Journey

source

 The longest journey

Is measured not by miles

But traveled within

Day 29 – February 29th – Theme or Word: Journey

It's Amazing What Soup Can Do

photo credit: Bob Adelman, 1965

 

 

One flap of a butterfly's wings

One can of soup

What is too small

to make a difference?

What if

Warhol had painted Scott Towels instead?

The grocery had been out of tomato

but had plenty of vegetable?

A rutabaga caught his eye?

Could tampons be

Pop Art?

What if

a can of tomato soup

had been donated to a soup kitchen?

What is the difference

between art

and a hungry child

getting a meal?

submitted for The Mag 106

Mousedroppings

Squeaking softly or
Scritching and squealing loudly
She writes her own tale!

Tidbits of a life
Lolamouse writes her own tale
Leaving Mousedroppings

LOLAMOUSE WRITES HER OWN TALE

Leaving Mousedroppings
Lolamouse writes her own tale
Tidbits of a life

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 28 – February 28th – Theme or Word: YOUR BLOG NAME FORM: Haiku + Form of your Wish

Of Tea and Names

"Teatime" from Ella's Edge

The day she couldn't find her name

started out like any other day

She made the coffee

kissed the husband

sent the kids off to school

and then realized it was missing

At first she thought she had simply left it

with the car keys

but no

She searched under the newspaper

in her coat pockets

and sweater drawer

even in the trashcan

but it wasn't anywhere

She tried to remember the last time

she had seen it

It was some time between her wedding 

and the last time she had finished a cup of tea

while it was still warm

"If I were a name, where would I be?"

she said to herself

then searched the dryer 

and found three lost socks

but no name

She considered taking out an ad

but couldn't decide on an appropriate reward

for finding a name

or, for that matter, how she could be sure

she would recognize it as hers 

and didn't want to take in the wrong one

After some thought 

she decided she needed a new name

The old one probably didn't fit any way

She began her search for a name

right after she brewed a pot of tea

and finished an entire cup

while it was still warm.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Challenge-Featuring Ellen Wilson

The Girl Who Loved Winter Redux

photo by RedFraction

 It had been too long

since she had last walked in the cold

The grey sky burned with longing

Icicles
reached out their warm fingers to welcome her

Snowflakes

like butterfly kisses

found her nose, her cheeks, her eyelids

and finally, her hungry tongue

The wind

an impassioned lover

bit her neck

pulled at her clothes

left her raw and pink and glistening

The girl who loved Winter

flew with the snow angels.

submitted for We Write Poems, Prompt #95, The Other Side of Nature

Let Us Not Forget

 

From depths of despair

We rise again with new hope

Let us not forget

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 27 – February 27th – Theme: Paint the Image
Photo Clicked by Siva of: Siva's Art Work
(image shows the gates at Jewish Memorial at former Dachau Concentration Camp)

Give

We have but little
Little but some for us all
All willingly share
Share with others what you get
Get back more than what you give

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 26 – February 26th – Theme: Paint the Image
Inspirational Image from: Google Images, Author: Unknown

Tell Me

I want you to tell me about every person you’ve ever been in love with.
Tell me how they failed you or
how you failed them.
I want you to tell me that each one of them
even at their best
could never compare with me
even at my worst.
Baby, tell me
that you knew love
but you never knew god
before you made love to me
(or is that putting words in your mouth?)
Don't tell me I'm perfect;
Tell me how you love every one of my faults
because it's mine.
Tell me how even when I'm on my knees
it's you who's begging.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Mary's Mixed Bag

(prompt was to take a first line from a poem and riff on it. I chose "Asking Too Much" by Andrea Gibson)

Cult-ure

Come join us
We will give you love
and your thoughts

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 25 – February 25th – Theme or Word: Cult Form: - Haiku 
(structure: 3-5-3) 

Bump

source

 T-shirt clad belly

Over ripe fruit stretches cloth

Grape bursting its skin

Bump. Pillow. Book stand. Child.

She can not fit in school desk.

submitted for dVerse Poets Pub, Form For All, Writing Visual (tanka)

Dream Walking

Synesthesia by jaynecp on polyvore.com

In dream walks each night

    I see bird song, hear sun set

    Awaken and mourn

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 24 – February 24th – Words: Dream Walks Thanks to Rachana Shakyawar of Humming Today because the phrase 'Dream Walks' was coined from her poem

Pretty Is

Andrej Pejic

Pretty is as pretty does

but you

You're some kinda pretty, baby

And pretty does what pretty wants

You could rip my heart clean outta my chest

and nail it to the wall

I'd call it art, baby

You could tear all the pages right outta my favorite books

and burn them to make a fire

I'd thank you

for keeping us warm

Yeah

You're that kind of pretty, baby

You could steal all my money

my clothes

my drugs

I'd just kiss your sweet cheek

for cleaning out the clutter

Pretty is as pretty does

but you

You're mighty pretty, baby

and everything you do

is right pretty too.

so much depends

so much depends
upon

a pink lined dip
stick

drizzled with morning
urine

atop the white
sink.


submitted for Poetry Jam, "So Much Depends Upon... "

The Joy of Giving

source

  The joy of giving
Bringing warmth to a cold heart
Soup for hungry souls

Soup for hungry souls
Steaming bowls of nourishment
They may feed others

They may feed others
What goes around comes around
The joy of giving

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 23 – February 23rd – Theme: Joy of Giving Form: (ABC, CDE, EFA) - Haiku

Trying To Be Koi

Another attempt at painting. This time it was acrylics. I loved the buttery feel of doing the blue background, and the green lily pads seemed to go smoothy, but I had fits with the fish! The orange (I mixed red and yellow paint) was totally transparent on the background (I thought acrylics were opaque-guess not!) and when I added gel medium to thicken it, it was like working with peanut butter! My poor koi were gloppy and I was not happy with them. So I went back to an old standby stamping technique--embossing--and covered those babies with gold embossing. Not great, but I can live with them now. I think my craft room (and my lungs) are filled with some sort of toxic fumes now, though. That acrylic paint made a really nasty smell when heated with an embossing gun! Tips for future projects any of you art people out there?

The Dancer

Floor beneath her feet
Bare toes caress wooden planks
Spring in her spirit

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 22 – February 22nd – Theme: Paint the Image...

Photo Clicked by Enosh of: Enosh Bansode Photography

The Last Phone Booth on Earth

image: epic mahoney

The last phone booth on Earth

is in a forgettable town

on a nondescript street

Perhaps that is why it still exists

The last phone booth on Earth

lost its phone book long ago

its metal cord hangs bare

from the wall

The last phone booth on Earth

is a glass cocoon

People crawl inside to talk

on cell phones

more often than on the pay phone

Some emerge as butterflies

some remain caterpillars

and some crawl back out
appearing to have died inside

The last phone booth on Earth

still has fingerprints

at the top and bottom

from dozens of college kids

climbing inside

The last phone booth on Earth
always disappoints
those looking for coins inside its silvery mouth
only to find stale wads of gum

In the last phone booth on Earth
the phone is ringing

It's for you.

submitted for The Mag 105

Dedication

Book's dedication

A gift from my grandmother

Love of poetry

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 21 – February 21st – Theme: Dedication

For Joey, Who Let Me Borrow Her Jacket

Your given name was Barbara

but I don't think I ever heard anyone ever use it

not even the grown-ups

Joey fit you much better anyway

like the tight Levis and

rocker T shirts 

and the denim jacket you always wore

I remember your voice

Low and gravelly

from smoking too much

way back in the seventh grade

You hung with the girls

even the boys were afraid of

but had the prettiest grey eyes

and a cute crooked smile

when you laughed

which wasn't often

We had nothing much in common

except by chance one class

where I let you copy my papers

so you could get a good grade

and you let me borrow your jacket

one afternoon when it was cold

and told me to keep it until the next day

It had the faint sweet smell of marijuana

and the feel of your confidence

I wore that jacket

like a suit of armor

and after that day

the taunts and threats of middle school

never touched me again.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Open Link Monday

and Poets United, Poetry Pantry#88

Imagine Better

photo by astridle

 Imagine better
Than what life was yesterday
Perhaps it will be

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 20 – February 20th – Quote: Live out of your imagination, not your history

No Place Like Home

source

 Tap your red heels Dorothy

There is no place like home

Cause home just isn't home no more

You wonder where it's gone

The farm you used to live on

Your uncle sold the land

There's rows of houses now

Where rows of wheat were wont to stand

The local grocery store

Became a giant megamart

And your poor Auntie Em

Can barely push the plastic cart

The farmhands you so loved

Well, they all lost their jobs

They wait for unemployment checks

and became drunken slobs

Professor Marvel's wagon

Was taken by the bank

They had to repossess it

When his show went in the tank

Miss Gulch is in a nursing home

She chased a dog and tripped

She fell down in her garden

Now she's got a broken hip

So if you come back Dorothy

Home's not like it was before

You may say to Toto

We're not in Kansas anymore!

submitted for Poets United, Thursday Think Tank, #84 Home

Tiny Miracles

photo by lolamouse

 Purple crocus heads

Push skyward through white snow drifts

Triumph of the sun

Red breasted robin

Chatters, nags, pecks, and complains

I can't help but laugh

Cherry blossom buds

Like strawberry jelly beans

Offer Spring's sweetness

submitted for Poetry Jam, Have You Seen a Miracle Lately?

Spring, Battle Creek Cypress Swamp

image source

 Tiny spring peepers

Chirp love songs from the Cypress

Bull frog bass back beat

Mayapple leaves spread

Catching cool raindrops falling

Umbrellas for toads

Ethereal mist

Blankets buds, warbler takes wing

Traveler on Earth

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, A Word With Laurie, Ethereal

and Old Pond A Frog Leaps In
and 

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 19 – February 19th – Theme: Seasons Type: Kigo

Just Enough

There, the children starve
Here, the children are obese
Where is just enough?

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 18 – February 18th – Theme or Word: Famine

Wait

We are dependent
Like dry flowers for spring rain
We must wait and hope

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 17 – February 17th – Theme or Word: Wait + Paint the Image
Inspirational Image Clicked by Anand of: Apple Blossom's Photography

Do No Harm

 I walk the boards among the Cypress.
The air smells of wet earth and decaying leaves.
If I take the time to see them, I find mud turtles, box turtles, green frogs.
Woodpecker holes dot the holly trees.
The creek dances through Cypress knees.
An intruder breaks my reverie.

Plastic bottle floats
Open mouthed, filled with water
A dead, bloated fish

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 16 – February 16th – Theme or Word: Sin Form: Haibun

Thank You

I was empty 

as a dead man's calendar

when you started scribbling in the squares

Thank you

for reminding me

how good wet paint feels

under my fingers

for showing me

it was okay to scream

even if no one was listening

or if everyone was

Your passion

your heart

runs through my blood

and colors my days

This is just to say

Thank you.

Happy Valentine's Day

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, The Rose Garden, For Valentine's Day

Keep Smiling

When you've been kicked low
When you've landed in the mud
I'll still be with you

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 15 – February 15th – Theme: Paint the Image
Inspirational Image from: Google Images, Author: Unknown

Bon Voyage!

 When we fell in love

We not only rocked the boat

We sank the whole ship!

Holding hands, we jumped

Our life boat was each other

And we rode the waves.

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 14 – February 14th – Theme or Word: Love or Valentine
and Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Open Link Monday, Love Poems

Happy Birthday

He's holding the moon
A smile shines like the sun
Future bright as stars

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 13 – February 13th – Theme: Paint the Image
What a beautiful smile by my Nephew Ashik, Today is his 2nd Birthday :-) Photo Clicked by Someone is Special of Few Miles

Purr

photo courtesy of Talon

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, soft is your fur

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, stroke it, you purr

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, eyes are like jewels

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, break all my rules

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, dangerous claws

Oh what you do with your Pussy Cat paws!

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, sandpaper kisses

Is there no place that your little tongue misses?

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, teeth that can bite

Don't think you will, but then maybe you might

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, too quick to hiss

A scratch by your ear and it's Pussy Cat bliss

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, it's all been said

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat warm in my bed.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Stripey's Weekend Challenge

Ruby Red Cherries

Bright burgundy orbs

Crimson juice bleeds sticky sweet

Lips stained cerise blush

RUBY RED CHERRIES

Lips stained cerise blush

Crimson juice bleeds sticky sweet

Bright burgundy orbs

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 12 – February 12th – Theme or Word: Colours Form: Naisaiku

Reflections

Look into my eyes
Do you see me or just a
reflection of you?


Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 11 – February 11th – Theme: Paint the Image
Inspirational Image by: Narayana Nethralaya

Never the Sun (inspired by Patti Smith's Because the Night)

It starts as a whisper
your fingers teasing the keys
then becomes more insistent
as the strokes plead for more
The day is deaf
to the night's music.

Angels disguised as fireflies
hold lanterns to our window as
chordal intensity
and a persistent bass thrum 
set the rhythm
The night has begun
and because the night
speaks
in its own tongue
we answer back with ours
with notes only
the moon can hear
never the sun.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Peace and Noise

When Lola Met Mr. Mouse

You laughed at my shirt
We stayed up all night talking
I wore your jacket

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 10 – February 10th – Theme: Write a Haiku describing about a Special day in your life...

Roses

a grave at the Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow

Don't bring me roses when I'm dead

Or jewels to wear upon my hand

What good to me in Earthen bed?

Don't bring me roses when I'm dead

Plant flowers with me now instead

Find seashell treasures in the sand

Don't bring me roses when I'm dead

Or jewels to wear upon my hand

submitted for The Mag 103

Love Locks

To put locks on love

is like locking up the sea

Love needs room to flow

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 9 – February 9th – Theme: Paint the Image
Photo Clicked by Siva of: Siva's Art Work

Roux 4 U!

My bloggie buddy Micael (aka Rabbit) is an awesome artist and has just opened a new website where he is selling his one-of-a kind creations of Roux, his adorable bunny character. Check it out and enter to win your very own, personally designed Roux! Tell him lolamouse sent you! Go! Do it! NOW!!!

click here to go to website

A Half-Baked Nursery Rhyme

Cake under your pillow, you'll dream of your groom

A bite of some cake, you're too big for the room

Let them eat cake when they haven't the bread

Say the wrong thing and it's off with your head

A slice with the baby, you bring the next cake

Poor Gretel was put in an oven to bake

You can't have your cake and then eat it too
Be a sweet little girl, and they will eat you!

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Kerry's Wednesday Challenge, Magical Realism

This Above All

source

Follow your own truth

The cereus blooms at night

Shines without the sun

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 8 – February 8th – Quote: This Above All, To Thine Own Self Be True

Life Haiga

Understand the past

And hope for the future but

Live in the present

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 7 – February 7th – Theme: Life Form: Paint/Write your Imagination on an Image for the theme.

The Girl Who Loves Winter

photo by Richard Schear

The girl who loves Winter

sleeps with her windows open

She believes 

 the icicles hanging from the panes

keep her as safe as iron bars

The dregs of her chamomile tea

have been known to freeze during the night

This amuses the girl who loves Winter

and in the morning she licks clean the teacup

like a popsicle

The girl who loves Winter
 wears hoarfrost

whiter than baby's breath

in her black hair

She keeps a snowball in her freezer

for those times when

she feels sad and

needs something to hold against her heart

The girl who loves Winter

once had a lover

but his heat

melted the ice 

that was her home
his passion

the substance of 

her very self

The girl who loves Winter

found herself disappearing into

limpid puddles on the ground

so she had to send him away

but on her nightstand

next to a vase of dried flowers

The girl who loves Winter

keeps a jar

where she can see

his warm breath.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Photo Challenge 
Poetry Jam, Hot and Cold

photo by MyWonderlandAsylum

Thoughts on Thought

Do not think too much
Thought becomes ANALYSIS 
PARALYSIS, Dude.

or, as a wise Yoda says,

There is no
try.
Do, or do not.

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 6 – February 6th – Theme or Word: Think Form: Haiku & Pi-Ku

Until

Red ribbons remain

Each life lost, a tragedy

Don't give up the fight

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 5 – February 5th – Theme: 'Ur' Choice - Form: Acrostic Haiku

Hope

source

Seeds sprout in the dirt
Where hospital flowers died
Hope can bloom by chance


Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 4 – February 4th – Theme: Opposite Emotions

Tempt Me

source

Tempt me

You never know

the things I will

do

the places I will

go

if you tempt me

just so

Paint ice hot flames

around our bed

Dare me 

to enter

with a silent stare

and a guilty smile

Play me

slow smoky jazz sounds

with your eyes

Write me poems

with your tongue

down my neck 

to the small of my back

and dot the 'i' s 

with frost covered cherry blossoms

Tempt me

Master all of my senses

Take them from me

I confess 

I am no innocent

Use me

I am your canvas

I am your book

Bind me well

Keep me

tempted.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Fireblossom Fridays, Temptation
Poetry Jam, Hot and Cold
Poets United, Vice Versa, Midnight Snack #5 (Sound/Silence; Guilt/Innocence)
dVerse Poets Pub, dVerse Poetics, Meeting the Bar, A Martian Sharpens His Knife

Senescence

Mahogany hands

Grip a mahogany cane

Old bones like dry wood

Day 3 – February 3rd – Theme: Paint the Image


Beautifully Clicked by Anand of: Apple Blossom's Photography

28:06:42:12

Why do you wear that stupid man suit? *

Take it off and peek within

You might find the heart of a brute

Beating underneath your skin.

A ray of sunlight like a border

Hell and Heaven's wary truce

Come the night you sense disorder

Feel your rage come bursting loose.

You sneer at meaningless convention

Artifice in every face

Laughing off absurd pretension

Leaving you without a place

You've pared your life down to the bone

Are you afraid to die alone?

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Ella's Edge, Movie Quotes

* actual line is "Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?" but I took some liberties to better fit the poem. from Donnie Darko, a most awesome, thought provoking movie with an adolescent Jake Gyllenhaal.

Mother

Warm, yielding, loving

Caring, protective, gentle

Claws at the ready

Haiku Challenge

Day 2 – February 2nd – Theme or Word: Mother