Slice of Life 7 – True or False #sol24

Denise Krebs12 Comments
7 March 2024 TwoWritingTeachers.org

I ran across this True/False post on Poetry Foundation when I was looking for a poem about jury duty. (Go figure!) Dean Young is a surrealist poet who wrote “True/False” in 2006. His number 5 was “I like jury duty.” That’s the only reason I found this relatively old poem. Then I wrote some of my own. Like Lay’s, I just can’t seem to stop at one or a few…Now, I’m thinking of using it as my prompt for #Verselove in April. What do you think? Is it inviting enough to wonder about the veracity or falsehoods written here?

True/False
After Dean Young

  1. I am much younger inside than I appear outside.
  2. Jury duty is for the birds.
  3. Ishmael is also a son of Abraham.
  4. Guns have no constructive purpose.
  5. The enemy has damaged everything in the sanctuary.
  6. I alone can fix it.1
  7. The day you eat it your eyes will be open.
  8. I don’t need a reason.
  9. The waves are singing a song of thrones.
  10. Time and again, you’ve picked me up.2
  11. MAGA is the GREATEST.MOVEMENT.EVER.
  12. Crocheting is better than knitting.
  13. The fire fixes the folds of the clouds.
  14. Spring is the most glorious season.
  15. The future will be a feckless sucker punch.
  16. That dish is not too hot.
  17. I want to play all the games.
  18. I forgot my suitcase.
  19. How do you know I’m tired?
  20. Civility is not a sign of weakness.3
  21. There is chaos in spilled milk.
  22. If it’s night, the granite glitters.
  23. Diagramming sentences is essential.
  24. Israel wants to make room for Palestine.
  25. Fiction and myth hold the truest truths.
  26. My children are my life.
  27. The tea leaves will tell the story.
  28. Fear is the most debilitating emotion.
  29. You can have too much storage space.
  30. Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.4
  31. Everything is better with a Snickers bar.
  32. Your ego is a ridiculous tyrant.
  33. Vegetarianism is the tastiest way to eat.
  34. Capitalism is killing our planet.
  35. California should secede.
  36. He’s like a snake lifted in the wilderness.
  37. I have decided to stick with love.5
  38. Hate is too great a burden to bear.5
  39. I hate writing every day.
  40. The badger is still asleep in its den.
  41. KFC makes the best chicken.
  42. In 1942, hope faltered.
  43. In 1492, Columbus should have stayed home.
  44. In 2942, Jesus may or may not return.
  45. Truth is not false.
  46. We will overcome someday.
  47. You are never too old to play softball.
  48. That tiny silver sliver in the sky is still full.
  49. The computer in my pocket rules the day.
  50. Dean Young was an ordinary poet.

1Trump
2Obama
3JFK
4FDR
5MLK, Jr.

Slice of Life 6 – Yoke or Joke? #sol24

Denise Krebs8 Comments
6 March 2024 TwoWritingTeachers.org

 

When I was in São Paulo last month, we went to church one Sunday, and the pastor preached on this passage from Matthew 11, where Jesus says:

28 Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

We had an interpreter who was really good, and explained everything well without mistake, except for one. Throughout the sermon, the yoke of Jesus became the “joke of Jesus.” It was funny to hear at first. There was no way to explain the mistake to him, and in context we knew what he was saying, so we just got used to it. But in a whole sermon about taking the yoke of Jesus upon us, we heard that word joke a lot. Later at lunch, one of us asked him about the sounds of Y and J in Portuguese words; they wondered if that’s why he got it mixed up, but he didn’t make the connection at first. It wasn’t until later when he realized he had gotten the two words mixed up, he hit his forehead, laughed and said, “That’s why you were asking me about the sounds of the letters!”

Isn’t it a miracle that people learn new languages with so many words, when one letter or sound change can make the words totally different? Language learning is such a marvel. Anyway, I wrote this little #50preciouswords story about a similar mix up with yolk and joke.

A New School
By Denise Krebs

Sara moved from São Paulo last year. I moved from Fresno. She’s learning English. I like her.
“I have a yoke for you,” she tells me today.
“Egg yolk?”
“No, silly. A funny story yoke.”
“Ok. Tell me your joke,” I say.
Sara gives me hope for this new school.

And now some photos of Joshua trees especially for Glenda and all of you:

These Joshua trees are growing in my yard. I feel so blessed.

 

Slice of Life 5 – Ryan’s Mountain #sol24

Denise Krebs15 Comments
5 March 2024 TwoWritingTeachers.org

Come with me on a hike. It is just a 3-mile round trip hike up Ryan’s Mountain and back, in Joshua Tree National Park.

Before the hike we need to enjoy some tea or coffee. I had my everyday tea latte with soy milk. (This is what I get for trying to empty the soy milk carton today before it was ready to be finished.)
On the way up the mountain

This is the first time I’ve seen a Desert Bighorn sheep in nature.
We made it to the top of Ryan Mountain, elevation 5457. My husband and I and my brother and sister-in-law.

Mt. San Jacinto
Mt. San Gorgonio

The views at the top are lovely.

There were so many rock stairs to walk up and now down; I am thankful for my hiking sticks.

Slice of Life 4 – Color Block Toy #sol24

Denise Krebs11 Comments
4 March 2024 TwoWritingTeachers.org

First of all, I’m so sorry that I missed the Zoom meetup on Sunday morning! I stayed up too late the night before, and then I slept right up until 8:30 a.m., the meetup time. I didn’t even think of it until it was over. So, please accept my apologies, Betsy and Stacey, but mostly, I’m sorry I didn’t get to see all those lovely faces to match with the names.

Here’s something I’ve been working on lately. In early February I read Trish’s post at Jump Off; Find Wings about the colorful blocks she played with as a child, I thought of something I’ve had in my game cupboard for the past two years (that I’ve never done anything with). A 6×6 set of number cubes in a nice wooden box. Quite possibly handcrafted. Even though they aren’t a perfectly matched set, I decided to turn them into a “Design with Color Cubes” set of my own.

So I got out my paints and tried to make this little number puzzle a two-for-one activity. ( I learned what colors to paint the sides from this DIY post on Scavenger Chic Trish had shared.)

In Trish’s post, she shares about the great childhood memories she has about using these color cube blocks, especially telling about one time when she was sick and they were her joy-bringing companions. She found a set to buy because she will soon be a grandparent. She looks forward to sharing them with her grandson; what a blessed boy who will get to have Trish for a grandma!

I never had my own set of these colored blocks as a child, but I do now! My set is definitely rough, but I like it. Thanks, Trish, for the inspiration.

 

Slice of Life 3 – A Junk Journal Day #sol24

Denise Krebs15 Comments
3 March 2024 TwoWritingTeachers.org

It was a junk journal sort of day. We are going to visit our niece and her three daughters next week, so this morning after breakfast, I took over the whole table to make junk journals for each of them. I didn’t clean up until 9:30 p.m. That is why I had not visited any Slicers today until late tonight. The junk journals were really my whole day! My husband even brought me food.

I’m new at junk journals, for sure. I’ve been following Natasha at Treasure Books to learn what I’ve learned. She is the only one I will watch now. I’ve become spoiled watching her great videos. She is kind and practical and thrifty. She is a great “junk journal” shopper. She is both meticulous and artistic. I’m barely either, but I’m trying.

This was my work table for 12 hours today!
These are four junk journals at various stages of getting ready to gift my nieces next week.

 

Slice of Life 2 – A Golden Shovel #sol24

Denise Krebs16 Comments
2 March 2024 TwoWritingTeachers.org

Today I’ve been thinking of Alexei Navalny’s funeral and the hundreds of people shot (dead or wounded) in Gaza while they were waiting to receive aid. So much pain…

So March has begun, and I
already search for ideas. Shall
I begin with a prayer? Yes. Never
will I be convinced to stop
believing in a God who is writing
the story of our lives because
a God like you knows this world, it
is full of the haunts of cruelty and is
attempting to kill you again. Like
in your Garden prayer,
you asked for release from the
suffering, but instead it became your impetus
for going through with the thing of
which the angels cringed, growth
by design of the kingdom, and
that design, your death, made a change
in history. But do you ever wish for
earth to more readily embrace the sacred, the
hope for community on earth to better
reflect your love and pain? Starting
anew, Lord, I ask for faith to live far from
the confines of self, and instead you within.

A Golden Shovel poem with the striking line, “I shall never stop writing because it is like prayer, the impetus of growth and change for the better. Starting from within,” by Fran Haley. Thank you, Fran, for the inspiration for my Slice of Life today.

Slice of Life 1 – Jury Duty #sol24

Denise Krebs10 Comments
1 March 2024 TwoWritingTeachers.org

The last two days I’ve had jury duty. In our state, there is a one day or one trial jury process. If the first day you are not put in a courtroom for jury selection, you are finished with your service. I was chosen to go through the jury selection process; this process took two days. It was so very fascinating. I wrote about it here. There was something so amazing about being a mostly anonymous community member (we were called by numbers in the courtroom, never our names), gathered together for only one purpose–to provide a fair trial for one of our peers. We weren’t supposed to use our phones in the courtroom, so I was texting my husband on a break:

I thought he might read that last comment sarcastically. But I truly meant it–“I love sitting here with all my peers waiting…”

Not that it wasn’t boring, but it was satisfying to be a significant part of providing justice. Bonus: I did have a chance to read about 20% of my really long book, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers in the many breaks we were given. For me, jury duty only lasted two days, for the jury was confirmed by the end of the second day, and the rest of us were excused, while they will continue with a three-week trial.

Poetry Friday – Jury Duty

Denise Krebs8 Comments

Today is Poetry Friday, and Linda Baie has the roundup at TeacherDance. We do have choices!

I’ve spent the last two days on jury duty. It was quite the experience. Here are some of my random thoughts about it.

Invitation

You are invited to participate
in the world’s greatest justice system.
Jurors are the important foundation to ensure
our system works. Thank you for being here.

But I can’t afford to miss that much work.
But I am going on vacation next week.
But I care for my sick husband.
But I don’t want to be here.

OK, hardship cases, you may be excused.
But the fact that you don’t want to be here
is not a legitimate excuse. So take a seat,
please, and thank you for your service.

“Do you believe in the
presumption of innocence
until proven guilty?”
“Will you follow the law
as described by the judge?”

And more and more questions by the judge…
the public defender…the district attorney…

Most of us remain seated in the gallery
waiting for our numbers to be called
after each batch of “We would like to thank and
dismiss Juror #___” are sent home.

Yesterday we started with 108 people. Today,
when the jury and alternatives were finally confirmed,
just 27 of us remained in the gallery unquestioned
and ready to be thanked and dismissed.

What a fascinating process this was.
I believe in the justice system more today
than I did yesterday.

However, I do have something to ponder.
As I heard again and again the question,
“Do you agree with the legal principle that
the defendant is presumed innocent
until proven guilty?” I thought of some
who have been arrested and charged
with crimes recently, and I have celebrated,
not waiting until they are tried and convicted.

Do I really believe in the presumption of innocence?
How would I have answered that question today
if my number would have been called?
How will I answer it next time?

How about you?

Here are some upcoming writing experiences you might be interested in:

Sundial outside of the courthouse