored on walls even have their charms
We moms take many things in stride
Rather than sound childhood alarms

One daughter cut her bangs real short
Before a family wedding
I shook my head, bemoaned a bit
Not seeing where this was heading

Scissors wielded by this girl
Led me to rethink and relook
’cause next she cut her dresses up
After reading one picture book

Dolly’s Coat of Many Colors
A lovely heart-warming story
Of a patchwork coat made with love
Became more than allegory

My child wanted to experience
To become one with that sweet tale
Seeing all those cut-up dresses
Is the one time I wanted to wail

This is my response to this week W3 prompt. PoW Nancy challenged us to “think about a moment in your life when something truly mattered. Perhaps it was a great success, a hard-earned accomplishment, or a memorable disaster that taught you something important. Maybe you organized a major event, won a competition, survived a family vacation gone wrong, or confidently attempted a home-improvement project that ended in chaos.“

Write about an occasion when you soared, stumbled, or did a little of both.

Guidelines:

  • Use one or more 4-line stanzas;
  • Keep each line to 8 syllables;
  • Maximum length: 20 lines; (Sorry!)
  • Humor, reflection, triumph, embarrassment, and self-deprecation are all welcome.

As always, have fun and make the memory come alive for your readers.

The joys of being a mother