It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is ..... PUZZLES.
Join Diane, MotherOwl, Mimi and me as we work our magic, turning puzzles into poetry. You can leave your poem in the comments or post on your own blog; if you do the latter, please leave a comment so we can find you and your poem. Use the topic, or choose another; the idea is to have fun and exercise our brains.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm not a mathy person.
It's fine if you are a mathy person. More power to those who enjoy numbers and have an aptitude for them.
But that's not me. I'm a word person.
So it would be easy to guess what interests me in the realm of puzzles.
(Once again, I'm illustrating my poem with pictures, with the hope that you will not notice how short my poem is.)
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How To Entertain Me
Su-do-ku?
No-can-do
my solution to Sudoku puzzles
Spatial toys?
Real killjoys
This pile of stuck-together blocks will, theoretically, fit together to form a cube. Unfortunately, that remains theoretical when it's in my paws.
But -- wordplay?
I say Yay!
please ignore the fact that one of the obvious words you can make with these tiles is "smut" -- Pixabay beggars can't be choosers
And a pun?
Oh, what fun!
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This seems like a good time to break out all the puns and wordplay memes I've been collecting.
And because there are a couple of regular readers here whose first language is not English, I've put some notes under the pictures to explain the jokes. I hope that helps. I think wordplay must be very difficult in a second (or third or fourth) language. It was even difficult to explain some of these, I found. If you're not having fun reading, feel free to ignore them! This is supposed to be enjoyable :)
escapea (escaped pea) = escapee (one who escapes)
boulder (a large rock) = bolder
stock = soup base; laughing stock = someone who is the subject of a joke; humerus (arm bone) = humorous
Alpacalypse = Apocalypse (and while llamas and alpacas are not the same thing, they look enough alike that it makes the joke work)
hay = hey; and that's a roll of hay kitty is sitting on, and, well, it's kind of a dumb joke, isn't it?
"end construction" really means "end OF construction", but "End Construction" is also the kind of thing you would see on a protest sign, too
... puffin (for everybody who's not familiar with this bird) - a play on the phrase "huffing and puffing"
giddyup is what you say to a horse to make him go; also, giddyup = get up
shift is a key but it's also a word for the hours you spend at a job
explains itself, I think
mustache (see kitty's white mustache?) sounds like "must ask"
this time, toad = towed
explains itself, I think (a Roomba is an automatic vacuum cleaner that moves around by itself)
plethora literally means "a lot"
"rain, dear"= reindeer, that guy above with the antlers
. . . and that something is a nose!
"in a nutshell (acorn)" = a short explanation
stuffed = full because they ate so much AND stuffed with stuffing
stables = where horses are kept; this is meant to sound like the phrase "the tables have turned", meaning something now is happening the opposite to the way it used to be
Toucan (the name of this bird) = two can
an oying = annoying
a Yamaha is a brand of motorcycle
For more puns and corny jokes I've posted in the past, see here and here.
It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is ....... BLUE.
Join Diane, MotherOwl, Mimi and me as we tackle this topic. You can leave your poem in the comments, or post on your own blog. If you do the latter, please leave a comment as well so we can find you and your poem. Use the topic, or choose another; the objective is to have fun and exercise our brains.
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It's a picture poem this week, folks. I looked through my old photos and anything blue that caught my eye made it into the poem.
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Blue is . . . . .
The inverted bowl of a summer sky
Tiny forget-me-nots nodding in a gentle breeze
Ocean waves meeting boulders along the shore
Early evening sky as a backdrop for the moon . . .
. . . and for a lamp along a walking trail
A bluebird looking for a sunflower seed
A fuzzy snowflake blanket beneath a fuzzy cat
The promise of fine weather through gray storm clouds
The dish that holds my sewing pins, now a half a century old
. . . and the first -- and last -- pincushion I ever made, equally old
Christmas 2019 bird ornaments made from felt and love
The bluish cast of cold winter snow, crisscrossed by deer tracks
And a welcome sight for a tired traveller . . . the sky as I near home
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Over to you, readers -- what does blue bring to mind for you? I hope it's good, whatever it is.
It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is ..... RELATIVES.
Join Diane, MotherOwl, Mimi, and me in tackling this topic. You can leave your poem in the comments, or post on your own blog; if you do the latter, please leave a note in the comments so we can find your poem. Use the topic or choose another - the intention is to have fun and exercise our brains.
Eagle-eyed readers might note that I've made a change to my Profile in the right sidebar. I've finally put into actual words the expectation I've always had in my head about comments here, including poems submitted for Poetry Monday. No more mind-reading required :)
On to the main event!
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It was only a couple of weeks ago that we had the topic "connections" and I apologize to participants for suggesting "relatives" for this week because it is so similar.
It was unintentional -- chosen without remembering the previous topic.
It hit me about a day later what I had done, and I've been struggling all week (as you may have, too) to come up with a different angle to write about.
And thus we come to Sunday evening, the pressure is on, and I am still racking my brain.
I have already fallen down several internet rabbit holes, including articles about our relatives the monkeys (who share about 93% of human DNA), the chimps and bonobos (who both share almost 99% of human DNA), great apes, lesser apes, Curious George, prehensile tails, why macaques might have better dental hygiene than some of us do, and . . . procrastination, because by now that topic seems like a better fit, and the "rules" for Poetry Monday, such as they are, allow for choosing a different topic. But it feels like that would be a stinking, low-down, rotten thing to do when it's my choice of topic to start with :)
So, I am resorting to my usual trick when the ideas won't come -- writing a very short poem with the hope that I can find at least one tiny nugget of truth and convey it.
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And Now I Bequeath It To My Offspring
I don't know just how
I acquired my chin
But the blame for my nose
Falls fully on my kin
*****
And now, in honour of the first "angle" I was exploring for this week, I offer you some funnies with our simian friends in them . . .
It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is .....WATER.
Join Diane, MotherOwl, Mimi, Merry Mae (although MM has been missing in action for quite a few days now -- I suspect computer troubles) and me as we make a splash with this topic. You can leave your poem in the comments, or post on your own blog. If you do the latter, please leave a comment so we can find you. Use the topic, or choose another - it's all good. The idea is to have fun and exercise our brains so they don't turn to mush quite so fast :)
*****
Not long ago, I started to use my camera and heard a little "dink" sound -- rather ominous in spite of its "dinkiness" -- and then a message came up on the screen: Memory is Full.
This necessitated deleting some photos, quite a few photos, in fact. There were pictures on there from over a year ago. I was surprised it had been so long since I last cleared out old shots, and it was interesting to see pictures and videos I had forgotten taking.
A few of them were taken during a snowfall last year. The snowflakes were huge and well-defined. I stood in the doorway in my winter jacket, with my camera, and discovered that the black, fuzzy material of my jacket made a perfect surface for the flakes to stick to as they landed, and a perfect background to take shots of individual snowflakes.
Here's a still shot of one of those snowflakes, enlarged:
The flakes piled up very light and fluffy on the deck railing . . .
. . . and on the trees . . .
It was quiet and peaceful with the snow coming down and I wanted to stand there forever admiring nature's perfection, but my sock-covered feet were getting cold even though I was standing inside the doorway so I reluctantly closed the door on nature and promptly forgot I took those pictures until my camera "dinked" at me.
Good thing my camera has a better memory than I do.
In case you didn't study this in school, here's a short video on how snowflakes form:
Anyway, this is my take on this week's poetry prompt -- because snowflakes are a solid form of water, of course :)
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A Question of Perspective
A grain of dust floats through the air
And turns into a snowflake there
It forms a perfect six-point flake
Like all the others in its wake
Yet different -- every one unique --
Due to chemistry mystique
Their beauty and their symmetry
Inspire me to poetry
So why does dust that falls as ice
Seem so spectacularly nice
When on my jacket sleeve is caught . . .
But dust inside my house does not?
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Have a good week, everybody.
Next week's topic is . . . . . . . RELATIVES . . . . .
