A Quote to Start Things Off

""I'd love to go to Santa Fe at some point, Emmett said, but for the time being, I need to go to New York. The panhandler stopped laughing and adopted a more serious expression. Well. that's life in a nutshell, aint it. Lovin' to go to one place and havin' to go to another. Amor Towles in the Lincoln Highway.

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Pictures of Memories I

Pictures of Memories I
Snow kidding! These "kids" now range from 17 to 23

Thursday, August 18, 2022

Poetry Friday 8/19/2022 Finding Castles Among Ordinary Things

 I am hosting Poetry Friday today for my very first time. I originally said I would wait until Midnight Eastern time (11 P.m. where I live) so that it would truly be Poetry Friday. I have caved and am posting this on Thursday at 11:09 Eastern time as I worked at 2 of my jobs from 6 am to 9 pm (my time)  counting travel time and don't want to stay up any longer than I have to asI am also working the same shifts tomorrow.  Here's what I have for you ...

 Back on June 17th, Rose Cappelli of Imagine the Possibilities shared her amazing poem, Music Lessons for Poetry Friday.

I was not familiar with the form, an etheree, and decided to experiment with it.  An Etheree is a 10-line poem that works it way incrementally from one syllable to 10 syllables adding a beat with every line. At One aspect that I enjoy about creating poetry is the freedom to see the world a little differently than everyone else.  An ability to make a connection, and then see where that connection takes me.   

As I was reading Music Lessons, at Rose's blog, I noticed that right under her poem there was a section embedded in her post stating sponsored content replete with the usual clickbait about insurance rates, medical treatments, and other sundry time wasters.   Among the annoyance, I had a flash of inspiration.  Why not write an etheree about internet ads.  This was the result ...


Sponsored Content



I

Really

Don't care where

Educated

Singles in Elgin

Meet, Nor do I need to

Know the seven worst mistakes

I can make with my retirement.

There is a search bar for a reason,

I am content to find my own content.

6/18/2022


My wife and I have had one car between us for several months now.  We were hopeful that we would be working at the same school this year and only found out a few days before the school year started that there would not be a position for me.  Fortunately my long term substitute skills  are highly sought after and I received an offer to work at a middle school in my wife's district.  While we begin to look for a second vehicle, I have been bicycling nine miles down our bike path (each way) to my new school.


When I bike to work these pictures give you an idea of the view ahead of me.




Granted it's gorgeous but it's also fairly common place. Don't get me wrong I love my commute.  Most days I see at least 2 deer and some pretty good views of the Fox River but for the most part it's just tree after tree with a couple of towns thrown in for good measure.

But there is also this ...









Yes 2 miles from downtown Elgin there is this castle structure that I believe was brought over from England.  Most days I bike right past it often not even seeing it.  

Over the past few years I have found myself in a bit of Poetry Renaissance.  To me poetry has been my way of finding castles among ordinary things and even making ordinary things stick out like castles.  

That's what I have for this week.  Let's see what you can add and find out where the adventure takes us. 

 


As you read through what I'm sure re going to be excellent selections this week. I hope you experience your own Poetry Renaissance.  Next Weeks Poetry Friday will be hosted by Tanita S. Davis  at Fiction Instead of Lies.


Thursday, August 11, 2022

Poetry Friday: Hosting Next Week ,Way Back Machine This Week


Greetings Friday Poetry People.  I just came back from a month volunteering at a camp in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with my family.  It was an amazing time.   One minor drawback was there was very little access to Wi-Fi and such things and I did not get to read many blogposts let alone participate on any Friday Poetry events.

I did get to perform some of my poetry at a crew talent show so that was good. I didn't write any poetry while I was there and am saving the one I was working on before I left for next week so today I am going back to the archives.  

Here is one from 3-11-1993  


Untitled

John Doe rests uneasily

Albeit eternally in the county morgue

Found outside a supermarket

Slumped against the cart return rack

On a different cart now

The contents as generic


Doe, John

Motionless on the table

A poem prepared for publication

The venomous white space atop the page

Leaves the editor no choice

But to mark the work: Untitled


An unnamed man

Alone in a dimly lit parking lot

Breathes his last amid

Unread circulars and candy  wrappers

Leaving behind no glimpse of history

No hint of next of kin to alert


Height and weight can be measured

Eye and hair color observed

Blood type determined

Age only guessed at


The death certificate

Marks the cause:

Natural


Margaret  is hosting this weeks Poetry Friday event at Reflections on the Teche. You can check it out by clicking here.  Today is Margaret's Birthday so you may want to congratulate her on that as well.



Thursday, July 7, 2022

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book #10: The Stranger in the Woods



Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book #10: The Stranger in the Woods:   

Poetry Friday: The Problem of Good.




 It's Thursday night so we all know that mean's it's time for Poetry Friday.  This week's festival of free verse, carnival of couplets, and symposium of sonnets is being held at Bookseed Studio.


I went through about 1.3 million drafts or so of this poem before I got this far. I was driving my family crazy with all the revisions.  Here is what I came up with ...

The Problem of Good.

I tried feeling good

       But ...

Feeling good fades.


I tried being good

       But ...

Being good is impossible


I tried doing good

Doing good is filling a leaky bucket

One exhausting drop at a time


Then I remembered

God is good.

I can ...

Feel His Goodness

Be His Goodness

Do His Goodness

And...

That's not bad. 


For more Poetry Friday click here.






Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book # 9: Between Heaven & Hell (Plus Next Ten)




Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book # 9: Between Heaven & Hell:   

This was not only my 9th book of my Summer Reading Program but the 35th book I read this year.  This puts me on pace to read 69.39 books by years end.

Next Ten

Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
Knowing God - J.I. Packer
Immanuel: Reflections on the life of Christ- Michael Card
Inside the Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Devin Brown
Writing Poetry from tje Inside Out - Sanford Lynne
What to Do on Thursday - Jay Adams
Dorothy L Sayers - A Biography: Death, Dante, and Lord Peter - Colin Duriez
Dreyer's English - Benjamin Dreyer
Great Short Poems - Paul Negri - Editor
The Light of His Presence - Anne Graham Lotz

A to Z 2023 Road Trip

#AtoZChallenge 2023 RoadTrip