character PAD 10-2

 Larry

 

L arry, my funny cousin

A lways had fun as kids

R iding go-carts, playing badminton

R acing bikes, catching crawdads

Y ou are like a brother to me

character PAD 10-1

 Sig

 

A little dough boy ten-year-old

Wide eyes and wide smile

Looks like he swallowed the sun

 

Knows facts about everything

Instructs his teachers

Can’t write his name

 

I told him he reminded me of my son, 38.

He thought I was in my thirties.

Maybe that’s why I like him.

Direction PAD 9-3

 John 14:6

 

The Bible

Spiritual GPS

Helps you find

The Way,

The Truth,

and The Life.

Direction PAD 9-2

Gone Fishing

 

Growing up in Pennsylvania,

before GPS and cell phones,

we’d take our annual vacation

in Delaware. The seven of us

rented a large cabin by a lake.

 

Sometimes when it grew dark

and mom and dad were late

coming back from fishing,

we knew we’d hear these words,

“Dad took a shortcut again!”

Direction PAD 9-1

Amazing

 

Last family reunion

some wanted to try the maze

through the hay bales.

 

It didn’t sound like fun to me.

 

Being directionally challenged,

when I’m somewhere new,

I always feel like I’m in a hay maze.

Sentence PAD 8-3

 Homeschool Nature Group

 

After all-day nature studies

(teaching, crafting, journaling,

trekking through the forest

with thirteen children in tow)

the humming, thrumming, numbing

feelings in my head

take a whole evening of chilling out

to subside,

but I look forward

to our weekly adventures.

Sentence PAD 8-2

 Six Year Anniversary

 

It’s been almost six years

since you’ve had your second stroke

and though you’re not the same outwardly,

I know you’re the same person inwardly

and I’m grateful that you’re still here.

Sentence PAD 8-1

 Technologically Challenged

 

Attempting to do something new on a computer

for someone technologically challenged like me

is like standing before the open door

of a Halloween funhouse,

not believing it will be fun at all.

Big/Small PAD 7-3

 Big Idea

 

Considering the universe

and the God who created it,

How great He is

that He would love

miniscule humans!

Big/Small PAD 7-2

 There once was a boy named John Small

He actually was quite big and tall

People would giggle

When his belly would jiggle

But their jokes didn’t faze him at all

Big/Small PAD 7-1

 

There once was a girl named Jane Large

Though she wasn’t as big as a barge

In fact, she was small

Not giant at all

But she was big in heart and took charge

Better Blank PAD 6-3

 Better

Gambling entices

Taking chances may solve problems

But betters become debtors

Better Blank PAD 6-2

 Better Things to Do

 

My procrastination projects haunt me.

I can always think of better things to do.

Play a game, take a quiz, scroll Facebook,

look at pictures, read old poems, walk, eat.

put together a jigsaw puzzle. Take a nap.

It takes longer to avoid them than to do them.

Better Blank PAD 6-1

 Better Not Cry

 

When her best friend died

she thought, “Better not cry!”

She might sink in the quicksand of grief.

She watched intense and violent mysteries,

ignoring the trickling tears,

numbing the pain

until the new day began.

Clock Poetic Bloomings

 

Dancing with Time

 

Arizona’s time marches steadily on

While we Coloradans switch back and forth

I’m in step with my kids again

Makes phone calls a bit easier

We dance along together till we switch again.

Book based poem PAD 5-3

 A Twenty-Year Nap

I was fifty-nine when I graduated from college.
I took an online course to finish up my degree.
In the three years I studied, one class at a time,
Rip Van Winkle a story Washington Irving published
in the Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent
showed up as the subject of study each year.
Why was that short story of all stories repeated?
Van Winkle, escaping some farm work fell asleep
for twenty years during the Revolutionary War.
When he woke up it was all over, the world changed.
With all that’s going on in the world today,
what would it look like after a twenty-year nap?
I rest in the fact that God doesn’t sleep,
though a twenty-year nap to escape housework
doesn’t sound so bad.

book based poem PAD 5-2

 Start by Searching

 

When I lose my shoes,

car keys or cell phone,

and I say, “Help me find them!”

Hubby quotes Puddleglum

of Chronicles of Narnia,

“Got to start by finding it, have we?

Not allowed to start

by looking for it, I suppose?”

book-based poem PAD 5-1

 His Poem

 

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10).

 

Your life can be a book-based poem.

As written in Ephesians 2:10,

“Handiwork” can be translated:

Workmanship, work of art, poem.

Catching PAD 4-3

She giggles and runs

I catch her, armed with a diaper

It’s like wrestling an alligator

Odd PAD 11-3

 

Odd Man Out

 

She gets an odd feeling when she’s in a crowd

Like she’s the odd man out even with friends

She is so quiet while others are loud

She gets an odd feeling when she’s in a crowd

Like she’s walking in a fog or a cloud

Sometimes she can manage, it all depends

She gets an odd feeling when she’s in a crowd

Like she’s the odd man out even with friends

Catching PAD 4-2

 A Disappointing Souvenir

 

Catching a cold, Covid or any of the nasties

is particularly terrible when traveling.

Sneezing in Monet’s beautiful garden

Nearly throwing up on the Normandy tour

Blowing my nose in Saint Paul’s Cathedral

Masked and barely breathing on the train to Wales

Buying cold medicine in Ireland, instead of souvenirs

Still sucking cough drops on Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge

It’s not a fond way to remember your vacation.

Catching PAD 4-1

 Catch and Release

 

Sometimes when fishing,

with the thing that you catch,

it would be better for you

if you threw it back in.

Problem PAD 3-3

 Missing My Sissies

 

We five sisters

Enjoy being together

But we’re so far apart!

 

California, Colorado

Ohio, two towns in Nebraska

Living busy lives

 

Reunions

Few and far between

I miss my sissies.

 

What’sapp

Texts, email, phone calls

Have to do

Problem PAD 3-2

 The Orange Cat

 

An orange cat in the neighborhood

used to visit me often

and try to talk me into

taking it in.

 

No, I don’t want another cat.

After sixteen years,

it was hard enough to lose

my calico cat, Snickers.

 

But unlike the song,

the cat didn’t come back.

Probably died a lonely death,

looking for some food in an ally.

Problem PAD 3-1

 Time, Motivation and Energy

 

If time, motivation and energy

were people, they wouldn’t get along.

Motivation would say, “Let’s do this!”

and Time would say, “No, I’m busy.”

 

Energy would sometimes agree

with Motivation, but other times,          

he would agree with Time

and rather go back to bed.

 

Time would get around to saying,

“I’m available now!”

Then Energy would say,

“Some other time.”

 

Motivation would try to kick

Energy’s butt, now that Time

was ready to go. But Energy

would say, “I’m feeling low.”

 

Then Time might agree with Energy,

but Motivation says, “Why bother?”

If time, motivation and energy

were people, they wouldn’t get along.

childhood object PAD 2-3

 Artwork

 

Mom was somewhat of an artist.

Paintings of our and Grandma’s houses

hung on our walls—and down at Pappap’s—

a sunset painting of Canada geese.

 

But I don’t remember her painting much.

No time, after having five daughters,

except for the woman in a swimsuit

that greeted visitors at Shannon Creek Park.

 

And a very large Santa

that hung outside on our gables

at Christmas time, and one time

a bunch of little Santas given as gifts.

 

Other than that, paints were retired.

As we grew up, paper plates

became her canvas filled with marker flowers

and hung above her kitchen table,

 

Where she and Dad could enjoy them

after all their daughters moved away.

childhood object PAD 2-2

 Waggles

 

Waggles, a green puppy

with worn fur, floppy ears

sits on my bookshelf,

no eyes, so no tears.

 

He may remember

when his girl was sick

and he was covered

with something smelly and thick.

 

The girls’ mom hand-washed him

set him on a vent to dry,

so his little girl

wouldn’t stay up and cry.

 

Back cuddled in bed,

he made her feel warm.

He’ll always remember

the love of her mom.

childhood object PAD 2-1

 The Tiny Green Duck

 

When I was a little child,

when the big kids were in school,

Mummy took me down to Pappap’s

where she helped care for Grandma.

 

I’d open the big buffet door

and pull out a round, tin button box.

Besides buttons of all colors and sizes

there was a tiny, plastic, green duck.

 

I don’t know why he was there.

or where he came from.

I never asked Pappap or Grandma,

but he was always waiting.

 

I’d have him swim around

on the silvery, tin-lid pond

and make believe the buttons

were rocks, people, other ducks.

 

I grew up and my grandparents died

and I’ve often wondered,

but never learned what happened

to the tiny green duck.

Declaration PAD 1-3

 

The Diet Starts Tomorrow

 

The diet starts tomorrow

I’ve said it lots before

The number is going up

I can’t wait anymore

 

But the ice cream’s in the fridge

I don’t want to waste it

And the chocolate calls from the shelf

I can almost taste it

 

Several sizes hang in my closet

Some since ‘99

The diet starts tomorrow

Or the day after might be fine.

Declaration PAD 1-2

 It Was Not a Hurricane

 

Six hours of pushing

Persevering

Giving it my all

Shouting to be heard

Above the roaring

Battling the blasts

Driven, determined

To rise above

Chaos and confusion

Feeling exhausted

And battered

At the end of the day

Brain fog rolls in

It was not a hurricane.

Just a day out in nature

with a dozen rambunctious 

six-to-nine-year-olds.

Declaration PAD 1-1

 

Sixty-Five

 

I turned sixty-five this month

and I’m swearing off hair dye.

I’ve earned every one of those

gray, white or silver beauties.

 

My last beautician’s appointment,

I had her dye it my natural color.

She said it will be perfect

for when my hair sparkles.

 

She tactfully avoided words

like graying, silver or senior.

When the dye fades out,

Let it sparkle!