Poetry Friday - Birthdays

     It's Poetry Friday, and Laura Purdie Salas is hosting HERE on her website! Despite various challenges, Laura's also sharing her new book, Flurry, Float, and Fly!, coming out next week, plus a villanelle reminding us of "The Sounds of Winter". It's especially nice since we in Colorado have heard almost none of them. They are late to the winter party!  Be sure to drop by to see all she is sharing, and check others who are sharing, too.    Thanks for hosting today, Laura!

          My family seems to have a slide of birthdays, from April to this month, when my daughter has a big birthday next week! 

                        My husband's birthday was also this month!

          Really, the reason I shared the above is to celebrate birthdays, and this time, my daughter's. But even as I have had many, I still look forward to each one, appreciate the birthday wishes, and consider the day MY special day. I hope you do as well. 

          This began as I wrote above, but also with a poem that feels quite serendipitous because this week, it literally fell out of a book I was looking through, "yes", by Ogden Nash. I just found the book at the used bookstore where I volunteer, and knew I would love his humor, lately a needed boost, right?

         Happy Birthday, with smiles to each of you, no matter how long it will be until your next one! 🎂

Yes, There Were Phantoms!

    It's Poetry Friday, and Jone Rush MacCulloch is hosting HERE on her website.

AND, it's Halloween, with Jone's post filled with prompts and poems that reflect this day filled with treats and scares, costumes from those who find fun in new creations, or those who wear old favorites. Happy Halloween!

       A few weeks ago, Jone shared a list of prompts that writers could use today, if they wished. She's shared them again, and I chose one! 

          Whisper-Singing a Phantom Lullaby

 

Let me sing you a lullaby!

It tells of phantoms rushing by.

They’d heard a tale of special treats–

Earthling offerings, Oh, so sweet,

but only on a special night

when humans tried to be a fright,

creating changes in what they wear.

Their expectations, a cry of fear,

donning flashy costumes to pretend

to scare the neighbors, and maybe friends.

They didn’t know that others came –

phantoms, best at playing this game.

Though they were illusions, when nighttime ended;

many wondered why their treats had dwindled.

More than candy, sometimes a mask

was thought all ended in the trash.

Mothers were scolding the wee ones returning.

They’d eaten too much they had been yearning.

But the kids told how when cold breezes rushed by,

The candy nestled deeper, explaining the “why”!  

 

Especially on Halloween, there may be fear,

And truth may be twisted when Phantoms appear.

 

It’s fun to sing a lullaby of things unforeseen

when sugar-loving phantoms create a scary scene

 

Linda Baie ©

Poetry Friday - Whispering

 

    It's Poetry Friday, and Patricia J. Franz is hosting HERE on her website, Reverie. She's sharing a tanka about her own walk in nature. It's lovely to be there along with her!

   The trees are saying goodbye this past week, in a windy fury, but many still remain. I raked a top layer, filled four bags for our leaf drop. The city has numerous sites where we can take the leaves, and they will be made into mulch that can be picked up in the spring. 

my old cottonwood - still hanging on to its leaves,
and still mostly green

part of my backyard, and the common space that gives me more leaves

         While I raked and bagged, I imagined the trees whispering. Timing has taken the sprinklers out of service, but we have stayed mild and so, so dry. When I've read books about the science of trees, like 

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World 

by Peter Wohlleben, 

they discuss how trees 'talk' to those near, sending moisture to those in need. So, I'm dreaming up the conversations—sometimes silly, or not-so-much—but it's great to be out with them.  

eavesdropping 

the trees' conversations,

better than the news

Linda Baie ©

Show Offs Can Be Wonderful!

    It's Poetry Friday, and Sarah Grace Tuttle is hosting HERE on her NEW website, with lots of exciting news! Be sure to drop by to see what she is sharing, then read the poetry of other poets they're sharing this week, too! It will give you a relaxing hour or two to enjoy their awesome creativity.        

    Thanks for hosting today, Sarah!

             It's special when one meets an interesting person, someone who differs from you, someone who shows you new perspectives, new ways of doing things, and new ideas for living. I'm alarmed at the judgmental attitudes occurring in our country, from those who believe we should all be the same! When I walked to my mailbox one day last week, this was my view, and I was inspired. 

                  Sing It Your Way!

               

Some see them and call out “Clown!”.

They see a standout, but mouths turn down.

Yet, I’m unable to summon wrath

For those who set a unique path,

not the ones who “go along”,

But those who choose to sing their song.

                            Linda Baie ©

A Taste of Dickens for our Times

Happy Autumn

         It’s a pleasure to be your host for Poetry Friday this week.  I’m always so excited to see what poetic gifts each of you offers.  Please add your links in the Inlinkz at the bottom of the post. 

        You may know that I volunteer at an all-volunteer-run used bookstore, and I have recently stepped down as the volunteer coordinator, but I'm still in charge of donations. We review them each Thursday, reject some, and shelve the others. We are grateful that they keep coming in, in large numbers, every week.

         Recently, an older set of nearly all the novels by Charles Dickens was donated. As I placed them in our classics section, I began to wonder if I could use the titles for a poem? This frustrating and actually frightening time in our country has taken up much of my time, and I am working to help the organizations that are fighting back, who are not accepting the changes being enacted. Thus, Dickens and my, perhaps nutty, imagination!

What I brought home!

What The Dickens?

If I could use The Pickwick Papers, being picky, 

I would write that these are Hard Times, 

though I continue to hold Great Expectations 

in spite of our recent world feeling like a Bleak House. 

This involves more than A Tale of Two Cities,

and it is not any of Dickens' Christmas Stories!       

Each morning I rise to face news of people 

appearing to live in the halcyon? days of Martin Chuzzlewit, 

some, or none claiming that man is Our Mutual Friend. 

He’s only The Haunted Man, filling us with something 

never To Be Read at Dusk, Time to check out

 The Mystery of Edwin Drood. You'll understand.

                                                                           Linda Baie ©

If you're wondering, these are Dickens' books I didn't use:  The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Old Curiosity Shop, Oliver Twist, Barnaby Rudge, Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, and Little Dorritt.

       

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