With my first glimpse my heart felt devotion.

Your little feet and hands were very small. 

Our hearts were filled with too much emotion.

You were no bigger than a little ball.

You weren’t due to be here nearly so soon

Because you weren’t really due until May

Your first cries were like a little tune.

They were so faint we only could pray

That you would grow strong with every breath.

Your blood platelet number was just too low

And concerned us all of a sudden death.   

So slowly your blood did improve and show

A growing number of white blood cells.

And now no one can look at you and tell.

The economy was once well-to-do

but then Wall Street came unglued

Freddie Mack  brought it tumbling down,

Turning Ben Bernanky's smiles into frowns,

And that ruined everyone's mood.

 

There once was a man named Poe

Who wrote of Amontillado.

He entombed his story's victim

With a very deadly dictum.

 

This year's Super Bowl game was quite a fright

But it didn't compare to the half time sight

Justin Timberlake's exposing of Janet's breast

Didn't leave the audience much left to guess.

 

Who hasn't heard what Janet Jackson

And Justin Timberlake have done?

It was, of course, Janet's exposed breast

That put the censors to the test.

 

Slimy, slithering, sneaky, scary

     Creepy, crawly, crazy

Whipping, winding, withering, wary,

              Lying, lost lazy.

(alliterative)

 

Kristy

Responsible, fun-loving, happy me

Mother of Wes and Matt

Grandmother of Clara Marie

Lover of summer, swimming, and my Palomino Sug

Who feels sadness for war, anxiousness for our country and the economy and love for family.

Who gives care, concern and prayers

Who needs family, friends, horseback riding, warm weather and an adicting book

Who fears too much change , too fast, greed and nuclear war.

Who would like to see a safer, slower-paced world, renewed prosperity, and peace

Who lives in the country on a farm with cattle, horses, cat,and two dogs..Bo and Cocoa!

 

August through May

I am a chameleon

Ever-changing my appearance

 

Early morning finds me

bedheaded with racoon eyes

Stumbling to the coffee pot

 

By 8:00 I'm transformed to

A hopefully professional look

Trying to beat the kids through the door.

 

As the day winds down so am I

Anxious foranything loose

and comfy will do....

 

Sharp slivers of glass

Stretching to earth so slowly

Mother Nature strikes

 

Two toothpicky limbs

Twisting, contorionist's neck

Strangely beautiful

 

Powdered-sugared Pines

Nature's surprising beauty

God's liquid White-out!

 

Sliver of moon white

Resting in the coal-black sky

God's divine toenail!

 

Irridescent gauaze

A ghostly cotton webbing

Envelopes the tree

 

 

Which 2haikus are your favorite?  Why?

My family is an apple tree

I am the root

     providing sustenance and nournishment.

My husband is the strong and steady trunk

     giving strength and compassion.

My older son Wes is the first limb

    now adding his own branches and fruit.

My younger son Matt is a smaller limb

      just budding and preparing to blossom.

                     Pup

                   Afraid, fearful

                   Barking, barking, barking

                Thinking she is protecting

                Freckles

 

Snow

Crystalline, cold

Blowing,drifting, heaping

Power to cancel school

Precipitation

I sing of lost idle summer days

     spent covering Ottumwa's hills,

      pedaling mindlessly to the swimming pool

     thinking every day would be the same

     stopping by the bakery to eat the freshly baked sugar donuts

     happily unaware of the vast calories each contained.

 

I sing of past summer days

        spent with my dad and  loyal lab Blackie

        not minding his slobbers running down the front seat of the Belvedere

        while in anticipation of a dip in the lagoon

        none of us  heeding the lifeguard's warning whistle and command.

I sing of lost summer days

       spent with my best friend Diana

       pedaling our bikes while holding our fishing poles and buckets dangling

      thinking of the fish to catch but never clean and of the old fishermen's yells

      "Be quiet!  You'll scare the fish away.

 

I lastly sing of the lost days of everyone of when

        we were all blissfully unaware of global warming,

       we trusted our neighbors and doors were never locked,

       we weren't connected to the news of world wide disasters 24/7

       and when kids were allowed to be kids and played outdoors  dawn till dusk!

      

       

        

    

A very talented girl is Brittany Spears.

Her  looks didn't break any mirrors

Till she  decided to shave her head.

"Oops! I Did It Again" she said.        

 

There once was a man named  Patrick

Who was  kidnapped and became  homesick.

So today in  honor people wear green

Drink too much and become mean,

Which is the topic of this limerick.

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow

Elusive, hopeful

Tempting, tantalizing, terrifying

Always forever escaping, me

Time

 

 

Snow

Crystalline, cold

Blowing, drifting, heaping

Power to cancel school

Precipitation

 

 

Pup

Afraid, fearful

Barking,barking, barking

Canine

 

 

Kristy

Responsible, fun loving, happy, me

Mother of Wes and Matt

    soon to be grandma!

Lover of summer, swimming, and my Palomino and dogs Freckles and Coco,

Who feels sadness for war, anxiousness for future family expansion,

Who  fears too much greed, health care coverage prices, and global warming

Who would like to see a world with stronger families, renewed prosperity, and peace for the world

Who lives in the country on a farm with husband,cattle, dogs, cat and horses

Harden

 

         Katrina's Victims

Winds, water, witnesses, wetness   (I need a w word that rhymes with solace about Katrina)

     Bodies, births, biting

Struggling, searching, seeking, solace

    Fleeting, flooding, fighting

Katrina

Destructive, terrible

Raining, Blowing, Destroying

Totaling obliterating Big Easy

 

 

Like an angel of mercy,

Lotion wrapped himself around nose

   And whispered in her nostril,

“Blow all you want, I’ll never hurt you.”

 

Kleenex 

 

 

Am I ready to depart

And make a new start?

 

Who will I be if

Not a teacher?

 

A wife, a mother,

A grandmother

 

A retired teacher.

 

 

 

 

Politics  2008

 

Democrat or Republican?

Liberal or Conservative?

Man or Woman?

Black or white?

Young or old?

Change or not.?

 

To vote or not?

 

Standing glistening golden in the sun,

His breaths come quickly in anticipation

Of our ride.

His eyes sparkle alive as

I swing my leg over his broad back.

In tandem we lope to meet the horizon

Gathering the green rolling hills and pastures as we go.

 

Feeling the refreshing breeze

And sun’s warmth on my face,

All stress and thoughts drift away,

Leaving only this moment and

Hills yet to conquer.   

 

A poem is a breath from the soul.  This is true.  What makes us us is our soul.  You look at a body in the casket at the funeral home and the person never looks like himself because the part that makes him him is the soul and it is gone from the body.  A poem comes from that place in the soul that is as fundamental as breath is to life.  It is an expression that materializes from deep within and its existence is a mystery to even the poet himself until it is written.  Then it, the thought and the feeling exist.

I found an old photo!

I found this old photo of my son Matt when he was about two years old.  It really took me back.  It is summer and he has on blue jean bibbys and a striped shirt.  He is walking in the yard with a kitten trailing in his footsteps.  The yard is different from now as well.  The old cistern is there and the old shed,  which was a milking barn are present. It is easy for me to forget how the place used to look.  We have made quite a few improvements over the years. However, if I  could go back to those days and live them all over again I would in a second.  The time just went too fast.  I guess that is why I'm looking forward to grandchildren .

 

2.  I remember a time I went to the race track with my dad.  It was a Navy reunion for my dad and my mother didn't want to go with him so I went.  We found out in a hurry that neither one of us was lucky at the horses.  Dad gave me some starting cash and that was lost early on.  We tried the daily double and lost that.  It looks much easier on television to win at the horse track.  I  hear people shouting for their horse and I hear myself shouting at the top of my lungs for my horse.  As the horses near the finish line  the crowd is a mixture of screams of happiness and moans of defeat.  My moan of defeat is the loudest to me.  I swear I will never throw money away on the horse track.  Horse riding not horse racing is for me.

 

3.  I have to tell you about yesterday.  I came home and my two dogs were fighting with a skunk.  Each dog had hold of the skunk that was eating out of their dog dish.  I drove up and hit the remote on the garage only to have the skunk get loose and run into the garage.   I thinkskunk is either in  the garage or under the house now.  I took the smelly dogs and locked them in the shed, left the doors to the garage open all night and hoped the skunk came out in the night. Unfortunately this isn't the first time I've had a skunk fight with the dogs but it is the first time the skunk actually came into the garage or got under the house.  I'm ntt sure what I'll come home to.

 

One very ordinary day Caitlin Day was walking to school all by herself.  Ahead of her were a number of students from her school.  They hadn't noticed her and she was happy enough to walk along unnoticed.  Caitlin didn't seek the limelight nor was she especially popular with the "in" kids.  That didn't bother her either.  Many times she had seen so called friends backstab each other.  She didn't need any of that.  But there was one particular boy Caitlin thought was very special.  He was kind to everyone, even to Caitlin.  His name was Andrew. 

Now Andrew was walking ahead of her and hadn't noticed her either.  Caitlin watched enthralled with every move Andrew made.  What she couldn't believe was how Andrew's "friends" were treating him.  They were joking around and pushing him.  The pushes got harder and faster and Caitlin could tell that Andrew wasn't liking it.  All Caitlin could think about doing was running up and pushing them back.  Why didn't Andrew defend himself?  Why was he just taking it?  Would Andrew get mad at her if she defended him?....She was just a girl after all.  

Suddenly the tauting boys fell down like dominoes.  Caitlin didn't see Andrew touch them.  How did that happen?  Caitlin thought it would be funny if the boys had fallen into the mud.  Suddenly before her very eyes, Caitlin saw mud appear and the boys were in it.  This caused Caitlinto begin to wonder about her thoughts.  Were her thoughts coming true?  Did she have the power to wish something into being?  She tried something new.  She wished Andrew would turn around and see her and wave.  Guess what happened!  He turned and waved.  He had a funny look on his face like did you see that. 

The two suddenly felt connected.  They had a bond.  Together they could do anything.  From then on Caitlin and Andrew were best friencs and a crime catching team.   They made their school and community a better place.  They policed the neighborhood and school catching bullies and thieves and turning them into good citizens.

 

  Many times I ignore forwards.  Too many times I have opened them only to be told I need to forward it to so many people etc.  This is today's chain letter.  In the "old days" you received them from classmates or in the mail.  Now days the internet has made them so much easier.  However, there are some really good forwards that make my day.  I love the ones with pictures.  If someone who doesn't usually send forwards, sends me one, I usually open it.  My brother for instance recently sent me a forward that was hilarious.  It began with "This is what sad looks like."  It has a picture of a cat getting a shower.  This is what sorry looks like... a picture of a hound dog puppy with big eyes looking up.  This is what bad spelling looks like......SOPT  for stop in big yellow letters painted on the road.  And so the email goes on.  I was laughing so loudly from it that my husband asked from the couch with the TV blaring.."What's so funny?"  I said, "You just have to see this!"
 

      Hey, you mortals!  Did you like yesterday's weather?  Wasn't that a trip?  You went from spring like weather- 54 degrees at 9:00 A.M. to 8 degrees, snow, and 50 mile per hour winds by 7:00. That’s quite an awesome drop.  I’m so proud.  I fooled many, many children and even quite a few adults.  Some hapless children left home and boarded the school bus in shorts. There were, however, a few smart people who listened to the weather lady on TV and believed her.  Oh, well.  You can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time… as the saying goes.  I love my job some days! 

I'm sailing around the world with my father!  I have many reasons to choose my dad.  1) The two of us built a sailboat when I was about 10.  We sold it and bought a better one.... He taught me how to sail..or tried to.  I'm not very good.  That's why I need him. 2) He is 83 and I'm not sure how much time we have to spend together in the far future.  3) My mother does all the communicating since he is pretty hard of hearing.    4) The most important:  I love him...he's my pal! 

My favorite season used to definitely be summer. I used to think I'd be happy living in Florida with no real fall or winter. Now, I'm not so sure.  Spring is wonderful with the warmer weather, flowers blooming, and trees budding.  Fall is good, cooler temps after hot August.  The trees turning all kinds of color is quite beautiful.  However, in spring and fall I have to work.  Winter...oh winter....blah.  It has Christmas going for it.  Snow.... well snow is fun for a few days.  Snow days from school are good, but I'm stuck in the house and get bored real easily.  I guess I'm back to summer, but early summer.... not late July and August.    Maybe I like them all.