Verse Love: April 7: Much Mulch

Over at Verse Love today, our host, Luke Bensing asked us to pick an image and use alliteration in your first line and your last line. That’s it. Yet, my head is messy as a pile bark mulch that I sliced about a few minutes ago. 

Mostly, it's a multitude of sources for mulch

Multiplied many times so it will matter,

A bargain at Lowes, perhaps with budget

Busting delivery charges?

Or a pallet from Amazon that only a 

Fork-lift could raise?

Or a massive mountain dumped 

In plain sight, mocking me day and night?

It's probably not an intense need for mulch

Mocking my attempt to read, write or sleep.

Mulch prices misplace the mighty scary

Meaning of that threat that maybe,

Many more lives are in jeopardy,

Minutes after Jeopardy.

SOL26 April 9: Mulch Before Jeopardy

Today is Slice of Life Tuesday and I am sharing a bit about where my head is today.  

Better and Homes and Gardens is not coming for a photo shoot, but bark chops are still invading my thoughts, even though the one bag I bought last spring sits unopened in the garage!

I could get mulch, on sale, at Lowes through tomorrow for just 2 dollars per back-breaking bag? But, if I want delivery, that will add 75 dollars, plus a tip! Or, the Depot has bags for 4 with 66 dollar delivery, plus tip. Or Amazon will deliver at the end of the month and leave them, probably at the entrance to my driveway!  Goffle Brook Farms has bags only a fork lift can move with a bargain 35 dollar delivery! Or, I could get a dump truck to leave a mountain in my driveway that would certainly force me to do something! 

Instead, I scroll endlessly researching mulch prices as if that was really on my mind rather than worry about the meaning of the leader of the free world's threat to wipe out a whole civilization after Jeopardy tonight. 

Verse Love: Day 6: To Forgive

Today's Verse Love host, Wendy Edwards, asks us to consider Anhaldam mawi kassipalilawalan.

a Native American phrase meaning ‘Forgive me for any wrong I may have done you," as there is always multiple to look at any human interaction. 

This prompt drags emotions that I try to suppress to the surface and demands I face the question that bubbles to the surface whenever my mind weakens its defenses.

Intense anger gnawed at my soul until in an ocean of despair, 
I found a human power to forgive, and watched a sun emerge; 
I wonder if the torment will continue until you forgive yourself?

Verse Love: Day 5: Lessons From History

On this Easter Sunday, the Verse Love host, Jennifer asks us to prompt asks us find a line of poetry that speaks to us and then un-find it by exchanging the main words with their antonyms as a starting point. 

I started with some of Amanda Gorman's lines, and took liberty at un-finding it!

Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:

That even as we grieved, we grew...

At home, where elected 

Representatives of we, the people

Sigh and wonder if 

This is a need, a want, a lie,

Even as some celebrate,

Winning battles, 

Dropping deadly bombs,

Killing of dictators,

Daring rescues,

We the people. wondered 

Had not learned 

Lessons from history?

Verse Love: Day 4: Where Are You From?

 This morning at Verse Love, Kim Johnson asks us to choose a person and setting (passenger on an airplane, etc.) and introduce yourself.  She asks us to offer a glimpse into our world. I knew I somehow wanted to "honor" my one of my favorite "living" poets Amanda Gorman who hails from LA and gained "fame" at Biden's inauguration. 

Here's the imaginary, wanna-be-real-setting. I found myself moved to business class last minute where I was assigned next to a younger woman, eyes already closed. Her hoodie was pulled low and her earbuds seemed to be closing out the world. I did not want to stare, but she sure looked like my heroine.  I read and reread that same page again and again as she slept and I wondered what I'd say if she woke up. I was staring at the clouds as we passed over Kansas when she stretched.....and we shared destinations.... before she asked, "Where are you from?"

I lived in McKeesport just long enough to get certificate of birth

Not long enough to appreciate the pollution of steel mills before

In my mother's arms, we pulled our trailer to Terre Haute, Indiana 

Then Ohio, which did not generate any family worthy stories before heading

To Spring Valley, NY where Hasidic families lived as they believed

Risking lives, walking in the dark on the Sabbath before,

Heading to Meridian, Mississippi and then to Selma, Alabama where

First hand inequities of our society became more real in segregated schools,

Stores, even churches shocked even my dad who I thought was worldly before

Heading to HS in upstate NYS where everyone skied and I bridged to college at

SUNY Albany as Vietnam War protests raged on the quad, before embarking

On my college journey to Syracuse, NY and then the University of Maryland

As Watergate exploded, before

Stops in Murrysville, PA and Troy, NY as early married life unfolded before

Landing in Stormville, NY, on top of a mountain that really is that stormy where

I raised my children and found out how strong I really was before

Settling in a two-train town in Northern, NJ not too far from my precious grands

30 minutes from Fordham University, The Met and Broadway.

"That story should be a poem!" she said and I'll always believed I talked too much but gave her fodder for a real poem about me!

Verse Love Day 3: Just One Pane di Pasqua

Today is Day 3 of Verse Love, our Host, Melissa asks us to consider art or an image as our inspiration. My mother-in-law wove Pane di Pasqua, with love, every Easter. It remains a symbol of new life and spring that makes me smile as I make just one, in her honor. 

They always sat in a pile on the table

As if they had popped out of the oven

Like the gingerbread man, rather than

Patiently kneaded, woven into perfect

Braids, holding their bright promises of life.

I smile as I walk past the best in town bakery, 

Think about ordering just one, while memories,

Of her centerpiece urge me to make just one,

Thinking about her as I knead, weave, and bake

Just one to sit on my table to remember her love, and

The promise of hope needed this spring.

                                 

Verse Love Day 2: People Working

Today is the second day of the Verse Love month.  Today's host, Leilya Pitre asks us to consider a poem that’s hiding in plain sight such as a road sign.   I have recently noticed an old fashioned sign has reappeared as road crews in my area work, tirelessly work to fix many pot-holes in many roads,

Perhaps, I thought in the beginning

This hard winter and temperature 

Fluctuating spring, caused

Abundant craters taking out 

BMW tires, created headaches in our

Litigious towns without enough of the 

Newer gender neutral inspired signs.

The norm for decades. 

Yet, clear as those bright patches of 

Blacktop, the old-fashioned signs,

You probably remember them, vaguely,

Men Working, are back even when the

Person directing the project and the 

Individual directing all cars safely are

Clearly Women Working.  

I want to believe one of those bake sales 

The focus of schools to get what they need 

Would help the shortage of 21st Century signs.

I am not so sure in a country without 

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion,

Verse Love 1: My Trail

Today is the first day of Verse Love where Sarah asks us to think about the landscapes (physical, emotional, or cultural) that shape us. We are asked to begin with inside me... This would have been much easier when I was younger and on top of the world.

Inside me is a jagged, rocky, complex trail,

Detours, wrong turns, switchbacks,

Cliffs, rock slides, hold your breath moments,

Brilliant rainbows follow devastating storms,

Meadows where God's majesty flows.

Climbs  where I stumble, fall, find footings, 

Brave new paths towards the unknown,

Learn about strength, persistence,

Hidden paths, self worth, hope,

Appreciate all the small moments,

The stronger, more confident, 

Heirs to my mountain.

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SOL26 March31 Endings are Beginnings

Today is the last day of the Slice of Life Challenge for March 2026.  It's also the ending-of-childhood-birthday for a special young woman in my life. Both endings are fortunately the beginning of a new chapters. 

How can she be ready to vote, go to college,

Make so many "adult" decisions when I 

Remember her damp head nestled, as we

Told endless bedtime stories after Elsa

Dance parties, slime making, trinket 

Paintings, celebrations, concerts, meets?

Yet, her next chapter is even more exciting

New adventures, experiences, people,

Endings are beginnings, 

I must remember.

How did I make it to the last day

Writing, reading, connecting, thinking,

Meeting new friends at the beginning of their

Journeys as teachers encouraging writing 

Along with those in the thick of teaching,

Parenting, trying to empower themselves

Along with forever teachers

Still learning, reflecting, growing?

Yet, we can meet again next Tuesday

I will try to write poetry, daily, in April

Endings are beginnings, 

I must remember.

SOL26 March 30 Have You Ever?

 

This month, I am writing with the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life group sharing bits and pieces of life. I am all over the place in my thinking, worrying, and celebrating right now and in the beginning I was thinking it was just me!  I kept adding to my list, but these are a few of the feelings that many/most/all? of us have at times!

Have you ever thought about how much a newborn baby grows and changes in their first 18 years? How could it happen so fast that they are ready to head off to jobs and colleges and lives of their own?

Have you ever looked at a child and become overcome with worries about the condition of the world our generation is handing to them? How can we who worked for and wanted peace and harmony live with our failure to make the world better?

Have you ever wanted something so much it hurt but know you cannot have it? How did you manage to move on and cope with life without constant obsession? Is it ok to let go of hopes and dreams?

Have you ever been so lost that you were really scared, if only for a moment, and not sure of what was going to happen? How did you find the courage to keep going, find your way in the myriad of choices?

Have you ever been so angry and frustrated with someone that you could imagine yelling, screaming, and knocking over furniture and held it inside? How could someone make you so angry, sad, disappointed? How could such a thing happen?

Have you ever loved someone so much that you worried obsessively and prayed consciously day after day? How can you keep all those loves and worries in balance with working, living and breathing? 

Have you ever lost someone who left a hole in your heart the size of the Grand Canyon? How do you move ahead and keep going with a gaping hole in your life? 

Have you ever won a lottery where the big money prize provided the impetus for changing the future of your life? I once won a 50-50 drawing at a small town orchestra but that's it! and that is ok!