Christmas past

It's over and they've all gone home
and I am left here with my phone.
I've entered all my contacts, tried
the video and photos; 'Why?'ed
a hundred times and said
I know the info.s there, I read
it somewhere in the thick wee book.
I'll have to have another look.
I haven't done the pc sync,
I'm saving that...I'll have to THINK.


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Christmas prep

This week I haven't been to work but worked at Christmas prep.
I had to buy the presents - took 3 trips to get in step.
And after that I had to face the chore I'd put off, see...
The house was desperate for a clean and bedrooms had to be
made decent for my visitors: most of my family.
Tomorrow I will buy the lettuces and lots of strawberries
to place upon the cream atop pavlova. Our dessert
consists of pav. and jellies and fruit salad is a cert;
no Christmas pudding in this house, or turkey... no, we eat
a ham with lots of salads, new potatoes... can't be beat.

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The Red Baron and Me 

The Bloody Red Baron

We've had a busy week at school
the end of year is close.
The final concert, kids so cool
the long hours; feeling gross.
On Thursday lunchtime teachers sang
on karaoke, entertaining,
kids stood 'round while cloud tops rang
and prayed it would start raining...
but on we went, my mate and I
to sing the Snoopy song.
She sang and I just tried to fly
and hoped I'd do no wrong.


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Karaoke at school 

I went across the country to pick my daughter up
and brought her home. She's just called me to sup.

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Sunday

I lay on the grass in front of the house,
surrounded by garden. At one
with overflowing roses, lime leaves on the trees...
and I fell asleep in the sun.

Lost in an abyss of eye-stabbing warmth,
floating on grass while the sky
constantly changed its cloudy wardrobe
to wake me as I wondered why...

Why was I here on my bed? Not my bed.
Realisation was dizzying. Dirt,
beneath stalks and flat blades held me up
like a sacrifice. Waking hurt.



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Roots

A friend who used to teach with me has loaned me books I've read,
they're books by a New Zealander whose ancestry, she said
is Danish, like my own. Jutland. I've learned a lot about that Dane,
she opened up my eyes. I found an interest (keeps me sane
to concentrate like this...) and so I re-read all the site of our 'Ancestry'
my father wrote. Of great great, great greats, right down to me.
I knew about the people but they hadn't lived within my soul.
I had some pride but now I feel I'm closing in on being 'whole'.

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Schleswig -the towns where my great and great great antecedents lived. 

getting my weekend back

I sanded 8 chair seats on Sunday.
I'd chiselled off glue before that.
A chore I had left for the last several years...
so now we can sit on them. Fat
lot of good that is really,
the table is usually buried
in books and men's paraphenalia.
What thrills me is I wasn't wearied
as much by my week's worth of work.
I usually sleep way past noon
on weekends and drag myself round.
This spring brought an energy boon.


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prejudice

I realised as I sat and watched 'The Matrix" yesterday
that last time when I watched it, I saw less than all the play.
The first time viewing left me feeling that I'd got the point
but when I saw the sequel I was lost. I could've smoked a joint.
I couldn't understand the reasons characters did things,
I got confused about the names and problems each one brings.
So when I saw "The Matrix" on the TV I thought 'Heck-
I'd better watch and see if I can see past all the tech."

I half assumed my problem was that I just love to look
at great effects and maybe I had only skimmed the 'book'.
But watching I soon realised that I had been too shocked
at all the violence; closed my mind; gone off half-cocked.
I'd had the knee-jerk mind-blank seen in others I've accused
because I'm prejudiced about one aspect they had used.
The fighting is important in their link to pc games
but I could not see past it to the story. Fighting maims
my mind and fair enough but I still have to yearn
to open up and look beyond, be open minded. Learn.

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life goes on and on

So...another weekend, what have I done?
I slept 'till 2.00 avoiding life for one.
I daydreamed a lot and finally arose
to face the housework and shopping. I chose
to wake up earlier today instead.
I made some toast and worked in bed,
connected a laptop to work online
and problem-solved till noon from nine.
I mopped the floor this afternoon,
it made a change from ironing. Soon
I'll get off here and cook the tea
then climb in the bath and soak for three
relaxing hours, listening so
I hear the John Tesh radio show.

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Biking accident 

Fame

Today my husband, grinning, swanned in, through our back door,
he said he'd sign some autographs and would be signing more.
He asked if I had seen it--the paper -- I said no,
and so he opened up the spread and showed a huge photo.
A tridem is a 3 seat bike and we have one, it's old,
but he and 2 friends ride it (and try not to get bowled).
The local rag was interested, seeing them compete
and set an interview up, quoting him so much, repeats
of every word will be the norm at home I must suppose
until the next time he falls off and breaks (again) his nose.

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Migraine

I spent yesterday in bed with a migraine:

Enduring, I accept the marching dark
where goosesteps strike, igniting sharp-edged stars
in shadow columns, rhythmic while they arc
away and back: a cyclic cross that jars.

It pulses pain. A fist or palm pressed hard
against that eyebrow socket only starts
a flood of flashing action replays, marred
by spliced in should-have-could-have blueprint charts.

Conveyer crossroad belts of blanket shade
return to jolt my head and I regain
awareness of two legs. They've moved, obeyed
some instinct - scissor shifts - I felt the strain.

My robot limbs are magnetised in bed,
and gagged volition weighs me down like lead.

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I learnt something shocking today

Here I'm in my forties, thinking nothing much can shock me
but today I got a shock of huge proportions.
I always thought propellors were old fashioned sort of keys,
used to start a motor: spun contortions.
My husband and my son have been in fits of disbelief,
that I should be so ignorant. But how
is someone meant to know about the airflow-engine thing
if physics-phobia made me like a sow-
(pig-headed in my inattention to anything like engines).
I'm trying now to slot this knowledge in
and keep it in a place I won't ignore. But I'm afraid I will forget,
reverting to original dumb sin.

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Webpages

The long weekend has been a time for learning frontpage so,
I spent some hours making a new website that will go
on a free hosting site called __ .atspace.com.
I moved the mountain biking site there off my private one.
It's years since I have spent the time on making lots of pages
and I am pleased to have renewed the skills not used in ages.

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Gossip

Gossip eyes won't wear glasses.
Gossip tongues take fishing classes.
Page by page an oral book,
heard upside down, incites a look
of double tunnel vision. Locked
eyeballs link in sharing, shocked.

Gossip eyes are shining dry.
Gossip tongues invent the why.
Paraphrasing villain sin,
our lick-wet lips reflect a grin
as charming fairytale crimes
grade the shades of modern times.

Gossip eyes see what they please.
Gossip tongues will prod and tease.
Ali Baba basket weaving
through the truth until believing
reads between the lines and binds
willow arms entwining minds.

Gossip eyes blink back remorse.
Gossip tongues have intercourse.


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4 days off and sunshine means my mood is pretty good.
If only I had energy! I could garden as I should.
Instead I'll go to work tomorrow, help some other teachers
who want to get assessments done. There are actually some features
of that work that I enjoy:
time without the students - no one to annoy
me.

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Flood

Not last night, the night before, I woke up several times.
The rain poured down as if the Lord had found out all my crimes.
The hail hit the corrugations on the tin roof - thudded -
and radio announcers said some neighbour towns were flooded.

I went to work and only saw some puddles on the way
but found that several staff had rung because they'd had to stay
at home, and waded into roads where kayaks paddled round.
Some cars and even 4-wheel-drives got stranded, nearly drowned.


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School Reunions

My husband's father and his brothers, wives and nephews too
all came to spend the afternoon, describe what they'd been through.
They'd travelled here because they were old boys from my son's school
and this weekend was their reunion - reminiscing ruled.
Last night the meal was disappointing, all of them agreed,
the lack of tables meant too many ate right off their knees.
The food they had was hardly worth the $40 paid
and then the buses home again meant waiting . They would trade
the whole fiasco for a morning tea with cake, it seemed
until we took their photos and they stood around and preened.

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I'll soon remove the male heads and add some movie stars

Recent Sportsman Ball

Mountainbike club

I am a mistress for a club of mountain biking men,
we recently drank bubbly by the litre, dancing then.
(An annual do that we attend: the local Sportsman's Ball.)
I scanned some pix to edit - I chop them up and all.
So soon I'll put them on their website, make the men look bad
and partner up the ladies with more gorgeous likely lads.

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My place - in spring 

Spring

Spring or summer, who can tell, today was 24 degrees,
tomorrow more the same. The sunshine and a gentle breeze
suited our riverbank team meeting. We drove
from school to one, a stream where kids can rove
and walked along and tested water too.
Then convoyed off again to one more, wider river - new
to me. A trip with kids next week should be a blast
so long as sunshine isn't then a memory in the past.

The other night I spent 2 hours, listening to folks
reading poems they had written, serious and jokes.
A guest, a school boy, shared his growing repetoire
and spoke about his winning poems, how he had come so far.
I felt inspired to write that night, composing, driving home
but all the lovely metaphors were drowned in bathtime foam
and I am tired out at night although I'd love to write...
so I just type this doggerel and know it's really trite.

So here's a sonnet in iambic tetrameter that I wrote last spring:

SPRING
The sight of her is like the pause

between a concert and applause,

the silence, loud and awed, each sense

absorbing beauty too intense.
She's flush with promise as she peeps

through petal lashes. Then she steeps

herself in floral perfume while

she tries on her seductive smile.
But she's capricious in her moods;

aggressive past-life attitudes

incite a storm and she rebels

against her youthful budding swells.
A part-ferocious, sweet young thing,

she's that precocious vamp called Spring.


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We're trying to split a database that's shared by several schools.
Today we came across some problems, making us feel fools.
Every day there's been a new dilemma we must solve
but I believe in sticking with it, everything evolves.

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Monday

Today was nice. I spent some time with teachers at another school.
I'm helping them with database admin., which, as a rule,
is no big deal to me. (The work I mean). Lovely people make a day.
They made my day. And then I found someone prepared pay
to suffer at a gym with me. I need to exercise and get
endorphins back in balance. The sunshine helped and now I'm set
to sit and listen at an open mike Live Poets night.
I rang an old friend, she'll come too. Things are back to 'right'.
Almost.




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Me on the left, Minister of Education in the centre. 

I'm talking with my microphone, connected with yahoo,
I'm chatting with my cousin and I'm typing on here too.
The interaction we can have with friends and family
is something that I need to make my alto-ego see.
Depression is the enemy and loneliness its spear
I'll have to use the shield of other people- keep them near.


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Invisible

I sense her disappearing - my younger, siren self.
She's merging into shadows, on an antiquated shelf.
She's disappearing, fading, she's been camouflaged in grey -
fatigue that drags, despondent, like a wilted winter day.
That youthful incandescence slowly waning, starlight dim,
There'll be no gauntlet challenge where she teeters on life's rim.
She'll vanish into wrinkles carved to channel grieving tears
of rueful loss; all entities decay with passing years.
I sense her disappearing with every silver strand;
Invisible, enshrouded in an overlay too bland.

Diz

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Diz online 

It's Saturday, a week has passed and there are 9 to go
(of work that is). Today I dozed all morning, dreaming so
I didn't have to face the weekend straight away.
Saturday is washing day and ironing... supermarket day.
Saturday means kitchen cleanup, rubbish bags to sort,
tomorrow looms when I can dump the rubbish where I ought.
A thrilling life of humdrum chores. The rain makes weeds grow too.
When Monday comes around I'll go to work, forgetting for a few
concentrated hours. What's the point?
Perhaps I'll make a pessimistic website to annoint
my feelings of depression. Or maybe chocolate bars
and scifi books will numb me to the way lacklustre marrs.

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Thursday. Everyone is tired. Spring and daylight saving...
the first week back at school and right now all I'm craving
is my bed.

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Today was back to school for me; a thousand tasks appeared.
I managed to get through a few and some of them I steered
away from. I talked about the strategies
I learned of yesterday and visited the categories
on Bernie's webquest site. I long to share his 'patterns'
and demo rubrics too. The lessons I just sat in
showed me they're nearly there without this...
So it's timely. This avo, staff reclined in bliss
while I projected how to check their history
and cookies, temporary files. A mystery
to many. And we revised some data entry bits...
for the 200th time. I nagged and mentioned several nits.

Almost a whole year later:
Boredom with blogging meant
I left this place alone
instead I went and spent
time on poetry, other stuff...
but now I'm back. Ahem:
Today I went to a course
on Webquests -making them.
An American professor
was truly inspiring.
Bernie Dodge, the inventor,
spoke without tiring.
He mentioned blogs as well
and reminded me of this
so here I am to rhyme right on
and maybe take the pi##.


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