Fun summer pastime
Crack of bat at plate and cheers
Baseball up and out.
Drone of mowers
Neighborhoods and avenues
Lazy swinging-hammock days.
String breaks flashy show
Teeny weeny bikini
Jump and grab a beach towel quick.
Category Archives: Prose & Poetry
Summer Haiku
Filed under Personal Articles, Prose & Poetry
The Trade
Inspired by Kristi P-L, USAF, Iraq 2009-2010
She packed up her comfy jeans
and laying-around T-shirts
She shrugged into a heavy canvas uniform,
now her second skin
Boxed up her peep-toe high heels and sandals
and stacked them away
Now all she’s got are dusty high-top boots
with heavy tread
No delicate black eyeliner around lovely hazel eyes
Just smudges of purple, her badges of fatigue
No long showers here
Just unshaved legs so she looks like
the rest of the troops
Forget salon haircuts with mousse or gel
In marches a permanent helmet-head hairdo
She strains to remember how lovely
that last manicure felt
Handling weapons with broken, scraggy fingernails, unpolished and blunt
Velvety cosmetic powder abandoned at home
She wears the Iraqi desert upon her face
Late night chat-fests with friends
of her choosing,
No more
Now, it’s early morning wake-up and drill
No delicate sparkling pendants around her neck
Just a dull metal chain with tags
that identify her blood type
While mother’s comforting shoulder
and soothing touch wait at home
She learns combat strategies and
how to react to roadside bombs
Instead of cradling a tiny baby
She crawls into a burdened flak jacket
that hides her girlish figure
She rolls out with a loaded M4 and a 9mm Beretta.
Filed under For The Troops, Personal Articles, Prose & Poetry
Blog renaissance
Back in March, I posted this blog renaissance mission. I have had a few guests and have plans for more. Would you like to be included? See contact info at the end of the post.
Blog history
Years ago, I produced week-long, special-event, promotional blog articles in collaboration with others.
Over those years, I featured artists, writers, bloggers, other editors and proofreaders, photographers, sculptors, potters, graphic designers, jewelry makers, furniture makers, chefs, cooks, crafters, and more.
The good feels
I felt good doing that. I am doing that again.
Any time I can lift someone’s spirits – show their art or photos or jewelry or sculptures and share their passion with others – it gives me a warm fuzzy.
It also helped me grow – in my perceptions and with creatives around the country and around the world.
Resurrecting these partnerships
I would like to resurrect those special moments. Not in week-long events (man, that was a lot of work!), but with special events for anyone who has a book, artwork, or food truck launch or for creatives who simply want to share their special talents with my audience.
All these blog features will be shared to my FB, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Contact me
If you are interested in a special-event feature on my blog, use the Contact Form or send an email – karenrsanderson@midco.net.
******
Links to a handful of previous collaborations –
Emmett Russell – Furniture maker and metal sculpturist – from 2015
Chris Eboch – Myths about writing for children – from 2015
Photographer Rick Heit – Interview with Rick Heit epic photographer – from 2015
Editor spotlight with Darlene Elizabeth Williams – Editor Spotlight – from 2014
My Main Street with Minot’s Main Street Books – My Main Street – from 2013
Darlene Foster – Darlene Foster, tweens author – from 2013
Elizabeth H. Cottrell – Tools for touching hearts and lives – from 2013
Shawn MacKenzie – You are your words – from 2013
******
Note – One of my greatest pleasures is when I present a guest in the best possible light. I will take more care with your blog appearance than with my own. I reserve the right to edit your submission.
For more info on Rick Heit Photography in Minot, ND, click here.
Desert vistas in words and photos
Poem by Karen R. Sanderson
All photos by John Steiner
Desert Canvas
A stranger’s first glance at a sandpaper land
To the untrained eye so stark
They think our God forgot to wave His generous hand.
But go within the seeker’s slow embark:
Touch and venture forth upon the endless expanse
And excavate where ancestral cultures fade.
Explore the cliff mystery’s romance
And lose your step in ruins adobe made
Hear the insistent flutter of looming raptors’ wings
Spooking lizards under rocks of ginger veil
Bringing a prick to jack-rabbit springs
As roadrunners skitter to quick avail
See the sapphire skies on copper-penny peaks subsist
Sleeping mantle sprinkled with heaven’s dreamy eyes
From a yawning dawn’s foggy mists
To awestruck travelers this vista lies
Desert blooms in lemons tart and peaches warm
Meadow hues blushed and painted wild
Beware the sly and patient cactus’ unforgiving thorn
Unsuspected, drawn to their scent, beguiled
The moon rises from amethyst mountain cloak
Winds howl denouncing the mesa’s plateau breeze
Arid powder of lost, wandering animals, now bones,
Summer dust awaits the overnight freeze.
John Steiner is a traveler, writer, aviator, drone operator, and avid photographer. A photo fanatic from a young age, John now shares his travel experiences and photographs via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and on his blog.
John’s blog is at http://www.photobyjohnbo.com.
You can find his photo page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PhotoByJohnbo.
He is also on Twitter at https://twitter.com/photobyjohnbo and on
Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/photobyjohnbo.
Filed under Guest Writers & Bloggers, Photography, Prose & Poetry
Karen R. Sanderson 