With a thousand awful ways to die, i’m glad we only do it once.
friends and lovers
31 Aug 2026 16 Comments
in haibun Tags: bridesmaids, groomsmen, marry, wedding
Marry me in the same small town church where my parents married. I’ll wear my mother’s sleeveless wedding dress, featuring lacey arm gauntles and wide hoop skirt covered in lace. Shall I wear a hat or veil? My bridesmaids will wear peach street-length dresses and carry sheer parasols.
You will be handsome in broad-shouldered ivory tux trimmed in dark brown. Mother says no cowboy boots! Our brothers, as groomsmen, will wear brown tuxedos with matching bowties. Your nephew can bear the rings on a pillow and my cousin’s daughter can walk down aisle dropping rose petals.
Let’s decorate dais like a garden with latticed arch and baskets of mums. The church ladies can serve barbecue beef on buns with potato salad, frozen fruit cups, and wedding cake. After our reception, you can drive us away in antique buggy, proudly pulled by your horse, Ginger. We must keep our final destination secret!
on lawn of stone church
congratulations and punch
spill like summer petals
Linking to dVerse poets where Mish hosts haibuns on wedding bliss. My husband and I celebrated our 43rd anniversary this past weekend!
butterfly garden
26 Aug 2026 21 Comments
in rhyming verse Tags: butterfly, flowers, garden, honeybees, scone, tea, turtledoves
if planting a butterfly garden for me,
invite white doves to flutter by for tea
inside the gazebo, set quaint table there.
don’t wonder or worry what you will wear;
dress in blush, butter yellow, or emerald sheen
like the flowers, who have no need to preen.
serve english tea with sweet cream and a scone,
listen as honeybees dance their way home.
“If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?” Matthew 6:30
Melissa hosts landscape poetics at dVerse where we explore the art of Egon Schiele. My ekphrastic rhyme is in response to his painting, House with a Bay Window in the Garden (1907)
squeals of delight
24 Aug 2026 26 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: girl, scream, grand daughters, tickle, protest
“Tickle me!” little girl
demanded. Grandpa
would oblige until
i laughed to tears and,
gasping for air, finally
screamed, “Stop!” which
he always did, with a grin.
Now history repeats
as I witness my husband
“tickle torture” our
own granddaughters,
floored in loud protest.
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks” – Shakespeare
______________
A quadrille (44 words) on the theme: protest. Read more at dVerse poets pub.
Announcing…
15 Aug 2026 18 Comments
My brief book has arrived and I want to share it with you! Similar to delivering an actual baby, when you write a book and gift it to the world, you hope it doesn’t say anything foolish and that other people will like it.
This is a mini memoir about our family’s experiences raising cattle. It also includes some poetry…and cow jokes. If you live locally, contact me for a print copy. If at a distance, you can read online by clicking the photo link on my blog’s “About” page. Enjoy!
re-routing
03 Aug 2026 19 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: book, poem, publish, words, writer
Writers often take journeys in their minds. Observation, memory, and imagination create thoughts to travel by. Experience, learning, and time mark signposts along the way. We draw from an interior well or search for a fresh fountain. Of course, sharing the trip with friends enriches and expands us.
We write one step after the other: a few scribbles in a notebook, an idea tapped on the keyboard, a poem submitted here or there. If we do the work, why are we surprised by acceptance and publication? With or without a map, no journey goes as planned but that’s part of the adventure!
Sometimes we face roadblocks to overcome. Do not give up; do not quit the trail. Keep moving forward. Whether as a career or a hobby, we discover that writing feels satisfying and readers prove gratifying. Is it possible that book you’re dream-wording will appear in print?
journeys of the mind
where everyone’s a poet
words expose secrets
Frank J. Tassone hosts haibun Monday at dVerse…join us on the journey! I think my haiku is actually a senryu 🙂
“i don’t care”
27 Jul 2026 35 Comments
in quadrille Tags: apathetic, care, noncommital, opinion, phrase, point-of-view
Perhaps the phrase
is meant to be
nonchalant
but it comes across as
noncommittal,
holding out/holding in
your real opinion.
It’s pathetically apathetic
not to speak your mind
with honest clarity; to own
your own point-of-view.
i don’t care? oh, yes, you do!
______________
Sanaa hosts quadrilles at dVerse, if you care to join us.
love the life you live
21 Jul 2026 25 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: baby, band, birdsong, corn, cows, dog, friends, lightning, moon, mountains, rain, sun, tea, thunder
These I have loved:
wildflower meadows, clear rivulets, rocky heights of mountains
snowshoes strapped to boots, quiet shush through fresh powder
powerful, empathic, wondrous words heard from lips, read on pages
swelling, surround sound of woodwinds and brass in band practice
companionable petted presence, walks, whine, odor, licks of dog
deep, dark, long-lashed eyes of cows, shining wet with curiosity
smooth touch of sweetly scented, oh-so-soft baby’s perfect skin
squeals, shouts, smiles, pouts of grandchildren…eighteen seen!
magnanimous masculine hearts of eight men; six from boyhood
loyal laughter and spiritual bond of kindred spirits in dear friends
wise, patient influence of godly mothers, grandmothers, aunts
exotic variations of chai tea: steeped, dirtied, iced, spiced, latted
homemade blueberry scones, warm, drizzled with lemon glaze
succulent jumbo shrimp dipped in garlic butter, eaten seaside
wake to morning songs of birds serenading our shady campsite
thunderheads rumbling across prairie, flashes of forked lightning
each mysterious phase of moon that beguiles with mirrored light
warm sun on skin, stretched lazily on beach chair, plush towel
fresh, clean smell of air washed by rain; damp hair, shampooed
wild roses blooming annually along ditches, lilacs in backyards
greenest fields of corn in rows, tasseled and pointing skyward
…all these have been my loves.
A list poem patterned after Rupert Brooke’s poem, “The Great Lover”… linked to dVerse poetics, hosted by Kim. As I recount the things I have loved, I must give thanks to God for these gifts; He is truly The Great Lover!
suicide…why??
17 Jul 2026 21 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: despair, grief, pain, psychotic, suicide
If you need to talk to someone, call or text 988 (suicide & crisis lifeline in U.S.)
______________
we cannot see deep into another’s soul but…
perhaps person had already died inside, by lies,
ultimately beaten down by world’s cold frown
their inner world shrunk too small, too tight…
hope overshadowed by overwhelming despair,
choose permanent solution for temporary problem.
shards of shattered pain cause collateral damage…
leaving loved ones to grieve precious life cut short.
baking from memory
15 Jul 2026 16 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: bake, cream puffs, dad, fire
The day Dad tries to
burn our house down
with us in it, my excited
brother is yelling, “Fire!”
as I run downstairs into
cloud of smoke billowing
from open oven door
where Dad’s cream puffs
combust, ashes to ashes,
because he doubled butter.
______________
Lisa hosts “puff” quadrilles (44 words) at dVerse poets pub…
strength
07 Jul 2026 2 Comments
in haiku Tags: blue heron, grace, pond, weight, wings
lone great blue heron
wings weight of world down to pond
glides with grace on blue
a poem in my pocket 
You must be logged in to post a comment.