Midnight for Totally Optional Prompt

Totally Optional Prompt: Midnight. What might happen at midnight? Besides the date changing, a new day starting, a deal with the devil, the witching hour, a half-moon rising, clocks chiming?

Midnight

midnight passed
with air black and still
lightning roared to life
rode thunder to the earth
shuddering trees shook free
their limbs and leaves
exposed the underside of rot
the sun bent dark to light
and looked upon the world
that midnight lobbed and left


Fractal image created in Fractal Explorer, resized in Irfanview.

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Cycliku for 3Word Wednesday

ThomG, moderator of 3Word Wednesday, offers the following three words for today's prompt: Darkness, Patronize, Weaken





double-down darkness
patronizes tight lipped moon
weakens harbor tide
saltwater hatchlings scratch sand
harbor tide weakens
patronizing tight lipped moon
double-down darkness

NaisaiKu and CYCLIKU! are informative links for this particular poetry form but I use poetic license and alter the rules to suit me and, hopefully, you!

My poetry books North of Summer and South of Winter are currently available at Amazon and, as always, available from my LuluBookstore in print or as download.

Fractal image created in Apophysis.

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B for ABC Wednesday

ABC Wednesday prompts the letter 'B' in Round 5! Thank you!

Even though this might be more properly labeled a 'skull', I'm going to name it 'bones' - poetic license and all, you know.

The family boys who hike through the woods generally find parts and pieces of large animals as well as smaller ones.

I chose to post this picture rather than the one I took of moi wearing these bones.

Don't forget to follow the ABC Wednesday link to see the photos taken by worldwide bloggers. You'll find them Beyond Awesome!

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Poem for Carry On Tuesday

Carry on Tuesday posts: Our prompt this week is a quotation from John Lennon: Love is the flower you've got to let grow.




Love is the Flower

tall and gangly
tattered at the crest
promising nothing
it sticks around

stays in place
a wild stalk
stalwart and true
proud as the rose

blossoms thrust forth
a summer surprise
love is the flower
you've got to let grow





Image is a watercolor/pen and ink bookmark.

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Naisaiku for Heads or Tails

Barb at Skittles Place, owner of Heads or Tails , offers this prompt: Tell how you think you or your life will be different in five years. Will it be better or worse? Why will it change?

In Five Years?

one-half a decade
swinging on a fragile string
future lays in wait
a yo-yo in a child's hand
future lays in wait
swinging on a fragile string
one-half a decade




Either of these links will take you to a page explaining this fun form...

NaisaiKu

CYCLIKU!

Image is a watercolor/pen and ink bookmark.

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Haiku for One Single Impression

One Single Impression posts: Thanks to Geraldine of My Poetic Path for this week's prompt, fragrance. Please visit her blog here for her poetic offering for this week.

floating summer scent
freed by sprinkler's lazy arc
flashbacks from fragrance

~~

fragile memory
wrapped in scent of rosemary
opening my heart

Fractal created in Fractal Explorer, resized and buttoned in Irfanview.

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Where for Sunday Scribblings

Sunday Scribblings prompts: Have you ever stood still and scratched your head and said, 'Where in the world?' Is there somewhere in the world you would love to go? Are you looking for someone or something or a place that makes sense to you? Where in the world are you?

X marks the spot. Yes, I am here and seeing the serendipity that rests on this X.

A generation or so ago, others chose this place on the map to avoid being where their X marked a spot. They simply, or maybe not so simply, re-charted it.

Footloose and searching, I've been here and gone, been and gone and returned even after those who chose this X have long since departed this mortal plane.

Because succeeding generations have chosen to stay within driving range, X clings to my bones like a taproot to an oak and I'm almost convinced this is the better X.

For now.

**

Fractal created in Fractal Explorer, resized in Irfanview, framed in Microsoft Digital Image.

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Poem for Totally Optional Prompts

Totally Optional Prompts: Planning or Spontaneity

Restless

chainsaw grumbling
not the silky rumble
of a smooth-ride Harley

one more Douglas Fir
drops limb by limb
free of second thought

tear it down, change it up
pave it over, plant a roof

chainsaw grumbles

Fractal created in Fractal Explorer, resized and buttoned in Irfanview.

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Haiku for 3WordWednesday

ThomG, moderator of 3Word Wednesday offers the following three for prompt: Cradle Perfect Snare

~~

finger trick
a yarn crossed cradle
perfect snare

~~

cat's cradle
perfect finger game
snare of kids

~~

Fractal created in Fractal Explorer, resized and recolored with Irfanview.

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A for ABC Wednesday

Round #5 of ABC Wednesday begins with the letter A. Thank you!

A is for ant.

An ant can lug 100 times his own weight so this one is hardly stretched to trundle off with a tasty white spider.

I'm guessing this is where we get the term 'take-out'.

Digital Photo by Sue.

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Poem for Carry On Tuesday

Carry On Tuesday offers the opening lines of the Charles Dickens tale David Copperfield. Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life......

when other heroes
fall and turn to powder
disappointment drapes
my scarecrow skeleton

force fed gruel
and allegations
offer not a soupcon
of recompense

in that second struggle
I have no choice
but to become
the hero of my own life
even as I doubt

Fractal created in Apopysis, resized in Irfanview

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Wear oh Where for Heads or Tails

Barb at Skittles, Heads or Tales, offers wear and where as the prompt.

she wears old wrinkles
red circle cheeks and square clothes
eyes the future, stays
stuck in the where and now
avoids the future,
red circle cheeks and square clothes
she wears old wrinkles

Naisaiku poem and digital photo by Sue.

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Haiku for One Single Impression

One Single Impression posts: Christine of Quiet Paths shares a section of the Pablo Neruda poem "Ode to a Waterfall" to acccompany this week's prompt, inner voice.

bewildering thoughts
indefinite and unsure
voice retreating

~~

hide and seek
the voice of spirit
silent song

~~

Digital photo by Sue.

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Tanka for Sunday Scribblings

Sunday Scribblings posts with the prompt: Plan.

of mice and...

thin paper raincoat
damped by the topcoat season
sodden tactics shred
and mishandled ribs collapse
beneath the weight of the storm


Fractal created in Fractal Explorer, resized in Irfanview.

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Poem for Totally Optional Prompts

Totally Optional Prompts offers a selection of 'randoms'.






Incoming

through a rust storm
glowering
from the belt of production
black mice shrug

guttural as growling crows
robins gossip through gloom
to a wine stained rose
shaking dew from her heart

the banality of daily chaos
covers thinning backsacks
on those who missed the sign
of the first blinking lights

Image was created on Bamboo Fun Tablet with Adobe Photoshop Elements, resized in Irfanview.

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NaisaiKu for 3Word Wednesday

ThomG, moderator for Three Word Wednesday, offers the following three words for prompt: drip, hypnotic, sulk

rumors drip
faux hypnotic spin
rabble sulks
molehill rubbles mount
rabble sulks
faux hypnotic spin
rumors drip

A Naisaiku or Cycliku (links below) and a Fractal created in Apophysis...

NaisaiKu
CYCLIKU!

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Exchange for Carry on Tuesday

Carry On Tuesday posts: Our prompt this week is the opening lines of the poem Dreams by Paul Laurence Dunbar "Dream on, for dreams are sweet:"

Exchange

a cycle of buried cells
fires up in the wild sleep
turns the black dreams on

unlike floaters
smoothing frown lines
when sun soothes the bones

she begs to trade dark for light
to choose self-directed reveries
when dreams are sweet

Fractal created in Fractal Explorer, resized and recolored in Irfanview.

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Z for ABC Wednesday

ABC Wednesday completes Round 4 with Z. Thank you!

Looking forward to Round 5...



Zebra Scar

Wild words skid
amid lucky bamboo
call the cry of scars
paddle down the moon

bereft of useful mojo
sundry recent dead
sidestep history's debt.

One mad zebra
kicks a bird of paradise,
swears the past was true.

Original watercolor sketch by Sue.

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Hoodoos for Heads or Tails

Barb Skittles at Heads or Tails offers 'pile' as the prompt.

Hoodoos

naked piles of stone
stretch toward
skyborne canopy
totems carved
by deserts in the sun

I've always been fascinated by rocks, rock formations and the red desert rocks, in particular. The title Hoodoos links to the Wikipedia article.

The image is an original watercolor by Sue.

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Thinking for One Single Impression

One Single Impression posts: Thanks to Jim at Jim's Little Photo and Poem Place for this week's prompt, thinking.

~~
at the close of day
judgment gathers in a cloud
re-do muddles mind

~~

Image Reflection was created in Adobe Photoshop Elements with Bamboo Fun Tablet, resized and buttoned in Irfanview.

My poetry books North of Summer and South of Winter are currently available at Amazon and, as always, available from my LuluBookstore in print or as download.

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Indulgence for Sunday Scribblings

Sunday Scribblings offers the prompt, indulgence.

Indulgence.

How long does it take a cat to die?

Today a stranger's cat awaited its end on my patio concrete which the sun was heating to a sizzle. He was unable to move more than an inch at a time on a day with a forecast temp of 90. I was torn between wanting to snuff him and to save him.

Where did he come from? Indulgent owners?

Those indulgent do-gooders who profess to love cats by decorating their city houses and neighboring yards with them? Those town dwellers who profess a love for cats but decline to care for them? Those indulgent apartment people who acquire a kitten for a few minutes of silly pleasure before they turn it loose to fend for itself?

Free-range cats work on farms where rodents and mice roam but to have a free-range cat in town smacks of the worst kind of irresponsible indulgence.

This might be the first of my seven-hundred posts which will be image naked for obvious reasons. Tomorrow, images will resume.

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Poem for Totally Optional Prompts

Totally Optional Prompts offers: Fireworks




Crone in the Moon

three quarters of a step beyond
the top of the midnight hour
dawn rubs the nub of dark

thunder slung by fireworks
embeds like earworms
rebounds from fissures in the sky

with a hum soft as breadcrumbs
the crone retreats to her crater
and the rain begins to gush


Fractal created in Fractal Explorer, resized and processed in Paint.Net...

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Naisaiku for 3WW

ThomG, moderator of 3WordWednesday, offers these three words: transparent, kneel, gloom




transparent ragweeds
kneel ahead of wilding wind
encircled by gloom
they rise, dressed in bright pollen
encircled by gloom
kneel behind the wilding wind
transparent ragweeds

Fractal created in Apophysis, processed in Irfanview.

See NaisaiKu or CYCLIKU! for more information about this form.

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Y for ABC Wednesday

ABC Wednesday prompts the letter Y. Thank you!

!




Yes!terday felt a lot like Christmas. Imagine. This tiny green pear tomato has taken hold of my top down plant. Until I downloaded the second photo, I didn't realize there might be another one as well. Can you see it? Imagine. I am so excited. Dreaming of the day I can walk outside, pick a few naturally ripe tomatoes, warm from the sun, the juice and seeds filled with the taste of summer. Tomorrow, when I settle down from all the excitement, I'll check to see if there are peppers about to pop on the upper level.

Maybe, too, I'll post pictures of strawberry pots which are loaded with ripe fruit.

Ah, I love summertime and the daughters/son-in-law who gifted me these lovely growing presents.

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Poem for Carry on Tuesday

Carry On Tuesday prompts with the opening lines of the poem 'The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare
"Is there anybody there?" said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door




Threshold

knocking on the moonlit door
deep within the woods
the weary traveller calls out
'is there anybody there?'

tiredness rides his shoulders
a spot of rest his only wish
the cabin throws back moonlight
keeps the window dark

he nudges the knob
the door squeaks inward
calls him forward
not a sound pushes back

setting down his pack
he swings his walking stick...
the bed he'd left a decade past
waits behind the moonlit door

Fractal image created in Apophysis, resized in Irfanview.

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Haiku for One Single Impression

One Single Impression posts: "The stranger" is this weeks prompt, courtesy of Beth Patterson, whose blog is Virtual Tea House. Thank you, Beth!

wild roses
green stretches of thorns
thistle climbs

***

pre-loved
unknown and adored
grandchild

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July 4

Happy Fourth of July!

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Weather for Totally Optional Prompts

Totally Optional Prompts offers: Weather

Southern Shifts

she holds her breath
three days at solstice
when the sun stands still

summer days condense
tree shadows unfold early
and night steps ever closer

black tracks slash the day
and the sun begins to leave
she holds her breath


Image is a light-hearted sketch of eyes, created on Bamboo Fun Tablet in Adobe Photoshop Elements and resized in Irfanview.

My poetry books North of Summer and South of Winter are now available at Amazon through a pilot program by Lulu Publishing and as always, available from my LuluBookstore.

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3WW and Naisaiku Challenge

ThomG, moderator of 3WordWednesday offers these words for prompt: yearn, sweet, collapse

confined yearn
unwinds sweet at night
bumps daylight
meets full blown collapse
bumps daylight
rewinds sweet at night
confined yearn

Image is a digital photo processed in Pixia and Irfanview.

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