Seems Like Yesterday

Seems like only yesterday that he played with this little red wagon  Now he’s moved on to other more interesting things. Today, he is over six feet tall and moving on again to other new and interesting things. He’s my grandson, and I am very proud of him!

How fast he grew up

leaving his wagon behind

Summer interests change

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Now he’s one to look up to

Standing about six-foot three

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Photo: Dwight L. Roth

Where Is Love?

This is a beautiful expression of how poets think and write!

Ivor.Plumber/Poet

“Behind every word

There’s a thought

Between every thought

There’s an emotion

Underneath the emotion

There’s a heartbeat

Below the heartbeat

There’s a soul

Within the soul

There lives love”

Ivor Steven (c) July 2020.

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Call of the Surf

When we are young the idea of dying is far from our minds. That is for old people and those who are sick.  Now with Covid-19 running rampant around the world, it again seems it is the aged and sickly who don’t survive. After three months of being confined to our homes sheltering in place, many are ready to get out again. Laying aside social distancing protocol, they shed the masks and party hardy.  Between that and the recent protests, with little or no social distancing. new positive test and hospitalizations are on the increase. Some still think it won’t happen to them.

Covid-19 spikes

Many play a deadly game

Surf and Sun beckons

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Celebrate Fourth of July

Invincible youth

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Photo: Dwight L. Roth

 

Pallet Drums

When the economy was in a down turn and business bottomed out, the sales at the siding warehouse where I worked slowed down as well. During the down times I passed the time taking apart pallets and using the wood to make a variety of things from porch swings to drums.  It was a fun challenge to see what could come up with. I made a set of two bongo type drums and then a set of three for a friend. I got cowhide from a local saddle shop for my tops.

Repurposed oak pallets filled with life
Vibrations echo from tiny caverns
Each one unique
Pallets cleaned and strips cut;
all with a slight bevel
Glued together into cylinders
Cowhide stretched across the top
Stapled and tacked for durability
Rhythms echo for years to come

 

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’Verse, Mish shared here experience with Native American drum making. She asked us to use the word drum for our Quadrille of exactly 44 words.

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

Full Circle

When I was young the world was small
A circle of family and friends // was all
As my world expanded my eyes were opened
To a much bigger world // harsh, cruel, and broken
Full of people who use you for personal gain
Not so concerned about your personal pain
Success and survival brought joy and heartaches
And part-time friends who left in the home stretch
Through years filled with life’s interactions
Family and friends brought more satisfaction
And into a small small world I withdrew
Valuing people who cared and really knew
The importance of family // the joy of dear friends
A wonderful bond that never ends

Photo: Dwight L. Roth

 

Time Capsule

Heidelberg Castle

Vined walls reek with lost stories

Untold days of old

Ghosts, wars, knights, and lovers..

Time capsule never opened

*****

Photo of Heidelberg Castle: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’Verse, Frank Tassone introduced us to three types of five line Japanese poems: Tanka (feelings), Kyota people/humor, and Gogyohka    (any five line poem). They often follow the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable pattern but may vary.   I chose the last one for my poem today.

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

 

Ready to Leave Home

About a month ago I told my neighbor there was a cowbird going in his exhaust vent. Last week we saw these two little guys poking their heads through the flaps. He finally called the landlord, but was told they could not remove the nest until the birds left. A few days later they were gone and we saw the maintenance person standing on the top of the ladder with a vacuum cleaning out the nest and putting a cage over it.

Two little squatters

Can’t wait to come out an fly

Messy little guys

Mom fattens them on my suet

Leaving their mark they fly

*****

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Truth Telling

 Art is often unappreciated till the artist is long dead.

By then a new generation who reads and hears

or looks and sees values the beauty others missed.

 

Artists paint and poets write their understanding of truth

in hopes that it will resonate with another soul.

Words bring light in a dark night of disillusionment.

 

Truth is often ignored, denied, or rejected

So we wrap it in enticing words that draw you in

then lay it out with arrows that gently pierce your soul;

Hoping that a few will stick long enough to make a difference.

~Dwight L. Roth`

 Painting : Dwight L. Roth

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This sums up why we write and create art…

“Posterity may even, will likely even, forget us entirely. And yet, we are writing. And we are, for the purposes of this discussion at least, thinking about writing something of immediate force that might remain relevant to the future.” ~ Czeslaw Milosz

Quote taken from: the Poetry Foundation

ESSAY

Tell It Slant

How to write a wise poem.

BY CAMILLE T. DUNGY

Comfort Food

Difficult days call

for comfort food to enjoy

Popcorn sings its tune

 

Delightful kernels

Flavors tickle my taste buds

Salted and buttered

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Photos: Dwight L. Roth

 

 

Out to Eat

Downey loves suet

Coming for fly-through fast food

Our new way to eat

Photos: Dwight L. Roth