No way I can be volitant in here!

                                                                                       Attribution: Magnus Johansson
Image: Taking a Bath in the Heat (here)

MLMM given words:
volitant (flying or moving about rapidly)
rivulet precarious dull sterile file somber 
embasan (to wear clothes while taking a bath)
soup barley sanatorium

No way I can be volitant in here
Pretty obvious as space is an issue
But my thinking this is not queer
Though no rivulet is running through

Somewhat precarious and wanting
And the water appears dull and sterile
But at least not a file in line waiting
Somber bath rightly embasans in style

Seems in a bowl of soup in delirium
Nothing like good barley water in color
But I am sane and not in a sanatorium
Am just cooling off to cut off the bore

For Amber's hosting at MLMM's 
Wordle #76  with the given words and
Marian's at Real Toads' The Tuesday Platform

A blessing to be madly in love! - MF

Image: Courtesy of Grandma's Goulash SY week #195 (here)

A blessing to be madly in love!
Holding hands leisurely strolling with
nothing urgent at hand. Time stood
still for as long as they wished

(140 characters)


For Linda's Micro Fiction at Grandma's Goulash
Succinctly Yours week #233 with letter of the week  -  urgent
One is to choose from the archives for the prompt.
This is from week #195 posted on Dec 13 2014

Food could foster a response

                                                                 Attribution: Pierre Fidenci (CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Image: Foraging for Worms (here)

Sunday Whirl given words:
chirping deal easy secret speak 
here me stop rot worm foster

Note: Tanka of a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable count each

Stopped dead in its tracks
The chirping sounded louder
Had to deal with it
Not easy for mother bird
One had fallen from the nest

Secret speak revealed
the location through instinct
"Here, let me help you"
To stop the rot was a worm
Food could foster a response

For Brenda's hosting at Sunday Whirl
Wordle #214

At a loss his mind nebulously cluttered

                                                                                              Artist: Rembrandt (1626)
Image: Artist in his Studio  (here)
(contemplating on what to draw)

                                                                 Artist: da Vinci (1504)                                                          
Image: Mona Lisa - (here)

Note: Bjorn threw this challenge:
So today I will challenge you with just a single piece of art, 
and this time I would like you to find a poem that does not 
just describe the painting, but how it speaks to you

At a loss his mind nebulously cluttered
Cobwebs embedded playing tricks incessantly
Beads of sweat at his brows he was bothered
Where to get a model like Lisa Gherardini

That enigmatic smile he could not forget
Bewitching provocative a stunning stare
Aura that captivated many he continued to fret
Writer's block in an artist's mind much to bear

A portrait he insisted as a genre of choice
But creative juices clambered out the groove
Emulating da Vinci he would rightly rejoice
How then to get it exhibited at the *Louvre?

*Note: Hank taking liberties with an anachronism

For Bjorn's hosting at Real Toads with Weekend Mini
Challenge  -  ekphrasis and
Mary's  at PU's Poetry Pantry #267

Treasured jade bangles

                                                                                   Attribution:LA County Museum
Image: Bracelet in the Form of Two Dragons and a Pearl (here)
(green colored jade bracelets were frequently seen
before adorning wrists of elegant Chinese ladies)

Treasured jade bangles
Reassurance at the wrists
Measure of long life

Reflecting sun's rays
Green colored jades warding off
bad feng shui effects

For Chev's CARPE DIEM Time Machine #15 -  jade

plumage strikingly open - a tan renga

                                                          Attribution: Myloismylife - LOKE SENG HON
Image: Peacock in the Park (here)

peacock struts proudly
plumage strikingly open
park's beauty enhanced          (Hank)
where the waters flow afar
the village glows with sweet plum flowers       (Anon)

blessed be the souls there
for a town with a river
floods yes, there were but       (Hank)
where the waters flow afar
the village glows with sweet plum flowers       (Anon)

For Chev's CARPE DIEM
Tan Renga Challenge #97

Colorful hues yonder across pristine skies

                                                                                             Attribution: Diego Delso
Image: Rainbow over the Golden Falls in Iceland
a waterfall located in the canyon of the Hvítá river (here)

Extending quickly a reach scathingly beyond
Colorful hues yonder across pristine skies
To hug intently an endearment spellbound
Stepping across yellow daffodils in the wilds

Ungainly steps seemingly over fast waters
That plunge icy cold furiously down below
Lamenting sadly life's woes that easily falter
Into a roaring abyss of melted white snow

Resolute resolution stamps a hard wallop
Determined to pick up the little pieces and get on
Pinnacle of lofty goals a little more than a wild scrub
Grabbing the elusive rainbow an ultimate achievement

Note: Bjorn had suggested the generous use of
modifiers (adjectives and adverbs) in a poem

For Bjorn's hosting at d'Verse
Meeting the Bar - and modify it

A revelation one dreads!

                                                      Attribution: Albert Eugene Gallatin (1937) 
Image: Untitled composition, oil on canvas (here)

Note: Phylor suggested to weave a tale from
inside the creativity of the artist’s mind. How
does it feel being on the inside looking out?

Sunday Whirligig's given words:
hears, dread, smothers hobbles 
cane wanting, disguise, poem

One hears of the artist's mind
A revelation one dreads
It smothers clear thinking
Hobbles on a cane

That is what it is
Smitten by layers of ideas
All desiring to make an impact
Where clear thinking is found wanting
Confusion reigns

It can disguise itself but futile
Unless the artist gets it out
Onto canvas, paper or whatever
Out of his cluttered mind

It can be splashes of paint
or a classic poem that begets a title
only upon its completion

An easy way out is especially
rampant for the 'impressionists'
with a title as vague as 'Untitled'

That is an artist's mind
Joys of painting and joys of poetry
knows no bounds
Time given the luxury to manifest itself
Creativity is equated to craziness
And a masterpiece is born

Remember van Gogh?

For Sherry's at PU's Mid-week Motif  - joys of poetry
Phylor's hosting at MLMM,Tale Weaver 28: art & artist and
MMT's Sunday Whirligig #22 with given words

Clownish and playful

                                   Attribution: Norman

Image: The Joker drawn by Norman Hazrin

Note: Norman, Hank's eldest grandee turned
15 years on Aug 21. He was given a drawing
set and quickly sketched the above

Norman earlier featured as a budding artist (here)

3WW given words:
menacing rampant unravel

A Tanka (5-7-5-7-7 syllable count)
Clownish and playful
Menacing, rampant of tricks
Fooled by such antics
Not easy to unravel
But character found credence
Anti-thesis of Batman

A Haiku (5-7-5 syllable count)
Earlier passed over
Later found to be ideal
Good balance enhanced

For Thong's hosting at 3WW week #442 and
Kerry's The Tuesday Platform at Real Toad's

Of profound power, the easel

                                                                              Attribution: Arnold Eagle
Image:  Photograph of Pat Collins at his easel in 1939 (here)
(Patrick Collins (1911–1994) was one of Ireland's foremost painters)

Of profound power, the easel
A companion, an honor beckoning
on the artist's mind
A sight that goads at the conscience
with motivation to create

(25 words)

Note: Mama Zen on writing of a power image:
A power image is an image that one returns to time after time.  It's part art, part personal mythology, and part creative. It's a thing, it's anything that one imbues with a greater meaning than it would ordinarily have and adopts as a signature symbol

For Margaret's hosting at Play it Again Toads
at Real Toads: Words count with Mama Zen

The Blue Nile blessed with goodness

                                                                                            Artist: Thomas Cole (1828)
Image: Garden of Eden (here)

Note: The Nile thought to be the river Gihon which
once flowed out of the Garden of Eden. There had
been suggestions that the Garden of Eden was once
somewhere in present-day Ethiopia.

Heavens awaited
The Blue Nile blessed with goodness
Flooded plains welcomed
Providence gave helping hand
Fertile soil brought greenery

Ethiopia then
One-time Garden of Eden
Paradise on Earth
Wherefore apples and serpents
Was it climate change or what!

For Chev's hosting at CARPE DIEM #802
- the Blue Nile

Silent flapping of wings in the declining light above

                                                                  Attribution: 'Sun Flight' by Douglas Salisbury
Image: Courtesy of Susie's and Douglas Salisbury (here)

“In order to see birds it is necessary to become
a part of the silence.” ― Robert Lynd

Bathed in the silence of the evening sun's rays
Light progressively darkened in throes of pain
Farewell to the vigorous heat of the blazing sun
Bidding good-bye yet from another busy day
Accompanied with murmuring of the lazy waves below
Silent flapping of wings in the declining light above
To meet the mysteries of night's humble restrains

A daily occurrence enacted faithfully without fail
Programmed sparingly from the beginning of times
Giving time for those sensitive to little changes
Yet not readily seen much less appreciated
Except for clusters of life's sacred witnesses

These are the loyal band of mankind out there
Setting out in little fishing boats to sea
Grappling with the vagaries of weather
To bring back meager catch in the morning
Only to be exploited most times by the
greedy and unscrupulous middlemen

But they are the happiest of souls eking a living
In their own simple ways they bask in wonders of nature
Amid heavenly golden skies when setting
out evenings and an equally gorgeous
orange horizon of the rising sun mornings

For Bjorn's hosting at d'Verse's OLN #153 and
Susie's at Real Toads  - Bits of Inspiration  -
with Douglas' photography

Consumers were kept in the dark!

                                                                                                       Attribution: I,Yann
Image: T-shirt against GMO food. (here)

Sunday Whirligig, the given words.
reach, farming, seeds, sprout, corn 
rise, enters, flows, dung, vine
moles (small furry mammal that lives
in passages underground)

3WW given words:
kneel nasty purr

To reach forth into commercial convenience
Farming long the target of the big players
GMO seeds surreptitiously distributed
Availability assured and products standardized

Those that sprout from the ground appeared similar
The corn reminiscent of those produced before
But it gave rise to concerns for the poor farmers
For replanting from last season's crops were
not possible for genetically engineered plants

But still allowed to enter the market in constant flows
where 80% of those on the kitchen tables were their kind

Were they not 'poisonous'?
Were they safe for children?
Were they better than organic seeds
grown healthy with animal dung? 
Moles below ground were not threatened?

Lots of nasty questions but those able
to give answers kept themselves mum

No more rumors now along the vines!

Big money spun by the big corporations
for their coffers with ostensibly valid
arguments for retaining GMO items
were plainly shameful.

Consumers were kept in the dark and
wherever possible made to kneel in
subjugation to antics of the commercial
giants that controlled the markets

Consumers were kept in silence with
perhaps purrs of a kitten innocently
satisfied but being slowly 'poisoned'

For MMT's hosting of Sunday Whirligig Wordle #21
Mary's at PU's Midweek Motif - silence and
Thomg's at 3WW week #441

The natural thirst for knowledge

                                                                                   Attribution: Spc Paige Behringer

Image: Elementary School student raises her hand with 

a question for a soldier during career day talk (here)

APED given words:

nervous friend lucky often 
done shy sky evenings

The natural thirst for knowledge
Not to be compromised nor gambled
However nervous but to invoke the privilege
A friend to confide when dogged by troubles

Connecting of minds bonding of relationship
Lucky few endeavored when school reopened
Often a tendency done even to outstrip
That of siblings in certain circumstance

Shy ones quickly dispensed with such feelings
Up in the sky motivation to make a good start
Certainly not bogged down of traumatic evenings
Back to school enthusiasm by those who were smart

For Gabriella's hosting at d'Verse, Poetics: back to school and
Vinay's APED Prompt 80 Midweek Wordle #12

Age of innocence how it belittles

                                                            Attribution: cannedimagination.tumblr.com
Image: Being mortal sporting a bloody nose (here)

APED's Phase Phase #12
If only

If only they knew
Age of innocence how it belittles
A freshie who rides the unknown
Having to transcend state boundaries
To join a new school with hopes
of acceptance by his new classmates
Met with a baptism of fire of the bully
A bloody nose but surviving

If only they realize
In all innocence how the driver
got on the wrong side of the speedster
A slight knick to the car bumper
An altercation ensued as a road rage
episode and bashing with sticks

If only they bother
to know of a better way to settle scores
not by 'whupping' up the new boy in the
class-room or the other guy on the road
the world is better off if they do it in the
ring among fighters fair and square

If only one can
cut out a high-handed stance to a conflict
resolution and to adopt a defensive attitude
so as not to provoke a violent response

For Vinay's APED Phase #12 with  -  if only 
Nekneeraj at MLMM Photo Challenge #74 - mortal and
Marian's The Tuesday Platform at Real Toads

Nubian's Meroe Pyramids

                                                                                       Attribution: Fabrizio Demartis
Image: Nubian's Meroe Pyramids (here)

Nubian pyramids are pyramids that were built by the rulers of the ancient Kushite
kingdoms.The area of the Nile valley known as Nubia, which lies within present day Sudan, was home to three Kushite kingdoms. The first had its capital at Kerma (2600–1520 BC) the second at Napata (1000–300 BC) and the last was  at Meroë (300 BC–AD 300). Kerma was Nubia's first centralized state with its own indigenous forms of architecture and burial customs  -  Wiki

Meroe pyramids
Quiet peek at past glories
Tombs of Kings and Queens

A clear influence of
Egyptian architecture
Sights of past greatness

For Chev's CARPE DIEM #799
with Nubian's Meroe Pyramids

Do I have to do all this? - MF

Image: Courtesy of GG's Succinctly Yours (here)

Do I have to do all this?
It is just a big yawn
A young person more alert and
stronger can well do it better
Guys like me should not bother

(140 characters)

For Linda's hosting of a Micro Fiction
(of not exceeding 140 characters) at
Grandma's Goulash, Succinctly Yours
week 231 and to include the word yawn

a man with a boxing glove

                                                                             Attribution: Guerrino Boatto
Image: Pushed by Tender Forces (here)

A Shadorma is a non-rhyming 6-line poem
with a syllable count of 3/5/3/3/7/5

The Shadorma
flying fox
nocturnal creature
on the sly
in the dark
nibbling on fruits so quietly
just like human trait

A Joseph's Star is a non-rhyming 8-line
poem with syllable count of 1/3/5/7/7/5/3/1
written center-aligned to end up diamond shaped

The Joseph's Star

what

can it be

holding back the crowd

a man with a boxing glove

but why should it come to this

when pushed to the wall

he fights back

right?

For Jen's hosting at MLMM's B&P's Shadorma 

and Beyond - the Joseph's Star and
Mary's at PU's Poetry Pantry #265

A question of perspective!

                                                                                              Attribution: Wiki
Image: Micro-pigmentation: A likely solution
to help enhance certain beauty features (here)

3WW given words:
enigmatic (puzzling)
gruesome irritate

APED given word:
beauty

A question of perspective
Nothing unusual nor enigmatic
But certainly not gruesome in
any manner of speaking
Judgmental perhaps

Beauty is such that it is relative
comparing two of a kind but
emotions are invoked even to
a point of trying to irritate

Not quite for appreciating beauty
is a virtue, just ask any man!

(55 words)

For Thomg's hosting at 3WW week #440 and
Vinay's Flash 55 at APED Prompt 75 Flash #6

beauty's unashamed cravings

                                                                        Attribution: C Reviver
Image: An elegant Kimono clad lady (here)

Note: A choka of a 5-7 5-7 5-7 5-7-7
syllable count and hanka of 5-7-5-7-7

APED given words:
hangs new skirt rest floor 
family such time wear above

The choka
grim looks of sadness
hangs heavily over her

contending new bids
beauty's unashamed cravings
of a skirt instead
of kimono like the rest

floored by family's
insistence of such times to
wear more traditional garb

The hanka
not to take lightly
image of good up-bringing
shown above all else
open to scrutiny of
elders' critical comments

For Vinay's APED Prompt 73 – Midweek Wordle #11
Chev's CARPE DIEM Tokubetsudesu #56 - choka and
Sumana's at PU's Midweek Motif  -  beauty

Uninvited guests who often gate-crashed

                                                                                              Attribution: Fulvio Spada
Image: I'm watching you - a chamois (here)

MLMM given words:
uninvited hurry deliverance lofty evade clumsy jeer notch
chamois (an agile goat-like antelope)
cask (a container shaped like a barrel used for holding liquids)

Uninvited guests who often gate-crashed
were not in too much of a hurry to seek
deliverance for their acts of
misguided high-handedness

Instead with lofty ideals they tried to
evade answering to questions regarding
their unruly behavior

With clumsy awareness they could only
be jeered off from any form of dignified
retreat.They had obviously notched an
embarrassing moment for themselves

Like a chamois bewildered for having
strayed into a village of strange people
they might be shooed off
But not without perhaps a cask of plain
water in their hands a consolation for
having made a fool of themselves

For Georgia's hosting at MLMM Wordle #73 and
Kerry's The Tuesday Platform at Real Toads

Can one be so gullible?

Image: Courtesy of Tess' Mag (here)

Can one be so gullible?
Anything artificial always has something lacking
Who would have thought that smokers are taken in
Take a puff and you are now a smoker
A healthy smoker no less
No more a potential candidate
for that dreaded affliction of the Big C

How they are hoodwinked into it
Happily doing it in line with all digital

Either you enjoy a real smoke
the old fashioned way or you do not
There are no two ways about it!

What about second-hand smoke
detrimental to those around
Electronic smokes just as swirling
are not a health hazard now?

Perhaps they realize it
Hank was a smoker once before
when growing up but not anymore

It was so much fun to show to everyone then
One was now an adult doing adult things
Smoking was the easiest 'to show off'
The 'ping' of the Dunhill lighter when
flicked up by the thumb added to the smirks

Perhaps present day electronic smokers
would like to delve into such show-offs too!
No more rolled up cigarettes
Electronic cigarettes with their gadgets
now the 'real thing' the 'in thing'

For Willow's hosting at
Magpie Tales #282

Frayed a little, yes!

                                                                                               Attribution: Rey Cormeta

Image:  Destruction of the environment through the exploitation 

of sand and gravel for the construction industry (here)

Sunday Whirligig's 12 given words:
asleep floor signal hear soft breath awake 
frayed cord bickering separate beds

APED's 10 given words:
feeling joy intelligent soon lead 
desolate horn still thorn reveal

No more falling asleep on the floor
It takes a few gulps to discern the signal
to hear soft breath lying awake in the night

Frayed a little, yes!
But the cord had been tightened
No more bickering 

Contending siblings all happy
Now in a separate room and separate beds
The thrill of having a roof over their heads
bigger than the crammed illegal dwellings
they were used to before

Such is the clever hand of the developer
The feeling of joy not so much in providing
comforts but in getting big money some
not without unscrupulous means through
'intelligent' manoeuvres with seedy politicians

Not soon enough it will lead to desolate 
destruction of the environment with horns
of destroyed greenery still happening as
thorns to reveal lack of consideration to the
interests of our future generations

For MMT's hosting at Sunday's Whirligig #19
Vinay's APED Prompt #69 Weekend Wordle #10
Grace's at Real Toad's Sunday's Mini Challenge  -  inspired by
Judith Wright's fight to preserve the environment and
Mary's at PU's Poetry Pantry #264

why all others are swaying?

                                                                        Attribution: Mario Antonio Pena Zapateria
Image: Drunk on the Grass (here)

Yokkoto ga hazukashīdesu tomodachi to yoyyō ni kōdō
shimashita watashi wa nani o nomimashita ka? - miruku
ashamed to be drunk
acted like a drunk with friends
what did he drink? - milk!

Hōmu yokkūru o arukimasu shikashi, naze, subete
no taki no yōna hokanohito ga yurete imasu ka?
walking home drunk cool
like waterfall but why all
others are swaying?

Anata ga kiniitta riyū dorinku wain sake no mae ni.
Tashika ni, watashi chōdo Furansu kara kaette kimashita!
why drink wine you liked
sake before. True, but I
just came back from France!

Note: Google translate for you - wonder if it makes sense to our Japanese bloggers!

For Chev's CARPE DIEM Encore #11 - drinking friends (humor)
(to emulate Basho to spice up the haiku with humor)

They came again with serious abundance

                                                                                               Attribution: armalavida
Image: Two Butterflies sipping the Tears of Turtles.
(This "tear-feeding" phenomenon is known as lachryphagy) (here)

APED's given words:
again mystery dad story nothing 
glimpse soul abandoned buy

3WW given words:
filth defiant addicted 

They came again with serious abundance
Enacting a mystery which Dad had often said was
a story nothing short of outright unselfishness
a cooperation to mutually survive

A glimpse of the phenomena tugged at the soul
For abandoned not to filth of human failings
where one was defiant to impose one's wills
on others instead of sharing the excesses which
otherwise were laid to waste.

The powerful addicted to trod over those weak
and deprived who were helpless to the onslaught
Such were the sins of corporations out to strangle
small traders and hoodwink innocent consumers

Would one buy that?

For Thomg's hosting at 3WW #439
Vinay's at APED Prompt #66 Wordle #10 and
Grace's at D'Verse's OpenLinkNight #153

torrid in its outcome and never set to buckle

                                                                                             Attribution: Koshy Koshy
Image: Water made Available to Survive the Heatwave (here)

To be guided and include where possible the words:
cicadas heat sweaty humidity swelter heat wave torrid 
hot spell canicular days heat exhaustion restless nights 
hammock swimming pools iced drinks, sultriness,

Crackling of the high pitched cicadas in the distance
It adds more to the heat from the day accentuating the bother
Harassed by trickling beads of sweaty body warmth
Such is within the high humidity of nights one is to swelter

A heat wave, torrid in its outcome and never set to buckle

Hot spell the normal insistence for canicular days of summer
Heat exhaustion extending its reach beyond the person
Embodies restless nights of tossing and turning but never
to cause consternation of purpose beyond critical moments

Snug within hung hammocks basking with a sparkle

Perhaps splashing in swimming pools is a better option
Worries not to drag down the kiss of lovers' interlude
Iced drinks servings extended leisurely every so often
Sultriness a measure of a loved one's contending moods

To later repair for the nights to dismiss voices that heckle

For kanzensakura's hosting at d'Verse
Poetics: dog days of summer

tenacious in intensity if they both click

                                                                                  Attribution: George Chernilevsky
Image: The Male Yellow Crab (here)
(a threatened species is both a scavenger and a predator
eating anything that the large claws can crush)

MLMM's Wordle given words:
bastard glimpse rubble trickle bonfires wallow bulge tenacious
liminal (relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process)
supplicant (a petitioner, a beggar, a pupil)
circumspect (cautious, prudent)
pique (to affect with sharp irritation and resentment)

The bastard of the male species
is both a scavenger and a predator
A glimpse from out of the rubble may
not show a threatened species though

But instead it is one out to conquer and dominate
It perhaps starts as liminal as a newborn babe
A trickle in its desire but open to bonfires of fiery
affections upon clutching an elegant female

Not supplicant by nature nor to wallow
in frustrations but with a bulge of pockets
of greenbacks thrown generously for all to see

The elegant conquest circumspect in her response
piqued at being treated as an object but is expected
to go along as both are game for some fun

That is how it all starts in a loving relationship
tenacious in intensity if they both click and remain
sincere with good intentions

Or alternatively they may both part company
not without stormy drama in some cases happy in
knowing that it was good when it lasted

For Yves's hosting at MLMM's Wordle #72 and
Marian's at Real Toads' Tuesday Platform