Choose a Word and Write a Poem or a Prose Text about it.

[Danik 2016]

I got the idea for this thread from The White Book by the South Korean writer Han Kang. Han Kang made a list of several white things and wrote a text about each item. The book is beautiful. It is an exercise in poetic prose. Its intense, deep and simple at the same time because of the associations and memories of the author. Although some of the texts comprise just a few lines long, they hit the mark.

I´ll start with the word "house".

House is a word that conveys to me a sense of security, stability and coziness. And this though my family, for various reasons, was always on the move. We lived sometimes in houses, sometimes in pensions, later in São Paulo in apartments. I always thought: when I am grown up I´ll stay all my life in the same dwelling. It´s true that I stayed quite a long time in each apartment. But I changed residence some times and I intend soon to be moving again.

[tailor STATELY]

"Home"

"Home", for me, will always be a surreal abstract
My Grandfather's house in NW Seattle in my youth
Far removed from these times, my twilight years,

Had upon my psyche perhaps the greatest impact
Allowed a certain freedom to roam seeking truth
My awareness blossomed in three distinct spheres:

"Home", with four siblings, Father, Mother was family
Slightly dysfunctional (got worse every year) a bit
Hard to navigate at times which gave me two escapes -

School - no passion there; 1st and 2nd grade really
A waste of time except for the fact that I must admit
Books now held more than pictures of immutable shapes

Books of fantasy and encyclopedic knowledge gave
Rise to a place I could retreat when the telly was
Parentally domineered and I could literally disappear

But my favorite times were when I roamed. I crave
The woods, the gullies, the shores of Carkeek, 'twas
A different time, I know, but the freedom was sheer

Joy to be away from the fallout that our nuclear fold
Subjected me to, notwithstanding the Cold War era
Which tortures my impressible mind to this very day

And then we moved, and moved, and... truth be it told
I miss the waves, skunk cabbage, and nettles, etcetera
Looking back I see my "home" through a certain naiveté

8/4/2022

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

Delightful poem: "Books of fantasy and encyclopedic knowledge gave/Rise to a place I could retreat when the telly was/Parentally domineered and I could literally disappear.(lol,snif!)

Scraps of Childhood

Through the mist

A big and dark house

with cellar

Animals, animals, animals, animals

immense white fur balls, napping on the lawn

my yellow cat Jeremias

(who choose to stay when we went away)
tortoises, all wandering away

Grandfather giving me a toy tortoise

"This one won´t go away". It didn´t.

Staunch rejection of plastic dolls

A toy baby car filled with plushies

until I capitulated to Lili, the blond girl

who was as big as a four year old.

When I discovered books,

reading became the extension of breathing,

I wasn´t much at home anymore.

I was always traveling inside a book.

[tailor STATELY]

Scraps of Childhood

Through the mist

A big and dark house

with cellar

Animals, animals, animals, animals

immense white fur balls, napping on the lawn

my yellow cat Jeremias

(who choose to stay when we went away)
tortoises, all wandering away

Grandfather giving me a toy tortoise

"This one won´t go away". It didn´t.

Staunch rejection of plastic dolls

A toy baby car filled with plushies

until I capitulated to Lili, the blond girl

who was as big as a four year old.

When I discovered books,

reading became the extension of breathing,

I wasn´t much at home anymore.

I was always traveling inside a book.
... Wonderful recollection poem :)



the room

my mother and father smoked - I
remember crawling beneath the smog
line in the front room - the room with
the telly where my siblings and I watched
cartoons and superman, and Disney,
and Ed Sullivan with my parents -
the room with the baby grand piano
that my Grandmother must have
played, because no one else ever did,
except when we put our train set on top
- the room where the Christmas
tree was put up and decorated each
season with ancient delicate colorful
ornaments, most likely heirlooms
from family past - the room that had
leather bound encyclopedias (1953)
where I discovered dinosaurs ! and
sets of similarly bound books for children
including fairy tales - the room with the
sofa where my year younger brother and
I bickered and he lost his temper and left,
returning with a kitchen knife... leaving
a 6.5 cm cut (now scar) between my thumb
and index finger from fending him off
- the room with a closet where one could
hide snuggled next to a mink stole coat
and suits and overcoats - the room which
adjoined the dining room where mother
would serve wonderful dinners of English
fare on the dining table that doubled as
a platform for coloring books (one with
dinosaurs !) and playing with Mr. Potato
Head and Cootie Bug - the room where we
had an ant farm for a time before we moved

8/5/2022

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

Loved this poem! :) Will write my next poem tomorrow morning, because in the mornings my head is clearer. (Got in late today, because I had to go out in the morning).

[Danik 2016]

My next word is "city"

My city

Just a spot in the universe of cities
(or among the cities of the universe)
But not so a tiny spot neither.
It spreads horizontally
with its millions of inhabitants, cars, disasters
with its eternal glee and misery
its scanty leaves of grass
its uneven streets
habited by ever increasing streams of homeless.

But my city also spreads vertically.
Its roots go back to 1500 and something
when a group of Jesuits
coming up from the seaside
inadvertently built
its first school,
separating Indian kids
from their families.

Since then São Paulo
has become multilayered city
with each layer trying to erase
the ones that came before and
persist in adhering to memory.
Where is that bar,
that used to be here?
Where my favorite library?
Where is the cinema I
used to visit with my friends?
Sorry, they don´t exist
anymore.
Now you have here
a new bank, a theater
and lots of skyscrapers
because the city is eager to enclose
its million of inhabitants in
10 km² residences.

Thus, the city that never sleeps
is also condemned
never to find its
definitive form.
Not so firmly rooted
to its past,
its tentacles project
into a future
that, everlastingly changing,
never comes to rest
in its present.

[tailor STATELY]

Wonderful poem... a vibrant city !

I too must delay for a time... so busy just now.

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

Thanks, tailor! I know, it´s Sunday! Have a nice day!

[tailor STATELY]

catacrostic


cute fur ball curled head to toes when at rest
attacks my naked feet when I try to slumber
tonight will be another day: wearing slippers

8/9/2022

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

AAAIII! For cats their humans probably appear as outsized mammas (incomplete though, without fur and without milk) and gigantic playthings.

Same word!

Cat
I can´t write poems
about a cat,
because the cat
is a poem in itself
conceived on a sunny day.

A cat is a proof
of nature´s sense of humor
tinged with airs
of lost grandeur.
The "domestic tiger"
reminisces of wilder spheres,
while using ones heart
as his favorite pillow.

[cacian]

really loved your CAT poem Danik.
It put a smile on my face haha :biggrin5:
and talking about smiles...

laughter tickles
your thoughts
that never believe
you're at fault
wrong is
spoilt

a smile takes
you to an isle
where
everything is a little
while
but then
it simply is
a small mile till
it tiptoes
to a fabulous style
life
that never expires
and
out of date is fired!

[tailor STATELY]

Two wonderful poems :)



laughter

one would find me quite dour at first glance
unless I was in that rarified, perchance,
moment of a giggle or guffaw come froth
with kindred spirits cut from the same cloth
familiarities with whom I could confide -
you see, I'm always laughing on the inside

8/10/2022

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[cacian]

catacrostic


cute fur ball curled head to toes when at rest
attacks my naked feet when I try to slumber
tonight will be another day: wearing slippers

8/9/2022

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor


loving this piece tailor much enjoyed! :)

[cacian]

Two wonderful poems :)



laughter

one would find me quite dour at first glance
unless I was in that rarified, perchance,
moment of a giggle or guffaw come froth
with kindred spirits cut from the same cloth
familiarities with whom I could confide -
you see, I'm always laughing on the inside

8/10/2022

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor


much enjoyed tailor this one is superb!
thank you for posting! :)

[Danik 2016]

Loved this two poems on laughter. I choose the same word

Laughter

Ripples of freedom
Detain pain
or conquer it altogether.

[tailor STATELY]

Enjoyed :)


acrostic in b-flat

miniature creature rests upon me
of intricate design, of subtle browns
tolerates my shallow breath, my beating
heart; abides the fan cooled air

8/18/2022

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

Lol! Enjoyed "acrostic in b-flat"!

Prosaic acrostic

Windy weather
inclement icicles

no sun

temperature 9º
ever feels like 6º
rain soaked ground.

[tailor STATELY]

Wonderful acrostic :) Hard for me to imagine icicles in S.P.

Autumn... misinterpreting ee cummings (lol)

Autumn exists between you and I and
gladness fills these, my sweet foothills.
It was in the spring of this very year
(a spring of cleanup after snowmageddon's chills)
I welcomed the glad warmth of the sun's face
—tailor, pinxit, a painter of words.

Some who speak “Allemand”... may ponder
is Goethe exempt from heaven’s grace,
in an engraving belonging to my friend ?
Whom I salute, by what is near to us;
and in a gestured city stilled in anticipation of the
twilight of Spring....and the dream of dreaming
within a dream—

And I fall back, quietly musing,
though autumn remains indisputably between us,
whence death’s peculiar kiss ?

ref: https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-vii/

8/20/2022

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

I prefer the "interpretation" to the original, in spite of its tragic question! Even poor Goethe was called in, e.e. cummings as the new Romantic.

Icicles

Pendant winter jewels,
gems of nature
that melt
at the first rays
of sun.

Humans strive
to build bridges
between summer
and winter,
abridging autumn.
Rather than the icicle,
the Cristal.


Icicles in São Paulo would look like that:
https://br.freepik.com/fotos-premium/roda-de-scooter-congelada-em-pingentes-de-gelo-tempo-frio_21622640.htm

[tailor STATELY]

Very nice :) Icicles in S.P. !

I see you caught some of the allusions in my poem. For the uninitiated:

My misinterpretation of ee cumming's poem contains many "near" elements:

S1 is essentially myself currently in Summer relative to Danik 16 in Winter (since we're in separate hemispheres), ergo Autumn between us. I need to clean up the "snowmaggedon" allusion... too parochial.

S2 is Danik 2016... (Allemand, French for German) with Goethe's, Poe's, and ee cummings' nuances (and many others) with regards to dreams within dreams); the city S.P. in winter looking to Spring. The lines alluding to Goethe himself are a bit vague... need to clean up here a bit too; perhaps change Allemand to the more appropriate "Alemão" ?

and S3 reminiscent of Dark Muse, re: a line she wrote years ago: "poison upon my lips" in a 3-part shared haiku buried on LitNet; the "autumn" here more existential.

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[tailor STATELY]

duplicate bug

[tailor STATELY]

Latest revision:


misinterpreting ee cummings (lol)/revised

Autumn exists between you and I and
gladness fills these, my sweet foothills.
It was in the spring of this very year
(a spring of cleanup after record snows)
I welcomed the glad warmth of the sun's face
—tailor, pinxit, a painter of words.

Some who speak “Alemão”... may ponder
is Goethe exempt from heaven’s gate,
its entrance belonging to my friend ?
Whom I salute, by what is near to us;
and in a gestured city stilled in anticipation of the
twilight of Spring....and the dream of dreaming
within a dream—

And I fall back, quietly musing,
though autumn remains indisputably between us,
whence death’s peculiar kiss ?

ref: https://cummings.ee/book/and/poem/sonnets-actualities-vii/

8/20/2022 r.

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

I am flattered to be represented in your poem as S2.

I actually liked the expression "snowmageddon's chills", it carries a personal and maybe local flavor.

"is Goethe exempt from heaven’s gate,/its entrance belonging to my friend ?". You don´t mean certainly that I consider myself a better poet as Goethe.

I liked very much your use of the seasons in the poem. But the end "whence death’s peculiar kiss?" chilled me somehow. I am superstitious.


-

[tailor STATELY]

• :)
• Prolly right: going with "a spring of cleanup after snowmageddon" in my archive.
• lol... Poetic license :)
• Haven't come up with anything better re: "death’s big rotten particular kiss." misinterpretation... I'll keep playing.

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

•:)
• :)
• ;) See below
• :( :(

Torquay and Darnay

There once lived in Murray,
but it might have been today,
The poet Torquay
and a friend
Versifire Darnay.

One day,
the month was May,
Torquay said in a poetic way,
That versifire Darnay
thought himself a better poet
Than Goethe.

When Darnay
saw the display
he recoiled in dismay:
Aiaiai!
Never did I say
or even imply
such an enormity!

'cos Goethe,
Even if clay today,
Is still the greatest poet
In the German language.

The sly Torquay
just blinked an eye:
It´s just poetic license.

[tailor STATELY]

Enjoyed... lol... very cryptic. One garden path leads me to William Topaz McGonagall, https://wearesouthdevon.com/worlds-worst-poet-beautiful-torquay/ and Charles Dickens. An interesting locale Torquay https://www.camsecure.co.uk/torquay_harbour_webcam.html , home of Fawlty Towers as I recall... and they have a bowling alley !!!

[Danik 2016]

lollollol-I swear I never ever heard about this unlucky poet, nor about any place called Torquay. The nearest I come to Torquay was the italian poet Torquato Tasso. I was looking for rhymes in "ay" with T and D. The name Darnay yes, is stolen from Dickens.

[tailor STATELY]

lol


Orange... an acrostic

Oblate spheroids - expect juice
Raw concentrates need dilution
Aggressive peels add zest
Natural color paints delight
Gastronomic treats in the key of C
Explicit expressions of joy

8/24/2022

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

Enjoyed!

Garden-acrostic

Gentle ground
Abundant ants
Random roses and Rosies
Daffodils and ducks
Earthly Eden
Nurturing Nature

[tailor STATELY]

Acrostic & alliterate :)



flowers

floral fastidious fantasies
lyrical loquacious lilac lubencies lovely
occasional orchids ornamental offerings overcome
wisteria wonderlands wow
ebullient edelweiss evanescences effloresce
roses rhapsodize
snapdragon's sweet soliloquy

8/26/2022

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

Ditto!:)

Rivers

Respecting
the turbulences
of time,
of all times,
rivers flow
rivers run,
carrying
bards, boats and beauties
to unknown shores,
leaving debris
behind them.

[tailor STATELY]

FAITH

For God said “Let there be light…”
And there was, and I wept -
I rejoiced knowing His plan was in motion
This was the first day
Hallelujah !

8/30/2022

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

:)

Lantern

Shifting light
Illuminates
the dark corners
of the road.

Maybe
curiosity
about
hidden treasures
drives us on.

[tailor STATELY]

Very nice :)

The following was for an assignment for our poetry group: Subject Birth/Berth...

I, Zygöt / * Golden (Acrostic) Shovel

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." - Ah,
Life ! Pre-mortal beings we were before birth... how
Eternally blessed we truly are; rankles the weary
Scientific/social so called wisdom of expediency - I
See with open spiritual eyes and am
Endowed with the knowledge of
Divinity who inspires even I, the lowliest of poets!

* Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Part II, Chapter 39, On Poets: "Ah, how weary I am of poets!"

8/30/2022

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

Meing

Just a small bit of me.
floats in a warm nourishing sea,
This blind small thing that is me
sleeps and sleeps eternally
in this sea without shores and shrines.
.

[tailor STATELY]

• The acrostic style I used was the first letter of each line: b l e s s e d

• The Golden Shovel part is the last word of each line: "Ah, how weary I am of poets!"

• re: "Do you say: "Divinity who inspires even I", or "Divinity who inspires even me,"?" - Lol, my English is adequate at best, I don't even know which is more proper (room for study); "I" sounded better to my ear and reflects the "I" in the title and reflected elsewhere - poetic license perhaps :)

•re: "Meing" - quite enigmatic :)


balloons

balloons suit my fancy
energetic and fluid
lighter than air, yet buoyant
a strong resilience
undeniably ascending higher
dimensions

9/3/2022

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

-Yes, of course! How stupid of me!
-:) Didn´t know that resource!

- Your English is very good! (Had to teach that for so many years) "I" usually is the subject, it is the one that does things. "Me" is the object, the receiver of actions. "I would say "Divinity who inspires even me!" but In English sometimes you use me instead of I like in "Who is that?"- "That is me".

Enjoyed "balloons"!

"Earth"

Ball or Balloon
Our floating Planet
Universe among universes
linked to the all, yet detached
covered by the diminutive human species
who cries, plays, toils, fights, dies,
dreaming about nobler worlds.

[Danik 2016]

Hope

An abstract word
For the happiness
of living the future
For cultivating a winged
imagination
For the branching out of
expectations...
embracing each newborn
creature
Furnishing the unknown
With horizons.

[tailor STATELY]

Duplicate bug while trying to edit

[tailor STATELY]

The following poem was for an assignment for our Thursday at Two poetry group yesterday... being ill I couldn't attend but shared it in an email...


Thanksgiving / an acrostic

(4-Words provided by Dustin my 4-year old Great-Grandson: seven/napkin/game/white)


Tender gratitudes memorialized with

Happy celebrants all aglow

Another holiday dinner together

Nuclear family bonds again strengthened anew with

Kindest felicitations for our dinner provided

Seven o'clock for our buffet feast (après games)

Gleeful thanksgiving trappings surround us, though

Informal settings with white paper plates and napkins provided

Various sumptuous platters to consider

Including turkey and casseroles and ambrosia

Niceties precede dinner with heartfelt prayer...

Gladsome tidings hint of Christmas

12/1/2022

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

Enjoyed the poem, specially the atmosphere of celebration. We don't celebrate Thanksgiving but have these buffets for marriages and celebrations,
A memory
In the old days
Celebrations
Were full of
Excitement.
Laughter
Food
Children running around.
I used to meet my friends at parties.
Of late I meet them at burials.

[tailor STATELY]

Duplicate bug

[tailor STATELY]

Happy and sad poem... enjoyed :)

Tomorrow's assignment for our Thursdays at Two group was to be woven around "Three Wishes"... here is my effort:






Three Wishes
"A wish is a desire without energy" - Paramahansa Yogananda; whereas prayer is a conversation with God.


Perhaps I might find an ancient lamp at an antique store with a grateful loosed Genie to grant me three wishes without guile:

I might wish for dour men of war to smile and come to their senses and become the brethren that they truly are,

I might wish that all disease were eradicated - that all children might live out their full four-score years as the Psalmist wrote, and more...

I might wish I could visit Italy and throw pennies in the fountain of Trevi in Rome to perpetuate my visits there... and there

As it is I am content to remain humble and blow softly upon a dandelion's puff to scatter my wishes to the wind for færies to facilitate...

Yet I'll rely on my righteous prayers throughout the day that they might become fulfilled by our beneficent Heavenly Father, but only as He will.

7/5/2023

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Danik 2016]

Loved it! Good assignment.

Let me have a try!

Three wishes

I´m not modest
First wish:
I would wish a healthy world for plants, beast and men:
no diseases, no poverty, no wars, no hatred, no murder.

Second wish
I would wish I could learn the secret of happyness.

Third wish:
I would wish for three more wishes to use in case of emergency!

[tailor STATELY]

Forgive me for responding to your poem so very late :( ... I am much chagrined. Enjoyed :)

A few poems that I wrote with prompts from our Thursday at Two poetry group:

The prompt here was to write an abba cddc poem with the "wind" as a prompt:



AbbA cdCd

I dreamt of a host of white daffodils
caressed by a concourse of honeybees
whose wings created the only faint breeze
A gladsome sun created codicils

to the poetry of bright contentment
of a diamond Spring resplendent in dew
I sat with my Savior beaming whereto
we discussed His infinite atonement

3/5/2026

Note: I fudged above and made 2-tercets and 1-couplet that appears as 2-quatranes :)


Next a Word Can poem: airborne, glossy, donate, enclose, concoction, opinions, knight, plead


to whom it may concern

enclosed my pleadings:
10 8x10 glossy photos
of myself in strife of an airborne
concoction of the pollens of death.
please donate your opinions.
your humble knight in misery
:tailor

3/5/2026

yes... it's allergy season.

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor