Mobile Post: Not For The Squeamish

Because I have such squeamish friends on Twitter, Facebook and WordPress, I’ve been forced to change the title of the poem “Colonoscopy” to “Worm Hole”.

Chicken!

Look for a new — and more politically correct — poem later today

Geesh!

Thanks!

Thank you for all your kind comments during this difficult few months.

I also thank you for your patience and understanding for a too quiet blog.

April is National Poetry Month. I hope to catch up and post frequent poems during this month.

As a snarky commentary about my health issues, I start with a short cycle of “illness poems” followed by a serious family cycle focusing on my father’s death last month and my mother’s a two years ago.

Hope they make up for lost time!

Coming up next….”Colonoscopy”

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Pause

My father died last week.

I have been and will continue to write a cycle of poems about my family. 

However, please allow me a bit of time to pause and reflect.

Thanks so much for your support and understanding.

Audrey

(aka Poetweetry)

And a Snarky New Year

Let’s start the new year with some fun.

Coming up, a familiar face. Many of us know this character from his appearances on Fox TV’s “The Family Guy”.

Others recognize him — figuratively or literally — from our own subconscious dark recesses.

Celebrating our shadow, friend or nemesis:  “The Evil Monkey”

Coming up next….

Happy Holidays – with apologies

First, I wish all my readers, visitors, browsers a very happy holiday season – no matter what festivities you treasure. 

Next, I apologize for my lack of postings over these many weeks.  Unfortunately, personal family illness and related issues forced me to focus elsewhere.

Nevertheless, I scribble new Poetweetry ideas on napkins, envelopes and receipts. Look for some fun verses as well as special Christ, personal and animal poem cycles to come in the new year.

Thank you for your support and encouragement for the “new and improved” Poetweetry tweets and blog. I appreciate your time and interest so much!

Again, Happy Holidays and even more best wishes for a Happy and Peaceful New Year!

Audrey 

(aka Poetweetry)

3-2-1 RELAUNCH!

Thanks for your patience while I’ve tinkered with our Poetweetry site.

Hope you like the redesign. We may have to tighten up a few things as we go — you know how these webby things can get funky at times.

Please enjoy future poems, artwork and other posts.

Also, I’d love any feedback you might have about the redesign or Poetweetry in general.  Please feel free to comment after the post — or send me a private note via the “Contact” page above.

I will start out with reprint of one of my first posts that attempts to explain what Poetweetry is and is not.

Again, thank you for reading. Hope you enjoy. Glad we connect via the cyberwaves!

Audrey

Apologies

I apologize to those of you wonderful folks who subscribe to Poetweetry. 

Our Poetweetry blog has undergone urban renewal.  I’m sure every time I make many changes (especially those annoying line spacings), you get a message that I’ve posted or updated something.

I’m sorry! With urban renewal comes obnoxious construction noises.

I’m just about done and plan to start posting POEMS soon.

Thanks for your patience.

 

 

Audrey

(aka Poetweetry)

 

Pardon our Dust

Pardon our dust as we attempt to create an updated Poetweetry site for you!

Neil Armstrong: In Memorium

On July 20, 1969, I held tightly to a stuffed animal and my breath as I listened to the “30 minutes of terror” as a tiny space ship 250,000 miles away from my Iowa home descended toward the Moon’s surface. 

Humans ventured to new lands throughout civilization. Exploration pulsated in our species’ DNA. We sought out new lands both for adventure and for their economic riches. Many people died in the attempts. Discoverers too often became conquerors, harbingers of hate, disease and genocide. We wasted Nature, resources and the barbaric “Other.” 

Humans looked up to the stars. At first, we placed ourselves in the center of the heavens, only one step below our so-called Creator. Those researchers like Galileo who questioned such assumptions were vilified (as are many scientists today). However, Earth and its ally Gravity blocked any attempts to escape from its grip.

But on that day, more than 40 years ago, in a den in Iowa, I gazed at a flickering black-and-white TV screen as humans surmounted Mother Nature, escaped physics’ anchor and sailed toward a oceanless New World. Humans left Earth’s influence twice before (Apollo 8 and 10) and orbited her many times previously. With less than 30 seconds of fuel left, a cool, confident, relatively calm Neil Armstrong landed his ship Eagle on the soft dust of the Moon. Earth and all her inhabitants watched in wonder.

Neil Armstrong on Moon reflected in Buzz Aldrin’s visor
NASA photograph
Artist rendering ©2012 by Audrey S. Rivers

Neil Armstrong (and his crew mates Edwin Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins) contradicted the Columbuses of old.  They came in peace for all humanity. While they unfurled the American flag in less than firm lunar soil, they also placed flags from every United States and foreign sovereignty. They collected samples of another celestial body, not as plunder but to unlock secrets of millennia and share with scientists Earthwide. 

After their fiery return to Earth, the explorers spent three weeks in quarantine least the unseen aliens we always fear somehow trespassed. The trio must have contemplated the steps they took beyond what past civilizations could ever have dreamt. Surely, they surmised, humans, inspired by their success, by the wonder of the deed, by our exploration genes, would continue research expeditions to Luna. Why, nothing, besides lack of will and wonder, could even stop humans from walking across the closet planet so steeped in mystery and myth — Mars.

Nothing, but a lack of will and wonder….

Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon inspired both my sister and me to dream of working for human spaceflight. We both accomplished our goals, — she as a Space Shuttle Mission Controller; I as a planner and public affairs officer at the NASA Johnson Space Center.

When Neil Armstrong passed away on August 25, I felt despondent. Not only did we not lived up to his boldness, we confined our country only to Earth orbit and, at least for the short term, with the USA lacking even its own transport there. When the First Man on the Moon died, he received less recognition in the new 24/7 social network, cable news media than did pop star Michael Jackson’s demise. Even one major TV network news website announced “First Man on the Moon, Astronaut Neil YOUNG….”, confusing the pop-folk singer with the astronaut. The Twitter generation often referred to “Lance” rather than “Neil” in their Armstrong posts.

Neil Armstrong was a true hero, both as an astronaut and man. He was the “test pilot’s test pilot” and survived many never-fatal disasters with focus and confident calm. While other astronauts exploited their fame for fortune, Neil Armstrong taught at a university (for professor wages) and donated many space-related proceeds to charity. He inconspicuously lived for many years on a farm near Lebanon, Ohio. He had two sons. He lost one daughter to brain cancer as a toddler. He preferred the attention of young people to that of presidents and celebrities.

In memory of Neil Armstrong, I posted two poems I wrote for him many years ago. Please link here for them:

July 20, 1999

Poem For A Friend Who Has Walked On The Moon

And next time you catch a glimpse of the Moon at night (or during the day), please give it a wink to remember its first human visitor.

Audrey

NEW: Art Attempts

“ASIG”
by Audrey S. Rivers
©2012 All Rights Reserved

I’ve added the Longer Poems section for your reading pleasure (and to prove I can write in more than 140 character spurts). 

I also play with digital art, thanks to the convenience, patience, forgiveness and delete function of the IPad and my Mac laptop.

I do NOT consider myself an “artist” in any nuance. Any freehand drawings I attempt pale compared to a pre-schooler’s etchings (or those sketched by captive animals as enrichment activities).

As I grow older, the creative muses kvetch at me to express myself in new and frequently in ego-deflating fashion. I attempted a dance class expressly as a fun means to exercise. Paired with a jazz company apprentice and surrounded by rebuking mirrors, I bruised both knees and confidence. My jewelry crafting ventures produced mangled necklaces and lacerated thumbs. Gardening yields drooped, oozing plants.

With the wonders of electrons and $4.99 computer apps, we dweebs can purport to some semblance of aesthetic acumen.

My dalliances with several art apps (I highly recommend “Art Set” and “Flowpaper” for IPad) attained some acceptable results. My “style” tends to lean towards Rothko or Pollock. I enjoy playing with the new color-block fashion trend in my “paintings” and dripping-dots-as-art works for the lackadaisical in me. 

Since Poetweetry serves as a creative writing experiment, I decided to embrace my inner “artiste” and occasionally add some of my etchings to my Poetweetry posts. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks for joining me in my journey.

Audrey