Tag 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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Shadows

S is for Shadow in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

I wrote this poem in April of 2014 after hearing a sermon based on the bible passage that if you cast one devil out, it will return with 7 more.

Mathew 12:45 “Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

My minister was talking about how feeling virtuous can make us behave worse than ever, and that we don’t acknowledge our own bad thoughts even to ourselves. I thought about how hard it must be to be an unloved shadow or feeling who is cast out or denied.

Shadows

I.

I am happy today
Because I let the shadows alone

I see them
I did not name them

They aren’t mine
Unless I name them
Then I add to them
They stick to me
Their owners disavow them
Their owners recoil in horror
from me, a huge talking shadow

Their owners disavow them

Poor shadows
They are so lonely

But it doesn’t serve if I name them
Their owners think they are mine
Their owners think they are gone
Relief
Freedom
Evil named and cast out

Once I am alone, the shadows roil
They cry for home
They cry for their people
They are fearful
They gather into gangs
To face the terrible journey home
To their owners

When the shadow is offered
I don’t reject it
I don’t name it
I wait

It is in the room
Manifest
Between us

And mostly the owner
Speaks of something
Else

And the shadow sinks
Waits
Bides

I hear the shadows weeping
To be loved

II.

I hear the shadows weeping
To be loved

I thought if I named the shadows
They would be visible
Freed
Loved

I was wrong

I am so sorry, shadows
I am so sorry, owners

I was wrong

I send you all my love
and tears

I hear the shadows weeping
to be loved.

4/5/2014

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Love in Ten Sentences

Janebasilblog nominated me for this challenge and I finally have done it. Now to tag ten MORE people…..

Details of the challenge: Write a 10 line poem with four words to each line, and each line must contain the word β€˜love’. Nominate 10 people to carry on the challenge.

love complicates my life
love and don’t like
behavior not deserving love
love pours forth anyhow
love feels deep hurt
love withdraws lick wounds
love heals ventures forth
less contact mean loves
behavior change brings love
complicated joy : love anyhow

I still need to nominate ten people to carry on and write the NEXT love in ten sentences. I will add that…