Posted in Syllabic Verse

Shine Your Light

iPhone flashlight shining
Image from Google Play at google.com

Be a flashlight

Shine a light

On darkness

Reveal things

To help guide

Those lost

Be a flashlight

Be ready

Offer help

When needed

Syllabic Verse

This poem was inspired by an incident I had the other day as I was creating art.

I needed to see deep down into a vase I was using, and since my iPhone was in my pocket I remembered it had a built in flashlight option which I could easily flip on to shine light down into the vase and reveal what, if anything, might be inside.

This experience reminded me that I should always be ready to be a light bearer whenever and wherever needed.

Advertisement
Posted in Cinquain

Divinely Directed Day

Pictures of me and me friend in the 90’s

Random

Out of the blue

Actions lead to reunion

Of old friends, timely blessings,

Occur

Cinquain

I don’t believe in happenstance. As a believer I believe God directs, leads and guides our daily activities to bring about His way and will in our lives and in others lives.

Thus, the reason for my poem and the events that occurred in my life today.

This morning I, for no apparent reason at the time, decided to open up a packet of old pictures that had been packed away in a chest for years.

The package contained many memories of me and a good friend, pictures taken 20 years ago of us at work dressing up in various costumes to celebrate different holidays. Such fun times we had during those days.

Looking at those pictures made me smile as I remembered

and that led me to want to reconnect with this friend whom I’d not seen nor talked with in 20 years due to me moving away and other ways life sometimes gets in the way of people staying connected.

I did an internet search and found her husband of 57 years had passed away just two months prior to this day.

I felt so sad for her and how she might be feeling that I wanted to call and talk to her but I had no phone number for her and an internet search offered no help in that area as cell phones now offer no phone directories or ways to look up phone numbers anymore.

So I went to the only other option I could think of—Facebook—and there she was! I found her, friended her and we were able to reconnect and speak on the phone.

Why do I feel this was divinely orchestrated?

Because she said today was exactly 2 months since her husband passed and she was in the middle of selling her home and moving to an apartment and really was feeling sad and lonely. She said hearing from an old friend was a timely blessing to her day.

It was a blessing to me also.

Thank You God for bringing this about.

Posted in Haiku

Not A Secret Garden

Each day is a delight

My garden is my happy place

Visitors welcomed

Haiku

As my grand-daughter and I sat out on my patio chatting and drinking our coffee this past Sunday afternoon a Raven stopped by for a visit. He must have been very thirsty because he wasn’t at all shy or fearful. He just flew right in so very close to us and proceeded to drink from the birdbath which was less than 12” from where we were sitting! Such a fun experience and visit! Glad we had our cell phone cameras to capture the moment. 😊

Bird sitting on birdbath

Posted in Senryu

Birthday Blessings Bestowed

Me on my 76th birthday

Special days happen

Because people take time

To make them so

Senryu

I enjoyed a very special birthday today because so many people took the time to make it so for me. My family, friends, neighbors and acquaintances all shared their wishes in some way to make the day great, and for that I am feeling especially grateful and blessed!

Posted in Etheree

Joy and Wonder

Original oil slick photo enhanced by Leona J Atkinson 2020
“Raining Color” an Original oil slick photo enhanced by Leona J Atkinson 2020

I grew up in a black and white world

But then I found color, beautiful

Color of all kinds, hues, and shades,

And my world has never been

The same since, for

Now I see light prisms

Everywhere,

And find joy

And wonder

Daily.

Etheree

Posted in Double Syllable Lune

This Evening

Empty chairs

All’s that left now is

Empty Chairs

Minutes before

They held my dear ones

Time moves

Swiftly, savor it

Double Syllable Lune

Tonight my grand-daughter and her boyfriend came over for supper. We ate, had cake for dessert, played cards, talked and laughed. The two hours of time went by so quickly. After they said their goodbyes, I looked around at the empty chairs and quiet house and was reminded how fast time goes.

Thankful for the memories.

Posted in Choka, Double Choka, NaPoWriMo 2020

Cat vs Dog vs Me

Dog and Cat in a face off

An imaginary conversation between my cat Naomi and my dog Trixi.

“Sorry, wasn’t my fault!

I really didn’t mean to bite!”

Naomi meowed loudly.

“She pushed me right at you!”

“She only wanted to

Make us be friends” said Trixi

“Then why did you growl,

And snap at me? It scared me!”

“I wasn’t feeling friendly then”

“But now you are?”

Naomi indignantly hissed.

“Yes, we owe her that,

Don’t you agree, Naomi?

After all, your bite

Could’ve locked up her jaw!

We could have lost her!”

“Yes, but It still wasnt my fault!

Cats don’t want dogs for their friend!”

Double Choka

NaPoWriMo Day 7–“Prompt: “How the other tells it”

Remember an encounter with an animal.

Write a poem about the way the animal describes the encounter to its friends.

When I was about six years old I made the mistake of trying to make my newly acquired cat and my older dog to become friends.

I was holding my cat and put her up close to my feisty rat terrier dog thinking I would get them acquainted, and then hopefully they would become friends.

Just as my mom yelled at me to stop, the dog growled and snapped at the cat. The cat got scared and instead of letting her jump away free to run I held on to her and she turned on me and bit me on my cheek close to my ear.

This resulted in a very quick trip to the doctor who was a 30 minute drive away and me getting a shot of penicillin. The doctor said if mom hadn’t gotten me to him right away I might have gotten lockjaw and possibly died. This was in 1950.

I learned a hard lesson that day which I never forgot. Don’t try to force friendships on anyone, especially animals!

Posted in Epulaeryu, September 2019

Pizza Pie

Pizza infographic

A culinary delight!

When I first met you,

It was true love at first sight!

Especially so,

After taking that

Very first

Bite!

EPULAERYU:  (7 lines–33 syllables–7-5-7-5-5-3-1 About a culinary treat or favorite food.  Ends with an exclamation point! = !)

I first saw and tasted Pizza in the late 1950’s in a small Italian restaurant in Kenosha, Wisconsin. My older sister had discovered it through eating out with some of her high school friends and excitedly told our family about this wonderful new food item. So our whole family went to see what it was and we all loved it! It ended up being my dad’s favorite food 😊

Where Did The Word “Pizza” Come From, Anyway?

For more information:https://www.dictionary.com/e/whats-the-origin-of-pizza/

Posted in June 2019, Senryu

Unusual Sighting

Crab in a tree

Once upon a tree

Crab leaves his comfort zone

Unhappily everafter

Senryu

While on a recent visit to an Oregon coastal town I came upon this unusual sight as I was out walking to the beach.

There, high in a bush, was a crab. It was not alive, but it looked real.

I was puzzled at how it had gotten there but I never did find out, so I imagined the positive and decided it must have went on an adventure one day, took a challenge from a seagull to climb a tree and ended up not being able to get back down.

The positive part is that it was adventurous, it left it’s comfort zone and took a chance, many of us don’t do that out of fear or complacity, and even though perhaps the crab didn’t end up with the happy ending he’d hoped for, at least he won at his life’s challenge and

had the satisfaction that he tried something new.

Something to think about….