As a final tribute to Poetry Thursday, Liz has asked that we wander through our own past Poetry Thursday contributions and find one that we want to share again.
Although my poem choice was never offered in response to the weekly prompt, It was offered as part of a comment on Claire Harnett's "participant feature." by Claire April 4th, 2007 in participant feature stories.

My comment, in part, plus my poem is below

I came here (to PT) frightened of writing poetry. As is the case with most things, my fear was due to ignorance. All the poets here have taught me that if you try they will help you.

Clogyrnach to Poetry Thursday




‘ere I found Poetry Thursday
Poetic form was my mainstay.
Free form did not fit.
As luck would have it,
loosely knit
was okay.

rel

Photo by DAL

Thank you Liz and Dana, And to each and every poet who came to Poetry Thursday and were totally supportive of my efforts every way. My love affair with poetry is all you're fault ;-))

It's Friday, the last Friday of summer 2007. I'm on call tonight but have the long weekend off. Some of the kids are coming home...J. and C. for sure, and M. and J. were not sure yet, depending on whether they have company of their own. The weather is forecast to be perfect for the end of summer get together. We will be enlisting the kid's help in moving out of the summer cottage and back to the main house. It's just as well, since the month of September is full to the brim.

Next weekend we travel to the mountains with L. and K. for three days. L. and I will be participating in a three day, 90 mile canoe race.

The weekend following that, D. and I leave for a two week vacation in France. We anticipate getting together with at least two blogging friends whom we've never met in person before. As well, we hope to renew friendship with a young couple we met two years ago in France and have kept in loose e-mail contact since.

The month of October will be spent at home and at least one momentous Birthday will be celebrated. Speaking of which; I'll be celebrating my birthday in France and my sister who was born on my 12th birthday will be "celebrating" her 50th.

The month of November will see us traveling to Texas for a visit with our Middle child and his family..including our grand daughters whom we haven't seen in two years. That will include a humongous Thanksgiving gathering followed up by our son's wedding (a second marriage for both he and his bride), at which time we will be gifted with two additional grand-daughters! This will take place on the following Saturday. Then on Sunday we will travel northward to San Antonio for a week long anesthesia conference.

Then back home just in time to get ready for Christmas. Whew..........

But first... I'm on to seize the day ;-)

4 AM

At 4 AM, your image I spied
Through the window, opened wide.

Silver white, completely round,
You slipped by without a sound.

Moving to your shadowed date
With astronomy's predestined fate.

Watching as your face eclipsed;
Earth's shadow blocking sun's warm lips.

With mornings dawn, alas, alack,
'Twas 4 AM 'fore you came back.

Casting her net by the light of the silvery moon.

With her honey she'll croon love's tune, by the silvery moon.

#74 - "I get that sinking feeling..."

#74 - "I get that sinking feeling..."

"I get that sinking feeling" when I contemplate retirement. Not that I want to retire, and good thing that, for I'm afraid I couldn't if I did indeed want to. Retire, that is, in the sense of stopping doing the job I'm doing, to stop being employed, to stop going to work everyday, to stop earning a paycheck...a living.

The prospect of relying on savings, investments, retirement accounts (IRA's, annuities, etc), and SSI for the remainder of my days gives me the shivers. It's a fact that those collective funds could not last more than a few years in supporting my current lifestyle or even a pared down one.

My wife likes to quip when asked when I am planning to retire; "he can't retire until he stops spending money."

The fact is that too many people today out live their retirement nest egg. Plain and simple!

I like my work, I like going to work everyday. The work is mentally stimulating and instantly gratifying with little or no physicality associated with it. My work puts me into intimate contact with every age group from newborn to nonagenarians.

If you don't already know, you will soon enough find that advancing age and illness have a way of disrupting plans; plans to work "'til the end."

Here in our small town newspaper, the back page is where the obits are published. When folks ask me when I'm going to retire I say, "When you see my photograph on the back page of the Journal, don't look for me at work that day."

I get that sinking feeling when I think about outliving my retirement income.

A blanket of low lying clouds
Scurrying over a river alive
With white caps and sailboats.

One, two, three sails slicing
Swiftly to the northeast
With the river's current.

It would be an uncomfortably
Hot and muggy day, were it not
For the stiff breezes gusting offshore.

A ragged unpleasant day-
Yet, with all it's accumulated
Bad aspects; roiling angry
Waves, gusting winds, overcast
Sky, there is a sense of calm
Infusing my mind. A restfulness
Unexplainable but present never-the-less

The sun breaks through from time to time,
As if to try and bring a sense
Of optimism to an otherwise dreary day.

#73

#73

Dear diary;
I was at my desk reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a story I've read many times. He had retired to the bed hours ago. As engrossed as I was in the story, sleepiness had begun to cloud my senses. I had started Chapter IV; "It was on a dreary night of November,that I beheld the accomplishments of my toils." I didn't notice anyone enter the room nor come behind my chair. The firm but gentle touch against each of my temples kept me from turning my head to see my company. Startled at first, the gentle circular caressing motions calmed and relaxed me. It was easy for me to slump back against the chair and let the gentle feathery touches titillate and excite me. Finger tips brushed my cheeks, followed my jaw line and encircled my ears, sending shivers down my body. Using hands as a comb in my hair, I was lulled into erotic thoughts. My body responded as warm breath was whispered against my neck and flickering licks of a warm wet tongue tickled my ear lobes. Those teasing fingers slid down the back of my arms and curved around to cup my breasts from below. My nipples responded to the gentle fondling of these hands that seemed to find each erotic trigger of my body and send mini darts of electricity to the apex of my thighs. My face felt flushed and my skin erupted in goosebumps with each stroke of those nimble fingers.There was no rush, just slow continuous sensory stimulation bringing me closer and closer to an erotic high-light.

I couldn't stand it any longer. I needed to embrace my lover and feel lips on lips, tongues writhing in tender duels; licking, sucking, tasting the flood of emotion. I wanted to feel those hands caress my back, my buttocks...my ass, yes my ass! My need was overwhelming, I was ready and I needed to be taken now...I couldn't wait....I wouldn't wait.

Turning to face my patient teaser, I was shocked to see a tall well built person wearing a ski mask! Before a sound could escape from my mouth, those, previously tantalizing, fingers encircled my throat and squeezed so tightly that no air could move in or out. I flailed against my choker beating his chest with steadily weakening fists, kicking his shins to no avail. My body went limp and consciousness was rapidly escaping. I thought; "I'm going to die, right here, right now. My husband will find my lifeless body in the morning when he comes through here on his way to the kitchen to get his coffee. I'mm going nooowwwww............................. "

My eyes flew open, I sat upright in bed, I was panting with hard breathing and covered with sweat..."Oh my God, what a dream that was." Shaking with fear and relief, my breathing slowed, my heart stopped trying to leap out of my chest and I began to feel relaxed. I looked over to my husband's side of the bed. His back was to me and he was breathing the heavy breathing of deep slumber. I spooned up behind him and began to gently blow on his neck and I reached around in front of him......................................

The Perseid Meteor Shower
Credit: Sirko Molau, IMO, Archenhold-Sternwarte

When the alarm sounded at 0400 this morning, 13 August, 2007, I awoke and turned it off. It was an unusual happening, as my usual time to awaken is 0330 and am usually out of bed by 0350. The weekend has been as busy as I had predicted, but I wanted to get up to see if I could view this years Perseid Meteor Shower. Alas, 'twas not to be the case. The gurus of astronomy said that 0200 might be the peak time to view approximately 90 meteors an hour. but any time up til dawn should provide a good show. At 0408 I was lying down on my back on the picnic table gazing up into the night sky. There were a few clouds but the sky was mostly clear and full of bright stars. By 0435 the clouds became progressively more dense until I felt as though I were peering through a tattered quilt and glimpsing infrequently a star here and there.

In spite of the fact that I missed seeing a meteor shower, the act of lying under the night sky perusing the bazillion stars and constellations, listening to the waves lap against the shore, and enjoying the refreshing breezes as they caressed my skin I was renewed.

An illustration of the Perseid meteor shower showing the radiant. This would be the view at about 11 pm BST on 11th or 12th August. CREDIT: Stuart/Stellarium

It's been one of those weeks! You know, the ones where you have eight days of tasks to get done in seven. It's Friday morning and already I feel like I've been flattened by the" busy week steamroller." It's not that everything is unpleasant or difficult or even un-appreciated....it's just overload, and the fact that I'm on-call for the weekend is literally the straw, and that's before any emergencies....if there are any.

Last weekend, two of our three children were home to celebrate the youngest's birthday. The weekend was summer perfect and we all enjoyed the weather, the food, the river, visits from friends and neighbors, and some kayaking. My friend Leigh came by with his kayak and stayed for a visit. His presence served as a reminder that he and I have won a spot in the 90 mile canoe race to be run the weekend after labor day. So Monday meant starting to train in ernest.

So my mornings have been given over to exercise and paddling at first light. This has necessitated a severe reduction in my blogging, since mornings have been my blog time. In addition I've been walking the 2 1/2 miles to work everyday, and that eats up seventy minutes out of every day.

Tuesday evening, Leigh came by with our new racing canoe, which we had yet to christen, so we could try it out. We paddled 'til dusk, giving it a good work out and were pleased and confident that it will serve us well.

Wednesday evening, good friends from Alaska came to visit with their eight year old daughter and two of her cousins. They come home every summer but for one reason or another we've failed to connect in the last three. This was a delightful surprise and thoroughly pleasant visit catching up on each other's lives. They always bring us fresh caught (well close enough) Alaskan salmon. Which, by the way, is superb when grilled over real charcoal.

Lastly, and most aggravatingly, the work days have been long necessitating my presence late everyday. To make it even more aggravating; the case load was not extraordinarily huge, it just took all day to get the work done. It seems like SNAFU, delays of one sort or another, and FUBAR behavior was the sign of the week. So by last night I was so hot tempered we could have cooked dinner on my forehead. In fact I skipped dinner thinking that as worked up as I was it would only cause indigestion.

And now it's Friday morning and the start of a three day call weekend. If it plays out like the previous week I'll be unfit to live with by Monday night, if not before! Who likes to be near a screaming memey?

I know: whine, whine, whine...life's a bitch and then ya die. ;)

Week # 62 Evening Haiku

Slowly fades day light
In the evening of my life
Youth revisited

#71 - Decision

#71 - Decision

The Anatomy of a Decision

by Doctor Lambed Kroner;

anesthetist and philosophizing physicist

1. Do I have enough information already or do I need to do additional research?

2. Go to the electronic bookcase, ie; the internet...gather information; facts, opinion, previous outcomes.

3. Mix with ideas, facts, myth, or in between in the human mixing bowl---- ze brain/skull.

4. Weigh possible outcomes against desired outcome, ie; evaluate the odds.

5. Act!

August 2nd 1977 - 2007
Happy Birthday Jacob!
Mom & Dad