In The Scheme Of Things

Paint Chip Poetry

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No one’s really a blank canvas

In the grand plan and scheme of things

We tend to carry with us – 

All the stuff that life’s journey brings

Our childhoods – which like the Spring

Are merely a green flash

Then adolescent romance hits 

With tongue-tied attempts – that tend to crash

Then school is finished 

We seek out higher things

Opportunities fresh-squeezed

Life as yet to bear its sting

Some pass through the next few years

A tumbleweed without purpose

Your parents disapprovingly

Acting like you had runaway to join the circus

For some life brings rainstorms

Torrents of savage woe

Under the sea of troubles

Not sure of where to go

But our canvas is not blank

All those experiences to life you bring

Your easel adorned with a collage 

A big picture of the scheme of things

Padre

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Paint Chip Poetry Prompt #38: Although, I suppose, you are limited by these odd paint chip words and phrases: fresh-squeezed, tongue-tied, green flash, rainstorm, blank canvas, tumbleweed, and under the sea. Because they are a weird conglomeration of words, I’m only going to ask you to use three. But bonus points if your plan is to use them all and you succeed.

When I’m Old

Waylin at Pixabay

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There are many lessons – so I am told

That I should consider – for when I’m old

Chickens, I should not count – before they are hatched

And it’s permissible – that my socks be mismatched

Cumulonimbus clouds mean – it probably will rain

That will be almost as accurate – as my rheumatism pain

The grass is always greener in the neighbours’ yard

Because mine should be gravel, because mowing’s to hard

My garden should have some hints of verdant green

Kept in raised beds – where they are easy to be seen

And because I’ll be no wild Huckleberry – on the run with Jim

A rocking chair will be the place for me – not chasing about like him

And when you come to visit – the spice market that you’ll smell

Will just be Ben-Gay and vapour rub – to keep me feeling well 

And when my evenings come around and I sit in candlelight

The antique brass will be varnished –

No need of polish to keep it bright

There are many lessons – so I am told

That I should consider – for when I’m old

 

Padre

 

Paint Chip Poetry Prompt #37:

The theme for this week is When I’m Old. The words or phrases for this week are wild huckleberry, cumulonimbus, verdant, spice market, antique brass, the grass is always greener, and candlelight.

Red-Velvet Future

Red Velvet – Pixabay

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What shall the future show –

What do our fortunes hold?

If wishes really do come true –

Surely our fondest dreams will unfold.

It shall be like a new beginning,

A fresh dawn of peace and light

The rising of the dawn’s new sun –

Filled with the morning‘s glory bright.

The future will bring luscious cheer

Thick red velvet – us – softly surround

Cocooned from threats or fears

All adversity to confound.

No more – shall life be terra-cotta baked

Filled with bluffs and lies

But honesty shall bloom afresh

Before our very eyes.

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Padre

Paint Chip Poetry Prompt #35

The Challenge:

The theme is The Future. The paint chip words and phrases are: morning glory, red velvet, terra-cotta, and bluff.  The three angel words are: honesty, light, and peace.  Pick at least one of the angel card words to shape your future world and use all four paint chip words as colors.

 

Bygone Promise

Pixabay

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Paint Chip Poetry Prompt #34:

“Today’s challenge is to write on the theme of I Promise. The paint chip words and phrases are sparkle, lapis lazuli, honey, rusty, brushed aluminum, open sesame, and rolling hills. Please use at least three of these terms . . . .”

I made the promise long ago –

Amid rolling hills and pastures green.

In a field of honey-coloured grain,

The sky blue – lapis lazuli, 

Witnessed my oath – that a farmer I would be.

But my passion for the land has lost all sparkle

Like the stars – beneath clouds of smoke harmful

The world, now of brushed aluminum and glass –

Of sterile concrete and iron works rusty

Has closed me in.

What shall I do to escape –

To find the land of my promise?

Will it roll back time – and set me free

If I just said, “Open Sesame?”

 

Padre

 

 

 

 

 

Swimming Lessons

Pixabay

The lessons started very well – learning laps to swim,

Though it got a bit harder – down at the deeper end,

The butterfly stroke with wishboned arms –

Was quite hard for me – a firefly with extended tail

Would be a better description – you see

If that were not bad enough – next came a swim at sea

When faced with waves – I was shown-up by all

Leaving me with envy – patina green

So to the shore I went – to wait there in the sun

And when the lessons were at an end

An heirloom tomato I’d become.

 

Padre

 

Paint Chip Poetry Prompt #33 Theme: From Best to Worst and the words and phrases to draw from are lap swim, the deep end, green with envy, heirloom tomato, firefly, patina, and wishbone. Your challenge is to use at least five of these words in your poem.

Odd One Out

Image: Amazon

 

Can you remember – back in the 80s

When cell phones looked like a brick?

Strawberry lip gloss – was all the craze –

Unless you went for bright cherry lipstick.

Shoulder-pads – on femme power-suits were worn

And bright coloured tubes – to keep your legs warm

Then to top off – the whole enchilada

Big hair was the thing of the day

But I’ll bet ya’ your very last sand dollar 

That Stallone looked odd – dressed in that way

 

Padre

 

 

Paint Chip Poetry Prompt #32:

“The prompt words and phrases are lipstick, brick, the whole enchilada, sand dollar, peachy, nectar, and coral. . . .  Since the usual game of One of These Things Is Not Like the Others has only four choices, that’s how many of the paint chips I’m challenging you to use in your poem.”

Once Upon A Time

Pixabay

There was a long time ago,

In days of old, as you may know –

Fairies, and all kind of folk fey –

That we seldom see around us today.

Among these was – Princess Jacaranda – Royal,

Whose mother Queen Pandorea – did tend to spoil.

She was so accustomed to getting her way

That in the Blackberry Patch Kingdom –

She refused to stay.

So she did wander so far from home

That she found herself lost and quite alone.

Thus isolated in an unfamiliar land

With no one to guide her or give her a hand  –

She succumbed to her fears

And she fell into tears –

Ultraviolet streaks down her face.

And if you go near –

Even today – you will hear –

Her sobs as you pass by the place.

 

Padre

 

Paint Chip Poetry Prompt #31:

Once Upon a Time –  “you must use all four of the paint chip words, which are royal, jacaranda, ultraviolet, and blackberry. You can either include the angel card word or just allude to the concept of obedience (or disobedience, if you prefer).

Buried Treasure

Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash

When I was little – when I was small

With the simple things – I could have a ball

A lazy lizard,

Turmeric yellow – in the grass

A sea serpent would become

My old leather boot pirate ship

Would sail past giving him all guns

Then in euphoria

A buried treasure I would find:

A penny in mum’s potpourri

That someone left behind

 

Padre

 

Paint Chip Poetry Prompt #30 “This week we are writing about childhood, about When I Was Little. . . .  The words and phrases to consider are turmeric, lazy lizard, potpourri, penny, old leather boots, sea serpent, and euphoria. This week I’d like to see poems using at least three of these words or phrases.”

Long Lost and Found

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

On a tropical beach by a sea of peacock blue

Site of their honeymoon, and now of Anniversary Two

What seemed a bright idea – 24 months past

To write on a shell of a love that will last

Of children of yet to even be born

They named on that shell on that honeymoon morn

And what do you think today that they see –

As they squat by the tide with a baby’s breath by their knees?

A hermit crab tiny – their child’s name on its home

Little Lotus and the crab together – they snap on their phone

 

Padre

 

Paint Chip Poetry Prompt #29:

The prompt words an interesting mix. You have these seven words or phrases to work with: tropical, peacock, baby’s breath, bright idea, lotus, pomegranate, and hermit crab. I’ll only require you to use four, but let’s see who rises to the challenge of using them all.

Grateful

Pixabay

I am thankful for –  the blazing sun

That drives away rain – allowing for fun

For hobbies and excursions – things to do

Sports Days and races – with their ribbons of blue

Rolling meadows and grasslands

Great evergreen stands

For the deep dark woods – where squirrels do play

And coastal discoveries – like driftwood grey

Hunting for fossils in the red river clay

I’m grateful for the world – spread before me today

 

Padre

 

Paint Chip Poetry Prompt #28- I Am Grateful: Use all seven of these paint chips words and phrases: blazing sun, blue ribbon, fossil, red clay, grassland, deep dark wood, and driftwood. Bonus points if you can write your poem in rhyming couplets.