NPM 2025 (I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud)

I was cleaning house (so to speak) and look what I found in the drafts folder.

Dadgummit! You did again old woman!

Oh well, I will not be deterred. Late— but not deterred.

Thank goodness there’s not a late fee for such oversights.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a *jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Jocund was a new word for me —or possibly one that was stored deep, deep, deep somewhere in the cobwebs of my memory.

Of course, I had to look it up. I’m a good student like that. 

I’m also one that likes to share information so in case you don’t wanna look it up here you go. Complements of Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Jocund

jo·cund  also  ˈjō-(ˌ)kəndmarked by or suggestive of high spirits and lively mirthfulness.

“a poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company” —William Wordsworth

On This Day ….

On this day forty-eight years ago…

In the spring of 1977 I was in the early prime of my teenage years; she was in the latter prime of her teens.

Life was stretched out before us like a long, hot summer with an endless amount of options- of opportunities and roads to be traveled.

Could she imagine that [on that beautiful spring day] that she’d never see summer?

I don’t think so, I know I couldn’t.

Did anyone predict a (legally blind) man would be driving a little too fast in a residential area?

No, none of us could foresee the future on that dreadful day of the accident.

Nor could we ever have envisioned the short days ahead.

The hazy hours of hope and disbelief and denial until …

Until there was nothing left to do but mourn.

Oddly enough (or not) I still mourn.

The grief is not near as raw and not quite as heart wrenching as it was forty-eight years ago.

It’s more like a constant dull throbbing you learn to live with and usually ignore …

But sometimes it sneaks past the smiles and laughs of grandchildren, family and friends.

Sometimes the grief creeps in among life, among the daily routines…

and all I can do is sit with the bittersweet memories.

This personal little tidbit is what inspired the writing of Odd Man Out, a short story that can be found in the collection Once Upon a Dead Gull. Or read it in the larger story collections of More or Short Stories & Such.

Except from Odd Man Out

My mother used to say I never met a stranger. I reckon she was right but that didn’t keep me from feeling like a foreigner.

I was the peculiar child that didn’t look quite like the others; a raucous summer born among winter babies. I cared too much and cried too easy and sometimes I forgot that I wasnt everybody’s mother.

Happy Friday Y’all

NPM 2025 (The End of the Priest)

Well &#¥+ !

Between the garden and the grandkids I have completely neglected NPM. tsk tsk tsk

I must somehow set aside a bit of quality time for National Poetry Month in days remaining. I just must! Maybe I’ll set an alarm for that too. I only have fifty-gillion to five-gazillion alarms already.

So today I said to myself, “self you need to read one and post one.” Of course that won’t catch me up. So I read Too Much Pain by Donna Ashworth. And for a post I went willy-nilly and typed “22” into one of my files and this is what popped up.

Some people do the same thing when looking for a bible verse to inspire/guide/comfort and swear that fate will always give you an appropriate response.

I’m just over here going hmmm.

Taken from Getting Me Back (the voices within)
Getting Me Back

Happy reading & writing. Now y’all go read or write something poetic.

Write on!

NPM 2025 (Full Moon and Little Frieda)

It was NPM 2014 when I first shared Ted’s poem about his daughter. In that post the husband and I had another enjoyable conversation about the tragedies that surrounded the man.

You should give it a read.

But now I present to you….

Full Moon and Little Frieda

By Ted Hughes

A cool small evening shrunk to a dog bark and the clank of a bucket –
And you listening.
A spider’s web, tense for the dew’s touch.
A pail lifted, still and brimming – mirror
To tempt a first star to a tremor.

Cows are going home in the lane there, looping the hedges with their warm
wreaths of breath –
A dark river of blood, many boulders,
Balancing unspilled milk.
‘Moon!’ you cry suddenly, ‘Moon! Moon!’

The moon has stepped back like an artist gazing amazed at a work
That points at him amazed
.

Ole Teddy published a book of prose and poetry to his first wife [and first wife to die by suicide] in Birthday Letters not long before his demise.

Lord, help me not judge. I have lived a less than stellar life, my own poetry is evidence.

Write On!!

NPM 2025 (Edge)

I can hardly believe that I first shared Edge by Sylvia Plath in April 2013.

It seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago at the same time.

I honestly enjoyed revisiting the discussion and dissection of Edge and poor Sylvia Plath. You should give it a read.

Meanwhile I present to you…

Edge by Sylvia Plath 1963

The woman is perfected.
Her dead 

Body wears the smile of accomplishment,

The illusion of a Greek necessity

Flows in the scrolls of her toga,
Her bare

Feet seem to be saying:
We have come so far, it is over.

Each dead child coiled, a white serpent,
One at each little

Pitcher of milk, now empty.
She has folded

Them back into her body as petals
Of a rose close when the garden

Stiffens and odors bleed
From the sweet, deep throats of the night flower.

The moon has nothing to be sad about,
Staring from her hood of bone.

She is used to this sort of thing.
Her blacks crackle and drag.

Sylvia Plath Hughes with her second child, son Nicholas.

NPM 2025 (Why Poetry)

Welcome to April. Welcome to NPM (National Poetry Month) and welcome to my home.

Well, my blog home. Feel free to hang out, have a drink & peruse the smorgasbord.

Heck, feel free to shoot me a line and/or a link to your favorite poem or poet. Old or new- I love `em all.

I don’t know if I should feel bad that I’m a week behind in getting started with NPM.

Shoot I run behind on a lot of things in my old age.

And since being electrocuted a year and a half ago… well I ain’t been quite right.

I’m laughing at myself a little. Not because of electrocuting myself but because I use it as an excuse sometimes.

The truth is I have never been quite right. 🤣

Anywho, I digress.

As I was saying, it is National Poetry Month. To kick it off I’ll share a tiny poem and the cover reveal for Getting Me Back.

The new cover has only updated on the ebook. We’re running into delays on the print.

New cover reveal. Ta-da!

Why Poetry?

Because It hurts deeper, tastes sweeter, laughs louder, and lets me know I’m alive.

Happy New Life (Spring is Here)

I like to believe…

I like to believe that the spring equinox marks the actual New Year. It just makes more sense with all of the new life and new activities going on in nature.

I believe we can find the same newness within ourselves if we let nature guide us.

So cheers 🥂!! Here’s to new life, new growth, and a happy HaPpY new year.

P. S. Speaking of new … I have new book covers in the works. I’m kinda looking forward to these new creations.

The Epiphany

The epiphany has passed –

now gone are the 12 days of Christmas.

The winter sun is setting low; his colors scattered like coals of fire across the western sky. 

Our souls are satiated and hopeful of the things to come and so we sleep.

And we sleep. 

And we sleep. 

I was just pondering, a thing which I do often these days, while enjoying a glorious Texas sunset and these words came to me.

I think it is the first creative thing I’ve written in… well I don’t know how long.

And now, while sharing this with you all, the vexing lines of William Butler Yeats come to mind.

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

More to ponder no doubt.

Winter Solstice (The Long Long Night)

Here in the northern hemisphere today is the winter solstice, the first day of winter, aka midwinter. It is reportedly the shortest day of the year hence the longest night.

It is also that time of year I routinely share this bit of poetry with you all.

Torn from the pages of Getting Me Back ( The Voices Within)

Keep your hearts warm my friends. Brighter days await.