Poetry Friday – Beast

Oh, my goodness. Is there any goodness?

With the killing and dying in Israel and Gaza, the House of Representatives in disarray, mass shootings daily and now this horrific one in Maine, and an election-denying radical as the new Speaker of the House.  On the other hand, there was a bit of goodness for today–I submitted three poems to Carol L.’s Nature Poetry Anthology, I took a walk around a mountain, and I cleaned my house.

I couldn’t think of anything else to write about for my Inktober “beast” word today than about who was elected in the House. This is a Golden Shovel poem with a striking line from something he said yesterday. “At the end of the day it’s the problem of the human heart, not the weapons…we have to protect the second amendment.”

October 27 – beast

At the End of the Day,
Mike Johnson, that is B.S. It’s
definitely the
guns that are the problem.
As if people of
other nations don’t have the
same worries of human
mental illness and evil heart
condition. But in the U.S. we cannot
resist using the
war-machine-killing-weapons
we’ve stockpiled. We
must stop. We have
to keep and save humanity, to
lift life and protect.
It is well past time to abolish the
gun-worshiped second
amendment.


More Inktober poems

Today is Poetry Friday, and I’m late, but I came anyway. Thank you, Carol, for hosting and bringing out the bats! 

Poetry Friday – Poetry in Photos

It’s Poetry Friday, and the round-up is over at Mary Lee Hahn’s, where she shares the names of some of her beautiful neighbors.


It’s time for summer poetry swapping with Poetry Friday friends. What wonderful fun to participate! I received a package from Carol Labuzzetta with so many fun features.

Thank you, my apple orchard friend,
Cultivating love and hope for learners
at your blog and in the world. Thank you.

Carol sent these sweet photo cards, poems, bookmarks with so much love!

The next poetry swap was with Linda Baie. Another touching and love-filled gift arrived. Here are some photos:

She wrote a poem based on my summer travels
Photos of me during special times this summer
A sweet book of poems, one for the Sealey Challenge this month.
A bookmark
A thank you poem for Linda, made with some words she sent in a decorated box.
One pile of books for the Sealey Challenge this month

Sealey Challenge update:
Day 1: Grandparent Poems, compiled by John Micklos, Jr.
Day 2: Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayer
Day 3: Animal Ark, photos by Joel Sartorel, and words by Kwame Alexander (with two images below)

Such beautiful photos in this book, published by National Geographic
Kwame Alexander’s words really add to the beauty of this book, Animal Ark.