The Main Event

Posted for a variety of prompts:

Easy Street Prompts (“rumors,” “the road ahead,” “the promised land”)

Heads or Tails (“loud”)

Meme Express (“Sunday invitation” and “phantom”)

Monday Poetry Train

One Single Impression (“if I only had time”)

Simply Snickers (“clown,” “country” and “consider”)

Slice of Life Sunday (“the light of reason,” “storm of controversy” or “writer’s choice”)

Sunday Scribblings (“phantoms” and “shadows”)

Weekend Wordsmith (“sensible”)

The Main Event

“But I have promises to keep,

and miles to go before I sleep,

and miles to go before I sleep.”

Robert Frost

American poet

(1874 – 1963)

Stage One –

Taking an Oath or Aching for Growth?

With rumors of the Promised Land,

The crowds compressed the great grandstand.

Consider this:

Who wants to miss

Loud celebration in demand?

The country waits with breath on hold;

Is this one worth his weight in gold?

No simple clown

Could wear such crown,

By sensible bystanders told.

If I had time to hit my knees,

‘Mid phantoms, shadows – “Mercy, please!”

I’d ask the Lord,

To stop the sword.

And storm of controversy ease.

The road ahead is yet unfurled,

As to the future, we are hurled.

Without delay,

We watch and pray

For all who lead in troubled world.

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.

Throughout 2009, please join us at The Heart of a Ready Writer, a Bible reading and devotional blog, as we read through the entire Bible in chronological order.

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!

My Little Valentines

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My Little Valentines

A Valentine’s Day Riddle –

Query in Rhyme on Valentines Mine

Two Valentines sit on my shelves,

Penned not by gremlins, nor by elves.

Still, Cupid’s arrow struck my heart

With smiles from these two, miles apart.

No tiny feat, each little one

Arrives to share a book or fun.

Such simple pleasures find us there,

Together in my rocking chair.

With cadence measured in a wink,

And penned with dark forever ink,

No misdirection draws them back,

For we have treasure without lack.

I’m on the job, as I must be,

Despite our vast biology.

For my self-portrait, these are not,

But tears and years, our kinship bought.

These dandy youngsters, small and swift –

Their mothers were a wedding gift.

Their fathers, later on the scene,

Were tall and dark and lank and lean.

Mere ceremonies build not ties,

But generations – what surprise.

A humble heart resolves to sing,

“Perhaps I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Two Valentines sit on my shelves,

These precious treasures, they themselves.

For we have bonds we chose to build,

Not those by other vows fulfilled.

I wonder: Can you guess the rhyme?

Who are these two of which I chime?

In case you’re stuck, I’ll offer links

To clear the mystery, hijinks.

Photos c2009 by Nickers and Ink. 

All rights reserved.

Posted in response to these writing prompts:

Easy Street Prompts (“dandy”)

Heads or Tails (“feat” or “feet”)

Matinee Muse (“misdirection”)

Meme Express (“on the job”)

Poefusion (“self-portrait”)

Poetry Train Revisited

Pumping Your Muse (“simple pleasures”)

Three Word Wednesday (“cadence,” “humble” and “resolve”)

Totally Optional Prompts (“ceremonies”)

Writer’s Island (“If I could change one thing …”)

Photo/s posted in response to these photo prompts:

Camera Critters (photo/s)

Wordless Wednesday (any day – photo/s)

Z is for . . . Zero

Posted for a variety of prompts:

ABC Wednesday (“Z is for …”)

Easy Street Prompts (“repossessed”)

Heads or Tails (“bottle”)

Simply Snickers (“wake,” “watch” and “worries”)

Photo/s posted in response to these prompts:

Camera Critters (photo/s)

Photo Hunt (“night”)

Scenic Sunday (photo/s)

Wordless Wednesday (any day – photo/s)

Z is for . . . Zero

The temperature has hovered around and below zero. The wind-chill readings drop even lower. Winter’s rampage is in full swing.

In such times, we find ourselves feeling particularly thankful for warm shelter. Does winter frighten us? Not at all, if we are safely ensconced in our cozy spot.

Photos c2009 by Nickers and Ink

“You can't get too much winter in the winter.”

Robert Frost

American Poet

(1874 – 1963)

Bottled Up –

A Limericked Rill on Winter’s Chill

The mercury by my front door

Is lower than the day before.

Thus repossessed,

The Great Midwest

Is hearing Old Man Winter’s roar.

The crystallizing banks of snow

Cast a zirconic glitter-glow.

With striking sight

Of frigid blight,

The temps hit zero and below.

We hunker in our hovels warm

And pray protection from the storm.

The bluster howls

And bares his jowls;

In eight short weeks shall he transform.

No worries have we, as we wait.

We watch the wintry wake, sedate.

For in our clime

It’s only time

Till tundra’s terrors shall abate.

Related Items:

Belly Up to the Bale

Four-Season Acrostic - Winter

Private Dining

Simple Cold-Weather Snacks for Birds

Stardust and Snowflakes

Winter Washing Without Wilting

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.

Throughout 2009, please join us at The Heart of a Ready Writer, a Bible reading and devotional blog, as we read through the entire Bible in chronological order.

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!

Preaching to the Mirror, Perhaps?

Posted for a variety of prompts:

Easy Street Prompts (“and then …”

Meme Express (“peculiar people”)

Simply Snickers (“sleep,” “sorry” and “sweet”)

Sunday Scribblings (“organic”)

That’s My Answer (“I Don’t Really Think I Can Manage . . . Today”)

Weekend Wordsmith (“pens”)

Word-Filled Wednesday (“rest”)

Writer’s Island (“Just Around the Corner”)

Preaching to the Mirror, Perhaps?

Inklings –

A Limericked Tear on a Poetry Rare

Mere ink on a page does not poetry make,

Though often we offer the self-same mistake.

In free verse or rhyme,

Our two cents will chime,

Unless we more effort and energy take.

 

So sorry indeed are the jottings so cheap,

Organic, but trite, scrawled while drifting to sleep –

Sweet longings confessed

But still not expressed,

Peculiar people and pens reaching deep.

 

We claim, “I can’t manage the verse. It’s too hard.”

But just ‘round the corner, a muse stands on guard.

The poet, distraught,

Then catches true thought,

While some of us settle to mimic the Bard.

 

We pray inspiration may blind us with light,

That inklings may overflow to our delight.

Poetic to wax,

We dare not relax,

But rewrite and edit with all of our might.

 

Fine wordsmithing builds in the depths of the heart,

As words coalesce into musical art.

With rhythm and poise,

So much more than noise,

A true poet beauty may ever impart.

 

Please take no offense by these barbs, if you will;

We preach to the mirror with homily shrill.

The longing of lore,

Creative rapport

Does drive us to dare require more of the quill.

 c2009 by Linda Ann Nickerson