NaPoWriMo 2016, Day # 30 ~~ School Days [Poetizing the Maypole]

[please click on picture to make it a bit larger -- I am the boy in back]

Dance a Jig for Maypole Celebration

The teacher did her best, every year, come May first
Sunny or cold she'd have the kids out by the pole
The oldest boy played his role, shinnied up that pole
In his hands were clutched rolls of ribbon tightly wound

Hanging from his waist was a contraption complex
Envy of mechanical engineers they said
Teacher called it a spreader the kids all did laugh 
Farm kids knew only the manure spreader.  Not this

The 'big kid' hung the ribbons on the hooks
Hooks there on the teacher's neat contraption
Dangled them down to their ends, near the ground
Each kid scrambled get his favorite hue

On teachers command the boys and girls sang
They sang a jig which they'd already learned
So the dance would start, one goes to the right
Two goes to the left, three goes the right

And so on for a half turn they had gone
Then each would change direction turning left 
Another half turn and so on they would dance 
Dance until their ribbons were tightly 'twined

That's all this poor writer can remember
That was a long time ago.  Flash forward
In college days May pole dances were barred
'Communist inspired,' McCarthyism

Next I knew we were traveling Austria
Down the back roads every farm that we passed
Maypole standing tall.  One variation
Professional plaque, labour's alive, well 



“The Last of the Maypole Dancers”, by Ilsa Elford, (via link) 
Top Photo and Poem Copyright © 2010 and 2016 Jimmiehov, All Rights Reserved

This is the last day of National Poetry Month.  My writing is linked to Magaly Guerrero's post, Poetizing the Maypole, at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads.
Notes:
(1) In the top picture, my school picture for the fourth grade, I was the biggest boy.  Perhaps the teacher climbed the flag pole to hang our ribbons.  More likely that was done by one of the fathers.  My sister was in the first grade, the tiniest girl. The girl next to her and the other boy were our first cousins.
(2) For directions telling how to make your own Maypole dance, click here

NaPoWriMo 2016, Day # 29 ~~ Instapoetry

 

I'm looking out my breakfast room window
Seems pretty to most--pool came with the house

I walk around hardly ever see him
He and his bunny buds eat my pansies

Birds come too, flocking in, drink the water
Bathe in the falls and eat worms in the grass

Birds and bunnies, they hide when I come near
Then comes the family, grands and greats and kids

A warm Sunday afternoon, cool them off
Like birds and bunnies they too like to eat

Hot dogs and hamburgers cokes and ice tea
More food they bring we share this pretty place

. . . [click on a picture to make it larger, again for larger still]

_ _ _ _

Photos and Poem Copyright © 2016 Jimmiehov, All Rights Reserved

Today I'm linked with Bjorn at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads.  Bjorn wanted no more than 100 words, 'telling out from inside.'  My word count is exactly 100.  Read more at his link:
http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2016/04/instapoetry.html

This is also a poem for National Poetry Month.  I quit daily writing early this year due to a busy life's pressures.
You can read more poems at the poetry site,  NaPoWriMo 2016 

p.s.  Two rabbits came after I had written this.  KP is staying with us, no school today, and when she saw them she went outside.  The rabbits ran off but the one in the picture decided to hid back behind the bushes.  I used a zoomed lens to take this one, then cropped a bit more.

NaPoWriMo 2016, Day # 25 ~~ Where Do I Come From?

From Where did I Come?

I came from sperm-rich egg hatched in the sea
It was the day of Molly and just me
You say, well now how on earth can that be
It wasn't, Silly, I was from the sea

A sea urchin not at his very best
Now grounded amidst pillars man behest
Brick and boards, mortar and nails, all the rest  
I do hope that you'll keep this to your chest
 _ _ _ _ _ _

Photo and Poem Copyright © 2016 Jimmiehov, All Rights Reserved

I'm linked with Susie Clevenger at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Where Do I Come From? 

5-10-2016: again with the Toads, Tuesday Platform

The photo was taken last year in Eidfjord, Norway (link).  We were on a cruise in May 2015 after the graduation of our granddaughter, BP, from High School in London.