A Fine Time For Rhyme Time

A Poem, by Laura Spinella

Tic tock screams the study clock

A Yahoo glance says I’m on the spot

It’s my turn to chatter all front and center
But I'd do better to lend this blog to a renter

No reasonable excuse pops to my mind
I’m busy! I’m flu-ish! Let’s face it, I’m in a bind

What topic to tackle, that’s first on my list
Something funny or wistful with a mysterious twist

On occasion I think we’ve covered the gamut
Not one fresh thought makes me yell, “Damn it!”

Ellen and Karin they’re quick with a quip
They’d generate verses that would be a sure hit

I’m not feeling unique or even mildly reflective
Odd since this blog is the last from a 40’s perspective

Book banter is popular, something close to our hearts
But I’d rather you click here and drop one in your cart

Novel news leaves this author with naught to report
No worries, by next fall you’ll wish I was hoarse

   

Ideas are vague my thoughts a sad rhyming jumble
This blog link however should make each of us humble

A surprise  inbox request heightens my frazzle
They want a cover blurb by tomorrow—and make sure it dazzles

Poetic grammar is moot with no time to check
Looks like it’s ee cummings style with all due respect

So I’ll leave you my gal pals begging that comments be kind
Perhaps a blank date would have been wiser than rhyme

Laura Spinella is a bad poet and also the author of THE IT FACTOR, coming fall 2013, and the award winning novel, BEAUTIFUL DISASTER. Visit her site, where no poetry is posted, at lauraspinella.net

 

And Now For Something Competely Different

When the student is ready, the teacher appears

By Hank Phillippi Ryan

So we’re talking about resolutions. I’m in the midst of writing a new novel. Almost, almost finished! And semi-frantically wondering what will happen. I think--I HAVE TO FINISH! And then I realize—it’ll be done when it’s done.

So I’ve “resolved”—maybe, “decided to allow,” is there a word for that?-- to discover the flow, and be there. And as sometimes happens, just when I needed it, I found this.

Does that happen to you too?

Maybe this is one of those times.

Learning the Characters (Yue Liang — The Moon) by Koeeoaddi

My hand,
stiff as horsehair
falters and balks.

"The moon," he tells me
and draws the lines.
Listen to me.

I grind the ink,
look into the wet black slab
but see no sky.
I worry my hand
across the page
the sun fastened tight
to obstinate dusk.

"Watch" he insists.
His lesson forms
in rock and light.
I retrace his strokes,
and he smiles —
my crude moon
climbs a crumpled sky.

But later
alone at my desk,
I sketch the spiny shadow
of the asparagus fern,
a cat on the sill
looking into the night

And the moon blooms
like an orchid
underneath
my astonished brush.

**********************

Agatha, Anthony and Macavity-winning author Hank Phillippi Ryan is the investigative reporter for Boston's NBC affiliate. She’s won 26 EMMYs and dozens of other journalism honors.

Her debut PRIME TIME, won the Agatha Award, and was nominated for two RITAs. FACE TIME and AIR TIME are IMBA bestsellers, with AIR TIME nominated for the Agatha and Anthony. (Sue Grafton says: "This is first-class entertainment.") DRIVE TIME's Library Journal starred review says “puts Ryan in a league with Lisa Scottoline.”

DRIVE TIME is now a nominee for the AGATHA AWARD for Best Mystery Novel of 2010!

Hank's short story “On the House” won the Agatha, Anthony and Macavity nominee.

She’s on the board for New England Sisters in Crime and the national board of MWA.

http://www.HankPhillippiRyan.com