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| _engine, salmon, pantry, kernel, gratis, emerge, generally speaking.Image(s) 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.
ReplyDeleteGenerally speaking, I don’t work Sundays. But now & again I feel the challenge.
I will trade my contribution today for a free day during the coming week.
My aim today was to see if I might squeeze SIX J-Words into a single haiku.
I found that, allowing for some liberty, it is possible to do it. I don’t vouch for the aesthetics, and I’m prepared to take any theme so long as it makes a coherent statement.
In the following 17 syllables,
(1) I allow “kernel” to stand in for “germ.”
(2) And I allow a greater stretch for another J-word to fill in for something else, merely because of a similar sound.
”Privately Speaking…”
Salmon emerges
from pantries, kernel-gratis,
engine two hours.
~ OMK
[Neal's sponsor, Doug, a real oldtimer is one of the group]
ReplyDeleteEddie, my friend, I'm not a firebrand, certainly no Elmer Gantry
Nevertheless, abstinence is key; no stashing bourbon in the pantry.
The engine of recovery of course is becoming brutally honest,
For sobriety won't be given gratis; the Steps can be a daunting test.
Stay within the herd, don't be like the salmon swimming upstream.
Generally speaking making meetings daily will keep you on the beam
I hope we've planted a kernel of hope and you'll seek for humility
And emerge in the course of time free from the cesspool of futility
WC
"Hunger"
ReplyDeleteTheir pantry was empty after the famine,
and their last bit of food was a slice of salmon.
A reporter noted all this in a journal,
that the family barely had a kernel.
Soon, thanks to his telling of their status,
gifts came in, generous and gratis,
and soon so much food began to emerge
that the family dinners became a splurge.
They now can again enjoy beef steak carving,
and, generally speaking, are no longer starving.
Woohoo! Ol' Man Keith and /Wilbur: you both did it! You did it! You worked all six Jumble words and the solution into your poems of dramatically different lengths--OMK's compact haiku and Wilbur's detailed nine-line verse! Thank you both for getting our Sunday Jumble morning off to a great start!
ReplyDeleteMisty, ditto for your very readable and moving take of the impoverished family(not that salmon isn't tasty). Speaking of uplifting stories...
ReplyDeleteTiger may play in Masters next week. He made a dramatic return in 2019 and the outpouring of support was marvelous.
Similarly, Naomi Osaka made a comeback in Miami and had a similar outpouring.
It shows the true spirit that pervades America m regardless of skin color, sex, nationality etc
OMK, your Haiku was great but I missed re. Your use of 'Engine '
ReplyDeleteBut reading it told me MERGER was not one of the J's.
And you had me going on "Privates". Especially with no chevron on the uniforms. But there was no V in the six J's so I had to find another rank.
A serious poem, Misty, happily tracking one family's path from hunger to plenty. You remind us how it is part of our nature to commiserate with a family in need, and it is refreshing to read how a reporter's words stirred others to send gifts.
ReplyDeletePresumably, now that this family is "no longer starving," they will send something of their new largesse to aid families that are still facing hunger. Or send a calif via World Vision--or maybe just some ducks, whatever they can afford!
~ OMK
And Wilbur-, I went back two nights ago to catch myself up with the start of your recent chain of postings.
ReplyDelete"Crash I and II" are very moving pieces. Didn't you already post the first one some time ago?
It seems very familiar, so either this is a re-posting, or I read something quite similar from another hand.
In any case, it is a strong evocation of the experience of a sudden stunning & destructive event. I thank my stars I have never undergone such a disorienting experience, so I can only say that the composition is persuasive. ( I have blacked out & felt extended pain, but I think the combination and loss of consciousness must be of an even weirder order.)
I admire the vow your "Mary" has undertaken.
I am an old non-theist, but am nevertheless at peace with the idea of God as metaphor for noble ends. (I think that's consistent with AA's ref. to a"higher power.")
I believe such dire circumstances as "Mary" finds herself in are often the cause for us to make promises--to God--as to the best, most disciplined, part of our higher natures. That it works for "Mary" is all the more reason to respect her promise.
Her dedication & commitment are proof, as they say, o' the pudding. Thank you for posting this.
And thanks for your note on my strange haiku today.
I am not sure of your comment re. "engine."
"Engine," to clarify, is the word I had in mind in my 2nd note above. I could not shoehorn it into the poem in any dictionary sense. It is the word I used in place of two nearly sound-alike words. I guess I will leave it to the reader to figure out exactly which words it stands for.
The overall context of my tiny piece may be interpreted thusly:
"Fresh salmon comes out of the pantry
and may be considered germ-free
for just two hours."
(That's when it starts to go bad.)
~ OMK
"Only he who has suffered will be blessed."
ReplyDeleteIt is a great theme, Wilbur. I see you asking for the source of the quote, but surely that is a gag--right?
The idea is peppered all through the Bible, old and new testaments, and it is apparently co-opted by AA, along with a thousand other self-help groups.
It just makes perfect sense for Neal and Chet and all the sponsors to use it, for it turns alcoholism against itself. The very pain of the illness--both physically and spiritually--is used as a whip to discipline the afflicted person. It must be the thinking behind "bottoming out."
Isn't it common wisdom to believe you can't be cured until you feel you've hit rock bottom?
You have to know how bad you can feel for it to be used as a cudgel against yourself. ("Do you really want to feel THAT again--even forever?")
Love your phrase, "the cesspool of futility." That it should rhyme with the search "for humility" makes it all the more meaningful.
I thank you again for your postings, Wilbur. Sorry I have to play catch-up with them. You lull us by seeming to be absent for several days, but then pour out a good many stanzas at once. I want to study in detail, but....
BTW: There is an irony in posting this much AA material for us.
I am not much of a drinker, often going for weeks without consuming alcohol. But I was reminded of the allure of booze here--and, while my wife was on vacation with her mom this past week, I opened her Xmas gift of an aged Scotch whisky.
I've been enjoying two shots a night, & feeling a mild buzz.
Thanks again.
~ OMK
PS, Wilbur ~ Seek and Ye Shall Find.
ReplyDeleteI just "got" your reference to "privates."
I used "Privately" in my haiku title only to remind readers to find that other rank on their own.
If you want any more help, you can always scroll up to the very top of my entry for the day,
the first words on this morning's blog...
~ OMK
OMK, thanks for your in depth response. Re. "Blessed". That was the POE Clue* on the Saturday CC. I found it very apt and it was the theme for the Chet poem
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail on the head re. "Isn't it common wisdom to believe you can't be cured until you feel you've hit rock bottom?" That's right out of the literature.
Re. "Mary ", Crash and the sequel. You have a good memory, I did indeed post Crash and you liked it then. I reposted for clarity in the sequel. I'm glad you like it. It's certainly different. "Mary" told me it described the experience exactly
The AA train left the station in Switzerland when Carl Jung's patient, Roland Hazard, returned after a disastrous relapse. Jung told him Science had done a all it could and his only hope was a Spiritual Experience. Jung, as a psychiatrist could not talk of God, the Devil etc but he seemed to feel alcoholism was like a living Evil inside a person only expungabile (ecorcisable?) by an equally powerful Spirit(Spiritus vs Spiritum he termed it)
Through a chain of events this theory found Bill W. His contribution was the 12th Step: Helping others which Chet is now employing along with his Sponsor family.
That humility/futility rhyme was taken from "H is for…" My AA poem, illustrating the various H words in AA principles.
The one I like best is Harmony: That which the active alcoholic lacks and the recovering one seeks
** That was a difficult xword and POE was one of 20 nefarious clues. Can you believe old "One Box" Wilbur missed his FIR by misspelling ERITRiA.