January day
Earth sleeps beneath its blanket
Resting until spring
As I was dreaming up the above poem – a haiku – I wondered if the earth is ready to wake up yet. Probably not!
Have a good day, and thank you for following and reading my blog.
Superior rocks
Underneath sparkling water
Shine on together
Brighton Beach, Lake Superior, Duluth, MN – July 2020
Around the clock
Beneath the sky
Cities awake
Daring to try
Each new day
Forging ahead
Going distances
However led
Into futures
Juggling time
Kindness to come
Leaving behind
Meaningless weight
No one should keep
Overly heavy
Perhaps too deep
Quit holding those
Regrets or worry
Safely grab on
To hopes and carry
Uplifting thoughts
Vast cares unfold
With those loving
X’s and O’s
You’d share to
Zero your woes!
Writing prompt from Mama Kat’s: Write a 26-line poem using all the letters of the alphabet, where the first line starts with the letter “A,” the second “B,” the third “C,” etc., culminating with the final line starting with “Z.”
A year ago, I wrote about some fun times at Como Park Zoo and Conservatory in a blog post called It Helps Us to Say Thanks. My brothers and I thought it would be nice to get a memorial paver there in memory of Mom and Dad. We suggested that memorials be given to Como in honor of our Mom who died last year. We recently submitted a poem that we all liked, but it didn’t get approved because it was too religious. It wasn’t really a poem: It was a prayer! Since the zoo is a public place, they said they could not inscribe a prayer on a paver.
So I wrote this instead:
Thanks Mom and Dad
For the family that we were with you,
And teaching us truth in all that we do.
By showing us what is wrong what is right,
And helping us keep our attitudes bright.
By having you laugh around our small brood,
It helped us to stay in such a fun mood.
By caring for us and showing the way,
Work is important but so is to play.
By loving the world in which we do live,
All of creation it helps us to give.
Kindness to people and animals too,
Tending the flowers and trees as did you.
By thanking the wind the sail that it blew,
Moving us along to explore what’s new.
By missing loved ones when they go their way
We do that now too, but memories stay!
Mom loved flowers and they both loved to sail. I thought this would be a nice remembrance! I hope Como thinks so too.
Samantha turned the pages pretty rapidly and only got stuck on a couple of words. She sounded the tricky ones out just fine, and I only had to help a little. As she pulled one book out of her blue knapsack while putting away the other, she looked at me through the corner of her eye, and her mouth bent into a smile.
When she got to the last poem in one of the books, I didn’t think that the poem she read to me would be in a current book. The poem was written just as I remembered it, and Samantha read it perfectly. The only thing that was different about it was that it was called The Rainbow Poem.
Listening to those words brought me back to the days when Dad played albums every Sunday. The Peggy Lee album was one of his favorites. My favorite song on that album was Sing a Rainbow. I bent over the phonograph, my belly feeling the pinch as I stretched. I always counted the grooves and found the spot where I should lower the arm. The needle almost always fell right in place. Peggy Lee’s voice would surround the room as she happily sang the colors of the rainbow. Once the song was over, I placed that needle right back to the beginning again. My parents didn’t seem to mind hearing that song over and over again or listening to me sing along.
That tune stuck in my head over the years. As I rocked each one of my babies, I sang that song to them, over and over again. Even though they are not babies any more, I bet each one of them knows Sing a Rainbow by heart.
I didn’t think to tell Samantha that I knew that poem as she named the colors to me one by one. Maybe I will see her again the next time I volunteer at her school. It’s nice to know this favorite tune is still playing in other places instead of just inside of my head!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=TxsHzfpjbHw
Last year, right before St. Valentine’s Day, I frantically searched through stacks of things I had written. I was looking for the newspaper print of the poem that I wrote for my husband when he was my boyfriend. Our local newspaper has a contest every year for Valentine’s poems. Even though I didn’t win that contest, I saved the entire page of that newspaper, so I thought it would be easy to find since it’s quite large and probably very yellow by now since it’s from the 80s. I was disappointed because I never found it. I really wanted to read it, and I wanted to publish it on this blog.
About a week ago, I was busy looking for something else when I came across the small poem that had been cut out and taped up for all eternity. I’m sure my mother-in-law was the one who thought to save it and tape it up as a keepsake. That little slip of paper was sitting on top of the filing cabinet. I asked my husband about it, and he said he pulled it out of the desk drawer because he found some old pictures with it. I thought it was funny how that little piece of paper showed up right before St. Valentine’s Day.
It’s kind of a corny little poem that I want to share, but it still holds true, and that’s the best part.
Even though you surprise me with fresh fish instead of roses,
I am still thrilled that you are the one with whom I rub noses.
And when you search for coupons when you take me out to munch,
It makes me think you’re thrifty, and I’m glad I’m with you at lunch.
There are times I tire of seeing your blue and red sweater,
But I know I could not find any other man I’d love better.
I am so happy I met you and wish I did earlier,
Because doing so would have made my existence pearlier.
I’m so lucky I found my old Valentine!
Nowadays I usually get roses instead of fish, but this year I got a bouquet of pineapple hearts and chocolate covered strawberries. Yum!
Loved ones present and close by my side
Smiling, singing and going in stride
Photo courtesy of Photobucket
Help decorate, bake, share some spiced tea
Straightening rooms, just being with me
Setting nice plates, polished utensils
Finding those things, making it special
Gathering ‘round old fashioned table
Eat and enjoy much as we’re able
Laughing at jokes that others don’t get
Talking of days together well spent
Presents opened, wrappings cleared away
Bows and cute bags we’ll use a new day
Little needles prickled our socked feet
Thanks little tree you looked really neat
Time passes by Christmas Day’s gone
Quickly more days are waiting to dawn
Thinking back at the fun times we had
Hoping our gifts made everyone glad
Realizing now our blessings will be
Loved ones present, our special family
My Reality Show 