Resolve

One year ago, another year slipped by

As the scales showed me creeping // I was about to cry

Another set of zeros was trying to slide by

**

I remained in denial // it was never the time

It wasn’t that bad a few pounds were fine

Until the scales reached another 99

**

Getting bulky, my clothes were tight

Getting up when down was a difficult fight

Looking in the mirror was a scary sight

**

Realization hit me like a ton of bricks

I refused to continue on this humpty-dumpty flip

It would take work, but I had to get a grip

**

Giving up bread and pizza about made me cry

But the starches and butter would have brought my demise

So, I cut back on volume and tried to eat light

**

Amazingly, pounds slowly began to drop

In time my belt tightened // up to the third notch

First ten, then twenty, and my clothes became baggy

**

Today, when I watched the scale dial spin round

It showed that I lost a good twenty-five pounds

Now I feel better, I can get up off the ground

**

I am proud of my accomplishment, without any gain

It went on a little by little // is coming off the same

Saturday is my birthday // And now I ‘m not ashamed

**

Today at d’Verse, Punam asked us to write a Selfie Poem, about some aspect of ourselves. I was going to wait till Saturday to write this by since this came up I decided to go ahead and share my weight loss journey.

Last year a couple of things came together to bring this about. As you read in the poem, my weight was getting out of control. Cindy G. asked me to review her new book, in which she wrote that change only comes when we own it. Michelle had a contest prompt asking us to share how we keep active by moving, which I did and was chosen as one of the winners.

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

Re-Create and Celebrate (Book Review)

Keep Moving

Rising

Trip to London

Turned into a nightmare

When Vera started to feel sick

On the flight

She made it to her sister’s flat

Then to the hospital

On a ventilator for weeks

Yet still she rose like a Phoenix

In a Blaze of Glory

Painting: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’Verse, Mish asked us to write a 44 word Quadrille using the word blaze. Nothing says blaze like a phoenix rising from the ashes. This poem is about our neighbor, Vera, who traveled to London to visit her sister, only to become sick on the way. The flight affected her sickle-cell condition.  She ended up in the hospital deathly sick for almost a month and had to be put on a ventilator. She was in an induced coma for two weeks. She had to have her spleen removed.

Lots of prayers from friends and family were given on her behalf. Gradually she recovered and returned home again. Her daughter flew to London to be with her through it all, while still working online. A week ago she walked down the block from her house to visit us. She had this phoenix painting of mine and asked me to come and move it to her living room wall to remind her of all she has been through.

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

Creating a Sound of Music

One of my favorite things to do is play music with my friends. My longtime friend and his wife spent the day with us yesterday. I shared my homemade instruments with him. We sat down and used them to make music together. It was wonderful to get together again. We learned to play the guitar when we were living on the same floor of the college dorm. That was fifty-seven years ago!

Below are some pictures from a neck rebuild on the first DeWalt guitar I made back in 2020. The first neck was not done well, and I had trouble getting the intonation right on it. This time I used a half post from the Habitat Restore so that the fret board would lay perfectly flat. I carved out the shape on my table saw and sanded it smooth. I use a couple of strips of walnut that I glued together to make my fretboard.  A stick-on Piezo pick-up on the inside picks up the sound very well. The other instrument in the picture above was made a couple of years ago as a baritone ukulele.

If you would like to hear how they sound, go to my Instagram page that is posted under my name.

Good friends

and good music

stay with you forever

Photos: Dwight & Ruth Roth

https://www.instagram.com/rothdwight/  click here to listen…

Finishing Lunch

Five furry felines together

Enjoyed lunch in Spring weather

As they licked their chops

One said, “This meal was tops!”

“But what shall we do with the feathers?”

*

Artwork by Luis Wain

Posting for Melissa’s d’Verse prompt on Luis Wain’s Cat drawings. We were to choose one of the pictures and write a poem about it. But, we cannot use the word “Cat” in our poem We may use synonyms.  I decided to do a limerick about the Cats that ate the bird.

Ceasefire or Cease Living

Children die // collateral damage

Hostages trapped // held as leverage

Bombs explode // Mothers wail…

Burying their children

Loved ones wait for word…

***

This evening on the news I heard that over 15,000 Children have been killed as the war in Gaza continues on. The devastation and toll on human life is unthinkable. Revenge is not sweet. Held hostages continue to trigger more bloodshed! When is enough enough?

***

“Blessed are the peacemakers… for they shall inherit the Earth!” 

– Sermon on the Mount

Painting: Dwight L. Roth

The Big Let-Down (prose)

My short story was accepted and included in the new Old Mountain Press Anthology that is now available on Amazon Kindle. You can read my story below.

The Big Let-Down

Dwight L. Roth

When I left teaching, I decided to start my own Home Repair Business. Not long after that, Hurricane Floyd roared through Eastern North Carolina dropping 12 inches of rain in a matter of hours.  Many homes flooded with four feet of water and others were in need of repair. This kept me and my two helpers busy for quite a while.

I got a call to replace a roof on a ranch style house nearby. Lowes delivered the materials, and we were ready to begin. As we took off the old shingles, it became obvious that some of the plywood on the roof needed replaced. I got the materials we needed and proceeded removing the damaged sheathing.

Rob, one of the guys who worked with me, had a mild learning disability, but he was good help on the job. As we proceeded to remove all the old nails and get the plywood cut to fit the space, Rob stood on the ceiling joists in the hole in the roof.

Without thinking, he stepped from the rafters to the ceiling between them. In a matter of seconds, the ceiling gave way and Rob was hanging on the ceiling joists by his armpits. Amazingly. he did not fall all the way through, because his feet landed on the kitchen table. The look on Rob’s face was priceless!

We went down and helped lower him into the Kitchen. Thankfully Rob was not hurt, but I had a kitchen ceiling to patch that I did not count on.

Waking up Nuts

Back on February 2nd, I did a post about the project my brother-in-law is doing in Lancaster County Pennsylvania planting trees in the areas of the Chesapeake Watershed and Chesapeake Bay. https://rothpoetry.wordpress.com/2024/02/02/32916/

I sent him a coffee can full of hickory nuts found behind my house. He has kept them in cold storage and today I got this photo from him showing that they are beginning to sprout! He is taking them out along the waterways nearby and planting them.

It is great to be a part of this project with him. Happy Earthday 2024.

Nuts, hard to crack, break

New life starting in the dark

They know when it’s time

***

Nature’s amazing miracle!

Photo: Don Ziegler

On Monday the 22nd, Earth Day, Frank Tassone asked us to write a haibun for Earth Day. Since I had just done this one, that some of you have seen, I decided to repost it on d’Verse Poets Pub for the rest of you to enjoy. 

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com. 

 

 

Oxalis Triangularis (haiku)

Purple Oxalis 

Growing wild on the gas line

My lucky shamrocks

***

Photo: Dwight L. Roth

I found these growing wild in the field beyond my back yard. I had to get a photo of them.

Nothing Lasts Forever

Nothing Lasts Forever they say, but sometimes I wish it would

The house where I was born still stands having good bones,

it’s now almost a hundred

*

But like me its shell is not what it used to be

Worn and run down it still sits stately in the weeds

Time has taken its toll as new residents came and went

*

When I look in the mirror, I think to myself

“He had good bones but look at him now!”

“What happened to all that hair… too much  Brylcream, I guess!”

*

I remember living in that house when I was a child

I would love to walk through it once more with my brothers

visiting each room sharing indelible memories.

*

I can see my mother rolling out pie dough on the table

Crawling up on the chair, I watched intently snitching a piece to taste

Can’t you smell it baking with sweet apple juice oozing out?

*

There is my father sitting in the big chair working on his sermon

The plywood board he made that lays across the wide arms

It had a Cardinal applique on one corner and a Bluejay on the other

*

The stairs were steep with a strong banister I slid down

Upstairs, my mom sat in the rocker reading books to us before bed

Gathering around in our pjs we listened intently

Epilogue:

Sadly, this is meaningless to my children and grandchildren

I wish I could give them a tour telling of each special memory

But without the memories, for them it would only be a kind gesture

*

But nothing lasts forever and neither will my vivid memories

They are just ghosts that haunt me from time to time but soon gone

I heard it said that when a person dies, a library of information dies with them

*

It does make me sad to think how life moves on

bringing its joys and sorrows fresh and new to each generation

but soon they too will be lost with the coming of then next

*

Nothing in this life lasts forever

*

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’Verse, Sanaa introduced us to Maggie Smith’s conversational style of poetry. She shared some of her poems with us and asked us to write one of our own.  My reference to Good Bones is a nod to her poem of that title.

Join us at:  https://dversepoets.com

Rose

There you were // glowing

Blushing red as I walked by

Stopped me in my tracks

Beauty // standing all alone

Self-assured and confident

***

Sunday Morning Rose Photo: Dwight L. Roth