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Here's what you need to do, since time began:
find something–diamond-rare or carbon-cheap,
it's all the same–and love it all you can.

It should be something close–a field, a man,
a line of verse, a mouth, a child asleep–
that feels like the world's heart since time began.

Don't measure much or lay things out or scan;
don't save yourself for later, you won't keep;
spend yourself now on loving all you can.

It's going to hurt. That was the risk you ran
with your first breath; you knew the price was steep,
that loss is what there is, since time began

subtracting from your balance. That's the plan,
too late to quibble now, you're in too deep.
Just love what you still have, while you still can.

Don't count on schemes, it's far too short a span
from the first sowing till they come to reap.
One way alone to count, since time began:
love something, love it hard, now, while you can.

Here's what you need to do, since time began: find something–diamond-rare or carbon-cheap, it's all the same–and love it all you can. It should be something close–a field, a man, a line of verse, a mouth, a child asleep– that feels like the world's heart since time began. Don't measure much or lay things out or scan; don't save yourself for later, you won't keep; spend yourself now on loving all you can. It's going to hurt. That was the risk you ran with your first breath; you knew the price was steep, that loss is what there is, since time began subtracting from your balance. That's the plan, too late to quibble now, you're in too deep. Just love what you still have, while you still can. Don't count on schemes, it's far too short a span from the first sowing till they come to reap. One way alone to count, since time began: love something, love it hard, now, while you can.

#poetry Guidelines #RhinaEspaillat
#NaPoMo #formcalendar #30poems30days #villanelle
One of my favorite sonnet and villanelle poets.

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[anyone lived in a pretty how town] anyone lived in a pretty how town (with up so floating many bells down) spring summer autumn winter he sang his didn’t he danced his did. Women and men(both little and small) cared for anyone not at ...

…spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn’t he danced his did.

Fridays during #NationalPoetryMonth are #freeversefriday
I’ll share a poem (or link) by someone that sings to me
Today #eecummings
#NaPoMo #formcalendar #30poems30days #poetry

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January rain
marks mustard season Vineyard
vines bare Beside rows
abloom in golden yellow
Resting amidst winter’s show
© Rick Ehling ✍️ 04/09/2025

#dailyhaikuprompt (mustard, grape) #tanka #poetry #NaPoMo #formcalendar #30poems30days

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Wayne Thiebaud.
Cakes and Pies, 1995, oil on canvas
72”x64”
Collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

Wayne Thiebaud. Cakes and Pies, 1995, oil on canvas 72”x64” Collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

Thiebaud’s Cakes
A row of fancy hats (boaters 
wide brimmed)  He cited Degas’ 
Millinery Shop as inspiration
Read through a patisserie window

America’s taste for sweet butter
Pre-Ozempic calorieless confections 
Iced as much as painted 
Bathed in harsh Californian sun

Haloed in contrasting colors
Saturated before Rothko’s tryptic
With a tablespoon of pop art
Spinning plates time frozen  

Never wobbling  An arcade game 
A shooting gallery many’d 
like a crack at  Who doesn’t dream 
of throwing a pie or cream puff

Birthday parties Weddings 
Baby showers  Las Vegas buffets 
All - food fights  Glorious excess  
Controlled stomach aching abundance
© Rick Ehling ✍️ 04/06/2025

Thiebaud’s Cakes A row of fancy hats (boaters wide brimmed) He cited Degas’ Millinery Shop as inspiration Read through a patisserie window America’s taste for sweet butter Pre-Ozempic calorieless confections Iced as much as painted Bathed in harsh Californian sun Haloed in contrasting colors Saturated before Rothko’s tryptic With a tablespoon of pop art Spinning plates time frozen Never wobbling An arcade game A shooting gallery many’d like a crack at Who doesn’t dream of throwing a pie or cream puff Birthday parties Weddings Baby showers Las Vegas buffets All - food fights Glorious excess Controlled stomach aching abundance © Rick Ehling ✍️ 04/06/2025

A poem for the exhibit currently at the #legionofhonor #SanFrancisco. Highly recommended.

#Thiebaud #art #ekphrastic #NaPoMo #formcalendar #30poems30days #poetry

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Post image

#NationalPoetryMonth
A beautiful contemplation of silence, awareness, and fear of the unknown. by Alberto Ríos
www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/every-...
#NaPoMo #formcalendar #poetry

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Out walking in the swamp picking cowslip, marsh marigold,
this sweet first green of spring. Now sautéed in a pan melting
to a deeper green than ever they were alive, this green, this life,

harbinger of things to come. Now we sit at the table munching
on this message from the dawn which says we and the world
are alive again today, and this is the world’s birthday. And

even though we know we are growing old, we are dying, we
will never be young again, we also know we’re still right here
now, today, and, my oh my! don’t these greens taste good.

— David Budbill

Out walking in the swamp picking cowslip, marsh marigold, this sweet first green of spring. Now sautéed in a pan melting to a deeper green than ever they were alive, this green, this life, harbinger of things to come. Now we sit at the table munching on this message from the dawn which says we and the world are alive again today, and this is the world’s birthday. And even though we know we are growing old, we are dying, we will never be young again, we also know we’re still right here now, today, and, my oh my! don’t these greens taste good. — David Budbill

Fridays during #NationalPoetryMonth are #freeversefriday
I’ll share a poem by someone else that sings to me
Today #thefirstgreenofspring by #davidbudbill

#NaPoMo #formcalendar #30poems30days #poetry 🌱

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https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46557/what-lips-my-lips-have-kissed-and-where-and-why

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46557/what-lips-my-lips-have-kissed-and-where-and-why

Sonnet day, but getting to something shareable isn’t likely
…so I’ll share one of my favorites

#EdnaStVincentMalley #sonnet #NaPoMo #formcalendar #30poems30days #poetry

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I will speak of you to silent dark and in unruly crowds. In traffic I’ll whistle you along to songed radio. Your name will be written on coffee orders, shouted back at me. It matters not who’s listening. Someone will breath in 
these last hints of you. Grief and awe, but two sides of one coin. Heads you lose, tales you win. Then tell.

I will speak of you to silent dark and in unruly crowds. In traffic I’ll whistle you along to songed radio. Your name will be written on coffee orders, shouted back at me. It matters not who’s listening. Someone will breath in these last hints of you. Grief and awe, but two sides of one coin. Heads you lose, tales you win. Then tell.

Today is calendared prose poem day
I read a bit (as I’m still a poetry autodidact) before I realized I owe a lot to the style (minus the periods which I rarely use)
Probably from teenage discovery of and regard for William Carlos Williams

#prosepoem #NaPoMo #formcalendar #30poems30days #poetry

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Preview
How America Became “A City Upon a Hill” For Miller, the Puritans “spoke as fully as they knew how, and none more magnificently or cogently than John Winthrop in the midst of the passage itself, when he delivered a lay sermon aboard the flag...

Wondering if ever an American Way?
As Felon et al. attacks what we say
Winthrop’s “light on a hill”
just televangelists’ shill?
As they strip our free speech rights away
© Rick Ehling ✍️ 04/01/2025

#limerick #NaPoMo #formcalendar #30poems30days 👊🇺🇸🔥

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It’s #NationalPoetryMonth #NaPoMo
In 2024 I celebrated by sharing a few favorites which I’ll do again
I’ll still do other posts but I’ll try to play with the #formcalendar #30poems30days as time and my muse permits

The brain too needs a stretch

Today starts with Limerick

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