Houses for sale in the Algarve
follow the cobblestone to the yellow one
imagine myself speaking Portuguese
eu escrevo em poesia
nadar no Mediterrâneo
cultivar vegetais
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dVerse prompt concerning an imagined house — I’ll take one in the Algarve of Portugal. Translation:
I write in poetry/ swim in the Mediterranean/grow vegetables
Dakotas spoke it as mni wak’an
mni (water)
wak’an (pure source or sacred)
there was no concept of devil
til white man saw it as bad spirit
water that was undrinkable
created mirages like spirits
over the waters
marked it on the map
Devils Lake
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Traveling in North Dakota, I camped at this lake.
Danaides
condemned to severe punishment in hell
compelled to fill with water
a vessel full of holes
water runs out as soon as poured in
their labor was infinite
punishment eternal
Sisyphus
tried to cheat death
carries a perpetual boulder
up the hill to see it roll back down again
Now the multiverse
peering into the unseen
universe beyond universe
endless explanations
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NaPiWriMo Day 12 prompt on past and future based on two dictionaries Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary and the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
Emojiing again
🦩🐓☁️🌊🐚👙
Honey on ghee
you are the honey
I am the ghee
you pour over me
so sweet
so delicious
two together
in harmony
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NaPoWriMo prompt to take an idiom from a language and culture not your own.
Arabic writing from 20 Common Arabic Idiomatic Expressions
Flying nonstop to Portugal
any day now any day
not without a vaccine they say
add it to your yellow card
have to show at entry point
no country will be exempt
Sem Vacina Sem Entrada
the sign reads
No Vaccine No Entry
will open up the world again
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.
For a second
can’t remember
what country I’m in
or if I’m even in
a country
or the world of
confounded language
on a day of shining sun
lost in
my own body of experience
regardless of home
sound of English singing
in Portuguese
One day at a time
languages come together
through the mixing of people
combine their languages
in effortless communication
words heard and spoken
roll off their tongue
Before the revolution
inscribed on a fan
my soul yearns for happiness
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Toads prompt on laotang – secret language of peasant women in Hunan province
wordshophop 