Hoops

By Buzz for Rich, September 23, 2009 Hoops Pass the ball Kansas bend it low like wind hoops wheat twin soles thrash old grain splash window see the floor cold ash burns with pain twist sap from maple core pour-sugar-brown syrup down cough up crack in tree shinny-slick draw-and-kick school those milk-fed feet don’t bubbachuck [...]

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WRITING TOPIC — 3 QUESTIONS

Question Mark, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 2008, all photos © 2008-2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. A few weeks ago, I watched an interview on Bill Moyers Journal and was mesmerized by the work of Anna Deavere Smith. It is tough work. She takes on controversial subjects most would not touch in our [...]

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Berth Of The Night Owl haiku

Berth Of The Night Owl, outside Mickey’s Diner, St. Paul, Minnesota, November 2009, photo © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. drenched beads of lens sweat black fog that spawns crusty rain berth of the night owl Sometimes the best shots are unplanned. A few weeks ago, Liz and I drove through St. Paul after [...]

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Goodbye To The Turkey Who Lived

The Turkey Who Lived, the story of Azul as told by the girl who loved her most, © 2004-2009 by Dee. All rights reserved. She was a blue so light she was almost gray. Jim got her at Miller Feed Shop in Albuquerque’s north valley after first buying and then losing a white baby turkey [...]

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Georgia Pine Over My Grandmother’s Grave

Georgia Pine Over My Grandmother’s Grave, BlackBerry Shots, Augusta, Georgia, October 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. visiting Estelle gravestones outlast the living markers for the dead all that’s left behind a letter, a horseshoe ring lasting love and luck face of a pine tree warm thoughts of the Grandmothers hover [...]

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Grandma Caroline’s Green Salad

Liz Really Liked It!, BlackBerry Shots, vintage recipe card, November 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.     It’s almost Thanksgiving, a time of gratitude for our many blessings. And a time for good food. I walked over to the fridge this morning and under a Morton Salt “When it rains [...]

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My Mom Wears Army Boots

Moms are the best to hug and to nestle My mama’s bad ass She can arm wrestle Bobbi versus Mom, in the First Annual Arm Wrestling Holiday Championship, December 2008, photo © 2008-2009 by ybonesy. All rights reserved. And the winner is Mom!, photo © 2008-2009 by ybonesy. All rights reserved. The holidays are just [...]

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So You Want To Teach Your Child To Write?

I have guided my two daughters—starting at about age nine—through Writing Practice. In both cases, my girls had graduated from chapter books to Harry Potter. Each was at the time steeped in weekly exercises for spelling, capitalization, punctuation. Each was heading into the season of independent school admissions, which would include a writing test. And [...]

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Crystallization — September Mandalas

Gothic Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 2008, photo © 2008-2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.     ONE: Crystallization, Stage 9 of The Great Round, creates the opening in which seeds planted in earlier stages bloom into full flowers. The first mandala alludes to the rose windows in Gothic cathedrals, designs that continually pull the gaze back [...]

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haiku for The Swimmer (John Cheever lives on)

Continuity, BlackBerry Shots, pool near Clarks Hill Lake, Georgia, October 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. streaks of Southern light splash across concrete pool deck sink to the bottom wading through memoir old gravestones crack and crumble worn secrets revealed John Cheever lives on fine art of the short story distant [...]

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dragon haiku trilogy

Sink Mandala II – Dragon Claw, Kohler Design Center, Kohler, Wisconsin, October 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.           fierce constellation one dragon, many faces all run down the drain water covers fire ouroboros alchemy swallows no desire shadow eats itself raw prima materia circle is complete [...]

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Yo, ybonesy!

pseudonym Definition: false name Synonyms: AKA, alias, ananym, anonym, assumed name, handle*, incognito*, nickname, nom de guerre, nom de plume, pen name, professional name, stage name, summer name Notes: an allonym is a pen name that is borrowed, not made-up like a pseudonym Antonyms: name The time has come. For three years I have blogged and [...]

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November Frost BlackBerry Moon

November Frost Moon, BlackBerry Shots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. The moon is beautiful in the Fall. Maybe it’s because in October I traveled to Pennsylvania, drove down to Georgia and South Carolina, then flew back to Minnesota, that I paid more attention to the skies. Or because [...]

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Marriage Equality In Maine & The Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine asked parishioners to donate to the Maine “marriage restoration” campaign. Officials said the donations were to help pay for television ads aimed at overturning a state law legislators passed last spring recognizing same-sex unions as “marriage.”                                                           ~Catholic News Agency, 9/14/09 The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine accounted [...]

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I Write Because….

Veins, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, October 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.     Day to day life creeps up on you. Practice falls by the wayside. Goals seem out of reach. Something inside makes you keep going. Early October was my second time in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin to meet with three [...]

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