Two In Tandem # 5

By Elizabeth

In deep purple cave of remembering

ideas, like dust motes, float and drift

seeking niche where they might cling,

bringing inspiration of creation

to ever changing blue/green shadows

eager to receive them.

By Susannah

Ideas...like seeds,
hang, expectant
in the charged air,
seeking receptive soil
into which to sink
their eager roots,
nothing in mind
but to become,
to actualise.

Primed and ready
pure potential
waits...

By Jinksy

A doorway
beckons us with light;
it welcomes,
entices,
offers possibility
of change to all who enter.

This week, two has become three, as Elizabeth  of Unraveling and Susannah of Panopticulated have both written their own words to my graphics - the first I've created with my new Bamboo Tablet & Pen. And to complete the trio, I've written a shadorma as my contribution.
If you feel inspired to join in, please help yourself to either picture. You can write your own words, either in the comments section here, or post them on your blog and leave a link so we may visit!

Aliens beware!

The craft hovered above the blue planet, beams of light connecting to the surface like tendrils of a giant jelly fish. A circular tracking device on top of its outer shell  followed the homing signal that would guarantee their safe return to base when the assignment ended. Exploration Alien was about to begin in earnest.

These words were inspired by Tess for her latest Mag #68, and will eventually fit G-man's Friday Flash 55 into the bargain!

Monday's Child #48

Illustration by Vincent Mathy

Down on the allotments trouble was brewing.
The vegetables wondered what this plant was doing!
Was it a flower, or some kind of food?
They chattered and stared - in fact they were rude.

"Look at its colours! My, what a sight!"
muttered the aubergine, "I don't think it's right!"
"Yes", squeaked the leek, "It's too big and round,
and somehow its feet aren't tucked in the ground.

I bet it will disappear when the wind blows!"
"Humph!" said the potato wrinkling his nose,
"I wish I could join it, I'd be off like a shot,
whether you stay-at-homes liked it or not!"



Thanks to bkm at  Monday's Child for this colourful prompt.

Hands, Feet, & Boompsadaisy?

photograph by Rob Hanson

Supple leather bends
beneath the boot-maker's hands.
Feet enjoy comfort.

Thanks to One Shoot Sunday Challenge  which features the work of Rob Hanson today.


And over on Napple Notes, is another post, of a childhood memory it brought to mind, and for a triple whammy, here's a Sunday 160 character offering for Monkey Man.

A higgledy-piggledy workshop is a must. How else can creation work hand in hand with inspiration? Fingers use materials close by, when brain births a new idea.

Two In Tandem # 4 - Shy Violets

by jinksy

No matter where or how
they grow, draw the eye
away from everything else.

Stand up to speak language
of purple, always saying,
“This, this is personal power.”

Elizabeth Crawford   

This is another collaborative post for our Thursday twosome. If you'd like to join Elizabeth and I, please feel free to write your own words to this image, either in comments here, or on your own blog - in which case, please leave a link, so we can come and visit. Thanks!

On With The Dance!

made by Juliet Wilson

Whirling of petticoats,
flashing of eyes,
as couples gyrate.
See? Girls with their guys
flaunting bright cummerbunds-
colours galore
on softly draped neckerchiefs.
None can ignore
the traditional folk tunes
whose rhythmical beat
encourages dancers
to stamp their feet!

Thanks to Juliet for this creation,  for which I supplied words. It's on her blog today, as well as here, but as we'll have different people dropping by, I thought I'd go for the double! Now I'm going to link it to One Stop, as I believe in making the most from the least...

Two In Tandem #3

by Jinksy

Illusive Paradise    
                                                            by Elizabeth Crawford 5/20/11
Deserted island wrapped
in protective bubble
forever floating through
faraway sea. Exotic perfumes
drifting on air, gifts given
by blooms of delicate flair
yet to be seen or even created.

Ceaseless soft sigh of surrounding 
waves that lull all senses to sleep,
keeping danger at far reach.
Breathing embrace erasing
any trace of possible intrusion,
covered by fragile mist of clouds
like some fairytale illusion.

Infused with vague jealousy,
water shades creep toward
shore, longing to steal mountain 
shadows, but are repelled
by ring of magic spell intended
to keep this tranquil face, always
and ever, safest space. 


This is another collaborative post between Elizabeth and I. If you would like to play along in a similar fashion, please let either of us know. Her words for my pictures will appear here on Thursdays, and my words for her pictures will be on her Unraveling blog on Tuesdays for the foreseeable future, until we work out a better plan for including others in our experiment! 

One Shot Wednesday # 47

by Paul Christopher

Remember,
after night's darkness,
at sunrise
hope returns.
May it warm all souls on Earth,
and bless them with light.

One Shot Wednesday gave us 'Darkness' as their prompt this week., but I chose to focus on the light, with this Shadorma - a syllabic form. of 3/5/3/3/7/5.

Magpie Tales # 67

Reverie

The lady dreamed about her love
no appetite had she;
a meal, untouched upon her plate,
lay there for all to see.

Her reverie had brought to mind
an earlier, far off day
when Nicholas had brought a lute
and Father told him "Play!"

Sweet music touched her maiden-heart,
she fell beneath its spell,
but she'd been promised to a lord -
Nick was a ne'er do well.

"But father dear, I beg, I pray!
I do not love this man.
Lord Jasper's not the one I want!
Forgive me, if you can?"

Her Father, being wise and kind,
was minded to relent.
"If this be true, young  Nicholas
must prove his good intent."

"I'll give to him a bag of gold
and if, in one year hence,
his efforts have increased its worth,
I'll grant he must have sense

enough to work for what he wants,
and you and he shall marry."
"Oh, Father dear, I'll gladly wait.
But ask him not to tarry!"

For the full picture, you need to go to Magpie Tales! Thanks, Tess.

Winds Of Chance

With seed heads blown by winds of chance,
bold dandelions spring up fast.
Though each has little time to last,

their parachuting fairies prance
supremely free, one must agree.
Upset, we glower, all askance.

Until their season's span has passed,
curse seed heads blown by winds of chance!

Small seed heads blown by winds of chance
think on their future days, not past,
and taunt us while we look aghast,

at thriving, golden, parent plants
so tall and proud, no living shroud,
but full of life's own joyful dance.

Unbounded vigour will outlast
us; seed heads blown by winds of chance.


Go and see Luke Prater at One Stop Poetry's Form Monday, if you want to know what is going on here! 
N.B. I keep editing the original, for I started with the intention of ignoring meter, instead going for a syllabic count, but old habits die hard, and the rhythm is gradually winning with each new edit! I think this is a work in progress...

Set In Stone?

Inside its block of stone, a latent being communicates with the sculptor, imprints its image and gives him no rest. It wills him to wield hammer and chisel to work towards its release. Driven by creative urges, the stonemason sets about rescuing embryonic beauty, like a surgeon performing a Caesarean section to save a life.

One Stop Poetry  has given us this picture prompt challenge, featuring the work of Walter Parada, and I've chosen to write 55 words for it.

Thursday Think Tank # 49

Untitled

Some things cannot be explained;
awareness creeps closer, on tiptoe,
while realization flows and flowers
from points beyond any conscious realm.

Elusive shapes pattern dream time paths
until route-march days, tramping along
unknown roads, lead to a destination
unplanned, but recognised on arrival
as the only possible, preordained end.

The Think Tank asked that we merely wrote down words that came to mind, no forward planning, simply let what happens, happen. These were my words... And then I added a picture.

Two In Tandem # 2

Illustration by jinksy

Tempered shades narrow

to point in all directions,

bursting boundaries. 

Haiku by Elizabeth Crawford 19/5/2011

This is another collaborative post between Elizabeth and I. If you would like to play along in a similar fashion, please let either of us know. Her words for my pictures will appear here on Thursdays, and my words for her pictures will be on her Unraveling blog on Tuesdays for the foreseeable future, until we work out a better plan for including others in our experiment! 
Like Susannah, who joined in here , better late than never!

9.30am And now Thursday is really underway, here's an additional bit of fun thanks to Theme Thursday who had the original version of this gossiping picture begging me to play! 

Negative Gossip?
She told me and I told her, but then we needed to defer telling others of our plan, for first we'd need to find a man. But gossip spreads and gossips run.  And now we wish we'd not begun!

Now you can gossip all you like - as long as you are spreading the word about Two In Tandem!

Blushing Bride?

 Pale petals

 deepen at centre,

 a blushing

 union

 marrying separateness,

 no longer single.

A shadorma written specially for One Shot Wednesday

Where Went Monday?

It passed too quickly for me to find the prompt on One Stop Monday Form. So here is an Octain for Tuesday, instead - eight lines of eight syllables, with a rhyme scheme of A b b , a c/c a , b A  with an internal rhyme, c/c, in line five.

Melody

In all the days I spend with you,
each moment forms a memory
which betters any fantasy.

And in my dreaming, it comes true,                     
it lives again. Its rich refrain
accompanies the things I do,

with everlasting melody
of all the days I spend with you.

Walk Into The Light?

No covers
can disguise the light
of wisdom
streaming from
between proud pages of books
which safeguard knowledge.

Thanks to Tess at Magpie Tales for this picture prompt, made for bookworms the world over. I heard it shout 'Shadorma!' to me...Perhaps I should explain, that's the syllabic poetic form which has six lines in 3/5/3/3/7/5 syllables.

Sand, Sea And ... Solitude?

By Fee Easton

A water colour sky and impasto sand-ripples paint a waiting game. One marker buoy anchors a stranded boat to puddled remnants of an ebb tide. In no hurry to begin its next seafaring journey, the wooden craft soaks up sunshine, admires its reflection in each striated salt pool, and waits for its master, the sea...

By way of a change for me, a 55 word Flash Fiction offering for One Shoot Sunday. But now I've discovered that the sea theme carries on at Monday's Child, so I've decided to add it to this post, even though Monday is nearly over, and Sunday is long gone.

Illustration by: Carmen L. Browne - 1917

Sea Edge

In creeps the water,
tickling my toes,
swirling its whirlpools.
But nobody knows
where the sea comes from
or where it all goes.

Was it in China,
or distant Japan
that this pool of ocean's
blue ripples began?
How many more miles
will they have to span?

How far have they travelled
and how many waves
crashed onto shorelines
or hid inside caves
before they arrived here,
so buoyant and brave?
 

Jamming?

Thunder-flash moment
announces inspiration.
Artist springs to life.
Electrical spark outline
becomes psychedelic art.



This is my spoonful of sugar for the Poetry Jam, and an extra item to stock in the Poetry Pantry.

Two In Tandem

by jinksy

Opera Diva      by Elizabeth Crawford

They say nothing ends
'til the fat lady sings.

Been singing 

for over sixty years.

Lots of endings, 

but each one signaled

yet another beginning.

Is that why she just 

keeps singing?    

This is another collaborative offering, as you can see. We are hoping eventually to create a place where poets and artists can work together, inspiring each other by their own creative endeavours, but we have yet to work out the finer details of 'How?' and "Where?' and '"When?" At present, each Tuesday will be Elizabeth's turn, and Thursday mine, for posting our Twosome Treats. 

N.B Due to Blogger problems, everything went haywire, and the original version of this post and comments disappeared. This is a Mark 2 re-run, but hopefully by next week, everything will be in working order for Elizabeth and I to start our Twosome properly! 

Now to redress the balance a little, I am adding an extra piece at the end of this post, written in  a mere 160 characters, in order to comply with Monkey Man's Sunday 160 prompt entitled 'Old Friends'. I thought it particularly apt in the circumstances...And I've linked it to Poetry Pantry as well, to make the most of it!

Old friends blossom into new friends. It's only a question of time. As with any seed planted, nurture friendship lovingly, then wait for it to grow to fruition.

Seasons Of The Heart

Young love blooms,
and blossomed branch bears
promises
of harvest.
Old love ripens and bears fruit
of a different kind.

Writer's Island has given us the word 'Seasons' as a prompt this week, but I've chosen to approach  the subject from a slightly different viewpoint...
And The Poetry Jam Bus has joined in a time related theme, by choosing the word 'Birthday'. 

Measuring
time is a game. But
"Your Birthday?"
That's the name
of the special day each year
which can instil fear!

Now today, Tuesday, there is a birthday of sorts over here:-
http://claudetteellinger.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/tuesday-collab-1/  as well as another season to read about! I did mention a day or two back that Elizabeth Crawford and I were exploring the possibilities of collaboration between poet/artist bloggers, and this link will explain further. I do hope you will take the time to visit and share your thoughts about her newborn Tuesday Collab #1....

Seeds Of Change

Something is germinating, today. After discovering the poems that Elizabeth Crawford had written for April's 'Poem a Day' at Writer's Island, I contacted her, and we've been trying to work out a way of collaborating. Her words and my pictures, or vice versa. So here is the first of her words written for my illustration. The basic idea could lead anywhere - this is merely the first step.

White barked tree trunk
waves aloft deep blue essence.
Lavender perfume spills
across spring landscape

I decided to post this on Napple Notes, and Alias Jinksy, to see which, if either, blog caught people's attention.  With the lavender colour spilling over in my mind this morning, I created this flight of fancy, too.

And for Poetry Pantry here's a late addition in the same colour range!

Lavender dreams
populate my world.
With angels?
With monsters?
Only imagination
can tell the difference.

Blank Verse Graft?!

The miles between us span this planet Earth,
but in our minds appear the thoughts we share,
as if a shoot were grafted from one root.
In distant land, with different ways and climes,
you flourished. Our common ancestry, it seems,
has planted deep imagination's seeds
which flower now. The dormant days are past.
Our generations may cross-pollinate
until an orchard rises from our dreams.

Couldn't resist the play on words, after a serious attempt to  produce some blank verse for One Stop Poetry, which is hard graft of a different kind! So now I've linked it to One Shot Wednesday and The Poetry Pantry.

Honeybee

Come and see -
Look at this bee!
Overjoyed and
Very busy at
Every flower,
Red and pretty.

Thanks to bkm for her Monday's Child picture-prompt by Mary Cecily Baker. and to The Poetry Pantry for providing another place to link with!

Love Story

In their spirit world,
this madonna and child link.
Bonds of mother love 

tell a never ending tale

known to women everywhere.

Thanks once again to Tess for another Magpie Tales prompt.

Being Grumpy

In a phone call this morning, I was attempting to pass on some useful information, but the lady at the end of the line was not in the mood for listening.
So I wrote a Double Dactyl to get me beyond the experience - and polish off Day #30 at Writer's Island at the same time!

Sneakily skittering
moaning and wittering
never helped anyone
make life a joy.
Uncontrolled, spiraling,
irascibility?
Lacking humility's
bound to annoy!

By the way, there is a wonderful photograph By James Rainsford of somebody being grumpy over here, at
http://www.irascibleinsights.blogspot.com/

Hidden

Behind the looped veil
another universe calls
for recognition.


Written and produced for Day #29 at Writer's Island.

And talking of other universes, here's another kind entirely- the fantasy world of a Friday 55 coupled with a prompt from the Thursday Think Tank at Poet's United, who suggested Monsters!



Monsters can be scary,

or monsters can be fun.

I know which sort I'd rather have -

a friendly, little one!

It’s when I least expect them

they haunt me in the night,

so usually I run away –

would you stay and fight?

If you would, that’d be good.
You can have my bed tonight!

Homewell

Artwork by Jinksy

Ripple-blurred motion
of wavering water sprites.
Sunlight on surface.

A natural spring bubbles
in perpetual motion.

Written on Day #28 for Writer's Island.
Also linked to Poetry Pantry.

Tapestry Tanka

 Created from an original photo by Tammie Lee

Colours coalesce.
Mind recognises beauty
worth contemplating,
as picture provides focus 
for quiet meditation.


A tanka for Day #27 at Writer's Island

My sincerest thanks go to Tammie Lee for graciously allowing me to use her glorious photograph as inspiration for my Tapestry Tanka... You can see Tammie's Etsy Shop HERE.

Vernal Vision

With Spring as artist,
a kaleidoscope is born;
gemstone treasure chest. 




With thanks to Tess at Magpie Tales for her picture prompt this week, and to Writers's Island for their Day#26 of poetic extravaganza.

Treasure Trove

Majestic Thoughts Of A Mercenary Kind.

Would
this could
give pleasure...
All gold treasure
buried in the ground,
once it gets to be found,
belongs by right to the Queen.
Does She think this is rather mean?
"We must have coffers full of the stuff.
But being Queen is undoubtedly tough.
Guess We deserve an occasional perk,
also the chance to let Our face smirk.
All too soon We must pay the bill
as pretty young Kate and Will
both get wed and party."
"But nothing tarty!
Lah-di-dah day,
Ma'm, okay?"
"Ta-dah!
Yah!" 

A double etheree in rhyming couplets, of sorts, an offering for Day #25 at Writer's Island. I've linked this to Poetry Pot Luck, too - I believe in making the most of things!

All Too Much...

Excess? No, X.S!
Text-speak jargon for the young.
Mobile mania.


For Day #23 at Writer's Island and  Poetry Bus for the 23rd - snap?!

Tension

A
dancer
stretches out,
clasping fingers
around aching foot,
pleading with tense muscles
to delve for more energy,
willing them to obey her wish,
that the dance may continue to flow
in an unbroken river of movement.

For Writer's Island  Day #23 I have chosen to write an etheree.  Beginning with one, the lines increase by one syllable each time, to reach a total of ten in the tenth line.

Late Edition Extra! Now it's afternoon, and more words needed to be written, so here's a Haiku for Saturday.

Image from redbubble.com

The day holds love-light,
residue of the morning.
A perfect pleasure.

Seed Of An Idea

Negative
grows from positive;
sweep brush head's
created
as an artist embraces
dandelion dreams.

This has been produced for Day #22 at Writer's Island.

Gift

The locket
lent a glow of love
to her world.
Every time
she fastened its golden clasp
her lips smiled "Thank you!"

Another Shadorma for Writer's Island on Day #21.

Blue Nude

Original drawing by Jinksy

Night's velvet

envelopes woman  

in a cloak
of darkness,
but the beauty of her form
creates its own light.

A Shadorma (3/5/3/3/7/5 syllable count) for Day #20 at Writer's lsland , also linked to One Shot Wednesday.

EGGsplosion?

Mythical firebird
in a sunspot spectacle;
a phoenix rising.

Tess at Magpie Tales has chosen to serve us eggs ready for Easter, it would seem, but like a cuckoo in the nest, they hatched into another kind of idea inside my head, once I'd whirled the picture and changed the colours...
As luck would have it, this weeks Poetry Bus Driver suggested the word 'Exploding', and I beg to be let off writing yet another ticket, after creating this one a little in advance!

#18

Raindrop universe
fills a cupped flower petal.
A Butterfly drinks.

For Day #18 at Writer's Island, and The Poetry Pantry

#17

Spring tides strike terror;
unguarded shorelines cower.
Wave-mallets sculpt land.

For Day #17 at Writer's Island and linked to Poetry Pantry

#16

Invisible in country dark, the birds
had pegged the notes of songs among the leaves,
like flower garlands hung on high to dry. 
In crescendo, sprouting buds full bloomed
then died as petal echoes touched my ears,
enchanting them with musical perfume.
The darkling mystery of night revealed
its secrets, as shifting moon and stars revolved,
and lit arpeggios with silver mists.

For Day #16 at Writer's Island  and linked to Poetry Pantry #45

#14

 

Silk ribbon river;
moon-boat sails with star cargo,
highlights spring blossom.

For today's Freewrite at Writer's Island, as well as One Shot Wednesday.

A Passing Thought On Things Past

The Dodo was an ugly bird.

I'm pretty sure you will have heard

that he is totally extinct,

no matter how much we may thinct

he shouldn't be.

According to the notes I found with this illustration, it shows an almost complete skeleton of a Dodo, put together from bones collected by Mr George Clark  which he found in a marshy pool in Mauritius. In front is seen a dried foot of a specimen which was brought alive to Europe at some time in the sixteen hundreds. Both foot and skeleton are in the National History Museum.

Apologies to One Shot Poetry Wednesday for this light hearted snippet on a dull day, which is day #13 at Writer's Island.

Windsong

Summer breeze
blusters the daisies,
tosses trees,
chases clouds,
and echoes children's laughter
while it tugs their hair.


This is written in the form of a Spanish Shadorma, poetry which has six lines lines of  3/5/3/3/7/5 syllables.
It's for bkm's Monday's Child prompt in which she gave us this picture by Florence Edith Storer.

Vision

With palette and brush
the artist creates his dream.
A butterfly lives.

Thank you to Tess for another Magpie prompt that proved irresitable to me!

Zig-Zag

I am a crooked line.
I slalom throughout time,
till I stop at vantage points
of each remembered 'now'.
I salvage scorched images
as their embers flame
and burn each new reality
into the time-line of my life.

A Bug's Eye View has us following a strange route today to buy our tickets for the Poetry Bus! Let's hope she knows how to drive in a straight line, though! LOL
I'm having second thoughts on this one , so have decided to add the first draft of my idea, and then ask readers for their thoughts... This is what I wrote originally:-

“I am a crooked line. I swerve through time like a slalom, till my mind stops at a vantage point for the NOW I choose to remember. An ember flames and burns a new reality into the time line of my life. It scorches images which can be realigned, in straight or crooked lines.”

Then my Poetry Guru suggested using slalom as a verb, which I agree made more sense, as did his dispensing with 'my mind' by simply saying 'I', for who is 'my mind, if not 'I' ? Once more I thank him for his clear sighted thinking!

And I've tucked this into The Poetry Pantry, as well...