G is for... great expectations

I am having trouble with Tricia's blog - The Miss Rumphius Effect - every time I go there my browser crashes and I have to restart the computer. I can't even leave her a comment to say it is happening (or to let her know about my poetry stretching lol. This one wasn't that good an effort, but I did like my sijo(s)?).

As a result, I am not linking directly to this week's poetry stretch instructions, because I have finally got my computer stable enough to post my poem (I hope)! This week's challenge was to write macaronic verse - a poem that uses one or more languages, usually for comic effect. Here's mine (nowhere near as good as the other offerings she received!) but my brain is not working at its best, for obvious reasons :P

The boys are cranky.
They are sick.
Sniffling, snuffling, sneezing.
I am sick too.
Ich bin krank.
Gezundheit.
God Bless You.
Amen!

You don't want a photo of us in this condition (trust me!) so here is some gorgeous, gentle green instead.


Can you see the little froggy hiding in the centre of the pumpkin leaf? We counted 5 green frogs on the pumpkin vine yesterday :D

It is still too early here for the Poetry Friday roundup. I shall try to locate the host and do the link later.

E is for ... exciting!

I couldn't seem to do anything with this week's poetry stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect. My diminishing rhymes refused to cooperate. So, I returned to another difficult poetic form which I have tried and abandoned many times over the past few months - the ballade - and this time, it worked! Yippee! It also gave me a poem about Eucalypts - something I have found very difficult to write about because of this poem, which I have posted for a previous Poetry Friday and which for me, describes the bush so perfectly that any attempt I make always suffers from the comparison. Hmmm... my computer is really playing up tonight, so if I manage to get this posted before Saturday dawns, will you buy me breakfast at Milliways? I guess not - unless I can manage three more impossible things - like catching up with the backlog in Google Reader, answering an email from an old friend, and getting Wombat dressed without tears... somehow I doubt it :)

The Eucalypts

The cocky's perch, the sly goanna's lair,
the hangout where the fruitbats fuss and tease,
a shelter for the shy koala-bear,
the acrobatic possum's high trapeze.
Above the whispered swaying of the breeze
a piercing song the shrill cicada thrums:
the music of the bushland's towering trees.
My heart will always live amongst the gums.

A blue haze rises in the hot sun's glare
as oil exudes from eucalyptus leaves
and shimmers in the overheated air:
a breath of freshness 'midst the city's wheeze;
a cure-all antiseptic for disease;
a favourite of all dinkum aussie mums;
a remedy for sniffle, cough and sneeze.
My heart will always live amongst the gums.

An aromatic scent beyond compare
as blossom-heavy branches seek to please
the lorikeets; a pair of gang-gangs, rare,
return each year for gumnuts, and the bees
with pollen-laden bags and golden knees
are gathering their loot with honeyed hums.
No substitute could compensate for these:
my heart will always live amongst the gums.

Oh royal eucalypts, your majesties
give blessings beyond reckoning or sums.
Though I may travel far across the seas,
my heart will always live amongst the gums.



Our host for Poetry Friday this week is Elaine from Wild Rose Reader.

D is for ... decorative

This week, Tricia from The Miss Rumphius Effect proposed writing a lipogram. Basically, this is a piece of writing "that avoids one or more letters of the alphabet." It is also defined as "a work written within a constraint" (though this definition would apply to most poetic forms, would it not?) As my poetry stre-e-e-e-tch, I decided to write a reverse lipogram, in which every word of the poem had to contain the letter "d".

I liked the result. The lack of connectives made it difficult, but the two-words per line rhythm that emerged seemed to echo the erratic zip-zip-zip flight of the subject. It also challenged me to come up with new descriptions, as most of the words which first came to mind had to be discarded because they were "d-less".

In the end I had a lot more words brainstormed which felt perfect but which I decided not to use - as I added more, the effect started to fade, and it started to feel like just a list of jumbled words. It was difficult to get a balance that felt right and still seemed to carry some meaning. Where and how and even whether to punctuate also took some time and thought. Did I get it right?

Dragonfly

Delicate winged
darter, dipping,
dashing, diving.
Splendid, suspended
unfolding dream.

Diligent endeavour;
dynamic adventure.

Deeper delight
untangled serendipity -
uncomplicated desire;
confident dignity.

Endless gratitude.

The photo can't do justice to the amazing colour of these creatures. This one has an almost lavender shimmer over a silvery sky blue.

Today's Poetry Friday is hosted by Suzanne from Adventures in Daily Living.

A is for... anno Domini

Today, I start combining Poetry Friday and the A B See photo meme.

I had planned a ballade about ants, but the combination of scorching weather and grumpy children was not conducive to a complicated composition.

Then Rocks in My Dryer hijacked me with a haiku challenge. Free stuff! I had to enter :D Needless to say, I wasn't one of the finalists (or you would have heard me whooping and hollering from wherever in the world you are reading from!)

It seems my New Year's Resolutions are pretty much the same as the other respondents to her challenge - less of me in the physical dimension, more of me in the spiritual dimension and don't forget, be nice to the babies. I started thinking about how far I was already falling below my own expectations in such matters - and we're not even halfway through January yet. The haiku which resulted from this self-examination evolved into a tanka.

New Year's Resolutions

One day at a time.

Relax! Be kind to yourself.

God will see you through.

More of HIM, less of you. The

little ones need loving too.

I obviously couldn't team this poem with a photo of an ant, so instead, here is an ANGEL!

I had a bright idea - photograph the angel with a bunch of agapanthus. I was arranging them on the old exercise trampoline which sits in our yard when Wombat had a bright idea too... let's make the angel dance!

This week's Poetry Friday is hosted by Anastasia at Picture Book of the Day. (Yes, yes, I know. It is already Saturday where I am, but as far as I am concerned, it's never a new day until after I have been to bed! Been burning the midnight oil far too much lately... another resolution in need of a revolution!)

Also, amble over to The Homeschool Post for more A B See photo fun :D