Dear NaPoWriMo:

Wednesday April 15th, 2026

Dear NaPoWriMo:

Your prompts have been encouraging. I wish I were creative enough to respond daily.

My poem-writing is very spontaneous. My poem-writing does not lend itself to publication.

Today's prompt about love. 💜

                Where do I start?

                            What do I say?

                                            Let me reread the prompt and write 

                  from my heart. 💙    That's love, right there.

 The prompt: Today, we’d like you to write your own poem that muses on love, but isn’t a traditional love poem in the sense of expressing love between romantic partners.

The Beginning of Expressing My Love 💕

1) My love is for life, to life, about life, with life.

2) I love living. 

3) I love waking up, drinking my coffee, tapping on the computer, checking off my to-do list, adding to my to-do list, turning the page in my journal for next week's to-do list.

And then I fret with love:

4) Did I leave a word out of my submission to my online haibun class?

5) Did I really need that second Saori loom?

6) Is my 99-year old husband content?

And then I reenergize myself by taking my cup of coffee outside to thank God for my backyard:

7) I love living this life - I get excited to just plan as I separate my needs and my wants.

8) I love planning to play harp in therapeutic situations. 

9) I am excited to begin training with the Bedside Harp  online program.

Ordering online, free delivery, from Home Depot, "needs, not wants," is addictive:

10) I am unpacking my new Solo Stove Ranger today. (oops to needs)

11) My friend in garden club gave me a Hanukkah ornament that is beautiful this week.  I feel loved. 💚

I am typing faster than I am thinking:

12) Love flows into words that visually confirm my feelings.

13) I believe that giving to others is mandatory for happiness. 

14) I also love staying home for the whole day with little direction and lots of possibilities.

The End of Expressing My Love

The beginning of today,

joan💕

Garden Club + Cinquain

Keeping with my commitment to write about my daily activities, today is garden club day.

'Tis a day with women and more socializing than gardening although the program usually revolves around an outdoor venture.

We meet monthly excluding the summer months in homes or churches.  Lunch is provided by several hostesses and varies as they choose. Today is a salad bar and the program will be growing healthy foods to eat. 

I have been asked to be vice president this coming year. From my meager understanding my responsibilities will be the programming. However, the hostess is usually in charge of getting a program together so we will see how it all plays out.

Basically, I spend a few hours each month with older women who are interested in life and interesting to know. I am making friends and today the meeting is not far from my home in Sandy's house. She said a few of the ladies are invited afterwards for a glass of wine - ooh la la! We'll chatter and then happily depart

from Writers.com  The Didactic Cinquain Poem Examples (easy and quick)

The didactic cinquain also stems from the contemporary form developed by Adelaide Crapsey. Instead of syllables, each line requires a specific number of words, arranged in 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 1.

Here are the didactic cinquain poem rules:

Line 1: The subject of the poem. One word.
Line 2: Two adjectives that describe the subject. Two words.
Line 3: Action words that describe the subject. Emphasis on verbs and gerunds. Three words.
Line 4: Words that describe the subject, often invoking mood, tone, and emotion. Four words.
Line 5: A synonym or clear reference to the subject. One word.

                              *                *                *                  *                    *                 *

My cinquain for the day:

gardening

all inclusive

chatter socializing informative

delight confusion direction(less?)

togetherness

joan💓

To You From Should Bee!

                             Our home was blessed this past Friday. What a joy!

Involved volunteer organizations such as Community Foundation and Hunt Preservation were the organizers of this blessing, participants and gift ambassadors.

Our pastor from Hunt Methodist Church was invited to give the blessing.

Below is a letter I wrote to you, Dear Friends, about readying the home, physically and emotionally prior to the blessing. It is done in the voice of our home.

I also wrote a poem but submitted it to Story Circle Network for acceptance to their quarterly Journal. I shall not post it here until it is either accepted and printed or rejected.

April 9, 2026

Dear Curious Friend:

It is my turn to shine, to be interviewed, to be the focal point, photographed and yes…

to be blessed.

This is about me - The House That Was a Flood Victim.

This is about me - The House Whose Contents Became Remembrances.

This is about me - The House Who Was Rebuilt from the studs because of compassionate generous folks and organizations.

And who are they? Photos recall the organizations, the matching t-shirts of hundreds of volunteers that came and served me, This House. 

The mother and daughter from Beeville who brought cleaning items and paper towels.

The group of young folks from a nearby church that mucked me out.

The twenty-somethings that were having a reunion at the river and then became a whirlwind clean-up crew.

Somebody Cares that oversaw my renovations.

The groups that put up sheet rock, donated sheet rock, working together as they went in/out, in/out of my doorways.

The multitude of folks that handed out gift cards, money and then mysteriously went their way.

The couple from Dallas who came to paint my ceilings.

The group from Boerne who came several Thursdays in a row to paint the first primer coat, install trim, lay my laminated wood floors.

The group that prayed for me,  some thirty members strong, praying for no financial burden.

Mercy Chefs who fed all who were working on me including my owners, day after day after day.

Hunt Preservation who put all the finishing touches on me, including my beautiful window coverings, and my fireplace mantle created just for me.

The Arcadia design group that furnished me, hung pictures on my walls, placed rugs on my floors and gave my owners a surprise “big reveal.”

I could have had a fate like my neighbor around the corner. That House was torn down, quickly, almost secretly. The foundation remains with its sunken living room, a gathering place for mosquitos.

I Survived. 

I am stunning, clean, filled with new things. Inside my kitchen cupboards are new pots and pans, new dishes and silverware, even a new potato peeler.

Inside my closets are new clothes acquired from generous donors.

Inside my drawers are new towels, new tubes of toothpaste, new combs, new nail clippers.

Today I am getting spiffed up. The new windows will be wiped down from Ava’s nose prints.

The wintering plants will be brought to the front pergola for summer’s sun from the new greenhouse.

My yard is green and received a mowing yesterday.

I am becoming more pristine. 

Visitors will be here tomorrow.

They will come to bless me because I am a Survivor, a completed Survivor.

They call me part of the Recovery process. 

Ready, set, go…..out with the floor mop and shine me prettier than I already am. 

The birds sing at the feeders, the grass grows healthy between stones defining my new walkway. My enlarged patio will be swept.

I am Beautiful. I am The House at 100 Should Bee Drive. I am resilient and helping my people cope with the devastating Texas Hill Country flood, July 4, 2025.

With a toughness undefinable,

The “Should Bee” House 

Now! Today! Do!

 

keeping with my desire to write of daily habits 

today i write verses what i’m not doing 

today i am doing it.

not a doer of

mowing the lawn but 

I like to do it 

it will get me outdoors

rain came 

the grass grew lush 

the John Deere awaits

not one to demand but

the rv surge protector 

went through the flood

there is a lifetime guarantee 

i must call them

not one to follow up but

i will call Steinway and ask 

did the Kwai placed on consignment sell?

how to arrange my free tuning?

not one to figure out why

the loom rivet seems too short

to hold the brake on my partially 

assembled Saori loom

not one to procrastinate 

all the above should have

been done days months ago

i hold myself responsible

for procrastination

no one else

is going to do 

what i am not doing

i was waiting for the grass to grow.

joanconnor 04.08.2026

Junior Master Gardeners' Rap

I became a Master Gardener and am currently volunteering at the Hill Country Youth Ranch. Teaching is my background so working with the children is comfortable and rewarding for me.  From the Junior Master Gardener Handbook I found a simple "rap" that would be fun to do with the boys and girls.

A verse from the guide:

Tomato sat on the railroad track

Thought he was the boss

Along came the choo-choo train (clap)

Tomato sauce.

I created several more verses:

Carrot sat on the railroad track

She’s really in a fix

Toot! Toot! Along it comes

Making carrot sticks.

Radishes are my delight

Straight from the garden soil

Wash them bite them yum yum yum

They are worth the toil.

What have you planted

In your garden space?

What else can we rhyme

In our greenhouse place?

Basil sat on the railroad track

Smelling oh so good

Along came the choo choo train

Pesto on our food.

And as our rap does end today

I hope you take the time 

Clap it out or sing it strong

And try to make it rhyme.

As time allows perhaps the students can create a verse about something they have planted.

In the meantime the above fits with today's NaPoWriMo prompt!😀

Ava

 

Ava

hundreds of dollars

today our dog Ava visits a New Vet

but then we never saw the same vet at the old vet

where prices were outrageous

hundreds of dollars for shots

hundreds of dollars for medicine

hundreds of dollars to tell me my dog is healthy

which I happily paid hundreds of dollars to hear.

the New Vet is recommended

from the online trustworthy nextdoor neighbor site where

I know no one yet everyone from the noones to the someones

has an opinion.

I learn from the someones that

New Vet is a young lady with a new practice

on the other side of town.

I will pass hundreds of vets to go to her

like I pass hundred of churches to go

to the one I haven’t been attending

that is sunday’s story

today’s story is Ava

she went to her spa last week the groomer

told me her anal glands had a thick excretion

I know: TMI, but that is the reason 

I will pay hundreds of dollars 

with the New Vet.

everyday is different yet some seem the same

when retired old willing to spend

hundreds of dollars on my dog.

My Prayer for You

 

Happy Easter Happy Passover and More!

I have been studying "Passionately Christian, Compassionately Interreligious" on beadisciple.com

these past ten weeks. 

Today, Easter Sunday for Christians, I would like to recognize the other faiths we studied. 

I shall follow this post with my mission statement and my Christian theology within the next two weeks.

Skip to content

Skip to content

Easter is a sacred season of Christianity. At the time of Easter, there are 

religious festivals in Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Judaism, to name 

a few. Jains observe the birthday of Mahavir; East Asian Buddhists observe 

the birthday of Quan Yin. There is the Passover of the Jewish Faith and 

the Sikhs recall the fifth Guru, Guru Arjan Dev, who compiled the 

Guru Granth Sahib. These are among the religious festivals celebrated 

at this time. 

The above paragraph is from:

https://sheppartoninterfaith.org.au/?p=3283

Today's short poem celebrates His Resurrection and My Salvation.

He rose from the depths of hell

for my salvation

for my sins

for my separation from our God

He rose from the depths of hell

for your salvation

for your sins

for your separation from our God

I accept His grace, His love, His longing

for mankind

Of course I ask

Will you?

Amen and Blessings to all!

Joan💗

freely given

 

freely given

overcast, sprinkles drop with

expectations on the weeds

the grass the blacktop

the budding limbs of trees

saturday’s sunshine absent 

cancelled farmer’s market

feels like a free day 

bookmobile 

in the front yard

to be washed

didn’t happen

to travel downtown

didn’t happen

to meet children

with free books

didn’t happen

we relax

     write a rhyme

             wait for sunshine 

to happen.

            

             *                *                 *                 *                  *                *                * 

(Our napowrimo prompt today was a weather phenomenon. I forgot to rhyme! I love to rhyme.

I am going to take the above poem and create a rhyme or two within it.)

04.04.2026