My streams of thought meet here
The Ragtag community’s word prompt for today is VAST. And here’s a perfect example: Mount Kananaskis in Alberta, Canada. Photo courtesy of Akiroq Brost at Pixabay.
Oh, to have been there!
To have seen the heave,
the earth’s breaching,
like that of an immense whale,
to have heard the roar
of that rending and buckling
when the mantle rose
to meet the boiling clouds!
To have watched the creation
of this vast behemoth
that makes us all
and all our works
smaller than ants.
I regret that I missed doing Crimson’s challenge last week. I even had a good little tale…but may get to use it some other time. And my response this week will be a light verse, as I’m still deep in my ATCUSS project. (A Total Clean-Up of my Sewing Space.)
I’m keeping tract of everything I do so when the end of the month comes I’ll have a record to show for my efforts. So far I’m pleased with what I’ve accomplished. I’ve cleaned up drawers, pieced two blanket tops for our Sewing Circle (which is cheating, as it’s not exactly MY sewing but they’ll be happy), did minor mends on 3 garments, and turned four fraying collars on hubby’s shirts. (Does anyone else do that any more?) Then he decided to catch the flow and bought two more pairs of pants I needed to hem, and now a suit, of which the pants need some adjusting. Today’s project.
It’s been really cold here this week: -20 C this morning and we have a light dusting of snow. Two evenings ago I had a treat: looking out the west window I saw the great horned owl perched in a tree just back of our garage. All puffed up — one HUGE bird! When I see him around I make sure both our cats are inside. I’ve heard rumors…
Now back to the prompts. The Word-of-the-Day prompt this morning is LIGHT, and Crimson’s Challenge #52 is the following photo:
My response:
zephyrs rustle
the fallen leaves — your light laughter
my stale jokes
The Ragtag daily prompt yesterday was A FLOWER CRIED. I had something in mind and tweaked a poem I wrote some years back, but have been slow getting it posted. And here’s a Pixabay image I found to go with it.
A flower cries.
My lovely little blossoms
have sore throats,
a swelling, I suppose,
of too much nectar.
How co-operative you are,
pretty flower, so patient with that
bumbling Doctor Buzz
in his yellow-striped coat
as he pries open your silky jaws
and pushes his portly self
deep inside.
How willingly you put up with
hairy feet tickling,
his fat nose in your tonsils.
He mumbles to himself
as he pokes among
your tender stamens.
How funny that buzzing must feel
deep in your golden throat!
At last he discovers the problem
he wants to cure:
an abscess of sweetness;
to his delight
he manages to remove it all.
Then off he flies,
always in a rush to the next
swelling throat
not even washing his feet.
The Word of the Day prompt this morning is ALMOST. We’ve had a lovely week weather-wise, but our predicted high for today is only 4 C, so we can assume our Indian summer is almost over. Today we’re going to visit family two hours south of here, before the snow flies and traveling gets iffy.
Here’s another story of ALMOST.
THE OLD, OLD STORY
by Edgar Guest
I have no wish to rail at fate,
and vow that I’m unfairly treated;
I do not give vent to my hate
because at times I am defeated.
Life has its ups and downs, I know,
But tell me why should people say
whenever after fish I go:
“You should have been here yesterday”?
It is my luck always to strike
a day when there is nothing doing,
when neither perch nor bass nor pike
my bated hooks will come a-wooing.
Must I a day late always be?
When not a nibble comes my way
must someone always say to me,
“We caught a bunch here yesterday”?
I am not prone to discontent,
nor over-zealous now to climb;
if victory is not yet meant
for me I’ll calmly bide my time.
but I should like just once to go
out fishing on some lake or bay
and not have someone mutter: “Oh,
you should have been here yesterday!”
From his book, Collected Verse of Edgar A Guest
c. 1934 by The Reilly & Lee Company
scattered leaves
collateral damage
in the war of seasons
Here’s Sammi’s weekend writing prompt, and my response:
AURORA BOREALIS
The northern lights took the form of giant feather plumes that night, and I, alone in the house, felt sheltered and comforted under the heavenly glow rippling above.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This actually happened one night some years back. Edgy because my husband was away on a trip, I glanced outside around midnight and saw a lot of lights in the eastern sky. I went outside to get a better look and discovered that the aurora was not only in the north and east, but completely circled our village in the sky above. I’ve never seen northern lights in the south before and probably never will again. Others who also saw them commented on how spectacular, and how widespread, they were that night.
Of course I thought of angel feathers, then the Bible verse:
“He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” Psalm 91:4
