A Poem for the Weekend Mini-Challenge

Grandma's Kitchen;

 things I remember

My Grandma's kitchen

was my safe harbor

A place where I could

be a boy my own

Safe from family males

swearing grandfather

my father learning

to be caring dad

But Grandma found time

time for us to talk

Secrets small, our big

confide safely here

Grandma Cookies were

the best--chocolate chip

Cracker-lined pot held

the best oyster stew

Furnished with blind great

grandfather's organ

iron kitchen stove and

table viewing barn

Cousins aunts uncles

and my grandparents

Holiday feast cooked

our grandpa hollered

"All you kids get in

the woodbox and wait!"

Was Grandpa joking?

 _ _ _

Poem  Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved
I am linked with Sherry Blue Sky in the Imaginary Garden hosting the Weekend Mini Challenge at http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/09/weekend-mini-challenge-grandmas-kitchen.html?m=1
 - I have 97 words and a title for my Mini Challenge.

Friday Writings - Pain is . . .

 Edith 

 

Edith was a girl we all liked 

She has loved chocolate all her life 

A girl who didn't hesitate 

Who always your last bite she ate 

Edith was a girl all were proud 

Mom Dad most,  Grandparents count 

She didn't cuss or kiss the boys 

And helped the little kids play toys 

That was Edith we remember 

To college she went, goodbye her 

Pleasant and eager the school's gain 

Sadly our loss has been our pain 

 - - - 

Pains in your life can come and go and some are here to stay.  They seem to vary in intensity with age, cause and treatment. 

Let me tell you of one of the pains in my life.  After your read you may have guessed more but I think not. 

     An Acrostic:  

PAIN IN THE BUTT 

P ain in the butt 

A lways it hurts 

I s hard to soothe 

N ever pleasant 

I 'm embarrassed 

N o way I tell 

T elling's stupid 

H ere's to silence 

E ver a day 

B ackside is red 

U nder side too 

T elltale bruises 

T hat kick did leave 

 - - - 

When I was around twelve years old a work horse of Dad's kicked me in the back.  Doctor L. made a house call and had me lay on my stomach for a week.  It was terrible pain. 

 - - - 

 - Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2021, All Rights Reserved 

 - Suggested prompt by Magaly of the Friday Writings team, https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/search/label/Friday%20Writings?m=1 

 - Magaly would like us to write poetry or prose that explores pain. 

. 

An Outing with Grandma 

At seventeen and a new high school graduate I went to Oregon with my parents and little sister to visit my grandparents.  The second day Grandma took us kids to the beach.  She had gathered a couple of buckets and a spade. We were going clam digging. I had never been to an ocean beach nor seen a clam before.
Grandma spotted many clam holes and we dug into the sand but dig as we could we never found even one clam. 
 - - - 
A Senyru:

Never saw a clam 
Grandma couldn't find me one 
Now love fried clam rolls 
 - - - 
And a Haiku:

Seafood wild 
Clams elusive fruits de mer 
Food chain filter feeders
 _ _ _ 

Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2019, All Rights Reserved 
I'm linked with Toni Spencer in the Imaginary Garden at https://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2019/02/season-your-poetry-part-ii.html?showComment=1551395294308&m=1#c6902197445424667132

These things make the Mrs. Happy -- A Poem for dVerse Poetics Day

Mrs. Jim at the school--for Grandparents Day 2015 
[grammar school, KP now starts High School in August]

     Things that make the Mrs. Happy

I asked my wife to tell me SOME things 

Gave her little pad and a pen 

and asked her to give me a list 

"a list of things that make me happy" 

Was I surprised?  Was I? 

Well, not exactly, they were all things,  

things that I DO now, Me.  

I am so very privileged, 

That list alone makes me happy and

I am glad that I faired fairly well 

I'm going to show you the list now 

p.s. if she thought of some more just tell 

(an Aside:  When I first started writing 

my other blog, one of the things I told 

my readers was that I gave my wife 

an ANUAL EVALUTATION. Woo Hoo) 

Here is her list:

 - Time together 

 - Walks 

 - Cuddling at night and good night kisses 

 - Remembering over fun things, or times

    we enjoyed together 

 - Courtesy of a gentleman 

 - Helping to make up bed in the morning 

 - Watching TV of show we both like 

Wasn't that nice, she had decided to involve 

me with everyone--I hope she didn't  

misunderstand that just list SOME THINGS 

You can tell that number one on her list 

is the very first thing that she listed, "together"

All the other fit it well, her saying since 

COVID came along, "We are joined at the Hip"

Which are my THREE FAVORITES of these?  Any one 

could be, I enjoy our walks the most, we have 

a pleasant parklike place to walk complete with 

paved walking trails, streams, water throughout 

with ducks, cranes, and birds of all sorts.  And 

then there's the turtles and walking bridges, lots 

of trees, small playgrounds with swings and slides 

along the way.  And of course, WE TALK. 

Next I'll tell of the making of the bed 

Generally one of us gets up first, that person 

starts the coffee if she or I think the other might 

arise fairly soon.  IF SO, that person last up MAKES. 

(p.s.  Some times the first up gets up at a terribly 

early time.  I generally make a cup of hot chocolate 

and a piece of raisin bread with creme cheese and 

strawberry jam to tide me over until coffee time 

She makes hot chocolate with a graham cracker 

and perhaps some peanut butter 

and the Third HAS TO BE cuddling and stuff 

I wasn't told the birds and bees from my parents 

I learned it all in high school and perhaps a little of 

what comes naturally and morally around a girl with 

mutual likes 

That started in the first grade, we didn't have

kindergarten, when the other girl in first grade 

invited me to sit down in the storm cellar steps 

Well, the Mrs. and I have very mutual likes!!!

I love my wife dearly, I pray to for my life to 

be as long calendar wise as hers, I'm sad and almost tear 

to think it won't 

We are old 

All this and more walking trails are 

within three-mile radius our home:

Pictures if we walk to the east of our house 
Cinco Ranch, Katy, Texas.  They are for flood
water retention, we can walk to the west, north, 
or south also [click picture for larger size]

 _ _ _ 

 - Photos and Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2015 and 2023, All Rights Reserved 

 - I am linked with in Sara [sarahsouthwest in ]Poetics

 Poetics at dVerse Poetics, for her prompt, she did also allow for us to write our own wishes or of someone else's -- I chose Mrs. Jim's 

    https://dversepoets.com/2023/06/20/what-colour-is-hope/ 

 - Click here to read what others have written 

.. 

My Grandmother H -- for Tuesday dVerse Poetics and Friday Writings

.  

    My Grandma H

It's a Monday wash day, 

it's off to Grandma's house we go, 

Mom and I

I'm riding on the package shelf 

of our 1929 Model A Ford 

We are off to do our washing, Mom and I

we used Grandma's washer

because we didn't have one yet 

Grandma was my best friend, 

and closest, 

we lived on a farm down and across the road 

I'd tell her my doings, 

she listed with an eager ear to my yarn 

Grandma had been a school teacher, 

she learned to listen good 

She, 

I knew I was her favorite 

wanted to know the things I'd done 

The day I told her, 

she knew already and had asked, 

about the car 

My Dad was buying a 1934 Chevrolet, 

one with a back seat for kids 

It was a secret, Grandma's surprise to hear.  

But she already knew 

and asked me, 

"Your going to get a knew car, aren't you?" 

I didn't know it was a secret 

and so told her what I knew  

Every year, 

we'd go to Grandma's house 

on Thanksgiving Day and for Christmas 

her favorite cooking for me 

was her scalloped oysters, 

with browned and soaked soda crackers 

on the wall of the crock 

She was a good cook, 

I thought the best  

Like my mom, 

Grandma had been a town girl 

but married a fellow from the farm 

Country mothers took care 

of the chickens and eggs 

and cooked and cleaned 

and took care of the kids, she had five 

Things they from their mothers 

hadn't learned real well till things came up 

On their 50th wedding anniversary 

they had "Open house" 

My folks talked about it some, 

my favorite talk to tell was about the bar 

Grandpa wanted a bar for his friend, 

Grandma said, no liquor in my house 

I feel Grandma didn't know until it was done, 

Grandpa had made a bar in the barn 

Grandma died while I was gone, 

New Hampshire, 

she lived in Nebraska 

I lived in New Hampshire then, 

I chose not to go to the funeral 

She died at age 96 in 1968  

I visited her grave later, every time 

when I would come home 

to visit relatives 

 

I have written of grandparents before, 

here is a link to those postings, URL

     _ _ _ 

 - Photo and Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2023, All Rights Reserved 

 - Photo from our family picture stash

 - I am linked with Magaly who is posting the Friday Writings at   

  https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/search/label/Friday%20Writings

  - It is exactly prose word count max, 369 for Friday Writings.  I'm not sure prose poems have that restriction 

 - I am also linked with dVerse Poetics hosted for prompting by Sarah at 

     https://dversepoets.com/2023/01/24/grandmothers/ 

    she wants us to write of our grandmothers, I had two, Grandma H was my closest both relationship and distance. 

 - This was another write I almost made sitting on the edge of my bed in the middle of the night.  Instead, I stayed up and didn't go back to bed, 5:58 AM on my day to sleep in.

 - You can read other's dVerse responses to the prompt here, at      

    https://www.blenza.com/linkies/links.php?owner=dversepoets&postid=06Jan2023&meme=12476

 - You might be inspired to write with us

  .. 

Snows not on the Windshield

 

. . . 

Our drive to Missouri should should have been 

unadventual in the back seat 

Father was driving our Chevrolet 

a 1934 black two door 

Dad and Mom up front, two kids in back, 

we were pulling a two wheel trailer 

empty but would be full coming back 

Dad would fill it with cedar fence posts.  

The ride was fun for sister and me 

She was two years old and I was six 

But trouble came soon in Missouri 

Rain started and it leaked through the roof 

Sister climbed up front to be with Mom 

but there was no place for me to go 

A blanket got soaked and I was too 

We were glad when Grandma's house got near 

My grandparents were glad to see us 

With five grandkids I was Grandma's fave 

The other three lived in Oregon 

Grandma had three kids of her own there 

She took us to a fish hatchery 

We had hamburgers to eat that trip 

Jack, her son who was my age and I 

Played mostly outside, toy trucks and cars 

One time I was very peeved with Jack 

He told his mom on me, "naughty me" 

Told her I was playing with "my self" 

She told him shame, don't be Tattletale 

Going home, fence posts and all went well 

I have never heard from my mother 

Grandma's good 'bout telling our secret 

(Note:  We lived on a small share crop farm north of Omaha, Nebraska. My parents are buried there but I have moved to Texas now.) 

. . . 

- Photo and Poem Copyright ©️ jimmiehov 2025 All Rights Reserved 

 - I am linked with "What's Going on " at https://newwhatsgoingon.blogspot.com/?m=1  -- This poem is posted for my experience of a road trip.. Go there to read others about cars and trips. 

. . . 

 - Notes: 

     a.  The "snow" here is related to our writing instructions for this week that involved cars and road trips. 

     b.  My poem for today is true.  My mother wasn't hard on me and may not have wanted to bring this up.  Like she did when she found my cigarettes, took the cigarettes and left a note in my jeans pocket. 

      c. Grandmother here was just a few years older than my Mom.  Grandpa was a widower and remarried a couple of  years before my parents married.  Then the started a new family. 

. . . 

a Poem from reminiscing times with my Grandparents

 
      To Grandma's house

Over the hills to Grandma's house
Does that make sense or ring a bell
For you?  It does to me
some I remember well

Christmas and Thanksgiving  most
Always we'd go.  Turkey perhaps not
I'm not sure she knew how it cooks
All the moms brought some
things but Turkey not

Aunt, mother of the oldest kids
she'd bring duck
I didn't eat duck I think all the kids
didn't although the adults swooned
when it came in the door

Most kids didn't like Grandma's
scalaped oysters but I did.  She made
them in a large tall pot
had soda crackers lining the
walls.  Then

once a year, I don't remember when
like spring or fall, we'd have
fried catfish caught fresh from
the Missouri River   they
were really good, I remember there'd
be yummy oyster stew too

Saturday nights Grandma and
Grandpa would always be home We

liked to come, Mom
would cook something good and
then head over there to
eat with them 
Cousins might come too

Grandpa had TV and we liked the
wrestling he would watch. We liked
TV and we didn't
have one at home.  After big holiday 
family meals us kids watched Howdy
Doody on his TV

Mom and I would eat
breakfast too with Grandma
mostly on Monday mornings when
Mom would bring over her laundry. 

We had no machine  Those days
I had a private audience with
Grandma,

and she with me 
Grandma was a school teacher before
she married   After that she stayed
at home, had kids, cooked and took
care of the kids

She took care of Grandpa too, washed his
clothes and found him food.  I know she
could cook regular stuff, fried eggs

and potatoes and oyster stew  
Grandpa was the boss,
boss of Mom and Dad, boss of me

But not boss of Grandma.  Grandpa had
three Midwest farms, all close together. 

(My father share cropped on the smallest,
120 acres.  The farm had to provide for
Mom, Dad, my younger sister, and me)
 _ _ _ _

 - Photo and Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2010 and 2018, All Rights Reserved
 - I'm linked with Sherry Blue Sky in the Imaginary Garden at http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2018/12/wordy-thursday-with-wild-woman.html 

 - This is all true.  Sherry wanted us to relate to some happenings or people or places that we were associated with in earlier days.

Day 11 of NaplPoWriMo 2020 - Ode to a Weed

Ode to Wild Milkweed 

Oh Milkweed plant prettiest weed that flowers

Whose blooms are the brightest orange of all

Your lineage is one of the hardiest

Great great grandparents hoed out of the corn

Your line has survived and gained prestige

You beckon the Monarchs from afar

On their treks from Old Mexico they stop

Your sweet smell pretty blooms they can't resist

While those butterflies stay their eggs are laid

You graciously host them and their cacoons

Then beautiful Caterpillars do roam

over your limbs over your body

Gracious again you give your leaves their food

While their mothers continue path to North

Die on their way praise your name in Heaven

Those worms turn to Monarchs like their Mothers

and take their places at the north

Oh compassionate weed of the wild

You'll have time once again more leaves to grow

And milkweed plant prettiest that flowers 

 _ _ _

 - Poem and Photos Copyright, Jimmiehov 2020,All Rights Reserved
 - I am linked with Kerry O'Connor in the Imaginary Garden at https://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2020/04/april-2020-days-11-15.html?m=1 
 - and with NaPoWriMo Day 11 at http://www.napowrimo.net/day-eleven-8/ where I used mainly their prompt, a particular flower for inspiration.  I chose the Wild Milkweed which attracts the Monarch Butterfly.
 - I am also linked with the Writer's Pantry at https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2020/04/writers-pantry-15-all-about-that-love.html 

Words Count challenge -- a Grandparents' poem for today.

Watching the Kids, Learning

The kids were huddled together
Little children, from six to eight
(Ours was seven, sweet granddaughter)
Larger boy showing his iPhone

Grandma said, Must be pretty pics
And Grandpa reasoned, Spelling words?
Oh sure, Grandma he-hawed, smiling
Grandpa checked. What is Pokey Man?

- - - -
Pictures and 
Poem Copyright, © Jimmiehov 2006 and 2017, All Rights Reserved

I'm linked with Mama Zen at The Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, 
http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2017/03/words-count-with-mama-zen.html

Our Word Quota here for M.Z. is 'No more than sixty words.'  I have forty-seven including my title. She asked us, "What have you observed that was odd, unusual, or just plain weird? Tell me about it in 60 words or less."

This evening we observed our granddaughter while in the playground at McDonalds eagerly comparing iPad notes with a fellow youngster.  This is what they were discussing, the Pokey Man.  There was not Larger boy, I felt this added to the weirdness with a bit of suspicion, "evil minds", a weirdo perhaps.