On Martha Stewart’s Houseplants

on Martha’s blog i see
ferns of 220 jolt green

and begonia side tables of
maple grown under summerlight
of ten misty Maine moons.

her jades look happier
than kids up a tree.

her orchid and snake plants
likely why her canaries sing.

i see she has a painting of
a waterfall, and a noticeable
lack of dust on everything.

she does not seem to have
any trim boards missing.

see how her chairs are
like evening cathedrals,

and her kitchen like
dawn on the sea?

i’ve never been invited
to a dinner party at Martha’s
but if I ever am, let’s go

together, dressed
in butterflies older

than the first
dance of spring.

A little something for dVerse Poetry Open Link Tuesday.

Poem For The Sister I’m So Lucky To Have

one day they’ll examine
the leaves of our letters,

the vangoghed margin notes
and butterflied brush strokes

that tell the canvas-lovers
we were only human too.

they’ll sit there in libraries
and beside post office boxes
and on front porch swings

unexpectedly
lost in the light
of our laughter,

their eyes melting to mist,
their faces growing
steadily younger.

~~ end of poem (which yes, is about 55 words, for those of you playing.)

Those are a couple of cards and a bookmark my sister made and sent me this year from jail where she’s been serving 6 months for a lesson she can learn from.

(Lord knows, we’ve all had lessons to learn.)

She’ll be out in a couple weeks.

Rosie’s a sweet sweet awesome person.  I love her so much!!

And she’s the real visual artist of the family, as you can see.

Even her handwriting’s a painting.

Blessedly, Mom and Dad and Rosie’s 2 kids have had these wonderful months to hang out together!

And everything’s okay.

xoxoxooxxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

For 30 Years…

For 30 years I searched
every face in every airport
and train station for yours.

For 30 years I waited
in cafes and corner stores,
on balconies and beaches.

I dipped my eyes into
every city I thought your
heart could be hiding.

I left my open smile in
baskets on doorsteps
in Paris and Dublin.

Sometimes I’d see you
on the other side of the
glass, clearing Customs

or passing my airplane
heading to the North Pole
as yours returned South.

Sometimes you’d be
an ivory silk scarf left
on a park bench.

Or the first tinge
of yellow on the maple
at my attic window.

Others you’d be the
first snow or a strain of
“Angie” on the wind.

But you were always
the lilacs and ladders
leading to spring.

Always the portal
to these moments we
are now reunited in.

Posted for dVerse Poetry Open Link Tuesday.

For a dear dear long-lost teenhood friend I’ve recently been blessed to hear from again via The Net after 30 years!

He saw one of my singing videos on someone’s blog and — voila!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Lilacs and limes painting from a free background site.

The Day I Heard Mary Died

long after I got Jim’s call at the Krispy Kreme
long after Kalyani was there to catch my fall

I wrote a letter to Aunt Sue on my best stationery.

No sense having all those real-pressed-flower
fine cotton papers just hanging around in boxes
with no one getting any enjoyment out of them.

Aunt Sue has recently gone deaf
and I miss our phone calls.

She is Dad’s “baby” sister
for whom yours truly is named.

Dad also has one brother living,
Uncle Ken, on the adjacent farm
in the Canadian Maritimes

Aunt Sue lives near Toronto.

Uncle Wes, Uncle Wayne, Aunt Jean, Aunt Bess and Aunt Day have all passed on.

Used the last of my old humming bird stamps on her letter.

And that return address label.

 
I got the Smiley Face stickers as a surprise in a
Wonderful Package from this fine fine lady.
I’ll explain them in a post here one day.

So, one off my list, whooooohoooo. I’m on letters-writing fire now, people!!

This is Jo’s card I’m still writing on…

Pretty, eh?  On linen-laid cotton.

Raoul Dufy’s “The Baie des Anges at Nice” — 1926.

Remember Jo — my “panpal” since 1994?

Remember us at that pub in England in 1999?

And here we are with her daughter Pascell, the first time they came to Texas…

What year was that, Jo? 1997? ‘98?

And Jo recently…

And after I was home from writing Aunt Sue’s letter that day I snapped this with my iPhone…

Mieshka had been with us 2 days.

There you have it for today.

With love, from Jannie Sue Muffin.

P.S. I see I actually had the date wrong on Aunt Sue’s letter. That Friday was really the 15th, not the 16th.

Baubles & Blessings

A tray of mirror-ball baubles graces our dining room table.

More baubles and such good gawd adorns the corner table.

Got some golden spirals too.

(All loot for 25 cents on the dollar at Michael’s.  Love those after-Christmas sales!)

And what’s all that glitz for?

Why, for the 30 centerpieces for the concert / gala school fundraiser.

This weekend I decorated 12 of the 30 pots.

Jim calls the centerpiece bases “lovely.”

Kelly calls them “weird.”

I call them “Freaking Done!!”

And I think they’re kinda cute, (if I do humbly say so.)

The 8″ flower pots I scored from garden center recycling bins, whooo-hooo.

Then stapled brown satin and stuff on them.

The general artistic plan is to stand a tree branch and several golden spirals in each pot, held in place with stones.

(Branches and stones FREE from nature!)

Then hang varied whimsy in the glittered-up be-sequinned branches.

And see what happens.

With tealights in votive holders on the tables, I think the whole effect will be quite adequate.

Tomorrow I’m heading out to the wild with my branch loppers!  Wish me luck.

Friends are coming over Saturday for bauble hanging.  TG for the posse!

A tray of mirror-ball baubles graces our dining room table.

18 more bases await my loving creation.

And all is well.

Posted with love by a blogger who is about to hit the hay.
xoxoxoxo

P.S.  If YOU have any suggestions for this first-time centerpiece creator, now’s your time to let loose!

THANKS!!