Patchwork Prose and Verse
She knows he loves lights – flashlights, landscape lights, Christmas lights, headlamps, city lights. And so on our first rainy night in “her city,” she took us on the High Roller. A surprise with him in mind. And we loved every minute of the half-hour spin seeing the city lights!
High Roller surprise
nighttime Vegas exclusive
the city lights up!
Screaming Pink
it started with
her Barbie bike ~
pink seat
pink lights
pink frame
pink basket
then, of course,
her screaming
pink shoes~
“not approved by
World Athletics:
too much comfort“
we stayed at
The Flamingo
where the birds
and fixtures
were pink
lipstick, nail polish, hair
even the people
were pink
and we topped
it off with
a Pinky
a pink-iced
cream-filled dream
from Pink Box
Donuts
a true Vegas
experience!
Our host for the Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com this month was Stacey Joy, who inspired us to write poems honoring human emotions. Since I was traveling, I was off by a day, so I am posting the poem from one of those prompts today. You can click here to read the full prompt.
Emotions
I’ve had a few
severe ones came
on takeoff from
the Vegas airport
yesterday
My phone was in
airplane mode
with Delta wi-fi
but my soul wasn’t
it wasn’t the
proverbial placenta pulling
it was the heartstrings
as I watched my
daughter ping on
Find My Phone
our plane flying
away, away, away
so far home
my firstborn watching
planes from her window
beneath, asking
in her text
if the plane she saw
might be us
First, huge thanks and a hug. Second, I’m sharing my plan for March slicing.
I was sitting with my schnoodle Boo Radley in my favorite chair in the living room when the text notification came on Valentine’s Day. My friend, fellow Slice of Life blogger, travel advice guru, fellow Schnoodle Mom, and Stafford Challenge small group buddy Glenda Funk of Idaho sent a Valentine full of smiles and hugs to our writing group that meets the first of each month to catch up and write! One of the greatest blessings of a writing community is finding common interests among those with whom we share some of our deepest feelings and so much of our day-to-day lives. A huge thanks to Glenda today, to all the writers here at Slice of Life, and others in writing group crossroads for making life more friendly and for helping me find the smiles in unexpected places.
Valentine’s Day hugs
arrive from across the miles
arms wide as friendship!
A plan has been brewing. It’s been in my bones, and it has finally taken root. I find that if I have a plan for the Slice of Life Challenge, I’m more successful at completing the challenge ~ and not just finishing it, but actually enjoying it the same way some marathon runners are actually smiling when they cross the finish line.
My Plan
Living poets are near and dear to my heart. I want to not only read and celebrate them, but also have an opportunity to share their work. That will be my own personal March Slice of Life Challenge plan. Each day, I’ll feature a collection of poems by a living poet, and I’ll compose a short Cento poem each day from that collection. Cento poems are some of my favorites – they’re a form of found poetry where lines of existing poems are arranged to create new poems. I’m still curating my featured list, but I wanted to share this idea in case there is anyone reading who is struggling with an idea and needs a place to start. Perhaps there are seeds in this idea. Some of my favorite reading is about books and how they have changed lives – poetry collections included.
I’ll see you at the starting line on Sunday, ready for the journey!
Stacey Joy of California was our host for the Open Write on its final day of the February writing invitation. Here is her prompt and invitation to write, below and linked. You can read the poems of others today and visit the tricube form.
Inspiration
In the spring of 2025, Leilya Pitre introduced me to the fun poetic form called a Tricube. I wrote a spring poem to her prompt and had been eager to write a tricube poem again. If you want to revisit Leilya’s prompt and responses, visit this link.
Here we are in February with so much to celebrate: Black History Month, Snack Month, Library Lovers Month, American Heart Month, and Hot Breakfast Month. I’m inspired to write a tricube and I hope you are too.
Process
A tricube has three stanzas containing three lines, and each line has three syllables (3/3/3). You might choose one of the February celebrations or something else that speaks to you.
I’m reliving my visit to Las Vegas last week in my posts this week, and today’s tricube is about seeing The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere.
A 4-D Movie Experience at the Sphere
Dorothy
and Toto
a Wizard
a scarecrow
a tin man
a lion
in an orb!
L. Frank Baum
a classic!
Our host for the first day of the February Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com was Seana, who prompted us to write lines of verse about a special place. We were traveling and on Pacific Coast time in Las Vegas, visiting my daughter and seeing a show at the Sphere. I chose that venue for my special place haiku. You can read her full prompt here, along with the poems of others.
I’m also including some video clips from the concert so that you can share the fun – but the videos can’t capture the full stereo sound and the immensity of the Sphere in person. You’ll have to go experience it for yourself for that! Also, a word about sharing: recording is permitted in the Sphere, and as an additional disclaimer, this is not my music, my blog remains free, and I do not profit from sponsors or visit stats.
You Can Check Out Anytime, But…
mesmerizing orb
Sphere, Las Vegas ~ The Eagles
“you can never leave…”
More about our trip to Las Vegas in the coming days~ please visit throughout the week!
For anyone in the Thomaston/Newnan/Zebulon areas of Georgia, please come out and join the Silent Book Club Flint River in person if you are free on the dates listed on the flyer below. If you are not local, please read with us wherever you are in the world and let us know you did! Set aside an hour of time to read, then send a quick snapshot of you and your book to the Facebook page where our group news happens.
I’m part of the team trying to build this book club so that we have both an in-person and virtual following. We love to see people and their books!
We can’t wait to hear
from our fellow readers ~ join
the movement to READ!
Boo Radley is our rescue Schnoodle who is as grumpy as they come. He growls for no reason and tries to bully his brothers. He may sound like he’ll rip your leg off, but when it comes to feelings, he’s a sensitive dog. When we have to fuss at him, he gets under the bed to repent of his sins and thinks we can’t see him if he barely puts his nose out.
he got in trouble
he didn’t think we could see
him under the bed
hiding from us both
his sensitive feelings hurt
we had fussed at him
An invitation: if you are free this evening, please come read in person OR WHEREVER YOU ARE IN THE WORLD. See the dates below, but if you can’t come in person, please join our Facebook page and share what you read as we were reading in person.
Boo Radley, our rescue Schnoodle with multiple issues, fears, and insecurities, just likes to be close to us when we are settled and relaxing. His favorite thing is to get on the back of the chair and put his head on my shoulder, “sharing” my headphones. Every once in a while, as if on cue, he reacts to a poem in the same way I do……and I can feel it!
my shoulder buddy
Boo Radley sits listening
to new poetry
I feel him react
lift his head, take a deep breath
and I do the same
An invitation: if you are free tomorrow evening, please come read in person OR WHEREVER YOU ARE IN THE WORLD. See the dates below, but if you can’t come in person, please join our Facebook page and share what you read as we were reading in person.
We’d gone for a slice of pizza and looked west on our drive through the rural rolling hills of Georgia. What we saw took our breath away. Golden twilight peeking over the hill. I stopped at the end of our driveway and photographed it, hoping to capture the vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows like a brush stroke of melted crayons. The next morning, I opened the front door to the beauty of the sun over the recent harvesting of trees.
Beauty surrounds us in this place we call home, and I wanted to share the artistry of the skies. It’s not always able to be seen this way in cloudless ways, but even though the eye can’t always see through to it, I know it’s always there. It’s euphoric when it reveals itself in its full splendor.
Here is an EAST WEST poem to celebrate the skies!
Evening West, Morning East
W her E
E uphori A
S urmount S ~
T wiligh T
Common Threads 