Happy New Year everyone!

Can you believe it, a new beginning. Once again an opportunity to get it right. If 2010 seems similar to 2009 and you want to make changes stop and refocus.

Are you guys excited? The Journey Continues on Jan. 8th, see you there.

Hugs!

Mary (grannym)

Merry Christmas dear hearts! There is so much going on around here, I just stopped in the middle of what I was doing and decided to chill a minute. I am making calls from home, I guess you can say I am a telemarketer. I can't believe it but, I prayed for so long for something I could do out of the house to make some extra money and this is what manifested. It's really not bad, the calls are made to people who filled out forms requesting information. I managed to pick up a book given to me by an ex-co-worker in 04. It is a tiny book titled "May the Peace of Christ Be Yours This Christmas." In it I found this little poem, yes, everywhere I go there seems to be poem in some form or another. The book is by Ellyn Sanna and the poem is an old Welsh Carol translated by K. E. Roberts

Hello ladies! I was so excited about the Journey continuing I signed up in the wrong course. That's okay though Karen is going to get it straightened out. I sure hope you all are having a wonderful weekend, mine have been busy as all get out. My ex-mother-in-law had her 90th birthday today and we celebrated it. This is an amazing lady, she is being treated for lung cancer but if she didn't tell you, you would never know, the weird thing is, she never smoked. When her hair started coming out she shaved and went bald, she didn't wear a wig, just her bald head, makeup and jewelry. She has always been the kind of woman that never left the house without makeup and she doesn't look 90 either. I still say I want to be just like her when I grow up.

I have the most awesome book, I think I told you all that I purchased about 6 from Amazon, they are soft cover poetry books and the most expensive one was no more than $3. Out of them I have a favorite one and it is 100 Best-Loved Poems edited by Philip Smith. Here is one of the poems.

The poet is George Herbert (1593-1633) an Anglican clergyman and poet. Here he uses secular imagery to probe a religious question.

This poem is beautiful, I felt like crying after reading it. I sense it to be a conversation between Mr. Herbert and the Lord, about his calling. Beautifully written I could feel it as I read. Awesome!

Thanks ladies, have a good evening, hope you enjoy the poem as much as I did.

Hugs!

grannym (Mary)

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Today I found two of the most intersting entries. One is

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and the other is by a wonderful 82 year young author named Doris.

ID: 1080584   (Rated: 13+) Taking Life As It Comes  Growing up in a small rural town has many ups and downs. WIP by Doremi-84 on July 7

Well worth it.

Have a wonderful week and a great Thanksgiving Day.

ps: I thought I had posted this info before but I guess not, maybe I did and didn't save it or maybe I entered on another post, I have three blog/journal post.

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I purchased An International Anthology of Poetry this week, I thought reading the poetry of others would help keep me inspired to write response and seed poetry, maybe some original poetry of my own. I read one poem considered a nonsense poem titled "In the Middle of the Road"
by Carlos Drummond De Andrade 1902-1987.

In the middle of the road there was a stone
there was a stone in the middle of the road
there was a stone
in the middle of the road there was a stone.

Never should I forget this event
in the life of my fatigued retinas.
Never should I forget that in the middle of the road
there was a stone
there was a stone in the middle of the road
in the middle of the road there was a stone.

Translated from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Bishop

When you think about it this is a profound statement and observation of a simple encounter (a stone in the middle of the road.) I love it, this is brillant!

My nonsense seed poem came from an actual event as I was getting ready to go out on the balcony this morning to drink my coffee. I was surprised by a special visitor and "A Bird on the Balcony" was born.

A bird is on the balcony
there is a bird sitting in my chair on the balcony
there is a bird
sitting in my chair on the balcony

a haiku moment
frozen in my memory
forever it's mine

there is a bird
there is a bird sitting in my chair
out on the balcony there is a bird sitting in my chair

This reminded me of Haiku, Haiku focuses on the here and now. It forces one to be in the moment, it is written from experiences not knowledge, belief or ideas. Haiku is being aware, nonjudgmental, being reverent, having a sense of oneness, a sense of simplicity, having humility. Haiku teaches that the poet is not the author of any haiku but that they are gifts given by the spirits, these moments come through us but are not ours.

My response to Karen's poem "The Deceit of Power"

Hypocrisy II

A circle of venom rolling
over society at will.
hiss...hiss...hiss

Donkeys pouncing through
fields of lillies in the spring.
ding...ding...ding

Elephants trampling villages
promising waves of prosperity.
dong...dong...dong

Betrayed, agitated, confused.
"We the People" dismayed,
depressed and despondent.
blah...blah...blah

The Eagle's distressed.
Their words are fodder,
Sin has filled our land.
lie...lie...lie

HYPOCRISY IS A PANDEMIC

pray...pray...pray


Original version written 10-20-06
Improved after "The Journey"
11-15-09

©grannym (mary) 2009

It is a lovely day here in Lancaster, Texas. I woke up early and had my coffee sitting on the balcony as I so often do. All of a sudden I heard this loud bang, I tried to find out where it came from to no avail. A few of the neighbors came out and looked around but no one knew what had happened, I surmised that a transformer had blown and that was the bang. Sure enough I was correct, our electricity was out for about 6 hours. I could not cook because the stove is electric, I could not use the phone because it is cordless and uses electricity to stay connected, no microwave, the refrigerator was thawing and my cell phone needed charging. I had no car so I could not get to the store to purchase ice. In essence, I was in a pickle, to say the least.

I took a nap thinking it would be over when I woke up. (Not) I sat on the couch and began to pray, please God let them get the transformer or whatever the problem is fixed before I lose all my food in the fridge. Just like that, not even a minute the electricity came back on. Now, I know some would say they were going to come back at that moment anyway, and that's okay, but I choose to believe that God heard me and answered my prayer. That's just like Him, He' such a loving God. After that I was able to post my final poems. I also began to think about what would we as a nation do if we had no electricity, it isn't a pretty thought. I had not candles, or oil lamps or even flashlights to use. No food that could be prepared from the shelf without having to cook it. And for me I didn't even have any transportation, my son was at work. We take every thing for granted and this is not a good thing. Things are happening everyday and we need to be prepared. I'm not paronoid but this is just a fact of live in these times. Just a few thoughts that ran across my mind.

I hope each of you had a blessed day, I did!

Hugs!

grannym

I have loved every moment of the Journey, it has been a wonderful experience. As I stated earlier I expect to continue the Journey in a very special way, by learning to write Sonnets and Odes to start with. I was amazed when I found this little book of my mother's this morning titled "The Canterbury Poets" edited by William Sharp, Sonnets of the Nineteenth Century. Now this book was published by The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., London and Felling-On-Tyne; no date of publication, but it has faded, yellow and worn pages. This is not the first book I found of mothers, there are more that I haven't gone through. I found about 4 old cookbooks of hers and my dads. Dad was a chef, and he worked for the Veterans Hospital in Dallas until he was forced to retire because of glaucoma.

I want to share these sonnets with you all, so I will be doing that in my journal even after the Journey is over. I thought this would be a good way for use to keep in touch, a special place to go, at your convience. Here we could stay in touch.

This leaves me speechless, it absolutely takes my breath away, what about you guys?

Hugs!

grannym

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