Boredom-Busters

Posted for a variety of prompts:

Get Your Poem On (a ballad)
Heads or Tails (“doctor”)
Hump Day Humor (“getting older”)
Matinee Muse (“what if” or “things are not always as they appear”)
Meme Express (“boredom busters”)
Simply Snickers (“wander,” “weak,” “wild,” “wit” and “wonder”)
Three Word Wednesday (“avoid,” “class” and “sticky”)
Totally Optional Prompts (a humorous poem)

Pigeon Hole at Covent Garden
by Thomas Tegg
for Caricature Magazine (1811)

Boredom Busters

Call the doctor; call him stat.
Summon here the bureaucrat.
Please inject excitement now,
Wild-eyed wonder, holy cow!

We have an emergency
Of the highest urgency.
Entertain us; we are bored,
And we will not be ignored.

Weakest comedy abounds –
Silly lines, insipid sounds.
Someone’s bending our best ears.
Life is not as it appears.

Boredom-busters: take your guard.
Entertainment can be hard.
Exercise your finest wit,
Or we’ll have a hissy fit.

Wandering minds may take their leave,
Seeking thrill through make-believe.
Sticky subjects to avoid –
Tricky topics, paranoid.

Jokes grow older; quips grow cold.
Stories fail when over-told.
Call a comic with some class,
Or we’ll simply take a pass.

Boredom-busters: rescue us!
We have nothing to discuss.
Still, we long for lighter times.
Boredom may be cured by rhymes.

Love poetry? Check out Simply Snickers, a brand-new weekly poetry prompt. Try your hand with weekly prompts! Or, look into The Meme Express for daily blogging prompts.

Click here to visit Linda Ann Nickerson’s poetry and humor blog, Nickers and Ink.

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A Day Trip

A Day Trip
(A Limericked Snort on a Trip Too Short)

I just returned from a vacation,
For a bit of relaxation –
Stepping out
Without a doubt –
Simple brain evacuation.

I drift off, right here at work,
Though the boss is known to lurk –
Nodding off,
No cause to scoff –
If I don’t, I’ll go berserk.

c2008 by Linda Ann Nickerson

(Although I am self-employed, I can still remember those corporate days.)

Posted for prompts from Mad Kane (“vacations”) and Totally Optional Prompts ("trips to foreign lands").

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Image:

Public domain artwork 

My Society

Posted for a variety of prompts:
Café Writing – Pick Three (“belong,” “dear,” “destiny,” “plain,” “rules,” “strong,” “talk” and “victory”)
Camera Critters (photo)
Friday 5 (“appearance,” “defect,” “laundry,’ “trellis” and “youngster”)
Meme Express (“seasons” or “seasoning”)
One Single Impression (“rest”)
Photo Scavenger Hunt (“view”)
Poetry Train
Rockin’ Chair Writers (“tiger’)
Simply Snickers (“sacred,” “secrets,” “self” and “scorned”)
Slice of Life Sunday (“an unfulfilled dream,” “a moment of failure” or “writer’s choice”)
Smiley Saturday (“smiling”)
Sunday Scribblings (“solace”)
Wordless Wednesday’s Saturday edition

(Photos c2008 by Nickers and Ink.)

My Society

The greatest solace I have found,
With sacred secrets, strongly bound
Cannot be found in tattered talk
But in a simple country walk.

Appearances mislead and feign,
The finest offerings oft are plain.
As seasons whirl our course along,
False tigers tempt us to the wrong.

The peril of unspoken dream
May taunt and tease with empty gleam.
Apparent defect draws a sneer,
As youngsters play, cajole and jeer.

A laundry list of lingered doubt
Does trim my trellis round-about,
Supplanting blossoms from their hold
Unless I banish them, full bold.

A moment’s recreation may
Prevent such lies from holding sway;
Regained perspective, now and then,
May cause my soul to smile again.

My Company, He calls me forth,
To reassure, He gives me worth,
My own society of two
Does energize, transform, renew.

We stroll the meadows, trails and wood,
Regarding nether’s neighborhood.
He points my paces all aright,
So long as He is in my sight.

The rest may follow, or may fold
Beneath examples yet untold.
My self, though scorned, I’ll stake my ground
Upon that Rock that bids me bound.

Love poetry? Check out Simply Snickers, a brand-new weekly poetry prompt. Try your hand with weekly prompts! Or, look into The Meme Express for daily blogging prompts.

Click here to visit Linda Ann Nickerson’s poetry and humor blog, Nickers and Ink.

Click here to subscribe to an RSS feed for this writer's helpful Helium content. If you wish, click here for a free subscription to this author's online AC content, so you won't miss a single post!

Winding Up

Winding Up

 

 The race begun, I’m winding up 

To stay the course and win the cup. 

Though harshest gales may rock my boat, 

Strong arms will keep the craft afloat.

 

I must admit, I have an urge 

To scrawl some lines, to simply splurge. 

Don’t worry. Words in short supply 

Will still encourage or deny.

 

My mainsail fills with powered puff, 

Until the wind is strong enough. 

We’ll catch the draft and zip along, 

Propelled by an angelic throng.

 

By standing firm with ink and pen, 

I’ll iterate my mind again. 

Don’t clobber me, bemoan or wail; 

I’ll save my text, upload, set sail.

 

It’s time to fly, take off, make hay. 

We’ll trim the sails – anchors aweigh.  

Tell us what’s really on your mind, 

Before we leave this port behind.

 

Leviathan, you scare me not. 

Go, huff and puff with all you’ve got. 

My rudder’s strong, as is my mast. 

I’ve set my course; my ship holds fast.

 

The admiral I admire most 

Is Heaven’s own eternal Ghost. 

He’s big enough to help my need, 

If I should call, entreat or plead.

 

Most unmistakable is truth,

 As we have known it, since our youth. 

Our Skipper, dauntless, holds the main; 

All others, mutinous, are vain.

c2008 by Linda Ann Nickerson

 “John Bull, The Leviathan of the Ocean” (London: W. Holland, Dec. 12, 1798) Public Domain

 

Posted for a variety of prompts: Catchwords’ Word Beads (“admiral,” “splurge,” “ “unmistakable” and “worry”) Easy Street Prompts (“big enough to help”) Meme Express (“sailing”) Poefusion’s Friday 5 (“clobber,” “encourage,” “hay,” “and “wail”) Rockin’ Chair Writers (“Tell us what’s really on your mind.”) Simply Snickers (“standing” and “still”) Sunday Scribblings (“ghost”)

Nuh-Uh, Zebra

Posted for a variety of prompts: Friday Flash-55, Meme Express (“true or false”) and Rockin’ Chair Writers (“Tell us what’s really on your mind.”).

Nuh-Uh, Zebra –
A Limericked Flash-55 on One Who Colors to Connive

You know, I venture not to gripe,
Except your ever-changing stripe –
Prevaricating without end,
As daily, every truth you bend –
Transforms reality to hype.

A different colored horse are you.
Your utterances ne’er are true.
For black is white, and white is black;
Beginning, you’ve no turning back.
Deceit has tainted our lives blue.

Related Items:

Exit Strategy
A Familiar Way
The Heart Attack
He’s a Dog
Loaded for Life
Lucie’s Liar
Parental Perfection
Playing by Heart
Wounded by Words

Love poetry? Check out Simply Snickers, a brand-new weekly poetry prompt. Try your hand with weekly prompts! Or, look into The Meme Express for daily blogging prompts.

Click here to visit Linda Ann Nickerson’s poetry and humor blog, Nickers and Ink.

Click here to subscribe to an RSS feed for this writer's helpful Helium content. If you wish, click here for a free subscription to this author's online AC content, so you won't miss a single post!

Integrity

 Integrity

My oldest friend, she will not fudge,
Not disconnect, pretend, misjudge.
Duplicity, it has no place –
Her highest plea, to live by grace.

Securely plugged into the Source,
She waits; the Master charts the course.
As Jesus holds the power cords,
This woman’s work, he fuels, rewards.

Though storms of stress, in crowded rage
May clatter, crash, to disengage,
No breach of confidence or myth,
Nor necessary ill forthwith

May daunt this darer from her goal,
For she is sure He holds her soul.
His Word is tucked inside her heart
With wondered wisdom to impart.

Below: Christina's World, by Andrew Wyeth

Love poetry? Check out Simply Snickers or look into The Meme Express for blogging prompts.

Click here to visit Linda Ann Nickerson’s poetry and humor blog, Nickers and Ink.

Posted for a variety of prompts: Easy Street (“woman’s work”), One Single Impression (“myth”), Poetry Train, Saturday Free-for-All (“The storm raged.”), Seek the Lord Sunday (“Jesus”), Simply Snickers (“wait” and “wonder”), Slice of Life Sunday (“a necessary evil”), Sunday Scribblings (“my oldest friend”), Weekend Wordsmith (“crowd”) and Word Beads (“plug,” “duplicity,” “breach,” “plea” and fudge”).

The Punk Munk

Posted for a variety of prompts: Meme Express (“nuts”), Scrolling Saturdays, and a Mad Kane limerick prompt (“warnings” or “caution”)

The Punk Munk -
A Limerick Slight on a 'Munk Not Too Bright

A slower than normal chipmunk
Desired a nut; so he thunk.
He climbed a white ash,
Lost his footing and splash!
He fell in the river, "Kerplunk!"

Love poetry? Check out Simply Snickers, a brand-new weekly poetry prompt. Try your hand with weekly prompts! Or, look into The Meme Express for daily blogging prompts.

Click here to visit Linda Ann Nickerson’s poetry and humor blog, Nickers and Ink.

Click here to subscribe to an RSS feed for this writer's helpful Helium content. If you wish, click here for a free subscription to this author's online AC content, so you won't miss a single post!

Disarming - A Metaphor Odd on a Cephalopod

Posted for a variety of prompts: Heads or Tails (“anything starting with the letter ‘O’”), Hump Day Humor (“marriage”), In Other Words (quotation, listed below), Meme Express (“rock-and-roll”), Moody Mondays (“cheaters” or “cheating”), Poetry Train, Three Word Wednesday (“indifferent,” “pour” and “reason”), Totally Optional Prompts (“tempo”).

Metaphors have a way
of holding the most truth in the least space.
-- Orson Scott Card

Disarming -
A Metaphor Odd on a Cephalopod

Only an octopus, reason failing –
Outstretched arms are flinging, flailing,
Over-reaching in outright railing,
Obviously, trouble’s trailing.

Oddly, unaware of cheating,
On-point, yet indifferent, fleeting.
Overpowered toxic treating
On a marriage due defeating.

Oscillating, rock-and-rolling,
On the edge, yet still out trolling,
Ostentatiously extolling
Operating for controlling.

Out too deep, yet plunging, sinking,
Octad tentacles are inking,
Offhandedly, blindly blinking –
Only an octopus, sadly stinking.

Related Items:

The Bulldozer: Poetic Rumble on One Who's Not Humble

Free and Clear: Verses Penned on Control's End

My Stand

Sticks and Stones

Too Far

Tyrannosaur, No More

Love poetry? Check out Simply Snickers, a brand-new weekly poetry prompt. Try your hand with weekly prompts! Or, look into The Meme Express for daily blogging prompts.

Click here to visit Linda Ann Nickerson’s poetry and humor blog, Nickers and Ink.

Click here to subscribe to an RSS feed for this writer's helpful Helium content. If you wish, click here for a free subscription to this author's online AC content, so you won't miss a single post!

Therapy - Finding Accord and Feeling Restored

No time in the garden is wasted time. Photo c2006 by Nickers and Ink

Therapy – Finding Accord and Feeling Restored

 

My garden is a place of peace, 

Where worries stop, and troubles cease. 

My roses, lilies, marigolds, 

They do exactly as they’re told.

 

I love to dig out in the soil;

It’s my escape from all turmoil. 

My asters, peonies and glads 

Are most magnificent comrades.

 

When days demand my energies, 

I hurry home to dungarees; 

I grab my trowel and water-can 

And focus my attention span.

 

In moments, life is looking real, 

And worries seem like no big deal. 

I gladly thank my rainbowed flowers 

For offering me some tranquil hours.

c2008 by Linda Ann Nickerson

Celia Thaxter in Her Garden, by Childe Hassam (c1892)

Posted for a Heads or Tails prompt (“Share a Summertime Memory”), a Meme Express prompt (“remember” and “forget”), a Saturday Free-for-All prompt (“wasted time”) a Simply Snickers prompt (“magnificent” and “moments”) and Wordless Wednesday.