Dramatis persona*

helenhead Helen Chick

I've always wanted a bumper sticker that said "I'm a female, LDS/Mormon, Scout leading, geocaching, piano-playing, bicycling, mathematics educator with a PhD in maths ... and I VOTE"!

I think this makes me a minority group of cardinality 1!

* Since there's only one of me and "personae" is plural (I think), I've gone with dramatis persona.

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52. Deep in Thought [100 poems challenge]

 

52.          Deep in Thought

Hmmmmmmmmm.
I got nothing.

10 June 2013

 

Comments: This is poetry? It does, however, have the twin selling points of being contradictorily/ironically self-referential.

Themes to come: 53. Keeping a Secret; 54. Tower; 55. Waiting; 56. Danger Ahead; 57. Sacrifice

Explanation about the 100 poems […]

June 22nd, 2013 | Category: Poems | Leave a comment

51. Sport [100 poems challenge]

 

51.          Sport

Kitted out in cast-off white pads,
Mouthguard fitted, but no mask,
Broken straps on battered kickers,
Thin gloves grip my hockey stick.
Nose is chilled on winter morning,
Fog obscures the further goal,
Parents huddle on the sidelines
Rugged up in their coats and scarves.
Field is merely grassy tussocks,
Every pass a random shot;
Mud grabs firmly to my boot studs,
Clearing kicks just slow […]

June 21st, 2013 | Category: Poems, Reminiscing | Leave a comment

Half-way there

I have to admit that I hadn’t quite realised how long 100 days is! If I had fully comprehended this at the beginning maybe I wouldn’t have started. Having said that, however, I am quite enjoying the challenge despite the inevitable pressure that comes with trying to fit it into my life along with everything else, […]

June 20th, 2013 | Category: Poems, Slightly mad activities | Leave a comment

50. Breaking the Rules [100 poems challenge]

 

50.          Breaking the Rules

If you follow the norms
Of all literary forms
It will prove that you know how it’s done.
But the sign that will show
Just how deeply you know
All the typical tropes is when you thumb your nose at the standards and do your own thing.

8 June 2013

 

Comments: More meta-irony. And another case of something […]

June 20th, 2013 | Category: Poems | Leave a comment

49. Stripes [100 poems challenge]

 

49.          Stripes

The African zebra is such a strange sight,
But key information I lack:
I wonder if it’s coloured black stripes on white,
Or rather as white stripes on black?

7 June 2013

 

Comments: I’m fairly sure this kind of thing has been done before by somebody else … and probably better. And, should you be wondering, apparently — […]

June 19th, 2013 | Category: Poems | One comment

48. Childhood [100 poems challenge]

 

48.          Childhood

When the world was bigger
And the sky bluer
Adventures required
Just a small patch of bush
With places to hide;
Or a sloping street
Where we’d fly downhill
Jammed inside a pram—
No brakes, just a rope,
And faith it would hold.

When the world was bigger
And holidays longer
A shack at the beach
Was a brand new country;
An unmarked road
An expedition
To the great unknown,
While creeks […]

June 18th, 2013 | Category: Poems, Reminiscing | Leave a comment

Up close with “Spectra [Tasmania]”

There is a winter arts festival on in Tasmania at the moment, called “Dark Mofo”. One of the installations is Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda’s Spectra [Tasmania], which involves 49 massive searchlights organised in a 7×7 array. The beams can reach 15km into the sky although we’ve had clouds in the way pretty much all the time […]

June 17th, 2013 | Category: Photos, Reviews | 2 comments

47. Creation [100 poems challenge]

 

47.          Creation

Constrained to match the theme,
I search for inspiration,
I need a rhyming scheme
To suit the situation;
The accents and the rhymes
Require some cogitation,
And fail to work sometimes
Which adds to my frustration.
At last a turn of phrase
Brings feelings of elation,
While boring old clichés
Are cursed with condemnation.
All verse is circumscribed,
Each has its culmination:
This poem has described
The tale of its […]

June 17th, 2013 | Category: Poems | Leave a comment

46. Family [100 poems challenge]

 

46.          Family

When we were young—three girls, two boys—
We generated lots of noise:
The raucousness of childhood games,
Odd arguments, and calling names;
Some sneaky pranks and telling tales,
Accompanied by laughs and wails.
Though now we’re older, more assured,
It’s not quite clear that we’ve matured,
There’s still some teasing, prods and pokes,
Rude belches, chaos, silly jokes;
Our banter, mischief, devilry
Are simply sibling revelry.

June 16th, 2013 | Category: Family, Poems | 2 comments

Moods of the Mountain #9

I think winter may well have arrived at last. It has been cold and overcast and rainy for most of the day, and just as the sun set a patch of blue appeared temporarily and the snowy clouds lit up pink. More moody mountain photos can be […]

June 15th, 2013 | Category: Mountain moods | Leave a comment
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