Just Say No

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for January 2, 2010: “Write about a time someone said no.”

Sometimes a writer has to say no,
to the time stealer's
that slip into one's daily life
the little things
that take time away from writing
or family.

Sometime a woman has to learn to say no,
without feeling guilty
because saying yes
would mean needless sacrifice
in her relationships
with family or friends.

Sometime no
is the kindest word one can say
because saying yes
will prevent the other person
from dealing with a difficult situation.

I come from

Daily writing practice prompt for Thursday, October 22, 2009: “I come from…”

I come from Oklahoma,
I come from Blackwell,
I come from America's home town,
I come from snowy Winters,
I come from multicolored Autumns,
I come from sweet smelling Springs,
I come from hot, wet Summers,
I come from middle America,
I come from joy and sadness,
I come from happiness and tears,
I come from Sunday morning hymns,
I come from Monday afternoon weariness,
I come from Tuesday evening laughter,
I come from Wednesday morning reflections,
I come from Thursday evening gratitude's,
I come from Friday wishes,
I come from Saturday playfulness,
And I come from the planet Earth.

Write about a hideout.

Daily Writing Practice for Sunday, October 18, 2009: Write about a hideout.

Tears begin to fall
the day becomes difficult
where is a hideout.

Go out of the house
with a prayer book in hand
hideout in your car.

Set in the front seat
open the prayer book and
read healing prayers.

Don't tell anyone
where you are going or why
just intone God's word.

Writing about the lights going out

Daily Practice Writing prompt for Sunday, September 27, 2009: Write about a time the lights went out.

The wind blew. The thunder roared. The lightning struck. The lights went out leaving us in total darkness. We looked out the living room window and saw flashes of lightning. We saw crisp streaks of light connecting heaven and earth.

My grandmother wouldn't let us set took close to the window. She wouldn't let us have any metal objects. She wouldn't let us pet the dog or the cat. Grandma insisted that if we did these things lightning would strike us.

We sit on the couch watching the lightning through the living room window. We watch the rain drops glisten in the reflection of the lightning. We listened to the thunder roar. We listened for the tornado sirens. We listened to the thunder. We watched the lightning. We watched the raindrops glisten in the lightning. We waited for the lights to come back on.

We waited for the lights to come back on so we could watch television. We waited for the lights to come back on so we would have something to do besides watch the raindrops glisten in the lightning. When the lights did come back on, Grandma wouldn't let us turn the T.V. on.

A Writer’s Tool

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Saturday, August 1, 2009: “Write about a tool.”

A writer's tools are the words she uses;
the words placed in sentences and paragraphs;
the words inscribed into lines and stanzas;
the words that describe a lake at sunset;
the words that express similes and metaphors.

A writer uses computers and pens
to put these words into documents,
into blogs,
into journals,
into books,
but the tool itself are the words used by the writer.

Write about something that was stolen

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Saturday August 8, 2009: “Write about something that was stolen."

I had a car stolen once. It was years ago when we were living in the apartment. I had parked my car in the alley the night before. I went out to get into to car to go to the store and the car was gone. I looked down at the keys in my hands and cried. The car keys were in my hand, I had not left them in the car.

I went back to the apartment, called the police and then checked to make sure the extra car key was hanging from a nail in the closet. The extra key was in the closet. They found the car, but never found who stole it. While we were living in those apartments I had a car vandalized as well.

On the other side of street

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Sunday August 9, 2009: On the other side.

On the other side of the street
houses stand in a row,
houses that were built over thirty years ago.

Each house has a unique story to tell
if it could only speak,
if one of those houses could talk
what stories would it relate
about the families,
which moved there thirty years ago.

Write about an eclipse

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Thursday, July 30, 2009: “Write about an eclipse.”

Dragons eat the sun
demons consume the solar disk
humanity covers its eyes.

I'm going to have to do some more research about eclipse mythology. Some of the myths are interesting and creative. I think the only time I've ever witnessed a solar eclipse is on television. I have witnessed a total lunar eclipse, but that is a different poem.

Every night, I have the same routine

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Tuesday, July 28, 2009: “Every night, ...”

Every night, I go through the same routine before going to bed. I check the sliding glass doors to make sure both locks are in place. I check the front door to make sure the screen is locked and then the inside door to make sure it is locked. I make sure my keys are laying where I can get to them if I need to unlock the doors in an emergency.

I check to make sure both the front porch light and the patio light are on. Then I make sure the inside lights, which we turn off are off. We leave some of the lights inside the house on, so I make sure those are on.

My routine is getting monotonous, so I am going to have to make some changes. I think I will start going outside to make sure my car doors are locked. I normally do that when I get out of the car, but checking the locks again is a good idea. While I am outside, I can look up at the sky. This is Las Vegas, so the only thing I will probably see is the Metro helicopter flying over.

The Scent of Roses

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Wednesday, July 29, 2009: “Write about a scent.”

I miss the scent of roses
they smell so nice in the early spring
when the first blooms open
and birds begin to sing.

Summer is now here
and it's too hot for roses to bloom
all though the birds still sing,
I miss the scent of roses
and the cool spring.

If only

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Tuesday August 4, 2009: “If only...”

If only
it would rain
I would not complain
about the drought.

If only it would rain a little bit more there would be no drought. I live in Las Vegas and we've had a problem with a drought for he past few years. True, this is a desert, but I live in Las Vegas which means The Wells.

This is August which is monsoon season here. There are cloud, but not a lot of rain. When it rains in Las Vegas it floods. Not in every area of town because the city is so big that it can rain one section and not another. We need rain and all I see today are clouds with a little bit of blue sky peeking through.

In a Movie Theater

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Monday July 27, 2009: “You're in a movie theater.”

In a movie theater
after the music comes on
and the lights go off
I close my eyes and wait
for the movie to begin.

In a movie theater
I listen to the ads,
I listen to the coming attractions
and imagine
the scenes rather then watch them
because my imagination
is always much better then what I see
in front of my eyes.

Write about a bedroom

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Monday August 3, 2009: “Write about a bedroom.”

What can I write about a bedroom? It's a room with a bed, a dresser, a chest of drawers, two night stands (usually), a closet (usually with the doors closed) and a window. My bedroom has only one nightstand and no dresser, but I do have a chest of drawers.

I need new bedroom furniture. I haven't had new furniture in my bedroom for over ten years. The mattress is relatively new, but it's about four or five years old. My chest of drawers is missing a drawer and the closet doors are open. I also need new curtains for the window.

A person's bedroom is supposed to say something about them. My bedroom says I don't use it for anything except sleeping. That is when I sleep. Normally I just lay in bed and listen to the neighborhood noises. I listen to the Metro helicopter flying over or the neighbors' dogs barking. It's intriguing that when the neighbors' dogs bark Metro's helicopter flies over.

The First Time I Saw Las Vegas

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Wednesday, July 22, 2009: “The first time I saw ______.”

The first time I saw Las Vegas, I arrived in the city by bus. The bus didn't drive up the strip, but turned onto Charleston Ave. and then went to the bus station which is on Main Street. The city took my breath away because it was larger then any town or city I'd seen before.

Since my arrival several years ago, Las Vegas has grown. There are more hotel-casinos. There are more grocery stores. There are more gas stations. There are more people. Las Vegas has grown both out and up; the suburbs spread while the hotel-casinos go up. It's a different city then when I came thirty years ago.

Write about being late

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Thursday, July 23, 2009: “Write about being late.”

Being late
walking into a room
when the meeting has started
looking for a place to sit down
and finding the only available seat
is in the middle of the second row
directly in front of the speaker.

Being late
you want to be inconspicuous,
but this is impossible
when the only seat you can find
means you have to walk carefully
because you may step on a strangers toes.

Getting what I want

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Sunday, July 19, 2009: “Write about a time you got what you wanted.”

There is an old saying that goes: "Be careful what you wish for, you might get it!" I wished for a full set of teeth and I got my wish. I have a full set of teeth, which I take out of my mouth each night and put in a glass.

I got what I wanted. I got what I wished for a complete set of new teeth. I'm having difficulty getting used to the lower plate. I do eat with the teeth in my mouth most of the time. I'm going to conquer. I'm going to learn how to eat with my new dentures.

Be careful what you wish for,

you may get it!

Life a free-for-all

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Sunday, July 26, 2009: “A free-for-all”

We are born into a chaotic situation wondering what's going on in the world around us. We spend the first twenty-five years attempting to figure it out. We spend the next twenty-five years thinking we have the answer to the question. About age fifty, a person realizes that he or she had it all wrong, that the conclusion one jumped to concerning what life is all about are mostly wrong. So we spend another twenty-five years attempting to answer the question again.

Somewhere around seventy-five, we begin to realize that we asked the wrong question. Instead of asking, "What is life all about?" we should have ask "What is my purpose?" The important information is why we were born on a specific planet at a specific time in its history. Once a person realize his or her purpose, then life is no long a free-for-all; no longer a chaotic situation.

Write about asking for mercy

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Saturday, July 25, 2009: Write about asking for mercy.

Mercy's prayer is
intoned in tears and despair
beginning forgiveness.

In silence mercy's
prayer receives an answer
tranquility comes.

In a State of Disarray

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Friday, July 17, 2009: “In a state of disarray”

In a state of disarray,
my garage waits for spring
and spring cleaning.

The door won't close,
so the entire neighborhood can see
what a lousy garage keeper
I am.

In a state of disarray,
recyclable bins wait
for the next scheduled
recyclable pick up.

The only things removed
were a couch and love seat,
which now set in my breakfast room
and an old refrigerator
that the power company picked up.

In a state of disarray,
my garage waits to be cleaned,
waits for the soda machine
and the old dryer
to be taken to the curb
for someone to pick up.

This is the reason I leave my lights on, lock my doors and have an alarm system

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Monday, July 13, 2009: “Write about a theft”.

Some people can go through there entire life without having their house broken into or their car stolen. I am not one of those people, which is why I leave the porch light and the patio light on at night. These are also the reasons I have an alarm system and lock my car (even when I leave in my garage with the door closed).

The two events occurred several years apart, but the feeling that resulted from the thefts was the same. I can use the emotions I felt in my writing, which does give me some closure. A writer has her stories and poems to use when expressing emotions like this.