Clouds -- a Weekend Mini Challenge Poem

Be aware clouds have control

White and fluffy sunshine filled

Calming effect makes you smile

Dark clouds roll over our heads

Lightening strikes down seers our earth

Storm's eminence brings much gloom

 _ _ _

 - Photo and Poem Copyright,  Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
 - I'm linked with Magaly Guerrero in the Imaginary Garden at  http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/07/weekend-mini-challenge-pick-2-prompts.html?m=1

 - Magaly has introduced a short poem form which I am trying here:
"Cherita: “the Malay word for story or tale… consists of a single stanza of a one-line verse, followed by a two-line verse, and then finishing with a three-line verse.” ~ CHERITA [1--2--3]"

An Idea Poem for Thursday - While driving one day

Invention has its own algorithm: genius, obsession, serendipity, and epiphany in some unknowable combination.

— Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker,12 May 2008 (at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epiphany
My Invention;    While driving one day
While driving one day I tired a little Don't get me wrong, wife's the love of my life and I've several of those, lasting less That day the umpteenth time how I should drive 
Little driving tips, deciding for me What lane to be in and slow a little Where to turn, next street, and where I should park Be sure to lock the car, are the lights off 
Got me to thinking, and I'm so polite Every tip there is a "Thank you", the likes But that day a thought came, my assistance "Necessity, the mother of Invention." 
My acknowledgements, my no pain  retort Idea for Invention, needs patent Won't hurt her feelings, she'll know I heeded Once more Ephinay has  come my way 
And it ought to sell, every driving man The ladies should like it too, feelings saved  _ _ _ 
 - Photo and Poem Copyright,  Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved  - I'm linked with Toni Spencer in the Imaginary Garden at http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/07/poetry-begins-with-lump-in-throat.html?m=1 
- Toni has told how she writes her poem, then finds a matching poem by a bored author as illustration.  If I have a photo Iike to choose it likewise because i believe my 'poems' should  able to stand alone.  (Hint from my tutor, Ted Koosier) - Toni today used the word, "epiphany", I looked it up to see other meanings besides a revelation from a divine source.  There I found a quote by Malcolm Gladwell that fitted exactly my idea for a writing today (see top of my page). 

A Tuesday Haibun Poem for the Tuesday Platfom

Art by Cassie Kerns ,
from The Imaginary Garden
 _ _ _ 

My Fifth Lifetime;

working at NASA, helping

with Apollo Lunar Missions 

It was in my1,2,3,4,5,6,7, oops during the fifth lifetime when I was working at NASA, the Johnson Manned Space Center, Houston, Texas (Number One is High School, when I became a real person.

I was an Aerospace Engineer working for Ford Aerospace Division, or perhaps as a Philco Tech Rep Engineer which was purchased by Ford while I was working there, 1964 to 1979.  I was holding an Engineering slot as a college dropout with Experience in Lieu of a Degree. 

Technically my job then was a Digital Telemetry and Data Processing Engineer.  This was the first to use a newly developed state of the art telemetry processor to identify and sort the various astronaut, spacecraft, rocket, and experiment parameters that were downloaded and now would be shown on the Flight Control console displays and meters.  Some were saved for later scientific study.

Our equipment was in two large rooms, each backup for the other in case of breakdown.  We had no breakdown that day of July 16, 1969 during Apollo 11 Lunar Landing, nor any during the entire mission.  We did have TV monitors to was the proceedings as you may have seen at home plus numerous other activities which were not broadcast publicly.

Finally a couple of weeks later we were still processing data at splashdown time.  This called for cigars all around.  We would get ours by going through double doors which lead to the control room.  At that time most Aerospace Engineers and Technicians were men, but the women were getting their cigars as well.  I do know of any of those with us who smoked theirs although I have know women who would smoke a cigar.

Afterwards, I left NASA December 31, 1969 soon after I finished my final graduation.  During the eleven years of college, mostly at night, along with working 50 to 60 hours a week around mission time.  I had three new degrees, an Associate Degree in Pre-engineering, a Bachelor of Science in Economics, and a Juris Doctorate of Law by that time. 

My next job would be a full time Professor of Business Studies at San Jacinto College with three campuses in the Houston Area.  Had I stayed at NASA, I was a Senior Engineer by now, as a Manipulator Arm Specialist in Flight Control Simulations Branch.

 _ _ _

From Engineer

to College Professor

Busy Life Number Five

 _ _ _

 - Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
 - I'm linked with Anmol (Ha) in the Imaginary Garden at  http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-tuesday-platform-tired.html?m=1

Trinket -- an Acrostic Poem

Trinket 

Trinket of mine you are
Right from the very start 

I knew you'd be for me 
No one finer I'd see 

Keeping score these ten years 
Every day calmed my fears 

Trinket to me you were 
 _ _ _

 - Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
  - I'm linked with Marian in the Imaginary Garden at http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/07/just-one-word-trinket.html?m=1
 - Update Noon, July 14.  YOU were correct if you sensed trouble with the last two lines. That part is NOT us, Mrs. Jim and I have been married 46 years since last February.  47th honeymoon this Fall?

A Thursday Poem -- Dark but not

In the Dark

I'm sitting here in the dark

Of the dark I'm not afraid

What's in the dark that scares me

Dark is black for lack of light

Red fired dragons await me

Gorillas howl green snapping

What's in the dark I'm real scared

Orange and black striped poison snakes

Shiny brown bears show their teeth

Grey wolves trying to make friends

Dark wiped in black is my friend

What I can't see won't see me

_ _ _

- Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
- I'm linked with Susie Clevenger in the Imaginary Garden at http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/07/bits-of-inspiration-you-write-color.html?m=1
 - Susie has pulled some black and white and gray tinted pictures from the Web for us to add color with our poem. I chose a picture of a girl sitting in the dark, looking up.
 - You can see Susie's picture choices at the link above, 'The girl sitting in the dark' picture is the last one.

An Art Flash Poem for the Weekend

Old Smoothie;
   cold hairless weasel?

Old Smoothie had no hair
Nor the feathers of olden day

Nothing to keep him warm
‘Twas human clothing or a mate

Old Smoothie chose his mate
She had feathers galore and more

Feathers to keep him warm
That didn’t work still he was cold

Old Smoothie ditched his mate
 _ _ _ _

 - Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
 - I’m linked with Kerry O’Connor in the Imaginary Garden at http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/07/art-flash-55.html?m=1
 - an “Art Flash Poem” having exactly 55 words including its title.  And inspired by a piece of art which is posted on her URL link above. Hint: when I first saw it my guess was two nearly hairless Weasels.
..

A Poem, Writing Out of Standard

Humpty Dumpty sat on his wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All were mourning Ms. Dumpty cried

Now his servants fetched his pieces
Placed in a jar took them to town
The new doctor examined him

The doctor had a new tool
Micro Robot emptied the jar
Put those pieces into a slot

Magnicant Machine does all
Spit out Humpty like new again
_ _ _ _

- Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
- I'm linked with Isadora Gruye in the Imaginary Garden at  http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/07/out-of-standard-this-is-end.html?m=1

 - Izzie wanted us to change the ending of a poem whose ending bothered us.

A Poem for the Tuesday Platform

Why do I travel;
for delight it brings?

Started with a bucket list
Moscow, Panama Canal
Great Wall of China as well

Those in mind, first came my son
To his wedding, Barbados
With blushing bride made their vows

While in the Caribbean
Why not visit Martinique
And St. Lucia, islands near

Learned of Napoleon's wife
Awed by their island homesite
Josephine's Statue, headless

Ate bananas in their fields
from their trees and sampled rum
from the barrel.  Shoulders rubbed 

Soon cruised Panama Canal
Then sailed from Moscow on to
St. Petersburg. Walked the Wall

Our bucket list long empty
With the highway in our veins
Now eighteen years we've traveled

Fifty states, most of Europe,
South America have been
India to Capetown next

Why do I travel
Because it's there
_ _ _

 - Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
 - I am linked with Sanaa Rizvi in the Imaginary Garden at http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-tuesday-platform-questions-of-travel.html?m=1

 - I hate that this turned out sounding like a bragging write. More detail would have been more boring  But it has been much of my eighteen retired years and many summer while teaching has been on the road, sea, and air.
 - Best liked was driving literally all over Europe but there isn't one holiday travel that I have regretted. Eight have been Missionary oriented.
 - Oh yes,  Mrs. Jim has been with me everywhere except for my business
  monthlong romp in San Francisco and one trip to Guatemala.  Two of our children and three grandkids have also tagged along.

A Poem - My true fear

Deadly Fear

I don't fear death
"O Death, where is thy sting"
But I do fear
choking to my demise

Few times I've choked
embarrassing it is
Folk come running
to pat you on your back

That I don't like
it doesn't help one bit
Heimlich may help
that's not what here I fear

Rather in sleep
choking on my own spit 
That might happen 
when laying on my back 

So evermore 
I will sleep on my side 
But could this be 
a latent phobia 
 _ _ _ 

 - Poem Copyright,  Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
 - I'm linked with Bjorn in the Imaginary Garden at  http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/06/chernobyl-and-our-fears.html?m=1

 - A phobia?  Won't know in my lifetime.

Word List, two Senyru Poems

No Folderal

Easy bric-a-brac
Instantaneous deco
Green comes on a board
_ _ _

Photo-op

Hokey-pokey dance
While eating his white blancmange
Her lucid moment
 _ _ _

 - Poems Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
 - I'm'm linked with Kerry O'Connor in the Imaginary Garden at http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/06/get-listed-with-fireblossom.html?m=1
 - Use three words, extra  credit for using one in the title.

Here is your word list, Toads. Get hopping ;-)

folderol
bric-a-brac
instantaneous
momentary
lucid
derring-do
pontificate
green
smug
photo-op
slipshod
hokey pokey
fist pump
demure
lollipop
snooker
rendering
blancmange
smidgen
operatic

A Poem for The Tuesday Platform

I came early

I came early that's been my life

The dew was still on the grass

When my momma made her egg

Special egg didn't take long

Egg soon was found early too

Made alive and I was born

Smiling, eight months and I came

Crooked leg and squinty eye

Early kid I grew so fast

Don't remember much about

Growing up there on a cloud

Or in a hole under ground

Few things I do remember

Model A Ford package shelf

Ride to Grandma's to wash clothes

And tell Grandma what I knew

My dog died when I was six

Love life before fertile ways

Early teen age eleven

Squinty kid was smart in school

Laughing mother broom in hand

Laughed and chased me out of house

This poem has got me to here

Life Number One lived, early

_ _ _

- Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
- I am linked with Kerry O'Connor in the Imaginary Garden at http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-tuesday-platform_25.html?m=1
 - Open Tuesday is not prompted, this little Bio could start again at my age fourteen. Maybe it will another Tuesday when I wake and can't sleep at 4AM, early.  Oh yes, it's mostly true. But does anyone care?
.

Another Poem for a Weekend Mini-challenge

Solstice Humbug

Longest day this year

We did not burn do not fear

Needs come every year

Spring chick scratches straw

Time for her to 'fly the coup' 

Scratch for worms it's own

What's the fuss about

Nothing here to be revered

Mark the calendar

 _ _ _

 - Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
 - I'm linked with Toni Spencer in the Imaginary Garden at  http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/06/weekend-mini-challenge-summer-solstice.html?m=1 
 - Three Senryū verses, 51 syllables, 55 counting the title.  43 words plus 2 (= 45) with the title. 

A Poem for Weekend Mini-Challenge

Summer Solstice

Yesterday I walked
In the garden I walked
Roses in full bloom
Red and oh so cheery
Oranges set on fine
Golf ball sized already
Hibiscus orange
New blossoms for the day
Bunny rabbits here
Eating grass, small flowers

Yesterday I walked
Along the green belt trails
Tree placed here and there
Give shade for the walkers
The grass finely trimmed
Rabbit food over here
White cranes fish the banks
Food for their young our hope
Bridges weathered look
Turtles 'neath wait for food

Mother Nature's pride
Finished Spring Summer's come
_ _ _

- Photo and Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
- I am linked with Toni Spencer in the Imaginary Garden at http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/06/weekend-mini-challenge-summer-solstice.html?m=1
 - Mini-poem?  Ninety-four words plus two for the title.  Twenty-two short lines, five and six syllables per line. 

A Starry Night Poem

[Photo, Copyright , Jimmiehov 2006, All Rights Reserved]

 

Under the Stars;

  Van Gogh's Starry Night

Standing in awe

In awe of the man

In awe of his works of art

In awe of his troubled life

Standing beneath his stars

In between his olive trees

Gazing at those mountains distant

Glaring back at his glaring moon

The stars for me twinkling bright

As they did for him that starry night

Gives me the chills and goose bumps

As surely they did for Van Gogh

I'm beside the olive grove

Beside the sanitarium where

Where he admitted himself after

Cutting off his ear that starry night

There in God's garden, next to Eden

I imagine his pain, pain before

And bloody pain after the knife

Feel his despondency as is mine

Though stars are bright and glowing moon

Cheered for a moment but not before

And not again after bloody knife

The stars still twinkle now and then

But we won't be the same, deed is done

We walk around and look the same

But we are not. We are the person

Person who tried to die but did not

Starry Night - Vincent Van Gogh  .

 _ _ _

 - Photo and Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2006 (top Photo) and 2019 (the poem), All Rights Reserved.
 - I am linked with Kerry O'Connor in the Imaginary Garden at
http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/06/kerry-says-human-landscape-interactions.html?m=1
 - We, Mrs. Jim and I, St. Remi, Provence, France in 2006.  Staying almost a week, I enjoyed every moment, even grief remembrances.  I will try to post more pictures in a bit..

 - THIS IS NOT ME IN THE LAST PARAGRAPH.  It is written at the suggestion of my muse.  I've been very close to one who did attempt, my first real school friend did finish her job, and so did the Valedictorian of our high school graduating class of 48 students.  I've known several others who did or attempted but none so close.

 - I first posted on-line my photograph picture of the Olive Grove on my other blog on April 20, 2006, from St. Remy, " https://jimmiehov.blogspot.com/search?q=van+gogh " and some of my France posts are here, we've been several times.

 - The Starry Night is an oil on canvas by the Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it describes the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an ideal village.

A Sevenling Dual Poem

There was a grey man

His feet were made of clay

Eyes of cat glass, thumbs were tin

Wife's stomach growled

Her nose constantly dripped

Smile on her face, loving pair

They watched TV while baby cried

Spring flowers bloomed

Hibiscus were orange

Purple lilies, roses pink

The puppies yapped

Kittens suckled, honking geese

Yet rains and sunshine making love

Man, flowers, beasts, all tuned for spring

makes babies smile

_ _ _

 - Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
 - I'm linked with Toni on the Sunday Muse at http://thesundaymuse.blogspot.com/2019/06/sunday-muse-wednesday-muse-12-sevenling.html?m=1
 - I am also linked with Rommy in the Imaginary Garden at http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-tuesday-platform-slow-down-and-feel.html?m=1
 - There at the Muse Toni has asked to write a Sevenling poem.  This is my second poem for the Garden. I woke up this morning at 4:50 and couldn't get back to sleep. So I read Margaret's pretty Sevenling. Yes, I would try. Mine wasn't so good but I couldn't stop so I added another to have a Sevenling Dual. The whole thing isn't real good but I spilled out my crazy mind. I do that a lot, I'm wishing for a smile.

Well, ...? Dumpy Chicken Poem

Foolish Chicken;

  the way I am

Am I going Whacko or what

When I get up in the morning

and announce the chicken I am

The always dumpy chicken sits

What is it thinking of or does

it think at all?  Sure I don't think

Or do I first stretch, flap my arms

Feeling cocky, crow if I could

Look at my mate kiss on her cheek

Never know, lots of in betweens

Do I scratch around beak and feet

No worms, ones I caught got away

Last night's gecko quiet, now still

Dead to world I'da let him out

Ran scared of me he chose to hide

Around that's the way my world's hatched

 _ _ _

Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019
I'm linked with Rommy in the Imaginary Garden at the Tuesday Platform, http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-tuesday-platform-slow-down-and-feel.html?m=1

A Random Generated Word Order poem

Student Wisdom

Unsightly things will muscular eye and 
stocky month make.  Scruffy day but 
a glamorous student, look magnificent. Life
with a flabby book, hand chubby stories.
Plain groups question the gorgeous cases.
 _ _ _

 - Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved 
 - I am linked with Magaly Guerrero in the Imaginary Garden at http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/06/weekend-mini-challenge-exquisite-corpse.html?m=1
 - For the Mini-Challenge I have used 33 words including the two for the title.  The title words were NOT in my generated list.  After reading it a few times I chose these two as a summary for the gist of the story.
 - This poem was crafted with the help of List Randomizer, a form that allows users to arrange items in random order.  Magaly supplied the list and the Randomizer rearranged  the words.  As requested, I used in order adjective, noun, verb, adjective, and noun five times from the new list for each line.

 - List Randomizer: "There were 129 items in your list. Here they are in random order:
(Adjectives):
(I used the first five)
shapely
live
unkempt

(Nouns):
(I used all five that I pulled out)

(Verbs):
(I used the first five)
vex
state
behold

(Adjectives):
(I used the first five)
elegant
attractive

(Nouns):
(I used the first five)
coffee

(Unsorted remaining words which I could
have used in order to produce more lines):
slay
fit
fact
arise
cast
beautiful
job
burst
long
dazzling
world
short
bald
quaint
time
feels
link
undulate
word
study
home
fancy
plump
place
night
skinny
drab
problem
people
year
clean

IP: 2601:2c2:600:6837:4f1:a5f2:ee8f:326e
Timestamp: 2019-06-15 18:47:53 UTC"

A Wordy Thursday Poem

What Am I?  
 I'm confused

[click on picture one or two times for larger viewing]

It's a confusing world
Am I male or female

No one knows this for sure
My plumbing may be wrong

Ambivalent feelings
They really do not care

 

So I'll go it alone
I want to be a girl
 _ _ _ 

 - Photo and Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2009 and 2019 respectively,  All Rights Reserved
 - I am linked with Sherry Blue Sky in the Imaginary Garden at  http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/06/wordy-thursday-with-wild-woman-being.html?m=1
 -
 - I have 43 Words counting four for the title today for Sherry.

A Tuesday Poem -- Getting Old

This Room

Sitting by the door

It's my life now

I sit here and wait

It's a nice room

I picked it while I could

Not where I wanted to be

Things we had before

Marjorie and me,

Was told I could bring

Not the bed it might not work

My dresser and a little table

There's a chair for you

The soft green one we had

It sat by the chair for you

You'd sit and write while I slept

Sometimes I'd be awake

You didn't know but I was

Watching you compose

A tear is coming now

I'll pause and savor the thought

Innocent you were then

Not your fault it just was

Was the end coming near

While you sat and wrote

Sitting by the window

In the green chair that I brought

When you finished writing

You'd tip toe to my side

and kiss me on my cheek and my arm

You didn't know I was awake

Awake and watching you write

Watching you pause look my way

Then you'd come after you wrote

Now I sit by this door

and smile and wipe another tear

They wheeled me here to wait

It isn't you that will come

I hope it is one of our kids

Likely I'll say your name

I'll know it wasn't you who

kissed my cheek and said their name

They don't mind when I say your name

_ _ _

- Photo and Poem Copyrighg, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
- I am linked with Sanaa Rizvi in the Imaginary Garden at http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-tuesday-platform.html?m=1
 - Dad died in 2007 at the age of 97.  These are thoughts my dad might have had at his nursing home room.  He had fallen and broken his hip which could not be repaired.  So he spent the last two years of his life in bed or in a wheel chair.  They might be your thoughts or mine some future day.
 - The chair is from my parent's home, we have it now.
..