Royal Rhyme -- Anything Goes

a-b-a-b-b-c-c

Orchestra center, row "E"

Find number one hundred twelve

Second seat in, that suits me

Tickets, will call, they unshelve

Where is this going, let's delve

Anything Goes is our test

Little theatre, the best

 

 

Photo and poem Copyright © 2014 Jimmiehov. All Rights Reserved

I'm linked today with the Real Toads, Fireblossom Friday

 

Instructions were: Today we're going to try the Rhyme Royal. It's pretty simple, really. 

- The rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b-b-c-c. You can write seven-line stanzas, or you can break it up as a tercet and two couplets.

- You can stop with seven lines, or repeat your pattern for as many stanzas as you like, making the Rhyme Royal a fine vehicle for narrative poetry. There is no syllable count, and although the Rhyme Royal is often written in iambic pentameter, we're not bothering with that today. Just follow the rhyme scheme and one of the seven line patterns I have laid out above. (I did follow syllable count, each of my lines has seven syllables.)

 

- Tonight we visited our Crighton Theatre in Conroe (Texas) to watch Cole Porter's stage play Anything Goes.  It was written in 1934 and produced in the old 1934 theater.  It was a great production with excellent singing and dancing.

Our 41st Anniversary

 

The Bride and Groom

She is my love, I carry her picture

For forty-one years the Lord has been true

That day so long ago I made my vow

To have and to hold, to cherish and love 

She was naïve, tender, and oh so sweet

She loved me too, she'd love, honor, obey 

We've kept those vows--our love has grown still more

I'd do it again, I know she would too

Photos and poem Copyright © 2014 Jimmiehov. All Rights Reserved

I'm linked today with the Real Toads, Open Monday 
and to Real Toads, Herotomost's Friday Challenge

 

- How will we celebrate?  Yesterday after church we ate at Pappadeaux  Seafood Kitchen Restaurant.  That is sort of tradition with us (link to our 33rd). 

- This song is true for us:  "We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout." Our fire hasn't gone out. (link to details of our wedding)
- The top picture I have carried with me for 41 years.  It got wet in my wallet once when our house flooded and we had to climb out a high window and wade to higher ground.

Sunday Challenge -- A Quatern

..................The Drink 

Don't drink the water it can kill

Beware where you dip, one small sip

can lead to death or make you blind

Pour it down the sink don't you drink 

Boil it to make sure. Be safe or

don't drink the water it may kill

Sparkle chemicals can infuse

Chemicals can kill on their own 

The spring may be safe, cool and clear

Or bathing spot for animals

Don't drink the water it might kill

You bathe with soap, won't help a lot 

Buy your drink from the grocery store

Pure, spring, distilled, it matters much

whence it came. Check its source, beware

Don't drink the water it will kill



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Photos and poem Copyright © 2014 Jimmiehov. All Rights Reserved

Today I am linked with the Real Toads, Sunday Form Challenge ~ Quatern 
That was yesterday, a Sunday.  The link still words but 
today, Monday, I'm linked with Real Toads, Open Monday.  They are different links.


Notes:
1.  At the above link, Kerry challenged us to write a Quatern.  This is my attempt.  She said,

"A Quatern is a sixteen line French form composed of four quatrains. It is similar to the Kyrielle, which repeats line 4 as a refrain throughout the poem. However, with the Quatern, the refrain is in a different place in each quatrain. The first line of stanza one is the second line of stanza two, third line of stanza three, and fourth line of stanza four. A quatern has eight syllables per line. It does not have to be iambic or follow a set rhyme scheme."

2. I found this sign Thursday when I played golf at our local Panorama Village Country Club. Note how our freeze (just one) this year put the grass into dormancy. For sure I wouldn't lick my ball for good luck knowing where their irrigation water came from. When the grass returns it is a very pretty course.

Friday Challenge - Ecology

Luna and Shaman Rabbit, by Toril Fisher

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Moon shines bright tonight

Shaman Rabbit and the duck

Safe from pesticides?

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Kalidescope Creek, by Toril Fisher

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Rachel Carson would love

Clear blue water running free

Fish can once more live?

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Star Valley Flower Farm, by Toril Fisher

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Flowers rule the hill

Where once vineyards did flourish

Flower power return?

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Art by Toril Fisher at link her website, Second Cloud on the Left Farm.

Poem  Copyright © 2014 Jimmiehov. All Rights Reserved

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I am linked today with Real Toads, Artistic Interpretations with Margaret - "Queen Bee" Art Project with Toril where Margaret wrote of Toril's artistic aspirations of melding her art with efforts to improve our ecology. 

There Margaret also challenged poetry writers thusly:
 .

"For this challenge, please use these images for inspiration to promote Toril's desire to begin a conversation about the beauty and interconnectedness all living creatures share with our amazing Mother Earth."

Wednesday Challenge -- Fancy That Kid! -- Erasure Poem

my Erasure Poem for Wednesday:

Wire to wire 

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The five-year-old was scooped up and kissed

Angel may've learned that from his dog

He loves to kiss with everybody

Overall he became a terror

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He once was early bred and still fresh

By night he be pooped. So eat a steak

Kinky doings show up well.  Fancy that 

He who loves all is seen to win none

 

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Poem  Copyright © 2014 Jimmiehov. All Rights Reserved

My starting news article was found at the link below.  I have copied the text.
http://t.foxsports.msn.com/best-in-show-wire-fox-terrier-wins-top-prize-at-Westminster

 

Sky, a wire fox terrier, won best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show on Tuesday

NEW YORK -- From wire to wire, Sky was America's top dog.

The 5-year-old wire fox terrier won best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club on Tuesday night, finishing off a year in which she was ranked the nation's No. 1 dog.

Handler Gabriel Rangel scooped up Sky in one arm and kissed judge Betty Regina Leininger's hand after the title was awarded inside a nearly full Madison Square Garden.

Rangel may've learned that from his dog.

"Her personality is she loves to kiss people and she connects with everybody," Rangel said.

This was Sky's 129th best in show ribbon overall -- she became a Triple Crown winner in dogdom, too, having previously taken the National Dog Show and the top AKC event.

A wire fox terrier has won 14 times at the nation's top dog show. No other breed has won more than eight times.

The winner with the ginger-and-white coat and little terrier goatee beat out an impressive lineup for the final ring. Also competing were a standard poodle, a bloodhound, an Irish water spaniel, a Cardigan Welsh corgi, a miniature pinscher and a Portuguese water dog.

Matisse the Portie had a great history. He is a cousin of President Barack Obama's newest house pet -- the White House, that is.

But once again, a terrier prevailed. Terriers have taken 46 of the 105 best in show ribbons presented at an event that dates to the late 19th century.

"She has the `it' factor. She owned this night," Leininger said.

The standard poodle named Ally was chosen as the runner-up.

Nathan the bloodhound was clearly the crowd's pick as all seven dogs circled around in the final ring. The min pin called Classie had won 121 times.

Rangel, who lives with Sky in Rialto, Calif., has plenty of experience in winning. He guided Sadie the Scottish terrier to victory at Westminster four years ago.

There were 2,845 dogs entered in the 138th Westminster Kennel Club show. They were eligible in 190 breeds and varieties.

Sky entered the ring only a half-hour or so after winning the terrier group, and was still fresh.

"We're kind of saving it," Rangel said shortly before the final competition.

By Wednesday night, the pooch might be pooped. She's scheduled to tour the morning TV news shows, eat a steak lunch at famed Manhattan restaurant Sardi's and also go up the Empire State Building.

And on Thursday night, Sky was set to make her Broadway debut with a walk-on part in the Tony Award-winning musical "Kinky Boots."

Pretty lofty doings, indeed, for a dog with the champion's name of Afterall Painting The Sky and accustomed to top treats.

"It's like winning an Oscar," said Victor Malzoni Jr., one of the owners who is an economist from Brazil.

Poodles always seem to show up well at these events, and Ally represented her breed well. She takes three to four hours to prep, and came out perfectly trimmed.

Fancy that.

The Cardigan Welsh corgi called Coco might've been familiar to dog fanciers at the Garden, and to the several million who tune each year to the Westminster telecast.

Queen Elizabeth II loves all kinds of corgis, and is often seen with them in her royal reign.

The Irish water spaniel called Riley originally came from the Seattle. In this, an event known as the Super Bowl of dogs, she was trying to repeat the win that the Seahawks posted in the real Super Bowl this month right across the Hudson River.

 

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I am linked with Real Toads, Real Toads, Out of Standard 

Our instructions for this Wednesday's Challenge were Imagined By Isadora Gruye.  They are:

 

The Challenge:

Go to your local news source, be it a newspaper or website and write an erasure poem from a local news story which posted today.  Your erasure poem may be as long or short as you would like, but you must adhere to the following rules

1. You cannot add text to your poem.  All lines must already exist within the news story.
2. You cannot change the order of the words or lines.  They must appear in the same order which they appeared in the story.  

A book title poem

 

The Double Cross

 

Wedding day murder

The body in the piazza

The husband's secret

 

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Photo and Poem  Copyright © 2014 Jimmiehov. All Rights Reserved

 

I am linked today with the Real Toads, Open Link Monday

 

I was at the library and decided to do this after checking out my reading book,

"Wedding Day Murder." It is written by Leslie Mier and is a late one of her series.

My Hippy Girl Friend

Art: Bree & Dreamweaver Coat by Lisa Graham

My Hippie Girl Friend;
a compendium of girls in one of my lives

She was the girl of my dreams.  Barefoot, wearing a flower in her hair, she sat by me in Differential Equations class.  We sat on the back row, she was writing an essay for English 317 while I was busy taking notes and trying to understand.  I got my "C", she made a big "A".

Leaving her yellow dog at the building steps, my friend with straggly blonde hair complained to me of the campus police feeding the dogs.  Our walks were full of them, sleeping and waiting for their straggly haired lady friends to get out of class.

She rode an old bike, pedaled herself all over the town.  I drove my seven-year-old '62 Volkswagen, one with a cloth top that rolled back for letting the sunlight in.  On rainy days I might give my girl friend a ride.  I remember the day I locked my keys in the VW while it was still running.  That embarrassed me.

We built a sidewalk where before the children had none.  They walked to school in the mud.  Saturday mornings this was the thing we did.  It was a ride of sixty-miles to the north edge of town.  We talked of the things we liked, the things we did before, and what we wanted to do. We'd stop on the way home to get food for her cats and a bone for the dog.  Had a sundae for the road.

Then one afternoon after lunch, the day came we didn't go back to work.  We must have talked the afternoon away.  I felt she wanted to do other but my honesty said no.  Her husband was in the Army and wasn't due home for another six months.  But I'd been there, done that unawares, it isn't fair.

One day she, I won't say who, came to my apartment and we went for motorcycle ride.  Enough said about that, her hubby was in the service too.  I played it honest, straight, and narrow.  I dare say these last two were inviting for more and I still have some regrets. 

On sunny Sunday afternoons I'd ride my motorcycle around in the parks.  Seemed there was a band playing under every tree.  I tell myself that the ZZ Top (link) played there also with the oodles of others.  The Beatles were slowing, the hippie girls were outgrowing.  I couldn't pick out my friend there, there were so many.  In the parks, on the streets, and on Saturday nights swarming over the loading docks on Prairie Street.

A nice coworker girl she, we had a date.  She was of the hippie variety, we both dressed better for work.  At a Rice versus Houston football game, WE lost my car at Rice Stadium.  So we waited until the crowd left and then the car was still there, NOW waiting for us. 

This is a true account, with a twinge of historical fiction.  Meaning that while working and going to school, my dates were few, my acquaintances were many.  Even still more in my dreams. Each stanza tells of a different girl, either real or typical.
Three years of my other life.
 
The one I (finally) married?  A hippie girl at heart.

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Poem Copyright © 2014 Jimmiehov. All Rights Reserved

Today I'm linked with the Real Toads, Sunday Feature featuring Lisa Graham. 

My desk

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My Desk
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My desk is awry with clutter. It's where I wish I could create
Of my desk I'll tell you no more.
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There's a place where my dad would write. It's sitting in our hallway now.
Ready to greet a friendly face.
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A chicken house was his office. Chicks there no more, their smell remained.
Letters there he'd write, Sis and me.
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My desk can't be used, still I write. The nearest table I can find.
Words and thoughts are blind. They don't care.
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Photos and Poem Copyright © 2014 Jimmiehov. All Rights Reserved
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Today I'm linked with Kerry's Challenge at the Real Toads, "Find Your Creative Space."

Stones, Tell Me Your Stories -- Open Link Monday

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The stones will tell
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The stones will tell. Tell their stories to you, tell them to me.
Listen closely to their chatter,
not unlike the proverbial seashell's whispering. 
So then, tell us of your origin, where you were born,
who was your daddy.
Tell us of your birth like none of us humans can.
Will you relate to a celebrity,
or to the hobo who sleeps under the tree.
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Tell us of your learning,
an experience void of the books and computers.
Have you had an experience of romance?  
Or are you hard sterile beings devoid of desire to love and propagate.
Do you have family?
Are there peals of children's laughter ringing in your ears?
Is there pride of family and kin?
Heritage beckons, be it Irish, German, or African, is that what you tell?
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Tell us, was your growing up, as we suspect, a process of division?
A part here, another there.
Where are those parts, sitting on a mountain high,
lolling on the seas' edges somewhere,
or buried under tons of fertile earth?
Will they remember their days with you, can they tell?
Tragic separation for you, how was it for them?
Will you ramble on of those offspring with your friends?  
And will you publish, tell your tales with us on Monday mornings?
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Photos and Poem Copyright © 2014 Jimmiehov. All Rights Reserved
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Linked today with the Real Toads, Open Link Mondays with Marian
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Note:
The top picture shows the river rock bed surrounding our home. This view is off the back porch, the dog is Katrin, our French toy poodle.
The bottom picture has five rocks that I collected on my travels. In the center is a lava rock I found near the base of Mount St. Helens shortly after its eruption in May 1980. The four rocks encircling it I found in a river bed when we traveled west beyond the blue horizon in 2001. The four are very bright and pretty when wet.