Sonnet by 2

A sneak peek at the July Challenge, I have written the first half of a Sonnet (7 lines) and Charley over at Life in Portofino has agreed to dive in and write the second half.  I must admit, Lynn Burton got me thinking about nightmares with her recent post called Dream and it fed this quite well!  Good luck, Charley!

 

Beneath the bed a garden sits and waits
Smooth the sheets, my head upon the pillow
Asleep am I until the chaos breaks
Carrots clawed by digging armadillo

Nightmare screams from radishes upended
Oh, Stevenson! Upon this counterpane,
Your childhood verses here would be splendid,

Be Here

In her book Poem Crazy, Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge shares a writing activity that I have implemented in my classroom for years.  Using admission tickets, I have cut words from magazines and created a poetry word box. (I keep mine in fancy chocolate boxes – it makes the words smell wonderful!).  It is a magical moment when I walk around the classroom and drizzle a handful of word tickets on each student’s desk.  “Use these words to write a poem.”  There are no rules.  Trade with someone else?  Sure!  Get more tickets?  Yep!  Do I have to use them all?  Can I add other words?  Does it have to rhyme?  “No rules,” I say, again.  It’s a bit like magnetic poetry but I love the tactile part of the activity and the fact that the tickets give a sense of admission into the world of word play. 

During the summer, my boxes come home and my husband and I play with the word tickets.  This poem is the result of a brief moment late one night after a glass of wine and too much yawning.  I love the message of it.

 

‘Be Here’

A spoonful of extravagant Now

unleashes Home

where nobody has time for tears

 

© Jilly’s  All Rights Reserved

It’s Open Link Night over at dVerse Poet’s Pub.  Join us!

I will be writing and posting often during the summer break and have been musing over a July Challenge that came from an ongoing conversation with a fellow Pub Dweller. Look for that challenge in the next few days if you have an interest in some collaborative poeming.  Cheers!  Jilly

Wordless Wednesday #9

A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning and it has no end – and if you put several circles over each other, then you get a spiral.

~ Maynard James Keenan

© Jilly’s  All Rights Reserved

Embrace the Wild Within

 

Embrace the wild within
Nurture it as a seed planted
In the shallow loam of your breast
Rain upon it soft
Drench it with morning sun
Cloak it with evening dew
Ring out the bells that hang
From your finger tips
Proclaim gladness
At the bursting forth of its first
Courageous shoot
Tend it with ripening jealousy
Plucking off runners that lean
Toward thoughts of pain
Seeking pity
For strong will be the soul
That is wild within

© Photo & Poem by Jilly
All Rights Reserved

We are writing Blessings over at dVerse.  Please join us!

 

As a Deer

A Summer Haibun for dVerse ~

 

When all at once a summer evening rain deepens the leaves and grass to bottle green and the lake turns dusky grey with pockmark drops strewn as confetti on the face of it. I grab my camera and shoot the sky (rather than the moon) until russet brown movement across the water catches my peripheral.  Two young deer have come out of the woods; they frolic like bent legged dogs darting to the water for a drink, back to the chase and tag, and before I can zoom and click, they have slipped into the trees and are gone. We go back inside and listen in the quiet of the darkness to thunder and our hearts beating in time with the elusive earth’s depth

Rain brings joy behooved

Stillness stirs our souls to wild

Yearnings of the deep

 

© Jilly’s Poetry & Photo

White Chicken Chili

Hey, Y’all!  It’s been just ages since I posted anything in the category of Food.
Long overdue.  I reckon it falls to the great state of Texas to own the original
Chili Cook-Off ritual.  It has spread like  wildfire all across the land and into
festivals and kitchens even here in Florida.  I don’t suppose my little ole recipe
here would win any awards, but we sure like it.  This ain’t your traditional
Chili, now folks.  This here is White Chili made with chicken and it packs 
a bit of a zing.  I hope y’all like it enough to share it with some good friends
around the campfire.  Cheers, Jilly!

½ small Vidalia onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
10-12 green olives, chopped
15 oz. can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
4 oz. can diced green chilies OR one Anaheim pepper, seeded and chopped
1 bottle beer or hard cider
1 cup broth, chicken or vegetable
1 chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces OR 2 chicken sausages, sliced
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili-lime Cholula (or other hot sauce)
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 medium tomato, peeled and chopped
Chopped cilantro

Sauté the onion and celery in a medium saucepan over medium heat for about 2 minutes.  Add minced garlic.  Continue to sauté for an additional minute.  If you are using a fresh Anaheim pepper, add it with the garlic.  Add all additional ingredients except chopped tomato and cilantro. Cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes.  Adjust seasoning according to taste.  Stir in the tomato and let simmer a few minutes more.  Serve with chopped cilantro.

Live Like the Wind

The outcome of Magnetic Poetry today!

 

A lathering blood ache
could crush you beneath
its purple mist

Go madly my friend
lick the luscious honey
chant deliriously to the rain
be drunk on your frantic dreams
whisper a sweet storm
through a thousand moons
live like the wind

 

© Jilly’s Photo & Words

All Rights Reserved

 

Six-Word Saturday (#7)

Must Magnetize My 

Writing World Today!

 

Haven’t done magnetic poetry in a month or two.  Time for a revisit.

 

 

Racing Toward September

Summers
We would wield
A dull butcher knife
Slicing against the grain
Of green on green rind
Cutting in two
Like twin halves of a broken
Heart, red with seeds spilling
Black and shiny
And smaller
White alewives
Onto the kitchen counter
Spiriting off with large slices
And a salt shaker to
The back porch sitting
On the edge of the pock-marked
Cement, spitting seeds
Into the grass
Sucking hard on the escaping
Juices and the illusiveness
Of those
Long northern days
That slipped away too
Fast, racing toward
September

© Jilly's
All Rights Reserved

Dance the Moon

A Solstice Villanelle


Dance the moon, twirl it in your naked arms,
wild beneath the dark, light your soul aflame,
rejoice the night, embrace her raging charms.

Weave among the trees of ancient farms,
cast off restraint and call the orchard’s name;
dance the moon, twirl it in your naked arms

Press deep the grapes and drink you of sauternes,
let morning care for all her waking shame,
rejoice the night, embrace her raging charms

The Fury’s night runs heedless of alarms,
the solstice reel is savage, shan’t be tamed,
dance the moon, twirl it in your naked arms.

Let frenzy pour a cup your heart to warm,
spark high your heels to join you in this game,
rejoice the night, embrace her raging charms

Rush full at Sol’s bright apex to disarm,
give back to Pan the rave that is his fame,
dance the moon, twirl it in your naked arms,
rejoice the night, embrace her raging charms.


© Jilly's Words & Photo
All Rights Reserved

Join us at dVerse where we write villanelles today!