Dark Hearts Love Too: holidays

Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts

Sunday, April 9, 2023

Poetry Prompts and Inspiration Day 9 April Pad Challenge and NaPoWriMo 2023

Happy Easter/Ostara for those who celebrate such. I did not make the creation in the image at the top of the post, but that's a really cute idea for cupcakes! I really need to get a decorating bag so my frosting isn't always just splatted on with a spoon.

Today's April PAD Challenge prompt calls for a number poem.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2023-april-pad-challenge-day-9

Today's NaPoWriMo prompt asks for a sonnet with a theme relating to love.

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-nine-9/

Here is their information regarding sonnets.

A traditional sonnet is 14 lines long, with each line having ten syllables that are in iambic pentameter (where an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable). While love is a very common theme in sonnets, they’re also known for having a kind of argumentative logic, in which a problem is posed in the first eight lines or so, discussed or argued about in the next four, and then resolved in the last two lines.

A traditional sonnet rhymes, but I am nothing if not a thoroughly modern Millie, or at least a grumpy old owl. My sonnet may rhyme or it may not. I can manage the ten syllables bit. Whether my pentameter is iambically precise is open for debate.

Sadly, I cannot share the result here as I am submitting it for potential publication in the upcoming Soul Ink anthology from Dragon Soul Press, and posting it on my blog would disqualify it for consideration.

Here is what I was listening to while creating this post.

Here is the link.

https://odysee.com/@GamingAmbience:6/destiny-2-io-excavation-site-ii:f?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

Happy Easter/Ostara from Ornery Owl.

Image by Carola68 Die Welt ist bunt...... from Pixabay

Yes, I did manage to earn the "I made myself cry with my writing" badge at Camp NaNoWriMo with this poem, if you must know.

Thursday, November 24, 2022

November PAD Challenge 2022: Day 23 1/2: Family Dinner

Picture info follows the poem

simmering in my own stew

on this Thanksgiving day

I think about the way

my family of origin

served up problems at the table

an unpalatable side dish

promoting indigestion

no wonder my son never enjoyed

visiting my family for dinner

I was so used to the tension

I didn't think much about it

"So what did you do today, Failed Daughter?"

"I quit my job at the casino."

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Free use image from Open Clipart Vectors

notes and prompts used

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2022-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-13

Prompt: Write an Ekphrastic poem.

The selected image:

Evening, Melancholy I

1896

Edvard Munch

(Norwegian, 1863–1944)

Norway

Woodcut hand colored with watercolor

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1959.82

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2022-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-23

Prompt:

Write a family poem.

My family of origin had a lovely habit of discussing problems at the dinner table.

https://imprompt.wordpress.com/2022/11/24/day-24/

Go to the last poem (or flash or whatever your thing is) that you wrote.

Use the last line of it as your first line today.

Use the first line as your last line. (Seven lines minimum.)

If you are feeling particularly masochistic, start with the end AND end with the beginning.

I was feeling particularly masochistic.

Today's poetry soundtrack:

https://odysee.com/@GamingAmbience:6/deus-ex-mankind-divided-prague-%C4%8Dist%C3%A1-2:8?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

https://odysee.com/@GamingAmbience:6/deus-ex-mankind-divided-%C4%8Dist%C3%A1-district:c?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

Thursday, November 18, 2021

November PAD Challenge 2021: The Ghost of Thanksgiving

Image by Oberholster Venita from Pixabay

Ornery Owl Sez: This Bop is a Bit Bleak.

If you prefer to avoid morose verse, you have been warned.

As a child, I could look forward to the third Thursday in November

Being a time to refresh and connect, a day of quiet, untroubled play

In the home where I lived during the year that everything was almost perfect

Except for the ferocious bullying I endured at school, but so it goes

There may have been a fire burning bright in the fireplace

When we sat down at the table, I was truly thankful

For whom the bell tolls, time marches on

In current times I've found that everything has changed

Time does not crawl, it hurtles forth like a bullet train

Crushing my memories beneath its merciless wheels

It took loved ones and ideas from me without a backward glance

There is no doorway through which I can return to that year of perfect holidays

But if I could find a filament of the hopefulness I felt

Perhaps I could sew patches over the holes in my heart

Maybe I could recall the feeling of the third Thursday in November

For whom the bell tolls, time marches on

I sit staring out the window wondering who I think I'm fooling

For decades now Thanksgiving has only been a harried mess

We usually don't even celebrate it on Thursday if we bother with it at all

It's just a day when the stores won't be open if I need something

My father believed in the promise of Thanksgiving

But he has been gone now for eleven years

For whom the bell tolls, time marches on

~ornery owl~

prompts

https://godoggocafe.com/2021/10/23/brave-recklesss-november-creativity-prompt-challenge-autumnblings/

I changed the poem's title from "The Ghost at the Table" to "The Ghost of Thanksgiving" as I thought it was a better fit.

https://dversepoets.com/2021/11/16/poetics-epiphany-in-the-time-of-holiday/

Prompt: Write a poem about an epiphany experienced regarding the holidays.

Perhaps the child I was experienced the unfortunate epiphany that a happy holiday does not guarantee a lifetime of happiness.

Perhaps the older adult me experienced the epiphany that although the holidays can never be the same I can still make them happy if I care to.

Perhaps it's a bit of both.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2021-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-18

Prompt: Write a Thursday poem

http://www.octpowrimo.com/2021/10/octpowrimo-day-9.html

Prompt: Write a Bop poem

https://www.pw.org/content/the_bop#:~:text=The%20Bop%20is%20a%20form%20of%20poetic%20argument,or%20documents%20the%20failure%20of%20resolving%20the%20problem.

https://sundayswhirligig.blogspot.com/2021/11/whirligig-345.html

The Icky, Sticky, Nit-Picky Legalese If You Please (Or Don't Please)

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Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Happy New Year 2020

Created with Pixlr using one of their stock images

Friday, December 20, 2019

Carpe Diem 7 Days before Christmas: Peace Within: A Senryu

Image by Maciej Szewczyk from Pixabay

to have peace within

heart and mind beneath the skin

the greatest of gifts

Friday Flashback + Fat Friday: Dreaming of a Mythos Xmahanukwanzyule

This post was originally published on 20 December 2011 on the Miskatonic University Netherworld Annex blog, which is currently in use as one of my private cataloging blogs. I am updating the post to include reactions to this lovely Xmahanukwanzyule tree, which is currently set up in President Cthulhu's office at the Miskatonic University Netherworld Annex main branch in Nightmare Heights, Netherworld.

Beavis: Hey, Butthead, that tree touched my butt!

Butthead: Beavis, that tree would kick your butt, you bumhug.

Visit the Artist

Cactus Clem: Grover, I feel a kinship with this here tree. It speaks to me!

Visit the Artist

Ghost Town Grover: When Cactus Clem says this here tree speaks to him, I'm purty sure he means that literal-like. It ain't said nary a word to me, but I kinda feel like it's watching me.

Sketch of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft

So, why are we making this a Fat Friday post?

Because EVERY BODY deserves to have a Happy Xmahanukwanzyule free of body-shaming bullshit. That includes everyone from the mighty Cthulhu to YOU!

Happy Xmahanukwanzyule to All

And to all a good XHAGRALLLGHHHNZZZZ!

IÄ, IÄ!

Special thanks to the handy Alt Codes page.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2019: Day 28: Grateful

Image by Matthias Cooper from Pixabay

grateful for what's here

a town far from everything

life in an old house

impossible dreams fade out

bittersweet acceptance in

~Cie~

Notes:

Today's November PAD Chapbook Challenge prompt asked for a Gratitude poem.

People, you know me. I am not the sort to write heartwarming, Chicken Soup for the Soul, grateful for God and family and Better Homes and Gardens type poetry. I am an agnostic curmudgeon, and the only miracle here is that I'm still alive. They ain't found a way to kill me yet, and neither have I. I believe there is something that survives the death of the corporeal body, and I believe there are advanced spiritual forces which could be termed higher powers. I don't like the Church God, and although I'm willing to judge his followers on a case by case basis, I tend to be mightily skeptical of them.

I was raised Catholic and am the black sheep of a family that tried way too hard to keep up appearances. Today is the ninth anniversary of my father's passing. Although we had a sometimes contentious relationship and he passed his own insecurities down to me, he was a devoted father and I love him. I am glad he isn't suffering anymore. The last five years of his life were increasingly difficult. In the end, he really wasn't himself anymore.

I want to call my mother today. My mother is a loyal person who is too wrapped up in keeping up appearances to see the damage that mindset does. She has no idea who I actually am or what I'm really doing because anytime I have tried to tell her, she shuts me down and criticizes me, so I just let her think what she wants.

My brother and I were once the greatest of friends but now have a civil but distant relationship.

I love my son with all my heart and soul. There are some hurts from the past from when my mental illness was as yet undiagnosed and my behavior was chaotic.

Leonard Cohen wrote the line "It's Father's Day and everybody's wounded."

I think the same could be said for most holidays.

If you're having a Better Homes and Gardens Thanksgiving, that's great, and I hope you enjoy it. I would just ask that you realize that this is not the case for everyone, and those of us who are unable to have Shiny Happy Holidays are not bad people or just feeling sorry for ourselves for attention. The hurt is real.

Just to lighten the load a bit, here's one of my favorites:

Monday, November 25, 2019

November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2019: Day 25: A Snarky Senryu: Thanksgiving

Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay

time for Thanksgiving

happy holiday for some

not much for turkeys

~Cie~

Notes:

Today's November PAD Chapbook Challenge asked for a poem about a meal. If you're in the U.S., American Thanksgiving is coming up in two days, so I figured that was an appropriate meal to write a snarky Senryu about.

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Carpe Diem #1773: Tanka: Bury Me on the Lone Prairie

Image Copyright Aubrey Danielle

when my time is done

I want my last breaths to be

on the lone prairie

not in a hospital room

I leave with the whistling wind

~Cie~

Notes:

You happier chappies are probably saying "ugh, there goes that gloomy old Cie with another gloomy poem." But I don't think this poem is gloomy. I think it's real.

I worked in long-term care for most of the 25 years that I was in the medical field. I think that people who work in this setting tend to become very adamant that we do not want to end up dying in a medicalized setting.

My father died in a hospice center. It was a peaceful place with a spacious, comfortable room. He was in constant pain and losing his capacity to think and remember things. It was much better than being in a hospital or nursing home. But for myself, I don't want my end to be even that medicalized. I want to look out the window and see my Lone Prairie before I rise up and walk away on the wind that constantly blows in these parts.

Visit the Artist

Ghost Town Grover Sez:

"Dagnabit, Ornery, ya morbid ole cuss! Ya done went and made Cactus Clem gloomy with all yer chatter about croakin'. Now, I know I'm a ghost, but I've been a ghost fer near to 110 years. We ghosts like to whoop it up on Halloween night, but I ain't gonna be doin' much whoopin' it up if I've gotta be tryin' to cheer Cactus Clem up. So, what the heck are you gonna do about it?"