Worth the Risk

I am not afraid of dying

It is the fear of loneliness that haunts my mind

Family disconnect is unacceptable for me

Visits and hugs are worth the risk

Embracing Covid with masked precaution

I’m pushed into the pool

It is sink or swim

Photo: Ruth Roth

Today at d’Verse, it is Quadrille Monday. We are to write a Quadrille of 44 words that includes the word embrace. This has been a long lonely year for many of us, not being able to socialize with friends and family like we used to do. Covid-19 is taking its toll around the world. One of the worst effects of Covid is the separation of families at the time of death. This to me is unacceptable, even with the risks involved. We have decided that connecting with family is worth the risk, and though infrequent, we get together from time to time. My poem today expresses that sentiment.

The Way to the Top

Some inherit their position with little effort

Entitled and inexperienced leaves little empathy

Social status // production // and the bottom line

It’s their way or the highway…

The way to the top usually starts at the bottom

Hard work providing experience and understanding

Brings success

Today at d’Verse Lisa asked us to write a quadrille of exactly 44 words using the prompt way. Join us at: https://dversepoets.com then click on Mr. Linkey to read more…

George Washington at Valley Forge stamp art: Dwight L. Roth

Hair Daze

Oh, the glorious memories of past days

Combing long flowing hair with swept back duck-tails

Smooth waves that would make a surfer gaze

Sadly the glory days leave only tales

But, I do remember the TV ad…

”Brylcreem… A little dab’ll do ya!”

Photo: Me in about the seventh grade!

Today at d’Verse, De Jackson is taking me into my past, asking us to write a Quadrille poem (exactly 44 words) with the word dab in it. When I as an adolescent, I had lots of hair. Brylcreem was my hair cream. It is amazing what you could do with it when combing it back into the Elvis Presley style duck-tail wave. Funny how the jingles never seem to leave your brain. 😎

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com …and click on the Mr. Linkey box to read more.

Fifty-One Years Today

Our Love (A Quadrille)*

Our love’s a poem

Written in the tide…

Spelling out our dreams

On the shore of life

Poem of lasting quality

Ebb and flow from day to day

Smooth, serine, mirroring the sky…

Crashing // bold from deep within

Our Love…

Written for the ages

Photo: Dwight L. Roth

*A Quadrille is a a poem of exactly 44 words, created by d’Verse Poets Pub.

Abiding Love

In the cold of winter, we said, “I do”

with December snow on the ground

and candles burning brightly.

And now my love,

winter is fast approaching;

And, after fifty-one years

we’re still together.

Our abiding love lives on…

“till death do us part”

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Today is Quadrille Monday at d’Verse. Lisa asked to use the word abide for our prompt and write a poem of 44 words. She gave us various uses of the word, one of which was the old hymn Abide With Me. That took me back to the songs of my childhood. I decided to use write in reference to love. The end of December will be fifty-one years for us. It just seemed fitting to write of our abiding love; resting on, depending on, secure in the vows we made so many years ago.

I took these flower photos at about 3:30 this afternoon, blooming in my back yard on November 30th! Who would believe? Frost comes again tomorrow morning.

Join us at https://dversepoets.com

Impossible Possible

Ocean roared with jagged teeth

Sand dunes devoured by hurricane waves

as the sirens’ song wailed from out of the gale

Hatteras Lighthouse sat in peril

“Lets save the light”

Anything one can envision is possible

On tracks of steel they moved it back

***********

Click on the link for more on this historic move:

This is Quadrille Monday with De Jackson at d’Verse. The prompt today is to write a Quadrille of exactly 44 words using any form of the word possible! I am writing about the historic move of the Hatteras Lighthouse away from the water’s edge on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The photo above was taken years ago when we visited there, before it was moved.

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

Photo: Dwight L. Roth

If You’re Happy and You Know it…

Lillian’s Happiness Project prompt, today at d’Verse, reminded me of the song we sang as kids: “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands…” “…stomp your feet” “…say AMEN!” It is amazing how may people get stressed out from things they have no control over. Tomorrow is election day in the US. If you watched all the ads on TV it is no wonder you are depressed and stressed. We can only control how we respond to life. What will you do to make tomorrow better, no matter who wins?

Don’t let tomorrow’s election steal your happiness

There is much more to life than a political agenda

Live life as you always have bringing joy to everyone

Help a neighbor… Call a friend… Smile

Let you happiness reflect the joy and love within you

**********

Photo: Dwight L. Roth

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com Then click on the Mr. Linkey box to read more poems.

First Snowfall

Out in the field

behind the chicken house

rows of asparagus

line the edge of the woods

kinked twisted…

bent over like a hundred old men.

Seed pods cling stubbornly to the tops.

In the woods,

bare foot paths

Disappear under a snowy blanket.

Painting: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’Verse, Merril asked us to write a Quadrille of exactly 44 words, using the word blanket in any form we choose. It is still Fall here, but I immediately thought of snow in the winter where I grew up. It was such a beautiful sight to see that first snowfall blanketing everything outside.

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com … then click the Mr. Linkey box to read other poets’ posts.

Writing the Roller Coaster

Up up they go…

climbing skyward as one

cresting the peak

a perfect arc

chasing the dip

pushing gravitational rush

G-forces build

engines roar

pulling the stick

planes rise

climbing next loop

tracks up

tracks down

coaster sky tracks

fade to blue

windy dissolution

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’Verse, De Jackson asked us to let the sky be the limit and use sky as our prompt. This is Quadrille Monday, so we are to make a poem of exactly 44 words.

Every year on the first weekend of November our local airport sponsors an air show called War Birds Over Monroe. We live nearby so we can see a lot of the sky maneuvers from our deck. These are a few of the loop-t-loops!

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

https://warbirdsovermonroe.com

Listen to the Wind

Younger days // pounds lighter // full of energy

I climbed the mountain at Hone Quarry

all the way to the top

where winds speak harshly

and pines bend and twist

downwind in their wake

I paused to rest // sitting still

eavesdropping on nature

whispering secrets

Today is Quadrille Monday, when we write a poem of exactly 44 words. Kim asked us to use the word eavesdrop in any form we like as our prompt. I decided to take my eavesdropping to the top of the mountain in the George Washington National Forest, in Virginia. I was amazed at how twisted the short scrub pines were up there. The wind up there never seems to stop blowing across the top. This is a train of consciousness poem.

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

Photo: Dwight L. Roth