Poetry Monday: Monkeys

It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is MONKEYS.

Please feel free to join Delores and me as we tackle this challenge. 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 know where to find you.

We've had a few more bloggers rising to the challenge the last few weeks (go back and see the comments for the poems and links) -- thank you all! It is so interesting to see all the directions that the topics lead us.

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When I was in about Grade 2, my teacher had a book in our classroom that I loved to read. It was about some monkeys whose roof leaked whenever it rained. They would huddle together, wet and miserable, waiting for the rain to stop and promising themselves they'd fix the hole in the roof as soon as the sun came out. And when the sun came out, they would play instead. Because who wants to work when you can play in the sunshine? And when it rained again, they would promise to fix the roof again. And then they'd play instead.

Etc. Etc. Etc.

They never did get the roof fixed, not that I can remember, anyway.

I marvelled at their inability to learn from their mistakes.

And I felt sorry for them that they kept getting wet.

I still marvel and feel sorry. And also feel a little stupid, because I do the same thing in some areas of my life.

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME.

Ahem.

My poem for this week (and it may or may not follow from my preamble; my lips are sealed) is a Haiku, and here it is . . .

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Hey There Cousin

You'd have to be blind
Not to see the connection
'Twixt monkey and man

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I await Delores' topic for next week with a great deal of trepidation :)

It will be updated here at the earliest possible opportunity.

UPDATE:  Next week's topic is . . . CLOUDS . . .

In the meantime, I wish you a week where you get to monkey around for at least a little while . . .

Poetry Monday: Blessings

It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is . . . blessings.

Join Delores and me as we count ours. Or do something else poetic with them. One never knows what words will come from one's head until they're on the screen, I find . . .

You can leave a poem in the comments on either of our blogs, or post on your own blog. If you do the latter, please leave a comment so we know where to find you.

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I was stymied by this week's topic up until the last minute -- again -- but then, as I thought about it in terms of what I wish for other people (rather than what I have myself), it fell into place. The wishes are loosely based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which you can read more about here if you are interested.  The sad thing is that so many people around the world, and close to home, do not have even the most basic of their needs fulfilled.



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Blessings

May you have clean water to drink
And enough food to eat

May you have safety from harm
And a roof to shelter you from weather

May you have good health, and if you do not
Then may you have courage to keep on

May you have people to love, and people who love you
(Both fur-less and furry kinds, as you prefer)

May you have work that is meaningful to you
And beauty in your life
And may you become all that you are capable of being

May someone remember you with fondness
When you are gone

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Next week's mission topic, should you choose to accept it, is . . . MONKEYS . . .


In the meantime, I hope the world treats you well.

Poetry Monday: Music

It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is MUSIC.

Why don't you join Delores and me in writing our thoughts on this wide-open topic? You can leave your poem in the comments on either of our blogs, or if you prefer to post on your own blog, please leave a comment to let us know where to find you.

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Well, well, well.

You'd think if a person suggests a topic for a writing challenge, that person would have an inkling of what they wanted to write about, wouldn't you?

I thought music would be an easy thing to put into poetry -- after all, music basically IS poetry -- but guess what?

I got well and truly immersed in my own musical memories but couldn't write a single line about them. Not a rhyme. Not a coherent thought.

It wasn't until I gave up completely that my poetry muse showed up again.


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A Confession

Oh I must have been myopic
To pick music for a topic
I thought things would be just fine
And I'd find the words to shine

Lots of false starts to my name
No one else but me to blame
I cry "Uncle" and submit
I give up, my friends - I quit

Apologies - I've many
To readers of me, Jenny
And to my friend Delores . . .
. . . Next week's topic's yours

(Sorry, Delores!)

photo: icanhascheezburger.com

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Delores has given us the topic for next week:  BLESSINGS . . .

Wishing you all a good week :)

My Banana Buddy

I found this on my banana last week.

I took it as a message from the universe :)

Has your food ever spoken to you?

Poetry Monday: Distance

It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is DISTANCE. Thank you, Delores, for a thought-provoking (and teeth-gnashing) topic! ha ha

Join us as we get out our binoculars and zoom in on this topic. You can leave a poem in the comments on either of our blogs, or if you prefer to post on your own blog, please leave a comment to help us find you.

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I was really struggling with this week's topic until I happened to go out shopping for a short time on Sunday. I was enjoying my little shopping trip, and was waiting to pay for my purchases when this happened . . .

To The Person In The Store Lineup Today

Your voice was loud and rough

As you called the cashier stupid and blind

And said he should wear the flowery dress he went off to price for a customer

Since that customer was not you

You were enraged by the wait

Sputtering what you thought were well-deserved and clever insults

But they were neither

They were the words of a sour, self-centred person

No one wanted to challenge you

In case we became the next target

And we all carefully kept our distance

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Sometimes I write serious stuff. 

I actually debated about using this incident or even mentioning it, given that writing about it causes me to remember it more clearly and records it for far longer than it would survive just in my brain.

But I decided to use it because I was desperate. 

Suffering for my art . . . ha ha

To wash away the bad taste in my (and maybe your) mouth, let's have some funnies:

 

 

And that's a wrap for today.

Next week, we'll talk about . . . MUSIC . . . 

Have a good week, and thanks for reading!

Poetry Monday: Hair

It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is "hair". 

Join Delores and me as we comb through our minds, brush up on our skills, and present our "hair" poems for the world's enjoyment :)

If you'd like, you can leave a poem in the comments on either of our blogs, or post on your own blog and leave us a note in the comments so we can find  you.

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There's so much can be said about hair.

And a lot of it has already been said in the title song from the musical Hair (which then became a huge hit for  The Cowsills):

". . . long, straight, curly, fuzzy, snaggy, shaggy
Ratty, matty, oily, greasy, fleecy, shining, gleaming
Streaming, flaxen, waxen, knotted, polka dotted
Twisted, beaded, braided, powdered, flowered and confettied
Bangled, tangled, spangled and spaghettied . . ."

So what is there possibly left to say about hair?

I've written before about my own hair and my struggle to find a hairstylist who can cut it to my liking. Those posts are here and here.

Things have improved somewhat on the haircut front, and I hate to rock the boat for fear of making them worse again, so I'm pretty much just getting the same cut over and over, and trying to be thankful I have hair at all, because I don't have the face to successfully shave my head. Also, I am very, very grateful that my life is so easy that a haircut is the hardest choice I have to make.

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Half-Resigned To My Awful Fate

Do I care
If my hair
Is not quite
What I like?

Yes I do
And I rue
When my cuts
Drive me nuts

Do I swear
Do I glare
Do I flare
Oh BEWARE

. . . Ah, but still
It's a thrill
That my hair
Is still there . . .

But Lizzie, too, is trying to be a big girl about it.

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Over to you, Delores, for a new topic, which I will post when it has been finalized.

Wishing you a good week, everyone.

Update:  Next week's topic is DISTANCE . . . thank you Delores :)

Poetry Monday: Winter Windows

It's Poetry Monday and this week's topic, courtesy of Delores, is WINTER WINDOWS.

Join us as we squint through those windows and see what we can see . . .

You can leave a poem in the comments on either of our blogs, or in the comments below. If you do the latter, please leave a comment so we can come along and read.

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Winter Windows, eh? I knew this would be a challenge (for me) when Delores suggested it last week.

Let me just get my trusty hunting cats and my explorer scarf and my magnifying glass and see what thoughts I can scare out of the underbrush in my brain . . .

Donkey -- with cats, scarf, and magnifying glass. No?? Come on, use that imagination of yours :)

Here's what I found on my hunting trip.

Although February used to be quite a snowy month where I live, the last few years have been very "open" (not much snow cover). This year follows that trend. We have had quite a few snowstorms, but in between those the snow has either melted or been washed away by rain.

One thing that I like about snow on the ground is how it makes the days (and nights) look brighter, because it reflects the light. When there is no snow, the landscape looks drab and colourless.

So, instead of seeing snow and ice out my winter windows, I'm seeing . . .


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What I See

Through this February glass
All I see is dead, brown grass
Leafless trees, expired flowers
How I long for April showers



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Oh, yes indeedy, it IS a short one today 😀  Aren't we all lucky??

Now . . . how about HAIR as next week's topic? Delores, are you game?

Have a good week, everyone!

Poetry Monday: Driving

It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is "driving" . . . Join Delores and me as we take this topic out for a spin! You can leave a poem in the comments on either of our blogs, or on your own. If you do the latter, be sure to leave a comment so we can come along and enjoy your contribution.

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As you might have guessed from my accidental posting earlier, which I was only attempting to rename so I could start this one instead, but failed, I was going to write about all the driving I did during December and January to our daughter's house, which our son is now renting, which we were helping to prepare for rental, which is a three-and-a-half-hour round trip away from us; driving that took me through rain, snow flurries, snow squalls, heavy snow, unplowed roads, and unsalted roads, and always the trip home was after dark, so there was that complication, too.

And then I realized, there really wasn't anything to write about, much less write a good poem about. I drove. I ran into weather. I got home unscathed. I did it numerous times. I'm still alive.

It always faintly surprises me -- but definitely makes me happy -- when I do that drive and I get home alive. I feel like someday that will not happen. It's mostly highway, and I'm fine with that, but I don't like the merging into traffic and I really, really don't like when traffic is merging with me. Add in the bad weather and it gets my blood pressure up a bit.

However, it's not at all exciting or interesting except in the way that I keep having a sense of impending doom and it keeps turning out okay.

So at the last minute I decided I had to write about "driving" in some other way.

I love this icanhas.cheezburger.com meme, so I started with that:

I was the primary vehicular conveyance operator when our kids were in school, so I identify with this kitty. (Kids, if you're reading, it was the carpool kids I'm talking about, not you, LOL)

But that didn't loosen up my poem-writing brain cells a bit, so I decided just to post all the memes in my files about animals driving vehicles. Don't worry, there's a poem at the end, kinda.

And the poem? It's a re-working of an old verse my friends and I used to write in each other's autograph books back in junior high school (do you remember autograph books?) and the original went like this (insert name of friend where I have put Jenny):

Jenny had a little car
And it was painted red
And everywhere that Jenny went
The police picked up the dead

It doesn't seem so funny now, after decades of driving -- and decades of reading about road fatalities in the newspapers -- but at the time we thought it was hilarious.

Anyhow, my poem today is prompted by a story my long-haul trucker uncle told us a few years back. He and another trucker were driving one behind the other on a stretch of highway, and his buddy told him to look out for a particular colour and make of car that had just passed him and was approaching my uncle's truck to pass him. The buddy said to take a good look at the woman driving the car.

So my uncle did. And what did he see? The woman was nursing a baby, drinking a can of pop, smoking a cigarette, and talking on her cell phone. While passing tractor-trailers on the highway.

True story.

Phew! Makes you wonder how long she lived to keep doing that . . .

Time for the new version.


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Driving

Missy had a little car
She liked to drive it fast
If there were any cars in front
She simply had to pass

If thirst or hunger crossed her mind
She drank or ate at will
If craving for a cigarette
Her craving she'd fulfill

If friends sent her a text or two
Or called her on her phone
She'd type or chat without delay
Too social to postpone

She thought that highway safety rules
Were never meant for her
But only for "the other guy"
To whom she was a blur

Then came a day she thumbed her nose
At rules one time too many
What happened then in Missy's life?
Why, Missy hadn't any


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Whoa, that took a dark turn. But also a realistic one. I just hope Missy didn't take anyone else out with her when she went for her final drive . . .

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Please have a good week and drive safely! And especially watch out for the Missys of the world. So you can come back next week and see what Delores and I are up to :)

Nothing to do with the post or the poem, but what a cool cat :)

Update:  Delores has come up with next week's topic:  WINTER WINDOWS . . . thank you, Delores!