Outside
a squirrel & a dove
feed on the ground
figs are coming on
second crop for the birds
& my vision blurred
by the screen
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dVerse prompt to take a photo out the window, post photo and write a poem. Oh, how I feel my vision has been blurred lately.
MEMORIES of cotton picking days
picked along with men and women
all over the South
people of all colors
fourteen footer dragged behind
filled with cotton
picked from each boll
start when you’re old enough
to hold a sack
sang in harmony
as we picked
infant scooting behind
too small to pick
“cotton on the roadside
cotton in the ditch
we all picked cotton
but we never got rich”
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photo from SMU Degolyer Library
Crete in late October
stay at the Domes Noruz
beach resort in Chania
a feast at breakfast
rental car required
to visit Elafonisi
most beautiful pink beach
follow winding road
through countryside
visit a monastery
hike Imbros Gorge
so much to do
on an island
or do nothing
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dVerse prompt on travel. Hoping for the day I can return to Crete.
“No one left and no one came on the bare platform.” No one was going anywhere. The trains and planes had stopped running a week ago. All ground transportation halted by order of the government. Gas stations were closed. Truckers off for two weeks. This was a complete stand still. Fourteen days to clear the virus out of the system. Only one more week to go. One more week to make the food last; for the hospitals to unlock.
Plans were already going up for the restart. The grocery stores would open first, pharmacies second. People in close proximity to these places are lucky as they can walk. Public transportation would resume on the third day. Gas stations would open for delivery trucks only. Hospitals open, followed by churches. By the end of ten days, people can drive a car again. Back to normal.
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dVerse prompt for prose of 144 words using the sentence “No one left and no one came on the bare platform.” by Edward Thomas. Photo taken in Italy. This is a fantasy of how it could be if all transportation comes to a standstill including walking.
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.
