Summer On! Clunker Challenge

 Clunker Challenge from  Linda Mitchell

Last week, Linda offered her clunker lines in exchange for a quick poem and a clunker line from each writer. I eagerly scrolled through the clunker lines and found two that looked appealing:

found a bit of sunflower  &  trees turned so orange the road looked blue

With these, I decided to write a pandemic poem since many bans were altered and the thought of summer travel seems so uplifting. 

A ban lifts,

lives change,

travel surges.

Summer 2021 opens

for roads untraveled and

newfound destinations sought.

Adventures await so find the why of

breathing in freshness, basking in sunshine,

feeling the tingling sensation of salted seafoamed oceans,

and the pure pleasure of tousled hair and loud music on open highways.

Walk, drive, ride, fly, or dream of places where trees turned so orange

the road looked blue or places where a bit of sunflower carries a

memory. If travel is not an option, create a fantasy trip to a 

secret garden with no boundaries. Be free.

Options are limitless. Find open spaces

Lve without fear of disruptors.

Gather nature's gifts.

Bring them indoors.

Honor the road

for it holds

your 

©CV, 2021

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While I sent Linda this clunker, summer dressed itself in ..., I decided to use the prompt.

Summer's Fashion Statement

Summer dressed itself

in robes of golden sunrise.

Skyblue hopes

billowed in the breeze as

summer washed the woods

in dew-drenched sparkles.

Daylight-glow puddled

on delicate leaves.

A parade of stilled daylilies posed

in gardens rich with chocolate mulch.

At day's end, summer dressed night

in indigo dreams as serenity pillowed

 under a moonlit canopy.

©CV, 2021

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Yesterday and today, I offered The Spiritual Journey Thursday community and guests an opportunity to celebrate summer with the topic, "Nurturing Our Summer Souls". As the host, I designed an advertisement with photos and artwork from Jan Annino, Donna Smith, Fran Haley, and myself to publicize the event. Please stop by to read my post and link up to other responders. 

Then, visit the Poetry Friday Roundup at author poet Laura Shovan's blog. She shares her poem, "Millicent Patrick Speaks of Monsters," which won honorable mention in the Baltimore Science Fiction Society’s annual poetry contest. Look further to find more poetic goodness from other poets.

Nature Inspired Awe

Sunset approached. Earth lay in stillness outside. Indoors the hum of television news revved up unwanted fears. Amidst food segments on Thanksgiving holiday preparations, bits on pandemic safety repeatedly appeared. Newscasters discussed precautions on how to celebrate the holiday. Reminders of downscaling age-old traditions of gatherings with loved ones became the go-to reference.  With constant talk on how to stay safe, I left the kitchen to find solace outdoors. An awe walk was in order. 

Nature did not disappoint. A splendid view came into sight as I passed beyond huge treescapes. There it was, brilliant in a darkened night sky after sunset. 

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary,

 earthshine is sunlight reflected by the earth that illuminates the dark part of the moon.

"According to a study conducted by Craig L. Anderson, feelings of awe, those generated while being in nature (also known as nature inspired awe)...had a profoundly healing effect on the mind and body." (8 Ways Being In Nature  Heals Your Mind and Body (According To Research)

During  this year's Thanksgiving holiday find time to take an awe walk. Be inspired by nature. Bring home the comforting and healing power of nature's glow. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

🦃

Gratitude to Two Writing Teachers for offering the Tuesday Slice of Life year-round.

Balancing My Days During Quarantine Life

In the midst of COVID-19, instead of life slowing down considerably, it is full of activity. This makes balancing a difficult act at this time. 

The pandemic caused me to reflect constantly. What was happening to life as I knew it? and How can I find happiness in the midst of sorrow? were questions I asked. The following quote by C. G. Jung brought some ideas into focus. "Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness and the word 'happiness' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness." Thinking back on January 1, 2020, I remembered that I started the year with one word, balance, and a renewed spirit of commitment. I welcomed in a new decade with the statement, "Cease the busyness to find evocative moments to savor." That I did when my new granddaughter, Aurora, was born with a sweetness about her and a loving smile that makes any heart melt. Then, the pandemic erupted and threw me off course. 

Fear was everywhere. Sadness increased each day. As the days turned into months shifts in lifestyles occurred. My once-known normalcy was lost but faith and trust lifted me up. "A just balance and scales are the Lord's; all the weights in the bag are His work." Proverb 16:11, shined a light in both dark days and ones filled with a commitment to take baby steps forward. 

Quarantine life continued to focus on finding balance in troubled waters. To be honest, the beginning months were tough. Yoga classes were suspended and unfortunately, my exercise routine dwindled down to nothing. Perhaps, this reasoning will suffice. At the end of February, my husband and I made a leap-of-faith decision to build a new home in Virginia for the next chapter in our life story. This strategic move places me 30 minutes away from my daughter, son-in-law, and two granddaughters. My sister even decided to jump in and build a home on one of the few homesites left. With hope and faith, I worked virtually for months with the design team to build this new home. 

Arriving home today from a quick-paced 3-day visit with the construction team, design studio consultant, and looking for new furniture has left me exhausted but not as unbalanced as I have felt. The memories of my granddaughters' smiles and laugher will keep me happy and ready to push forward. Follow my story in the weeks to come as I move through the next phase of selling my house and packing decades of memories along with items for the move. Whew! 

Before the Pre-Dry Wall Walkthrough

Tonight and tomorrow, I host Spiritual Journey Thursday with long-distant friends who gather together as a committed community of writers under the new leadership of Margaret Simon. Join me here all day tomorrow for thoughts on balancing our days during quarantine life.

Add your Spiritual Journey Thursday blog post link below.

"We Need" Pandemic Poem Video

In the moments of quiet contemplation during my #QuarantineLife days, poetry has become my expressive outlet. Knowing that hope and faith are needed in abundance to heal the tragedies and traumatic experiences encountered, I write from the heart, believing there must be a worldwide call to action.

With that intent in mind, I penned a golden shovel poem based on Kitty O'Meara's poem, In the Time of Pandemic. Little did I know about Kitty O'Meara prior to the start of the pandemic. After her poem took international flight in March 2020, I explored to find more information. The Oprah Magazine called her the poet laureate of the pandemic and Deepak Chopra publicized her viral pandemic poem on Facebook. Many others have read, posted her poem, and added their thoughts. I decided to take the poem I wrote for my last blog post and create a video poem using the Lumen 5 online video maker.

I hope my video poem becomes another voice speaking from the heart during the pandemic. You can find my short video, We Need Pandemic Poem, on my YouTube channel.

Hope, Love, and Harmony are needed for the world to unite in peace!

I am offering this post to the Two Writing Teachers community of writers for the

Tuesday Slice of Life challenge.

Poetry Gifts from Kat

How surprised was I when I found in my email that my Aussie poet-author friend, Kathryn Apel, brought greetings and a summer poetry swap gift.  She told me that she wanted to write a solage and an epigram for me since I've said a number of times that I found them tricky during the Poetry Pep Up Challenge. "The trimeric was so much fun, picking lines from poems on your blog. I had only intended to take lines for the first stanza - which repeats through the poem. But then I stumbled on the last line, and couldn’t bear to leave it out. And then, I decided a title from you would be lovely, too… And in the end, I wrote very little!"  In truth, Kat displayed her creative, artistic side and wrote a beautiful epigram and trimeric in the same poem and picture. This is her "first foray into flower watercolour" and it is beautiful. I am including it in my Nature Nurtures 2020 Gallery.

This field of flowers is a lovely present that exhibits a truth.

Kat and I are linked-friends. I am deeply grateful to her for her poetry gifts.

Thank you, Tabatha Yeatts, for organizing the 20202 Summer Poetry Swap.

While teaching my first online graduate course for teachers, Kat sent me her poems. Deeply entrenched into sharing curriculum models for sparking wonder, curiosity, and creativity in learners, I found another pandemic poem that resonated with me. I took two lines from the poem and created a golden shovel poem to send Kat. Day 5 of her Poetry Pep Up asked for a golden shovel poem. I already sent Kat one but when I read the following poem, I was drawn to two lines.

Strike lines from Kitty O'Meara's poem: And the people stayed home (stanza 1) the earth began to heal  (stanza 2)

We started each day with sadness and

ended with prayers of hope for the

grieving world and its fallen people.

We kept our distance and stayed

in. Routines brought sanity. Home

became the center of life in the

early days of COVID.  When earth

needed a gentle cradling, people began

reconnecting and reimagining ways to

find balance and pathways to heal.

©CV, 2020

Because of the rigor of the workload preparing for and teaching my summer graduate poem, I am offering my post to my friend, poet-librarian Linda Mitchell, the host of Poetry Friday. Linda has an original poem freshly written for the 4th of July holiday. She is also sharing her poetry swap gift from another poet-author-teacher friend, Margaret Simon. Join me at the Poetry Friday Roundup here to find more poetic goodness.