Monday, April 20, 2026

A Short Poem for a Monday. Gaming Poetic Games for #VerseLove26. And Now We Have a Busy Week to Think About Ahead

About these temperatures. To go from 70s to 30s it a little difficult for aging bones and goosebumps. I sat inside most of the day to plan back-to-back presentations, and to get atop of grading I had fallen behind on. I never got around to cooking either, but heated up leftovers to put over noodles I boiled. Any locations where I can save time is helpful for end-of-the-year pinches. And to say I'm exhausted is an understatement. I retired very early yesterday because I couldn't handle any more computer glare or light.

The challenge was to simply play with words like it's a game, so I went to a weird-word generator, got four random words (I didn't know) and saw what might result. The word yike, for example, is the rattling bickering of a Woodpecker (think Woody, here). Who knew? 

I'm off to campus to work with 35 3rd-5th graders from Trumbull before teaching late into the after hours of University life. Sometimes I think day-workers forget that for many of us, the bulk of our work not only goes under K-12 schedules, but into graduate school land, which makes for days that are very trying on aging folks like me. So much of the work, too, takes planning so it will run smoothly. No naps for this guy, although I thought about one a lot yesterday. It just never happened because I realized my waitress never gave back my credit card and I had to go back to retriever it...just when I found my afternoon eyes falling.

That’s All Folks

b.r.crandall


if i danced

above the dead,

you could call me

bob fossarian.


look it up in

your hysteroid books

right after English class.

it’s wild.


bring the strings

& your plectrum.

pluck away.

pick pick pick.

 

Offer the yike.

that’s one exodus

to end a

poem

An Academic Prompted Poetry Day (#VerseLove26) so I Threw It Back to Syracuse When Abu and I Were First Introduced

For several years, I've enjoyed Jack Power's workshop on writing like a poet, where he uses Robert Gibb's poem, Homestead Park ,...