labor day

we spread ourselves
thin like weekly washed

sheets. the thread
is baring against our

bear toes. my feet
cradling yours

hanging over the edge
of the well worn bed.



*i know labor day isn't until monday, but i've been day dreaming about my first sleep in in weeks (!), and my husbee gets to cuddle me through the morning hours ^__^ what more could a girl want? and what girl wouldn't be looking forward to the promise of such a lovely day?

kittens & refrigerators

below are some pictures of max (new favorite hiding places included), one of ryan and the old fridge that now lives in the basement, AND some pictures of our beautiful new kitchen!! (thank you mum and dad)

ringing of the bards #10

the 10th ringing of the bards is up at ozy's place! do check it out; he's included all the poems/poets into one cohesive poem, which i've been looking forward to someone doing just the way he's done it. three cheers for ozy!

also, there's no one scheduled to host next week, so if you think you'd be interested, give billy the blogging poet a shout. to check available dates throughout september, check here.

what happened

tuesday night in a grocery store
grumbling about the ache in your knee

but you still carried me piggy-back
through the "taste the world" aisle

moaning like an old man with the body
of a 26-year-old and something

i got poked for teasing, for laughing.
then: you stopped dead in your tracks

frozen by the words that sneaked
past my unprotected laughter

the "i love you so much"
so much never as little as hinted before

but the truth slipped out like a secret
i'd been keeping for decades.

[the wet is getting]

the wet is getting

and out of control,
but you love it, don't you?

get wet with us:
a special welcome to new members
ozymandiaz
and c.s.perez

the concern her

her filtered lenses
block out the system
that she so

and so devoted to

wavering at the flicker of gravity
in a meter-thick tube
the train through Nottingham
or passed fields

for candy she sweetens
like soldiers taken from families
for the sake
of butter enough

to make their babies
fat again

the new system

pluto, as you may have heard, has been demoted. and we now have a brand new solar system. put your learning caps on kiddies, time to memorize the new solar system!

[[news.bbc.co.uk article on topic]]

does anyone else feel bad for pluto? i certainly do. that's literally the biggest demotion in the universe.

ringing of the bards #9 a'la Sam Duffy's Stuff

this edition of The Ringing of the Bards is brought to you through the grace and beauty Miss Sam Duffy of Miss Sam Duffy's Stuff and Stuff.

i approached Miss Sam Duffy via email a few weeks back, asking her if she'd give me permission to make her the "thematic centerpiece" for the 9th ringing of the bards. she agreed under my conditions (which i am very very pleased to see, everyone in this week's carnival has abided by, thank you!). as a result, what follows is a magnificent emotional journey by way of some truly fine poetry and the collection of gorgeous drawings, paintings and collages by Miss Sam Duffy that inspired the poets whose work is featured.

the poems, combined with the dramatic visuals provided, are so emotionally motivating and rigorous. as a result, i am not going to weigh the featured works down with introductions, synopsis, opinions or lip service. instead, i am going to stimulate your retina with a selection of the inspirational images that the featured poets have selected to write in response to for this carnival.

(except for one nod to scott glassman of 30 Days: poem for introducing me to Miss Sam Duffy's work in the first place. thank you scott!)

each of the images are arranged with the poet's name and poem's title with hyperlinks directly below. each of the images is loaded as if a button. click on the image here and it will direct you to the post on Miss Sam Duffy's blog where you can then view the larger version of the image.

sarah's darkness
by ozymandiaz of paper tigers

the last flower
by shirley of housemouse

prompted
by bob hazelton of average poet

saloon
by scott glassman of 30 Days: poem

ant hill schematics
by katy of somethingkaty

balloon air
by russell ragsdale of yuckelbel's canon

triptych centerpiece
by russell ragsdale of yuckelbel's canon

who's there?
by russell ragsdale of yuckelbel's canon

angelic
by ashraf of arch.memory

sara the fairy
by our mayor billy of bloggingpoet.com

face in the mirror
by mike of unknowing mind

yes, russell sent me three submissions ^__^ and yes, i included one of my own.

i do hope you enjoyed the poems here as well as the artwork provided to us all by the lovely Miss Sam Duffy. i extend you all the invitation to visit her blog and explore her artwork. i would also like to extend an invitation to all blogging poets who missed out on this particular carnival to write a poem inspired by Miss Sam Duffy's stuff and send me a link so that i can add it onto this carnival's roster. it's a brilliant exercise for a poet to participate in, and the results, as you have seen here, are remarkable.

next week's ringing is brought to you by everyone's favorite squishy-faced kitty avatar with attitude: Ozymandiaz of Paper Tigers!! send your poetry submissions to daniel at ozymandiaz @ danworld . com by friday-ish next week.

just one more time before i go: thank you Miss Sam Duffy!!

and now... goodnight cherubs!

still accepting submissions

email me a link to any poem you've written in the past 2 weeks

and i'll happily include it in this week's ringing.

email and other details here.

ringing #9 goes into production around 4pm.

anything emailed by then will be included!!

search

eighty nine
equals
capital i





this equation is the mathematical
representation of the mass force applied
to a keyboard when sat on by a 3lb orange kitten.

ringing of the bards #9 -coming soon

just a reminder to all you bunny rabits (i mean poets/bloggers), i shall be hosting my 2nd ringing of the bards begining saturday/sunday of this week; this particular ringing comes to you with some guidelines which i have detailed here. 

please email your submissions (link to the poem you'd like included in the festivities) to kaacheson @ yahoo . co . uk by Saturday 3pm EST Daylight Savings.  remember: your post must include a link to the image of inspiration as posted on miss sam duffy's blog!

also, there is no one in line to host next week's ringing!!!  if you'd like to host (it's easy and well worth your while, promise) then please email our Mayor of Poets101.com Billy the Blogging Poet at idleblogs @ yahoo . com.

any questions or you're just bored, please email me!

ringing of the bards - in color

- red, green and blue to be specific -

at this week's rining
as hosted by one naked and ashamed daniel

welcome guests

i judge people based on how neat
or disheveled their key-card envelope is
upon returning it to me
before leaving the hotel.

when i can't write one myself...

i can at least direct you to one worth your while:

seven up

by scott glassman of 30 days: poem

cat trick

fur-line through the threw-way
to the edge of the carpet;
the cat ran the ringer and broom

miss i-need-you

just when you thought she didn't
too

your life-size bed-warmer
your cup of tea with breakfast

kept you up all night
fetching her water, towels
and sympathy in maximum doses





your mrs says thank you

catching up on my electrolytes

we get really ill every now and again to help ourselves remember just how good we normally feel despite moaning and whining to the contrary. at least, getting as ill as i have been the past 24 odd hours has to have some justification to those means. if not, then i demand compensation.

the poetics of puke.
what do you call it?

(i suppose a Warning would be fair play here; those light of stomach would find it in their best interest to pass over this particular post.)

there are so many names for throw-up. throw-up for example. in england, to be sick means to have made sick, that goup which i refer to as vomit is simply called sick. the tangible evidence of the matter of fact. one i never used but always found amusing is "up-chuck". in college the term "spew" took on a whole new level of meaning. there's the coined classic "barf". the term most commonly used in my family was and always will be 'puke'. how wretched does it sound?

last night i puked a lot.

there's a charming sentence, no? charming or not, it's true. more true than any other truth. and i mean a lot.

every hour, between 24 past and 56 past i would wake in a cold fevery sweat and muster up every once of potential energy in my rotting excuse of a body to haul to the toilet just in time to puke all over myself, the toilet bowl and the bathroom floor. i missed a few times; like the first time i got it all over the bed and scared the cat into hiding. it wasn't until about the 6th time i rushed into the bathroom and revoltingly discharged into the toilet bowl that i realized and immediately asked my husband (who i'd woken up every single time i got sick so that he could be the dear that he is and come protect me from panic-attacks and fetch me fresh clothes and water and such; thank you ryan, so much) "why am i puking up green!?" -- in a very feeble, tired, bemused sort of tone.

you see it in cartoons all the time. the little girl in the Exorsist spews green gutts all over. but how often do people actually throw-up green? ryan quelled my fears by reminding me that the only thing i'd had to eat that day was nightquil gell tablets which happened to be toxic-bright green and the only substance remaining in my disfunctional body. green puke is simply not natural though. it was a first for me. i'm more used to the yellow-brown sort.

not only did the nightquil turn my puke an amusing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles green, it also stung like a mo-fo. went out my nose and everything. i can tell you for fact that nightquil + nose = not nice (with not-nice bonus multiplier as it happened several times last night).

at least i was a normal shade of yellow and death this morning... after speaking with my regular doctor over the phone and her response being "go to the hospital or dial 911" my father-in-law took me to the walk in clinic (which you're supposed to make appoints for now (??), but i was close enough to death that the NP Joan overruled the receptionist and took me in to see the doctor). they juiced me up with a sodium/glucose i.v. solution and gave me some nausea medication (good enough for cancer patients is good enough for me).

am on my second bottle of gatorade (aka electrolyte's) and am feeling a million times better than i was last night. ryan and i are both a bit wrecked from the whole mess of me last night though. as long as my eyes don't pop out my skull like they threatened to do last night at one point, i'll be happy.

the experience wasn't really worth it all, but i guess the green-puke thing is pretty funny in retrospect. comical i should say, not funny. comical.

so what's your favorite colour of puke? or whatever you call it.

ant hill schematics

robot boy
at age four
(and two fifteenths)
designed stackable
condominiums
proportionate
to the average size
of a north american carpenter ant
and sold them
to all the children
in his neighborhood
for 10% profit
on any lemonade sales
through the summer months
of june, july and august.




[inspired by a miss sam duffy original: click the poem's title for direct link to image of inspiration!!]

prospective

[do you ever just feel like writing a poem? the time is there and your fingers grace the keys just so... but there's nothing to write; just a blank, empty space hovering above. i sit, now, waiting for the inspiration to condense around me.]

for listening

ryan found me a website that hosts (he's the bestest, thank you monkee) .wma's called Mega-File. so i've put up the three that i felt happy with. i'll have another go at the fold and international diner tonight after everyone's gone sleepy-byes and the house is quiet. for now, these ought do...

the airplane poems

flee market affair

[so much for un poema]

waiting on

so, have got 3 of the 5 requested poems recorded (and sent them off to didi m; one for use in another episode of the goodnight show). went to odeo to upload them but they don't recognize .wma (!). am now waiting on my I.T.-brain of a husbee to help me with some sort of audio out hullabaloo so that i can record the poems onto odeo's format. once they're hosted then i can make them available to you who would be interested in listening to me read.

the 2 remaining poems (out of the 5 requested for reading) need to be rer-ecorded be they didn't turn out well enough (i had to but on something called advanced boom or something like that to get the microphone to pick up my voice without breathing down the neck of the little mic).

'twill hopefully not be too long now before i get those poems up for you though.

what was and what will be... we think

i won't go into any details in text; just have a look for yourself...







more later, promise ^__^

MiPo much?

my mipo radio bio is up. you can hear me speak a poem and read my silly bio. i will be recording another poem for didi in the next few days, any requests?

what's that ringing i hear?

it's erin of poetic acceptance!

her issue of ringing of the bards is like sampling a really expensive box of chocolates... the kind with gold-leaf foil and really swish names for all the different flavours and real cherries inside the cherry & cream ones.

next week, we get naked.

sym·bi·ote

(for dina)

sister:

share your plate, palet and tea with me
the sweet bread and blackcurrant jam stuck
_____to your finger tips

paint to the brush
_____depth to canvas

sister:

walk slowly by me

let's pretend

(for maya osman)

let's pretend it's december
_____when we were both younger yet.
let's pretend to be friends again -
_____we always wanted to be.
remember when i didn't know you?
_____let's pretend we never still,
then maybe this war will end for me -
_____i can pretend the same for you.
let's pretend the water is cool
_____and the sand doesn't burn our feet.
let's pretend to go on living -
_____because the rest of the world does.







daniel of naked and ashamed wrote this alternate/companion/branched poem also called let's pretend and so i thought you might like to read it if you enjoyed the original piece. daniel's version can be found here.

the bee program

(for ahmad)

there's something in high definition
playing on the megalatron(tm)
which they watch intently,
like children watching cartoons:

we are interested in this, but the cat
is keen on bathing in the breeze
of the artificial cooling unit we pray to
between the months of june and september.

i think of you drinking hot tea
typing on your laptop while i
drink cold tea and write poetry
on my laptop that isn't really mine.

exotic sweets stuck between my teeth
and the scrape on my right leg stings -
the high definition tv show is concerned
with the cormorants and honey bees of africa.

i reread your hand-written letter
admiring the n's and i's and f's
which made me cry again; but i didn't
tell anyone it happened until the day after.

yellow sunshine : the colour of a box

square with a bright green ribbon
on your breakfast table

and a note in orange, like easter

good morning,

the sun's not shining
so i brought it inside.

save me a cinnamon one.

love you!

perfect with jasmin tea

and a bouquet
of yellow lightning bolts

paralysis

unable to will
the body into
movement

unwilling
to move
when we need you to

sitting for hours
trying to decide
what not to do

sleeping instead
of doing
what ought to be done