www.oneword.com - one word, so little time [pinned]

I lay flat on my back, pinned by the inertia of my own depression. There are few forces so powerful as the delusions of the mind. If I tell myself I can't, I can't. If I strive, I might possibly succeed. With that thought in mind, I finally lifted a finger.

July 31, 2006 08:24 AM

haiku

A timpani of

thunderstorms vibrates membranes

of air around me.

haiku

Groans from the garden

are just the earthworms as they

push up the daisies.

www.oneword.com (one word - so little time) [platinum]

He swept the platinum hair out of his eyes with a toss of his head. He was like a palomino stallion, fast, bold, beautiful and with about the same IQ. I turned my own head away in search of a darker horse.

July 30, 2006 09:01 AM (12:01 EST)

haiku

Familiar views draw

my thoughts through a past that I

would not recapture.

haiku

Olive green visage

peers from an environment

I find inviting.

* * * * * * *

This is Mr. Tur-TEL. He and Captain Jack are co-residents in my friend Linda's yard. His domain is the pond which he shares with several frogs and a large number of very large goldfish.

"Pondfish by Night" - July 8, 2006

haiku

I lose myself in

the not so cultivated

wilds of my garden.

Fibonacci Poem

the

first

words are

a struggle

then flood gates open

and every thought demands the floor

www.oneword.com (one word - so little time) [favored]

I have always favored action over observation. I would rather be damned for doing something than for doing nothing. Of course, it's knowing what to do that is the difficult part. Sometimes you just have to go on instinct. When all else fails, try logic.

July 29, 2006 02:52 PM (17:52 EST)

haiku

Blue Russian sage blooms

reach to the distant notion

of St. Basil's spires.

55 Fiction Friday

Iris pocketed her returned handkerchief, "Thank you, Mister..."

"Graham, Jeffrey Graham, " replied the Englishman. "My card."

Iris barely glanced at his calling card, for he was already turning from her. "I bid you good day, miss, " the smile he flashed over his shoulder was charming but disinterested, his presence on the boat a mere coincidence.

[FIRST] [PREVIOUS] (to be continued...)

Friday's Feast

Feast One-Hundred & Four

Appetizer
What's the funniest dream you can remember having?

I don’t remember ever waking from a dream with laughter on my lips. I do remember a very interesting one from my youth in which I was chased by vampires. I remember it because it was one of those rare dreams where I had a physical sensation. When the attractive vampire leader with the long dark hair (you know the type) caught me and bit my neck, I actually felt the fangs sliding through the skin of my throat. It reminds me now of sliding a glass tube through a rubber stopper in chemistry class. I remember waking from that slow motion moment not frightened, but fascinated by the memory of that penetration. Over twenty years later I can still close my eyes and recapture that moment, both the dream, and waking up in a bed in my Grandmother’s house.

Soup
If you were a dog, what breed would you be, and why?

I think I’d like to be an English Mastiff because at 200 lbs. no one messes with you, and when they find out you’re just a big ol’ softy, everyone wants to give you lovins!

Either that or I’d be true to my human lineage and be a mutt of Irish Setter, Scottie, English Bulldog, Welsh Corgi, German Shepherd, and Native American Wolf.

Salad
Continue this sentence: "I get confused when..."

…I try to reason out the ways of the world using logic.

Main Course
Name two things that need to be done, but you are procrastinating in completing.

Cleaning up after Pendragon the Parrot and clipping his wings are two ongoing chores that I frequently set aside for more interesting pursuits where there is less chance of getting bit. (Guess what I'm going to be doing after I post this.)

Dessert
When was the last time you tried something new, and what was it?

MMMmmm! I had the most wonderful Kibbie Plate at Aladdin’s Eatery the other night. The almond dressing was to die for! I love trying different foods!

I also tried a new (to me) poetic form recently. Fibonacci Poems or Fibs base the syllables in each line on the Fibonacci Sequence of numbers.

www.oneword.com (one word - so little time) [copy]

If only I could copy the images in my head in some externally viewable form. Alas, I am limited to trying to interpret my ideas with mere words. I can only try to explain my mind; I cannot relate it in such a way that will allow the world to see my perspective.

July 28, 2006 10:01 AM (13:01 EST)

haiku

Lilies bob and weave

in the wind, making it

difficult to focus.

Magnetic Poetry...Live Long and Grow Old

www.oneword.com (one word - so little time) [interest]

"It may interest you to know that I have single handedly saved the universe on several occasions." he said with a deliberately modest smile. "Yeah, that's nice," I replied, wrestling with the barely functional controls of the no-longer-flying saucer, "but I really can't pat you on the back right now. I need both hands for this."

July 27, 2006 11:18 AM (14:18 EST)

haiku (for the Bloggers at Aladdin's)

Laughter echoes in

between the falafel and

the chocolate mousse cake.

Thanks so much to Paperback Writer, Michelle, Chowderhead, Hellcat, Loki, Trouble, Nancy and Rob for making tonight such a hoot!

Tally in his Thinking Place

www.oneword.com - one word, so little time [retreat]

"Run away! Run away!" cried the soldiers as I stuck my head out of the window of my mountain retreat. Really, these crusaders are always showing up to bother me at the wrong times. I mean, what did they expect coming up here just before bedtime? And what was all the brouhaha about? It's only an herbal mask.

July 26, 2006 08:12 AM (11:12 EST)

Fibonacci Poem

Don't

hide

inside

your tough shell

so much, dear Captain.

We cannot get in there with you!

* * * * * * *

(for Captain Jean-Luc Picard and turtle, Captain Jack)

haiku

As alien as

any sea creature, daisies

gaze from the garden.

Linda's New Tutle is...

Linda has chosen the name Captain Jack for her new turtle. That name is of course influenced by our favorite pirate Captain Jack Sparrow.

Since Jean-Luc Picard was the first to suggest the name Jack, he's the winner of the Name Linda's New Turtle Contest. That's fitting, because of course Jean-Luc is a Captain. It also calls to mind Captain Picard's recent Timeship Terrapin post. Congratulations Jean-Luc Picard and thanks to all who contributed ideas! I'll be posting a Fibonacci Poem for The Captain as soon as I come up with one!

By the way, if you haven't yet seen Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man's Chest, do yourself a favor and go see it! It was fantastic! I laughed. I cried. I was surprised at least twice! And once again, I can't wait for the sequel!

I had hoped to post a new photo of little Captain Jack for this announcement, but he refuses to come out of the underbrush. So, that answers one of Paperback Writer's questions. Captain Jack is a decidedly shy turtle. Maybe once he's got settled in a bit he'll pose for the paparazzi.

www.oneword.com - one word, so little time [sanity]

Sanity is an increasingly rare comodity. Strangely enough, the rarer sanity gets, the less valuable it seems to become. George Orwell in 1984 said, "Being in a minority, even a minority of one did not make you mad." And perhaps that's true, but it certainly does earn you some pretty strange looks. Personally, I think I'll take Douglas Adams' advice "There's no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later."

July 25, 2006 08:24 AM (11:24 EST)

haiku

A Viking ship sails

in the clouds over the mall.

I pillage the shops.

I see a witch kissing a faery-dragon...

But don't ask me to explain the question mark shaped contrail behind her.

www.oneword.com - one word, so little time [audience]

I stood on the bare stage. No audience. No script. No direction. So, true to my habits, I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of the woodgrain in the floor boards. Rather than sing or act out, I reverted to documenting the minutest detail of of my surroundings.

July 24, 2006 08:07 AM (11:07 EST)

Godzilla!

haiku

I don't even try

to resist the urge to shoot

the bridge as I cross.

www.oneword.com (one word - so little time) [unto]

Unto thine own self be true. Does that also mean unto thine own self be truthful? Does that mean it's not okay to lie to myself to protect my own feelings? I can't tell myself a little white lie every now and then? Damn. That means I have to go and change my clothes. I can't really let myself be seen in public in this outfit.

July 23, 2006 10:10 AM (13:10 EST)

haiku

Gray baby sparrow

fluffed fat against the weather

observes the gray sky.

haiku

Morning glories gaze

back at me with eyes brighter

than my bleary orbs.

www.oneword.com (one word - so little time) [horizon]

Photo: Bridgeville, PA - July 20, 2006

I looked out at the early morning horizon. "Red sky in morning, sailor take warning." The sun glared down on all of the commuters with a baleful crimson eye. Perhaps he'd had too much to drink the night before and was having bloodshot regrets as he hungover the waking city.

July 22, 2006 10:47 AM

haiku

hydrangea ruffled

in the breeze like a swarm of

pinkish flutter-bys

www.oneword.com - one word, so little time [sands]

I could feel the sands shifting from underneath my bare toes. The breakers threw themselves at my feet and swirled around my ankles, drawing the pulverized quartz away in a slurry of sediment and cloudy brine. I gazed out at the sea, sinking deeper and deeper into my musings.

July 21, 2006 08:49 AM (11:49 EST)

55 Fiction Friday

Iris pressed her chilled fingers to her heart with a gasp. She felt the key's shape beneath her jacket, and it was enough to stiffen her resolve. She swallowed both her bile and her nerve, straightened her shoulders and accepted the return of her handkerchief from the warm hand of the tall, dark haired stranger.

[FIRST] [PREVIOUS] (to be continued...)

Friday's Feast

Feast One Hundred and Three

Appetizer
Fill in the blanks: I ____________ when I _____________.

I live when I love.
I die when I lie.

Oh, I’ve really had Alice on the brain lately! "'You might just as well say,' added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, 'that "I breathe when I sleep" is the same thing as "I sleep when I breathe"!' 'It is the same thing with you,' said the Hatter, and here the conversation dropped..." –Lewis Carroll

Soup
Name something you use to make your home smell good.

I sometimes worry that I might have latent pyromaniac tendencies because I love to burn candles.

I also enjoy cooking with veggies and herbs from my garden. Mmmm roasted chicken with rosemary and sage…fresh zucchini bread…salsa!

Salad
If you could receive a coupon in the mail for 50% off any product, what would you want it to be for?

Well, there’s this house…

Main Course
Besides sleeping, what do you spend the majority of the hours of your typical day doing?

Whether it be books, web pages, subtitles, or expressions it seems I am constantly reading.

Dessert
What can you hear right now while answering these questions?

Bob FM 96.9 – “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” by: Paul Simon
and an announcement over the PA telling someone to move their car

The name Linda's turtle contest...

This is the turtle recently rescued from a pool filter by my friend Linda's son Chris.


This turtle needs a name, and Linda has consented to let my readers help come up with one. So, if you know any good turtle names, please post them in the comments. I will pass them on to Linda who will of course be the judge. Gee, I guess we should have a prize. I'll write a Fibonacci Poem for the person whose name Linda chooses. The contest will be over when Linda finds a name she likes. So, what would you name the turtle?

haiku

Sycamore limbs turn

sky into eyelet bedspread

with me underneath.

www.oneword.com - one word, so little time [content]

It is hard to be content with the content of ones life. There is always that fence with the greener grass on the other side. There is always that forbiddin fruit hanging just a finger's length away. Yet, there is always another dream to reach for, another goal to strive for, another day to get out of bed.

July 20, 2006 08:11 AM (11:11 EST)

haiku

Chirping turns my head.

I'd forgotten crickets could

fiddle such music.

haiku

Faeries have dusted

confectioners' sugar on

myriad branches

haiku

Polka-dotted tank

patrols jalapenos for

aphid assailants.

haiku

Grandma smiled, "Morning,

Glory!" to rumpled little

me. Now I see why.

In My Own Mind

I am a lost voice

I am a poet

I am a tom-boy

I am a lady

I am an inhibited exhibitionist

I am a lover and a fighter

I am a deep dark secret

I am a guiding light

I am an addict

I am a free spirit

I am a bad wolf in training

I am a sheep

I am a garden gnome

I am the rain

I am a guardian

I am a prisoner

I am a nightmare

I am a dream come true

tanka - for Mark Calloway aka The Undertaker

I felt his hand on

my back. His mouth parted my

lips, and before I

knew where I was, I was lost

in tanka length fantasy.

www.oneword.com - one word, so little time [witheld]

Trying to keep a cheerful face on things, I withheld comment. What I wish I had said was, "Is it really possible for you not to realize what an idiot you are? Do you really expect me to do this with a straight face? What planet are you from anyway?" But what I really said was, "Yes, sir."

July 19, 2006 11:32 AM (14:32 EST)

haiku

cloud lion roars at

the blue sky but there is no

storm to back it up

magnetic haiku

www.oneword.com - one word, so little time [chess]

It was like a human game of chess. I found myself dressed all in white with a big round ball on my head. Of course I would be a pawn. Okay. Pawn to H3. Where the smeg is H3? And where is Alice when I need her? What was it the Red Queen said, again? Darn. I could really use another biscuit.

July 18, 2006 08:20 AM

We have a winner!

The first tomato of the season is a roma!

haiku

my thoughts pooled in the

depression you left behind

the ink stain spreading

www.oneword.com - one word, so little time [adapt]

Try as I might to adapt to my surroundings, I just can't seem to keep up with my peers. They're all thinking outside the box, growing legs, breathing air, crawling up on land. I just don't think I can take that kind of pressure. If I just stay here in my small pond, and let all the others go out into the world, eventually I'll be the biggest fish around.

July 17, 2006 08:12 AM (11:12 EST)

gladiolus

Magnetic Poetry

haiku

Sky dragon stretches

its cloudy neck to be warmed

by the sun's last rays.

www.oneword.com (one word - so little time) [melt]

I saw him and I just melted. Oh, no wait. That was the water that horrible child had just flung on me! Didn't they understand that I was just a poor lonely woman trapped in the emptiness of her castle trying to find a way to win the heart of that wizard two towns over?

July 16, 2006 09:42 AM (12:42 EST)

magnetic haiku

www.oneword.com (one word - so little time) [opaque]

My thoughts turned opaque, reflecting all of my ideas in on themselves like paintings on the inner surface of a soap bubble, as though all that I had to direct me were my own distorted images. Did I create them, or were they haunting me from the minds of others whose influence had guided me, unknowing, all this time?

July 15, 2006 10:28 AM (13:28 EST)

My new portulaca desktop...

haiku

The Asiatic

lilies now give way to mums.

Hope springs eternal.

www.oneword.com - one word, so little time [relief]

"I really only write poetry to throw my callous heartless exterior into sharp relief!" shouted the Vogon. I sighed. "Yeah, that's the reason most of us write," I replied. "Here, let me challange you with a piece of my own..." "No!" shreiked the Vogon, falling to his knees with a rubbery splat as the unfamiliar sensation of fear robbed him of strength, "Anything but that!" (with apologies to the late Douglas Adams)

I tried the Vogon Poem Generator for a giggle:

Vogon Poem from BBC Cult

See, see the culinary sky
Marvel at its big puce depths.
Tell me, Pendragon do you
Wonder why the the incredibly deadly viper ignores you?
Why its foobly stare
makes you feel deflated.
I can tell you, it is
Worried by your smeg facial growth
That looks like
A cheese.
What's more, it knows
Your uvula potting shed
Smells of peas.
Everything under the big culinary sky
Asks why, why do you even bother?
You only charm cheeses.

Friday's Feast

Feast One Hundred & Two

Appetizer
Name one thing nice that you could do for someone else today.

Give co-workers zucchini from my garden.

Soup
When was the last time you were frightened by the weather?

When I was in college. I was flying home in a little puddle jumper and there was a terrible thunderstorm with high winds. I love thunder...from the ground.

Salad
What would you say is the most useful website or blog that you visit?

Amazon.com is the most practical site I visit. Google and IMDB.com are useful, too. For sites useful to my mental health, see the Carnival of Souls in my sidebar.

Main Course
Who was your favorite singer/group when you were a child?

The Beatles

Dessert
Do you have any rituals? If so, what are they?

A ritual can be as simple as how one takes a bath or makes a cup of tea and the same acts can be as deeply meaningful as prayer. One man’s ritual is another’s obsessive compulsive disorder. It’s all in the perspective. My rituals are many, varied, and probably only make sense to me.

55 Fiction Friday

Iris clutched the railing, trying to settle both her gait and her stomach. As she attempted to mop her clammy forhead with a handkerchief, the wind tore it from her fingers. She nearly sobbed in desperation. It was all too much!

"Is this yours, miss?" The dark haired man stood before her, handkerchief in hand.

[FIRST] [PREVIOUS] (to be continued...)

haiku

Those portulacas

do tickle the toes of the

mighty tomato!

Words that are fun to say...

To cheer myself up I decided to share my list of words that are fun to say:

knickerbockers

credenza

Antonio Banderas

kartoffelpuffer

Raxacoricofallapatorius

phantasmagoria

phlebotomist

floccinaucinihilipilification

supercalafragilisticexpiealadoscious

brouhaha

perspicacity

Jabberwocky (The whole poem is fun to say!)

festoon

wonky

Salacious Crumb

Smeg!

That's all I can come up with off the top of my head. What other words are fun to say?

haiku

I write myself out

of a crying jag, going

on pure nerve and ink.

haiku

Just when I think I

can hate you, "Harlem Nocturne"

rips the strength from me.

haiku

(for Ian Anderson)

Flute drips drops of pure

silver tone, enough to make

a songbird turn green.

Fibonacci Poem

tic

toc

of my

heels fills the

empty corridor

is anybody listening?

www.oneword.com - one word, so little time [grounds]

As I walked across the grounds in the early hours of the day, I noticed that my feet left a dark path through the dew covered lawn like the negative of a slug's slime trail. Perhaps the effect of our passing through this world is not always noticable in what we leave behind, but in the emptiness of the spaces we vacate.

July 13, 2006 08:09 AM (11:09 EST)

oops

It was recently brought to my attention by Cathy that I was misidentifying my father's lilies. What I was calling daylilies are actually Asiatic lilies. These are daylilies:

haiku

Raindrops scamper on

my hot car hood, afraid to

let their wet feet touch.

www.oneword.com - one word, so little time [filter]

Her cigarette had burned all the way down to the scarlet lipstick stained filter. She had been so involved in pouring out her story that she had only taken one or two drags of it. Better for her health, really, so I prompted her to continue. "Okay, Mrs. um Smith, what exactly did you do when you found your husband's body?"

July 12, 2006 08:08 AM (11:08 EST)

Fibonacci Poem

I

know

I could

easily

get burned, but I am

a moth to the flame of your words.

haiku

It is comforting

to know that even blue jays

can have bad hair days.