Poetry – Page 17 – M J Mallon YA Author and Poet

Poets For Peace: Promise People Peace

This is my submission for #PoetsForPeace.

To join in please refer to this post by Neha: Forgotten Meadows: Poets For Peace Submission Details for Praxis Magazine

Promise People Peace

I long for it to return,
The word I can no longer say,
But in my throat. It chokes:

-‘The bomb blast silenced me.’

This word, rich companion,
To Happiness, Joy, Love, and Hope,
Is lost, discarded. It whispers:

-‘I’m buried under hatred’s rubble.’

Now my words fragment,
Syllables of death and destruction.
Scatter, scare. I scream:

– ‘So the suffering grows.’

In a poultice of grime,
Black smoke, battered skin, broken lives,
Unspeakable, incomprehensible. My…

-‘Tragedy lives on.’

I am numb, that’s my new word.
The one that claims,
Whispers and holds me. Together ….

– ‘Binding my sadness.’

I need that unspoken word,
Wrap it tenderly,
In layers of bubble wrap. Pop ….

– ‘Break its bonds with an explosion of joy.’

Let’s find that sweet word again.
A simple expression of the human race,
Unite us in love. I say,

-‘Make me whole again.’

This wondrous word – our go to home,
Haven to our blessed children,
Let them know love. I pray,

-‘Nurture this gentle word.’

Please

Promise

People

Peace.

A subject that is very dear to my heart, please do feel free to comment below.

Bye for now. Hope you have a purrfectly peaceful day.

Ronovan Write’s Haiku Challenge: Rein and Quest

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I have to say I was struggling with Ron’s prompt words this week: rein and quest… until I began cooking the dinner. I asked my daughters what they’d like to have with their chicken and they said skinny chips. So I thought no problem, just bought them today, they’ll be in the freezer. WRONG!! Could I find those skinny chips anywhere …. no I couldn’t, somehow I’d misplaced them, they were so skinny that they’d vanished, evaporated into thin air. Along with my evidence – my grocery receipt- had I bought them at all or had it just been a wicked figment of my imagination? Who knows. Anyway, to cut a long story short I had to find an alternative. Of course there were big fat chips, potato croquettes, and two healthier options: new and sweet potatoes in the fridge. In other words every combination of potato known to man was present and correct apart from the much desired skinny fries! I suppose I could have made some triple fried chips… what on earth, maybe not. So as a consolation, I chopped up the sweet potatoes and added some herbs and a touch of olive oil. Much more healthy! So our quest for skinny chips became a quest for healthy eating, with the added bonus of a salad too!! Luckily no one complained, everyone loves sweet potato chips.

So here’s my haiku with that in mind:

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Photo courtesy of Freepik: Freepik.com

Sweet Tatty Fries!!

Rein it in darlings,

Quit that quest for skinny chips,

A ‘Triple fried’ please!

Mum’s lost the chip plot,

Rein in your greedy tummies,

Quest: sweet tatty fries!

Do pop over to Ronovan’s blog to join in the haiku fun:

Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge-98- Rein and Quest

I’m currently reading – Amber Wake Gabriel Falling, oh I do love a pirate adventure… how exciting, more about that soon …. review to follow…. perhaps it might have been our pirate captain who stole my skinny fries… maybe Ronovan will have an angle on that? I hope I won’t have to make him walk the Kyrosmagica plank for his misdoings!
Amber Wake

Hope you enjoyed my haiku.. keep on smiling pirates!! It’s Friday tomorrow, doesn’t that sound good? Oh dear do take care watch you don’t succumb to too many glasses of vino…. or you might hear man overboard!

Bye for now,

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Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

My fun (totally not serious but nevertheless 90% true,) author bio on Wattpad – Link below.

Marjorie Mallon was born in Lion City: Singapore. She grew up in a mountainous court in Hong Kong. Her crazy parents dragged her spotty soul away from her exotic childhood and her much loved dog Topsy to the frozen wastelands of Scotland. There she mastered Scottish country dancing, haggis bashing, bagpipe playing and a whole new Och Aye lingo.
As a teenager she travelled to many far flung destinations to visit her abacus wielding wayfarer dad. On one such occasion a barracuda swam by. It stopped to view her bikini clad body, longing to take a big bite. With dogs' fangs replacing barracudas' teeth, she returned to her mother's birthplace: Kuching, Cat City. There, Blackie, a black-hearted dog sniffed her frightened butt, whimpered and ran away! Shortly after this extraordinary event an angry female Orang-Utan chased her unfit ass out of the Malaysian jungle believing that she was a threat to her babies! She still monkeys about, would love to own a cat, or a replacement Topsy but refuses to entertain murderous dogs, or over-protective monkeys.
It's rumoured that she lives in the Venice of Cambridge, with her six foot hunk of a Rock God husband, and her two enchanted daughters.
After such an upbringing her author's mind has taken total leave of its senses. When she's not writing, she eats exotic delicacies while belly dancing, or surfs to the far reaches of the moon. To chill out she practises Tai Chi and Yoga on the crest of a wave. If the mood takes her she goes snorkelling with mermaids, or signs up for idyllic holidays with the Chinese Unicorn, whose magnificent voice sings like a thousand wind chimes.

She is a child of the light and the dark. Her motto is simply this: Do what you love, stay true to your heart's desires, remain young at heart, and inspire others to do so, even if it appears that the odds are stacked like black hearted shadows against you...

My Links:

#SoCS: Stream of Consciousness Saturday: Break/Brake

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Today I’m joining in a new link up for me – Linda Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday. In her words: ‘Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “brake/break.” Use one, use them both, but whatever you do, enjoy!’ Here’s the link to join in: Linda Hill

Ritu from But I Smile Anyway and I were having a blogging chat about our kids exam nerves so that got me thinking that I’d like to write a post and a poem about that…The prompt words sounded pretty relevant to how I’m feeling at the moment. My youngest is going through her GCSE’s and this is such a trying time for her (and me!) as she suffers from exam anxiety. This dates back to her doing her SAT’s. She works so hard, and often I have to tell her to have a break! Well the upshot of this is she is well and truly exhausted and been pretty ill this morning at 6 am. So she needs to press on the brake a bit, slow down, focus less on the exam emotions regarding the exam she has just sat, and concentrate on getting ready and rested for the next one.

So with her in mind and all students taking exams at the moment here is a little GOOD LUCK poem with a crazy touch of humour to cheer you all up:

The Poor Invigilator Needs A Defibrilator

Factor in a break, a well-earned rest,

Press that brake pedal,

Breathe….. It helps to..

Fill your lungs as you count,

Whatever you do don’t vomit it out!

Can you imagine the mess you’d make?

The half-filled exam paper covered in puke,

Poor invigilator’s face turning stony,

Pulse weak, he’s having a bald-headed fit,

‘At least no one’s died,’ whispers some bright git.

Press that brake pedal,

Take a big breath in,

And let it all out,

Don’t rip the exam paper to shreds,

Heads turning as you run out for meds.

Press that brake pedal,

Take a big breath in,

And let it all out,

Don’t turn as white as a sheet,

Tip over your chair, and fall at the invigi’s feet.

Press that brake pedal,

Take a big breath in,

And let it all out,

Don’t pick that juicy zit,

Splattering blood all over your exam script.

Press that brake pedal,

Take a big breath in,

And let it all out,

Whatever you do don’t run out the door.

The poor invigilator might need a defibrillator.

Press that brake pedal,

Take a big breath in,

And let it all out,

Pray for the invigilator!! It’s time to believe,

Breathe, Break, Brake, Blast that paper….ACHIEVE!

Show those teachers at school,

Your mum and your dad,

That pesky invigilator,

Your kitty, your dog, the stuffed bear,

Those wonky exam tables and chairs.

Show ‘em a thing or two…

Shuffle those D’s to C’s, C’s to B’s,

B’s to A’s A’s to A* s, shuffle them all.

The good and the bad and the ugly too!

Breathe, break, brake… you can do it! ATISHOO!!

GOOD LUCK in your exams.

Do feel free to comment in the link below. Do you suffer with exam anxiety? If you do are there any things you find helpful to cope? I’d love to hear your tips..

Bye for now,

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Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

My Links:

Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Challenge

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I really feel in the mood for a Haiku Challenge this week. It’s been ages since I’ve joined in Ronovan’s challenge, sigh, I seem to be struggling to keep up with all the things I want to do, such is life. Never mind I’m here now at this present moment ready to write some haiku. Yippee!!

The challenge words this week are rain and lightning. Very fitting.

On one day this week I was on playground duty in the local primary school supervising the kids at lunch time, except it started raining so we had to have wet play… no this isn’t some kind of water fight as the name would suppose … it’s when the kids have to stay inside when it’s raining. Not the most desirable outcome for us adults or the children. Children need to let off steam… Especially, when the Year 6’s have their Sats…So I was really pleased for them and for myself!!! Ha Ha ….that it stopped raining and they were able to go out and play ball and run around a bit.

The first haiku is with the kids in mind:

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Puddle Temptation

Enormous puddles

Draw kids near sweet temptation

Lightning burst they run

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The above photo is of my hubby getting very wet in Brighton – he’s very fond of thunderstorms so this haiku is for him!!

Rain Cleanses The Soul

Rain cleanses the soul

Lightning palpates heart’s desires,

Thunder struck we yield.

Hope you enjoyed my haiku.

To finish off here’s a word spiral that I discovered how to do via Vashti – Do pop over to her blog to see her fabulous word heart graphics and haiku from last week: Vashti Vega Haiku and Graphics! and also Ritu did a post too : Ritu – Creating A Spiral Word Graphic

Festisite Text Layout – Spiral

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Here’s the link to Ronovan’s Blog to join in the challenge: Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge

Have a lovely Saturday.

Bye for now,

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Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

My Links:

National Limerick Day:The Old Dog From Loch Ness

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Today is National Limerick Day, and Annette has encouraged us (she does this so well!) to write a Limerick: Annette Rochelle Aben’s Blog

Now I’m a bit of a novice at Limericks but I have written one once before on my blog – Easter Eggy Limerick so this is attempt no. 2 so be kind, be gentle with me!!

There are some rules -:

Limericks, like all poetic forms, have a set of rules that you need to follow. The rules for a limerick are fairly simple:

They are five lines long – keep it short….
Lines 1, 2, and 5 rhyme with one another …
Lines 3 and 4 rhyme with each other…. More Tricky.
They have a distinctive rhythm, oh my goodness!

That goes da dum-ing along like this:

da DUM da da DUM da da DUM,

da DUM da da DUM da da DUM,’

da DUM da da DUM,

da DUM da da DUM da da DUM

You get the idea….. I’m da dum da da dum …ing along here!!!!!

They are usually funny. I hope …..

The Old Dog From Loch Ness

There was an old dog from Loch Ness,

He got in to such a big mess,

He ate his big paw,

Fun-gal… ‘fec-tion an’all!

He stopped for a mo’ to digest.

No! Stop it terr-ior ! There’s no way!

I like them their paws, Ness did say!

The old dog did flop,

He said, ‘Do have a pop?’

Then Ness said yes, do let me play!

Dog tipped his cap said, ‘eat my best,’

Then old Ness protested, ‘is this a test?!’

Old Ness was no fool,

But grub made him drool,

Sly Dog he did woof,’ be my guest!’

What hap-pens next you can but guess,

The dog’s a flee he is a pest,

A mag-ic mon-ster,

A beast! What a cur!

Old Ness’s skin was soon dog-gie vest!

Hope you like my limerick! Have you written one, or are planning to write one? Do let me know in the comments…

Bye for now,

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Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

Easter Eggy Limerick

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I’ve been having some computer problems and I’ve re-written this post twice. (I lost my first attempt!) So Mr Erase Limerick Pencil is laughing at me… how foolish can you be?

Anyway, perhaps losing the plot like this was meant to be as my first attempt was most probably worse than this one….

This is all new to me – I have never written a limerick before. As I had no idea how to write a limerick I resorted to a kids website, (thought a basic approach would help me!) :

Here’s the link:

http://www.poetry4kids.com/blog/lessons/how-to-write-a-limerick/

There are some rules -:

Limericks, like all poetic forms, have a set of rules that you need to follow. The rules for a limerick are fairly simple:

They are five lines long – keep it short….
Lines 1, 2, and 5 rhyme with one another … Tricky.
Lines 3 and 4 rhyme with each other…. More Tricky.
They have a distinctive rhythm, oh my goodness!!

That goes da dum-ing along like this:

da DUM da da DUM da da DUM
da DUM da da DUM da da DUM
da DUM da da DUM
da DUM da da DUM
da DUM da da DUM da da DUM

They are usually funny. I hope …..

Here’s my limericks with and without the word chocolate in them!

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EGGY LIMERICK No. 1

Pink egg is so big it is vast,

So vast it is such an egg blast,

I eat it in one,

Seems a lotta fun,

Oh them hiccups come kinda fast!

Esther’s challenge was to write the limerick with the word chocolate in it so here goes:

EGGY Limerick No. 2

Pink egg is so big it is vast,

Chocolate is such an egg blast,

I choc it in one,

Seems a lotta fun,

Them Choc Hiccups Come Kinda Fast!

That’s my effort, (ha, I tried!) for Esther Newton’s writing Challenge, do check out her blog to find out more.

Here’s a link to Esther’s blog : https://esthernewtonblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/24/my-weekly-writing-challenge-93/

Happy Easter, don’t eat too much chocolate!

Time for a bit of da dum da da dum Chillin’ Kyrosmagica Style… What you doing this Easter? Da dum da dum….. munch, munch..

Bye for now,

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Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge#87 Class and Firm

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Ronovan’s prompt words this week, class and firm seem to be very appropriate judging by my new part-time role working in a primary school.

It’s been quite a week. We’ve had rain, fog, cold days, mishaps, sharing issues, arguments, little fights and then…. one day this week the fire alarm went off during the lunch break and the little ‘uns were very upset. They thought their school was about to burn down, and they wanted their mummies! So I did my best to reassure them that this was not the case and it was just the kitchens getting too hot!! Poor wee mites, when you’re little every drama ends up being a major crisis of disproportionate proportions.

It didn’t help that just before the fire alarm went off one of the little girls hurt her lip, adding even more drama to an already raging inferno!

So the Monkeying Around haiku below is with them in mind…. sometimes, I’d advocate a fair old dousing of over imaginativeitis – only in extreme cases you understand! But if all else fails a big hug from mum is always a good idea:

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MONKEYING AROUND

Raging school drama,

Classes monkeying around,

Firm, but fair dousing!

Oh and today I came across one of many little cherubs. This one with curly blond hair and the brightest blue eyes, but even little cherubs can be challenging! This little fellow only responds to the words kind hands when he’s been a bit naughty – kind hands involves putting your little hands up in the air and proposing kindness to your fingertips… miraculously it seemed to work, perhaps he is a bit theatrically inclined. I hope when I ask him to do it again his hands oblige!

I mentioned it to my youngest daughter and she laughed and admitted that she was really naughty in reception!!! In fact she was so naughty that she used to have to stay in sometimes as they wouldn’t let her out to play! And I thought she was an angel, us mothers, huh!!! She sounds like a cherub too….

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BE KIND

A little cherub,

Not naughty just challenging,

Firm words then kind hands.

Do pop over to Ronovan Writes, to join in with the haiku weekly challenge fun:

https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/ronovanwrites-weekly-haiku-poetry-prompt-challenge-87-classfirm/

Hope you liked my haiku.

Have a lovely weekend, have fun, but remember no monkeying around!

Bye for now,

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Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

Jane Dougherty Poetry: Hourglass Challenge

I couldn’t resist doing some Hourglass poetry too, via Jane Dougherty’s Poetry Challenge: https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/poetry-challenge-20-hourglass-poetry/

More about the form: ten lines with a syllable count of 5.4.3.2.1.2.3.4.5, on Jane’s blog. Basically you end up with nine lines.

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True happiness lives

Simplicity

Lies in the

little

breaths

of life

Death clings on

Memories lived

Simple Moments Shared.

Hope you liked my hourglass poetry, it’s a bit of a paradoxical one about happiness too. Hope it doesn’t give you the heeby-geebies.

Bye for now,

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Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge No: 86

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The prompt words this week from Ronovan are Flash and Dance.

I’ve just started a part-time job in my girls’ old primary school, a bit of a change from my last job working in John Lewis over Christmas! On Monday I was on supervisory duty in the playground mainly keeping an eye on the kids playing on the climbing frame. On my first day there were kids leaping on kids, a boy with two scrapped knees, a girl who got bark in her eye, and a group of year four girls who came and introduced themselves to me and told me all about the play they were in. They were telling me about their parts, how many lines they had or proudly boasting that their part was a baddie! How outrageous! All in all it was quite entertaining… So I said that my two children used to go to their primary school too and I asked them to guess my daughter’s ages. The first one said, ‘ twenty five! ‘ I said, ‘Do I look that old?’ Then of course the next girl said,’forty five,’ but after that the numbers started to come down, thank heavens! Cheeky devils !

It brought back a conversation I had with my youngest daughter recently. I asked her what she liked to do in the playground when she was at primary school, she said skipping, and playing games but she mainly just danced with her best friend! How very theatrical, and artistically inclined, she’s not changed a jot – she still loves to dance. Her friend likewise is still keen on performing, just recently I watched her acting, and singing with The Young Actor’s Company in their sell out performance at Cambridge Junction. Jack Drum’s Entertainment will be playing in Oxford on the 5th of March, and London on 7th March at Bloomsbury Theatre. To find out more about this play being performed by such a talented group of young actors, follow the link:

https://www.facebook.com/JackDrumsEntertainment/

I can’t say that I saw anyone dance in the playground apart from a tiny hint of a dance when one of the year four girls did a little bit of dancing from the show, just before she got called to have her lunch. That was the moment I was waiting for…… but it was gone in a blink of the eye.

So this week’s haiku is inspired by my daughter’s love of dance:

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Primary dancers

Playground extravaganza

A duo flashdance

Here’s the link to Ronovan’s blog so you can join in the haiku challenge:

https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/2016/02/29/ronovanwrites-weekly-haiku-poetry-prompt-challenge-86-flashdance/

It’s good to know that there are some theatrical types in the playground, but perhaps that’s enough melodrama for now!

Bye for now,

bitstrips melodrama

Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

Haiku Horizons: Monkey

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In honour of the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Monkey I thought I’d join in Haiku Horizon’s prompt which happens to be Monkey.

https://haikuhorizons.wordpress.com/2016/02/14/haiku-horizons-prompt-monkey/

I watched a very interesting TV programme last night, Chinese New Year The Biggest Celebration on Earth. I hope to complete a children’s book about Chinese New Year so I was drawn to watching this. It featured the Snub Nosed Monkey, such a charming fellow. These monkeys are an endangered species. They have been hunted to near extinction. That is beyond horrible……. but the good news is there is a rescue operation in hand. A dedicated man looks after these charming fellows and collects their nuggets of poo so it can be analysed to check their health. That must be quite a job, plastic gloves are a prerequisite, but he takes it very seriously. In fact he is so skilled that he can glance at each sample of poo and tell exactly which monkey produced it! Quite an unusual skill.. He must love those monkeys..

Do find out more about the snub-nosed monkey, he seems to be a delightful monkey full of character:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_snub-nosed_monkey

More than one billion people travel from the cities to the countryside at Chinese New Year to be reunited with their families at this all important time. Can you imagine? That is a huge migration of folk, involving all manner of transport: plane, car, motorbike, and police car…. The Hairy Bikers couldn’t rev up in their usual style in China without the necessary documentation so they ended up travelling in the back of a police car! These Hairy fellows learnt how to make Congee, a warming porridge made of pork, rice, and spring onions, served at the roadside to travellers returning to see their families at Chinese New Year.

This programme continued to fascinate me with its commentary on the Ice City, a massive winter wonderland carved out of massive slabs of ice in Harbin, the largest city of Heilongjiang province, in China. It is so cold in this province of China that the elderly locals are acclimitised to the extreme cold. These hardy pensioners dive into a swimming pool to engage in a spot of …… ice swimming! The thought just sends me into an extreme shiver ……

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbin

My haiku:

The snub nosed monkey,

Forest high flier, cool dude.

Keep him protected.

Hope all you Monkeys out there are having a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. I’m a rabbit in the Chinese zodiac…. I like to hop about and put my feet up with a good book. What about you?

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Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

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