In praise of Mom

A word of thanks to mom.

I thank my mother for all her nurture and hard work,

the love and effort she invested in me.

she invested in me.

The loving care etc etc

but thanks is not praise.

In Praise of Mom.

Praise is admiration whether it helps me or not,

and Mom deserves  a ton of that,

World champion almost blind lady

who did so well at home and work

that people forgot she was blind.

she shood people out of her kitchen

because they got in her way,

and was never embarrassed to ask for help

to read a recipe or thread a needle.

most of all she could handle my father,

when the darkness came over him

and he could not get unstuck from the negative,

face to face whe would scold and bully and challenge him

to be his best

and so her voice is still in my head

20 years after her death,

praising me for my best qualities

and challenging me to be my best.

In Praise of Mom.

the assignment is to praise – first prose attempt

RECENT ACTIVITY

(name)
Nine down! 3 to go!! I’m so tired!
I think silliness has set in!
Paul Robert Sanford You are wonderful to have come this far. You have the stamina and determnation to make it!
You have come this far and put out a great and focused effort. You were terrific before, but now you are enobled, and example for your future self.
Silliness is a perfectly legitimate mood.
You will rise up like an eagle when you see the next prompt!

(It is an exercise in praise.)

The assignment is to praise.

I is one thing to do it in the abstract,, but practicing on real people  keeps me stuck in prose.  But that  is a start.

______,   you are doing your best. You might not be doing as well as you would prefer, but right at this moment you are doing your best.
Life is hard and full of challenges, and clearly you are still trying, and that is wonderful.
The prompt this hour is to praise someone – how about praising yourself for a few minutes and set aside scolding yourself.
It is not just the power of positive thinking, it is reframing what feels like defeat into some kind of victory that will give you hope and energyl
Many people just give up totally. I know I have done so many times, but when you decide to give it your best again, let that be your reward,, that you are able to try,, and do not focus on results. They are not guaranteed. But if you argue with yourself when you put yourself  down and feel wretched and self-loathing, it will help. It will help. And you can do it. You are a caring mother and a worthy person.

 

Praise

Write a poem of praise, praising a person, a place, or a thing  filled with admiration and gratitude.

stay off the grass

A half a million visitors with

a million feet

loving the meadow to death

now march in step to the photo op

of the magical carved granite

They liked to ride on my back still,

the small people,

when we walked these planks.

The body to body time

made us one

in a way that the passing of the years

could not trample.

TRUMP TOWER

Stick and suck,

the glass is slick

perfect to stick and suck

58 floors of glass

to fame and fortune

the ultimate huckster

draws the worlds attention

to me, a little bug

with suction stickers

rhythmically,

carefully,

climbing the slick surface

slick as the surface of the wizard who lives here

whose magical powers have enchanted the kingdom

holding all in thrall

a fat bug casting a spell

seeming to be shiny and smooth

I will climb this surface

that reflects all looks

the mirrored surface

opaque

but fragile

easily cracked and broken.

Stick and suck

the glass is slick.

I climb to fame and fortune

it is all a fairy tale

but where is the knight pure of heart

where is the wise fool

where is the innocent maiden

who will slay the loathsome bug?

not me.

I just want to cut me off a hunk of this jive.

 

Paul Revere computer dating.

I got dumped by three women in one day.

One in by phone

One in person

I was waiting for the passenger pigeon

But the third came UPS.

Neither I nor the British will be coming.

OCD Ode to Some Kinda Love (Pantoum)

I have no obsessions,

They have me.

I have no compulsions

I do things voluntarily.

They have me

These little rituals I do.

I do things voluntarily.

I can’t stop thinking of you.

These little rituals I do.

I drove you away with my junk

I cant stop thinking of you.

Since you packed up and left with your trunk.

I drove you away with my junk

Wondering every day if you love me.

Since you packed up and left with your trunk,

I’ve got nothing but time to kill.

IWondering every day if you love me,

Do yu, do yu do yu do yu do?

I’ v got nothing but time to kill

I’ll tell yu that I love you that I love your true.

Do yu, do yu do yu do yu do?

I’ll say a million times that I love you

I’ll tell yu that I love you that I love yu true.

It’s just a think that I have to do.

I’ll say a million times that I love you

I have no obsessions, (they have me)

I’ll tell yu that I love you that I love yu true.

I have no compulsions I do things voluntarily.

Prs 1:25 pm 8/13/16

Scribbler’s note: I know this turned into a very bad country western song,

and that the meter needs to be cleaned up for it to scan for any possible tune,

But I really do have mild OCD, and I love you, gentle reader, but I’m not gonna dive back in there.

It was starting to have a life of its own like a runaway truck filled with bricks on a downhill slope.

It took too much effort to get out and stop.

The hideous clock

Inspiration meted out by the minute

the minutes counting down for this hour.

Take this bus or the next one?

Fly this metaphor to home or save and savor it?

 

Falling in Love with Love again

One boy, one special boy,

She peers at me over her coffee cup with a cheerful but cautious sense of evaluating some livestock not in its prime but available at a good price.

Her wrinkles and fit frame, my unlined face over soft bulging tummy and under bald pate.

The memory tunes begin to roll though us.

One boy, one special boy, one boy to be with forever and ever, or at least what is left of it.

Put that ring around your neck, tell the world you’re mine by heck.

High on a far and windy hill, two lovers meet and their hearts stand still.

All that crap we scarfed up in Jr. Hi in the pop music of the day,

the mantra of the love paradigm of the time

then we rollicked through the crucible of the Sixties,

sex, drugs, rock and roll,

no rules no limits

sleep with a stranger!

Now  we are old, and we meet, older and wiser, the margin for error thinning as the coming shadows of old age draw near.

We have no time to goof around, and we revert to our childhood monagamy, sizing up each casual encounter as a potential lifetime pard, a person we may push in a wheelchair and clean their diapers, and pretty dang soon.

Do we put a ring around our finger or our neck that will capture us and make us captive to someone who only has a few good years left?

And the women are all fit and financially secure, doing hot yoga and marching up forest paths while I recover from divorce and disability vague diseases.

How sexy is diabetes, vertigo, bipolar disorder, erectile dysfunction?

I still know where a clitoris is and what to do with it to  give joyful pleasure, but my adversary in this game is too smart for me, and passionate desires of the flesh are under control, cannot be used to further my case.

One is the loneliest number you can ever do.

Get used to it.