Dramatis persona*
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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What mountain?!
(This is the thickest fog I’ve seen here so far, although it was only this thick for about 15 minutes. If you check some of my early mountain moods photos you will see one from 4 May last year which was not quite so dense.)
Other moods of the mountain photos can be […]
21. Vacation
Pristine lake and rugged mountains
Blood red sun and smoky sky
Sloping tent-site, run-down campground
Mining town, its glories gone.
Ancient kombi jammed with camp gear;
Further filled with Mum and Dad,
My four siblings, me as well, with
Room enough for two Dutch hikers.
10 May 2013 (technically the other side of midnight)
Comments: These are my memories of a holiday […]
20. Fortitude
It was labelled nutritious
And it looked quite delicious
And he sure wanted something delectable.
He took one bite and chewed it
But before long he rued it
Because unpleasant tastes were detectable.
With a grimace, and gagging —
And an appetite flagging —
He continued to chomp with great fortitude;
What he’d so hoped to savour
Had a horrible flavour
Clearly proving ‘twas not what […]
19. Grey
My childhood world was
Dichotomous black and white,
Not myriad greys.
8 May 2013
Comments: Haiku had to turn up eventually. There are 81 poem slots remaining, which leaves plenty of time for a sonnet and a limerick and some chiasmus and a ballad and double-dactyl and …
Themes to come: 20. Fortitude; 21. Vacation; 22. Nature; 23. […]
18. Rainbow
When jobs to be tackled
Accumulate faster
Than they can possibly
Ever be done,
The far distant end
Of this lengthy list
Of tasks to be tackled
Becomes more elusive
Than the famed pot of gold
At the end of the rainbow.
To make matters worse,
The rainbow is prettier
And I would not begrudge
The journey while following it
Even if treasure
Is not to be found.
8 […]
17. Blood
A miner whose quest for copper
Was thwarted by tragedy;
A woman who moved half a world
And lost three of her sixteen children;
A Scout leader whose half-century
Of service turned boys into men;
A teacher whose students never forgot her,
Who made music possible;
A boatman, a shoemaker;
A carriage builder, a nurse and a housemaid;
A poet whose verses gave voice
To his […]
16. Questioning
When you are eight the world is a wonderful mystery,
And all that needs to be known resides in the wisdom
Of aunties and teachers, Cub leaders and parents.
You’ll eventually learn that the answers they give
Are, perhaps, not aligned with the facts
Or mirror their ignorance and not true reality;
But, until then, seek your revenge in advance
And drive […]
15. Silence
You were always the talkative one
Sharing your news
Updating the goss,
A call on the phone,
A quick SMS.
But, lately, there’s been a different tone—
I can’t work out why;
Something I said?
Drifting apart?
Who knows what I did?
It’s not that we no longer talk or converse—
We still say hello
You answer my call—
But, sad to say,
That seems about all.
Gone are the […]
14. Smile
When you’re just two
The smallest thing
Like peek-a-boo
Can make you grin.
The joyful face
Of one small child
Like warm embrace
Makes adults smile.
3 May 2013
Comments: On Sundays at Church I have great fun running a 10 minute singing time for the children in “nursery”. These kids are between 18 months and 3 years, and so their speaking—and […]
13. Misfortune
Seeking lost spheres of
SiO2
Might drive a person a little crazy;
Misplaced beads
Of glass make you mad.
To lose one marble,
My dear reader,
May be regarded as a misfortune;
To lose more
Looks like carelessness.
2 May 2013 (with apologies to Oscar Wilde)
Comments: I couldn’t get inspiration for this at all, until I had vague recollections of a quote from […]
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