X for ABC Wednesday

Xiphias, a swordfish.


According to Wikipedia, the swordfish is named after its bill resembling a sword.  This makes it superficially similar to other billfish such as marlin, but upon examination their physiology is quite different and they are members of different families.

original watercolor sketch

After I battled one of these for nearly a day before bringing him close enough to the boat to permit a quick touch before the deckhand returned him to the ocean, I hardly knew whether he was a marlin or a swordfish. But I did notice he was huge and heavy. 


Have you challenged an Xiphias?

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W for ABC Wednesday

Wishing you a cozy warm winter with a wealth of spirit, energy and joy!

Wishing you a wonderful 2012!

original watercolor

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Q for ABC Wednesday

Quoz  (absurd person or thing) rocks and rules. Stricken by absurdity flu, much of the media misses the news by pandering to the quoz. 

I can sense a rant by this quat (insignificant person) coming on, so I'm going to quickly quit this post on quoz.

Downside of the quackers is a watercolor sketch based on a photograph.

Have you seen down from under?

~ ~ ~

Two of my novels and several chapbooks of poetry are available in various formats through Lulu Publishing and available as e-books on Nook and iTunes. Thank you.

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S for ABC Wednesday

Saburration: application of hot sand as medical treatment


This word's meaning has me imagining super things. Suppose I could write my own prescription for a quiet and calming ocean beach under a bright warm sun where, shielded by a large umbrella, I could read, nap and drink sangria or something similar. I think that sounds like the perfect medical treatment for the sanity I seem to have lost during the long winter snow.

Does saburration seem like a sure cure for something?

 

 

 

 
 

Watercolor sketch.

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Abiqui for Big Tent Poetry

Big Tent Poetry offers this prompt: View a portrait which you didn't take and write a poem based on the pov of the actual photographer.


Abiqui

prickly as a pear
she entices softness
from bedrock and blood
distancing city glitter
so firmly glued to fame

a never-tumbled mien
eyes gritty as old bones
skin rough and ready
but the bristle hair paints
a different scene

she proffers a cool stare
waits for the shutter click
I dream of a macro capture
with her center showing
close as stamen and pistil

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_O%27Keeffe

Watercolor header and post image.

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Pocket Full of Titles for Big Tent

Big Tent Poetry offers the following prompt: Choose a title from the NYT Best Sellers List and use it as you see fit to form a poem. But I just kept gathering titles...

Pocket Full of Titles


when stories had sharp teeth
while the world was flat
a confession came to light

horror was the smirking chimp
decision points were pointless
when nothing was worth dying for

the american assassin
became the lost symbol
of llama llama holiday drama

tatted girls kicked and played
spat flame from hornets' nests
back when the world was flat

Watercolor by Sue.

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E for ABC Wednesday

ABC WEDNESDAY ROUND 7: E is for Encouragement!



Energy-free

An early wet, wet and wetter spring lasted well into summer and seems to have extinguished my energy source. I've resorted to moving slowly, carrying a book, and wearing a hat. Slothing from one chair to the next is now my preferred exercise.

Summer, my favorite season, can't last too long but I'm looking for a little heat break before the tomatoes bake on the vine.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining, it's just that... Has it been unusually hot, hot, hot where you are?

Original watercolor.

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Poem for BigTentPoetry

For Big Tent Poetry prompt

Runnin' on Full


An empty nest
was not meant to be

bloated closets leak
matter meant to keep

drive-by gifts and
things handmade with heart

what ifs line the walls
with shelves for dodgy items

cached for dubious tomorrows
frames for maybe paintings

like overfed zippers
cupboards crave two closings

garage does dual duty
holds crazed dishes, endless odds

stuff and stuff everywhere
empty nest ~ an idle threat

Original watercolor.

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Haiku for OSI

One Single Impression: Prompt 128: Connoisseur



he stretches

breakfast from the earth

...early bird

Original watercolor sketch.

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Forty-three Miles North of Soul for BigTent

Big Tent Poetry posts: Our guest maestro’s idea to write using a hidden code  – or any other inspiration from the week.

Forty-three Miles North of Soul


Shucked by his coyoté
he dares the desert
prickly pear and knife-edged grasses
ocotillo spines pinch pieces
from thinning khaki trousers.
He scratched for the trip
with a guide
greed and dreams high-fived
illegal entry, the last illusion.

Crinkled eyes burned by sun
branded by timeworn laughter
he wears optimism
a crown twice the size
of his ubiquitous cowboy hat.

On the promised side
he passes potters’ fields
planted in dust drowned rows
tidier than life, where death
is marked by a white rugged cross
no olvidado, not forgotten.

Watercolor image.

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Haiku for OSI

One Single Impression: Prompt 122: Ochre

artisan's delight

clay pigments the age of earth

sketch and swirl off site

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Watercolor sketch created on Bamboo Fun Tablet in Adobe Photoshop Elements.

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Trembling for OSI

One Single Impression: Prompt 116: Trembling

at limb's end
trembling in the wind

pear blossom   

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Watercolor created on Bamboo Fun Tablet using Adobe Photoshop Elements.
 

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Wisteria for Haiku Bones

Haiku Bones offers Wisteria as this week's prompt.

lavender

hues of nostalgia

blue droplets

 
Original watercolor sketch.
 

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NaiSaiKu for 3WW

ThomG, 3Word Wednesday, offers these words for prompt: vibrant, escape, hum
Another NaiSaiKu response!



tiny buds escape
May hums winter's melody
vibrant greens ice up
spring holds tight to frigid hands
vibrant greens ice up
May hums winter's melody
tiny buds escape

Original watercolor using workshop prompts.
 

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Haiga

Haiku Bones prompts: Anthem

widening the cleft
viewpoints defy the peaceful
...anthem of the mad

 
 

Image is a watercolor sketch.

 

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Watercolor Haiga for Haiku Bones

Haiku Bones posts: The prompt word is pregnant and was suggested by haijin DeoWriter

sticks and fluff

searching on the fly
nest building

Watercolor sketch by Sue.
 

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Z for ABC Wednesday

ABC WEDNESDAY ROUND 5: Z!

zesty stripes aglow

one zany zebra

zig-zags through the trees

with zeal for eye-to-eye

Zebra Redux

This zany zebra fractal was created using Fractal Explorer software. It's been printed on greeting cards, business cards and as small wall art. Personable? Sketchy? Weird? Fractals are somewhat like searching for objects in clouds. 

Zebra redux, not because there aren't other z words, but because I ♥ this zebra.

And, sometimes, you have to hang with ♥.

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P for ABC Wednesday

ABC WEDNESDAY ROUND 5: P is for...Problems?

Pointillism. A form of detailed painting which is made by thousands and thousands of tiny dots. It's fallen out of favor in the recent years due to the massive amount of time and energy it consumes. A friend of mine worked on one for half her life and found that when it was finished she disliked it with a passion. Not a good thing.

I've never attempted it. Not long on patience and definitely short of dedication, I turned to watercolor because it often paints itself. A little water, a little pigment, a piece of paper and a few turns of the paper often manages to make an underpainting to be finished with a few broad strokes and a bit of negative painting.

The image is one of my first watercolors, an underwater scene, which I opened in Adobe Photoshop Elements to invert its color and then used the Pointillize filter. It shows a bit of the action required by this form of painting.

And that was the end of my patience.

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Haiku for One Single Impression

Note: I cannot comment on those Google Blogs which bear the drop-down menu for ID purposes. (solution?)

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

green leaves yellow
autumn brushes sumac
preps new canvas

*

summer dance
she came to wander
music breaks

*

salsa dance
lanquid days of love
yield to fall

*

Original watercolor by Sue.
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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Poem for Sunday Scribblings

Sunday Scribblings prompts: ...For some, the word poetry conjures up terror; other people's mouths begin to water in anticipation. Very few people feel nothing about it. Either way, your assignment this week is to write some - whether you like it or not!

One Long Trill

Mystic strands
a little scat,
baby blues
one long trill.
Jazz tunes my soul
by sensual plums
like a master lover
might bestow.
By a warm thrum
of rhyming fingers
awash in joyful tears
when happiness
is a little jazz,
a little scat,
and one long trill.

Image is an original watercolor by Sue...

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