A life given in love. Mum Gentle She Was.

My mum has been dead a long time over 20years. I still miss her so much. I wrote this poem in her honour. I tend to bring it out most years.

© willowdot21.Mum

Gentle she was.

Gentle she was, a young woman of means, beautiful in her Marcel Wave she was.

A hair dresser with her own salon, a teaser of hair and tresses.

Then the quiet Irish man took her eye and her heart.

Not impressed were her parents with the young Irish trade unionist from the motor trade.

Time eventually brought them round to accept the vows the young couple had made.

Grief she bore when her fist born died at six months

Brave she was to have more. Three girls then two boys , and two more angels lost in-between.

Then after all was finished, came me making six.

Hard she worked to bring us up and support her quiet man who was there for her too.

Kind she was, good and open hearted she was.

The door always open to family and waifs and strays

Big hearted she was to all who past through our door.

Always there she was, with words of wisdom and comfort.

Her beautiful heart shone through her eyes.

Patient she was but there was temper there if needed,

She was not strong or mean but if needed her children and her man she would defend to the death!

Beautiful she was in features and in heart

There was not task she would not finish if she had made a start.

Cried for her daughters she did as her man gave them away

And when her sons went too she had a proud day.

Together alone by themselves again.

Happy she was full of the business of her quiet man.

Yet she was always ready to talk and help and ease our pain.

Cleaver she was but not school or college wise she was wise in life and love and truth and need.

Lonely she was when her man was taken ,

Wept she did as she wanted to join him.

Lost she was without the quiet man .

Heart broken she became though she threw herself in to caring for grandchildren.

Gone she was before her body, her mind and soul went to him.

Lost to us she was, a smile here and there maybe a flash of recognition.

Unknowing of all around her she was, sad eyed frighted lamb lonely, lonely.

Tiny she was sadly lost to us long before,

Gone into her mind to find her quiet man.

Tears we shed for her,we wept in grief and I in anger because so long had she been gone and I had wanted to talk to her,

But gone she really was.

Anemones her favourite flowers were they always remind me of her.

I forgave her for leaving me and now accept she had to go

As by the side of her quiet man was where she had to be.

Never to be forgotten.

Song Lyric Sunday: Blue Grass Good Old Boys.

Jim Adams

Hi it’s Sunday and time for Jim Adams to bring us this week’s prompt for Song Lyric Sunday, which is Blue Grass Music .

Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Like mainstream country music, it largely developed out of old-time string music, though in contrast, bluegrass is traditionally played exclusively on acoustic instruments and also has roots in traditional English, Scottish, and Irish ballads and dance tunes as well as in blues and jazz. Bluegrass was further developed by musicians who played with Monroe, including 5-string banjo player Earl Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt. Monroe characterized the genre as: “Scottishbagpipes and ole-time fiddlin’. It’s a part of Methodist, Holiness and Baptist traditions. It’s blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound.”

Now I find Blue Grass a very interesting it spans many years and locations . It’s very easy on the ear …now that may not be quite true, it’s very easy on my ear it may not be everyone’s cup of tea or coffee. I have chosen a very old song by a comparatively modern group.

Man of Constant Sorrow by Home Free.

Home Free is an American country a cappella group of five vocalists: Austin Brown, Rob Lundquist, Adam Rupp, Tim Foust, and Adam Chance. Starting as a show group, they toured with approximately 200 shows a year across the United States. The group won the fourth season of The Sing-Off on NBC in 2013. They sang an arrangement of Hunter Hayes‘ “I Want Crazy” as their final competitive song, earning the group $100,000 and a recording contract with Sony. More information Wiki

“Man of Constant Sorrow” (also known as “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow“) is a traditional American folk song first published by Dick Burnett, a partially blind fiddler from Kentucky. The song was originally titled “Farewell Song” in a songbook by Burnett dated to around 1913. A version recorded by Emry Arthur in 1928 gave the song its current titles.

There exists some uncertainty as to whether Dick Burnett is the original writer. In an interview he gave toward the end of his life, he was asked about the song:

Charles Wolfe: “What about this “Farewell Song” – ‘I am a man of constant sorrow’ – did you write it?” Richard Burnett: “No, I think I got the ballad from somebody – I dunno. It may be my song …

read more about the origin of the song here.

I am a man of constant sorrow
I’ve seen trouble all my day
I bid farewell to old Kentucky
The place where I was born and raised
(The place where he was born and raised)

For six long years I’ve been in trouble
No pleasures here on earth I found
For in this world I’m bound to ramble
I have no friends to help me now
(He has no friends to help him now)

It’s fare thee well my old lover
I never expect to see you again
For I’m bound to ride that northern railroad
Perhaps I’ll die upon this train
(Perhaps he’ll die upon this train)

You can bury me in some deep valley
For many years where I may lay
Then you may learn to love another
While I am sleeping in my grave
(While he is sleeping in his grave)

Maybe your friends think I’m just a stranger
My face, you’ll never see no more
But there is one promise that is given
I’ll meet you on God’s golden shore
(He’ll meet you on God’s golden shore)

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: John Allen / Scott Mills / Traditional / Victor Carrera

I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow lyrics © Capitol CMG Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

HAPPY SUNDAY EVERYONE 💜💜

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS March 18, 2023

Badge by Shelley Krupa..

Hello everyone it time for Stream of Consciousness Saturday and LindaGHill is here with this week’s prompt. Linda said : “Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “tape.” Use it as a noun or a verb. Use it any way you like. Enjoy!”

Tapestry
Colours sewn together a rainbow collection
There’s love and life taped herein, from every direction.
As my dad would say life’s rich tapestry
Is what makes us human and free.
Fingers may bleed putting in the stitches
Clever women have it all taped up, tapestry witches.
So bring me threads and ribbons so life is all taped up.
Tapestry of history and love has life all quilted up.

© willowdot21

Ronovan Writes SIJO Wednesday Poetry Challenge #53. Use CONTENTMENT as your inspiration this week.

We walk hand in hand accepting who we are.
No need to reach for the stars, at one with nature
I’m here for you and you for me we don’t always agree, Yet we have found contentment.

PART OF RONOVANWRITE’S WEEKLY SIJO CHALLENGE

Wordless Wednesday: younger days.

THIS IS PART OF Hugh’s Wordless Wednesday.

One Liner Wednesday : Lyrics to live by !

Part of LindaGHill’s One-Liner Wednesday.

“Keep on moving ’til you know what the truth is
If butterflies can use their wings to turn the wind to hurricanes
You and I can break the chains, it takes a day to
Start a tiny riot”

Songwriters: Amy Victoria Wadge / Max Wolfgang / Sam Ryder

#TankaTuesday Weekly #Syllabic #Poetry Challenge No. 311, 3/14/23

WELCOME TO #TANKATUESDAY

This week Colleen’s challenge is Synonyms Only. That means you must select synonyms for the two words below. Submit by March 19, 2023.

spring & green

(any definition of the words.)

I have chosen an Abhanga. A poem in any number of 4-line stanzas with 6-6-6-4 syllables each. L2 and L3 rhyme. The end rhyme scheme is abbc. It is customary to title your poetry. The Abhanga is of childhood memories, mum cooking spring greens.

SPRING GREENS

Such childhood memories
The smell in the kitchen
I didn’t love it then
Mum cooked just right.

Those viridescent veg
They will make your hair curl
Make you a healthy girl
Mum was so right.

The verdant early leaves
Fresh like the new season
Taste reminds me of fun
Mum cooked just right.

Part of Colleen Chesebro’s Tuesday Tanka.

Ronovan Writes #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge 453 FOG and Seek.

Brain fog engolfing
Seek truth from the sharp North Wind
Clearing the cobwebs.

Ronovanwrite’s .

This is part of Ronovanwrite’s Weekly Haiku Challenge.

Song Lyric Sunday: Lets Go surfing .

Jim Adams

Hi it’s Sunday again and time Jim Adams Song Lyric Sunday. This week our prompt is Surf Rock.

Surf music (or surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is instrumental surf, distinguished by reverb-heavy electric guitars played to evoke the sound of crashing waves, largely pioneered by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones. The second is vocal surf, which took elements of the original surf sound and added vocal harmonies, a movement led by the Beach Boys.

Surf music emerged in the late 1950s as instrumental rock and roll music, almost always in straight 4/4 (common) time, with a medium to fast tempo. The sound was dominated by electric guitars which were particularly characterized by the extensive use of the “wet” spring reverb that was incorporated into Fender amplifiers from 1963, which was meant to emulate the sound of waves. The outboard separate Fender Reverb Unit that was developed by Fender in 1961 (as opposed to reverb that was incorporated as a built-in amp feature) was the actual first “wet” surf reverb tone. This unit is the reverb effect heard on Dick Dale records, and others such as “Pipeline” by the Chantays and “Point Panic” by the Surfaris. It has more of a wet “drippy” tone than the “built in” amp reverb, due to different circuitry.

Guitarists also made use of the vibrato arm on their guitars to bend the pitch of notes downward, electronic tremolo effects and rapid (alternating) tremolo picking.  Guitar models favored included those made by Fender (particularly the Jazzmaster, Jaguar and Stratocaster), Mosrite, Teisco, or Danelectro, usually with single coil pickups (which had high treble in contrast to double-coil humbucking pickups). Surf music was one of the first genres to universally adopt the electric bass, particularly the Fender Precision Bass. Classic surf drum kits tended to be Rogers, Ludwig, Gretsch or Slingerland. Some popular songs also incorporated a tenor or baritone saxophone, as on the Lively Ones’ “Surf Rider” (1963) and the Revels’ “Comanche” (1961). Often an electric organ or an electric piano featured as backing harmony.

Well I think most of this genre will be picked , Beach Boys , Jan and Dean and the like so I am going for an instrumental by the Ventures …..

The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. The band, which was a quartet for most of its existence, helped to popularize the electric guitar across the world during the 1960s. While their popularity in the United States waned in the 1970s, the group remains especially revered in Japan, where they toured regularly. The classic lineup of the band consisted of Wilson (rhythm guitar), Bogle (initially lead guitar, later bass), Nokie Edwards (initially bass, later lead guitar), and Mel Taylor (drums). Information Wikipedia

I chose Hawaii 5. 0 which was also the theme for a popular T.V. show and later a film, set in Hawaii

Hawaii Five-O is an instrumental album by the Ventures. It is named for the popular 1968 television series, and featured the theme song from the series composed by Morton Stevens as its title track. It was released in 1969 on Liberty Records LST-8061 and reached #11 on the Billboard Top LP chart, staying for 24 weeks. The album was certified gold by RIAA on July 21, 1971. The popularity of the album was propelled by the hit title track, which reached #4 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. Information Wikipedia.

Below are the Ventures in person.

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS March 11, 2023

Badge by Shelley Krupa..

Our host LindaGHill is here again with our prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday, she said:Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “mat/met/mitt/mot/mutt.” Choose one or use them all, any way you’d like in your post. Have fun!

Well I have written an Etheree , ten lines of free form poetry starting ten syllables in the first line and descending to one syllable in the last line.

mat/met/mitt/mot/mutt.

It’s cold and dark as I travel through this
Dead land touched by *Mot lord of dead things.
Mutt my only companion
Until we met a black cat
Curled up on a hair mat
Removing my
Mitt I said
Well met
Cat.

*****

apologies to Ruby she is not a mutt , that’s just poetic licence.

*Mot was the god of sterility and the master of all barren places. Traditionally, Mot and Baal were perpetually engaged in a seasonal struggle in which Baal, like many similar harvest deities, was annually vanquished and slain.