No Accounting For Taste

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Arlene, who is
A summertime friend
Reads my bad poems
From beginning to end

Every Sunday she says
Need it or not
She opens my blog
To see what I’ve got

Mom-in-law has
This bad habit, too
Her Sunday isn’t over
Completed, or through

Until she has read
The poem I have written
Of the insanity bug
She must have been bitten

And of my Twitter buddies
Ian comes to mind
He reads my poems weekly
Lest he fall behind

Twitter buddy
And author to boot
Pam say she finds
My poetry a hoot

For a bad poetry fix
These kind people know
That my silly blog
Is the place to go

Are there more of you?
I ponder, I wonder
Who tune in weekly
For my new poetic blunder?

If so, please tell me
Please fill me in
And some extra stanzas
Next week I might spin

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Character Flaws

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I‘ve been writing about Cassie
For many a moon
Her character came to me
But not a second too soon

Sometimes a personality
Pops out of thin air
Some characters are easy
But sometimes, I swear

Sometimes they’re stubborn
They hide back in my brain
And refuse to come forward
No matter how I complain

Cassie’s been like that
What makes her tick?
She finally has told me
But like I say, none too quick

Cassie’s been coy
On her background, she’s been shy
I kept writing her anyway
Kept asking her why

Yesterday she finally
Took pity on my plight
She told me all about herself
Much to my delight

So Cassie’s the star
Of this book I am writing
And finally she’s talking to me
Oh, how exciting

I like Cassie a lot
And think you will, too
Her story’s called Unbelievable
I’ll tell you when I’m through

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Rock People Rock

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Every year
I dig in the dirt
I wear old jeans
And a raggedy shirt

With enough water
This I do know
The flowers will bloom
The garden will grow

As much as the plants
I like other stuff
And of pretty rocks
I can’t get enough

Some folks like snowmen
But that’s not for me
I build rock people
As you can see

They stand in my garden
They like it a lot
And last time I counted
Fifteen I have got

Some are big
Some are small
Some are short
And some are tall

They offer some whimsy
To my garden décor
Visitors laugh at them
They’re a big hit, for sure

With a bad storm
They can tumble down
But of this hazard
They never do frown

Unlike Humpty Dumpty
Rock people are resilient
I re-build and re-balance
If I do say so—brilliant!

So this here is my
Garden population
I really do like
My rock people nation

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Duckling Dearth

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Every year
When I come back
To my Vermont
Summer shack

I know the ducks
Have survived
Because their ducklings
Have arrived

After mama
They follow along
On the lake
Where we all belong

But this year,
What a shock!
Nary a duckling
Near my dock

Have they found
A better lake?
That’s impossible
For goodness sake!

Maybe a late spring
Caused a duck dearth
And we must wait longer
For ducklings’ birth

Whatever the cause
I keep waiting and hoping
I don my binoculars
To do some lake scoping

Maybe this week
They’ll finally appear
But no ducks thus far
Is really quite queer

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Hello Vermont

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When we get to Vermont
The first thing we do
Is put in our dock
And when we are through
We find the paddles
And hop in the canoe

When we get to Vermont
It’s usually late May
Although I’m a Vermonter
What can I say?
I don’t like cold weather
So until spring I’m away

When we get to Vermont
We sweep out the shack
Scare away the mice
And tell them we’re back
We buy a few groceries
And then we unpack

When we get to Vermont
The lake is unfrozen
A better spot for our shack
We could not have chosen
Got frolicking to do
So this poem I’m closin’

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Binoculars Bereft

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Trying to rhyme
But driven to distraction
By all the Puerto Rican
Birds in full action

No bird book with me
But I’ll try to tackle
More than just these
Antillean grackles

Several shorebirds
Tend to be white
The egrets I can
Identify by sight

But two other white birds
One is much smaller
And the other white one
Is bigger and taller

The mourning doves
Like it here, too
I didn’t expect them
But have seen quite a few

Pelicans coast by
The biggest in size
In fact, they’re so huge
They get my size prize

A big grey guy hopped past
The hotel room last night
Alas, I could not
Name him by sight

A pair of green parrot things
And I do mean bright green
I’ll look them up later
To know what I’ve seen

The Baltimore oriole
Was a long way from home
I suppose in the winter
Southward they roam?

And terns of some sort
I think that’s what I saw
Several little chicks
With their paw and their maw

Binoculars and bird book
I’ll remember next time
Cuz all these Puerto Rican birds
Have been downright sublime

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Life in a Vermont Shack

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Summer is
My favorite season
Listen up
To hear the reason

I go to Vermont 
Where I have this shack
Fancy amenities
It sure does lack

This shack of mine
Is on a lake
A setting like that
Ain’t hard to take

On the porch
I sit and sit
Do I get bored?
No, not one bit

The waterfowl
Make me happy
Sometimes I get
Downright sappy

The dock is small
But I like it a lot
In the whole wide world
It’s my favorite spot

Two weeks from now
I’ll pack the car
A very long trip
I’ll travel far

But boy it’s worth
The effort it takes
To get to Vermont
And be at the lake

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Voila, C’est Paris!

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It wasn’t something
We were looking for
But we found this map
For sale in a store
Old time Paris
Hey, what a score!

We bought the thing
With no wall wide enough
And we packed it away
With some other stuff
Keeping it perfect
Was a little bit tough

It’s twenty-five pieces
Have I mentioned that yet?
We waited for years
And our dream condo we did get
We had a wall for Paris
We were pleased and all set!

But now our challenge
Was how best to hang it
We now had the space
But it’s 25 pieces, dang it!
We faced that wall
With our hammer and banged it

We got the thing up
With much trepidation
And now when we see it
We are filled with elation
Turgot’s Plan De Paris
What a creation!

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A Contest, Honest

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Playing With Poison
The audiobook is out
You haven’t read it?
No need to pout
Just finish this poem
And give me a shout

Five audio prizes
I am giving away
You’ve read this far
So what do you say?
This is free, people
You won’t have to pay

So leave me a comment
If you’re intrigued but at all
But hurry, don’t wait,
Don’t forget, and don’t stall
And you could be listening
And having a ball

I’ll choose five winners
Five lucky souls
On Saturday, May 3
This contest will close
Who will I choose?
Nobody knows!

But this Cue Ball audio
Might be yours for the taking
Yes, it’s exciting
This scheme I am baking
If you are a winner
Your hands will be shaking!

Once you have your
Free audio code in hand
Listen up and laugh
But don’t just there stand
And here’s my request
But not a command

It you like what you hear
And I’m quite sure you will
I’ll ask you to take out
Your book-reviewing quill
And leave a review at Amazon
About this audio-book thrill

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Fine print:  To be eligible for a free Audible version of “Playing With Poison” leave a comment on this blog post.  Five winners will be selected from the comments left through Saturday, May 3, and each winner will receive a code for a free Audible copy of Playing With Poison. You will need to have an account at Audible.com to use this prize. Note, this is not a CD copy of the book. Thanks for your interest 🙂

 

Spring in the South

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Of spring flowers
I love the most
Are the ones
As white as ghosts

Daffodils pop up
So bright and cheering
Their yellows and golds
Tell me spring is nearing

And tulips vivid
In colors like red
I like seeing them
In long flowing beds

Azaleas bloom
In purples and pinks
But the white are the nicest
That’s what me thinks

And set underneath
Some dogwoods in bloom
Makes my heart go
Pitter-patter, ka-boom

Springtime white flowers
So downright ethereal
Thank you for giving me
This week’s poetry material

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