Category Archives: poetry

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Conjugation

A year ago a friend asked me, “Did they teach you latin in medical school?”
I said, “No, but I took two years in high school. Then I was an exchange student to Denmark and forgot most of it.”
He is learning latin. He is studying verb conjugation and he showed me various Youtube songs to remember it. So here is my present tense conjugation poem. Next, it needs a tune…. or a voice to set it into memory. I am going to hint to another wordpress author/reader……

There are a few other tenses to work with besides the present active indicative. I think that to make each one memorable, a different rhyme pattern or tune should be used. Let’s see. Go to it fellow noders! Veni, vidi, vici!

Amo: amare with an o
and you must drop the ARE, you know.
That’s I love, you know it’s true
The latin version of “I love you.”

Amas: amare with an s
Drop R and E, please say yes
You love, in latin, present tense
You love latin beyond all sense

Amat: amare with a t
Drop R and E, you start to see
She loves, he loves, it loves me
So much love is great to see

Amamus: add a mus you must
Drop R and E, a change is just
We love in the here and now
We love poems about purple cows

Amatis: tis time to add a tis
Drop r and e, remember this
You all love, ya’ll is not a word
But yawls are sailboats so I’ve heard

Amant: N and T complete the pattern
Drop r and e, you’re not a slattern
They love, they do, they truly do
They love me as much as you

In summation
a revelation
of loving latin
conjugation

The picture is from my train trip last August: graffiti somewhere between Chicago and Seattle.

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Funeral pyre

The words for the Ronovan Writes weekly haiku prompt are inspire and loss.

the word inspire
I breath in, out, sorrow, loss
sister expired

The photo is of my maternal grandfather, my father, my sister with her back to the camera and a “shirt-tail” cousin. My cousin Katy who is not a blood cousin but is still family, and who is named after my maternal grandmother. From about 1967 or 8, I think.

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Mother Daughter Show III

The Mother Daughter Show III is hanging, with a few additions still to come, at Pippa’s Real Tea, in Port Townsend, Washington.

Gallery Walk is Saturday June 6, 2015 from 5 to 8 pm and the first Saturday in July as well.

The photo is of four framed etchings: state I, II, III and IV of the Four Seasons. Each is a limited edition etching individually run and numbered, twenty of each edition. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. These are by my mother, Helen Burling Ottaway, not by me.

I have not done a full inventory of our art, so I don’t know how many I have of each of these etchings. These are 18 by 24, so technically difficult. I do not have the press, but I may have the plates, though they may have been damaged. And even though I know how to run etchings, I don’t have her skills in inking the plates and more importantly, wiping the right amount of ink off. I may have notes about the ink colors, but the trick would be finding them. And is the same paper still made?

At any rate, I am really delighted to have our work up and ready to show for the months of June and July.

I lost my father today two years ago, so am thinking of both my parents.

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Think fresh

For Ronovan writes weekly haiku prompt: the words are think and fresh.

think fresh: oranges, tea
think of lettuce, roses, peas
think boys, fresh words, glee

The photograph is of one of my mother’s watercolors: Helen Burling Ottaway. We have another Mother Daughter Art Show going up for the month of June and July. I am cleaning, framing, pricing and getting ready….

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Parking

I park on the hill

I walk to the coffee shop by the water
because I dream of earthquakes

The car is up the hill

I say to the earth
Wait
Please wait until the construction is done
So the old buildings won’t fall down

Today I see
The earthquake has happened

You died

Death heals any split left within us

I know you are healed

You are with our mother
Our grandparents
Our ancestors
And know you are loved

I know I am not really separated from you

I know that I will see you again

And yet each minute lasts 1000 years
Until I see you again

The earthquake has happened

I still ask the earth to wait

I still park on the hill.

5/10/12