Author Archives: beeblu

Search Engine Poetry: Sweet Planet Poems

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She was the first blogger to make me laugh out loud, by asking me, on my About page, whether I was a man or a woman  – the question astounded me and was the beginning of my appreciation of the mind-altering value of blogging: the way others perceive us is often so different from the way we see ourselves.

Insightful and multi-talented, Monica of Sweet Planet Poems is one of my oldest blogging friends – and how grateful I am that she has stayed the distance! 🙂 She has a delightful sense of humour, a rare generosity of spirit and a passion for the natural world that infuses her enchanting blog and publications.

She is a tireless campaigner for the protection of wolves in their natural habitat and shares their mystique in her wonderful poems, videos and photos many of which she creates on her frequent trips to Yellowstone National Park.

Monica has woven this delightful found poem in response to my Search Engine Poetry Challenge – I see it as a mirror of all the good in her heart (even the “picking up dog poop” line. :-D)

xxx

And here are a few of my favourite posts on Sweet Planet Poems:

Wild Wolf Encounters – this post is a free download of Monica’s wonderful collection of poetry on wolves.

Homeward Bound

With Patton in Germany

Mathematics of the Heart

City Skin

Spiral Rings

René Who?

Thanks for participating, dear Monica

😀

Happy New Year

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We ended what has been a rather mixed year

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of highs and lows

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in a very good place:

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with precious family and wonderful friends on our beautiful harbour.

Happy New Year, Fellow Bloggers!

Hope you have a wonderful 2013

Thanks for your community.

🙂

xoxox

How did you start the New Year?

Divine Dementia

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So many days
we are beyond bereft

at some ancient
god’s puzzled mumbles
beneath the night lamp,

his tremulous finger-fumbles
with jigsaw fragments
of our lives,

his fearful look of surprise
at the countless missing pieces
of his Master Plan,

unaware of the devil dog
chewing at his feet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/nyregion/gunman-kills-20-children-at-school-in-connecticut-28-dead-in-all.html?hp&_r=0

http://jmgoyder.com/2012/12/15/children/

http://nrhatch.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/an-unblossomed-bloom/

http://thelaughinghousewife.wordpress.com/2012/12/15/no-humour-today/

http://susandanielspoetry.com/2012/12/14/body-bags/

Weekend Prompt: Childhood Revisited

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It wasn’t smells or tastes or dear old Patchy,
or Teddy or Polly or clothes that were scratchy,

but bright orange blossoms beaming out from my walls,
retro symbols of happiness from ceiling to floor –
my first bedroom’s wallpaper sticks like glue
in my mind to this day  (my sibling’s too –
at the time they thought he had chronic colic
but, it seems, brother’s wall-art was making him sick –
all those racing-cars whizzing about his head
(he confessed, years later) made him dizzy in bed).

So my first memory – wallpaper, and subtropical heat,
and the tickles of mum’s kisses under my feet.

bb-ob

In response to the Daily Post’s Weekend Prompt: Childhood Revisited – What is your earliest memory? Describe it in detail, and tell us why you think that experience was the one to stick with you.

Search Engine Poetry: The Laughing Housewife

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My linguistics professor would call it “spooky action at a distance“, and, indeed, it is a sort of blogging quantum entanglement, a weird close encounter of the blogging kind.

I speak of The Laughing Housewife, a.k.a. Tilly Bud.

Not that I’m saying Tilly’s weird, you understand (although once you’ve read her Search Engine Poem, you might disagree) – what I’m referring to is the strange coincidence that although we’ve never met, and know of each other only through our blogging connection, twenty years ago we were in the very same room at the very same time. (You’ll have to read this post’s comments if you want to know more).

So, anyway, what to say about Tilly?

A monumental intellect, a resilience that’s instructive, and a sense of humour that can shine a light through the darkest disposition. Nothing can wipe the smile off her face.

Quite like a worldwide shortage of Maltesers (I suspect this (second photo) was one of those times),
dodgy punctuation and grammar (any evidence of this in her found poem below is purely intentional),
or sycophants and flatterers (“no Maltesers for you!“).

She loves to cook, dance, sing, and do I’m-not-going-to-ask-what to the long-suffering Hub. 

But we forgive her all that ;-), because, besides making us laugh and being a loving mother, Tilly is an accomplished poet.

Not only has her poetic talent been showcased in poetry journals and other interesting places, but she’s also about to release what promises to be a very interesting book of poetry memoir, and has another (on poo) in the pipeline ;-).

In the meantime, here’s her entry to my Search Engine Poetry challenge.
(Warning – not suitable for those suffering from Chaetophobia)

girls that dont shave

a found poem for Bluebee

irish women don’t shave
welding women don’t shave
freak americans don’t shave

hairy women armpits
bushy sweaty arm pits
kerala housewife armpits

air in armpits, girls

————————-Thanks, Tilly! 😀 (let’s hope you never find yourself in the same room as these internet-search weirdos)———-

Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette

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Sydney Opera House and City Skyline ©beeblu

Five favourites from this week

http://ohmsweetohmdotme.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/weekly-photo-challenge-silhouette/

http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/08/24/silhouette/

http://warmhotchocolate.com/2012/10/20/weekly-photo-challenge-silhouette/

http://zainabdullah.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/weekly-photo-challenge-silhouette/

http://cjvl.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/weekly-photo-challenge-silhouette/

For more entries, see The Daily Post at WordPress.com

Weekly Writing Challenge: A Splash of Colour

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the colours of my week

my laptop gave me

the black screen of death,

without it, no silver

to keep out of the red,

my face was white,

my language was blue,

the week took on a greyish hue,

but then three techies with hearts of gold

coloured me back from this online cold,

so things looks rosy, I’m back in the pink –

Geeks of the world, to you I drink!

************************************************************************************

For more entries to this week’s writing challenge, visit the Daily Post.

Search Engine Poetry: dadirridreaming

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Do your blog’s search engine terms reflect the soul of your blog?
This sprang to mind when I read this found poem by Christine Whitelaw, which she wrote in response to my Search Engine Poetry challenge.

Christine lives in a beautiful corner of Australia with artist husband Stuart,
and her blog, dadirridreaming, is predominantly Christine’s exquisite photographic contemplation
of the natural beauty that surrounds their home –

birds, insects, flowers, ocean, kangaroos and wallabies, sky and much more.

She also posts wonderful travelogues (that make me green with envy) about their trips to places further afield,
such as Lord Howe Island, Singapore and Europe (getting greener by the minute!).

Here are a few of my favourite posts from Christine’s latest globetrotting adventure:

The Metro

Electric Cars in Paris

Evening in Place St Silain

Stravinsky Fountain

Singapore Gardens by the Bay

Christine also occasionally hosts yoga retreats (and I’m hoping to attend one in the coming year)

So, what do you think?
Is the soul of dadirridreaming reflected in Christine’s found poem?

Thanks for participating, Christine!

😀

Search Engine Poetry: Gabrielle Bryden

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Blogging friend, sublime poet, awesome mom and aspiring volcanologist Gabrielle Bryden has posted this found poem on her blog in response to my Search Engine Poetry challenge.

I met Gabrielle in my early days of blogging and LOVE her poetry, which ranges from the serious to the hilarious.

She also keeps us entertained with posts about her life in Queensland with her hero – Shirl, son – Michael, daughter – Tessa, and comical dogs – Jazz and Sheba, and with her photos of the weird and wonderful critters we find on this strange continent.

She has a wicked sense of humour (read her post tags) and a fighting spirit (I wouldn’t want to mess with her ;-)).
And in the 80s, she had Big Hair.

Gabrielle’s son, Michael, was diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder at the age of 3 and she has used her experience to create an excellent resource on dealing with the challenges of Autism and Asperger’s.

Last week, Michael turned 12 and, despite the challenges he has faced, is doing very well.  He takes great photos and is shaping up to be a talented horticulturalist.

Oh, and did I mention I love Gaberielle’s poetry?
Here are links to just a few of my favourites

Skin Deep

Decanting a Poem

Campaign Trail

In all innocence

Ransom Note Poetry – (Listen Up Gina)

Brisbane River

There is a Place

The Force of Gravity

OCD Logic

Thanks, Gabe!

😀

Weekly Photo Challenge: Mine

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My ways of seeing are uniquely mine,

as yours are uniquely yours,

but we can learn a lot from each other…

A glimpse of the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the Kirribilli to Taronga Zoo walk

For more entries to this week’s photo challenge, see The Daily Post at WordPress.com

Search Engine Art – Bénédicte Delachanal

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Wonderfully talented artist Bénédicte Delachanal has posted this marvellously creative and witty response to my Search Engine Poetry challenge on her blog CARNET DE DESSINS/Bénédicte’s blog.

Hop over and have a look – it will brighten your day.

Thanks, Bénédicte – I love it 😀
(and would love to see your artistic interpretation of “non living things never alive”!)

I met Bénédicte through blogging (thanks Gabe) and have since done business with her, buying a number of her artworks as gifts for friends. She is an absolute pleasure to deal with.

Below are links to some of my favourite posts on Bénédicte‘s blog:

Bloomington Theater and Art Center

Drawing a City

Venezia in Digital Colours

Poisson Pas Content

Drawing the Mind

The Hours of the Day

Mood of Colours

Tintin Meets Spielberg

Hou Hou

Blogging is a never-ending treasure hunt!

The Man in the Street

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How often
is he there
in front of you?

Just another bloke
like you

except, perhaps,
a lack of personal hygiene

or its pathological opposite,

his way of regarding you
far too directly
without blinking

for the longest time.

When he asks for a cigarette
do you oblige

in spite of yourself?

Because in this stark room
you cannot reconcile
the rhetoric

on the face of it –

just another human being
in the silence,

no manifest difference
to teach the rookies,

no monster in plain sight
to slay with a bedside light,

just this banality
of evil

sitting in the corner
of your nightmares.

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