#NaPoWriMo 2023 Day Twenty Three

Backyard Oasis in the Desert

Close to the end
sitting with you
out in the backyard.

The palo verde
yet to bloom
lays dormant from
a cold winter.

Seven more days
left in April;
I watch the green leaves
start to bud.

By now there are
usually yellow flowers
dropping-
floating down on
the spring breeze.

The petals fall
all over the back porch
covering the table
and chair cushions.

However,
this year spring tarries
and I sit and watch
the wind chime
you bought in Oregon
hanging in the mesquite tree.

The bird spins in the breeze
ominously quiet
despite its dance.

I soak in the sun
happy to be back
in my warm desert
waiting for…
the palo verde to bloom.

Tell me, love, will the memories keep me warm.

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Finally, here’s our optional prompt for the day! Start off by reading Arvind Krishna Mehrotra’s “Lockdown Garden.” Now, try to write a poem of your own that has multiple numbered sections. Attempt to have each section be in dialogue with the others, like a song where a different person sings each verse, giving a different point of view. Set the poem in a specific place that you used to spend a lot of time in, but don’t spend time in anymore.

Good afternoon again and welcome to day twenty three of #napowrimo where I wrote about a place I still spend a great deal of time. But if my family has their way my desert oasis will only be a memory one day. They all seem to want to move me up to frigid Oregon when we retire. Of course as I’m writing this, Robin sent a zillow ad for a house in downtown Phoenix that would allow him to walk to work. Not sure why he’s looking now as he still has 14 months of school to finish.

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Haiku in October

Celebrate our love
Frolic late into the night
Rainy Saturday

Since our anniversary fell on a Wednesday, Shawn and I did not go out to dinner until the weekend. I’ve been wanting to check out Barrio Queen in Avondale for a while and we finally had a good excuse. Then we went over to a friend’s house for a combined birthday and anniversary celebration.

Barrio Queen Avondale Oct 15, 2022

Toast – Salud Oct 15, 2022

This week one of my haiku is included in the Haiku Pea podcast – S5E20 In Depth. Thanks to Patricia for her continued hard work, sharing her love and knowledge of haiku.

My loyal readers will notice I wrote about the palo verde again. I do love how every April the green tree blooms yellow flowers of course the clean up is not so fun.

Backyard Oasis

#NaPoWriMo 2022 Day Twenty Seven

Past Summer Days

I am the sum of my parts
graying blonde hair and dimpled smile

Bright dimples appear on wrinkled face
Years spent under cigarette smoke

Childhood memories a smokey haze
Grandpa whistles cheery tune, Heigh-ho

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho it’s off to work we go
Construct a blanket fort in the family room

Watch TV inside cozy blanket fort
Learn kindness from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood

Ride bikes down to the neighborhood playground
Catch fireflies on warm summer nights

Spend carefree, warm summer days outside
I am the sum of my parts

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Last but not least, here’s our (optional) prompt. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a “duplex.” A “duplex” is a variation on the sonnet, developed by the poet Jericho Brown. Here’s one of his first “Duplex” poems, and here is a duplex written by the poet I.S. Jones. Like a typical sonnet, a duplex has fourteen lines. It’s organized into seven, two-line stanzas. The second line of the first stanza is echoed by (but not identical to) the first line of the second stanza, the second line of the second stanza is echoed by (but not identical to) the first line of the third stanza, and so on. The last line of the poem is the same as the first.

Good morning and welcome to day twenty seven of napowrimo where I took some of what I learned in the poetry workshop I attended last night to write my duplex poem. The workshop hosted by the Virginia G. Piper writing center at ASU was ‘Your Four Strands’ and led by Roanna (Rowie) Shebala. She had us look at our identity through four strands: Mother, Father, Maternal Grandfather and Paternal Grandfather. I started this poem by talking about both my parents and then my paternal grandfather (who I remember more clearly) and it grew from there.

Remembering summer days in Buffalo, NY. This poem was written six years ago. The #HaikuChallenge word yesterday was jar and a lot of people were tweeting about fireflies which made me nostalgic even before the workshop started. My piece yesterday:

Lightning bugs twinkle
Washed out peanut butter jars
Catch their summer dance

Then during the workshop last night, I remembered the one time my dad carried my mom upstairs because Kati and I told him to ‘bring mom upstairs’ after he tucked us in I wrote down two lines of a haiku. I finished it this morning with todays #haikuchallenge word, slice.

Girls bedtime request
Dad carries mom up the stairs
Slice of happiness

#NaPoWriMo 2022 Day Four

Poetry Prompts for April

1. Enjoy a cup of coffee
2. Allow thoughts to percolate
3. Grab a pen and paper
4. Jot down words or phrases
5. Be mindful of patterns
6. And open to new forms
7. Step back and see what sticks
8. Experiment with…
   alliteration
   onomatopoeia
9. Short and sweet could pack a punch
10. Or words could pop off the page
11. Do not abandon the tried and true

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Finally, here’s our optional prompt! Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem . . . in the form of a poetry prompt. If that sounds silly, well, maybe it is! But it’s not without precedent. The poet Mathias Svalina has been writing surrealist prompt-poems for quite a while, posting them to Instagram. You can find examples here, and here, and here.

Good Morning and welcome to day four of NaPoWriMo aka Gretchen’s birthday. I did not get back to try my hand at a new glosa. We were out all day experiencing the Klimt Immersive and then we got something to eat by the ASU campus because Gretchen wanted graduation photos while we have family in town. Something we neglected for her high school graduation. I was unaware what a production graduation photos are and an actual month before graduation. There was a line of graduates waiting for photo opportunities on the steps of old main. And the number of champagne bottles that were photographed and popped! Not to mentioned sprayed – Gretchen said it was a sticky mess. We didn’t get home until late and then Gretchen wanted to catch up on Picard episodes. How could I say no to that? Plus I know my readers are aware I prefer short poetic forms so I may get back to the glosa before the end of the month, I may not. My first effort did take a lot to complete.

Summer Disappearing

Robin finished his first year at the Carlson School of Veterinary Medicine in June. We had a small staycation over at the Talking Stick Resort and the Arizona Boardwalk. We had a lovely time seeing the butterflies and the aquarium.

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At the beginning of July, I reconnected with an old friend. She is selling color street dry nail polish and had a few patriotic sets. I asked if she could be my manicurist if I bought a set. It’s a little difficult for me to do my own nails. Of course she agreed, we had a nice time catching up while I got my nails done. Then I actually took a photo of my left hand to show it off.

4th of July nails with engagement wedding rings next to my new 25th wedding anniversary band.

After I had my nails done, Gretchen asked to see my wedding rings. Well the engagement ring came off without a problem, but the wedding band was a different story had to enlist Shawn to help me get it off. I thought since our 25th wedding anniversary is coming up a new ring would be nice. I saw the infinity knot on glityjewels.com not that long after writing a haiku for the haiku challenge.

Recall our first date
Young man in search of prom date
Finds forever ♾ love 

I think Shawn likes my new band. He did acknowledge it fits better. There is no mystery there; when I saw how tight my wedding band was I ordered a bigger ring size. This past April, Shawn and I had our first date anniversary. We have been an official couple for thirty years now. Then we got engaged in April 1992 since I was still a senior in high school, we had a long engagement while I finished high school and college. Of course I wrote about it during #NaPoWriMo.

After our staycation and while Robin was on vacation up in Yellowstone with a friend, Shawn and I were planning our 25th wedding anniversary trip in October. And so my haiku challenge tweets have been focused on us.

Before our first date
Watch him run around the track
Surreptitiously

Young couple in love
Settle into married life
Twenty five years pass

Out My West Valley Window

The city of Goodyear had a call for a virtual exhibit – Out My West Valley Window. I took that literally and it was helpful I snap pictures out the bedroom windows almost daily. Both my submissions were included in the exhibit. Two more poems I happened to write this month.

Out My West Valley Window

The exhibit will be open through June 30, 2021. I took the guided tour and have actually kept the window open because I find their music accompaniment relaxing.

#NaPoWriMo 2021 Day Thirty

National Poetry Month Poster 2018

Write Your Way Through April

Watch rhyme and meter
Count syllables carefully
April poems sprout

Write every day
Poems will accumulate
As we say farewell

Write daily poems
Another poetry month
Ends until next year

How did we get here
Sweat, blood and perseverance
Last day of April

NaPoWriMo Prompt – And now for our final (still optional!) prompt. Today’s prompt is based on a prompt written by Jacqueline Saphra, and featured in this group of prompts published back in 2015 by The Poetry Society of the U.K. This prompt challenges you to write a poem in the form of a series of directions describing how a person should get to a particular place. It could be a real place, like your local park, or an imaginary or unreal place, like “the bottom of your heart,” or “where missing socks go.” Fill your poem with sensory details, and make them as wild or intimate as you like.

Good morning and welcome to day thirty – the final day of #NaPoWriMo 2021. Hopefully I gave you the recipe for a successful NaPoWriMo. When I wrote the post about my past participation, I realized in March of 2014 I posted previous napowrimo poems as a count down to April because they were not on this blog. On the last day of March 2014 I posted the first poem and the last poem I wrote in April 2012. I hope everyone feels they had a successful April 2021. I actually wrote at least one poem a day this year, something I have not succeeded at the last couple years; I considered that a success. I also had a haiku featured in the 100th episode of the poetry pea podcast. And a pleasant surprise, the haiku I submitted to the Poetry Illuminated project was included in the ebook the City of Goodyear put together. I’m still amazed they only received a total of twenty submissions.

All this was accomplished while going out and purchasing a new fridge; having the fridge delivered; finally convincing Shawn a corner breakfast nook table would be perfect in our kitchen (said table will be delivered today); getting my second Covid vaccine shot and the misery that ensued. I do feel my rewrite of Row, Row, Row Your Boat was kind of a cop-out as it’s only two lines, but I’m also impressed I was able to create anything in that delirium. And yes a minimal amount of housework was also done. Now we bid a fond farewell to this April. I hope to keep up my poetry writing the rest of the year – not on a daily basis but at least a few times a month. Last year I did not write too much poetry past April at all.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by my blog on a daily basis this month. I appreciate you reading and liking my posts. For some reason the post of The ASU class of 2020 I wrote last April has been my most popular one. Maybe because graduation season has rolled around again? But why would people be interested in a graduate from last year. And what would seem apropos for the last of April, today is the last day for the spring semester at ASU, and Gretchen has to complete and hand in her poetry portfolio today – the last assignment for her term. Yesterday Robin got his first Covid vaccine now that classes have wrapped up for Gretchen, we need to get her pokes scheduled.

2020 Drags On

Sunset to sunrise
Various photos taken
Reflect passing time

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  Shawn and me recreate “The Kiss”

Pandemic highlights
Graduation and then white
Coat ceremony

Cook dinner at home
Celebrate 24 years
Steak medium rare

Then to now challenge
Twenty nine years together
Highlight of my life

Carve cat on pumpkin
Veterinary student
Highlights skeleton

Couple canoodles
on overnight camping trip
down the road a bend

Quite a lot has transpired since my last post about our haircut outing. The summer in Phoenix dragged on; what else would one expect in 2020. We broke a record of 100+ degree days – 146! It finally dropped below 100 (barely) last weekend and Shawn talked me into an overnight camping trip to test out the van. Unfortunately because of the hot, dry summer, we could not have a campfire. The van does have a DVD player; so we whiled away the evening watching a movie instead.

I spent most of the hot summer hunkered down in the AC except in August when we took a family road trip to drop Robin off in Corvallis to attend the Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine. Then in September we were able to watch the white coat ceremony over zoom. This month Shawn and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary. Shawn bought some filet mignon and learned how to cook it to medium rare; he always preferred steak char-char and that was never my preference. And up in Oregon, Robin has already gone to a pumpkin patch and carved his jack-o-lantern.

Haircuts

Home Haircut April 19, 2020

During #NaPoWriMo I made myself a guinea pig and let Robin cut my hair. It wasn’t a complete disaster as I was able to get a poem out of it; however, my children did not want to partake in the home cut experience. This morning we ventured out to Great Clips. I have used the check in app for quite a few years. And I have always been amazed at how many clients walk in without using the online check in. When we walked in today, one customer was paying for their cut and we were the next three people. While we were there, three more people walked in who had not checked in, and because of the social distancing guidelines there were only two hairdressers working. Since we were three people, the wait time for each ensuing client kept growing, and they all checked in and sat down to wait!

Take advantage of
online check in so there is
no wait for haircuts

Desert Heats Up (Language)

WTForecast for Wednesday July 8

Too hot to think straight
Does this verse have any chance
Inspiration wilts

Yesterday my evil twin posted the WTForecast for Buffalo, NY, complaining of the heat. Before I checked it for Arizona I wrote the verse for the #haikuchallenge word chance and then had a good laugh – I think I did describe the hot weather in words. I also told Kati she cannot complain about heat to me; and she returned with, but it’s hot and humid here. Yes, I enjoy my dry heat it is nice to step outside and not have your clothes stick to your body. It’s also nice to not have my knee ache nonstop.

Arizona is going to really heat up this weekend we are on a heat advisory through the weekend which is nothing new for the summertime. Most summers we are able to escape the heat for a little while. Last July we were able to go up to the Grand Canyon.

Photo by Gretchen Hosking July 2019

Drive along Canyon
Chance encounter with wildlife
Brings cars to a halt

This year we have to wait until August before we can escape the desert heat. Hopefully we’ll have a smooth trip up to Oregon to drop Robin off at school.