prayer

prayer

Bless the country.
right now.

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The OED word of the day for the poem | commentary is 'peeps,' and the Oxford lads finally missed a trick. The only definition they give is that it's slang for people.

Dudes! Marshmallow Peeps!

illustrating the world

drawing and writing
illustrating the world
is a Pastime & Practice

Moments of heaven

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem|commentary is 'mappa mundi.'

moonshine

living

whenever needed
it is a flair
for the unusual,
sometimes
mad, crazy
Moonshine

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem|commentary is 'balloonatic.'

what does it say

‘What does it say here?’

A poem was
bits of alone
mixed up
with a few
flashy, fearsome
passages

the drama
opens us
to this moment

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem|commentary is 'pomposo.'

impervious

impervious
to the effects
on ourselves,

Everyone is
drinking champagne
and celebrating
the belief that
you can be right
without Disappointment

Is anybody looking into the possibility
That might be Wrong!

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The OED word of the day for the poem|commentary is 'tin foil hat.'

what seekest thou?

Star-staring earthling,
puff'd with insolence
gazed with such
a curious Eye

What seekest thou?
Angels too
want to Know

deep in the Heart
dancing with Passion
enlightenment

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem|commentary is 'earthling.'

It was really hard for me to erase my very favorite citation from Dr. Rutty's Spiritual Diary in 1776: "The women are taking your crowns from off your heads, O ye boobies and earthlings of men!" I expect to be exclaiming "O ye boobies!" as often as I possibly can.

Abracadabra!

there is some secret to heal in Verses
the endeavoring to decipher
the remarkable words of the Poet,
and at that moment seeing
just how much power
Art can have—
Abracadabra! The door's open

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem|commentary is 'abracadabra.'

amazing flour

the centers
of sunflowers

ordinary light
Carrying a Torch

amazing flour!

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem| commentary is 'table-tennis.'

What started as a silly pun, turns out to be a scientific fact! Flour made from sunflower seeds is almost the richest source of iron in the world (second only to brewer's yeast). Go forth and grind.

romance

ultimately
in a Romance
the past
is almost
indiscernible

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem| commentary is 'zawn.' That would be a Cornish fissure in a coastal cliff.

Today is Worldwide Sketch Crawl #32, being marked by many of my fellow Urban Sketchers at the 2nd annual symposium in Lisbon. But here in Seattle we had an iconic subject on 4th Ave. S — with espresso of course in the foreground!

expectation

brooding July
symbolized
Every unfulfilled
great expectation

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'Ozymandian.'

Actually, the weather (and forecast) is great in Seattle, but old grudges die slowly :)

Pooh

Pooh,

the spirit
that expresses
our Daily
attempt to
save the world

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem|commentary is 'commune.'

There was, of course, no way I was going to find Pooh in the definition and then leave him out!

amusement

the Daily Post
permitted man
to indulge in
that amusement
known as

‘I had planned to…

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem|commentary is the verb 'rotten-egg.' One can guess where the Oxford lads were aiming :)

leg warmers

Seattle summer —
even the trees
wearing
leg warmers

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No, this is not a figment of my imagination! Full credit to Suzanne Tidwell and her delightful installation "Tree Sweaters" in Occidental Square Park in Seattle.

motherless storm

Everyone
Cold Now
talkin' about
A stupid July
When u
threw up
at the sight
of a Motherless
Storm Rising,
cussing the bastard

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem|commentary is 'jarhead.'

age

age

to remain
forever young
is enormous
resistance
to change

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'Dogpatch.' Always unpredictable, the Oxford lads.

With Seattle doing an imitation of late October weather, I bailed on plein air sketching, so this one harkens back to Nice, and the Russian Orthodox Cathedral there.

rise and fall

the rise and fall
of the tide

a Funk changes
the question:
What is useful?

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary has returned to the scientific, after a spree of magic, witchcraft and alchemy — 'mareograph.'

magical

magical
in some way
this July
Storm

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For Harry Potter fans, the OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'Muggle.'

witchcraft

good neighbors
worm their way into homes
and fill them with dessert

willful witchcraft

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'maleficium.'

alchemy

the supreme alchemy
is Love
which changes all
our losses into
A kind of
perfect thing

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'philosophers' stone.'

bumble bee

descriptive droning
deserves a song…
the [humble] Bumble bee

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'dumbledore.'

big words

at night
Poetic Wisdom,
big Words
in the Diary,
facing that
which she could not flee
with courage
and a glass of warm milk

It was still plenty dark
The next morning

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem|commentary is 'owl.' I thought the entry was really short til I noticed it was the verb owl. The second of four definitions is to smuggle sheep or wool out of England. Go ahead and use it in a sentence.

that little piazza

nature stirred
songs and Smiles
to rock
the Hours at Home

The only thing was—
god, that little piazza

in the Journey through Life,
getting away
With What You Want
with overtones of art,
is a bit confusing to Master

the Pleasure of the day is the Art
Each night trapped on a piece of canvas

The question is how you get new Energy
to give off a glow all night long

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem|commentary is 'rocker.' In this case, I succumbed to the erasure, and the sketch for the day is actually an old one of Venice.

useless

useless
to be grievously
afflicted by fear

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'peenging.'

FYI, if I were to complain about the word, I'd be peenging... while the 21st century American spellchecker guessed I was 'pinging'!

woodland-brown

flowers from the
woodland- brown
Earth —
Oasis in
July

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'punnet.' This sketch layout courtesy of an idea in a 1973 Gerald Brommer book I scored at the used bookstore yesterday.

sunflowers

sunflowers —
a stand in
for The Big Guy
on a grey day

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The unused OED word of the day is chimichanga; nice to eat, not much to poetize with. So, thanks to my brother for the gift/poetic inspiration!

a good place

Absolutely
The bees'-knees
Saturday night
at a Good Place…
Spaceballs
Forget We came

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'bupkis.' If the Oxford lads were watching American TV coverage of Le Tour, I'd think it was a homage to Bobke (a given alternate spelling)... If all that is Greek to you, suffice to say bupkis is nonsense :)

fireworks

low-hanging moon —
a bit player
in the july 4th sky

culture transformed

culture transformed —
The Collapse
of Power
into love
for its people

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem| commentary is 'Americanophile.' Happy Independence Day.

Wimbledon

Sunday
locked in2
Wimbledon tennis
( until enough
was enough )

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The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'Womble,' which most Americans won't recognize; it's a fictional animal inhabiting Wimbledon Common that tidies up after the Humans.

a kind of art

the Sky in July

Clouds
those Presages
of Rain
are a kind of art
opaque white
or transparent,
then rolled
in color and shape

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This is one of the times where my sketch matches the OED word of the day for the erasure poem|commentary: peloton.

traffic

July 4th
weekend traffic –
the taillights’
red glare

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The posts this week have been the daily assignments in a watercolor workshop in Bend, OR. It's been fun to try different things, or, as the OED word of the day would say, "Yowser!"