#NaPoWriMo 2022 Day Sixteen

The Sting of Time

April is the cruelest month
The spring heralds another
birthday – one and twenty years!
She’s old enough to drink yet
the twentieth century
was not seen by her own eyes.

Last month of spring semester
Then it’s graduation time
She puts on her cap and gown
and smiles for family photos
cruel, cruel month!

Gretchen and Mom

Napowrimo prompt – And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a curtal sonnet. This is a variation on the classic 14-line sonnet. The curtal sonnet form was developed by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and he used it for what is probably his most famous poem, “Pied Beauty.” A curtal sonnet has eleven lines, instead of the usual fourteen, and the last line is shorter than the ten that precede it. Here are two other examples of Hopkins’ curtal sonnets: “Ash Boughs,” and “Peace.”

Good afternoon and welcome to day sixteen of napowrimo where I borrow a line to begin my curtal sonnet. And this time around I did not try to figure in rhyme, but speaking about tuning out math. Math and poetry are always haunting me. And last year’s birthday poem, I spoke about how Gretchen felt old at twenty. Well this birthday had me feeling old and it started right on April first as Gretchen and I were watching Love in the Time of Cholera for her magical realism class. They welcomed in 1900 and I got excited and said, yay! the twentieth century. Thinking we’ve finally entered a century we’ve seen. Then I looked over at Gretchen and quickly realized even though she was turning 21 in a few days, she hadn’t lived in the twentieth century. I added, Another century you have not seen; and I really felt old the twentieth century was over 20 years ago!

As for graduation photos, Shawn took the bulk of them and I’m waiting for them to be edited. In the meantime here is a selfie taken by Gretchen with a snapchat filter.

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Happy New Year!

It’s been awhile since I’ve written a post. At my three week post-op, they found the new lens was clouding over so I got a free laser treatment to break up the calcification on the lens. Yay to my overactive immune system, my antibodies were attacking the foreign body in my eye. The laser treatment was on December 22 – they were pretty booked up and that was the soonest I could be seen. Well the calcification on the lens made it hard for my eye to focus well which is why I haven’t spent much time on the computer or reading. Hoping I can start enjoying books again in 2022.

At the end of 2021, we were all in quarantine. My mother-in-law came over on Christmas, not feeling well, and two days later tested positive for Covid. We were so careful for almost two years and then it walked right through the front door. Needless to say no one was very pleased with Nonnie but after 5 days no one in this house showed any symptoms and Robin was able to fly back to Oregon on the first. Gretchen has started her spring semester. She just looked at her major map yesterday and told me it looks like all my requirements are completed or in progress (this semester’s courses) what does that mean? I told her if she doesn’t have anything in red it should mean you’re eligible for graduation. She may be able to graduate early. She retorted, It doesn’t say I’m eligible for graduation. It won’t you can still take classes. Robin took some extra classes because he fulfilled his requirements early but wanted to take all four years. He had a full scholarship and mom and dad covered the extra expenses. A full scholarship does not cover all fees as different degrees accrue different costs. Science classes are more expensive than humanities courses.

The other thing Gretchen looked at last night was her GPA she’s only earned Magna Cum Laude. I told her there’s nothing wrong with that (mom graduated magna cum laude), but she told me she’s going to steal Robin’s summa cum laude. The rest of the night we were regaled with how Gretchen was chasing Robin and Robin kept evading her efforts. Then Gretchen said, I’ll kidnap Burke. I laughed and told her, I think you’re a proud new parent then because I don’t see Robin giving up the summa for the return of his cat.

My muse lies quiet
Writing haiku – a reflex
Long out of practice

#NaPoWriMo – Grammar School

My Grammar School from the 1984 Yearbook

Grammar School

On Reserve Road in West Seneca
New York sits a squat rectangle
Building behind a brick church
Where children gather to
Learn reading, writing
Arithmetic
Trinity
Christian
School

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Our (optional) prompt for the day takes a leaf from Schuyler’s book, as it were, and asks you to write a poem about a specific place —  a particular house or store or school or office. Try to incorporate concrete details, like street names, distances (“three and a half blocks from the post office”), the types of trees or flowers, the color of the shirts on the people you remember there. Little details like this can really help the reader imagine not only the place, but its mood – and can take your poem to weird and wild places.

Good morning readers and welcome to day two of NaPoWriMo. Yesterday I was lamenting at the thought of being a kindergarten failure, so today I thought I’d share with you where I spent nine years of my youth. I attended Trinity Lutheran all the way k-8th grades. A few years back, I wrote about one of my classmates. Since we were a graduating class of eight students, we got to know everyone pretty well.

As you can see in my poem, the name of the school has changed; it works for the syllable count of a nonnet, but to me it will always be Trinity Lutheran school. It seems strange to realize I lived in the same house kindergarten through 8th and all the way until I was married a total of 18 years; I just now surpassed that amount of time as we moved into our current residence 20 years ago coming up next month. This has been an interesting trip down memory lane, but once again I need to be productive today. I will see you all again tomorrow.

Advice from An Expert

Good Afternoon, readers! I ventured outside today to walk down the street to the mailbox. Alas, it was mostly junk mail and a couple bills.  I thought I’d share my National Poetry Month poster from a couple years ago to get everyone excited for next month. I did not get a poster last year, but I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of this year’s poster.

In the meantime, I wrote a few haiku for today’s #haikuchallenge word – crazy. This first one was inspired by the very cool weather we have been experiencing in Phoenix.

Wake up feeling hot
Heat kicks on at end of March
Crazy time of year

The next two are about an introvert being stuck at home with too many people underfoot.

House is too crowded
Introvert driven crazy
Without solitude

Advice from expert –
Conversations with yourself
Staves off stir crazy

To pass the time I’ve been on Twitter way too much, but I have been enjoying William Shatner’s Captain’s Log tweets about sheltering place; as well as Patrick Stewart’s daily sonnet readings. Of course I watched the season finale of Picard yesterday, twice. Shhh.. don’t tell Gretchen. Since she’s stuck at home with online classes, I told her we would watch the two part finale together. But after Jonathan Frakes tweeted a picture of Captain Riker back in uniform very early yesterday morning, I wasn’t going to wait for someone to wake up and attend her online classes before I watched. Don’t worry when I told her Captain Riker shows up again, I promptly blamed Frakes for the spoiler. She had no idea I watched the episode at the beginning of my day before doing housework. And of course I used the episode to inspire my #haikuchallenge tweet yesterday. It’s a good thing Gretchen does not use Twitter or reads my blog. 😉

Picard finale
Believe in human spirit
Live by example

So my life is pretty much continuing on as usual even with the lack of privacy. Unfortunately it seems that may be a constant until school starts up in August again, keeping my fingers crossed we return to normal by then.

 

 

#HaikuChallenge ASU Senior

Working hard at 4paws

As Gretchen began her freshmen year at ASU, Rachael is finishing up her undergrad and applying to vet school. I decided to write a couple haiku about her hard work for the #haikuchallenge on Twitter.

Help edit essays
Future veterinarian
Keeping  fingers crossed

September deadline
Vet school applications sent
Now, we sit and wait

She has applied to six schools close to $900 in fees, and you don’t want to know tuition costs if she is accepted. But she is doing very well in school so I do have my fingers crossed; vet school is very competitive.

#Whoku Celebrate New School Year

Once upon a time the haikuesque poems I wrote with a Doctor Who theme were archived on wiki Fandom. The latest poetry pea podcast is about whoku, but they are not senryu about Doctor Who; they are tributes to an individual –

Gretchen captured on her first day of school

Gretchen Hosking starts
freshmen year at ASU
career path unsettled

Poetry Pea podcast

#NaPoWriMo 2019 Day 15

College Awaits

To be or not to be
attending freshman orientation
Where is my schedule
How will I navigate this campus
My life…
Creative writing
Is that a real major?
There’s a mom standing here
crying, as my sibling drops me off
nary a word as to how to find
the car once this is all over.
I question whether or not
I will survive this day
To be or not to be…
a freshman at ASU!

NaPoWriMo Prompt Day 15 – Our prompt for today (optional, as always), takes its inspiration from the idea of a poem as a sort of tiny play, which can be performed dramatically. In the 1800s, there was quite a fad for monologue-style poems that lend themselves extremely well to dramatic interpretations (this kind of work was basically Robert Browning’s jam). And Shakespeare’s plays are chock-a-block with them. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write your own dramatic monologue. It doesn’t have to be quite as serious as Browning or Shakespeare, of course, but try to create a sort of specific voice or character that can act as the “speaker” of your poem, and that could be acted by someone reciting the poem.

Good morning and welcome to day 15 of NaPoWriMo. I’m sorry I know I’ve been absent the past few days, I have a serious lack of motivation this year. Saturday I was even doing housework to avoid the poetry prompt. On the plus side I made a nice chicken salad for lunch and homemade chicken soup for dinner. And I got a haikuchallenge out of my procrastination.

Missing poetry
Where is my motivation
Lost in laundry heap

Spend time in kitchen
Dicing vegetables for soup
Suzy homemaker

Sunday the only thing I did was more dishes and laundry – those two chores are never done. Friday evening we finally got Gretchen to sit down and take her math placement test for orientation. You know you’ve waited til the last minute when your advisor calls to remind you it needs to be done before orientation. And last night she finally took and uploaded a photo for her ID card. We were getting constant reminders on that front too. As to whether or not I will catch up or go back to complete the missing prompts, time will tell. I am now busy scoring the essays on standardized tests in the afternoons.

#NaPoWriMo 2019 Day 4

Birthday email card

Morning Blues

Morning snooze gone
Five am alarm clock blares

Too early to rely on

Beware

Sleep deprived mom
Dad put the coffee on
Everyone stay calm
The week is almost over
And will soon turnover
Beautiful Saturday
Just one problem
Six am alarm clock blares

NaPoWriMo Prompt Day 4 – Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own sad poem, but one that, like Teicher’s, achieves sadness through simplicity. Playing with the sonnet form may help you – its very compactness can compel you to be straightforward, using plain, small words.

Good morning and welcome to day 4 of NaPoWriMo. AzMerit testing is over and we were back to a five am wake up call. Once I got Gretchen off to school at 6:30 and the dishwasher loaded and started, I went back to bed. Then Shawn got up and asked if the coffee was started. Lol! In his dreams. And yes because Gretchen takes college classes through the ACE program, we are up early on Saturday mornings too. But on the plus side, she will be graduating high school with 24 credits from the community college.

Today may be tough
All the birthday wishes rough
It’s never enough

The #haikuchallenge word today is rough and yeah I’m kinda on a rhyming kick. Gretchen went off to school hoping no one would acknowledge her birthday. Guess what, her future university put a birthday video together and sends it in an email to their students.

One Week into September

Momentum is gone
Swing back into poetry
Hard after silence

Hello September! The month started out well. I spent Sunday chatting with #poetparty on Twitter, and I’ve started writing for the #haikuchallenge again – not quite daily, but I’m working on it. I’ve been finding it difficult trying to pick up the momentum after not writing too much in August.

Poets.org has a poetry contest on teaching opening in October. Check out the guidelines here.

 

 

Last High School Registration Walk Through

It’s finally here, the last time we will have to go to Gretchen’s school for walk through registration is tomorrow. So this morning I filled out all the paperwork in an attempt to get through the process more quickly. Rachael has been officially added as a pick up person; mom no longer has to go with her if she needs to pick Gretchen up during school hours. 😀 She could have been added last year, but I was in Germany during walk through and apparently Dad was a deer in the headlights. Gretchen is happy Mom is available to go this year.  Mom isn’t these things are a mad house.

Survived Walk Through Registration

Fill out paperwork
Go over everything
Last year of high school

And speaking of madness, I’m currently filling out high school paperwork times two. Because Gretchen needs her health requirement to graduate and it’s incorporated into Agua Fria’s PE class Gretchen cannot take; she needs to take the health portion online. I thought this meant through her school, but no she has to registration as a concurrent student with an online high school for one half credit course! Hopefully once the school year starts, Mom will get some peace again. I have fallen off of weekly updates for the poet blog revival. While we’re on the subject of poetry – Fellowship applications for writers to teach at the Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference at the Virginia G. Piper Center at ASU are due Monday July 30th. I know the poetry community in Phoenix would love to see some poetry workshops at the conference. Sorry for the short notice, but I have a link to the website.