Summer’s End

Dandelion from Pixabay

September showers

Signal the end of summer 

Rainy grey mornings 

Memories already mist

All the projects left undone 

~ Summer’s lease hath all too short a date ~ *

October beckons

Costumes and candy galore

Dreams dissolve daily

Floating fast into the past 

Replaced by holiday plans 

*William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

~*~

Tanka puente written for the Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge (with alliteration).

Dream Come True

Sweet little Miss Inkerbelle (my photo)

Shelter cat

Sad but hopeful pic online

Soft black fur bright green eyes 

I dreamt about her

Named her Inky

Now she’s home 

~*~

Seox poem (3-7-6-5-4-3) written for the Tanka Tuesday Challenge (dream). 

Lemony Hodgepodge

Lemon bars via Meta AI

I'm participating in Joyce's Hodgepodge again this week by answering the following questions.

1. Do your goals and dreams energize or exhaust you? Elaborate. 

It depends on specifics. I bought a cat feeder to program, and it's so complicated that it exhausts me to think about it, but I will do it. (I'm writing this on Sunday to post on Monday, and hopefully by the time your read this, the programming will be sorted out!) My exercise goals are both tiring and energizing simultaneously ~ I get tired from 30-45 minutes of aerobics, but it feels good, so I'm excited to do it again the next day. As far as dreams, I don't have them on a grand scale the way I used to (finding love, getting published, becoming wealthy, etc.), which is good because I'm happier if I stick with boring daily goals that I can actually achieve. I don't buy into the cliché that you're never too old to do X thing. Hell yeah I am too old to do a lot of things!

2. July 23rd is national lemon day. Are you a fan of this flavor? What's a favorite dish or beverage you enjoy that calls for lemons? 

I am a huge, huge lemon fan! I don't care for lemonade though, strangely. I love lemon desserts, such as the surreal lemon bars pictured up top. Lemon cake, lemon cookies, lemon sorbet, all delicious.

3. "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"...is this something you're pretty good at managing? Have you had to do this recently? If so tell us about it. 

Absolutely, and I think it's the only way to be happy unless you're incredibly lucky to get everything you want. Life is full of disappointments, and you have to be able to adapt to them, change your goals, lower your expectations, etc., if you don't want to spend all your time moaning about what might have been. I try not to go down the "if only" road too often, and my personal motto/ mantra is more in line with it is what it is, so now deal with it.

In the last few years, I decided to completely give up on the idea of being paid to write in any way at all. Some of my writer friends still struggle to eke a few bucks out of the various self-publishing platforms, but to me it's not worth bothering with. First, I despise marketing. Second, even when I forced myself to do some, it had minimal results. Third, I don't want to write to please an audience; I much prefer writing to please myself. How did I "make lemonade" out of this? I self-published two final poetry books just to satisfy my OCD with zero expectation of sales, and also I returned to blogging ~ fun writing that makes me happy!

4. Something you love that is lemon yellow in color? 

I adore lemon-yellow roses, even if they set off an allergy attack. I think they're prettier than red roses.

5. How would you describe your attention to detail? 

Insane. That doesn't mean I don't make mistakes, but I am relentless about catching/ fixing them. This doesn't only apply to typos, but also includes consistency in various forms. I also obsessively straighten stuff up and make sure that all objects are either at right angles or deliberately and pleasingly off-center.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

For an introvert who needs a lot of alone time, I sure have a lot of social plans coming up!

Ocean of Dreams

Diane’s painting from 2020

Night is an ocean 

Secrets carefully hidden

Dreams cycle like waves 

~*~

I’m participating in Jill’s Haiku Friday today with inspiration from my daughter’s painting. 

Flower Moon Crush

Image from Pixabay

My dreams went off-script that night
When a creamy moon winked and whispered:
Everything will be all right.
A crush chafed my heart 'til it blistered,
Longings spilling out like seeds--
Twisting briskly in the dusty wind--
Blossoms shimmering with needs,
The petals translucent, thinly skinned.

A crisp sunrise showed dreams their place:
Withering dimly in a vase.

~*~

Written for the Sunday Whirl Wordle 755 using crush crisp creamy script brisk dreams dust seeds dim night whisper shimmer (or slight derivations thereof). This poem is a tribute to the Flower Moon, which was a full moon that appeared on May 1. It was also inspired by the beautiful birthday bouquets I had to put outdoors due to an allergy attack.

Memory Is a Falcon

Image from Pixabay

Memory is a falcon: rough

Claws digging into tender flesh.

His leash is never long enough.

Memory is a falcon; rough

Beak cuts sturdy gloves into fluff.

Give him a dream to rip afresh.

Memory is a falcon: rough

Claws digging into tender flesh.

~*~

Triolet quadrille (structured 44 words) written for dVerse (digging). I had to punctuate this one so it would make sense, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I tend to prefer shorter poems sans punctuation.

Spark

An untethered dream
Weaves through clouds of wonder,
While the stream of hope
Lies clogged with ash below.
Gods abandoned us!
There’s nothing holy here.
Despair cloaks our hearts;
Our gaze drops to the ground.
Memory’s tendrils
Grasp with tenacity—
Could our faith renew
With a spark of kindness?

 ~*~

Written for the Sunday Whirl Wordle 742 using the prompt words below renew weaves through cloaks holy untethered tendrils gods spark ash wonder.

Abecedarian for a New Year

Questions squirm like serpents,

Remaining after the feelings fade, 

Scenting the air with regret.

Tapestries of what might have been

Undulate like the tide;

Varying landscapes 

Weave around familiar faces.

Xanadu seems within reach:

Yellow starlight swirls the night,

Zigzagging across an onyx sky.

Absence makes the heart go wander.

Buoyed by a new year’s optimism,

Confidence obliterates caution and

Desire overwrites distrust,

Even as the red flags fly freely.

Forget the shining threads of dreams—

Grab a jagged chunk of reality!

How’s that handful of glass?

Insidious insecurities, 

Juxtaposed with expectations, create

Kaleidoscopes of chaos.

Learning to let go,

My soul glows brighter than before—

No need for external validation 

Or admiration from nameless strangers—

Peace and contentment abide.

~*~

I saw this prompt at dVerse Poets Pub, and while I am happy to give them credit, I don’t do the annoying Mr. Linky thingie (I know I have fewer readers because of this, oh well). I wanted to see if I could write a poem in this style that didn’t suck, and I’m okay with this result. It took me a while and is difficult to read aloud because I keep stumbling over “buoyed.” Enjoy your weekend!

Carnival of Dreams

Luminous images spin 

On a memory carousel,

A layer of loss lingering 

Like smoke from a carnival grill.

Snapshots from our last trip

Float on the fringe of my dreams;

All the words left unsaid spill

Like coins from a candy machine. 

We treated love like an optional frill,

Assuming it would fit between

The roller coaster and the ferris wheel,

But it vanished somewhere unseen.

The fun house mirrors reflect

A reality unburdened by fears,

While the resonance of moments unmet

Keeps swimming through the glaze of my tears.

~*~

Written for the Sunday Whirl Wordle 738 using the prompt words fringe resonance frill spin swimming images fit spill trip reflect layer lingering.

I have frequently used carnival imagery in lost love poems. For whatever reason, it resonates with me.

Faint Footsteps

Before the ticking clock slips

Into the bright hour of dawn,

Faint footsteps echo along

The paths of forgotten dreams.

Memories stir from their crypts;

A door creaks within the depth;

Years loop in a lemniscate,

As if time past has no seams.

Rooted in a tangled, twisted vision,

I look for a route out of indecision.

~*~

Written for the Sunday Whirl Wordle 731 (rooted, years, footsteps, creaks, look, stir, hour, loop, clock, echo, before, slips). I felt inspired by this word set and decided to write a poem with my own rhyme scheme. Does “lemniscate” sound too weird (lem-nih-sket)? It’s the term for the infinity symbol. Generally, I prefer more accessible language, but it seemed to fit nicely. 

The Life List

Hurrah! I finally found a movie I liked on Netflix. It's a 2025 romance called The Life List and stars Sofia Carson. I enjoyed the story, the acting, the romance, the humor, etc., and I highly recommend the movie to my readers. The premise is that Elizabeth is concerned about her daughter Alex, who seems to be just drifting through life without any goals. Unfortunately, Elizabeth is dying, so she won't have a chance to help Alex the way she would like to; instead, she found a "life list" Alex created when she was 13, and in her will Elizabeth conditions Alex's inheritance upon fulfilling her teenage dreams. Elizabeth enlisted the help of her lawyer to keep Alex focused, and each time Alex completes one of her goals, she receives another CD from him with Elizabeth giving Alex words of love and encouragement toward the next goal. It made me tear up a few times.

Do you remember any of your dreams/goals from when you were 13? I don't know if I even had any "big" goals at that age. Mine were undoubtedly immediate and superficial... welp, nothing really has changed much in that regard. LOL. I did enjoy writing fiction and poetry, but I don't think I imagined myself as a famous writer (good thing, eh?). I probably wanted to get straight A's in school, and most likely I was obsessed with solving puzzles and finishing needlework pictures. 

I was about to cancel my Hulu subscription (again) before the price jump to $9.99. It's rare that I find something on Hulu I want to watch, and the new bachelor season won't be coming up until the fall. But when I went to the Hulu website to cancel, they said what about if we only charge you the same $2.99 for another six months? I said OK. Of course, in November I will be hooked on the new Golden Bachelor season, so I'll probably be willing to pay $9.99 for a few months until it ends. After that, nah. Probably nah. The reason the next one is special is because they announced that the new Golden Oldie is the hilarious French guy from the last Golden Bachelorette, so I do have to watch. 

Recently I finished reading Five Broken Blades, a fantasy novel by Mai Corland, and gave it two stars. The first third was incredibly slow and tedious, though it did pick up toward the end. Why authors insist on writing chapters in first person present tense from different characters, I do not know. This would have been the perfect opportunity for third person narration so the reader would have had an easier time gliding from one POV to another. Corland made one character sound ignorant, so his bad grammar at least made it clear when it was his chapter, but the others blended together. Yes, she put their names at the beginning of the chapters, but the rest of the voices weren't distinct enough to keep straight. To be fair, fantasy isn't my favorite genre, but in fact the fantasy elements were pretty well done here. It was simply the lack of depth of the characters and their motivations that made the book kind of a drag to get through. Happily, it fit my 2025 Reading Challenge category of being part of a series ~ hopefully, our book club leader won't want to continue this series! 

I put Verity by Colleen Hoover on hold at my library. My in-person book club has chosen it for our June novel, and though I read it years ago (and gave it two stars), I am worried I won't remember enough of it to join in the discussion. I'm curious if my rating stays the same this round ~ also there's a brand new chapter included, so we shall see if that makes a difference. I'm definitely interested in seeing the movie next year with the great cast of Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett, and Dakota Johnson.

Last Night I Dreamt I Went To Blogland Again

Actually, I didn't dream about going to Blogland again (my dream was much weirder, involving my ex-husband's lost mobile phone, a lawyer, and a pool full of dogs), but I did visit a few blogs tonight, and I did not feel the least bit tempted to join back in the fray. Usually, when I visit Blogland, I check out several blogs before getting bored and exiting ~ tonight I got bored after two. It's not them; it's me. I find the idea of writing to prompts much too tedious to contemplate, and there's no other reason to be there, since the days of posting true "web logs" have long passed. I do engage in community prompts on Bluesky, but they're quickie posts about songs or movies. No one expects a Wikipedia dump there or original short stories.

I gave up writing my murder mystery, at least for now. Work is more tiring, especially with the longer commute at night, and I don't have the energy to be creative, except for the occasional poem. I will publish a new poetry collection next year, but my progress is at "a glacial pace" (nod to Miranda Price in The Devil Wears Prada). I can handle the slow lane for poems, but I can't write a novel that way because I lose my train of thought. Is it chain or train? I can never remember.

Anyway, I've been watching the Democratic National Convention every night this week, which gives me yet another convenient excuse not to exercise after work. What will my excuse be next week? No worries, I will come up with something. I really have to exercise though, even just a little, like a half hour a day, because I do not want to go on cholesterol meds. I feel like my diet has been much healthier lately, but I could be deluding myself since I nom up gummy bear snacks pretty regularly at work. I've been eating only fruit for dinner several times per week however as a way to reduce my overall fat and salt intake (I want to lower my BP as well as my cholesterol).

Welp, it's a process, a journey, blah blah blah. I am definitely doing better than when I was baking and/or stopping for fast food, so I will congratulate myself on that instead of beating myself up for being a sofa spud. I've also been working on crafts, as the arthritis in my hands permits, which is relaxing and good for my mental health as well as giving me a way to connect with others socially. The new book club is going great, even better than the original Meetup group, as we're more inclined to chat between meetings and plan other events with the relaxed WhatsApp structure. I definitely have enough to do with all that plus regular family and friend events, so I don't have to FOMO about the things I've given up.

My title is obviously a play on the first line of Rebecca, which is a great book and an even better movie (not often the case) with the wonderful Lily James. I love her. Today I finished a mystery that kept my attention throughout: The Wife You Know by Chad Zunker. I gave it four stars even though it's silly that a software developer guy is able to elude trained assassins even for a couple days. Whatever. The writing was strong enough that I was able to suspend my disbelief for the duration of the story, and that alone is worth an extra star beyond the "gentlemanly" three I generally give to books I don't hate. If I truly hate a book, I won't finish or rate it, unless I have to for a discussion, which is why I don't have many one-stars out there.

Like anyone cares, right? I guess I should go to bed; my cat is annoyed I'm up late writing at my little desk, but I had to move off the sofa because my laptop needed to charge. It doesn't last very long lately when I unplug it... I guess we're all getting old.