Merry Christmas from Nickers and Ink

 Merry Christmas from Nickers and Ink!

You won't find a plethora of poetic posts on Nickers and Ink this month, because I'm blogging my little heart out at Heart of a Ready Writer - doing my own Advent A to Z Challenge. I invite you to check it out! And have a very merry Christmas!

Dodging the Panda

Dodging the Panda

 (for all my AC/YCN friends)

We’re moving to a new domain.

The reasoning is fairly plain.

Since Panda left us in the dust,

No longer do we page views trust.

Since February, we have mourned,

As Google has our readers scorned.

The Panda buried titles deep

With writers crying, “Bleepity-bleep!”

Yahoo! Let’s take another chance

And maybe do our happy dance.

May hyperlinks uplift our hearts

And raise the numbers on our charts.

We welcome browsers, one and all,

To overlook the Panda’s call.

This ursine carnivore is cute,

Unless he steals our page view fruit.

Today the change may make us frown,

And readership may slip way down.

But by tomorrow, all retooled,

May publications be refueled.
c2011 by Linda Ann Nickerson
 

“Hope springs eternal in the human breast:

Man never is, but always to be blest.”
Alexander Pope

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NOTE: In February 2011, Google implemented Panda, an algorithm alteration that automatically deranked many informative websites in user search results. Those affected most by the change included user-generated news and features sites, social networking communities and websites containing significant levels of advertising.

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Image/s:

Giant Panda

By Matthew Field

Creative Commons Licensing Photo

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Frantic, or Pedantic?

Frantic, or Pedantic?

Congratulations all around! We survived another Black Friday, just in time for Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.

My Christmas tree is up. The Advent calendar hangs in the kitchen, eagerly awaiting the first day of December. But my to-do list continues to grow, almost as if it had a mind of its own.

Shop Amazon's Christmas Corner - Holiday decor, tableware, and entertainment

The holiday gift shopping is underway. Santa’s naughty-and-nice list is open. Baking ingredients are collecting in the cupboard. The festive holiday attire hangs in the closet. The family calendar is filling up. And Christmas preparations are beginning to pile up.

Something’s gotta give.

Just yesterday, weathering the Black Friday crowds for a not-so-quick stop at Target, my teen and I left the store one shopping bag short.

Shop Amazon's New Kindle Fire

Guess what! The store staffers found our missing parcel. All we have to do is return to the store, find a parking spot, run the gauntlet of hurrying humanity and retrieve our errant items.

I was relieved and grateful to find (by phone) that our absent purchases were located and saved for us. Still, did I really need another errand on this busy weekend?

Christmas spirit or chaos?

It’s easy to grow more muddled than merry during the holiday season. Maybe you know the feeling.

Frantic, or Pedantic?

A Triolet to Do Today

I just don't get it.
Perhaps I am delayed.
I just don't get it.
A five-chore list I've made.
I just don't get it.
The edges, they are frayed.
I just don't get it.
My focus, it has strayed.

I just don't get it . . . done.

Note:

The triolet is a popular poetic form with a well-defined structure. This traditional eight-line poem, penned in iambic pentameter, contains four couplets and follows this rhyme scheme: ABaAabAB. Usually, the 1^st, 4^th and 7^th lines match – as do the 2^nd and 8^th lines.

My triolet departs from this pattern somewhat. Hey, call it poetic license.

Shop Amazon's Holiday Toy List

Image/s:

Tuckered-Out Santa

Creative Commons Licensing photo

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Ring Around the Cozy: Poetic Spin on Next of Kin

Ring Around the Cozy:

Poetic Spin on Next of Kin

 

A lively link that’s sure to shrink

To cast the others out,

The circle dances on the brink

And tosses blame about.

The starter of the game may fear

Inclusion casts a spell.

And so he plants himself premier

With ever-shriller yell.

The merrymaking song he sings

Its melody has lost.

For she who still may wear his rings

Outside the arc is tossed.

No longer does she press the edge

To join the whirling fray.

For he forgot his long-time pledge

When he began to play.

The circle game for children’s fun

Is fast becoming vague.

Have folks forgotten or respun

It started with a plague?

 

Related Items:

Top 5 Road Trip Games for Family Adventures

Free and Clear; Verses Penned on Control’s End

Redeemed from Religion: A Rhymed Retelling of Release

Image/s:

Circle Gamephoto by Inferis

Creative Commons Licensing

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Hurry Up, Healing

Hurry Up, Healing

A Senryu for Mending Past Due

Have you ever broken a bone or two? One of my favorite horses tossed me in the dirt about six weeks ago. This practically perfect pony went from plum tuckered out to a boisterous buck-fest in a heartbeat, as a hornet stung him. And I went flying.

In fact, we had to toss my equestrian safety helmet, which was cracked.

Stumbling to my feet and staggering into the emergency room, I found out I had sustained at least 10 fractures. You might say I’ve been sidelined awhile, and I’m growing a bit more antsy each day.

If you’ve experienced a fairly significant injury in your lifetime, you probably know the feeling, when you just want to hurry up the healing.

Hurry Up, Healing

A Senryu for Mending Past Due

Can’t stand sitting still.

Disregarding doctors’ words.

C’mon, fractures! Heal!
c2011 by Linda Ann Nickerson

Image/s:

Falling from the Horse

Public Domain Artwork

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