Tumblewords

Fractals Photos Poetry Prose Watercolor

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Bye-Bye 2008





Shake it up

breastbone's
wish for passion
glimmers in the embers
flame rises for the hottest year
...rebirth

♥ ♥

ThomG at Three Word Wednesday offers these words as prompt: passion, glimmer, wish.

The poem is probably a cinquain.

Fractal by Sue and Fractal Explorer

Hoping 2009 brings fuel for your fire!!



**

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Watch! It's Coming 'Round Again!



Skittles at Heads or Tails prompts with 'Watch'.
**

Resolution Re-run

New years by the score
have left me in doubt
as what more to leave out.
I gave up hard spirits,
tobacco and speeding,
soaped out my mouth
and even stopped fibbing.
I once gave up slouching
and dating bad men,
ran from intolerance
to pose on the fence.
I’m not pure lily white
but surely modest and mild.
I’ve come full circle
which is rather odd
so this year I resolve
to resume smokes and gin,
to step up my pace,
and regain ten pounds
while practicing road rage
and lewd finger waves.

**

A Pleasurable, Prosperous and Peaceful 2009 to You!

♥ ♥

Monday, December 29, 2008

Stardust Haiku





Pleiades needle
in and out among hoodoos
stitching sky lines


**


fence free
garden of cosmos
star spangled sky



**



One Single Impression offers this: Lirone of Words that Sing offers this week's prompt, stardust. Thank you, Lirone!

Feel free to follow the links and play along with this delightful Monday meme...

***

Sunday, December 28, 2008

I believe


...that we might be on the right track although there will undoubtedly be several derailments before the next destination comes into view.

Thankful that this current train wreck can be fixed, if by no other means than belief, works for me. Negativity surely won't pull this train out of the station and I believe, kind of, that media, pundits and beasties will grow up and offload a bit of the nastiness so prevalent in this past decade.

I believe that stirring minds and mapping new ideas will foster belief and create a new track which will straighten as we go and will remain in place without a need to reshuffle the ties.

I believe that positive outlooks can last throughout the year.

Probably.

I want to believe, you know.

♥ ♥ ♥

Happy and Prosperous 2009 to each of you!

I believe... is the prompt issued by Sunday Scribblings. A great meme with a weekly prompt - be sure to visit and play along!

**

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

This Time of Year



Heads or Tails prompts with 'This Time Of Year'. Make a post telling what you do or don't like about this time of year.

I spun a few American Sentences (follow the link to read about this form) and here is a source to help count syllables (or words).


Winter is beautiful but it comes in bites too large to chew.

Today winter is four white feet high and it's continuing to fall down.

I love long summers but winter captures my heart for twenty minutes.

Mail, guests, planes and cities full of snow plows are held captive by downfall.

Snow is building up to a perma-winter, shoulder high and counting.

Cabin fever comes ahead of the Solstice ~ lingers til Equinox

**
Happy Holidays

♥ ♥ ♥

Monday, December 22, 2008

Winter Haiku





White fluff
covers the wrinkles
night falls early


flash of sun
bounces off the snow
highlights crow



tree limbs
shake dry snow in white outs
gather more



One Single Impression prompts with 'A Winter's Day'
by Geraldine of My Poetic Path

The photo is from early last winter - can't see anything out there now - over four feet of snow and still falling.

Merry Christmas!


♥ ♥

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Late. Not so Much.





winter, off kilter,
jumped
from the grateful day
of autumn, dropped
swirlwinds of flakes
a yardstick in depth

solstice, so timely,
arrived
on a flash of Sun
wings of New Moon
linked to Pluto and Mars
frosted flakes in layers of ice

R.S.V.P.'s intact
they partied as one
flung knapsacks of snow
into the eerie silence
and settled under cover
for a long-season slumber

**




Thanks to Sunday Scribblings for the 'late' prompt! Stop on over there to see what others wrote. And to play along...

Happy Holidays to all!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Dusk




uncoupled
from the winter dark
embarked with a giggle
on a drifting quest

dusk
adeptly hugged
the southbound sun
crossed the basin
of the great Mojave

dusk
hung on with a grin
hooky bobbed
across the sandman line,
returned with yesterday




Michelle at Poefusion Friday 5 offered these words in prompt: adept, basin, uncouple, giggle and dusk.
My response takes a short flight into the not-so-real...

***

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Dear Isadora





Dear Isadora

pursuit of the exotic
pointing toward the dark

your barefoot wildness
swirling under scarves

while madcap friends
sing havoc for your dance

~

on that decisive ride
you fell across the void

like a mindless curl of wind
merging with the nub of night

we wait with bated breath
for your encore curtain call

Dear Isadora.


***

Totally Optional Prompt this week: write a poem about a first in your life.

I must have had seconds rather than firsts so I'm taking the optional route...although this poem reflects a first for Ms. Duncan.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

In a Nutshell




He rarely hesitates when one dash of neglect will make her jealous.




The 17-syllable sentence above is an American Sentence. An interesting exercise.

The image was created in Adobe Photoshop with Bamboo Fun.

Thanks to ThomG at 3 Word Wednesday for the prompt words of hesitate, neglect and jealous...

***

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

A Round of Moon





they say
she glows full

dark, deep clouds
hide her light

who would ask
who would tell

if the moon
spun away
left us far behind


Today's prompt from Heads or Tails: Anything Round. Thanks, Skittles.
HEADS - Anything round

Watercolor sketch by Sue...

***

Monday, December 15, 2008

Distractions by Haiku





**

massive shell game
distractions widespread
piecemeal pictures

**

snowflakes piling
profound cold and ice
global warming

**

wings a-flutter
mallard squawking
quick freeze

**

One Single Impression offers Distractions as today's prompt!

Some distractions are far more fun than others! Happy Holidays!

***

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Change for Madoff



I knew instantly...

that this plan could work. The few regulations rarely caused the overseers to look askance. I knew if I could get away with it for eight months, it would build on its own accord and take flight into numbers only dreamed about. It did.

Jail didn't scare me ~ I knew the big house man was good for a pardon. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain. TARP covered us all very smartly. We were too big to fail and people would forget about us as soon as American Idol came on.

It was well worth fifty billion for me...

A fictitious 'think' for Bernie ~ the truth lies with Madoff.

Prompt from Sunday Scribblings

***

Friday, December 12, 2008

Joker's Wild






in the space of dark
where the faults
live unfettered

a flinch was dotted
by shrug and pout
one denial frittered

dawn pressed eject
exposed the blemish
as guilt grew a pardon




Michelle at Poefusion Friday 5 offers the following words for today's prompt: blemish, eject, flinch, pout, dot
She never fails to select words that jostle the imagination.

***

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Errant Seed




I didn't want to be here
where the shade is deep
and the sun is rare

an unplanned spree
brought me to this site
where I didn't want to be

breezes fail in freshness
nights fill with metal noise
silence is my dream of bliss

nearby hills hold my kin
cedars, pine and royal firs
but here I am in town

where her backyard
dwindles down and
where my taproot sank


Totally Optional Prompt: So, that's your prompt this week: be someone or something else. Write a poem in the voice of whomever or whatever you'd like. Here's your chance to shed your own skin and be someone or something else.

Image created on Bamboo Fun with Adobe Photoshop Elements.

**

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Nightmare 101







ancient enemy
a vague discomfort buried
bursts like shattered glass



3 Word Wednesday posts these three words today: vague, enemy, shatter. Thanks to ThomG at Surface Tensions. Come play along with us!


***

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Shorter than a Drabble







Before I had my fill of Phil, he hit the road with her and left his dirty clothes with me.


(A short story in one American Sentence) The image was created on Bamboo Fun.

Skittles at Heads or Tails offers the following prompt for today ~ HEADS - Fill *OR* TAILS - Phil. Please feel free to join in the fun at this meme.

***

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Doodles and Haiku






cellular
unraveling
...ink blots



mind circles
whispers in color
fills a page






One Single Impression posts: Thanks to Teri of Teri's Mandalas for this week's prompt, doodles.

Doodles were created in Bamboo Fun with Adobe Elements 5.


***

Friday, December 05, 2008

December Noon



winter sky turns vitreous
stumbles starkly near

losing its limpid look
it gears up once more

inundates the north
with a foot of white debris




Poefusion Friday 5 prompts with these words (I added definitions for some)!

debris
winter
vitreous ~ of, relating to, derived from, or consisting of glass
stark
limpid ~ absolutely serene and untroubled -clear

**

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Land of Heat and Money


red rock monoliths block
the horizon line,
their shadows blacken
the dust grown ankle deep

sun glances off the land
raptors hover on heat waves
without tears, a tiny girl
cradles in crackling grass

under a bronze-like shine
her tummy stretches
fine as skin upon a drum
tomorrow, her mother

cursing and screaming grief
will bury this fifth child, her
only daughter, lost to famine
and a faulty trickle down theory

**

Totally Optional Prompt says: your prompt this week is to take an unsavory topic and find a way to make it glow. Polish it. Turn it into something beautiful. (I say, now you can try it - it's not as easy as it appears. Unsavory, indeed.)

**

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Up and Down a Midnight Wander




white shafts freeze to the air
like a tongue on heavy metal

balance escapes to the south
dictates gray for the shortest light

yesterdays gyrate underfoot and
tattered regrets thread the night

days emerge as age-old rags
when sleep is on vacation


Watercolor by Sue.

Prompt words: balance, dictate, wander on Three Word Wednesday by ThomG at Surface Tension

Please come play along with us!

**

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Shine




Doppler watchers
say the sun
will shine today
but sensors keep
outdoor lights
brightly lit
on this double gray
December day.
It's sure to be late
before the sun
can find its way
through pressing clouds.
Standing by
the window,
I watch and wait.


Fractal created in Apophysis.

Prompt by Skittles at Heads or Tails

Monday, December 01, 2008

Welcoming




**

gray sky low
snow falls ankle deep
flash of sun

**

corn chowder
tang of poblano
soup welcomes

**

scent of baking bread
laughter, chatter, hugs around
welcomes family

**
return trip
smooth flowing traffic
dry highway

**

Several senryu prompted by the post on One Single Impression courtesy of Nancy Bea Miller of Genre Cookshop.

Follow the links to read what others wrote and to play along with this Monday Meme.

~
Watercolor by Sue.
~

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Winterland for Sunday Scribblings





Sunday Scribblings posts: This week, tell us a story about wintertime. What's winter like where you live? What's the harshest winter you've ever endured? Like it, love it, hate it? (Or, you can write about "A Winter's Tale" by Shakespeare if the mood strikes you!)

**

Winter? No thanks.
It wouldn't be so bad if it were warm and sunny.
If trees didn't fall from the weight of snow and ice.
The beauty of winter is a paradox that comes once a year and often stays for three seasons.

Winterland

Winter wet
froze hard upon the trees
a fairyland even Disney
could not replicate.
Cracking smashing limbs
glistened as they fell
reflections shot the dusk
before the day was done.
Colors of Joseph’s coat
on tails of wintry light
ricocheted thru town
to spread a magic mantle
upon the ice-clad ground.


**

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tacoma Bridge of Light



as dawn scumbles the night
universal colors rise
worked by heat, blown by pipe
Chihuly's artistry of bold

a thousand dyes blend
waxy strands of primaries
hug rounds of gossamer glass
Chihuly's artistry of bold

a thousand scrambled facets
low empty bowls upended
akin to jellyfish suspended
Chihuly's artistry of bold

like Bellagio's decor
kaleidoscopes of gold
cast glitter on the floor
Chihuly's artistry of bold




Fractal created in Fractal Explorer by Sue.

Glass has fascinated me for eons, or maybe a little less than that. Dale Chihuly is one of my favorite artisans - it amazes me to watch glassblowers work from his rapidly sketched charcoal lines to create a diaphonous and exquisitely colored object. Follow the link if you'd like to see art of Chihuly.


Totally Optional Prompt: And what is a kyrielle? Briefly, a poem made up of four-line stanzas (any number of such stanzas) where the last line of each stanza is the same. Suggestion: write a free-verse kyrielle that retains the four-line stanza structure and the repetition.

Amanita Phalloides


Thankful that she felt no fury and harbored only a flicker of guilt, Lisbon recited affirmations for a rich and single life while she stirred a second measure of finely ground Amanita Phalloides into her philandering husband's Metamucil.



A stab at a story in a sentence, this is Post #500 on my blog. Watercolor sketch by Sue.

From prompt words, thankful, fury and guilt posted today by ThomG, Surface Tension on Three Word Wednesday.

***



**

Monday, November 24, 2008

Childhood Memories in Senryu




hoarded rocks
tumbled in a can
sparkling gems



Sky King
seeps through pin and quartz
crystal radio



paper rolls of songs
respite from chopsticks and scales
player piano





One Single Impression posts: Childhood Memories Prompt courtesy of Geraldine at Poetic Path


***

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Grateful


This link will take you to the Feast of Thankfuls which I wrote before I became mostly serious.


How many ways can I say grateful and for how many things? Each day I give thanks for family, first, followed by a current list which doesn't always fall in an orderly fashion.

Today, I was grateful to have reached the NaNoWriMo word count.

Today I was grateful for blogs and bloggers, for readers and writers, for a peek at the sunset, for not falling off my treadmill, for a spider slow enough to be captured and sent outside to spin.

Grateful to be sheltered, not hungry, with a bed to sleep in and with the luck that keeps me from being on the street.

Grateful that some of us are physically removed from war. I'm grateful to those who serve and those who care. For those who learn and those who dare. Always, I'm grateful that the worst hasn't happened. And then I fear it may have happened to someone, somewhere today.



May I wish you all a long list of gratefuls and a delightfully warm and generous holiday.



The above is in response to: Sunday Scribblings prompt: Grateful

***

Friday, November 21, 2008

Fused Glass


seeds ripe for theshing
hang on thick cedar trees
ringing the secluded kiln

plication of aromatic pits
with primed cullet
creates fused glass formula

she huddles around designs
fired with mabe textures
known to mimic handblown

while images artfully shot
are transferred online
to her busy Etsy site

***


Michelle at Poefusion Friday 5 offers these words for prompt: thresh (separate seed mechanically), plication (fold), cullet (broken or refuse glass usually added to new material to facilitate melting in making glass), secluded, mimic

***

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Sounds for TOP


Totally Optional Prompts is looking for Sound this week.

For several years, I read at local venues and created audio CD's to accompany each of my poetry chapbooks. After a lengthy bout with a respirator for pneumonia, I'm sure I sound too scratchy to read in public.

I found Wendy Videlock on the Poetry Foundation website and listened to North of Mist several times before I Googled and read any number of her poems. This one remains my favorite. Ms. Videlock is a Colorado poet and has received numerous awards and accolades.

North of Mist




This image is a digital watercolor created in Adobe Elements 5 and with Bamboo Fun.
***

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Golden Goose



the chosen golden goose
drops a leadfilled clunker

the corrupt spin off tension
parachute to offshore digs

to nests of loopholes
free from extradition

doesn't take big intellect
to know riches dwindle

when that special goose
is steamed and rudely plucked



Fractal created in Fractal Explorer.

Thanks, ThomG at Surface Tension for the Three Word Wednesday prompt: corrupt, tension, intellect.


***

Monday, November 17, 2008

Courage Haiku


One Single Impression posts: Courage is this week's prompt, thanks to Barb's Haiku.


**

strutting down the street,
like shark bait she trolls for threat
...one mother pheasant

**

racing like the wind
tail upright as a tall mast
chipmunk crosses road


**



Fractal created in Fractal Explorer.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Sunday Scribblings


Sunday Scribblings offers 'Stranger' as the prompt word.



The prompt immediately brought to mind this poem, written a year or so ago and published in Right Hand Pointing early in 2008.



Stranger

hard yellow daylight
dropped in her window
harsh wind barked at the roof
tones of irritants rang bells
buzzed out their warning ~
each man she conjures
out of the morning glow
becomes a midnight stranger




Watercolor by Sue.


Thursday, November 13, 2008

Lustre Creme Shampoo



downpour of rain
fills the cistern resting
on a rusted tiller wheel

she ladles its fresh water
into the kitchen teapot
brings it to a rolling boil

phones her friends
offers warm soft water
poured into sky blue jars

for rich shampoo lather
unlike suds from hard water
that tumbles from their taps


Michelle at Poefusion Friday 5 offers these words for prompt:
cistern
Lustre Creme Shampoo
rusted tiller wheel
teapot
blue jar

Feel free to read what others wrote and to play along with this unusual meme!

***

Bring It On



autumn boils
bring-it-on
the shifting soil
opens wide
spits
all that was
a gray X-ray
tumorous
with failure
autumn roils
presents the past
in smoldered ash
her eyes slam shut
comforter masks her nose
visions of might-have-beens
recant bold cry of bring-it-on





Watercolor by Sue

Totally Optional Prompt for today: write a poem that creates expectations. Feel free to read what others wrote and to play along with this Thursday Meme.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Change





...blush of dawn
reclaims the sky

bare aspen quiver
in the early breeze

...tenderness adrift
acrimony thrives

pundits repeating
old air overheats



Blush, Quiver, Tenderness were the prompt words from ThomG at Three Word Wednesday. Follow the links to see what others wrote and to play along!

Image created in Adobe Elements and Bamboo Fun

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Tuesday Haiku




Skittles at Heads or Tails offers this prompt:


HEADS - Wear *or* TAILS - Where

My response, which is both an Occidental senyru and an American Sentence:



no where is wear more
evident than on the head
where I wear my face



Fractal created in Fractal Explorer.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Paradox Haiku





promise in autumn
distant row of brown garden
tufts of brilliant green



bald eagle
grasps post-spawn salmon
... lake gleaner



street sweepers
too late for fall leaves
winter soup



choice reluctant
which wish should he want
gray shiftless day





Digital Photo by Sue.

One Single Impression posts: Paradox, prompt from Edward Gault Forest River Journal


Friday, November 07, 2008

Dog Day News



a waving index finger
waggles the dog and
Barney takes a bite

now he officiates from
an oval vivarium
rising on its golden plinth

chuff hears him crying
aims to dry his tears
warn him about unfairness

the lame chuff
wintles down the hall
to locate a wiping sponge

the newsman's still bleeding
~ gawd, the ranch looks good

***


Digital Photo by Sue.

Michelle at Poefusion Friday 5 offers the five words and I've added the definitions I used:
wintle - stagger, reel
vivarium - a terrarium for small animals
sponge - piece of cellulose or a dead sea thing :)
chuff - boor
plinth - square block serving as a base


Thursday, November 06, 2008

Two-Hour Market



bright lights halo
the poet with a book
smiling behind barriers
tabling her qualms

...bookshop patrons, stern
as if passing an open coffin
reluctant to pause
lest the poet turns vocal

like a TV car saleman and
feeds them something
they can't afford or use
with terms they don't cotton to...

sharing words and thoughts
with the sullen and the leery
is not as easy as receiving
part-time publication credits



This piece is written in response to the Totally Optional Prompt post: Marketplace

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Second Wind



early spring fervor
welcomes the winter weary
bearing gravity chilled bones,

nuance crosses the heart of hope
and bends the sword of fear
to release seeds of bittersweet

into the dawning air while
prickly thorns of a rose
struggle to defeat its scent

and in turmoil of change
man renews his faith
gains his second wind




Another Bamboo Fun, computer generated watercolor.

Hope, Gravity, Nuance are the prompt words posted by Three Word Wednesday...Follow the link to read and play along -

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Midnight Shift




sounds of lonesome
underscored by
menacing tones
intermittent songs
to the rising moon
he heard the howls
his neck hair rose,
quivered in the dark
the old guard whistled





Pen and Ink Sketch by Sue.

Skittles at Heads or Tails prompts: Heads. Guard

Monday, November 03, 2008

Disguise Haiku




***

outsize eye tattoos
warn off nearing predators
wings of jezebel

***

black nose, spots of pink
white fur glistens in the snow
hungry polar bear

***

brown river creates
ripples around a faux log
cranky crocodile

***

One Single Impression posts this prompt: Disguise

Digital photo post processed.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Goodtime Girl





a goodtime girl
aglow with smiles
outside a gossip's heart

her afterwords
marked by meddle
sometimes did ripen

form damaging debris
unchecked by sudsy rinse
or 'not-I' chuckle




***
Michelle at Poefusion Friday 5 offers the following words for prompt:

meddle
afterwords
debris
rinse
ripen


Follow the link to play along!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Not Able





alone near the burning bush
contemplating nano-fame
from the flirt of a trophy veep

a wishful commander-in-chief
survives for combat ~
battles confound his dreams

dollars are made by wars
that's the economy he knows
and now he's out of bud lite

thanks to his trophy wife



Fractal created in Fractal Explorer.

Totally Optional Prompt: Election
This is a good time to reflect on elections in general and this election in particular.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Morning View




vampires drove a knife
clean through her heart

then oozed into the dark
like old Cheshire cats might

the damage was done
no evidence to the contrary

the corpse was not smiling
in line with its regular style

the first November sun
sulked in the gray morning sky


The image is one of the first created in Bamboo Fun. I have much to learn...


ThomG, current moderator of Three Word Wednesday, offers these words for prompt:
damage, knife, corpse

Feel free to follow the links to read other's writings and to join in this fun-loving Wednesday meme!