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| Santorini -photo by Yuri Lev |
Greetings to all who land here as we ring out the old year and ring in the new. The Seven+One Poetry Sisters aka Poetry Pals have invited us to feature bells today. In the spirit of collabellation, here's my blitz:
if a clod be washed away by the sea
coral bells
coral reef
reef or island
reef or atoll
toll the bells
toll the road
road to ruin
road to nowhere
nowhere else
nowhere man
man no island
woman be
be the bell
be the ring
ring me up
ring a rosie
rosy glasses
rosy future
futures stocks
future shock
shocking data
shocking news
Alexander Graham Bell
calling on the Batphone
phone me up
phone it in
in a minute
just a second
second thoughts
second chances
chance encounter
chance of rain
rain of ashes
rain of fire
fire alarm
fire fall
all fall down
all wrung out
out of luck
just in time
time's a-wastin'
time’s a ship
a sinking ship
a sinking feeling
a feel for it
it takes a toll
atoll an island
rings it tolls
for
thee
draft ©HM 2021
Many will notice that I'm leaning heavily on John Donne here, his famous you-can-call-it-a-sonnet-but-really-I-wrote-it-just-the-way-I-wanted "No man is an island." Like John, I had a hard time following the rules of the blitz this time and finally I've just had to give in and ring this bell my own way. Thanks to the sisters, among them Tanita Davis, for the opening the challenge.
In other news, Tanita was my Winter Poem Swap partner, and in the spirit of pacing myself and making that holiday feeling last as long as possible, I'll be posting all about the lovely gifts she sent next time, when also the Inklings will be posting our first challenge of *gulp* 2022. I'm glad to leave 2021 behind, yes, but also not expecting too much better of 2022.
Apparently that's a way to go, according to this deeply radical and honest blessing that passed to me on Facebook, by Nadia Bolz-Weber:
A blessing for the new year:
As you enter this new year, as you pack away the Christmas decorations and get out your stretchy pants
as you face the onslaught of false promises offered you through new disciplines and elimination diets
as you grasp for control of yourself and your life and this chaotic world
May you remember that there is no resolution that, if kept, will make you more worthy of love.
There is no resolution that, if kept, will make life less uncertain and allow you to control a pandemic and your children and the way other people act.
So this year,
May you just skip the part where you resolve to be better do better and look better this time.
May you give yourself the gift of really, really low expectations.
May you expect so little of yourself that you can be super proud of the smallest of accomplishments.
May you expect so little of the people in your life that you actually notice and cherish every small lovely thing about them.
May you expect so little of the supply chain and the service industry that you notice more of what you do get and less of what you don't and then just tip really well anyhow.
May you expect to get so little out of 2022 that you can celebrate every single thing it offers you, however small.
Because you deserve joy and not disappointment
So, I wish you a Happy as possible New Year.
As do I, and especially to our host today, Carol at Carol's Corner, who is gamely rounding us up with the antidote, which is always poetry, to the sudden fiery devastation of very nearby territory in Boulder, CO. May you all feel just a little bit safer by being here.
