Form poems are challenging

Form poems challenge a writer because they force the poet to work with a pattern. Some poetry forms are more challenging then others, but all poetry form exercise a writer's mind and muse. Form poems are also fun to write because you have to work within the form.

Write within the form
Count syllables watch the rhyme
This is not a box

The first quarter of 2010

The first quarter of 2010 is almost behind us and the second quarter will soon begin. It is time to regroup and reevaluate. It is time to take a good look at the goals set in January when the year was new and hopes were high.

There are three quarters left in 2010. There is still time to achieve this year's goals before throwing the towel into the washing machine or the trashcan. In three days, the second quarter of the year will begin. There are still nine months to achieve the goals set in January.

Nine months is the length of time it takes a child to grow in its mother's womb. In nine months, a woman gives birth to a child. In nine months, anything is possible. Therefore, now is the time to begin working harder to achieve the goals set in January or to change the goals to something more desirable.

A Beautiful Spring day in Las Vegas

Sunshine ends the week
Nightingales and sparrows sing
Spring in Las Vegas

The weather is nice, the sky is a hazy blue and there is no wind. That is probably why the sky is hazy because there is no wind today. The sun is bright, even with the haze the sun is bright. It is a nice day in Las Vegas. Spring is here and the birds are singing. I even heard a dog barking this morning.

Technical issues

I have encounterws technical issues for the past three or four days. I encounter difficulties surfing and accessing website. I am not sure what the problem is, but it makes surfing and posting hard. When I click on a link it takes several minutes to get onto the website and sometimes I have to click the link several times before I get to my destination.

Today I did three different virus scans on my computer. The only problems they identified were tracking cookies. After the last virus scan, I deleted the cookies and history on my browser. That seemed to help quite a bit; however, I still have some issues with slow access. Eventually, I will solve the problems, in the mean time, I think I will let the browser delete the cookies and history each time I closes my browser.

Nightingale at dawn

In the stone pine tree
A nightingale intones joy
A new day begins

I heard a nightingale singing again this morning. His song ways beautiful and it sounded as if it came from the stone pine tree in my yard. If he has a nest there, the nest is safe for the summer because I'm not planning on removing that tree until later this year or early next year.

Chocolate Easter Bunny

Chocolate bunny
In my Easter basket waits
Dark and delicious

Dark chocolate shaped like a rabbit or bunny brings back memories of my childhood. Every year my grandparents would fill Easter baskets for their grandchildren. One of the items each basket contained was a dark chocolate Easter bunny. Every year around Easter, I buy a chocolate Easter bunny because it brings back memories of my childhood.

A nice winter day in spring

The first day of spring
Winter temperatures and wind
I want warm weather

The wind chill factor may explain why I feel chilly on the first day of spring. I am having soup today because it warms me up. Hot soup is the best food a person can eat on a chilly day in spring. I have to go to the store this afternoon, I will wear a long sleeved blouse and there is a coat in the car in case I need warmer clothing.

In Las Vegas
The wind blows though olive trees
The birds are singing

After the power went out

Wind knocks out power
Fifteen minutes in the dark
The cats are upset

Last night the wind blew so hard that it knocked the power out in my neighborhood. It felt like the power was out for fifteen or twenty minutes, but time always seems to go slower in the dark. I think it has to do with listening to the wind blowing the limbs of stone pine and olive trees. The power came back on.

I need to buy batteries for the flashlight and the clock. I have an electric clock with battery back-up, but I didn't put the batteries in when I plugged in the clock.

I am always looking for articles

I am always looking for articles about different subjects. I enjoy researching different items and subjects. The best way to research a product or subject is to read articles because you find out what other people think about the subject, product or item. I have found a website with some intriguing articles on various subjects.

The articles in this directory cover numerous subjects from automotive to writing and speaking. There are articles concerning women, religion, computer hardware, fashion, pets, computer software, relationships, finances, money, self-improvement, site promotion, etc. This website, Article Alley, has over 500,000 articles on various subjects with 97% of them free to republish.

I am always looking for an Article directory that contains interesting and thought provoking articles. Since 2004, this directory has helped promote authors and syndicate the content they write. More then 90,000 authors are associated with this directory and these authors have written over half a million pages on different subjects and products.

Some of the authors associated with this directory are armatures, who write articles containing information about service and products. This article directory contains intriguing articles about specific products useful to everyone. Now I know where to find interesting article and free blog or website content.

Waiting at the DMV

Careful listening
Doesn't keep my wide awake
I doze in the chair

We went to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) today, so that my mother could renew her Nevada Identification. After finding a place to park and getting Mom into the building we had to wait. As usual, I dozed while waiting for our number to be called. This always happens when I'm waiting at the DMV, I have no difficulty staying awake while driving to the DMV. Once I'm in the building and waiting, I want to doze.

Time to rest

A long weary day
Passes slowly into night
Intone a prayer

It's been a long day and I need some prayer time before going to sleep. Therefore, I think I'll call it a day or perhaps I should say a night.

A dove calls at dawn

A dove coos at dawn
Intoning his gratitude
For another day

I heard a dove again this morning. Every morning for the past week or so, a dove sings in the morning. I am not sure where the nest because I have not yet caught sight of him. This is not a mourning dove, but another dove species because the call is different from that of a mourning dove.

What are some of the creative uses for address labels?

Address labels are extremely useful to an author. A writer uses return address labels for more then simply putting them on envelops containing manuscripts. What are some of the other ways a writer uses address labels? One of the ways I use address labels is in my pen and paper journal.

I, like most other writers, carry a notebook or a journal to keep track of writing ideas and observations. When I buy a new notebook or journal, I place address labels on the inside of the journal's cover. I place one return address label in the front of the journal and one in the back.

I once lost a journal, which contained several poem and story. Since placing the return address labels in my journal, I have not lost a journal. If I do lose a journal, I do not have to worry because my return address is in the journal. My pen and paper journal is a part of my writing equipment, so I want to make sure I have my name and address inside the cover.

I also use return address labels on other pieces of writing equipment. I place the labels on the jewel cases of my back-up CDs. I place them on my computer equipment and inside the covers of my personal library books. Putting return address labels inside your books makes it possible for friends and acquaintances to remember where they got the books.

The Arrival of Spring

Spring is almost here, in a few days, the sun will cross the vernal equinox and spring will arrive. Days are growing longer, temperatures are rising, and there are green plants growing in my yard. All right, the green plants in my yard are weeds.

I have difficulty growing anything except weeds, even the flowering plants in my yard are weeds. We call the flowering plants oleanders and they are weeds. Since I can't get rid of the weeds, I'll write about them.

Oleanders bloom
Spreading their pollen abroad
Echoing a sneeze

A Windy day in Las Vegas

Wind in Las Vegas
Carries litter across streets
Trash collection day

All day the wind blew
Locals wearing long sleeved shirts
Shiver at bus stops

Today the wind chill factor is enough to require sweaters, coasts and jackets. It's warm inside a car driving to the store, but walking across the parking lot you need something more then just a long sleeved shirt or blouse to keep you warm.

Green stuff growing in my yard

There is green stuff growing in my yard. I do not remember seeing it yesterday, I suspect it grew over night. That sounds like the beginning of a science fiction story; I realize the plants were probably there yesterday and I did not notice them.

Las Vegas received a great deal of rain in the past couple of months, therefore, I should expect green plants in my front yard. Now the plants, or perhaps I should write weeds, are pretty, but this will not last long. As soon as the rain stops or summer comes, the plant will die and turn brownish gray and ugly. At that time, I must have them removed.

Beautiful spring weeds
Coming up in my front yard
Summer fire hazard

Today I didn't check my e-mail

Today,
I didn't check my e-mail
I pretended that it didn't exist
I ignored it completely.

Today,
I didn't delete the spam
I didn't read any messages
and the world
as I know it
didn't come to an end.

The mystery of the missing lids

Mom's worried about what happened to the lids to some of the food storage containers. Mom seems to think someone threw the lids away; I believe they are in the kitchen cabinets or drawers. I keep opening cabinet doors and finding lids without matching containers. I think I'll eventually find all the lids that fit the containers.

Mom wants the lids and the containers to match, but I don't care if the lid is the same color as the container, as long as it fits a container. Once I find all the lids to fit the food storage containers, then I'll deal with whether the color of a lit matches the color of a container. At this point, all I care about is having lids that fit containers.

I need a vacation or a little time by myself

It's Saturday afternoon, March 6, 2010, and I realized today I need a vacation. I also realized that I'm not getting either a vacation or a little time by myself. Therefore, I'm just going to have to figure out how to handle the stress another way.

I look out my window,
I see a cloudy sky;
the clouds are a mixture
of gray and white,
of light and shadow.

My life is a mixture
of joy and tears,
of light and shadow
similar to clouds I see today.

Evening Clouds in Las Vegas

I look out my living room window and see clouds. Masses of clouds reflecting light from the setting sun. I look at the clouds and wonder, what the mass in my left breast looks like. I haven't look at the mammogram. Even if I did, I doubt it would give me any useful information. I'm not a medical professional, so I don't know how to read a mammogram.

Besides the mammogram, I had two ultrasounds of my left breast. I doubt I could tell anything from those either. I'm having another procedure performed on Friday, March 12, because the doctor can't determine from the ultrasounds if the mass is benign or cancerous. After this next procedure, the only other thing to do is a biopsy, which means sticking a needle into the mass to determine if its benign or cancerous. I am worried, but I can do little except pray and hope.

I wrote a poem about St. Patrick’s Day

While I was researching the poem, I found some interesting things about St. Patrick and Irish myths. The only things I included in the poem I wrote today were leprechauns and banshees, neither of which St. Patrick encountered while he was in Ireland.

St. Patrick's Day is the day the Saint died in about 461 A.D. I also found out he arrived in Ireland when he was 16 years old. It seems Irish raiders kidnapped him and took as a slave to Ireland. I'll write more about St. Patrick in a later entry.

March in Las Vegas

March came in like a lamb. As I look out my living room window, I can see thin clouds covering the sky. I doubt that it rains because they are not rain clouds, in fact, the clouds look more like thick haze then anything else.

Spring will soon be here, but not soon enough for me. I do not know why winter affected me as it did. I feel cold this morning; however, turning up the central heat is not going to do any good because this house is difficult to heat. The living room is big and the entrances do not have doors I can close.

The only rooms in this house that has real doors are the bedrooms, bathrooms, and spare room. I keep as many door closed as I can, I wear layers of clothing, and still I feel cold. Of course, it is not as cold here as it is in the eastern part of the United State, but it still feels cold. I think that is because Las Vegas is in a desert valley with mountains all around.