I sat exhausted, staring in wonder at the juxtaposition between the beautiful planting of wisteria and the vile stinkweed worming its way, virus-like, up the granite walls; I couldn’t believe it’d been ruined by the lackadaisical gardener’s profound inertia.
Here are the given words: wisteria, stinkweed, exhausting, granite, juxtapose, virus, wonder, beautiful, worm, believe – Bonus (we actually had two this time): planting, inertia
©MMXVI Douglas P. Kendrick. All rights reserved.
I’m almost ashamed to be writing this.
Although I’ve been familiar with the great names of our ancient western heritage—names like Homer, Virgil, Plato, Tacitus, Sophocles and many, many others—for pretty much my entire life, I didn’t begin earnestly reading and studying them until after I’d already passed my half-century mark. And me, the degreed historian too! I can recall playing King Agamemnon in a Junior High School class play, though I don’t remember much more than that. And everyone’s read The Iliad, right?
Oh boy—what I’ve been missing…
It’s a fresh, new year
Now awaiting your input
To lay in its course;
Will it be a different one,
Or the same as last year’s was?
© MMXVI Douglas P. Kendrick, all rights reserved.
I wrote this piece last week over on the Golden Pen Writers Guild’s brand-new blog, Blogs, Bits and Banter. Be sure to hop over and visit sometime to see more writing by my fellow authors.
A recent challenge at the Golden Pen Writers Guild was to write something in a style or genre that you’re not used to. For me, that’s rhyming poetry — I just can’t get onboard with it. The particular form I used (not sure what it’s formally called; leave me a comment if you know) was something I found in Tolkien’s The Hobbit, believe it or not, and it seemed interesting to me. I guess it would be AAbbA? Whatever. I guess I don’t feel too bad about how it turned out either …
* * *
Now the light grows dim
Earlier than it once did
Only days ago;
Glowing beams that filter down
Warming, though the air feels crisp.
* * *
Ruby-red and gold,
Orange, yellow, russet brown,
Leaves from high above
Settle on the woodland floor
Like a rug of jeweled tones.
* * *
Smoke from burning leaves
Wafting through a bright, blue sky
Inky to the eyes
Now wakes up a different sense
By evoking scents of fall.
© MMXV Douglas P. Kendrick, all rights reserved
I love the peaceful feeling of floating down a river, lost in spiritual thoughts of nature, enjoying the autumn light. But on the anniversary of my first trek, I recalled circumventing an unexpected cascade—that left us screaming with laughter!
Here are the given words: love, light, peace, thoughts, nature, circumvent, cascade, laughter, scream, spiritual – Bonus: anniversary
©MMXV Douglas P. Kendrick. All rights reserved.
When cleaning house recently, I came across a paper on which I’d written three Tanka poems during a visit to the Getty Villa. It would seem, however, that I never actually published them—so here you are:
journey, not destination 