A meteor struck
filled with rain
fish came
twenty tribes
along the shore
speak Twi
fishermen
& their families
tour guides too
akwaaba welcome
medaase thank you
mayera I’m lost
primary school
helps the children
learn English
sacred lake to Ashanti
protect her
life-sustaining waters
Tumi nyina ne asase
All power emanates
from the earth
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NaPoWriMo prompt to write a place poem. Lake Bosumtwi is the only natural lake in Ghana, an ancient impact crater.
October 30, 2019, returning from Athens to NYC. My daughter and I had traveled together for two months without having any major disagreements. There was just one night in Dubai when I was verging on being a selfish, judgmental person; I got over it. At the outset of the trip, I said I wanted only three things— to go to Prayer Mountain in Ghana, to do a day trip to Morocco, and to visit Pompeii. I am easy to please most of the time.
I take it back. There was a moment on the train from the Athens airport to our hotel in the heart of Athens when I was so nervous about getting off at the correct station that two pickpockets targeted us. My daughter felt a hand in her bag and looked the thief in the eye. He bolted without her wallet. It was an elaborate scheme where one thief held the door from opening, while the other went for the cash. My lesson— stay alert, don’t become a victim.
Now that I am remembering— the other time my daughter got mad at me was at the Catania Airport when I turned into an “ugly American” and told off a group of Italians on the tarmac bus to move closer together so everyone could get on. I was shouting in English and nobody moved an inch.
trip of a lifetime
pray for Europe Africa
and all of the world
dVerse prompt to use a poem written about myself and write a haibun based on that poem. I used my poem Language written October 7, 2019, while I was on this trip and at one point, didn’t know where I was. Now I pray that someday I can return, especially to Ghana.
A setting sun
makes faces glow
it reflects
on the passing day
sparkles sand
makes sea shine
lingers on the surface
of earth
makes it golden or pink
before it disappears
leaves colors
temporarily
dangling on clouds
brilliant
in its display
worthy of audience
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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille using the word glow
Photo on the beach Pine Cliffs in the Algarve, Portugal
Sweet smell of Africa
clings to my nostrils
it is in my bag
open it
my clothes unfold
a memory of singing
and dancing
under the night sky
fabric swirls
keeps the air
in its weave
releases
smells
of Ghana
Cote de Ivoire
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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille and use the word keep
The tomb urn is big enough to hold a body. (It is another way to bury the dead in ancient Sicily. We see them in the archeological museum.) I am climbing over an adult-sized one trying not to break it. When I get to the top, the urn falls forward and moves down a small hill. It does not break so my relief is great. A girl comes to help me to move it upright and to set it in a new place. I know this dream is about death. How the burying of the dead has changed since the beginning. Now I can choose my burial in an ecopod much like the urns of Sicily. I will know the falling of the vessel that takes me away. That it is there ready to receive me.
I went to the beach
air was so fresh
sea salt refreshed me
it was in the air
and in the water
refreshing—
Greeks say it keeps
your skin young
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dVerse prompt to repeat a word in different form called polyptoton. Photo from today in Crete.
“Where can a blind man go who is pursued by bees?” Pablo Neruda
He knows not to go in the clover patch. He can smell its sweetness and cannot enter. His forgotten place he longs for— along the shore of the Mediterranean with wind moving in his hair.
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dVerse prompt on questioning in poetry. Answering Neruda.
