Tag: magnetic poetry

Tiny Tuesday!


Trying to decide if there’s something crafty I can do with my Magnetic Poetry tin, which was damaged in the Harvey flood of August 2017.

Especially the interior.

When Tom took it down off a high shelf for me, he could tell something was inside it, and it turned out to be magnets that were once on the refrigerator inside the Doll House at The Compound. I’d forgotten all about my David magnets, which I think were from our late friend Jeff. After my mother moved away and the Doll House was empty, it became a guest house, as well as a place where my business was located, my dolls were in display cases, and it was available for friends and me to use for meetings and social gatherings.

Later, when Timothy moved to Houston, the Doll House became his home, and I think he may have added the magnetic words that were also in the tin.

For your Tiny Tuesday regard, here are some of David’s fun fashions. I guess I’ll leave out the unclothed version, since exquisite art seems to be labeled as X-rated by people who see only through the lens of sexualizing all things.

Button Sunday

Since April is National Poetry Month, I chose this button.

After a very long and sleepless night of looking after Jack, I figured he was entitled to use his artist voice with some Wood Words (same company that makes all the Magnetic Poetry kits). Here’s his perspective.

I spent most of the dark hours of last night trying to keep him company and clean up after him. I think I fell asleep around five AM, and Tom was up by 6:30 AM. Jack was still feeling bad, but there was a lot less bloody diarrhea that needed to be cleaned up, which was great. I did laundry all night, and that continued throughout today. Gastroenteritis is hard on a little dog. He did finally start drinking water, which was a huge relief. He was badly dehydrated yesterday, and that can lead to shock and death. Twelve hours of IV fluids helped his body get on the right track; now drinking water holds another crisis at bay.

Be assured, the bed in this photo has since been washed, but this was Jack refusing food for at least the dozenth time today.

I mean, that bed… Ugh, but it doesn’t even begin to show how the house looked like a crime scene. In only minutes, Jack could leave five to seven puddles of blood across a room. It’s awful to imagine what his belly must have felt like.

He spent most of the day lying on a “pee pad” in Tom’s lap, sleeping while Tom watched TV, and we both kept laundry going. When all the other dogs ate dinner, Tom finally put the little bowl of food in a crate with Jack and closed the door. I went to check on him a few minutes later and…

Success! That was around 6:30, and again after 10 PM, he ate another small helping of food. So we are hoping very much that everyone sleeps tonight, the floors and dog beds are still clean in the morning, and Jack has indeed gotten his wish that “feeling good will come with time.”

Thank you everybody who texted and messaged and checked in on him today. We needed the support. Now we need sleep.

the real story

Today, Tom and I went to a neighbor’s funeral. It’s his second in-person funeral during the pandemic (which I count as beginning for us in March 2020), my first in person during the same time (another one, I attended online).

I’ll miss talking with her, which these past years meant calling out to each other with the street between us. We could pack a lot of opinions and laughs into those conversations, as I did with her daughter, who died in 2020. They both loved family, music, dogs, and politics. Probably you can see why I enjoyed being neighbors with them.

Afterward, I came home and went back to my manuscript. On a break, I wrote this little poem using words from The Nerd Poet Magnetic Poetry Kit.

I do sometimes use the Coping Skills Toolbox that I blogged about in April 2020. Today, I copied the MagPo poem into the little journal where I used to record poems several of us wrote using magnetic words. I probably need to look inside this box more often.

Tiny Tuesday!

An impulse buy for myself at Barnes & Noble. It’s been a while since I bought a new set, I think.

And my first effort, while taking a brief break from blog repair.

I have two characters who are not in any way geeks and who wish I’d finish fixing the mess someone inflicted on my blog so I could get back to writing their chapters. In truth, if they WERE geeks, they’d be more help in making that happen faster.

Button Sunday

April 24 is Firefly Day, named in honor of the 2002 television show “Firefly.” The button is a quote from the show’s theme song. “Firefly” was supposed to run for seven seasons and had a passionate fandom, but Fox canceled it and broke hearts everywhere.

In 2012, I was housesitting at Green Acres while Lynne was out of town. (She’s living in her fourth home since those days. That seems impossible.) I had my laptop with me and was using it to watch “Firefly” on Netflix. I’d heard a lot about it in previous years, and Tom had watched it and thought I’d probably like it, though it wasn’t my usual fare.

The year before that, 2011, I blogged a magnetic poetry poem every day, and because I was doing those, Marika sent me a box of “Firefly” magnetic words and phrases. Of course they made no sense to me until after I began watching the show, but even before that, they were fun to drop randomly inside my poems.

Flash forward to 2017, when I lost a lot of my magnetic words in the Harvey flood. The “Firefly” words were safe. They’re still here. In honor of the show and its fans who continue to love the show’s single season and one movie twenty years later, I give you a poem using “Firefly” magnets.

My parents were married on April 24. I wonder what they’d have made of the space Western. Daddy loved Westerns (books, movies, TV shows), and we all watched Westerns on TV growing up. I wouldn’t have called my mother a fan of space shows at all, except that one of the times she lived with us, Tom was watching “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” (I was usually writing in another room.) One time when Tom wasn’t home to watch TNG, she said, “How will we find out what happens next?” which is when I knew she was only pretending to read while he had the show on.

She might have liked “Firefly,” too.

Mood: Monday

Got another new book.

Since I’m writing responses in this one, not sure I’ll always share the answers. But today, I chose “Have you ever had to give up on a dream and if so why?”

First thought: This book is not big on proper punctuation.

Then I got out my Wood Words from Magnetic Poetry creator Dave Kapell (it’s signed and numbered on the bottom, and I had forgotten all about it until I went looking for something else).

I pulled some words to add to my answer. It’s a mood.

Vibes


Pulled out this little tin box today and wondered, Why are there two breath mints in here with these words? OH, YEAH. These once stayed in flood water for a while and smelled bad. They’re fine now.

Here are all the words from the Little Box of Happiness tin. Feel free to use them to make a poem. You can even put it in my comments, if you like.

I did it.

July Fourth 2020

I am lucky enough to be able to keep up with most of our nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews via social media (that isn’t Facebook). Today, I was struck very much by a page Cassidy shared, a re-post from Celisia Stanton:

It’s an hour ’til midnight now, and I’m still thinking about this. No doubt 2020, half gone, has been horrible and challenging. And yes, July Fourth is different for this white woman this year.

A thing I still believe: In the worst of times, there are moments of joy, grace, redemption, learning, and growth. Growth is never without pain.

Anyway, I put together this MagPo poem. Hope you’re all safe and sane and remembering to see the wonders and feel the joys.