Prompt: Write your own Sei Shonagon-style list of “things.”
Things Found in My Workroom
Currently:
A very nice sewing machine
72 spools of thread, mostly cotton
1 pair of sharp fabric scissors
6 pair of not-so-sharp scissors
4 boxes of fabric, loosely sorted by weight and color
3 unfinished quilts
1 box of mending
37 skeins of wool, worsted weight
52 skeins of wool, two-ply
12 skeins of sport-weight cotton
8 skeins of kitchen cotton
4 skeins of yarn from India of unknown fiber content
43 rolls of washi tape
1 box of scrapbook paper
3 pads of drawing paper
62 colored pencils
12 water color pencils
1 cabinet full of assorted crafty things
1 closet full of assorted crafty things
1 comfy chair
1 fluffy rug
After I die:
A very nice sewing machine
Yarn and a bunch of other shit
Good Will at the Goodwill - NaPoWriMo Day 7
Sunday, April 7, 2019
Prompt: Gifts and Joy
Good Will at the Goodwill
Forty-one thousand four hundred forty.
Sometimes I add up all the stitches
Of a project
I have knitted.
One hundred and twenty-seven.
Times I remembered to jot
Down the details of
Something I knitted.
Over one hundred and twenty seven.
Times I gave away - to
A friend or someone I'll never know
At a hospital or
At the border - something
I have knitted.
Once.
I found a scarf
I had knitted
In a bin
At the Goodwill and
I remembered the yarn -
Expensive,
Silk and alpaca
Running through my fingers
Onto the needles.
One hundred percent
Sure I didn't run that scarf through
The washer
And
The dryer
Before wrapping it in tissue and
Slipping it into a gift bag.
Fifty cents
Later
A matted scarf
On my worktable.
One hundred twenty-eight:
"A set of four felted coasters
Cut from a Goodwill scarf,
Buttonhole embroidery around
The edges."
Good Will at the Goodwill
Forty-one thousand four hundred forty.
Sometimes I add up all the stitches
Of a project
I have knitted.
One hundred and twenty-seven.
Times I remembered to jot
Down the details of
Something I knitted.
Over one hundred and twenty seven.
Times I gave away - to
A friend or someone I'll never know
At a hospital or
At the border - something
I have knitted.
Once.
I found a scarf
I had knitted
In a bin
At the Goodwill and
I remembered the yarn -
Expensive,
Silk and alpaca
Running through my fingers
Onto the needles.
One hundred percent
Sure I didn't run that scarf through
The washer
And
The dryer
Before wrapping it in tissue and
Slipping it into a gift bag.
Fifty cents
Later
A matted scarf
On my worktable.
One hundred twenty-eight:
"A set of four felted coasters
Cut from a Goodwill scarf,
Buttonhole embroidery around
The edges."
Haiku to an Easter Dress - NaPoWriMo Day 6
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Prompt: Write a poem of the possible, focusing squarely not on what has happened, or what will happen, but on what might happen if the conditions are right.
Haiku to an Easter Dress
No carbs for six weeks
Talbot's dress in my closet
Two sizes too small
If You Knew - NaPoWriMo Day 4
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Prompt - A Sad Poem
If You Knew
If you knew,
Would you talk to me more carefully?
Avoid future conversations?
Avoid me all together?
I would understand. I get it.
If you knew,
Would you cry?
Ask me to tell you more?
Want to know every little detail?
Would you compare your grief to mine?
I'd win, I promise.
If you knew,
Would you hug me tight?
Let the silence be?
Wait for me?
This is the problem with
Inexplicable sadness.
Overwhelming grief.
Unfathomable heartbreak.
When you know it
You can never stop knowing.
If You Knew
If you knew,
Would you talk to me more carefully?
Avoid future conversations?
Avoid me all together?
I would understand. I get it.
If you knew,
Would you cry?
Ask me to tell you more?
Want to know every little detail?
Would you compare your grief to mine?
I'd win, I promise.
If you knew,
Would you hug me tight?
Let the silence be?
Wait for me?
This is the problem with
Inexplicable sadness.
Overwhelming grief.
Unfathomable heartbreak.
When you know it
You can never stop knowing.
I Blame Myself - NaPoWriMo Day 3
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Prompt: An Unfolding Story
I Blame Myself
I looked out our picture window
To see the neighbor's herd of Angus
Hurriedly flock toward the south
Like a murmuration of starlings
And right behind them
The tornado
And I screamed like a 14-year-old
Girl screams
When she's scared
And we all
Went to the basement
And listened as it howled
Past our farm.
We sat in the hallway of the
High school
With hundreds of other parents and little
Tap dancers and ballerinas as a fleet of tornadoes
Roared through our county
Disrupting Sarah's very first dance recital
And I shivered as Maggie sat on my lap
And on Clay's lap
And on my lap
And on Clay's lap
And screamed like a two-year-old
Girl screams
When she's scared
And a woman way down the hall
Died of a heart attack.
Super Duper Doppler Radar
Triggers our panic a full day ahead
Of the weather front
And blankets
And flashlights and snacks are
Hauled downstairs in
Anticipation and plans are altered
And appointments are cancelled
As we gather in the basement
In frightened fellowship but
There is no screaming because we are
Grown-ass mother and daughter who
Refuse to pass our panic on to those
Who are happy for this chance to
Poke around in Mimi's basement.
Sometimes still I wake up and
Think I am screaming at a tornado.
I Blame Myself
I looked out our picture window
To see the neighbor's herd of Angus
Hurriedly flock toward the south
Like a murmuration of starlings
And right behind them
The tornado
And I screamed like a 14-year-old
Girl screams
When she's scared
And we all
Went to the basement
And listened as it howled
Past our farm.
We sat in the hallway of the
High school
With hundreds of other parents and little
Tap dancers and ballerinas as a fleet of tornadoes
Roared through our county
Disrupting Sarah's very first dance recital
And I shivered as Maggie sat on my lap
And on Clay's lap
And on my lap
And on Clay's lap
And screamed like a two-year-old
Girl screams
When she's scared
And a woman way down the hall
Died of a heart attack.
Super Duper Doppler Radar
Triggers our panic a full day ahead
Of the weather front
And blankets
And flashlights and snacks are
Hauled downstairs in
Anticipation and plans are altered
And appointments are cancelled
As we gather in the basement
In frightened fellowship but
There is no screaming because we are
Grown-ass mother and daughter who
Refuse to pass our panic on to those
Who are happy for this chance to
Poke around in Mimi's basement.
Sometimes still I wake up and
Think I am screaming at a tornado.
Accident on 31 - NaPoWriMo Day 2
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Prompt - Question
Accident on US 31
I saw the swirling cloud of dust ahead of me and thought
"Isn't it early for them to be in the fields?"
"Where'd that dust come from, didn't it rain yesterday?"
"What's up with the brake lights up there?"
And then in the middle of the
Just-happened accident.
Conjoined car and truck to my left
Jewels of windshield glass on my
Side of the road.
Don't look, keep driving.
Don't look, keep driving.
Don't look, keep driving.
Get out of the way, you are no help.
Others with cell phones were running
And as happens every once in a while
When there's a high temperature or an
Unexplained rash, I wish I had listened to
My mother when she asked "Why don't you
Think about nursing school?"
Get out of the way, you are no help.
Don't look, keep driving.
Jewels of windshield glass
Crunched under my tires
Get out of the way
You should have stopped at Target.
Don't look
What if that light at the intersection of 7 and 31
Had been green?
Accident on US 31
I saw the swirling cloud of dust ahead of me and thought
"Isn't it early for them to be in the fields?"
"Where'd that dust come from, didn't it rain yesterday?"
"What's up with the brake lights up there?"
And then in the middle of the
Just-happened accident.
Conjoined car and truck to my left
Jewels of windshield glass on my
Side of the road.
Don't look, keep driving.
Don't look, keep driving.
Don't look, keep driving.
Get out of the way, you are no help.
Others with cell phones were running
And as happens every once in a while
When there's a high temperature or an
Unexplained rash, I wish I had listened to
My mother when she asked "Why don't you
Think about nursing school?"
Get out of the way, you are no help.
Don't look, keep driving.
Jewels of windshield glass
Crunched under my tires
Get out of the way
You should have stopped at Target.
Don't look
What if that light at the intersection of 7 and 31
Had been green?
How To Cut Your Husband's Hair - NaPoWriMo Day 1
Monday, April 1, 2019
Prompt: Instructions
How to Cut Your Husband's Hair
It will seem like a regular evening.
After a nice supper
You'll be sitting on your
Sides of the couch
Maybe you'll each have a book
Or you'll watch TV
Or be on your phones playing
Words With Friends with each other
While the Scrabble board sits
On the game shelf.
And you might look over at him
And think, Oh, he's cute
In his little glasses and the
Soft greys sprinkled through
His still dark hair and eyebrows
And one side of his chest.
And you might remember
That in 1979 his hair was long and
Thick and parted in the middle
And beautiful and
Was the perfect complement to the
Black velvet suit and wide red tie.
And you might take a moment to say a
Little prayer of thanks that
Your children were blessed with his hair
And his no-nonsense approach to life
And he might notice you noticing
And he'll look over and say, "Hey,
Would you want to cut my hair tonight?"
And you'll think of taking the clippers
To the soft hair that really is
The perfect length at this very moment
And how the clippers will turn him into
Gus Grissom
And how, even through you've cut his hair
Every six weeks or so for
The last three years it
Still makes you nervous to take that
First swipe and watch the tufts of
Hair fall from the clippers into his
Cupped and waiting hands
And even though it drives you a little crazy
When he reminds you
As he always does of which
Number comb to snap onto the clippers
For which part of his head
And even when you pull a $20 from
Your purse and slap it on the counter and say "Here,
Go to a f*&#ing barber," when he
Smiles at you and says "But I like when
You cut my hair" you say
Sure.
How to Cut Your Husband's Hair
It will seem like a regular evening.
After a nice supper
You'll be sitting on your
Sides of the couch
Maybe you'll each have a book
Or you'll watch TV
Or be on your phones playing
Words With Friends with each other
While the Scrabble board sits
On the game shelf.
And you might look over at him
And think, Oh, he's cute
In his little glasses and the
Soft greys sprinkled through
His still dark hair and eyebrows
And one side of his chest.
And you might remember
That in 1979 his hair was long and
Thick and parted in the middle
And beautiful and
Was the perfect complement to the
Black velvet suit and wide red tie.
And you might take a moment to say a
Little prayer of thanks that
Your children were blessed with his hair
And his no-nonsense approach to life
And he might notice you noticing
And he'll look over and say, "Hey,
Would you want to cut my hair tonight?"
And you'll think of taking the clippers
To the soft hair that really is
The perfect length at this very moment
And how the clippers will turn him into
Gus Grissom
And how, even through you've cut his hair
Every six weeks or so for
The last three years it
Still makes you nervous to take that
First swipe and watch the tufts of
Hair fall from the clippers into his
Cupped and waiting hands
And even though it drives you a little crazy
When he reminds you
As he always does of which
Number comb to snap onto the clippers
For which part of his head
And even when you pull a $20 from
Your purse and slap it on the counter and say "Here,
Go to a f*&#ing barber," when he
Smiles at you and says "But I like when
You cut my hair" you say
Sure.
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My Little Writing Blog
Some poems, some stories, some random thoughts on random things.
And maybe some of my always-in-process fiction.
With love and peace,
Georgie
