Poetry Monday :: Jam

Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings and I have taken over the hosting duties, mostly the supplying of the prompts - only temporarily we hope - while Diane at On the Border is taking a break for health and relaxation, travelling the world with her husband as far as we can tell. We just hope she's going to take back over once she returns home.

  I have something to ask of you: If you read this and the poetry of others via the links, would you please leave a comment.
  Half - if not more - the fun of these challenges is receiving the responses of others.

Poetry Monday. Jam ... all I can think of is the trouble variety of jam, as in "in a jam". And then one of my own poems start running inside my brain. The song is a repost from November '22, but the backstory is new.
The lines: "I got myself in and I'll get myself out." comes from the Pern books by Anne McCaffrey, where we meet Piemur, a boy of small stature, but a grand scale troublemaker, and very likeable. Once upon a time there was a forum for discussing all things Pern-related, and Brenda Appleby posted there, singing songs of Pern to her own tunes and often her own lyrics supplementing those from the books. Her rendition of "The Question Song" was exactly how I had imagined in my head. She and I were both intrigued by Piemur and his trouble and we agreed that the sentence "I got myself in and I'll get myself out." would be a great refrain for a troublemaker's ballad.
I do not know if she ever wrote this song, if she did, her version will be miles better than mine, as
I do not think I did justice to my idea ... but then again aren't plans always bigger, better, more ...
So I present:

The troublemaker's ballad.
I get in a pickle as often as not
I get into trouble, yes that is my lot.
I don't want to do it
I want to be good,
To help just a bit
To lighten the mood.
That they'll find me out, I know without doubt
But I got myself in and I'll get myself out.

When things they go wonky they just call my name
"Don't try to explain now, excuses are lame"
I did a good deed,
At least as I think
Where I saw the need,
But they say I stink
That they'll just blame me, I know without doubt
But I got myself in and I'll get myself out.

I got in a jam now so many a time
The mess and the trouble, the hot spot is mine.
And when I defend
my righteous deed,
they say I should mend
my ways and my feet.
That they'll find my faults I know without doubt
But I got myself in and I'll get myself out.

 - - - - - -
Up and coming:
April 28: Jam (today)
May 5: Competition
May 12: Shape
May 19: Stem
May 26: Lead

Poetry Monday :: Shelf

Poetry Monday is a challenge, normally hosted by Diane at On the Border. But from Monday, January 8, 2024, Messymimi and I have conspired to keep the chair warm for her, as she's taking a break due to health issues. We will each set the topics for one month, I began with January, Mimi supplied for February, and so on until Diane returns.

Today is Shelf.

The absolute only thing Shelf made me think of was Elf on a Shelf. Not really a thing I'm keen on, and singularly inappropriate for Easter Monday. So forgive me for fooling around and making a nonsense poem.

An elf on a shelf
Is not good for Easter
This says itself.

An egg in a shell
Is just right for Easter
Clear as a bell

But gifts from elfs
And baskets of eggs
Are for all that helps -
With hands and with legs -
To weed in my bed
And knead all the bread
For Easter means guests
And wonderful feasts!

Next Monday: Order


Because I saw at Mimi's blog that today is Anne McCaffrey's birthday I bring you two versions of the cover art of my favourite book in Chronicles of Pern - Dragonsong. Music, drama and dragons, can you improve on that? I think not.

Cover art from 1977

Cover art from the edition I read first - also the Danish edition looks the same.

Using today's words & IWSG - July question

The last batch of Words in June was given by me, and can be found here. I repeat:
     Humdrum, Hapless, Righteous, Puny, Troubled, Quirky.

I am - once again -  continuing the story of the mysterious examination in transformation and using the words in the order they were given. 
I'm still not satisfied with the story or my writing skills. But I want to tell this story! Bits and pieces are missing. This whole chapter is in for a solid re-write before making it into the book. But as I can't just leave out a bit of the story, here we go:

The humdrum process of reading through pages and pages of encyclopedias on mammals, marsupials and other animals in Australia, was interrupted at regular intervals by someone reading aloud when they found a relevant passage.
"Tigers!" Kalle said, "There is an Australian tiger." He paused looking down into the book again: "The Thy-la-cine, wow hope I said this right - is an extinct, or possibly extinct - this means died out, doesn't it?" Knud nodded and Kalle read on: "a carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or the Tasmanian wolf. The Tasmanian tiger was relatively shy and nocturnal, with the general appearance of a medium-to-large-size canid." He stopped. "What's that?"
"Canid?" Hilde said, Kalle nodded his blonde head and Hilde continued. "Canid is the adjective to canine, meaning as or of a dog. That means dog-like, or a member of the dog-family!"
"Thanks," Kalle said and went on: "This then means that it looks like a medium sized dog except for its stiff tail and abdominal pouch similar to that of a kangaroo."
He drew a deep breath: "The Tasmanian tiger was an expert predator; but exactly how large its prey animals were is disputed. Its closest living relatives are the other members of Da-sy-u-ro-mor-phi - another of those big words," Kalle said with  sigh "including the Tasmanian devil - good old Taz!"

"Are they extinct or are they not?" Hilde asked impatiently.

"The last hapless specimen, a male, died in a zoo in 1936. Since then people claim to have seen some, but none have been photographed or caught."

They read on in silence.

"When is our deadline?" Kirstin suddenly asked.

"I know!" Hilde said with a righteous mien. "Today, just before lunch!"

"We're in deep trouble," Kirstin answered. "Lunch is at one o'clock as always. Now it's almost eleven. Two hours to solve this. Our puny magic is not up to this!"

"Earth!" Knud exclaimed. "That was what was troubling me. We're missing the last clue from Jon, the last element!"

"You sure have a quirky mind," Susan said.

"You're right," Hilde said to Knud and at the same time a stone came in through the window. Kirstin looked out, but she could only see the empty yard below and the branches criss-crossing overhead.


- - - - -

July 6 question - If you could live in any book world, which one would you choose?
This is an impossible to answer question!
   I would like to live in several book worlds, the Hobbits' Middle-Earth, the magical world of Harry Potter, Laura Ingalls Wilder's prairie home, Paksenarrion's mediaeval world, the high fantasy "Earth" of Paul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions, The Broken Sword, or Operation Chaos, or the Avalon from People of the Wind. Or the musroomy village of the Smurfs. Or the forlorn planets of Enemy Mine.  Or the Palumbian rainforest where Marsipilami are to be found. Or the world where the right dime handed to a newspaper man is a portal to a parallel world. Or Xanth. Or Landover. Or Araluen, home of Rangers' Apprentice. Or the Ringworld. Or Kardemommeby. Or the underseas colonies of a short story the name of which eludes me. Or Pern, as described in the first books and the Harper's Hall series. Or Salzburg and surroundings from The Sound of Music. Or the sewers of New York together with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Or the cosy town of Bullerby. Or some of the worlds invented by Olga Godim. Or the postapocalyptic, world from The Waveries. Or my own Unicorn Farm ...
  Do you see a common trait? Worlds with magic, friends and family, and order fighting chaos.

Edderkoppehuen igen -- Spider Hat Revisited

     Uglemor strikkede og strikkede. Da hun næsten havde brugt et helt nøgle garn, skulle Forfatteren prøve edderkoppehuen, som han kalder "Andemad". Den var alt for stor!

 - - - - - -  Yarn Along - - - -

MotherOwl knitted and knitted some more. Whn almost a ball of yarn was used up, she called the for Writer to try the spider hat. He called it "Duckweeds". And it was too big.

     Uglemor trævlede op og strikkede en mindre udgave. Vi præsenterer Andemad2

 - - - - -
MotherOwl frogged the old Duckweeds, and made a new, smaller edition. Duckweeds 2:

Altimens læser Uglemor videre i Dragerytterne fra Pern-sagaen. Lige nu "Red Star Rising"
 - - - - - -
All the while still reading Dragonriders of Pern. Presently Red Star Rising.

Edderkoppehue -- Spider Hat

     Ja, ja ... og nej, Uglemor er ikke færdig med et eneste projekt. I stedet er der slået op til en ny edderkoppehue - således kaldet fordi de 8 glatstrikkede ribber minder om en edderkops ben eller trådene i et spindelvæv. Den er til Skribenten, der ønskede sig sådan én i fødselsdagsgave.

     "Nerilka's Story" er endnu en bog om dragerytterne fra planeten Pern. De er ikke lige gode alle sammen, men denne her er faktisk fin.

  --  -- Yarn Along  --  --  

No, MotherOwl has not finished any more projects lately.Quite the other way around. A new project, happened. The Writer finally succeeded in loosing his hat, or maybe it finally got away. He asked for a new one for his birthday, so of course MotherOwl had to cast on for a new Spider web hat, the 8 rows of stockinette as opposed to the seed stitches looks like a spider's legs or the strands of a cobweb. .
Nerilka's Story is yet a book in the Dragonriders of Pern-series. Some of those are not so good, but this one is actually fine.

Og for lige at fortsætte sagaen med solskinnet, så skinnede solen igen til morgen.

Just to continue the never ending sunrise photo, the Sun was shining brightly today in the morning.

Færdiggørelse -- Finishings

     Denne uge har jeg sat mig for at blive færdig med ting. Første punkt var min nytårswoowly. Den manglede kun bund og øjne. Piraten hjalp mig med at vælge de helt rigtige øjne.

This week is labeled as my get things finished-week. First thing was this new year woowly. It was missing a bottom and its eyes. The Pirate helped me choose the rigth ones.

     Anden ting på listen var bogkurven. Den fik den sidste lige kant på.Der er 13 sider til overs af 598.

The book basket got its final ring. I have 13 pages left of the original 598.

Her er kurven under genopretning.

The basket needed some pinching to be square.

     Det blå stof er nu på vej til at blive en trøje. Det er grænseoverskridende at sy ...

The blue weave is about to be turned into a sweater. Its scaring to sew ...

... og især at klippe i noget,, man selv har vævet.
... and cutting into something you weaved yourself.

     Uglemor er stadig i gang med at læse "The White Dragon",  og der er bestilt flere dragebøger på biblioteket. Der er kommet mindst 7 siden Uglemor læste denne serie sidst.

  --  Yarn Along  --

MotherOwl is still reading The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey. New books about Pern have been ordered to the local library, at least 7 books have been made available in Denmark since then.

Strikkeklub Askeonsdag -- Ash Wednesday Yarn along

     Det var ikke længe, Uglemor kunne holde sig fra computeren i dag. Der skulle jo lige findes billeder til en artikel, og vips, var internettet åbent, og vupti var Uglemor inde på sin blog, hvor hun opdagede at Ginny som sædvanlig havde sin onsdagsstrikkeklub.
     Uglemor er selvfælgelig begyndt på noget nyt. Dennegang er det dog med en mistanke om ikke at blive færdig lige med det samme. Det er nemlig et par varme vanter. Da det sneede for et par uger siden, var Uglemors fingre lige ved at fryse af. Hendes vidunderlige erantisvanter er tyndslidte efter 4 års heftig brug.
     Hvad læsningen angår er Uglemor faldet over en gammel serie bøger om drager, sange og farer på en fjern planet. "Dragonflight" på billedet her er den første bog af utroligt mange. Der er også en mere børnet trilogi, "Dragonsong" (Ildøglernes sang på dansk) Og den er fuld af digte og musik. Derfor er Uglemor begyndt at skrive digte igen, måske kommer der mere om det senere.
Nogle af sangene fra bøgerne er sat i musik, og i nogel tilfælde skrevet færdig af Brenda Appleby (lyt her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvgq9MTmR5Q)

This was not a very long break. MotherOwl had to find some illustrations. 1-2-3 the internet was turned on, and just as fast old habits took over, MotherOwl checked her blog, and lo and behold, Ginny had written her usual  Yarn Along.
And MotherOwl has been knitting again. Something new again. New warm mittens for MotehrOwl. Two weeks ago we had snow, and MotherOwl found out the hard way that her wonderful mittens were worn thin after four years in use. Now Spring is on its way, and MotherOwl suspects that the mittens will not be finished untill lthe first cold spell come Autumn.
While cleaning MotherOwl found several forgotten things, among those this book and its sequels. They are filled with dragons, harpers, drama and danger. MotherOwl likes them very much - enough for a re-read of al of them including the Harper Hall of Pern-trilogy which is written for a younger audience. This trilogy is filled with poems and music. This has made MOtherOwl return to versemaking. Maybe more thereof later.
Some of the sons are set to music and extended by Brenda Appleby (listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvgq9MTmR5Q)