Tag Archives: poetry

Rain Stories

Rain was a popular subject for primary school children learning to read in the early 1900’s.  I am basing this assumption on these stories from the Ontario Readers Primer, authorized by THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION (that part was important enough in the book to print in all caps bold) published in 1920.

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How lucky am I to possess books that are almost a hundred years old? Even if the stories are blatantly sexist.  Wimpy little girl afraid of the rain vs. bold adventurous little boy having fun.

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In this case the smart males all seek shelter and the silly female goose doesn’t. Girls just can’t win.
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Isn’t that delightful? The pages are well-read, faded and stained, the cover is worn and falling apart and the binding disintegrating and barely holding everything together. It’s one of the things my mother felt was worth saving, and it is one of my treasures.

Day Five

Think of a time when you were completely wiped, totally exhausted, bone tired, and just plain done. Not quite dead, but really close. That was supposed to be me after working five days in a row.

But here I am, still conscious, reasonably lucid and almost pleasant to be around.  Huh.  I don’t know what happened.  I expected to be passed out hours ago, comatose and in recovery mode for my two days off.   I realize normal people work five days in a row all the time, but my four working days out of seven are broken up into small spurts with frequent home days in between, so I’m just not used to rising and shining day after day after day.

But when you’re short-staffed because some people quit and other people take vacations, these situations come up and you muddle through.  In varying states of muddle-ness.

I do know I’m tired though, because there are other clues besides falling asleep mid sentence.   When I’m over tired and can’t wind down,  I find really dumb things hilariously funny.  Like this for instance…..

imageHahahaha!  Caught poetry!  Seriously I laughed way too long at this to be considered sane.

On a completely different note, our pair of mallard ducks continue to show up out of the blue every morning and evening because apparently our backyard is a fascinating place.  Or there’s a lot more spilled birdseed out there than we realized.  They are delightful to watch.  We have also had visits from a lone Blue Jay and a Jackrabbit who is all splotchy changing from white to brown.  I feel like I’m living in an enchanted forest.  Another sure sign that I’ve been working too much.

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Well, there.  That certainly explains many things about this particular little ramble.

I hope you all are having a fabulous weekend!  Mine has just begun.  With any luck I’ll be able to stay awake for some of it.  Maybe take some more miraculous wildlife-in-the-city pictures with my phone. Maybe we should build a duck blind! Maybe not.  I’ll sleep on that one.

Tell Me Something

climb

Once I believed life was all uphill.

Every day made for gaining ground,

Chasing dreams,

Pressing on to reach the top.

Can you imagine that?

The battle nearly killed me.

What’s so different there?

It looks a lot like here, to me.

 “Tell me something, old friend: why are you fighting?”

 

Shipwreck

white water

                     He says he wants to brave the rapids

                So one leg in the canoe I give us a push

                        Bare feet with life jacket over bikini

              Too late I realize we’re bound to mess up

                Grab the paddles and endeavour to row

       Whack some rocks in the creeks white water

                  Bumping and tossing we finally capsize

                        Our little adventure is less than epic

           In three feet of water we wade to the dock

Poetry Prompt #6 – Reverse Acrostic from We Drink Because We’re Poets

Well this was fun!  Why start off with a frontwards Acrostic when you can do a backwards one?

What Are We Doing Again?

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These words are so simple, and yet….

I can’t get them out of my head.  What does this mean?  The phrase takes me all the way back to high school English and teachers who analyzed poetry in particular,  but also pretty much every other written thing, to death.  I admit I liked trying to impress them with my twisted take on things.  I expect a lot of authors would have been totally baffled by the garbage we came up with that they never meant at all.

Anyway, I want to know what you think.  Please take my poll.

There are no wrong answers.  Probably there are no right answers either.  Thank you class.  No going home for you until you finish this.  I will mail you your marks.

 

 

Limericks for Jack

Tanner's Jack, from Morland Brewery

Tanner’s Jack, from Morland Brewery (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Why is my life so damned boring?

Yelled Jack, with little forewarning.

His friends didn’t know

But suggested he go

Drink some ale to calm down his roaring.

~~~

Since the bartender never stopped pouring,

Jacks head was soon muddled and soaring.

He fell in a bush

And injured his tush.

It was hard to explain in the morning.

trifecta button

Trifecta Week 106  33 to 333 words using the Yiddish word tush – 3rd meaning – buttocks (slang)

Haiku Enlightenment

Sei Shonagon (清少納言)

Sei Shonagon (清少納言) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Weekly Writing Challenge: Haiku Catchoo!

Your mission is to write five haikus — one for each of the five days leading up to this Friday when we will choose some entries and feature them on Freshly Pressed. 

Wise words always sound ridiculously more sage and profound when they’re written in the form of Haiku.  So here’s my five deeply philosophical attempts to attain WordPress fame.  And if Freshly Pressed is not in my future, what the hell.

Not a broken mess –

Beautifully imperfect.

You are not alone.

~~~~~

There’s no good reason

To act your age my darling.

Stay forever young.

~~~~~

Can life be perfect

One fine day, some tomorrow?

Nope, so just relax.

~~~~~

You must learn the rules

Before you can break them all.

Hey, good luck with that.

~~~~~

Afraid of the dark?

What you can’t see worries you?

Kid – turn on the lights.

~~~~~

CalGeisha

CalGeisha (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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