My True Blue Selfie

True blue
True blood
Blood stains
Blood on hands
Hands over fists
Hands holding weapons
Weapons of destruction
Weapons in secret
Secret locations
Secret agents
Agents of doom
Agents of injustice
Injustice is served
Injustice is hard
Hard reality
Hard hit
Hit hard
Hit a target
Target practice
Target the innocent
Innocent lives lost
Innocent not guilty
Guilty of what
Guilty for being human
Human kind
Human race
Race of life
Race to end
End the madness
End the hatred
Hatred does not cease hatred
Hatred is ceased by love
Love thyself
Love heals wounds
Wounds that run deep
Wounds of war
War torn
War is hell
Hell on earth
Hell of a time
Time to change
Time is of the essence
Essence of trust
Essence to let
Let go of fear
Let us pray
Pray for peace
Pray for Paris
Paris…
Peace…

=^,,^=

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Poetry 101 Day 9: As temperatures begin to drop in the Northern Hemisphere, let’s focus our attention today on “cold,” and whatever that word evokes in you. Write a poem that will send chills down our spines (literally or not). Our form was to be a concrete poem but I changed it to a Blitz Poem, a poetry form created by Robert Keim. This form of poetry is a stream of short phrases and images with repetition and rapid flow. There should be no punctuation. When reading a BLITZ, it is read very quickly, pausing only to breathe. Find out more about it at Shadow Poetry. The device is anaphora/epistrophe which coincidentally is part of this form by design. Anaphora simply means the repetition of the same word (or cluster of words) at the beginning of multiple lines of verse in the same poem. Epistrophe is its counterpart: the repeated words appear at the end of lines. Like most simple devices, though, the trick is in deploying them to their full effect. Repetition lends emphasis to words, adds weight, and leaves a deeper imprint in your readers’ memories.

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Happy Halloween, Twenty Fifteen

Halloween Boat Cat
Presence felt on a Ghost Ship
Has Risen Again

=^,,^=

This photo was of me sitting on top of the settee cushion at window level on our boat Minstrel as we were leaving our marina, but the background scene in the window was of an ugly oil refinery, so we were very pleased with how a little cropping and a couple of photo effect apps totally blotted that aspect out. First we uploaded the iphone photo into PHO.TO and selected the Realistic Photomontage-> Catoptromancy effect. It needed a bit of a frame finish so then we uploaded it Pixlr.com and applied the Wave effect and Tiny Frame.

And I couldn’t resist a quick Halloween Haiku to go with it. Happy Halloween 2015!!

A shout out in honour of Penelope, The Cat From Hell who designed this pumpkin for me last year!
Thanks again Nellie!

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A Tasteful Seafood Elegy?

Dearly departed, we have gathered you here on this plate,
to witness the fulfillment of this your fate;

Caught in baited traps on the rocky ocean bottom,
pulled up from the depths of your cold briny darksome;

Whether you be grilled, sauteed, or even just steamed,
As an appy or main dish you are highly esteemed.

Bless’ed is your fusion with lemon, garlic and butter,
Seasoned with a sprinkle of salt ‘n pepper;

With a dower of sweet ‘n sour on a bed of rice I may toss,
Or simply dipped, in a tangy cocktail sauce;

A bite of fire and spice a hint of curry does bring,
Through summer to autumn to winter and spring;

So tasty, so savoury, you’re one of life’s greatest Treats,
we give you our thanks as we hungrily take our seats;

The ever so fresh, so decadent and succulent prawn,
I opened my mouth and then you were gone.

=^,,^=

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Poetry 101 Day 8: Make today’s poem about one flavor and why it matters to you. (Feel like addressing multiple flavors? Go for it!). Form: Elegy: A moment, a place, a person, a feeling — your elegy can be about anything, as long as it evokes a thing that’s irretrievably gone. There’s a lot you can do with enumeratio — today’s suggested literary device — in your poems. As its name might suggest, it basically means constructing a list, a successive enumeration (duh!) of multiple elements in the same series. Enumeratio often entails the repetition of conjunctions like “and” and “or” — you can use them in clever ways, for example, to create internal rhymes or assonance.

I Would Rather Be At Sea

Perched in my picture window,
I blankly sit and stare,
Looking over my neighbourhood,
That naught I really care.

For I’d rather be at sea.

Neighbours walk past and point at me,
Like they do every day,
“Look at that cat in the window,
He seems so sad” they say.

Because I’d rather be at sea.

They know not where my heart belongs,
It’s not here on this street,
It’s harboured on the horizon,
Where souls and vessels meet.

Yes I’d rather be at sea.

Was that the cry of gulls I heard?
No, that was just a crow,
His caw gets in my craw I sigh,
He’s such a tease you know.

Yes I’d rather be at sea.

Was that the crash of waves I heard?
No, that was just a car,
Driving past my distant wake,
Washing my dreams afar.

Yes I’d rather be at sea.

O Wonder was those days a sailing,
Over the open seas,
Now all I do is long for them,
O take me back there please.

O I’d rather be at sea.

When the window stares blank without me,
And crows fly silently,
I doubt I’ll miss this neighbourhood,
For then I’ll be at sea.

For then I’ll be at sea.

=^,,^=

Where would you rather be?

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Poetry 101 Day 7: What do you think about when you think about your neighborhood? Whether it’s your block, a favorite store or coffeeshop, or just a general sense of community (or lack thereof), keep today’s poem local, within the radius of a leisurely stroll from your home. Form: ballad:  at a glance Ballads are dramatic, emotionally-charged poems that tell a story, often about bigger-than-life characters and situations. They can be long, short, rhymed, or unrhymed — though it’s still common for ballads to have a refrain. Device: assonance: Similar to alliteration, assonance is the strategic repetition of vowels in close proximity to each other.

Seven Wonders

My Picasso Face

What is a face, really?
More like a tribal mask
colors, lines, patterns and shapes
angular, off balance and distorted.
The face of the new art,
combine several points of view
and overlap them
small, tilted planes,
set in a shallow space.
Geometric such as a
square, circle, or triangle
cut up and glued back together
asymmetrical balance by contrast.
Repetition of a pattern,
a pattern of repetition
freehand drawn off center
everything where it belongs,
there is no abstract art.
We all know that art is not truth
art is a lie that makes us realize truth.
Others have seen what is and asked why,
I do not seek
I find
an imaginative, creative essence of something.
Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot,
others transform a yellow spot into the sun
warm, cool, intense
and it’s always in your face.

=^,,^=

My human always comments that my face is like a Picasso face, so what’s a more appropriate subject for this found poem of some quotes by Pablo Picasso mixed with some instructions she found on how to draw your own Picasso face.

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Poetry 101 Day 6: Before we learn how to read words, we learn, intuitively, to read faces. In today’s poem, take a single face or a multitude of them as your point of departure. It doesn’t even have to be a real-life, flesh-and-blood face you’re writing about. A found poem is composed of words and letters you’ve collected — randomly or not — from other sources, whether printed, handwritten, or digital, and then (re)arranged into something meaningful. Today’s device: chiasmus. At its simplest, a chiasmus is essentially a reversal, an inverted crossing. Chiasmus is effective in poems because it’s a form of repetition — and by now we all now how crucial repetition is for  poetry.

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Ode To A Sacred Temple Cat

Of all the beautiful legends
so veiled in obscurity,
is that of the Birman cat
that well may be your ancestry.
Born from a history of strife,
on the road to immortality,
your sacred story starts to unfold.
Retracing a twisted ladder of life
along a map of inconclusion
until your trail runs cold.

Centuries ago in Northern Burma
Kittahs swore a life of piety,
ever rapt in contemplation
under sapphire gaze of a golden deity.
O reverent cats with earthly points
body of white and eyes of yellow,
a vessel of transmutation.
A kittah’s soul the goddess appoints
til reborn by a rite of hallow
in a nirvana of pure perfection.

By menace Lama Mun-Ha was stricken
in the Temple of Lao-Tsun,
Sinh his cat guard he did embody
twas how your miracle had begun.
The goddess Tsun-Kyan-Kse Sihn faced,
his coat she turned gold, mitts white, eyes blue,
seven mornings before he died of grief.
O Wonder, all the cats they came in haste
their eyes, coats, and paws all changed too
and surrounded their next holy chief.

However did you get to France?
In nineteen-twenty, two accounts were jotted,
of a pair shipped over the ocean
as their arduous journey was plotted.
The male Maldapour did not survive
but Sita his mate was with kitten,
and from there your family tree branches.
Into my life you did arrive,
and right away I was smitten,
just lucky victims of happenstances.

=^,,^=

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Poetry 101 Day 5: Maps tell stories  – whether you choose to write about an actual map, an imaginary one, or just about a particular route that means something special to you. Form: Odes – a laudatory poem celebrating a person, an object, a place etc. any poem celebrating the good qualities of people, objects, places, animals, and personal traits. Rhyming pattern typically ABABCDECDE. Device: Metaphors – A metaphor brings together two terms that aren’t normally connected, yet make sense once they are (its greek roots mean “to carry over”). Unlike its less subtle cousin, the simile, metaphors don’t need connectors like “as” and “like” to link the two things together. They just smash them into each other and hope for the best.

Daily Prompt: A True Saint

There Once Was A Cat On A Boat

There once was a cat on a
       boat,

On top of the sea she did
      float,

Writing memoirs in her
      blog,

Until she hit a
      log

And that was all
      she wrote.

 

=^,,^=

Basically I just hit enter (kind of feels like cheating)…there was no way to rearrange the words to make it stay as 5 lines, so 10 it is.

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Day 4 Poetry 101: Write a poem about the imperfect nature of someone or something in the form of a Limerick. Limericks are traditionally composed of five lines of verse. The traditional rhyming scheme of a limerick is a a b b a. It carries with it connotations of frivolity, light-hearted entertainment, and, well, lots of drinking. Today’s poetic device is all about the arrangement of words on the page, and how that arrangement affects the pace of our reading: enjambment: when a grammatical sentence stretches from one line of verse to the next.

A Hair Care Prose I Suppose

Caring for ones appearance,
requires an adherence,
to a good tongue licking.
To Keep hair from sticking,
and in it’s place,
start with the face.
Apply a little spit,
onto your mitt,
and buff in a circular motion.
This liquid lotion,
polished to a glossy shine,
is a sign,
of a healthy feline.
It will feel wet,
so don’t get upset,
and continue to thoroughly clean.
It’s called personal hygiene.

Groom front to back,
allowing no slack,
and employ long full strokes.
Daily washing evokes,
an oily secretion,
and it’s stimulation,
maintains healthy skin.
This habit must begin,
at an early age,
and will engage,
much of your time.
To stay so sublime,
a trim of the claws,
on all four paws,
a routine ritual must include.
If in the mood,
it is understood,
an interconnection,
of affection,
such as this,
is much like a kiss.
It’s called Kitty-Bliss.

=^,,^=

My skin is a little hairy, so that’s what it means to meow. We’re not happy with our iPhoto. Since putting the life-proof case on, it’s got this strange reflection showing up so we will be hunting for another photo…there always another photo…but to post this prose today, we we’ll use it anyway…..

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Poetry 101 Day 3: Choose whatever meaning of “skin” speaks to you the most. The suggested form might sound like an oxymoron: the prose poem. Unlike some of the other forms a prose poem, by definition, has no fixed rules. Whether a reader sees the prose or the poetry in it hinges on a variety of factors beyond your control. In your poem, try creating some internal rhymes — a device that’s particularly well-suited for prose poetry.

Toy Birdies, Or Something Similer

Toy Birdies

Tugging on feathers with teeth clenched tight
Opening seams with razor like claws
Yearning to rip out it’s pheromone soaked stuffing.

Batting it all about like a soccer ball
Into the air, with a careless thought tossed,
Rolling, writhing like in a wrestling match’
Down to the floor it drops like a rock,
Inside my mouth, so soft, so chewy,
Eventually it will be more shredded than a bowl of wheat.
Soon I’ll be presented with a new one just like it.

=^,,^=

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Poetry 101 Day 2: We’re to write something about a Gift, in an Acrostic form using Similes. Guess what I got? It’s one of my favourite things, and there’s something like a gift inside it too. Human mom had recently learned about acrostics and had already written one using my name, but she didn’t use similies and it’s not really about a gift, so we’ll save it for a later post.

Haikus to A Mews

I have decided to take a break from writing – no not blogging, just writing –  writing 101 that is. I had to help human mom with the Squadron’s newsletter; reporting on our summer cruises, the shoreline cleanup and other important mariner and member information. We had to select the photos, caption, crop, and resize to fit, place them on the pages (all twelve of them) and format the text. We ended up too far behind in our writing 101 assignments.

We’re done now and have some time again but instead of catching up, we’re switching gears –  into poetry 101. I hope that wasn’t a hiss I  just heard considering it wasn’t the most popular choice on the survey from last week’s poll. Here’s our chance to improve, maybe, and we’ll run another poll at the end to find out.

Day 1 is to write a poem about/against/in homage to the screens in your life in the form of a Haiku with alliterations. I wrote this one:

Paws on the windows
Swiping away to no where
It’s not a touch screen.

And human mom wrote this one with Halloween in mind (she just finished designing a poster for the upcoming Halloween Party too):

Behind a smoke screen
Smoldering eyes seared with sweat
Mask a dark secret.

It wouldn’t be fair to ask which one you like better (mine of course), but I hope you at least like them. Please leave a critique in the comments if you care to!

=^,,^=