Writing – I scrap 2

A and I Poetry Challenge. First Month’s Poems

You don’t think you are a poet?

I don’t believe it! Writing poetry is something everyone can do.

Poetry is putting your own thoughts down on paper, so how can that be wrong?

Benefits of a Poetry Challenge

Poetry writing can be a great way to express deep-seated emotions in a constructive way, helping us to process their inner meanings and significance.

Then again, your poetry might just be a little bit of fun. Rhyming poetry for instance.

Ineke from scrapydo2.wordpress.com and Amanda from Something to Ponder About are jointly hosting an upcoming poetry challenge in English and in Afrikaans, in the WordPress community.

You are invited to join in. See instructions below.

Poetry Writing Tips

Honour the miraculousness of the ordinary. What we very badly need to remember is that the things right under our noses are extraordinary, fascinating, irreplaceable, profound and just kind of marvellous.

Look at the things in the foreground and relish stuff that can lose its glow by being familiar. In fact, re-estranging ourselves to familiar things seems to be a very important part of what poetry can do. [Source: From http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29538180:]

On Using Rhyme: https://www.creative-writing-now.com/rhyme-schemes.html

Tips on Getting Started:

“The first step in any poem is coming up with something to write about. Don’t feel that you have to choose profound or “poetic” material. It’s easiest to write a good poem about something you know well, that you have experienced first-hand, or that you have nearby so that you can observe it carefully. This is because what makes the poem profound and interesting will be the hidden details or qualities you discover, or what the subject reminds you of, your unique perspective. With poems, as with other things (or so I hear), it’s not the size that matters, it’s what you do with it.In the beginning, you don’t have to worry about “style,” about writing in a “beautiful” or a “poetic” way. In fact, if you start to think about “being poetic,” it can distract you from what you’re actually writing about and hurt your poem.”

Why a Poetry Challenge?

What is it about?

The Poetry challenge is open to everyone, from complete beginners to advanced writers, and will run from March to October in 2018.

Each month we will post a prompt, and helpful sites for getting started in poetry.

You can write in any language, it certainly doesn’t have to be in English.

Ineke will post the challenge in Afrikaans on her blog, so if that language suits you better, visit her here.

You Can write any kind of poem that you like. If you need the inspiration to get you started:

The March Prompt:

Grab the closest book. Go to page 29. Write down 7 words that catch your eye. Use 5 of the words in a poem.

Here is my Poem:

Whispers

Soft voices.

Whispers.

In the woods.

Curling, floating, sleets of mist.

Fresh and sweet

Whispers in the mist.

Silence.

Instructions for Joining the Poetry Challenge:–

Amanda and I will post a poetry prompt and writing tips and links, around 1st day of each month.

You might need to follow our blogs so that the posts show up in your WP reader.

Using your own idea, or the monthly prompt supplied, write a post with a poem, either fun or serious and post before the 27th day of that month.
Include in your post a link or pingback to both:

scrapydo2.wordpress.com

Something to Ponder About – forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com

Add the tag A and I Poetry Challenge to your post.
As ping backs sometimes don’t work, please also leave a comment at my blog, scrapydo2.wordpress.com and Amanda’s blog, Something to Ponder About, with the link URL to YOUR blog post on the challenge post for that month. N.B. If you do this, others can find their way to your challenge post and create a supportive community too.

Include the Poetry Challenge badge in your post, if you so wish. (optional)

That is it!

Oh, and have fun writing!! Any questions? Just ask.

Amanda and I will post link backs to the blogs who have joined in with the challenge in the poetry challenge post in the following month so that you can all find each other’s blog posts and build a new poet’s community!!

Upcoming Poetry Challenge for Beginner Poets.

Hi all my friends,

here is a fun challenge. I hope you will all try it. I’ve never written any poetry myself. I think it is going to be a lot of fun.

A dear blog-friend suggested that we do it together. Read how Amanda explains everything.

I am also going to do this in Afrikaans. So liewe Afrikaanse Ouens laat ons bietjie plesierig wees en digterlik raak.

Writing poetry is something everyone can do, because you can’t really ever get it wrong.

Poetry is just your own thoughts down on paper, so how can that be wrong?

Poetry writing can be a great way to express deep-seated emotions in a constructive way, helping us to process their inner meanings and significance. Then again, your poetry might just be a little bit of fun. Rhyming poetry is an example of this.

: Hosts Amanda and Ineke

Fellow blogger and writer from New Zealand, Ineke from scrapydo2.wordpress.com and myself, Amanda from Something to Ponder About , are jointly hosting an upcoming poetry challenge in English and in Afrikaans, in the WordPress community.

I invite you to join in.

Andrea Heiberg.jpg — Writer Andrea Heiberg

Why?

I have my reasons for running this challenge. The first poetry challenge I ever joined was hosted by Andrea Heiberg, a teacher friend in Denmark and her colleague in America and involved an Adult and Child poetry writing challenge which you can still find here.

There were around six groups participating, from all over the world. It was a lot of fun to see what each couple came up, with each week, as well as how they improved throughout the course of the challenge. It was definitely a learning experience for all.

Sadly, Andrea Heiberg passed away last year from Cancer and I know that she would have been absolutely thrilled to see me instigating a new Poetry challenge. So, first and foremost, this poetry challenge honours her as a writer. Secondly, because it is fun to write and it builds a community. I hope it will inspire you to join in.

When will the Challenge start?

The Poetry challenge is open to everyone, from complete beginners to advanced writers, and will run from March to October in 2018.

You can write in any language, it certainly doesn’t have to be in English.

Ineke will post the challenge in Afrikaans on her blog, so if that language suits you better, visit her here. See instructions on joining below.

How the Poetry Challenge Works

On the first week of each month, Ineke and I will publish a challenge post which asks you to write a poem based on the prompt supplied, or your own idea. We will include links to helpful sites and tips for poetry writing. There will be a poetry prompt for each month that the challenge runs.

Remember, you do not have to use this prompt, at all. The prompt is only there if you feel you want a topic to work from, or you find it hard to come up with an initial idea.

A and I Poetry Challenge .jpg
Ineke and I have created the above logo for the Poetry Challenge and you are very welcome to paste this onto your blog post or sidebar, so that others can also find out about the challenge, if you so wish.

Join the Challenge!

The challenge will commence in March and run for six months.

One post and one prompt per month.

Join in for one or all months, as you like.

Instructions :–

Sign up by leaving a comment here so we know you are interested in participating.
Ineke and I will post a poetry prompt and writing tips and links, around 1st day of each month. You might need to follow our blogs so that the posts show up in your WP reader.
Using the monthly Poetry prompt supplied, or your own idea, write a post with a poem, either fun or serious.,
So that we can see when you post for the poetry challenge, don’t forget to include a link or pingback to scrapydo2.wordpress.com and Amanda’s blog, Something to Ponder About and the tag A and I Poetry Challenge.
Include the Poetry Challenge badge in your post, if you so wish. (optional)
Leave a comment at Ineke’s blog, scrapydo2.wordpress.com and Amanda’s blog, Something to Ponder About, with a link to your blog post on the Poetry challenge post for that month. If you do this, others can find their way to your challenge post and join in the community too.

That is it!

Oh and have fun writing!!

N.B. Ineke and I will post link backs to the blogs who have joined in with the challenge in the poetry challenge post in the following month, so that you can all find each other’s blog posts and build a new poet’s community!!

Here is an initial link that you might find useful if you are looking for rhyming words.

https://www.rhymezone.com/

RhymeZone rhyming dictionary and thesaurus

A language arts reference tool and comprehensive search engine for words. Includes the functions of a rhyming dictionary, thesaurus, and spelling checker, as well as …

http://www.rhymezone.com

If you have any questions, please just ask us.

I will post the first prompt this coming week.

Poetry – Something thoughtful to Ponder About

A and I Poetry Challenge

English? Why? Interesting indeed

The English Plural

According to….

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don’t fing,
Grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?

Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them,
What do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speakingEnglish

Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship…
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
And in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And in closing……….

If Father is Pop, how come Mother’s not Mop.????

Cover page? Which one looks best?

At last!

I am nearly ready to print my book. It is going to be about my time still in the Netherlands. We immigrated to South Africa in the beginning of 1952. My sixth birthday happened on the ship. I remember a few snippets from my early time in the Netherlands.

I went back in 1974 to revisit my birthplace. What an adventure to see everything through the eyes of a grown up.

I would appreciate it if you could give me advise and comment on the two cover pages.

Which one looks the best?

What about the font of the writing?

Clear enough?

Writing + Memoirs: My bedrooms

Our fold up beds had curtains at the front. When we were in bed we could close the curtains and played that we were in a tent.

=====++++=====

Words: bedroom, holiday, teasing, excitement, post

I used the word bedroom for my Friday It’s Write Easy at our library.

A bedroom is an important room in a home. When I taught at a rural school near Potgietersrus, the children had to draw their homes. The children came from far off rural places. Their homes usually had only one big room. The whole family did everything there. There was no bedroom at all.

I am very privileged that I could share a bedroom with my sisters. First with my older sister and later with my younger sister. I had my bedroom when both my sisters were not living with my parents anymore. The room was a so called “rondawel” meaning a round room with a thatched roof. No ceiling, only wooden beams with the grass on top! This was a bad place to sleep because I had hay fever for Africa due to the dust and grass.

In the Netherlands

My big sister and I shared a bedroom. It was so small and narrow. There were two beds, which were folded up against the walls during the daytime. At night when both were down, you could hardly open the door. The last night, before our departure, we were so excited and could not sleep. My sister and I were playing in bed, in the dark room, when suddenly my bed’s two legs gave way. I crashed on the floor, bedding and all. My parents couldn’t enter the room because the bed was in the way. We were not robust enough to pick up the bed. Finally, my father pushed the bed up against the wall from the outside of the room.

We were told:“Now, stop your play and go to sleep! Tomorrow you have to get up early for our departure to Rotterdam harbour and then off to South Africa.”

On the ship

My parents and younger sister used one cabin while my big sister and I were next doors in a small cabin. It was as big as a cupboard, hardly any space to turn around. There were only two bunk beds. My older sister slept on the top while I used the bottom one. I had to first slide out on my back before I could stand up. We could look out of the porthole and see the sea. Lucky for us the weather was good during our trip. When we had to enter Cape Town harbour a storm broke loose. We could not enter the harbour and had to sail out to the deep sea again. The waves were so huge they came up to the porthole and covered it completely at times. Very scary. We had to stay in our cabin during the storm.

As grown-up:

When I left home, after teaching from home for four years, I slept in my own bedroom in the school hostel. We were four lady teachers, each in separate bedrooms and sharing a bathroom. We were on duty twenty four hours a day just like parents look after their children.

The next move was into my own flat. It had only one bedroom. The bedroom was on the walkway side of the building. My flat was the second last one on the top floor. Near the stairs going down to the garages and parked cars. Very noisy at times especially during weekends. I changed my bedroom to the sitting-room and the sitting-room into the bedroom. I loved to watch people’s faces when I invited them into my bedroom. One day the Reverend, deacon and elderly came to visit and see how I was. They could not believe that they had to go into my bedroom. We had a good laugh and years later we were still joking about me inviting them into my bedroom.

Writing + Memoir: House sitting an old dog called Meggie

I did house sitting for four weeks which ended Sunday, August 21. I cared for a sixteen- year-old Border Collie named Meggie. I wrote the following about Meggie for my writing group on Friday.

Doef, doef, doef, swoosh

Doef, doef, doef swoosh

From kitchen to the bedroom.

Bump, bump, around.

Doef, doef, doef, swoosh; doef, doef, swoosh

Back to the kitchen!

Scratch, click, click nails on the linoleum floor.

Up and down, up and down through the passage from the kitchen to the bedroom and back again. For at least half an hour.

The poor Meggie can’t get herself to lie down.

“Just take it easy Meggie! Slow down now!” It doesn’t help to talk to her because she is deaf. If I want her to react, I attract her attention by standing in front of her so that she can see me.

It is tough for her to let her back and bottom fall to the floor. There is something wrong with her nerves, and she has arthritis. Poor dog.

She has got dementia too because she would take a walk and then just stop, and stare in front of her. I usually kept an eye on her and would attract her attention and show her to move on. She could stand just where she was for long times.

The first two evenings Meggie was crying before she let herself fall to the floor. I gave her lots of time during the four weeks of my stay, to lie down and rest. It helped because if she had been moving or walking up and down too much, I think her legs and body aches too much.

The following is how twenty-four hours of my days/nights happened.

Early morning:

“ Look out Ineke, don’t step on Meggie.”

She usually sleeps in the kitchen doorway.

Touching her:

“Come on old girl. Get up! Let’s go outside.”

She’ll go outside and would stay out till I tell her to come back inside.

It does not matter if it rains. She gets wet and never came inside without me showing her to enter!

“Meggie, come on, come inside. You are soaking wet.” I rubbed her dry.

I had to lock her up in her kennel for the time I had to work. If I did not lock her up, she’d just stand outside in the rain.

Coming home in the afternoons, I first had to open the gate, drive the car inside, close the gate again. Then let Meggie out of the kennel. There were only three dry days that I could let her be outside her kennel during the afternoon.

Dinner time. After dinner, Meggie got a treat. A small cone with some ice-cream. I also enjoyed an ice-cream after dinner.

Then it was time to calm down and have a nap before turning in.

“Meggie, stop moving up and down. You’re making me nervous with your turning around and around. Just settle down now!” As soon as I sat down, she’ll also lie down.

Then just before bedtime:

‘Meggie, wake up! Let’s go for a wee!” She’ll wake up as soon as she smells me passing her. She’ll get up and out of the door. Then it’s time again to keep an eye out for her to come back inside.

“Where could she be? Oh, there you are.” I clap my hands, and she’ll come inside. Usually, I had to dry her with a towel. Then we are off to bed. Again an up and down session and boom, off to relax now.

Every early morning Meggie would get up.

“Oops, I did not hear you getting up Meggie! Just look what you have done! Now I have to clean up behind you! Sigh!” Lucky for me that I first put the light on before going down the passage to the kitchen.

Then back to bed for another two hours and time to start a new day.

This was only twenty-four hours I had for four weeks!

Remembrance

Like Jesus, every human being has enough memories in his past to occupy his time and thoughts continually. It is not the remembrance of these incidents but the reliving of them that creates havoc in our souls. Mother Angelica
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/remembrance.html

REMEMDER!

Unbelievable! After 25 years, I am standing here, looking at the ruins of the rehabilitation centre.

The entrance is dilapidated. Seized with emotion, tears of affection roll down my cheeks. Deep within me, memories churn and tangle around. My thoughts are a vortex of anxiety, sadness, despair, and yet at the end victory.

January 2, 19 … Soft hands helped me up. The hands put me into the waiting vehicle. I felt tired, so tired and nauseous. I did not want to live. A soft voice kept on calming me down. The voice, soft and reassuring, kept on talking to me.

It’s a long ride. Each turn made me feel as if I were tumbling over the edge. Deep into the mountains and high on a hill the vehicle came to a sudden halt. The door opened. I fell out like a bag of potatoes from the vehicle. Again the soft hands and voice. People lead me into the building. It smelled of clean floors. The smell of freshly cooked food sickened me. When did I last have a decent meal? I couldn’t remember. I had to get my bottle. What did I do with it? I got mad with anger. I trembled from head to toe. Strong hands took a firm hold on both my shaky arms. They took me through corridors and around corners. Suddenly I heard a door opening. In front of me a bed, a pillow and blanket. The hands pushed me down onto the bed. They left. I could not stop shaking. Everything faded away. I flopped, onto the bed.

Many days later I woke up. My head was still aching, but the shaking was gone. They transferred me to a dorm with eight other people. The room was airy and clean. My roommates showed me systematically where everything was.

I can remember that there were three wings each with passages and small single rooms and at the end of each a dorm with eight beds. The passages were divided into two wings, with a kitchenette and bathroom on both sides of the passage in the middle.The kitchenette had a kettle, some cups and a small fridge. We could make our coffee or tea which the hospital provided.

There were small enclosures between the wings of the building. Inmates could sit outside and breathe fresh air. Everything was secured down. There was no opportunity for any escape.

As each person improved, they each gradually got more freedom.

A fully furnished recreation room provided hours of fun for the patients. Every person had some chores to do. Cooking, cleaning, gardening later. In the end, persons were led to live a better life again. After two years of rehabilitation, I could go back into the community, rehabilitated and well. Clean of alcohol and drugs, and here I stand again, looking at the ruins of the hospital which I am going to enter in a moment from now. It hurts to look back at that time, but I am grateful for the soft voice and hands that brought me here that day twenty-five years ago.

I have taken all the photos. The hospital was locked and I had to take the photos through the windows.

Part two will be about entering the hospital and telling what could be seen, felt and remembered.

Motorbike experience: Memoirs

May 5, 2017. It’s write Easy. Every Friday I join a writing group and write anecdotes from my past. We usually get six words for the week. We pick one word or more and write about it. My word was motorcycle.

Some people, when they are young, love to show off by having a better motorcycle than their best friends.

My son, while at school was and still is a big motorcycle fan.

While in school he bought himself a field motorbike with his money selling newspapers. It took him two years to put the money together. It was a second-hand motorcycle, and most of the time he was busy trying to fix it. As soon as it was roadworthy again, he would go off with lots of noise and speed up and down the dirt track near our house.

He studied at the Technikon in Pretoria. After a year of using a yellow Austin Mini which I gave him as his first vehicle, he bought himself a black streamlined motorcycle. He enjoyed to ride it. He even would drive the hundred and fifty kilometres home on the weekend to visit me.

Some years later he told me that he nearly killed himself driving down a steep hill. He drove downhill and lost control, ventured on the pavement, and almost bumped full on into a signboard pole which stopped him. He showed me photos of the brake marks on the road and sidewalk. Lucky for him that he missed it by a few millimetres.

One of the first things my son did when he arrived in New Zealand he bought himself a motorcycle. He even bought a second which he tried to modernise his own way. He loved fiddling with the engines. Nowadays he is more into designing and making electronic boards which bring in some money to help pay the bills now that he has expanded his family.

Describing a person: Memoires

I described my mother and my father for my writing group in the local Library.

Both descriptions are of my parents in the hospital before they passed away.

My Father passed in 1994 and my mother in 2006.

Mum in hospital

Frail and bony hands were on top of the blanket. She taught us that you never sleep with your hands under the covers. Her handkerchief clenched in one hand. She regularly swept or just held it under her nose. Pale blue eyes looked at me in recognition. Eyes kept wandering up to the shelf where a toy husky looked down at her. “He winked at me. His tongue is hanging out, he smiled at me “came the shaky words. Her hair was sparse and bland. She looked so fragile. She never complained about pain and yet one could see it in her eyes. Her body was swollen twice as big as normal, from all the water caused by heart and also kidneys failure. The physiotherapist came, Mom wanted to show how strong she was. We had to support her; she could hardly sit up. She still asked:” Is it good enough?” She was brave until the end, not complaining about all the pain.

Dad in hospital

He sat in the chair next to the bed.Old and tired of the life. His hands clenched around the armrests of the chair. Those strong hands, which worked hard throughout his life, looked old and wrinkled. The oxygen pipe in his nose helped his shallow and irregular breathing. He was still fighting against the world and its many injustices. He could not make peace with circumstances. Surviving World War II in the Netherlands nearly totally had broken him. He even accused my mum of not loving him at the end! She was the one supporting him his whole life. He just did not trust or believe anyone. He kept on fighting against all will till the end.

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Benefits of a Poetry Challenge

Poetry Writing Tips

Why a Poetry Challenge?

What is it about?

The March Prompt:

Instructions for Joining the Poetry Challenge:–

Share this:

Like this:

Why?

When will the Challenge start?

How the Poetry Challenge Works

Join the Challenge!

Instructions :–

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