At the first blink of a firefly in the backyard, we run outside. One blip is followed by two, then six. Soon the whole yard is a-twinkle with stringless winged fairy lights that we try to catch because surely a jarful would light up a whole room.

Such a plain beetle
Wings folded, frankly boring
Then magic begins

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This is my response to the W³ prompt this week which is to write a haibun, use onomatopoeia three times, use the theme of “The Beauty of Night.”

A haibun is a new form for me. It combines prose and haiku. I’m not 100% sure I did it right.

Onomatopoeia — blink, blip, twinkle — I hope they count.

The Beauty of Night — bioluminescence is amazing and beautiful, right?

If I
Can just be still
It’s possible I’ll have
The needed peace/quiet for a
Sweet dream

---

This is my response to the W3 prompt for this week — to write a Golden Shovel poem. A Golden Shovel requires that the end word of each line form another author’s poem or quote. In my case, this is a very well-known quote from Martin Luther King, Jr, from a speech he gave in August 1963 — his “I Have a Dream” speech.

He repeats those words seven times — I have a dream; I have a dream; I have a dream; I have a dream; I have a dream; I have a dream; I have a dream.

But he begins that segment of the speech with these words, “So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.” I like the word “still” in there.

This is a Cinquain. Each line has a set syllable count: 2-4-6-8-2

The poem really has nothing to do with the quote.

who
can
resist
a spiral
laid in the pavement!
To walk heel-toe heel-toe around
the pattern carefully laid in brick in the courtyard

in
my
mind, it
was spiral —
faulty memory
that I have — when I looked it up
It was a mere labyrinth (as if that could be mere)

which
one
would prove
the harder
to build? A spiral?
Or a labyrinth? I would guess
The harder one to spell is the easier to build

---

This is my response to this week’s W³ Challenge which is:

• FORM: Compose a ‘Fib’ poem(created by Gregory K. Pincus), which is a six-line poem of 1,1,2,3,5,8 syllables).
  • VARIATIONS:
    1. Write as few or as many lines as you wish, as long as your syllable count is based upon the Fibonacci Sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, etc.).
    2. You may write more than one stanza, repeating the amount of lines of your first stanza.
• THEME: Write about a spiral; spiral shapes in nature or art, or perhaps a more figurative or metaphorical spiral.

---

I was thinking about when I had been in Bayeux, France in 2017. One day, I had gone for a walk with my brother and sister. We found this labryinth:

It’s where my mind went when I read the prompt — but it’s clearly NOT a Fibonacci spiral.

She walks into the room
She does a little scan
And chooses me, not the man
I see the darkest gloom
That no light can illume
Settle. And so it began
This had not been his plan
Oh, the doom! the doom!

He directs his kisses
Toward her, calling, beckoning
Come sit with me! Let’s chat!
Every advance, though, misses —
It’s a rude, rude reckoning
But who can understand a cat?

---

This is my response to the W3 prompt this week:

Compose a modified Italian sonnet with the following specifications:
Theme: unrequited love
Length: 14 lines
Stanzas: two stanzas (an octet and a sestet)
Meter:not required (this is why it’s a ‘modified’ Italian sonnet)
Rhyme: ABBAABBA CDECDE

---

This is based on a true story. What can I say? The cat liked me.

Remeber
[back-back-back] mber
When we used white out
[back-back-back-back] -out
Or the coree
[back-back] rective tape on the typewti
[back-back] riter to fix all the typose
[back] ?

Yeah, well
I’ll bet kids these t
[back] days have no idea of what we went through
Just o
[back] to repair silly mistakes —
Those fat-fingered ones we all make

Now control-Z is my best friend
As well as that back space key

I have yet to figure out how kids type with their thumbs, though.
[back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back-back] on their phoe
[back] nes with their thumbs, though –
And with higher accuracy ta
[back] than I have even though I took a keyboarding class.

Crazy, yes?

---

This is my response to the W³ prompt this week. Poet-of-the-week Suzanne Brace asked us to: “Compose a poem that conveys ‘Movement’, using repetition to move your ideas and imagery forward.”

However, I didn’t move forward. Pretty sure I was doing a lot of moving backward.

A ladder
Propped up (could he be madder?!)
‘gainst barn on sawhorses, planks
Tanks.

No surprise
It failed — who would/could advise
Such a scheme? Only a fool
(You’ll

Soon agree)
Maybe you’re thinking “newbie” —
Nope! That’s not it either. See —
He

Was skillful
But also way too willful
To listen to any sense
(Dense)

Just foolish
And, like a donkey, mulish
Stubborn. He thought it would work.
(smirk)

To foresee
(he could not) those sheep, carefree,
Stampeding through his death trap
(Crap!)

He survived!
This story is not contrived;
It’s true. I heard it last eve —
Steve

---

This is an Irish form called Deibide Baise Fri Toin. It’s made up of quatrains with an aabb rhyme scheme. Syllable count 3-7-7-1. Lines one and two rhyme on a two-syllable word; lines three and four rhyme on a monosyllabic word.

This is in response to the W³ prompt: folly

Oh, April!
Daffodil
Of the months!
You instill

Joy, delight,
Hope, laughter —
Yes, laughter!
For after

The muddy
Wretchedness
Of March (I
Must confess –

While I don’t
Hate winter,
I notice
Hope splinter

At the ups-
And-downs of
Cold and snow)
How I love

To see the
Trillium
The snowdrops
The Lilium

I love the
Happy sight
Of flowers
And more light

---

The W³ prompt this week was to write a poem about April.

Lord, let me be a ten-tug worm
That stands its ground as best it can
Or grips its ground as case may be
While robin works as worm hit-man
Though odds are stacked against me e’er
Though I can’t win — not with this plan
Though life is ever hopeless for
The principled who’s no yes-man
Give me fight ‘gainst the stronger-than

---

It’s rare these days when I miss the W3 challenge, but I did this week.

The challenge was to write a nine-line poem under the title of ““Who am I & What is My Purpose?”

I am frustrated with my job. So. Freaking. Frustrated.

Today, I had a conversation that I walked out of shaking my head and saying, “I can’t.”

Then I vented to the HR person.

Then I went for a walk. On my walk, I saw a robin tugging a worm that wasn’t giving way. It was a losing battle for the worm. I think it always is. But, for half a second, I was rooting for that worm. I knew at best, though, it would get torn in half. Not much of a best, eh?

The worm gave way.

The robin ate it.

I continued my walk.

Who am I? I’m the kind of person who fights a losing battle because I believe in it.

What is my purpose? To (hopefully) make the yes-man think.