Rub a dub dub
Curious Critters in a tub
Blood pressure going down
Calories burning up
Meowie, Ant, Elf, Squeak & the pup
Hot tubing by Peggy
Find Yourself in Hot Water
Poem
Easter Pome & “HEALTHY” Chocolate Brownie Recipe
This Easter be a vegetarian
It’s only utilitarian
don’t eat rats
or worms or bats
Celebrate the day
and eat hay
No chocolate covered ants
chow down on plants
No eggs fried
there’s a chick inside
Don’t EAT us few
and we won’t BUG you.
“Be kind to all people, love humanity, consider all mankind as your relations and servants of the most high God.”
Here’s our bribe
It’s hard to describe
Healthy Double Chocolate brownie recipe
Click here to imbibe
Happy HALLOWEDeen
Hocus Pocus
Let’s all focus
No room for mean
on Halloween
Fly’n High by Peggy
Let love fly high
and fill the sky
reposted from http://CATNIPblog.com
a judy pome
a peggy picture
National Pink Day, June 23
Brain research is clear – our thoughts trigger the neurochemical flood of emotion. Think negatively and you will feel anxious or fearful. Think positively and you’ll be flooded with the neurochemistry for happiness, contentment or love.
Life need not be fraught
with negative thought
“This too shall pass
half full is my glass”
“It’s bright and sunny
all milk and honey”
“It will be ok . . .
on another day”
That’s how to think
to be in the pink
Thinking Pink by judy
Read these for information on the research:
Worry your life away – literally
Research shows you will be happier for 3 months – Music to my ears
5 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO CHEER UP QUICKLY, ACCORDING TO NEUROSCIENCE
Update on my condition
Papa’s Instructions Pome
Children of ours, it’s your time to play
So listen closely to what I say
To your DNA you must stay true
Here’s exactly what you are to do:
Mama Cold, Papa Cold and their 3 virus babies
Baby 1
Dump buckets of muck
up judy’s nose
Make sure you duck
before she blows
Baby 2
Bang on her brain
whistle in her ears
like a choo choo train
til she bursts into tears.
Baby 3
Pound on her head
jump on her chest
all night long in bed
so she gets no rest
Children, it’s now up to you
judy is yours to do
Cuz Mama is weary
teaching how-to
with no app or Siri.
And your papa is tiring
of non-stop siring
It’s Mom & me off to find a new home
Hallelujah! you’re on your own
Practice what we’ve taught
drive judy crazy, make her lazy
don’t give it an afterthought
Spend all your time
making her go outa her mind
The Queen and me
I admit I’m obsessive about steering clear of people who are sick. I’ve been “known” to remove my groceries off the counter and go to another check-out if I see a clerk sniffing or coughing. With fibromyalgia everything lasts longer and is more severe so I go to great lengths to avoid people who even appear to be sick.
My husband caught a cold 2 weeks ago and I’ve assiduously washed everything down – counters, door knobs, light switches and my husband – with disinfectant.
Turns out I was disinfecting the wrong person.
I woke up yesterday with a scratchy throat, a headache and feeling even less chipper than I usually feel in the morning.
The Queen gave me a cold
How do I know, how am I told?
This cold is a dignified one
no snorting, sniffling nor dripping a ton
My makeups impeccable, not a hair undone
Despite a sore throat and my throbbing head
staying all day, aching in bed
I shan’t complain
For how often does one contract
a ROYAL pain.
“Queen is feeling better, says Princess Anne“
“But at 90 . . . she is exercising caution as she recovers from a heavy cold which she’s had for at least 12 days, (12 DAYS!!!! ) and which is bound to have left her feeling pretty miserable. (tell me about it).”
“She hasn’t yet had an opportunity to go outside and explore her 20,000 acre private Norfolk estate. (So true, so true)”
LONG LIVE THE QUEEN . . . and me too!
P.S. Wash your hands after reading this post – I’m contagious . . .
Why Santa never gets caught
https://doodlewash.com/2016/12/22/how-do-reindeer-fly/
Doodlewash is a blog I follow – both for Charlie O’s great water-colors but even more for his wonderful stories and descriptions about each drawing.
Today’s Doodlewash post inspired my pome.
Pome by judy
No one catches Santa on the roof
or in the snow sees prints
of tiny reindeer hoof
for Santa’s no bigger than a fly
and reindeer all the size of ants
ferry him through the Christmas sky
I don’t think it silly at all
to imagine reindeer quite so small
and know
how Santa slides down chimney flues
with nary much soot on his beard or shoes
So make your cookies the size of peas
and leave the milk in a thimble please
Limit the weight of gifts and such
to crush an ant
it doesn’t take much
* * *
To read Charlie O’s inspiring story click here:
How Do Reindeer Fly?
Children’s Pome for Adults – the REAL night before Christmas
Dear human-beings,
Besides being soft and cuddly a mission of mine is to bring poetry to the masses, of which you are some. And I am here to bring you the truth . . . even though it might hurt.
Santa was frantic at the North Pole
Finances in the red, he was in the hole
Mrs Claus couldn’t afford sugar
For her cookies sublime
Dear old hubby didn’t have a dime
North Pole employment had exploded
and Santa’s credit had eroded
He’d spent his last cent on black Friday deals
and turkey with the trimmings for thanksgiving meals
The night before Christmas he no longer had clout
When all the elves threatened a walk-out
Elf-union held all the chips
As evidenced by the grin on all the elf lips
For every elf in all the land
Had won a pay deal without tipping their hand:
Double pay all December
a free thanksgiving meal in November
Finally fringe benefits for elves was real
For Santa and the Mrs, there was no appeal
Santa had bitten his nails to the quick
Both right and left eyes developed a tic
All Santa could do was self medicate
So he stuffed his mouth from the cookie plate 
And downed all the rum from a hot toddy cup
his blood pressure sky-high, went up and up
His big fat belly shook like a bowl full of lead
While visions of bankruptcy danced in his head
So all you children and adults too
Have compassion and learn to make due
STOP asking for presents and things you don’t need
YOU must now take heed.
It’s no time for greed
If you want Santa another Christmas to live
to every red-kettle-bell-ringer
Dig in your pocket and GIVE.
Poetically yours,
Freddie Parker Westerfield
Freddie Parker Westerfield, Published Author
Laughter is the best medicine
The weather is changing
my body rearranging
Help! I’m in a fibro flare
Everything hurts
including my hair.
Sharon Bonin Pratt is a writer, an artist and a dear friend. I think she also is psychic. I’ve been not feeling great and the subject of her last post was just what I needed. AND it’s dedicated to ME!!!! What an honor!
Shari inspired me to look for a smile (SEE THE VIDEO).
Here’s a sample from Sharon Bonin Pratt’s Ink Flare:
“Who can laugh without relaxing? Isn’t that why some of us (not me of course, and certainly not you, but other unnamed folks) pee their pants when laughing raucously? Losing all control is not a bad thing, even if you must change your whitie-dities, because when you’re having that much fun – who cares about all the rest? Oh, and it’s contagious! In a good way, not like the flu, but like having enough cup cakes for everyone in the world. So now I not only feel good inside my own world weary bod – I feel good because everyone around me also feels good. Motto for today: Spread cheer – laugh out loud.”
Read her entire post – Sharon Bonin Pratt’s Ink Flare
A prayer, a plea and a promise
May heavenly rain
water the hearts of mankind
with loving-kindness
* * *
Flotsam of our past
it’s water under the bridge
Wave from river banks
* * *
Washed away through tears
Cleansed through the sweat of our brow
human suffering
* * *
Freddie Parker, Poet* – This will make you weep
“Weep”, sing it out now
like a song bird with a lisp
thweep, thweep, thweep, thweep, thweep
“Gotta admit . . . that boy has a way with words.”
Say it five times fast
weepweepyweepyweepy
Very weird word weep
-
Thanks for reading! Freddie Parker Westerfield, Published Poet
*One who is especially gifted in the perception and expression of the beautiful or lyrical
Haiku Horizons – prompt WEEP
I am Woman, Hear Me Roar . . .
(inspired by and with apology to Helen Reddy)
I resist the urge to yell at you
Perhaps instead a well placed pout
or conjure up a tear or two
It never helps to ream you out.
I’ve learned it takes less energy
to always smile, no need to taunt
to get exactly what I want
A Cautionary Tale – Pome
Boogie while you’re young
Pierce your tongue
Dye your hair green
Eat fat, not the lean
Don’t give a lick what makes you tick
Eat, drink and be merry
because if you tarry
you’ll soon be too old
all covered with mold
And have to scrap it off with a stick
First time she’s made any sense . . .
My unedited brain-dump – read at your own risk
You may know it as stream-of-consciousness, non-stop writing, free writing – all the same names for what amounts to writing with no thought to spelling punctuation, whether it makes sense or not. Just write. I call it brain-dump.
It’s a writing technique used for warm-up, breaking into writer’s block or uncovering unconscious process. In the journal class today we were given the prompt “We do not write in order to be understood, we write in order to understand” (C.Day Lewis).
I typed out my journal page (I hope you appreciate the lengths I go to for you my readers!) to show you an unedited glimpse into what a sample of free-writing looks like.
But first!!! here’s the ditty that came out of my free-write:
My tiny trains of thought
chugging uphill
Hopefully if I run out of steam
I will stay on track
I think I can I think I can I think I can.
Actual journal page. (The flower is from the napkin I had for cookie refreshments)
“Who on earth really understands us we are understood by others only in reference to how the other perceives their own world thru their own lens which always clouded just like the mist that clouds the sky this morning I’m obscured obscured and I obscure how I see what I see through a clouded lens of my feelings and perceiving the cloud it’s hard to know what is real and what not obscured vision filter it thru a mist as if I see with the brightness I don’t know my reference my experience no one can ever know They think they know I think I know yet my senses are bound up in my brain scattering thoughts confused thinking between the past and present in the obscurity of the future I meant to write obscurity of the present, interesting slip of the pen in the scattering of thinking on paper no one knows what this means I don’t know what this means how am I suppose to know how am I suppose to understand what can’t be understood it’s safe to say no matter what I write no one will understand NOT EVEN ME how can we pretend to know much less pretend to understand always curious wanting to understand wanting to know it’s as if a long train pulled by a locomotive is coming can’t see the end if I’m at the beginning can’t see the beginning if I’m at the end and in the middle of it all are cars filled with the unknown going up a hill like the Little Engine that Could try to reach the top of the knowing to see other to the other side where it’s just a glide, just a downhill run where the brakes need to be applied not the foot on the throttle if a train has a throttle I think I can I think I can I think I can”.
Counting up to 70 – “Up a Tree”
“Ye are all leaves of one tree and the fruits of one branch.” Baha’i
As I “count up” to my 70th birthday” I think more and more about choice & inevitability, and the wonder of the unknown. When I received these pictures from my friend Sharon they struck me as reflecting the human condition . . . mine included.
Tree, speak to me
of essence
Speak to me.
reaching ever reaching
for the Source
clinging to the sky
soaring from the earth
growing visible invisible patterns
in time and space
clinging tenaciously
clinging by my roots
to a passage yet unknown
Thanks Sharon for sharing!
Becca Givens posts pictures of trees she photographs on her blog Sunday Trees. Becca has much more discipline than I do as it is every Sunday! Here’s some of her “trees” Sunday Trees 03, Sunday Trees 08, Sunday Trees 26 in the Mayan Ruins
Paying Lip Service for RUBY
Pucker up your lips
pucker up rooooooobe red lips
to round out the sound
Color-bound Ruby
yearning for green “compliment”
stuck in monochrome
GIVE me a break, it’s just haiku
Give, strange little word
neither melodic nor quaint
quixotic at best
Give it to me now
give in, give out, so giving
Don’t ever give up
A give-or-take verb
Frankly I don’t give a darn
a strange little word
“Give ME a break – Judy’s the one who’s strange . . .”
Am I Whining? you bet!
“Thou Shalt Not Whine” is a hand embroidered sign in my office that was given to me by my good friend Sharon.
I do try to live up to that motto but today I am whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiining. I have a headache, my body aches all over, my feet are burning, my brain is fogged and the only energy I had was depleted by the effort it took me to get in bed and take a nap*. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Woe is me! Oh! woe is me!
“I’m not lissssssstening”
Like all (or many) of us living with chronic conditions the key is life-style management to keep the symptoms at a low simmer instead of a rolling boil. In the last several decades I’ve perfected life-style management:
judy’s Life-Style Management
Overdo it quick
take advantage of the lull
then crash, moan and groan.
Whimper quietly
when no one is listening
It’s free therapy
Did whining make me feel better? Nope. But it’s nice to know that even if I’m not feeling well
my inner child is alive and kicking.
*You don’t have to wash your hands after reading this post. I’m not contagious. It’s just fibromyalgia letting me know who’s in charge.
Healthy Chocolate Cake – 2 (or 3) ingredients!
My motto: Never, ever give up on healthy eating when it comes to chocolate!
Brownie mix and pumpkin . . . well you’ll have to read my first attempt 3 ingredients to Eat Healthier and lose cravings . . . not so delectable. So back to Google and trying cake mix instead of brownie mix. I also used an ORGANIC brand of pumpkin but the “batter” was so stiff I couldn’t stir it. So I plopped in an ORGANIC egg . . . and of course, flax-seed to make it a COMPLETE health food.
judy, judy pumpkin eater
won’t let one failure beat her
Duncan Hines, it’s on sale
this time she can’t fail.
ALL organic ingredients
Now she’s got a plan
one egg, organic pumpkin in a can
350 degrees, let it bake
Voila! a chocolate cake
- Health Food Chocolate Cake with organic garnish
Hooked on Haiku & Love
July 4th
Independence Day
when hate and greed are banished
from land of plenty
Fireworks of mind
respect, compassion and love
sparklers of the heart
It’s freedom for all
when the world is lit in love
until then we pray
Man’s Best Friend LimERICKs
LimERICK by Rick
Dogs are incredibly likeable creatures
with many commendable features.
They sniff and they lick
and rarely get sick
whether named Freddie or Duffy or Peaches.
(couldn’t find a name to rhyme with features)
- Duffy, Ozzie . . . and . . . Peaches?
* * *
LimeRick by Freddie
There once was a dog named Freddie
he sleeps a lot in his beddie
never wears clothes
checks you out with his nose
much more cuddly than any teddie
Freddie Parker Westerfield
Hooked on Haiku – prompt DECLINE
Growing old beckons
Decline the invitation
and you will perish
- One-line drawing by judy
Hooked on Haiku – Retreat
Retreat from my life?
Wherever I go I’m there
no way possible
Sneak a Peak into my Journal
There once was little weird fellow
who looked like he was quite mellow
but his teeth were sharp
always hitting the mark
drawing blood that was lemon yellow
- A judy-journal page
- Blob the Blobfish: “There she goes . . .again”
When hungry he will quietly swallow..
Know, his belching won’t be shallow..
He’ll get himself well fed
What he eats is pretty red
Then why would his blood be yellow?
Sneak a Peek . . . into my mind
Murky recesses of my Mind
haiku & doodles too
Now you know what lurks
it’s always one-of-a-kind
deep inside my mind
- Doodles with one continuous line . . . or two . . . or three . . .
Hooked on Haiku & George Clooney
Rats! George Clooney is off the market! I rarely write about celebrities but Clooney is an exception. I was in love with him before he was famous. He played detective James Falconer on the TV show Sisters in 1993. I didn’t have a clue who he was. I only watched the show to see him.
Unrequited love
messes around with the mind
not with the body
Clooney Rat
You’ll have to read my only other Clooney post: You Mean I Could Have George Clooney’s Baby (and a Hacked Haiku)
George Clooney and me
(Science or idle fancy?)
rat baby makes three!
Hijacked Haiku – Look’n SHARP
Bob the Blobfish sez:
“Here she goes again. . .”
looking sharp today!
What else can I say,
you look dull?
Just Ducky!
There once was an unfortunate duck
whose love life completely sucked
his brown feet ignored
leaving the ladies quite bored
He’s genetically out of luck
Unlucky Ducky
Why Do Ducks Have Orange Feet?
“. . . for the ducks that do have orange feet, well, it’s all about attracting the ladies. Chicks dig orange.”
“Bright orange coloring suggests that a male duck, also known as a drake, is getting all his vitamins, particularly carotenoids, such as beta-carotene and vitamin A, antioxidants that can be beneficial to the immune system. “This indicates that his behaviors and genes are good enough for him to recognize and eat the right food, or that his immune system is strong enough to produce bright orange legs,” Omland says. “The female sees this as a very attractive trait to pass on to her offspring.”‘
“Omland’s work only looked at drakes’ bills, but he thinks there’s enough circumstantial evidence to say that ducks check out each other’s feet, too. “Blue-footed boobies have, obviously, very blue feet, and it’s very well documented that they use their feet in courtship and that females do care about the coloration of males’ feet,” Omland says. “Perhaps mallards, like the boobies, have a foot fetish.”‘
Don’t believe me?? Read it here: Why do ducks have orange feet?
Grimace & Groan
Facing pain in life
grimaces not attractive
frowning is better
* * * * *
OK to grimace
when you read my weird haiku
Groaning is better
Seven Deadly Sins – Hooked on Haiku
The eighth deadly sin:
Committing all the seven
in your own lifetime
A good friend, who shall remain nameless – this picture of her is definitely a sin.
Seven DEADLY sins?
it only takes one to die
you can take your pick
A Freddie sorta limerick
I’m a little dog named Freddie
my coat is as soft as a teddy
so soothing they say
you’ll pet me all day
and never find ever a flea
A limerick is a funny little poem containing five lines. It has a very distinctive rhythm and rhyme pattern of which that was not one.
Ode to Tom (turkey that is) by Freddie
A Turkey’s Tail
by Freddie
A turkey named Tom lived on a farm
Portrait of Tom & organic Slug
His story is such, so they say
Waking at dawn
he’d peck at the lawn,
searching for bugs,
nibbling on slugs
of which he was particularly fond.
Then a Thanksgiving day, out of the blue
Gobbledy gobbledy gone.
So if YOU took Tom from off his farm
in the middle of the night
please give him due thanks
for gracing your table. (It’s fitting and right).
And for all the bugs and many slugs
which make him an organic delight
Dear Human Beings,
- I am thankful that I was not born in places that eat dogs.
- I am thankful you are all my best friends and fans.
P.S. I was told to tell you my Human wishes that you things to be grateful for in your life, like me for example.
How does your garden grow?
Good thing I’m not trying to make a living as a farmer. So far the cauliflower is bitter, the broccoli is tough, the apples are tasty but a bit mushy, the 6 berries died on the vine and word is still out on the 4 tomatoes which are green. Stay posted for my next CROP.
Mary, Mary, quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
with wedding bells and cockle shells
and pretty maids in a row.
Judy, Judy quite the foodie
How does your garden grow?
with broccoli plants and lots of ants
and snails in each row.
Sing a Song of Inspiration
Everyone knows that EXpirations – like sneezes – spread germs.
Here’s an example of how INspirations are contagious.
Max and I just got back from our morning prayer walk. I was singing to God while Max, well, Max was sniffing to the max.
A huge raven swooped by, landing just ahead on a light post. It was sleek, shiny black and started calling loudly for other ravens to join him. I wondered if that raven was the patriarch or just some young whippersnapper with a rousing call to action.
- I wondered how you tell the age of a bird. No tell-tail (sorry couldn’t resist) age spots or wrinkles.
- My mind flashed on a brilliant comment about God that Ramesh Sood had made – something about wrinkles – which I couldn’t precisely remember but I remember thinking, “How brilliant” at the time I read it.
- When we got home I was inspired to re-read his comment and poem.
- Ramesh was inspired to spontaneously write his poem in response to the post I wrote How to Appear Younger than You Are.
- I was inspired to write that How to Appear Younger than You Are by that darling baby boy who came to visit me at my office.
- And the baby was inspired by EVERYTHING!
| “What an inspiring post this… yes, I have often prayed..May God never let my thoughts get wrinkled…May I continue to exude youthful energy and exuberance…And Judy, if one has to go by Photos on your page here..you don’t look 67..touch wood…let me try:” |
A song waits to be written
And to be Sung
It’s so happy and joyous
To always stay young
Doesn’t matter if body belies
Let mind think fresh thoughts
Let heart with happier ones clung
A song waits to be written
And to be sung
And to be sung
Be cheery always, have fun
Talk to Moon, stars and flowers
Taste the rising sun on your tongue
A song that waited to be written
I know you have just sung
Hey, stay happy and stay young..
“Judy this song didn’t exist just ten minutes back.. . . .that’s the power of inspiration.” Ramesh Sood, (author of Elephant & Ant, coming soon to a computer near you). A Little More Than Ordinary..
INhale deeply where ever you are today.
I hope you catch an INspiration!
Elephant & Ant – Will the Real Eleph Please Stand Up!!!
Been working on some preliminary doodle-sketches for Ramesh’s Poem about the Love Affair Between an Elephant and an Ant.
Ramesh is so creative (and wonderfully quirky) to have dreamt up a relationship between such disparate souls! But his charming haiku and poem about this unlikely pair captured my attention and my heart.
Here’s a sample of the poetry prelude to Elephant and ANT to whet your taste for more!
Elephant & Ant by Ramesh Sood A little More than Ordinary . . . Prelude: Before Ant Before marrying his Ant
Preliminary Sketch of Rattie!
What’s your vote? Should Elph be Green, Blue, Orange or . . . .?
http://rameshsood.blogspot.com/
Ghost – Hooked on Haiku
Acrylic
We can’t ever grasp
The enormity of God
No ghost of a chance
http://Haiku-Heights.blogspot.com
Week’s prompt: ghost
“Passionate Nights of Love”
Passionate Nights of Love Eating chocolate Dove Pecan Pie, catches my eye Ah, to be torn tween cake and popcorn just ravish them all with a root beer float then donuts pink no need to think no need to feel it’s a feast, not a meal Kisses from Hershey’s
brings me down to my knees
licking the bowl bottom of cookie dough batter spoonfuls of flan right from the platter nothing else matters Night fades away for PASSION by Day It’s never too late never too early no need to wait for the clock to chime P.M. time to make it all mine and put on the weight http://purpletreehouse.blogspot.com/2011/09/funny-bunny-fridays-week-2-sept-2-sept.html
http://jinglepoetry.blogspot.com/2011/08/poetry-potluck-week-48-passionate.html Now coming to Poetry Potluck theme of the week ““Passionate Nights of Love” Its about that time of our flowering in soul, where some times the passion takes hold and the thoughts in mind rage like wild fire. That one moment, when the soul takes over the body, to feel the lightness of its ‘being’ in the purity of sense, from the dark depths of its desires…. So friends, pen your words of passion, let your desires run loose and let your feelings drown the darkness of night, in your being ‘alive’ in passions of soul….
Pet Poets’ Prompts – Carry on Tuesday & Haiku Heights
Brown dog in the lake
Pushes the sky with his paws
The clouds float away
Haiku by Stephanie Lemieux
“Each week Carry On Tuesday 
(http://carryontuesdayprompt.blogspot.com/) will publish either a famous quotation or a line from a book, song or poem and invite you to Carry On where words stop. You may use some of the words or all of them either at the start of your piece or within the body of your work.”http://beccagivens.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/my-candle-burns-at-both-ends/
“My candle burns at both ends”
I crave the taste
of human food my humans tend
I drool as I savor
the tasty flavor
then it’s out the other end.
by Max
Keeshonds are pretty
I don’t allow fleas on me
They are not allowed
Love Tootsie
http://theaddisongirl.wordpress.com/
http://haiku-heights.blogspot.com – which gives out word prompts for haikus.
Here’s Max’s Haiku at the new haiku prompt “INFATUATION”
