Day 11

A Numbers Sestina

Some things are meant for only one
Couples are required to be two
A triangle has angles, three
Fingers on a hand are four
Add a thumb for a fist, five
Half a dozen is a carton of six

Hotdog buns with two missing is six
A sun for our earth, just one
A bill with Lincoln, that’s five
Buckle my shoe, say two
Knock on the door, say four
Wheels on a tricycle, three

Legs on a tripod, three
Pick up sticks, that’s six
A double date would be four
A lonely number, that’s one
A pair of shoes, that’s two
Golden rings at Christmas, five

Arms on a starfish, five
A couple plus me, that’s three
Socks for the shoes would be two
A pack of soda would have six
Me? Well, there’s only one
Sides of a square would be four

My arms and legs make four
Toes in a half pedicure are five
The first is called number one
Singers in a trio, three
Legs on an insect, six
Sleeves on a shirt, two

Legs on pants, there are two
Legs on dogs, there are four
A guitar with strings, count six
Rhymes with hive, that’s five
Goldilocks and the bears, three
The first, the best, it’s one

Three people and six cookies, they’d each get two
Turn a dollar into quarters, you’d have four
Gimme five, take two, you ‘re left with three

PAD - Day 6

Addict

I desire to be a person who is dependent on God
Devoted to the divine
An enthusiast for the gospel
A follower of Christ

Not just in word, but in deed
A practitioner
A true believer
A lover of all that is good
All that is God

I desire to be a disciple
Enslaved by love
Inclined toward God's heart
Persuaded that nothing can sever
Me from Him

Ever

PAD Challenge Day 4

Unexpected Simple Pleasures

Delightful things

My first Mother’s Day – my son wearing
An “I Love You Mommy” button on his nightgown
when I go to lift him from his crib

A surprise party on our 25th anniversary
filled with family members, each a special joy

Meeting a cousin I never knew who is a writer and
now influences my writing self

A friend request on facebook
from someone I haven’t seen in over twenty years

Beach glass – a secret treasure from across the ocean

A student who reconnects me with her grandma’s cousin
who was my best friend in eight grade

The bone in the grass that my lab discovers
with pure joy all over again

a pleasant conversation with a stranger

Out of the Gloom

The night is broken
No longer the dark of dreams
But the light of day
Where I don’t need to be afraid
Of the past running in and out of the night
Where I can work
And focus on the now
And push aside the sadness
Of the night thoughts
Until the sun slips down in the sky
And sleep brings more confusion
And I awake glad the hours of darkness
Are over for a while
Morning has arrived once more
Severing the night grip on my heart

On top of teaching school and ALL that entails , writing articles for examiner.com, and working just a tad on my works-in-progress, I am now doing the November PAD (Poem a Day) Challenge. The first one could be a procrastination or a practive poem. Here is my mix of both, because I do sometimes procrastinate about doing certain things, but it's because others things get there first and I think it's all important. Which it isn't. So sometimes I go in circles.

Here's my effort...


Postponed Push

In between procrastination
And proactivation
I put off pleasures
As I putter
Frantically fretting
The list goes on
Neverending burdens
Frittering my hours
As a dedicated dawdler
My commission, my mission
A quest for time
From later to leisure
One day I say
When I'm finished
When it's done

Student Responses

Test Question: Compare yourself to the man by the pool of Bethesda:

Some student answers:

“We are all paralyzed. And when Jesus comes to ask us if we want to be healed, we all turn it down. We all keep pushing it away and one day Jesus is gonna come back and say I never knew you. He is gonna walk away. So when Jesus asks us if we want to be healed, we should all say yes. So we can take up our bed of evil and walk away and glorify God.”

“The man could not do anything without help and we can’t do anything without the help of the LORD.”

“Comparing myself to the man at the pool is easy. I think without Jesus we are all paralyzed.”

“The man at the pool did not believe at first and then he did, just like me. And he is a sinner just like me and all humans.”

“It was just like us. Before we were saved we were crippled. But when we accepted Him, He healed our hearts.”

“That man was crippled physically and spiritually. I am weak spiritually; I can’t save myself like the man couldn’t lift himself into the water. I rely on Jesus.”

Hank

He sits so drowsy
In his seat
Eyelids in the halfway position
Blankness behind them
He does not know the page number
He does not know the answer
He does not even know
He isn’t wholly there
I do not know where he goes
"Yes, ma’am!” he snaps to attention
The paper flutters to the ground
The book tumbles to the floor
The pencil rolls off the desk
So we begin once more
Seven minutes later
He sits so drowsy
In his seat
Gone again