Friday, February 14, 2014

Friday Challenge - Ecology

Luna and Shaman Rabbit, by Toril Fisher
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Moon shines bright tonight
Shaman Rabbit and the duck
Safe from pesticides?

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Kalidescope Creek, by Toril Fisher
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Rachel Carson would love
Clear blue water running free
Fish can once more live?

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Star Valley Flower Farm, by Toril Fisher
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Flowers rule the hill
Where once vineyards did flourish
Flower power return?
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Art by Toril Fisher at link her website, Second Cloud on the Left Farm.
Poem  Copyright © 2014 Jimmiehov. All Rights Reserved
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I am linked today with Real Toads, Artistic Interpretations with Margaret - "Queen Bee" Art Project with Toril where Margaret wrote of Toril's artistic aspirations of melding her art with efforts to improve our ecology. 

There Margaret also challenged poetry writers thusly:
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"For this challenge, please use these images for inspiration to promote Toril's desire to begin a conversation about the beauty and interconnectedness all living creatures share with our amazing Mother Earth."

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Wednesday Challenge -- Fancy That Kid! -- Erasure Poem

my Erasure Poem for Wednesday:
Wire to wire 
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The five-year-old was scooped up and kissed
Angel may've learned that from his dog
He loves to kiss with everybody
Overall he became a terror
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He once was early bred and still fresh
By night he be pooped. So eat a steak
Kinky doings show up well.  Fancy that 
He who loves all is seen to win none
 
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Poem  Copyright © 2014 Jimmiehov. All Rights Reserved

My starting news article was found at the link below.  I have copied the text.
http://t.foxsports.msn.com/best-in-show-wire-fox-terrier-wins-top-prize-at-Westminster

 
Sky, a wire fox terrier, won best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show on Tuesday
NEW YORK -- From wire to wire, Sky was America's top dog.
The 5-year-old wire fox terrier won best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club on Tuesday night, finishing off a year in which she was ranked the nation's No. 1 dog.
Handler Gabriel Rangel scooped up Sky in one arm and kissed judge Betty Regina Leininger's hand after the title was awarded inside a nearly full Madison Square Garden.
Rangel may've learned that from his dog.
"Her personality is she loves to kiss people and she connects with everybody," Rangel said.
This was Sky's 129th best in show ribbon overall -- she became a Triple Crown winner in dogdom, too, having previously taken the National Dog Show and the top AKC event.
A wire fox terrier has won 14 times at the nation's top dog show. No other breed has won more than eight times.
The winner with the ginger-and-white coat and little terrier goatee beat out an impressive lineup for the final ring. Also competing were a standard poodle, a bloodhound, an Irish water spaniel, a Cardigan Welsh corgi, a miniature pinscher and a Portuguese water dog.
Matisse the Portie had a great history. He is a cousin of President Barack Obama's newest house pet -- the White House, that is.
But once again, a terrier prevailed. Terriers have taken 46 of the 105 best in show ribbons presented at an event that dates to the late 19th century.
"She has the `it' factor. She owned this night," Leininger said.
The standard poodle named Ally was chosen as the runner-up.
Nathan the bloodhound was clearly the crowd's pick as all seven dogs circled around in the final ring. The min pin called Classie had won 121 times.
Rangel, who lives with Sky in Rialto, Calif., has plenty of experience in winning. He guided Sadie the Scottish terrier to victory at Westminster four years ago.
There were 2,845 dogs entered in the 138th Westminster Kennel Club show. They were eligible in 190 breeds and varieties.
Sky entered the ring only a half-hour or so after winning the terrier group, and was still fresh.
"We're kind of saving it," Rangel said shortly before the final competition.
By Wednesday night, the pooch might be pooped. She's scheduled to tour the morning TV news shows, eat a steak lunch at famed Manhattan restaurant Sardi's and also go up the Empire State Building.
And on Thursday night, Sky was set to make her Broadway debut with a walk-on part in the Tony Award-winning musical "Kinky Boots."
Pretty lofty doings, indeed, for a dog with the champion's name of Afterall Painting The Sky and accustomed to top treats.
"It's like winning an Oscar," said Victor Malzoni Jr., one of the owners who is an economist from Brazil.
Poodles always seem to show up well at these events, and Ally represented her breed well. She takes three to four hours to prep, and came out perfectly trimmed.
Fancy that.
The Cardigan Welsh corgi called Coco might've been familiar to dog fanciers at the Garden, and to the several million who tune each year to the Westminster telecast.
Queen Elizabeth II loves all kinds of corgis, and is often seen with them in her royal reign.
The Irish water spaniel called Riley originally came from the Seattle. In this, an event known as the Super Bowl of dogs, she was trying to repeat the win that the Seahawks posted in the real Super Bowl this month right across the Hudson River.
 
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I am linked with Real Toads, Real Toads, Out of Standard 
Our instructions for this Wednesday's Challenge were Imagined By .  They are:
 
The Challenge:
Go to your local news source, be it a newspaper or website and write an erasure poem from a local news story which posted today.  Your erasure poem may be as long or short as you would like, but you must adhere to the following rules
  1. You cannot add text to your poem.  All lines must already exist within the news story.
  2. You cannot change the order of the words or lines.  They must appear in the same order which they appeared in the story.  

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Monday, February 10, 2014

A book title poem

 
The Double Cross
 
Wedding day murder
The body in the piazza
The husband's secret
 
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Photo and Poem  Copyright © 2014 Jimmiehov. All Rights Reserved
 
I am linked today with the Real Toads, Open Link Monday
 
I was at the library and decided to do this after checking out my reading book,
"Wedding Day Murder." It is written by Leslie Mier and is a late one of her series.

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Sunday, February 09, 2014

My Hippy Girl Friend

Art: Bree & Dreamweaver Coat by Lisa Graham

My Hippie Girl Friend;
a compendium of girls in one of my lives

She was the girl of my dreams.  Barefoot, wearing a flower in her hair, she sat by me in Differential Equations class.  We sat on the back row, she was writing an essay for English 317 while I was busy taking notes and trying to understand.  I got my "C", she made a big "A".

Leaving her yellow dog at the building steps, my friend with straggly blonde hair complained to me of the campus police feeding the dogs.  Our walks were full of them, sleeping and waiting for their straggly haired lady friends to get out of class.

She rode an old bike, pedaled herself all over the town.  I drove my seven-year-old '62 Volkswagen, one with a cloth top that rolled back for letting the sunlight in.  On rainy days I might give my girl friend a ride.  I remember the day I locked my keys in the VW while it was still running.  That embarrassed me.

We built a sidewalk where before the children had none.  They walked to school in the mud.  Saturday mornings this was the thing we did.  It was a ride of sixty-miles to the north edge of town.  We talked of the things we liked, the things we did before, and what we wanted to do. We'd stop on the way home to get food for her cats and a bone for the dog.  Had a sundae for the road.

Then one afternoon after lunch, the day came we didn't go back to work.  We must have talked the afternoon away.  I felt she wanted to do other but my honesty said no.  Her husband was in the Army and wasn't due home for another six months.  But I'd been there, done that unawares, it isn't fair.

One day she, I won't say who, came to my apartment and we went for motorcycle ride.  Enough said about that, her hubby was in the service too.  I played it honest, straight, and narrow.  I dare say these last two were inviting for more and I still have some regrets. 

On sunny Sunday afternoons I'd ride my motorcycle around in the parks.  Seemed there was a band playing under every tree.  I tell myself that the ZZ Top (link) played there also with the oodles of others.  The Beatles were slowing, the hippie girls were outgrowing.  I couldn't pick out my friend there, there were so many.  In the parks, on the streets, and on Saturday nights swarming over the loading docks on Prairie Street.

A nice coworker girl she, we had a date.  She was of the hippie variety, we both dressed better for work.  At a Rice versus Houston football game, WE lost my car at Rice Stadium.  So we waited until the crowd left and then the car was still there, NOW waiting for us. 

This is a true account, with a twinge of historical fiction.  Meaning that while working and going to school, my dates were few, my acquaintances were many.  Even still more in my dreams. Each stanza tells of a different girl, either real or typical.
Three years of my other life.
 
The one I (finally) married?  A hippie girl at heart.

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Poem Copyright © 2014 Jimmiehov. All Rights Reserved

Today I'm linked with the Real Toads, Sunday Feature featuring Lisa Graham. 

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