Saturday, March 16, 2019

Keeping Me On My Toes

Photo by Wellington Cunha from Pexels

Weekend Mini-Challenge ~ Homographic FUN @ Imaginary Gardens
Beautiful Magaly is inviting us to play with homographs, or words that share the same spelling, but have rather different meanings.

 Here is my attempt.  I do hope I do not tear my paper when my frustrated tears make it wet.  LOL

The stages of life have a way of making a grand entrance.  The only problem is they do not come in at the entrance, they come in at the side door or exit.   Nothing can be completely predicted.  There always has to be surprises to keep me on my toes. I can try to have my ducks all in a row, but most likely I will be lost at sea trying to row my boat without a paddle.  You see, trying to keep a sense of control is kind of like trying to spit at the wind, you wind up wetter than something that has washed up to shore.  The biggest wave that could possibly come will come when you do not want to get wet; that is just how it works.  So you might as well wave certainty goodbye.  It won’t stay for long, and when it leaves it won’t be back anytime soon.  In fact, it will leave like a bat out of hell, and then you will be lucky if your bat hits the ball out of the park even once for the rest of your days!  Now that I have burst the bubble of your view of the future, like a reader’s digest article about death and destruction, let me give you a pill of hope for you to digest for the road:

Life is not easy
We know that is true
But in all its imperfections
It is laced with blessings too
They are sewn in the fabric
Wrinkled or straight
We can spend our whole life
Trying to iron and evening the creases we hate
But when evening is truly upon us
We realize that the wrinkles are a gift of grace
They are part of the beautiful garment of life
And all the blessings are also a part of our fate.

©Carrie Van Horn 2019

16 comments:

  1. Your introduction had me cackling with delight. I'm a sucker for a bit (or a lot) of word play. So, yep... I am happy!

    And I couldn't agree more with the poetry: life is a tough cookie. One we can't always try to sink our teeth into without something to soften the bite. Once we what works, the blessings taste yummy.

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    1. Why thank you Magaly! I am delighted that my words made you happy! I had so much fun with this wonderful prompt of yours!

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  2. Oh I love the way you describe life as accepting the wrinkles...
    I would say that a wrinkle should be shown as the exquisite crease it is.

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    1. Thank you for that Bjorn, and thank you for stopping by. :-)

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  3. I like this a lot. And yes, that wrinkle. Like a bat out of hell. Yes ma'am

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  4. I like the positive and helpful message in your poem.

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  5. We can spend our whole life
    Trying to iron and evening the creases we hate

    So true, Carrie!

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  6. I enjoyed your homographic wordplay, Carrie, and I can identify with all of it. I especially enjoyed the play on words ‘stage’ and ‘entrance’ and the thought of life coming in at the side door or exit – sneaky – and Shakespeare would be proud! I also love the lines:
    ‘We can spend our whole life
    Trying to iron and evening the creases we hate
    But when evening is truly upon us
    We realize that the wrinkles are a gift of grace’.
    I’m loving the silver in my hair and can’t wait for all-over white – a reminder of my punk days when it was short and peroxide. Judi Dench is my old-age role model.

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  7. Very well penned! I found this bit so evocative: "But when evening is truly upon us/We realize that the wrinkles are a gift of grace".

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  8. Oh, we wouldn't know the beauty and blessings of life if we didn't have an introduction to the dark, tough, side of it. This is full of wisdom we all need.

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  9. Phenomenal wordplay in this, Carrie. So well done!

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  10. This was fun reading, Carrie. We hardly ever iron around here anymore, only one of us does any of that. I too liked your wordplay, it came out really good, natural.
    ..

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  11. oh wow Carrie --- this is just wonderful, not only for the apt prompt exploration, but rather, best of all, for the images and story you create and share; the truths of the learning curves we all experience and find, as they find us ... and the way you've pulled this off, sort of like a "haibun" poem or prose-poem is so effective - I really like this. And the poem really, sums it up, for even as time wrinkles, we should learn to ease into its embrace, knowing the value of the sum of it all - the richness of experiences.

    We can spend our whole life
    Trying to iron and evening the creases we hate

    - oh how true and futile our efforts, ironic how it is when we accept, things smooth themselves out and flow, as they are meant to be ...

    delicious words ....and I have to add, I had no idea about this blog of yours - you caught me right off guard with the name and the description ... chuckled madly at "fat thighs" ... *sigh* ...

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  12. Fantastic read, you've just illustrated why I love words so much, so clever you are *smiles*

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