Today, I chose

I’m Going Slightly Mad.

Paula

Prettiest, sweetest puppywuv in the world. She’s mine (although my son would discuss this and claim her, but truly, she’s mine!)

Sonnet on Gnocchi

Shall I compare thee to a potatoe dumpling?
Thou art more dignified and smooth!
Rough graters grind the spuds so darling
And fine farina will be made to soothe

My ailing tongue. Oh masterpiece
Of culinary art and skill!
And with a spicy sauce of cheese,
I can see paradise uphill!

Albeit I know, you have to bear
The boiling orcus in the pot
Until, at least, you take me there
Mouth-watering, delicious, hot.

So long as I in gourmet haven dwell,
So long you bind me with your sapid spell.

—

Oh, and in case you wonder why this sounds familiar… click to read the original

Here is the original:

Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer’s lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And oft’ is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d:

But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

William Shakespeare

Tomorrow’s word: corroborate

There is no comfort for me.
No safe haven, nowhere to go.
There is no comfort for me.
I’m choking and writhing beneath the debris,
I fight to untangle myself from this woe -
There is no comfort for me.
No safe haven, nowhere to go.

Tomorrow’s Word: Gnocchi
(um… )

Little penguin sat on a floe
Little penguin sang “Here we go!”
On the floe he danced the jive.
When he was done, he took a dive.
Caught some fish in the water below
then climbed back onto his floe.

form: Nonnet

thunderstorm, oh mighty sovereign

the sky is yours, with clouds and rain

fighting, howling, devouring

your lightning and thunder

your beauty and pain

I am not scared

I know you

you are

mine

purgative

cleansing cathartic

liberating redemptive tense fraught

strained fierce inhibited

costive

Form: poem, four stanzas.

“I knit pictures” said once a friend.
And I know this to be true.
But without wanting to distend
I wonder what it is I do.

I make stories. Do I spin,
as they say, one thread of dream?
Just one thread? That is too thin,
don’t I weave something supreme?

Is it patchwork, tailoring?
Knitting? What about a quilt?
Oh, words are so strange a thing.
Do I craft or do I build?

In the end, I think, they fly
Winged and strong, glorious birds.
I don’t do much, just send them high.
My friends, allies, my precious words.

I know you. Oh, how I know you.

I knew you before I was born, before I uttered my first sound or drew my first breath.

I encountered you in the darkness of the birth canal, and little did I know the how you would join and shape my life.

I met you throughout my childhood, and even though your face seemed gentle and soft in the eyes of the adults, I already knew the depth of you, the horror, the abyss.

I met you when I skinned my knee and bruised my head, when I lost my favourite plushy and when I told my mother to leave daddy… “We will get along on our owns, I promise”.

Oh, and then I grew up, and saw more faces of you, got to know you in all of your shades.

The first love lost. The first death of a beloved one.

Oh, and how it felt when my best friend left me. I still remember the sound of my heart breaking, the shattering of its shards, I remember how it felt crying and crying for days, alone, utterly alone.

And giving birth myself, being connected to death and life at once. I could almost embrace you then.

Yes, I know you. I drained the goblet to its last drop, I explored every depth of you, multifaceted as a diamond you are. And yet I know that you can show me even more, and you will.

Pain.

You will be able to find all links to all entries by all participants at the

Worth1000 August Blog a Day Project at Multiply.

I hope everyone has fun, and I am looking forward to read what all of you come up with.