Poetry – It’s What’s for Dinner

So the girls and I sat down for dinner and I began playing the Haiku Chronicle Podcast. The girls questioned my listening preference and I told them it’s poetry. Then Patricia said; Hello, Veronica as if we were sitting in the same room having a conversation. After that both my children were more interested in actually listening to the podcast. Of course neither one of them understood my Sylvia Plath inspired senryu. Rachael didn’t even realize I pulled the quote for her birthday back in May.

“I’m dead?”

You were the one telling me you felt twenty was old so when I came across the quote by Plath, I had to share it with you. I did post the full quote on her FaceBook page, but who reads their own wall. 😉 Then we had to watch the KFC/Game of Thrones commercial my cousin Russell posted on my wall as a comment. Why? Because I posted, When your child comes home reeking of chicken, I told her she had a weird job. No, we did not have chicken for dinner. Didn’t think it would be right to feed her chicken after she euthanized them for necropsy at work today.

This was our Tuesday. How did your day unfold?

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Cerebral Palsy Awareness

emerald color
supports cerebral palsy
keep calm and stay strong

March is cerebral palsy awareness month and the 25th is CP awareness day. But you would never know I have not worn the Emerald Isle color in years. On St. Patrick’s Day I’ve been known to wear orange. 😉 I grew up Protestant and I enjoy poking fun at Shawn’s Catholic upbringing – not to mention his grandmother was Irish. How does a man with Irish roots spell his name Shawn and not Sean? That’s a funny story. His grandmother’s maiden name was Barry. When she was pregnant with Shawn’s dad, she wanted to name him Barry if he was a boy and Shawn for the middle name. Cele (Shawn’s grandmother) wasn’t sure about the Irish spelling for Sean. She asked her neighbor who was straight off a boat from Ireland. The neighbor told her, S-h-a-w-n. At least this is the story I’ve been told. I think the neighbor liked the anglicized spelling over the Irish.

Well I’ve known that green is the CP awareness color for a couple years now, but I haven’t gotten a green shirt until this year. It just came in the mail the other day. When I wear it, I’ll be sure to snap a photo. I have the SunDevils reward app from ASU. You can log on everyday and earn pitchforks. As the pitchforks accumulate, you can redeem them on ASU merchandise. I saw they had Pat’s Run t-shirts from a couple years ago in the reward store and they were green. It says, Live your dash. I like the message as dash doesn’t necessarily have to mean run. Just like Colleen’s Weekly Poetry Challenge – there are plenty of synonyms to pick. Okay but really for green there aren’t many I like probably another reason I don’t have much of it in my wardrobe.

International Women’s Day

In my last post I wrote about dreaming about spring break and how Rachael is on spring break this week, which has made for a slightly chaotic week. Sunday we had Shawn’s mom over for dinner to celebrate Shawn’s birthday. I thought we would go out, but he wanted to have a cook out. It was a nice meal – steak pinwheels (stuffed with cheese and spinach), scalloped potatoes and green beans. Shawn made a coffee cake and Kathy made a pineapple upside down cake so we had plenty for dessert. Monday I spent the day cleaning from all the cooking that occurred on Sunday. Tuesday Rachael and I did the grocery shopping and yesterday Gretchen had the SAT; she feels like she screwed it up. Then after the test, she broke her glasses. We had to pick her up from school and drive over to the eye doctor. Yes, they are truly broken and we had to order new frames.

Today I just want to sit and veg – tomorrow we have a few AC companies coming over to give us estimates on a new unit and Saturday is tax day – fun wow. When I logged on to WordPress this morning I saw international women’s day is celebrating with haiku. I’ve been reading some great haiku this morning. Thanks!

On twitter I’ve been going back and forth with a #haikuchain. Dawson @dathaikufool left off with:

Probes Search For New #Life
Civil… #Assimilation
Boldly Goes A.I.

The last line becomes the next person’s first line and I know it’s women’s history month plus today is international women’s day, so when I saw the #haikuchallenge word today is still, of course I had to have some fun.

Boldly goes A.I.
humans face termination
Sarah still persists

Yes, we are having fun with science fiction. If you want to read some true haiku/senryu check out the Inner Voices link above. Enjoy reading poetry by women this month. On my own poetry front, I got three rejections this week 😦 but I’ve sent more submissions out as well.

6 Lessons Learned from a Year of 101 Rejections by: Natalie D-Napolean (Writer’s Digest)

I’m not aiming for so many because I don’t think I’ll hit 100 submissions this year, but I have been writing more poetry this year and trying to keep up a writing routine which is very helpful.

#NaHaiWriMo – March On

My Buffalo Children’s Hospital Photo

Frail physique
mind like a steel trap
cerebral palsy

Hello and welcome to March – Women’s Herstory month and Cerebral Palsy Awareness month. Since I fall into both categories, this should be interesting. When I found out February was #NaHaiWriMo, I stumbled on the Facebook page; and they actually have daily prompts for haiku all year long. Finally figured out where and how to contribute my haiku. It is not one of the most user friendly pages I follow. But I saw today’s prompt was frail and thought it would make an excellent intro for #cerebralpalsyawarenessmonth

My Herstory – a long time ago in a city far, far away (40 years ago in Buffalo, NY), I was sent to the children’s hospital for physical therapy for my CP. According to my mother, the above photo was taken at the hospital as part of my patient record. I hate the picture, but it’s still here. The downfall of marrying your high school sweetheart; Shawn took a bunch of old pictures of me and made them into a collage for my high school graduation. It did offer inspiration for my Golden Pixie poem in the My Mane Memories series on Silver Birch Press.

Here are 31 Cerebral Palsy facts in an article written by Nicole Luongo

#Tanka Tuesday – Senryu

Bicycle race

Learn to ride a bike
Invigorating moment
Free to venture far

 

Last night Gretchen and I worked on bike haiku together (more just line and syllable count than traditional haiku). She needed to write poetry for her psychology class. She said she tried to compose a sonnet, but it was too difficult. Yeah, tell me about it. I told her to write a haiku after all it is #NaHaiWriMo (national haiku write month). Her teacher said they would have to write more than one haiku if they chose haiku because it was too easy. Easy?! Has he ever written a haiku? I shouldn’t complain; we had mother daughter bonding time writing poetry.

Then this morning I see the #haikuchallenge word today is sad and I was still thinking of the bicycle haiku and wrote –

Child’s happy moment
First time taking off on bike
Parent somewhat sad

Everyone should keep in mind, my children accomplished something their mother never did – one needs balance to ride a bike and because of my cerebral palsy balance is something I don’t have and I never learned how to ride.

The first senryu was inspired by Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday No. 73. After reading the responses of a couple other poets I follow on WordPress, I decided to give this week’s challenge a try – the words this week are energy and knowledge.

Garden at Cosanti in Phoenix, AZ

Empty chairs preserve
memory of those we’ve lost
okay to feel sad

Another #haikuchallenge poem to honor Leonard Nimoy.

Tomorrow is the last day of February and Shawn’s birthday. I really should get on writing his birthday poem. Has everyone been keeping up with #NaHaiWriMo? One more day to go.

 

NaPoWriMo 2016 Day 15

Rachael at 4 paws

A Place for Hope

Stuck at halfway point, I sit in kitchen
contemplating poetry, my phone rings distracting me
daughter calls for help mother pulled in two

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Because today marks the halfway point in our 30-day sprint, today I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that incorporates the idea of doubles. You could incorporate doubling into the form, for example, by writing a poem in couplets. Or you could make doubles the theme of the poem, by writing, for example, about mirrors or twins, or simply things that come in pairs. Or you could double your doublings by incorporating things-that-come-in-twos into both your subject and form. Happy writing!

Today is a big day. Rachael is giving her senior project presentation right as I’m typing this. Good Luck Kiddo! And meanwhile, Mom is pilfering her title. Yes, A Place for Hope is the title of the project. Rachael volunteered at a cat shelter. Their senior projects had to be something that helped the community. Rachael has to tell a panel of teachers this morning how cat shelters help the community and she has a powerpoint presentation for it. But the wi-fi is acting up and her google docs wouldn’t load so she wanted me to email her the presentation. I think everything is copacetic now. Talk about being pulled in two as I was trying to come up with a poem dealing with doubles. This is another cleave poem – two separate poems make a whole third poem. The two poems alone are kinda senryu.

This just in – They LIKED it!

Penis Envy

A good time was had by all last night. Shawn’s “Erection Set” was a big hit. He came home (yes, I got out of making an appearance at opening night) and said, I didn’t realize how many people would touch the artwork. I thought art was to admire without touching. Well when one plays on erector set as a title, what can you expect? Maybe not this

Phantasmagorical Spectacular Opening Exotic Art Show Alwun House February 12, 2016 Photo taken by Shawn Hosking

 

Interested buyer
Handsy people multiply
Show me the bacon

 

Shawn prefaced this photo with, Sorry it’s not for sale. What?! Exactly what are we going to do with the sculpture. He can keep the pictures as a momento.

I Surrender

Middle of Times Square
Surrender to nature’s call
Feel inauspicious

Since it is only day two of NovPAD, I hope no one is feeling inauspicious yet nor surrendering. I was on Facebook this morning and saw I posted this video a few years ago and well it’s fun. I’m not sure if I’ve shared it on this blog yet. If anyone would like to surrender to nature’s call in the middle of Times Square just visit my husband at work, Blockwise Engineering.

Wordle Me This… Vestige

Heart left cavernous
Clings to vestige of loved ones
Momento mori

The Reverie Journal Wordle Me This #3. And so it goes… We had a nice Thanksgiving.  My mother-in-law drove over from El Paso to join us and my uncle and cousin came as well. This Monday I went out and did some Christmas shopping. I can’t believe it’s December already! Rachael has been busy studying for her college finals and Gretchen did her independent book report and is practicing for the school Christmas concert. My dad will be flying in tomorrow to visit for a week. He’ll be here for the concert on Tuesday. Then my mother-in-law will be back for Christmas. Hoping 2015 will be a better year.

Thanksgiving Dinner 2014

Family gathers
Thankful to be with loved ones
Without your presence

Swallowed Whole

The end of this month marks one year since the loss of my brother-in-law. Then a month later, my cousin, Ken, passed away.  We were traveling to El Paso that day to spend time with Nonnie (my mother-in-law) while the girls were on winter break.  This August my mom passed away.  She had gone through pictures and set them aside for each of us sisters. In my batch, I found a Thanksgiving picture of the Hosking/Dougherty clans (my twin’s family).

Thanksgiving 2001

It is now up on the kitchen cabinet for this Thanksgiving. And this past weekend we were hit with another tragedy as we’ve lost another cousin.  I posted a picture of him and my twin and me on Facebook for throwback Thursday.

Me, Craig, Katryn
Summer 1990

News of suicide
hit hard by reality
tears open my heart

Plummet in despair
Black swallows all radiance
Snuffing out your light

Despondent reach out
Distance felt between us grows
Death cannot be breached

It’s been a very rough year.  I appreciate everyone’s thoughts and prayers.