THIRD ANNUAL WILLOW BALL!!

AS YOU CAN SEE BY MY LITTLE PHOTO, I haven't allowed all that idle gossip about Splitsville, get me down.  Just brushed myself off, put on some fancy couture, and started all over again!  My spirit is soaring, primarily because of the delightful WILLOW of the Manor, and her invitation for me to join her and all of her splendid guests, at the Ball of the Year.  Let the Champagne begin!

JUST TO backtrack a bit, if you remember the fabulous Willow Ball of last year, I arrived with my brand new fiance, and my entourage, to announce our engagement.  Champagne flowed, and all of you toasted our happiness. Unfortunately that didn't insure our wedded bliss!  I still get a sniffle or two when I think of that glorious night.  Surely you remember Count Ruprecht von Braunshweiger, and his incomparable ways...I really thought we were a match made in heaven!

AND YET, so many of you intuited something about Rupy and his mother, Lady Danvers, (see photos) that I just missed.  Some of you thought he was a dirty, rotten scoundrel.  I just didn't see that.  Although I still can't find my diamond tiara, (he vogued around the chalet with it on, kinda cute).  She seemed like a sweetie pie to me.  But she did have an odd trait.  No matter how bright the day, she always appeared to be in a black and white movie...very curious...and poor Rupy, I couldn't quite figure out why people laughed at him ...it may have been that little affectation, the Triton he insisted on carrying with him wherever we went...oh, well, let bygones be bygones... and please, forget what they said on Entertainment Tonight.

SO GLAD that Willow allowed me to bring some Chocolate Treats to the Ball.  I hand dipped all of these yummy goodies myself...have as many as you wish...I've brought an endless supply!

 

AND TO show my deep appreciation to Willow for her generosity and joie de vivre, I have enrolled her in the Roses of the Month Club.  She will be the happy recipient of a dozen long stemmed roses each and every month! And she can renew anytime she'd like!

WELL, THE BEST for last...Once again, I'm in love...think I've learned my lesson..stuff happens!  Here we are, my new fella, and me, happy as two peas in a pod.  You can sort of feel the amour, can't you?...Let me introduce you to my new beau, Bram.  I just can't resist a guy in a cape!  Just like all of us, he's a writer.  He said he has a surprise for me at twilight..can't wait..I wonder what it will be??

In the mean time, SHALL WE DANCE ?

A Little Haiku...

ADD A LITTLE HAIKU TO YOUR LIFE

Droning bee strokes wings

on petal, flies from orchid...

stinger pointing out. 

Ice cubes bounce in glass,

bubbles rise like pink balloons...

my mouth tastes gaiety.

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MAGPIE/ Prompt #33

                                          photo/willow/magpie tales


HOW KARMA WORKS

At the beginning of being born,
my Karma is fitted to me
like an ID bracelet.

As I slip out of the womb,
memory drifts away
like a poof of Chanel #5.

Recollections disappear.

Ah, but I know my scent.


Inspired once more by Willow..Mag Prompt..please join in ..go to magpie tales...Thanks, Willow!!!


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Poetry Potluck...

I'VE BEEN INVITED by my friend, Jingle, to join the Jingle Poetry  blog, which is posted each week from Sunday 8:00 PM thru Tuesday 8:00 PM.  This week's theme is Night, Moon, and Stars.  Please visit the site, and poets, join in!!

I'm offering a Haiku....

Dark star awakens bat
to wing into the purple
ashes of the day.


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Perfect Murder

I SOMETIMES RETURN TO THE DISTANT PAST of my blogging adventure and find an entry that nobody read.  Can anyone identify with that? This one took place during the first or second week of my blog, about a year and a half ago.  Here's a re-print of one that might be interesting..who knows?? 

Nowadays, screen killings must be splattered with blood. My favorite all time violent dying scene just shuts down a gadget by the name of HAL, who's last breath has nothing to do with exhalation. Dave pulls the plug.

H-A-L, 9000, the computer that runs the spaceship in "2001, A SPACE ODYSSEY", acquires some quite negative human traits, basically an ego and arrogance, glitches that do him in eventually. Dave, stranded outside the spaceship, requests re-entry from HAL, an adept lip reader, who has just dumped Frank, the other explorer, in space for eternity.

Dave and HAL indulge in the following dialog:

Dave: "Open the pod doors , HAL."

HAL: "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"...

Dave finally re-enters, under great stress. And much determination to sever the influence of HAL forever. Dave begins to "kill" HAL. As HAL "dies", he confesses to being afraid.

Dave presses the buttons for HAL's demise. HAL'S weakening voice asks for permission to sing.

All ego and presumption gone, he sings what was first programmed into him, "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do"....and so he goes
.

Which brings me to a little memory about Keir Dullea, the immortal Dave in "2001, A SPACE ODYSSEY".

I live in one of those high-rise apartment buildings in NYC. The notorious story about neighbors here not even knowing each other's names, is unfortunately true for the most part.  But I'm a smiley type, at least nodding in the elevator.

I would sometimes run into a friendly, elderly couple in the elevator or on the street near my building . We would always exchange greetings, mostly words about the weather. One time though, in the elevator, the lady mentioned to me that her son was coming for a visit. If I had been she, I would have revealed much sooner than she did, that her son was Keir Dullea.

From time to time, through the next year or so, the elevator doors would open and there would stand Keir Dullea. Never once did I acknowledge my recognition of him. I was suddenly as frozen as HAL, devoid of all personality.  I was alone with "Dave", and I was in awe. This was not just an actor, this was the star of the movie that was at the top of my Top 10.  Basically, I knew that I'd never be able to say more than "hello".

I had the quirky thought I had to be wittier than that, as if he would be expecting a conversation of some sort. Or at the very least, a "thank you for your brilliant work". 

But fate handed me a Hollywood ending
.

There was Keir Dullea again, in the elevator, a teensy smile forming on his mouth. Did he recognise me?  I knew that his parents were going to move out. There would be no more chances. Still, words failed me. As I left the elevator, I surprised even myself by singing, very quietly, really a hush, "Daisy, Daisy"....Just the two words, and the elevator doors closed.

Didn't let Dave do me in too! 

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MAGPIE/ Prompt #32

                                           photo/ willow/ magpie tales



METAPHORS ON A GRAIN OF SAND


What a joke,
who designed this trick of time?
As if it couldn't be more obvious
to even the most feverish of minds
that a grain of sand slipping
through a tiny breach
into a bowl of negative trials
and positive measures,
might represent my ephemeral life.

Which grains are prayer,
or magic charms I've used up
on my knees shooting craps?

Where is all the time I washed out,
and tell me,
do tears make a nasty sludge
of free flowing gush,
slowing down this blobby mess
to discernible poetry?

Yes, wasting my existence,
designed by a blase' fate
to keep on keeping on,
no matter what.

Well, I've got a trick up my sleeve,
I don't get just one tide,
I insist on ebbing too,
and if that won't deal me
a better sand castle,
I'll just stand on my head
and kick start
the whole flow
all over again.


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Thanks once more to Willow, for the opportunity to participate in the great Magpie Prompt!!


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Invasion of the Body Snatchers..

Kevin McCarthy/ Feb.15,1914- Sept.12,2010

The actor, Kevin McCarthy, passed away on Sept. 12, 2010, at the age of 96.  He was the brother of the renowned author, Mary McCarthy.  He played the role of "Biff" in the original London production of "Death of a Salesman", and in the 1951 film version, when he received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.

But in 1956, he was cast in a low budget film about a California town where residents are gradually replaced by pods from outer space.  The pods turn into creepy duplicates of the townsfolk.  McCarthy and co-star, Dana Wynter, spend the movie trying to escape "podification".  The way to do this is to stay awake.  Falling asleep, allows the pods to transform into humans.  

In 2008, the movie was named one of the Top 10 Science Fiction films of all time, by the American Film Institute.  McCarthy saw it as a metaphor about conformity.  He went on to play multiple roles in film, TV, and on stage.  He toured for two decades in, "Give 'Em Hell, Harry", as Pres.Harry Truman.

He also had a cameo role in the 1978 remake of the "Body Snatchers...", playing the man who throws himself against the car driven by Donald Sutherland, (the star), shouting, "Help!  They're coming!  Listen to me!"

RIP

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Classic Combo...

                                       

BEST SANDWICH for end of summer....the full ripeness of the figs signal the waning days, but what a way to go..and the sweet, saltiness of prosciutto, a great combination to look forward to..add cheese, could be your choice...you can't make a mistake.  This is barely a recipe..it's sort of just eating!


FRESH FIG, PROSCIUTTO, AND CHEESE SANDWICHES

8 slices Italian bread, toasted
4 tsps. Dijon mustard
1 cup baby arugula
2 oz. very thin slices prosciutto
2 oz. swiss, manchego, muenster or mozzarella cheese, or your choice, sliced or shredded
8 fresh figs, cut into thin slices
2 tbls. fig jam

Spread 1 tsp. mustard over 4 slices bread.  Place arugula on each bread slice.  Place prosciutto, cheese and fig slices on top.  Spread 1/2 tsp.jam over remaining 4 bread slices, place on sandwich, slice.  Serves 4.  Sweet and savory...mmm...mmm.  A red wine, maybe a Cabernet, would be nice.  Watch the sun go down....

At some point I sort of just eat the figs like they're going out of style.

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MAGPIE/ Prompt #31

                                      photo/willow/magpie tales

FROM MY WINDOW

Easy to kill, easy to die,
not just on September 11th.

Drift back through time,

heads atop posts,
heads in baskets,
even kings and queens
danced in their own blood.

Time shields the eyes
from all that crimson,
seducing us to forget our misdeeds.
All war proves to be
an afterbirth of a stillborn,
with nothing forthcoming.

The Towers roar,
we all descend together.

Paper falls slowly,
carrying a message:
Doomsday,
while the nation plummets
into grief.


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Thanks to Willow for stirring up a hornet's nest for me....Another inspiration from Magpie Tales.


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THE WIND...A Pantoum

THE WIND...A Pantoum


I turned around and went out,
mistaking the wind for your voice.
Here I am, I cried.
And I danced in its arms with delight.

Mistaking the wind for your voice,
the breeze started pushing me back,
and I danced in its arms with delight.
Why would I need any more?

The breeze started pushing me back,
a beat surged in my blood.
Why would I need any more
to keep my ardor going forever?

A beat surged in my blood,
I felt your hand in mine
to keep my ardor going forever.
Did you know you were at my side?

I felt your hand in mine,
it's been this way before.
Did you know you were at my side
or has my dream just faded away?

It's been this way before.
Here I am, I cried.
Or has my dream just faded away?
I turned around and went out.


A Pantoum is a poetic form that first appeared in the 15th Century, in Malaysia.  It can be of indefinite length and is made up of specific repetition.


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MAGPIE/ Prompt #30

                                                         photo/willow/ magpie tales



A VERY IMPORTANT APPLE

You mean that by my taking a bite,
there's no turning back,
I've shaped the sin of the world?

Who would have thought
this succulent fruit,
whose sap has trickled down my chin,
a syrupy residue laced
with purity, and oozing
towards my bosom,

would mark me
as the first offender?

Can it be, Mr.S,
the bite you enticed me to nibble,
plunged creation into vanity,

where all's over at the start,
all's conceit, and
I'm doomed
to a life of repentance?

A simple desire for a treat
did all that, you say?

Not fair, not fair!
I didn't know you'd change an apple
into a metaphor.


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Thank you to Willow for another challenging Prompt!! Please check all the other responders to her Magpie Tales.


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