December Poetry Challenge (Sage Cohen) - ReadWritePoem

Your challenge this month is to write a 20-line poem using the list of words given as the ending words on each of your lines, i.e., stragglers should end line one, clink should end line two, etc. You can’t change the form of the word, but feel free to get creative with parts of speech (use the word as a noun, verb, adjective, etc.). What about the twentieth and final word? That one’s up to you. It can be any word you like or one you select at random. Just open any book like we did, close your eyes and point. 

Following is a list of nineteen words we chose completely at random from a number of different poetry books by poets who have widely divergent styles, and therefore, widely divergent vocabularies. We simply closed our eyes, opened the books to any page and pointed, so we refuse to take any responsibility for these words:

1. stragglers
2. clink
3. vulgar
4. reading
5. sundown
6. number
7. apricots
8. solar
9. wearing
10. park
11. California
12. sandwiches
13. ears
14. gray
15. walk
16. felonies
17. cadence
18. inconceivable
19. episode
20. ?

Forbidden

Several curious stragglers

Heard our crystal glasses clink.

Unapproving comments bordered on vulgar;

Whispers unmasked only by impeccable lip reading.

Oppositional, we continued toasting until sundown.

As an alternative, an indiscriminate number

Suggested indulging in delectably, delicious apricots,

Readily available locally due to intensive, persistent solar

Energy. We gathered them yesterday while wearing

Doc Martens and Bermuda shorts in a private park

Somewhere in southern California.

Today we savor tuna and watercress sandwiches -

Periodically nibbling on each other’s ears –

Under ominous clouds, gray;

Summer rain threatening while we walk.

Amusingly, we ponder real and imagined felonies

Committed during our day-long cadence.

Incarceration is unconceivable –

A forbidden episode –

Especially while wrapped tightly in your arms.

©Bridget Nutting , 2009

Message from a Modern Day Prophet

My youngest son, Joseph, wrote this yesterday in honor of September 11th. He is very wise for his 21 years. We all need to remember this message.... I couldn't have said it better myself!

Tell, better yet, show the ones around you that you love them. Don't hesitate or hold in the feelings that you have. Be honest, open, and real. Take every chance in life to feel emotion. Whether it is happiness, pain, sorrow, or love. Don't be afraid to feel every emotion in which we've been blessed. Even those emotions that we dread are only reminders of the blessing of those we crave.

We never know what life has in store for each of us. The next step in our paths as individuals on this Earth is unknown. Don't risk never having the chance to be honest and truthful with your self and those you love.

Six years ago today, thousands of people were torn from those they love. They lost that next chance to say the things they always thought they would have a chance to say. They left their homes in a hurry to get to work. Forgetting to kiss the ones they love and never saying the words that would have only taken a moment’s time to speak.

Remember, life is short. It ends slowly or quickly, but it will end one day. Take the time to speak your truth before time is taken from you. Live life as if every moment is your last...

Carpe Deim!
Joseph Nutting

Postcard #2

What symbols dreams?
Eagles soar...
People fly...
Rocks speak...
Snowcapped mountains
await the climb...
Are they symbols of
some deeper meaning
or only dreams?


Some people believe that all dreams have deep meaning... I know that I have had many that carry a meaning beyond the obvious, but how do we really know? Sometimes they don't make any sense at all, and I wonder if we are supposed to get some message from the absurdity... I guess we never know completely.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Natalie tomorrow for a short time. I can hardly wait. She's walking now, so it should be interesting... time to child proof again!

Take a moment to give thanks for your many blessings and hug someone whom you love.

Blessings to you always...

Postcard Poetry Fest

It's a bologna and cheese
on white bread
kind of day...
crust removed...
red kool-aid and
homebaked chocolate chip
cookies...
sand in our shoes...
plaid beach blanket...
and another round
of "Row, Row, Row your boat..."
packed in picnic
basket memories...
Adult children are never
as much fun...

This is the first of the postcards I have sent out during "Postcard Poetry Fest - 2007." The challenge is to write a poem a day and send it on a postcard to people on our list. Since I do "mail art," I have also used this time to create my own postcards instead of purchasing them. This has indeed been challenging, but so exciting to receive postcards and poems from people all over the world! It has also been somewhat frustrating when postcards come unsigned by the writer... Oh well, nothing is perfect... and the good far out weighs the bad... Paul, one of the coordinators, has done a great job of scanning postcards in to his Facebook space... it has been great fun so far. (Facebook has some real advantages...)

Well, need to close for now and go off to create...

Blessings always,

bridgeanna

A Grandma's Pride

Being a grandma is almost better than being a momma.... I never thought I could love another being any more than I love my own children, but then along came Natalie and.... well, it doesn't take much to realize that she stole my heart! Maybe it is because I am older and wiser, or maybe it is just because that is how life works for most; in any case, there isn't anything I wouldn't do for her, now and in the future!

I was so lucky to live with and be loved by my great grandparents. They were seventy-five when I was born, and at six weeks old, I went to live with them. Every child should be as loved as I was. Something happened in my mom's heart that didn't allow her to express her love as well as they had, as a mother or a grandmother. She's gone now, and I guess I will never know exactly what that was and why she could never get past it all... I hope she realized that she was loved, unconditionally, anyway. I pray I can be a "Grandma" like my great grandmother was... I never once doubted her unconditional love for me. I could tell her anything and everything, even as a teenager... she was always there for me... What a precious gift I was given... and now it is my turn to give it to our precious Natalie.

Take a moment and tell those whom you love just how much you love them... they never hear it enough!

May you always be blessed!

bridgeanna

Eyes are a window to the soul...

I love to look into someone's eyes...

everything is revealed there. In all of our advance-ment

in this world today, we really have not been able to replace the value of sitting down together and gazing into another's eyes... So many times people can deceive over the phone, in a letter, or on the computer, but it is so much more difficult in person. So, why all this talk about eyes????

The saga continues with my one and only sister... How I wish we could sit together and talk, and look into each other's soul, then maybe all this nonsense could be solved... I pray someone (God) is listening, and has a plan... too bad God doesn't do email!!!

As far as art, I have been working on more greeting cards and some new frame designs which have turned out spectacular! The time seems to slip by so quickly each day.... I have a story that needs writing and 30 postcards for a "Postcard/poem-a-day" project in August. I guess I had better spend some time on those endeavors.

I hope your world is filled with love and blessings and many wonderful activities to keep you busy. I will close for now.

Blessings to you always,

bridgeanna

Just Another Day In Paradise

...just another day in paradise...

No matter what challenges are present in our daily lives, the are so many things for which we are thankful. We are so fortunate to have such wonderful friends and family... a drive down Burnside in Portland can be quite humbling... many people scattered on the sidewalk... tattered blankets... no pillows... no home... no family or people who care. What happened in their lives to bring them there? One has to wonder...

My thoughts drift to our soldiers in the Middle East... so far from home... living in heat we can't even imagine... in unspeakable conditions, at best. (I guess I should quit complaining about this week's heat here, huh?) I don't pretend to be political, but I wonder how long before they can come back home for good... The news tonight was disheartening... no more PTSD, because they were all "disturbed" before they entered the service... therefore, no medical care or compensation for those coming home with these problems... I have an idea; maybe we should send all those wise government doctors and politicians over to the front lines and see if they develop any problems such as PTSD. I wonder how they might feel is everyone concluded that they all were just disturbed before they got there?????

On a more positive note, our one and only grandbaby took her first steps this week, and she's not quite ten months old! She has been walking around furniture and walls for quite awhile now, so I figured she would take off at anytime...afterall, her daddy took off running at about the same age. Being a grandparent is definately one of life's blessings!

Well, the infamous garage sale takes place in just two more days... I will be glad when that is over! Maybe then, I can return to the more creative side of life.

Take a moment to count your blessings before you go to sleep tonight... your friends... your family... your home, whatever that might be... your pillow... clean blankets... and whatever else for which you might be grateful! Did you do something of which you are proud today? Did you share a smile or a kindness with a stranger? As Mother Teresa said, "We can do no great things; only small things with great love." Take time to be thankful for those blessings in your life!

Blessings to you always,

bridgeanna