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.

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Colleen’s #Poetry Challenge 95

Summer break ends soon
Mom glad to have empty house
But children grow glum

Good Evening! It’s the last day of July and officially one week until school is back in session. Since Rachael was off today, we did our back to school shopping and then headed over to P.F.Chang’s for take out – Mom had a coupon.

Here is the link to Colleen’s #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge the two words, synonyms only – Happy & Morose. Slowly but surely I’m getting back to writing poetry again. Summer break has been a killer; haven’t kept up well with the poet blog revival in June or July. I love school because my house is quiet all day.

Back in May, I posted Shawn was having a solo show at Alwun House at the end of August. Well last night, Phoenix was hit with a big monsoon storm; we’re going to need to get a tree trimmer over to take care of one of our trees. Alwun House also suffered quite a bit of damage, so the show had to be canceled. 😦 I’ll keep my readers posted when it gets rescheduled.

Summer Fun

Death Valley Summer 1990

Seen in Bad Water
Puggle, odd little creature
Tours southwest desert

While Gretchen was attending classes at EMCC, I’ve been hiding out in the house posting about the scorching hot summer. June was a hot one in Phoenix this year. We hit a record high of 119 on Tuesday June 20th. It didn’t beat the big record for Phoenix of 122 on June 26, 1990 but we’ve gotten close on more than one day just this past Friday we broke another record with a high of 118. Since I’ve been following all the heat stories in the comfort of my AC, I noticed tourists out at Death Valley were getting out for photos next to the digital thermometer. It read 130 in the article. I had to go dig up the pictures we took the first time we came out west. And yes, it happened to be the year Phoenix holds the all time record high. It was HOT but I don’t think it was 130.

In the photo above I am holding my puggle. And no it is not a mix between a pug and a beagle. It’s a stuffed animal that now has inherited a new guardian. I still have the puggle and when Gretchen saw it, she fell in love.

Melt Down

I think I may be the only person dressed for winter in Germany later this month. Be sure to watch my blog in August. I’m sure I’ll have lots of photos to post.

NaPoWriMo 2016 Day 29

Hometown Goodness 

Sahlen’s hotdogs sold
in Arizona, brings me
taste of Buffalo

Shawn and I decided to move out to Arizona at the start of 1999. Shawn was recuperating from losing his spleen back in November due to mono and we were living with my mom and dad. At the beginning of 1999, we had a lot of snow in Buffalo. Both Shawn and I were tired of dealing with snow and cold. We decided to move to warmer climes. When we first moved out here, we would fly home to visit family every summer and pack an extra box of hometown food to bring back to Arizona. We can now buy real hotdogs at our local grocery store. Yesterday Rachael and I went out to get an oil change for the car. A first for me – you know 42 is the meaning of everything; I guess it’s a good thing I learn how to keep the car maintained. Note – I do NOT have a driver’s license; it’s not as bad as it sounds. But since Rachael got her license at the end of last summer and she’ll be going to college at the end of this summer, I thought someone should teach her vehicle maintenance. Then we went out to Yogurtini for some frozen yogurt and to support 4 paws, the local cat shelter Rachael works at. She asked me what we were doing for dinner. Well Nonnie did say Fry’s had Sahlen’s hotdogs.

Remember summer
playing outside after dark
catch fireflies in jars

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on things you remember. Try to focus on specific details, and don’t worry about whether the memories are of important events, or are connected to each other. You could start by adopting Brainard’s uniform habit of starting every line with “I remember,” and then you could either cut out all the instances of “I remember,” or leave them all in, or leave just a few in. At any rate, hopefully you’ll wind up with a poem that is heavy on concrete detail, and which uses that detail as its connective tissue. Happy writing!

Speaking of memories, Silver Birch Press is running a learning to drive series now. Lots of great poems and memories on how it feels to drive for the first time.

Hot Summer Days – Prose Poem

Dog days of summer… August enters hot, humid, sticky. Time to stretch out in the sun except summer days have drawn to an end. School is back in session. Students trudge down to the bus stop as the sun beats down taunting them. In the afternoon no time to dip toes in the pool. Algebra is calling. Pi…not the sweet strawberry rhubarb kind tantalizing taste buds. A number in a mathematical equation – A equals pi squared in August when the temperature is 110. Teachers blow hot air about circles. Students dream about pi with an e a la mode. Ahhh…Hot Summer Days.

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How Writers Write Poetry exercise 12 my attempt at a prose poem. Apparently Gretchen’s math class is already working with pi. We had a discussion a couple nights ago about why 3.14 is the only decimal number with a name. As far as we know anyhow. And why pi? Of course, I’m a poet not a mathematician. Mom is little help in these conversations. Maybe Aunt Kati knows.

NaPoWriMo Day Eighteen – Ruba’i

Every morning I wake to greet
The sunshine and love my retreat
Back east they’re still dealing with snow
My desert spring lush in dry heat

 

Picture taken by Shawn Hosking on Camelback Mountain

NaPoWriMo Prompt – And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today I challenge you to write a ruba’i. What’s that? Well, it’s a Persian form — multipe stanzas in the ruba’i form are a rubaiyat, as in The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Basically, a ruba’i is a four-line stanza, with a rhyme scheme of AABA. Robert Frost’s famous poem Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening uses this rhyme scheme. You can write a poem composed of one ruba’i, or try your hand at more, for a rubaiyat. Happy writing!

Yesterday, I was busy writing tweetkus.  Tweets written as haiku. I heard Western New York had gotten more snow. I thought I better threaten the sun to get with the program.  I don’t want to deal with snow when I visit Buffalo in July. 😉

I’m no fan of snow
Summer better warm July
Sun has been forewarned

 

Then today I check the writer’s digest PAD prompt more weather poetry.  I decided to write a ruba’i on my beautiful Sonoran Spring. And now I have miles to go before I sleep… I need to get ready for the weekend.