A Look Back

Thirty three years
picking up dirty underwear
and socks
well,
actually thirty five
but who’s counting.
Countless trips
to the supermarket
preparing weekly menus
varied and colorful.
Pushing
and pulling
Rainbow vacuums
across lint filled
carpet and ceramic tile.
Bleaching the mildew from
bathroom grout, pulling
matted hair from tub drains.
Raising a precocious child.
Balancing checkbooks,
paying bills on time
weekly cutting the Hawaiian grass.
Washing the two Great Danes,
the two cars, two trucks, boat and four motorcycles
testing the pool alkalinity.
Pulling weeds
lodged between purple
and orange
potted bougainvillea
perched on top of river rock.
Climbing on top of roofs
at thirty eight
to dislodge shingles making sure to
toss them the same way into the truck
and then sweep and sweep and sweep.
Of course
there were
hundred dollar bills
tossed into the air and stuffed into B cups
while dancing to Hank Williams Jr.
after long grueling jobs of
backs bent in two.
Cruising the inside passage to Alaska.
Daring to follow
in the footsteps of the
Apostle Paul
from Civitavecchia to Egypt
Israel the Greek Isles and Athens.
Trips to the outback
combating the ferocious
sticky fly population with the in-laws.
Retired over ten years now
because I chose not to work in a smelly gym
trying to convince pudgy socialites and corporate
divas to back away from the table
and do an extra lap instead.
Releasing the poet
at fifty
to recount
the dim and not so dim memories
of a life well lived
single-mindedly disturbing the
cobwebs
from their menopause cave
sinuous strands glistening
in the tropical sun.

Pithy Proverbs

Fear
is waking up
cold
wrinkled
puffy and
all alone
with no
credits
to your name.

Faith
is
believing
in
unspoiled
fruit
floating
in
a rotten barrel.


Words
contain
power
use them wisely.


Genius
is blind
to
wisdom’s heart

A bad poem
never
shows itself.

A good poem
flits
in the breeze
of reckoning.

Be kind
introduce
yourself
to
the poet within.

Workout Lingo

Warm up for ten minutes to lubricate joints and stretch cold muscles.

Today’s workout will stress barbell exercises
Shrugs, upright rows and curls.


Curls- I only have an hour
I don’t have time
to get my hair done.

Six Word Memoirs-Valentines

Candy hearts confirm who loves who!

Chocolate roses do not need water.

Cheek to cheek spoons love’s tune.

Three little words, rub my back!

Rose petals paint a sensual autograph.

Diamond earrings kiss red paper hearts.

Unspoken words discerned below burnt bridge.

Love’s four letters, care about you.

Love’s proposal transports to seventh heaven.

Poets sing love songs on key.

Slam poets rhyme under yellow moon.

Bench Fly, Cherita

“Hug a tree”, in the gym

a sweaty language
its meaning dim.

A dumbbell fly in the hood
flexed by rats in sweats
their sneakers laced good.

Child Molesters

Edited---This subject took on special meaning to me when a friend of a friend was charged with Child Molestation and is now serving ten years in prison. This man is 70 years old and also a hoarder.
I wrote another poem about his hoarding titled the Crab Shack, had I known then, that poem would’ve been much different. His family is still trying to get rid of all the stuff he amassed.


I'm the next door neighbor
a friend of a friend as
I shop through my life
to manage this trend.
Young boys coerced
drawn to will stay,
to fan my obsession
and blow me away.
Frightened by my longings
their eyes open wide
choke dark secrets
this horror must hide.
If their Daddy finds out
they will go away
and I'll have
no more special friend
no more sick play.
I'll tell you
it’s love
that’s why
I hang around
but love shouldn’t
hurt
make you feel bad
or hide in the shadows
stalking and sad.


Mother's
caution your babies--
on new friends debate
advise your children
to always tell,
lest they become
the hunted,
lost-- inside their shell.

Meadow Pause

Meadow Pause

By Cornelia DeDona

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Boogey Fever

Boogey Fever

By Cornelia DeDona

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Dessert

Dessert
is sweet
on the tongue,
it satisfies
the taste buds,
it completes
a special meal,
and it is
time spent
with a good
friend,
sharing past history
without judgment.
It leaves you
privileged
and
content.

Persistent Noise

It persisted
throughout the day
the drip, drip, drip,
ping, ping, ping
clap, clap clap,
until I stopped hearing it.
The sounds retreating
into the background,
to a distant roar
of a thousand hands
clapping,
encouraging minds
to delve deeper
to pursue
with a vengeance
that which needed
to be drawn out.
As a bucket lowered
into a deep well
deeper and deeper
until the only sound left
was the creak of the crank.
At the bottom a splash
drifting upward
higher
louder until,
water
icy cold
and wet
guzzled down.
Clear fresh water
pulled out of the earth
returning back towards the sky
an endless cycle
of energy
redeposited
into our depleted frames
multiplying
percentages
a thousand fold
until the roar
becomes us.

Pele’s Faith

A poem about doubt and faith

Nature is never rash,
doesn’t deviate from the plan.
Day into Night
Spring
Summer
Fall and
Winter.
Perfect progress
dominates her canvas,
conserves the integrity
of her seed.
She nourishes
her offspring
that worries not
about belief.
Even now
flawless
in her beauty.
Prudently marking time
her cauldrons simmer
beneath fiery lakes
dripping molten art.
Leaving indelible
impressions
vibrant and intense,
this testimony
cloaked in
nothing
save a
crimson smile.

Word Play

Use the following VERBS to write a poem or story-
Racket, Snug, Green, Spoon, Boggle, Snake


I recently returned from a trek
climbing the Haiku Steps
popularly known as
“The Stairway to Heaven”,
seven thousand steps roundtrip
climbing a sheer rock face
exposed to the wind and rain
not for the faint of heart.
My hiking boots racketed
down the metal stairs.
Gloved hands
grasped the rusted
rickety railing as I
silently prayed my
legs would hold up
my cadence, remain constant.

My partner shushed
me, from the trail as he snaked his
way back from the banana patch
to make water, making sure
his camouflage jacket snugged
through the dense undergrowth
boggling the female boar suckling her young.
As she spooned later with her mate
safely beneath the lush fern
jungle,
greening
in the
Hawaiian sun.

Unconscious

(From a poem titled Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold
one of the writing starter’s at Saturday’s Writing Retreat, I used this sentence and crafted a poem (“Ignorant armies clash by night”)



Ignorant armies clash by night
in the darkness of their sin
blinded by the shadows,
forced to march
through the trenches
to save the soil from
a hedonistic fate.
Then reason that they were following orders
not fully understanding the why.
Never, fully understanding
the ramifications
of how, who, and why.
Many return from their tour of duty
and continue
to trudge through
the dark corners of their minds
in a maze of self doubt.
Trudging on toward some
unholy reward
where all
the cheese is
a moulded dark shade
of green.
A place where green rules
the world and the world
is decayed and remembers
little, about other colors
or about truth.

Touring the Seaborne Odyssey

I was invited to tour this ship as it docked in Honolulu on Thursday thanks to Susan F. "a golf friend".
It began its voyage in Florida and is going around the World for 81 days and will finish its voyage in Athens Greece where it will remain to do local cruises in the Mediterranean.


Bright burnished brass and
teak decks scrubbed
fore and aft
brandish old coin,
as it rocks gently against the dock.
The hull unlovely, as it deposits
the flotsam and jetsetters onboard
salty, from the recent rough passage.
Briefly pausing on a world tour
their papers peaking from loose pockets
as they survey the area, set for local amusement.
Led by our guide through
distinguished corridors
vacuumed and polished.
Sampling the owner’s suite
as black caviar on a cracker
settling on the back of the tongue
washed down in the Sky Lounge
with Champagne and Mimosa’s
and an hors d'oeuvre
of delicate
orange salmon
zwieback.

Revision-acrostic

R ewriting I play
E arly in the day, creating
V olumes of
I nspiraton. Just
S econds to uncover
I espy another,
O ld rhyme of which I reprise,
N ew poems to elicit your smiles.

Six Words on Marriage

Husbands rule on the fourth planet.

Wives rule on all the planets!

Six Word Memoirs-Health

Brown rice crunch, scours clogged pipes.

Water is the fountain of youth.

Alcohol in moderation, keeps Alzheimer’s waiting.

Smoke your meat, not your lungs.

Your best friend lives, inside you.

Kona Blast, Cherita

Cherita is the Malay word for story or tale. A Cherita consists of a single stanza of a one-line verse, followed by a two-line verse, and then finishing with a three-line verse. It can either be written solo or with up to three partners.


Kona winds tore across the Kitchen

upsetting the resident blue vase
decked out in peacock feathers.

Dropping for cover
she remembered a drill from
elementary school.

Microsoft Word Help-Cherita

Word could not create the work file

Check the temp environment variable
under word options, run diagnostics.

Global warming
not
the issue.