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Monday, August 16, 2021

Aug. 16, 2021

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| | guest, fraud, chrome, gentle, head of lettuce.
Image from the Internet.

The opening poem contains all the words (or variations of them) from today's Jumble.
Comments are welcomed! And couching them in Poetry is definitely NOT required.
Do not explicitly reveal any of the actual answer words until after closing time, but embedding them surreptitiously in comment sentences is encouraged.

11 comments:

Ol' Man Keith said...


FLN, Wilbur ~ Good to see the resumption of Lois' tale.
It looks like her meeting with Laurel occurred at a truly fortuitous time. Judging from my own experience, the ability to say "Yes" and stick
to it varies from time to time.
I was going to say "from year to year," but it could make as much sense to say "from day to day." My point being that a variety of unconscious factors control that function.
For those who have faith in God, OR have the desire for a personally engaged "higher power," it may be those subtle "factors" can be triggered by psychically deferring to Him--or them. I'm not sure what can align the factors in the rest of us.

But good for Lois. I am glad she was lucky, and her decision had traction.
Hope is a powerful driver, and she knew she was on the right track when she had that feeling of "wholeness."

Yes, Gleason did it, but Berle did it before him. And, come to think of it, Lahr used it somewhere along that timeline.
Must've been a vaudeville standard...

Everybody influences everybody. Pound was a major influencer of Eliot.
Misty ~ Are you my Eliot?

Here's today's Jumble response ~
If you'd like to learn languages, even the national tongue of Latvia, an online service can help.
Try this, for instance, if you want to get...

"Ahead of Lettish:"
Some thought the internet's "Chrome"
was a bit of a fraud.
But it proved a worthy web browser,
deserving of every laud.

That, gentle reader,
shows how we may be blessed--
when a strange new visitor
may prove a welcome guest.
~ OMK

Misty said...

"Top Tenant"

Greta was our very best guest,
she would jest
and was never a pest.
Her professional job was to expose fraud--
a task which earned her much applause.
When she had free time at home
she would often write a poem
on strange topics--like foam and chrome.
Sometimes she cooked, and once she fed us
a decorated head of lettuce.
Her taste in art was ornamental,
and as a tenant, she was gentle,
which made her our very dearest rental.

Misty said...

Well, if I were a better poet, I'd be proud to be your Eliot, Ol' Man Keith.
Many thanks for the compliment.

Am always amazed how you work all the Jumble words and title into your delightful, brief verses. This morning's was once again a delight.

Sandyanon said...

What a groaner pun that jumble solution is!!! Couldn't really believe it would be that word, but it sure was.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Dear Misty,
Thanks for your kind words. I enjoyed your Greta too, although as you know I kinda feel she--and you, as her creator--are feeling claustrophobic.
Those repeated short lines and end rhymes will do it to a person. She--and you--must be raring to cut loose.

This is my ode to Greta. Please read and file it away, until you may find it handy.

Your Greta's a clever lass,
with a real touch of class.
She enjoys echoing rhymes
coming at the end of lines.
Only one thing pleases her more--
to see a line ending shorn
of a full stop. Time for her to breathe
away from the restraining sheathe
of hypnotic, metronomic lines
and feeling trapped in tight confines.

For variety's sake, it can be fun
to switch the scheme about--
to do a rhyme or two--or none--
and spread the riches out.
No need for rhyming every line;
alternation is easy to do.
It lets Greta feel twice as free
with half her lines in the final queue.

(What to do? --when it comes to haiku?)
Imagination
is her strong suit. Free her now:
Let her thrive--Alive!

Contrariwise, don't bother to write a rhyme
but know a 5-beat bounce serves well enough
to prompt her that blank verse is the anglophone pride.
Let anapests and iambs show the way
with the odd "heroic couplet" to save the day!
~ OMK

Wilbur Charles said...

Sandy, not only did I have the same thought, my next thought was I can't wait to read Sandy's post.

OMK, brilliant versifying. Eat your heart out Ezra

WC

Wilbur Charles said...

The gentle, jingling of coins in Laurel's pocket gave a hint
That Lois should wrap up her talk. She'd laid out the blueprint
For successful sobriety and after all she was just a guest
Clearly she was for real and not one of those fraudulent pests
That come and go never surrendering, never heeding the words
"Let us pray"
For its not in the head but in the heart she'd heard them say.
For the best thinking of our fickle, fragile chromes
Led us to the rooms where the message finally hit home

WC

Wilbur Charles said...

A little awkward tonight but I'll take kudos for how I handled caviar and enzyme fln.

Misty, enjoyed your tale of your renter Greta and her artistic bent.

WC

Sandyanon said...

Nice to see Laurel being tactfully helpful to Lois.
Sorry if I'm being dense, Wilbur, but I'm not sure which of them was just a guest. And why? I thought people were immediately welcomed into AA.
Anyway, very encouraging stage of things for Lois!

Misty said...

My goodness, OMK, I knew Greta wrote poems, but I had no idea that she had an intimate sense of poetic construction that guided her writing. I now wish instead of writing a poem about Greta, I could have invited her to write a poem about poetic construction--but that's, after all, what you did OMK. So thank you very much for these additional gifts this morning.

Misty said...

Wilbur, I'm so happy that we're able to trace Lois's recovery journey, and it sounds as if she's doing well, though seems to be still getting a bit of correction. I really want her to make it, so am looking forward to how she does tomorrow.