Cutting Letters – Heterodox Haiku Journal

Good afternoon. Thanks to Jerome for including one of my haiku in the latest heterodox haiku journal – Cutting Letters you can read the entire anthology or listen to it at the link.

Mother’s Day here was pretty quiet. Shawn grilled a tri-tip and my mother-in-law brought over some lobster tails and we had broccoli and corn to complete the meal. I wrote a haiku for the #haikuchallenge word back on Friday, for my mother, the word was jay and my mom would tell me how blue jays were the bullies of the bird feeder, chasing the other birds away when they were there.

reminders of mom
bird feeder set out each spring
blue jay eats alone

I remember when I was a little girl, catching fireflies during warm summer nights. Apparently I have to go to teach someone how to write a good cover letter now.

#NaPoWriMo 2024 Day Thirty

Midas’ Green Thumb

Palo verde – green stick
set ablaze by flaming petals
under the hot Arizona sun.

It’s as if King Midas
turned his golden touch
into a green 
thumb.
Green branches
grow more vibrant.
Golden hues blaze across
the clear, blue sky
as yellow flowers pullulate.

NaPoWriMo Prompt – And now for our last prompt of the year – optional, as always! Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem in which the speaker is identified with, or compared to, a character from myth or legend, as in  Claire Scott’s poem “Scheherazade at the Doctor’s Office.”

Good morning and welcome to the last day of #NaPoWriMo 2024. I was playing with a quadrille for the dverse prompt yesterday. And yes, I was using the palo verde as inspiration again. I looked up info on the tree and learned the palo verde is the Arizona state tree. Then I was watching the local news and the meteorologist, Sean McLaughlin, mentioned he just learned the palo verde was the state tree. I didn’t share my original quadrille because it was rather didactic.

Palo verde tree – green stick
ablaze in yellow flowers every
April under the blazing Arizona
sun.

Its green trunk gives the tree
a bigger surface area for
photosynthesis.
Green bark helps
the tree survive in an
arid climate
with a scant amount
of rainfall.

So this brings my 14th year of #NaPoWriMo to a close. I wrote more than thirty poems this year. I’ll be back tomorrow to write my wrap-up.

#NaPoWriMo 2024 Day Twenty Nine

Incandescent

The palo verde is ablaze with yellow flowers in April.
I go outside to enjoy the sunshine casting an ethereal –
golden glow as petals float down, I search for inspiration.

As I mentioned we had a gorgeous weekend weather wise. After writing and posting my sijo I went back outside to enjoy the afternoon. The sun was right above the palo verde, shining through the branches and I wrote another sijo for it. As the second wraps into the third line, I’m not sure it is a true sijo, but I like how it reads.

NaPoWriMo Prompt – And now for our optional prompt. If you’ve been paying attention to pop-music news over the past couple of weeks, you may know that Taylor Swift has released a new double album titled “The Tortured Poets Department.” In recognition of this occasion, Merriam-Webster put together a list of ten words from Taylor Swift songs. We hope you don’t find this too torturous yourself, but we’d like to challenge you to select one these words, and write a poem that uses the word as its title.

Chase after fireflies
Gazing into pitch black skies
Incandescent glow

Since I wrote the first poem yesterday, I composed the #haikuchallenge today using incandescent too.

#HaikuChallenge Sunday April 28, 2024

#NaPoWriMo 2024 Day Twenty Two

Dog Versus Tortoise

It happens every year
when my human opens
the backdoor to let me out
and the tortoise has plopped
himself at its threshold.

Hey, dog why are you knocking
on my shell?
Can’t you see me sitting here?

Excuse me, Shaman
but I need to go!
Get out of my way
or I’ll lift my leg
and complete
my business
on top of your shell
instead.
Why must you plop
right in front of
the backdoor anyway?

The humans have the AC running
and you get to sleep inside
with the cool air while
I’m stuck out here
in the brutal sun all day.
The back porch offers
a bit of shade and respite.

I think you’ve grown soft!
A Sonoran desert tortoise
should be basking in the sun
not hiding out in the shade.
Now,
step aside
so I can get back in the house.

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Last but not least, here’s today’s optional prompt. This one comes from the poet and fiction writer Todd Dillard, who provided this idea on his twitter account a few months ago. The idea is to write a poem in which two things have a fight. Two very unlikely things, if you can manage it. Like, maybe a comb and a spatula. Or a daffodil and a bag of potato chips. Or perhaps your two things could be linked somehow – like a rock and a hard place – and be utterly sick of being so joined. The possibilities are endless!

Good morning and welcome to day twenty two of #NaPoWriMo where I imagined the conversation between my dog and the tortoise after letting the dog out this morning and she had to jump across the tortoise as he was plopped right at the backdoor. Sonoran Desert tortoises hibernate in the winter somewhere between October-March. Our tortoise Shaman is around 30 years old and not in the best health anymore. While Shawn was gone this weekend, Gretchen and I went out to feed the tortoises. We got Shaman to eat some lettuce and spinach. He perked up after Gretchen cooled him off with some water. Then I found him right at the backdoor when I woke up this morning. It looked like the morning food Shawn put out for him was untouched.

#NaPoWriMo 2024 Day Twenty One

palo verde tree
stands in dandelion field
yellow flowers bloom

yellow sun shines bright
palo verde blooms each spring
rich shades of yellow

Dandelion photo by Gretchen Hosking and Palo Verde in Bloom

NaPoWriMo Prompt – And now for our (optional) prompt! Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem that repeats or focuses on a single color. Some examples for you – Diane Wakoski’s “Blue Monday,” Walter de la Mare’s “Silver,” and Dorothea Lasky’s “Red Rum.”

Good morning and welcome to day 21 of #NaPoWriMo a day late. Yesterday, Gretchen and I walked over to Sprouts before it got too hot. We hit our first 100 degree high for 2024. When Shawn got back home and we were watching the news, he said; didn’t win? This made no sense to me. I made him repeat it a few times before he said the contest. Ah, no it’s the first 110 degree day for the contest so it’s still open. One thing I noticed on our walk though is the palo verde are starting to bloom, and I thought yellow would be a good color to focus on, but the poetry wasn’t going anywhere. Since today is Earth day I figured a couple nature poems focusing on yellow would be appropriate.

celebrate earth day
yellow flowers burst on scene
gilding sallow note

#NaPoWriMo 2024 Day Ten

Happy Spring

Ninety degrees
I love when the desert heats up
Ninety degrees
Spring may cause some people to sneeze
Warm weather makes pollen blowup
While others feel blah, I’m pumped up
Ninety degrees

Screenshot – Yesterday’s Print

NaPoWriMo Prompt – And now for our optional prompt! Ezra Pound famously said that “poetry is news that stays news.” While we don’t know about that, the news can have a certain poetry to it. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on one of the curious headlines, cartoons, and other journalistic tidbits featured at Yesterday’s Print, where old new stays amusing, curious, and sometimes downright confusing.

Good morning and welcome to an aggravating day ten of #NaPoWriMo. For some reason my new post page on WordPress would not load. It wasn’t an internet problem, as any other page I clicked opened without a problem. Every time I clicked on write post, the page was a void. And yes, I too, can find spring to be bah! Mostly because writing a poem a day begins to wear. I love the warmer weather that it brings because my bones and muscles ache in cold. This week we will see our first 90 degree temps! We are a little late the average first day to reach 90 is April first, and I am pumped. I will hype up spring in verse.

#NaPoWriMo 2024 Day Seven

Bisbee, AZ – Wish you were here

Fun Fact: Arizona is known for 5 Cs

Cattle, Citrus, Cotton, Climate
and Copper

We’re down in Bisbee, AZ; an old copper mining town where I found a dial-a-poem booth.

Convert old phone booth
Pick up receiver and call
Favorite poet

telepoem booth Bisbee, AZ

NaPoWriMo Prompt – And last but not least, we’re taking it easy with today’s (optional) prompt. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem titled “Wish You Were Here” that takes its inspiration from the idea of a postcard. Consistent with the abbreviated format of a postcard, your poem should be short, and should play with the idea of travel, distance, or sightseeing. If you’re having trouble getting started, perhaps you’ll find some inspiration in these images of vintage postcards.

Good morning and welcome to day seven of #NaPoWriMo where we were asked to write a postcard poem. I decided to write about Bisbee, AZ. Shawn and I went down to Bisbee in October 2021 for our twenty fifth anniversary. This past February there was a fire in downtown Bisbee and part of main street has been closed. In honor of main street reopening, I decided to write my postcard about Bisbee. It’s a great little tourist town in Arizona. The copper mine closed in the 70s, but now you can take a mine car tour of the old mine.

The last time I wrote a postcard poem for #NaPoWriMo, I brought everyone on a trip to Niagara Falls.

#NaPoWriMo 2024 Day Five

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The Invalid, the Birthday Girl and the Butterfly

To be lucky
said the invalid
requires patience
sitting or standing still
one is fortunate
enough to entertain
a calming presence

To be lucky
said the birthday girl
is to be young at heart
staying nimble and quick
one is fortunate
enough to entertain
more than one summit

To be lucky
said the butterfly
is a delicate balance
between gossamer wings
and fierce air currents
to bestow gracious
butterfly kisses

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Now, let’s get to our optional prompt! Today we’d like you to start by taking a look at Alicia Ostriker’s poem, “The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog.” Now try your hand at writing your own poem about how a pair or trio very different things would perceive of a blessing or, alternatively, how these very different things would think of something else (luck, grief, happiness, etc).

Good afternoon and welcome back to a second helping of #NaPoWriMo today. Since I wrote the poem for prompt four earlier, my readers know we were out celebrating Gretchen’s birthday yesterday. The first time we went to the Desert Botanical Gardens to see the butterflies was back in 2009 – 15 years ago.

Gretchen the Butterfly 2009

#NaPoWriMo 2024 Day Four

The Predatory Butterfly?

three
butterflies
land on my clothing
could they be predatory
hunting for their next
tasty meal
me

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NaPoWriMo Prompt – Our (optional) prompt for the day challenges you to write a poem in which you take your title or some language/ideas from The Strangest Things in the World. First published in 1958, the book gives shortish descriptions of odd natural phenomena, and is notable for both its author’s turn of phrase and intermittently dubious facts. Perhaps you will be inspired by the “The Self-Perpetuating Sponge” or “The World’s Biggest Sneeze.” Or maybe the quirky descriptions of luminous plants, monstrous bears, or the language of ravens will give you inspiration.

Good morning and welcome to prompt four of #NaPoWriMo a day late as April 4th is a birthday here and we were at the Desert Botanical Gardens communing with butterflies. Gretchen loves going to see the butterflies and after several years, I know how to attract them to land on me. The one on my shirt happened almost as soon as we walked into the pavilion, wearing bright colored clothes is the key. Then I found a bench to sit on while Shawn and Gretchen walked around, taking photos. The orange one landed on my hat, and I became the delight of everyone who walked by.

“You have a butterfly on your hat!” One person even asked me if I wore those clothes on purpose. I did because I know butterflies are attracted to bright colors; they think it could be a flower. This was not our first visit to the pavilion.

We didn’t get home until dinner time last night and I did contemplate writing my poem after dinner, but after all the walking in the hot sun my late-stage cerebral palsy caught up to me and I was wiped out. The inspiration for my oddquain comes from The Predatory Mantid. Thankfully, I love butterflies and invite them to land on me. Gretchen declared me the winner as I got three points yesterday; dad got one; and Gretchen said she got half a point. I saw one land on her butt when she was crouched taking pictures, but it only stayed a couple seconds. I told her it wanted to give her a kiss.

Fall Butterfly Adventure

I plan on coming back this afternoon to post the poem for today’s prompt.

Good Friday

Shrine of St. Joseph – Yarnell, AZ

Good Friday

Shrine of St. Joseph
stations of the cross venture
follow path of Christ

St. Veronica
follows path to Golgotha
gives Jesus her veil

value helping hand
stairway to crucifixion
difficult venture

vivid emotion
walking the way of the cross
time of reflection

When my niece came out to visit back in July/August her dad flew in from Guam as well. Sean spent some time at a conference in Wickenburg and Aria and I drove over there and took a junket over to Yarnell to see the Shrine of St. Joseph. Since it was August, we had the place to ourselves. My sister, Katryn, is always posting the way of the cross pathway in Guam so I thought Sean and Aria would enjoy the stations of the cross up at the shrine. If you notice the sculpture of St. Joseph with toddler Jesus, there are plenty of benches to sit and enjoy the view. I was going to do just that, but no, my family talked me into trekking up the stairs. As Easter Sunday is this weekend, I thought this is a good time to share our photos taken by Aria. I was too busy trying not to fall and Sean was busy helping me up the uneven steps. But with 14 stations, there were plenty of places to stop, rest and reflect on the moment. At the top, I’m smiling with my eyes closed. The height was definitely making me nervous.

Happy Easter! Which is also the #NaPoWriMo early bird prompt. Not sure if I’ll get a chance to write one but I will be back Monday for the official start of #NaPoWriMo2024.