Category Archives: Poetry

Poetry, Writing

Gingerbread House

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(Poem 79 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/MYQd8h

There’s a real life
gingerbread house
down the road and
around the bend.

I used to babysit
a boy who grew into
a very tall man who
married a wife
and had some kids
and lives there now.

Once my charges
were fed and bathed,
stories read, I’d eat
their parents’ snacks
and watch MTV—
when it was actually
about music videos
like Thriller and
The Police,
Tears for Fears,
Madonna’s
Papa Don’t Preach,
Aha, and
Careless Whisper.

I appreciated the
pocket change I
earned from my
first childhood job,
but my real paycheck
was the chance to
watch ZZ Top and
Duran Duran.

Those blessed reels
were my lifeline to
Sweet Dreams in the
Still of the Night
and the soundtrack
of my adolescence.

@Home Studio – 79th poem of the year

Poetry, Writing

Snail

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(Poem 78 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/sPIUDo

The flame of wisdom
is held aloft by an aged
snail who carries a galaxy
on her back as she glides
through the universe
leaving a trail of stars
in her slow-moving wake.
The wax that drips forms
rings around planets and
her eyes see through
time to the essence of
reality’s lover—authenticity.
She’s best friends with
both integrity and prudence
and the enemy of hubris.
When she tires, she rests
on the banks of compassion
until her spirit is restored,
then resumes her course.
Her gravity is the perfect
balance of curiosity and
contentment, and her laughter
creates starquakes like
cosmic fireworks brilliantly
painting heaven’s expanse.

@Home Studio – 78th poem of the year

Runner ups for the snail candle photos to accompany my poem:

Poetry, Writing

The Tree that Holds up the Moon

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(Poem 77 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/a1SThn

The tree that holds up the moon
had to be reinforced last month.
A branch broke and the light of night
nearly came tumbling down to earth.
We wept and prayed, wished we
had thought of something sooner.
Then the women gathered their
tools and began the tedious work
of stitching the bark strong where
the wound remained from the
gaping hole the bough left when
she fell away and broke our hearts.  

@Home Studio – 77th poem of the year

Runner ups for the tree moon photos to accompany my poem:

Poetry, Writing

Sweet Inspiration

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(Poem 76 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/FJuDC4

Sweet inspiration flows inward,
filling every cell and synapse with
translucent nectar that branches
into spirals of peaceful fragrance.
There are notes of earth and rain,
warm melons sitting ripe in a field,
flower petals lingering long after
being wilted by the moon’s tears,
golden bread fresh from the oven,
and the vellichor of parchment.

@Home Studio – 76th poem of the year

Runner ups for the inspiration photos to accompany my poem:

Health, Poetry, Writing

Lesson 12 The Way of the Wizard

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(Poem 75 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

“Wisdom is alive and therefore always unpredictable.” -Deepak Chopra’s The Way of the Wizard    

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com  https://gencraft.ai/p/dVT3Jv

We must learn to contain
both chaos and order,
swirling atoms, firing neurons,
never ceasing electrical storms
matched only by coherent thought
and organized cellular function.
A rose in seed form looks the
same as a bean or a violet.
Only invisible twisted twin strands
delineate its inevitable destiny.
Yet, we worry about becoming,
spend struggle and effort to
assert our determined uniqueness.
Why not surrender to fate?
A rose by any other name
(and all that) is a universal truth.
When pressures push this way
and other, we try to impose order.
Yet, attempts at control run
counter to the grain of life.
Learn to accept the unpredictable,
make peace with entropy,
embrace all potentials, so the
opportune impulses can flood
like inspiration into life, and the
bud naturally unfold into a rose.

@Home Studio – 75th poem of the year

Chopra, Deepak. The Way of the Wizard: Twenty Spiritual Lessons for Creating the Life You Want. New York, United States of America, Harmony Books, 1995, pp. 85-89.

Runner ups for the rose bud photos to accompany my poem:

Fiction, Poetry, Writing

Cheetah and Dahlia

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(Poem 74 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/FJuDC4

The epic battle between
cheetah and dahlia
lasted more than two moons.
No one knew who fate would
favor, though all took sides.
Spider and owl both fought
valiantly on the side of dahlia.
Scorpion and crow stood with
cheetah, as they do to this day.
Allegiances were forged,
lifelong friendships shattered;
the forest was never the same.
Some say dahlia attacked first,
jealous that cheetah was not
faithful, others say cheetah
was the original aggressor,
retaliation for a lost cub.
Whoever initiated matters not,
for the havoc and destruction
was total, the bloodshed dire.
Had serpent and beetle not
teamed up, all would have
been lost in the bloody mire.
As cheetah lay dying from
serpent’s bite, dahlia fell,
devastated by beetle’s hunger.
And to this day, there is
animosity among the animals,
where once there was union.
Such are the ways of love
and war; there are no victors.  

@Home Studio – 74th poem of the year

Runner ups for the cheetah flower photos to accompany my poem:

Health, Poetry, Writing

Sleep is My Favorite Activity

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(Poem 73 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/GCc85W

Sleep is my favorite activity.
I think it always has been.
It’s just a little harder now
to reach the perfect bliss.
When I was young and firm,
sleep came easy, just dripped
like candle wax on my pillow.
Now I need my cpap machine,
a supersonic fan on blast,
the right kind of darkness
that blocks out memory,
the right kind of quiet
that sets the stage for dreams,
the perfect temperature set,
all my pillows plumped just so,
my grounding sheets tucked,
and my husband by my side.

@Home Studio – 73rd poem of the year

Poetry, Writing

Dragon Kitty

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(Poem 72 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/mXIRYc

Some dragon kittens hatched
in a nest outside my window.
The mother displayed them proudly,
like she wanted to share with me
the satisfaction only one mother to
another can ever understand.
Her eyes glowed red with pride
when we locked gazes and
the silence was filled with our
shared love for our babies.

Runner ups for the dragon kitty photos to accompany my poem:

Poetry, Writing

Cool Cat

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(Poem 70 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

(Inspired by the poetry of a TikToker – @YungStreetPoet)

AI Generated image I prompted on Gencraft.com https://gencraft.ai/p/anADcj

He’s a cool cat, writes poetry that
plays smooth like music on old vinyl.
Might as well be sitting at an upright,
a little out of tune, one paw on the ivories,
the other swirling a bourbon in a smoky bar.
Others, upon seeing his handsome mug
will say things like, would you look
what the cat dragged in? and Daddy O.
He’ll say he polished his leathers and
left his pad for the sole purpose of
finding some jazzing, you dig?

@Home Studio – 70th poem of the year

Runner ups for the cool cat photos to accompany my poem: