Chicken's in the Crockpot (IFT)

[kristalynn]

Thank you, anenome! I wasn't so sure about this last one, but maybe I'll work on it.

[kristalynn]

Trust

Two big things happened today.
My daughter got her temporary driver’s license
and drove!
Real Rock Pools came and started digging
for our pool.
My backyard will never
be the same.
I will never again walk across the yard
to sit by the pond
unless I learn
to walk on water.

[larryrap]

Hi kristalynn,

Many of these shine with a purity of heart that I find very disarming. Occasional lines could be cut to give the sweetest spots more presence.
Once the World, Shadow, and the second half of Kites are just lovely.

[Bench]

Hi Kristalynn, so many great images throughout. I was particularly moved by 'About Letting Go'. Seems utterly prescient. More!

[kristalynn]

Thank you, Bench and larry.

[kristalynn]

Siblings

He’s almost thirteen and she’s fifteen
and when we start home
from a long road trip,
he sits in the middle seat
so he can rest his head
against her shoulder and sleep.
She doesn’t mind.

[Dunc]

kristalynn

About Letting Go — Good strong images, nicely balanced narration, rather moving.

Kite Flying — You call up a clear picture, and 'trying to lift the kit / with their eyes', that's a hit.

Trust — I was waiting for her to drive into the new pool. But no, the day ends happily.

Siblings — Aww, Rather lovely story.

Regards . Dunc

[5th column]

Hey K, it seems you're tapping into something new I've not read in previous NaPo outings. Bravo! Consistently good.

[kristalynn]

Dunc, thank you. Into the pool? I didn't even think of that. Gosh, this driving thing is so much harder than I thought it was going to be! Neil, thank you. Something new? I like the sound of that.

[kristalynn]

An erasure poem from Cosmos, Carl Sagan



Microscope and Telescope

The very small and the very large,
atoms and galaxies,
time and place.

Grind and polish
history of footsteps.

Eratosthenes, the first,
the first, the first
to draw Mars.

A vast, dark major disappearance,
the first Martian was roughly
twenty-four.
Discoverer of Titan,
extraordinary.

In his twenties, he thought astrology
was nonsense.



The microscope and telescope, both developed in early seventeenth century Holland, represent an extension of human vision of the realms of the very small and the very large. Our observations of atoms and galaxies were launched in this time and place. Christiaan Huygens loved to grind and polish lenses for astronomical telescopes and constructed one five meters long. His discoveries with the telescope would by themselves have ensured his place in the history of human accomplishment. In the footsteps of Eratoshthenes, he was the first person to measure the size of another planet. He was also the first to speculate that Venus is completely covered with clouds; the first to draw a surface feature on the planet Mars (a vast dark windswept slope called Syrtis Major): and by observing the appearance and disappearance of such features as the planet rotated, the first to determine that the Martian day was, like ours, roughly twenty-four hours long. He was the first to recognize that Saturn was surrounded by a system of rings which nowhere touches the planet. And he was the discoverer of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn and, as we now know, the largest moon in the solar system –a world of extraordinary interest and promise. Most of these discoveries he made in his twenties. He also thought astrology was nonsense.

[beeswax]

Hello Kristalynn Causality has an effective surprise ending. I can’t look either. Shadow and Shades of Blue are both nicely observed – strong visual images. Th last two lines in Letting Go had me draw in my breath. Yes. That will come too (I guess!). I don’t want to let go of words. I enjoyed your words today.

[kristalynn]

Thank you, beeswax!

[kristalynn]

Conversation At Our Sons’ Baseball Game

Kim has been telling us about her mother
who has MS and can no longer move.
The umpire walks toward the fence, says,
“She’s always smiling,”
and she is. Makes me feel
that having a mother dead weight in her son’s arms
isn’t the worst thing. It’s horrible,
but she’s got two children near
who take care of her, a sense of humor,
intelligence, a crappy attitude at times,
Kim says, “Who can blame her?”

We stop talking for a minute
because her son hits a homerun.
We clap and cheer,
Kim raises her fists
in the air.

[kristalynn]

Marriage

My thesaurus lies open
face-down on my desk.
I was looking for a word
somewhere between cheek
and chronic. If I was searching for a way
to describe how I feel
about you, cheerful chemistry
wouldn’t cut it.
Chivalry? Children? Cherish
comes closer.
Chisel.
Choke?
Oh, I see it.
Choice.

[Jee Leong]

The juxtaposition of events in "Trust" works really well to set up the final line. The latest, "Marriage," is lovely.