The Joy of Writing

Write a poem about the joy of writing.

If I listen close and don't have distractions,
They tell me their stories
They make me laugh, and open my eyes
My children call my name
But I don't hear them.
Mom
Mom

And when I'm done and the rewrites are over,
I send them out, hoping they'll speak my name,
Make others laugh the way they made me laugh,
And open eyes the way mine eyes were
And I wait.
And wait.
And wait.

And the calls don't come but the rejections do,
And I'm convinced that I'm a no one,
And then when I'm not waiting, and I've forgotten,
The yes happens,
And I can dream again.
And start again
And again.

Child's Play

Personify several objects in a child's room. What would happen if the objects held a presidential election?

"I nominate me for president," the boxum blond declared.

"You can't nominate yourself, Barbie," one of the Bratz declared. "Someone has to nominate you."

"I think we need someone who can stand by herself without falling over," Mrs. Potato Head said.

"I don't see what that has to do with anything," G.I. Joe said. "It would seem it should go to someone who's strong."

"And being able to stand by yourself is probably a good start." Mrs. Potatoe Head said.

Teddy Ruxpin snickered which sent Elmo into fits of giggles.

"Is anybody hungry?" The Easy Bake Oven asked. "How about a break for lunch?"

"Sounds good to me," the stuffed bear said. What about you dear?" He asked his wife.

"Well, I suppose Jr. and I could use a little something," Mrs. Bear agreed.

"As long as it's not porridge," Jr added.

"And whatever it is, it has to be just right," Goldilocks added.

"Good grief, you people," the Lite Brite said. "We're having an election here. What we really need is a light bulb moment."

"What we really need is someone who's a builder, a creator," a lego said and the other lego's all agreed.

"That's exactly what we need!" The Spirograph spun itself around with excitement. "A creator!"

"I vote for lunch," the teapot said. "Right kids?" she spoke to the cups and saucers.

"But I don't like to eat," Barbie whined.

However she was outvoted and everyone broke for lunch.

Magic Trick

This Weeks Prompt:
Clown, pregnant woman, man with a briefcase and a basket of kittens

I watched him in the mall. His painted on smile didn't quite hide what I saw in his eyes as he juggled the balls and chatted with too much enthusiasm with the audience.

I always hated clowns anyway.

The little boy smiled up at the man. His hand firmly in his mother's grasp. Her tummy testified to a pregnancy that could result in birth at any moment.

A man stood nearby. His tailored suit and black briefcase looked conspicuous amoung the casual shoppers. Most likely on a lunchbreak, perhaps picking up a gift for his wife, or maybe meeting someone in one of the upper end restaurants in the mall.

The clown put away the balls and performed some magic tricks. One resulted in a basket of live kittens that caused the children to ooh and aah over.

I still felt uneasy. Something wasn't right here.

The clown began another magic trick. Within moments the kittens had been whisked away, the little boy grabbed from his mother, and a semi automatic weapon was pointed at the audience.

And we were surrounded by other clowns, all with weapons.

Close Your Eyes...by Anna Maria Junus

The prompt was simply "close your eyes".

Close your eyes,
Tell me what do you see,
Can you see the threads of love that’s strung
Between you and me
Feel the passion
Let the waves engulf your heart,
Set adrift the hurts of history
And make a brand new start

Oh I don’t believe that love begins
With games and schemes and lies
So I’m asking you to trust in me,
To see clearly close your eyes…

Close your eyes
What is your heart telling you,
It doesn’t matter what you heard before
Your soul tells the truth
It’s no mystery
Why you’ve come to this place,
The road that you’ve been walking,
Led you to me here today.

No, I don’t believe that love endures,
With games and schemes and lies,
I’m exactly what I claim to be,
To see me close your eyes

I Planned To Plan

A mono-rhyme is a poem that ends each line with words that all have the same rhyme. Dip into your heads and get to work!

Okay, I cheated a little on this one. Call it a series of connected poems.;-)

I Planned to Plan

I planned to plan but I forgot,
Before I knew it, my day was shot,
The things I’d do, I did not,
But time tomorrow I’ll allot.

I planned to plan, but not today,
Too many things led me astray,
Too many words I didn’t say,
Sigh, tomorrow is another day.

I planned to plan, but that fell through,
There was lots of stuff I didn’t do,
Like leaves in wind, my day just blew,
I guess tomorrow I’ll start anew.

I planned to plan, but planning’s not me,
Maybe I’ll learn it eventually,
Tomorrow I sing, like Orphan Annie,
I’ll get there one day, I promise, you’ll see.

A School Memory

Tell a school memory. You can sketch an average day or a specific event. Include those memorable characters such as bullies, forever friends, great teachers, horrid teachers, and the strange tradition that only your school did. Did you go to the principal? Remember: details, details, details.


Snow on lower Vancouver Island is rare. It comes about once a year. The first day the entire city shuts down, unable to handle it since it’s not cost effective to have snow plows. The second day it’s turned hard and icy, by the third it’s slush.

For kids the first day is glorious. We drag out pieces of cardboard for sleds. Few of us have snow pants except for those who go skiing up island. It’s a day filled with snowmen and snowball fights and frozen feet and wet bottoms.

One school I went to allowed us that first glorious day, but on the second when the snow grew hard we were forbidden to throw snowballs. Yet, there was a group of us who gathered in a field. We formed two lines far from each other and threw snowballs at each other, rarely hitting our targets.

It wasn’t planned, it just was.

Within a few minutes we were marched down to the office where our names were taken down and we were informed by our principal (who also happened to be my teacher) that the next time something like this happens we would get the strap.

I was horrified. Never had I been threatened with the strap. The strap was for bad kids. I was a model student at the time. I’d never been in trouble (well, except for the time my dog followed me to school and bit the principal because she felt that he was threatening me). I had hardly ever been spanked at home, not because my parents didn’t believe in it, but because the couple of times I was I was so humiliated by it I made sure it never happened again. In fact, I had never even been grounded even though my sisters were all the time. I simply didn’t like getting into trouble. It meant that you couldn’t have fun.

Not only was I horrified at the threat, I thought it was incredibly unfair. Why send kids outside to play in the snow and then punish them for actually playing? No one was getting hurt; we were all too far away from each other to actually make those throws count.

I had never actually seen the strap. I had seen kids who got the strap, even the tough boys cried and we all felt sorry for them. Although we were never told the reasons why someone got the strap, our teachers let us know that someone did although we never watched the proceedings.
Ah, school days in the late sixties and early seventies.

A New Word

Create a new word- define it- use it in a sentence! Now try using it out in the real world and see if people pick up on it.

Skewmeecheewawa: skew – mee – chee – wa –wa : 1. the ability to make something out of nothing or next to nothing. 2. A person who has the ability to make something out of nothing or next to nothing. 3. An item or incident that was made from nothing or next to nothing.

Note: This can either be a negative or a positive thing. A person who is skewmeecheewawa with their finances has the ability to make very little of their money go very far. However a person can skewmeecheewawa an innocent remark and turn it into something terrible.

One well known incidence of skewmeecheewawa is the story of the loaves and fishes in the bible, where Jesus took several loaves of bread and a few fish and was able to feed hundreds of people.

Another incidence in the bible is the story of the woman and the oil. She had used the last of her oil to feed a stranger and yet there continued to be plenty. In this instance she is not the skewmeecheewawa but skewmeecheewawa blessed her.

Fantasy relies heavily on skewmeecheewawa. Sorcerers, witches, wizards, fairies and other magical beings are able to perform skewmeecheewawa.
Traditionally housewives have been known for their abilities to skewmeecheewawa finances, food, love, and other products. The ability to skewmeecheewawa seems to be related to need. The more one is in need the greater the ability.