Her considered sophisticated smile careful An enticing night time jasmine perfume Her rosy porcelain skin, fine china Her eyes shine bright the prize clearly It was all in her name Allure
The original poem is below, and above is a re-write for dVerse using the WaltMarie form. A convenient coincidence that these two prompts came in the same week.
Her name was Allure It was in her eyes – Bright and unclouded She made herself the prize
Her name was Allure It was in her skin – Rosy and yielding Fashioned from porcelain
Her name was Allure It was in her perfume – Curious and enticing A night time jasmine bloom
Her name was Allure It was in her smile – Careful and considered A sophisticated style
When I was studying to teach English, there were folks from all around the world in the class. One young Chinese lady had taken the English name Allure, which I found quite intriguing. She was a pretty lady, and I’m sure many people did find her name appropriate. Shared with Moonwashed Weekly Prompt – using the word allure
I told her ‘It’s up to you’ She said ‘That’s damn right!’ Yet she knows not what to do It’s always fight or flight
And so it was she ran Too immature to explain Until her awakening began And she’s welcomed back again
A real conversation I had a couple of years ago with rebel student Feije, who subsequently left my school for elsewhere but I discovered yesterday that she will come back for grade 10. I liked her feistiness and stayed in occasional contact with her. Shared with Moonwashed Weekly Prompt – writer’s choice.
It’s a splendid winter wood – On a chilly December morning – – The crunchy road straight – – Towards the gnarly wooden gate – Unhinged a snowy warning Where splendid walls once stood
It’s a splendid moss a-growing – To shade this dewy frost – – Ray’s barely breaking through – – Another turn remained true – At a further year’s cost Awaiting the splendid summer’s glowing
Mellow and relaxed. After Amy left this morning and I got back from Utopia, I lazily read books and comics and watched some videos. I found an appropriate dose of a gummy to get me into things without taking me down the paranoia highway.
Around 3 pm, I hopped into bed and read more comics before a pleasant nap, which I got from at around 5 pm.
I forced myself out into my room, where I searched and researched Savage Dragon and Usagi Yojimbo comics before crashing around with the guitar, which sounded good today, though perhaps it was just from the CBD in the gummy.
Health:
Physical: 7 Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
Amy’s friends who are taking care of each other at Wan’s place near Chiang Khong.
The best thing about today was:
Reading a few issues of the current Love and Rockets series again. Such a rich and wonderful read and told with great skill.
I love that I’ve been able to watch the characters develop over all these years. It’s so well written that sometimes little is said but the reader fills in the gaps to move the story along.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
The worst thing about the gummy experience is that time just disappears. I want to read more, listen to more music, write etc but somehow it’s time to go to bed already.
Something I learned today?
Art at Utopia is renting the shop next door to him to do more roasting. He’s doing well with his brand.
Amy sent me this picture while I was at Utopia. She had a big two-litre bottle of red wine ready to go to Wan’s birthday party this evening. She was just about to leave when….
Tired but ok. It was a struggle to get up but not too bad once done.
Health:
Physical: 7 Mental: 6
Today I’m grateful for:
Plenty of parking spaces at the airport this evening. I even managed to park next to the other car here tonight for the family.
The best thing about today was:
In my second class I played along with my naughty students instead of getting upset with them. We were just doing quizzes, so it was quite fun. I wasn’t in the mood for serious work either.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
After a fun first class, I was sitting in the cafe and saw a message from Amy saying that she tried calling two times but the phone hung up on her. I never heard anything so I called her back and she seemed annoyed and distracted with her parents buzzing around in the background.
She asked me questions and then didn’t listen to my answers and so she asked them again.
Anyway, I will meet them at the airport in the early evening.
Then I got messages from Nut asking about Namsai’s phone, which I had taken from her in class and she swore badly at me. Nut’s messages were rude and direct (though I can forgive her, as it may just be her poor English).
These two things together, along with a sudden feeling of exhaustion, put me in a bad mood, though. I’m trying to think myself out of it now.
I got out of it by the time of my second class but when I got home, the tiredness overwhelmed me a little more and then problems with playing guitar made me grumpy again.
Now I just want to sleep and then hope to wake up tomorrow in a better state of mind.
Review your acts, Good and bad.
I messaged Baipad last night about painting rocks and giving them away and this morning we looked around for some and she took three with her. A little later, she sent me photos of her painted rocks and who she gave them to.
I took this picture of my naughty students lazily doing my quizzes because I was going to use it to threaten them that I would show their homeroom teacher. BB, Namfon, Tulip and Baibua behind the chair. Khawhom jumped out of the way when she saw what I was doing. Ironically, they all blame me for being in trouble because their SchoolBright scores are so low but they have no answer when I ask them why I’m always reducing their scores! They do crack me up most of the time, though.
Pretty good again, though my shoulder is hurting a bit, probably from overuse with exercise, hanging and general bad posture.
An easy day at school today, as I will come home for a psych appointment in the afternoon. I’ve given my afternoon class work to do – let’s see if they will actually do it!
For my morning class, only 4 students attended as the others were visting MFU open house today. It was good to be able to sit with so few students (who are all motivated too) and go through a simple lesson with some chitchat and we were all done with 30 minutes to spare.
Health:
Physical: 7 Mental: 8
Today I’m grateful for:
The hospital system here. I saw the psych and told him I’m doing ok on half a tablet a day, just getting a little dizzy and he said to keep going and gave me some more medicine to keep going. All up it cost me 250 baht – about 10 Aussie dollars.
The best thing about today was:
Having such a simple and straightforward day and being about to go about things at a fairly chill speed.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I played some guitar again but my wrist was straining during the warm-up exercise and I sucked at the song I’m always trying to improve on! Uh! Some days good, some days bad!
Predictably, most of my grade 10 students didn’t bother doing my class work. So annoying, having to constantly chase up students for work!
Something I learned today?
There’s something that keeps crossing my mind to put here but every time I sit down to do it, I can’t remember what it is!
Review your acts, Good and bad.
Baipad messaged me last night that she feels tired and bored and doesn’t want to come to school. She seems aware that her days are a little predictable and so this morning I arrived in the canteen where she and her friends always sit and I pulled her out and made her walk with me a little around school.
Whilst she was complaining and fighting me, I was telling her that it’s something different, break her routine and get off the phone. Although she wasn’t particularly impressed, I could see the smile on her face and that she was a bit more lively just after this.
I told her that we will do the same tomorrow and Wawa has to come with us too. Let’s see.
Tonkhaw took this picture of Satang during the class I missed today. Obviously busy…
Mondo poems are often very brief collaborative affairs (usually written by two poets) that present a question. (The question needs to be open-ended and poignant and should be a test of the answerer’s wit). The answer is written in the style of trying to glean meaning from nature. My poem doesn’t quite fit this requirement but let’s use our imagination.
Mondos can be as short as a one-liner or as long as two 5-7-7 syllable stanzas.
The first stanza presents the question; the second stanza gives the answer. We usually write this form in the spirit of Zen, responsive through meditation and observation of natural surroundings.
Today I’m feeling:
Reasonably ok, though I woke up early again and struggled to get more good sleep before my alarm went off.
The morning passed quickly with more reading and writing and, shock horror, even some lesson planning – though it was more thinking and organising than writing any new lessons.
Health:
Physical: 7 Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
The ladies in the financial office who helped me to provide them with the documents that they had requested. Through broken English, broken Thai, phone translation and gesture, we managed to get everything sorted.
The best thing about today was:
Making it out into my room but not long enough to play guitar, which was my initial intention for going there! I ended up sorting out the Hellboy comics reading order in my files, which took a fair amount of work and it was dark by the time I finished and time to eat.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I got a message last night from Anchan saying that she checked into the hospital again last night, as she has a fever and was worried that she would go into shock. I offered to bring her food or whatever she wanted but she said that she wasn’t allowed visitors.
Something I learned today?
The Internet Archive is currently the target of hackers and it would be a travesty if the data held there were lost. Some people have compared it with the Library of Alexandria.
I took this picture because Garfield was in the in-tray when I went to visit the financial department. Earlier I had seen him sitting comfortably on a ledge with a one-storey drop on the other side!
1994ever 