hard shell
reveals a treasure
of many species
off in the distance
a misty presence
waiting to lift
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NaPoWriMo prompt to ask questions based on prescribed words and write a poem from the answers—
What is a quahog?
A hardened shell
What is an oyster?
A holder of treasure
What is seaweed?
A cover for many soecies
What is longing?
A place in the distance
What is elusive?
A misty presence
What is fog?
A curtain waiting to lift
Look at a man riding the donkey
Go with him saying Hosanna
He is the one waited for
Spread the palms at His feet
He has come to save
Sing songs of joy
Praise His name
He is
Lord
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NaPoWriMo prompt Day 9 to write a nonet. This is based on Zechariah 9:9.
Imagine there is heaven
not only in the sky
what surrounds everything
and everyone
reflecting the divine
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NaPoWriMo prompt to pick a phrase and write against it. I took John Lennon’s “Imagine there’s no heaven”.
Write about a seed in the garden
how it was placed in rich soil
when temperature warmed
your patience required
before there was a sprout
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NaPoWriMo Day 4 prompt to write a prompt poem concerning a prompt.
I folded and creased the paper
to make a fuselage
long and slender
overlapped side wings
perfect aerodynamics
hoping it would stay aloft
that it would be lifted
by a current of air
and fly forward
tailwind taking it further
before the landing
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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille using the word paper
Oh to be able to taste again
sweet tapas of Malaga
restaurants flung wide open
olives served which we never ordered
but still had to pay for
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dVerse prompt on food. One too many servings of covid right now.
Dark too early
add gloom of cloud covered night
hanging on to the day
with cold in hallways
feel the draft
time to tinsel the town
with flashing lights
singing angels
bright stars
Gloria chorus
in excelsis deo
Handel’s chorus
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille using the word tinsel
I
Woke this morning
cloudy with chance of rain
brown of death hanging
from trees
waiting to fall
II
Inside where it is warm
oven holds greater heat
melts the butter
sugar and flour and eggs
holds the cookie together
III
A child pets the dog
soft fur under her hand
rising and falling with breath
curious to greet
this nonhuman being
IV
Preparing for winter
I mend the armscye
thread moves through fabric
brings together these parts
making it whole again
V
There is much more to life
than what I know—
enter from the inside out
breathe deeper
rejoice
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dVerse prompt on cadralor— five part poem each part can stand alone. Parts seemingly unrelated. Fifth part brings wholeness.
Standing on Navajo Bridge
I see two condors
on the cliff face they look small
great wings tucked and resting
Colorado River moves below
takes rafters through the Grand Canyon
hoping to see a condor
maybe a peregrine falcon
Our guide tells of the time
high on the rock ledge
temperatures so hot
fledglings died in their nest
Still I want to see a condor take flight
I want to watch it soar
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Nesting condors have been observed at Zion National Park and I am hoping that global warming doesn’t push them out of their nests too early. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9814501/amp/Two-critically-endangered-California-condors-spotted-near-Zion-National-Park.html
The oyster knife fit perfectly in her hand, its old wooden handle smooth and darkened with a century of use; how it pried open the barnacled shell (shell after shell) until there was a pile resting at her feet and the soft flesh of the oysters filled a bowl, their delicate lace edges curling outward away from the green sack of their being. She slipped one into her mouth— oysters on the half shell always her favorite. Always a top shell and a bottom shell. Never a pearl. Someday, she said to herself— someday she will find a pearl, but until then she promised herself, she would keep on eating oysters.
When the blade goes dull, I will think of Zora Neale Hurston who wrote
“No, I do not weep at the world — I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”
Sharpen your knife.
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dVerse prompt to write prosey using the words of Zora Neale Hurston from 1928 in World Tomorrow —How It Feels to be Colored Me.
Also using Ursula K. Le Guin’s Steering the Craft Exercise 3, using long and short sentences.
Real old oyster knife pictured found at a thrift shop San Juan Island.
wordshophop 