Happy Thursday!
Just recently back from a month long journey to Asia, I am still suffering from jet lag! We were last in Japan, which is about a thirteen hour time difference from Boston. So here I am, at 5 AM, writing to all of you, getting ready to schedule OLN for today.
I learned many many years ago from a counselor who met with us before our daughter left for Germany as an AFS exchange student: Things are different. They’re not better. They’re not worse. They’re different. I’ll share those words with you today, as well as some photos from our journey and you can become a global armchair traveler with me!
For those of you new to dVerse, welcome! We’re glad you found us. We’re a virtual pub that invites folks from around the world to join us in poetry making and reading. Prompts are on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today happens to be OLN which stands for Open Link Night. This means you are invited to post ONE poem of your choice and link it to dVerse: any form, any topic, old or new. It’s wide open.
As always, please do observe the “rules of conduct” for dVerse:
* Write ONE poem as OLN requests and post it to your blog.
* Click on Mr. Linky below to add your name and enter the DIRECT URL to your poem.
* On your blog, please provide a link back to dVerse.
* If you promote your poem in social media, use the tag #dversepoets
* And most importantly, please do read some of the other responses to OLN and add a short comment or reaction. Everyone likes to be appreciated! OLN is live for several days – as you’ll notice by the comments you’ll receive – sodo stop by another day and read a few of the latecomers as well!
dVerse 
Welcome back Lilian… it looks like you had a fabulous time in Asia.
It was truly an amazing trip! That beautiful mountain in the photo is Mt. Fuji. She is usually very shy with her head in the clouds. She was quite bold the two days we saw her!
Greeting everyone! It’s great to be back at dVerse after our month + journey to China, South Korea and Japan. My body is back in Boston and my fingers are typing and serving up drinks at our dVerse pub….but my mind is still a bit addled from the 13 hour time difference! Just got back Sunday morning at 1:30 AM! We flew Tokyo to San Francisco and then on to Boston.
So let the OLN posts begin!
Hi Lillian and All. Just looked through your photos. Looks like a trip of a lifetime. Can’t wait to hear what it was like through your poems.
It was indeed!
Lillian, do you have any cider back there? I’ll take a glass in a frosted mug please.
Welcome back, Lill! I’ve been following your Facebook posts with interest and love the photos you’ve shared on today’s prompt.
I’ve been busy today moderating exam materials and will be working flat out until July, after which I plan to stay with my daughter to look after my grandson and grand-dogs while Ellen and Steve decorate their new home, which will hopefully be in 7 to 8 weeks time.
I’ve linked up a poem I wrote for the Toads prompt today, which is about an experience during a recent afternoon of gardening.
Having trouble with internet in addition to jet lag…so a bit slow on the replies here. Will be reading in a bit. I’m forced to use my iPad today and for some reason it acts weird on this site.
I’ve been having trouble too, Lill! Since British Telecom upgraded the cable to fibre optic, we’ve had nothing but problems around here. The Internet drops out at random times and I need it for the moderation work.
Technology…blessing and a curse!
One cold cider coming up! oh yes….I’m quite certain I’ll be using photos and scenes from this trip for future poems!
Thank you for the cider. It really hits the spot.
Thank you for hosting Lillian! I have offered a journey into the creative mind…!
Will get to reading in a bit. Glad to see you here!
Heyy everyone,
Just dropping by to say hi! April is officially over .. and my mind is a numb after writing 30 poems .. need to recharge 😊
So I ll see you next week probably ❤❤❤
Sanaa, congrats on making it through the poetry challenge for April! Seeya on the flipside.
Thank youu 😊😊😊❤❤❤❤❤
See you Ms Jade! 🍧
You are welcome.
Congrats on that accomplishment. I was traveling in Asia for all of April so for the first time in many years could not participate. Next year, Hoping everyone will bear with me….Internet is flighty and my iPad does not seem to want to connect me to this site. Sigh….
Great work Sanaa! ❇️❇️❇️
Welcome back Lillian and thank you for hosting our OpenLinkNight.
Thanks, Grace. Good to be back!
Welcome back Lillian! Your photos are lovely. Japan is a very special place isn’t it? I loved it.
We loved Japan….the country, the culture, and the people!
Yes I found it to be so spiritual and I loved the customs 🙂💕
Welcome back Lillian and thank you for hosting tonight, your photographs are beautiful! I’ve linked up a haibun and will swing by in a moment to read xxx
Hoping everyone will bear with me….Internet is flighty and my iPad does not seem to want to connect me to this site. Sigh….
Hope you’ll be able to reconnect again soon xxx
Hoping everyone will bear with me….my internet connection is flighty and my IPad is not working well with this site. Sigh….
Hello everyone, hoping everyone is safe and dry, as parts of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick are experiencing floods, right now. Welcome back, Lillian, from your envious trip.
As for myself, I have posted a poem that some may find offensive, as I have placed a reader’s warning about its content, marking 50 years of decriminalization of Canada’s law on anal intercourse. As the Royal Canadian Mint has struck a coin to mark this historical moment, but much distance is still to be covered.
Oh my. Fair warning to all.
Fair warning to all.
Hello Lillian- Adding oa poem I wrote earlier in the month during NaPoWriMo. Welcome back, and I love your photos! Thank you for sharing.
Glad to be back! The photos are as they say, the tip of the iceberg!
I bet they are!
Hi Lillian! Welcome back. Your photos are fabulous, and it sounds like the trip was, too. I just took a brief journey around the park. 🙂
It was an amazing journey! And my mind still thinks it’s time zones away! 😊🙃
I can imagine. It takes me weeks just to adjust to back and forth from Daylight Savings Time! 🙂
You take such fascinating trips, Lillian! Thanks for hosting. I linked one of my husband’s poems and will be reading and commenting. 🙂
Glad to see you here tonight! It was a fascinating trip indeed. One of the most fun things I did was reconnect with an old classmate in Tokyo. He was a foreign exchange student from Japan our senior year in high school I n Waukegan, Illinois. Because I never got to a high school reunion, we had not seen each other since 1965! He brought our old high school annual with him and we really chuckled to see our old pictures way back then. So wonderful to reconnect in Japan!
Beautiful Photos Lillian! You visited some beautiful places!
Oh yes, indeed we did!
Oh we did indeed! I didn’t post any of the photos from the huge fish markets…they were quite incredible and a testimony to how different cultures can be in their tastes! So many live eels of different sizes, same with octopi; sea cucumbers and so many live sea creatures I’ve never even heard of. Fascinating to see!
That would be very fascinating!
Okay folks…Jet lag has truly set in and my fingers are typing but they’re not connected to my brain. Will sign off now (or be writing comments in gibberish) and will return in early AM to read with a much better sense of comprehension than I have right now.
Key to the pub is under the doormat, light is on, so come on in and leave some words at the bar! Help yourself to libations and I’ll be back tending the pub in the wee hours of Friday morn.
What an amazing experience. I look forward to reading about it. Thanks for making the extra effort to keep the Open Link Night happening.
I’m back! Woke up at 3, 4, 5, and finally got up at 5:30. That 13 hour time difference is tough to get over. At about 1 this afternoon my eyes will be very very heavy thinking it’s midnight in Japan! Oh well….the trip was definitely worth it and my body clock will eventually adjust….in the meantime I imagine it’s what Alice might have felt like when she fell down the rabbit hole! 😊
I have been there. It is an odd experience.
Whoops my first post was error. I enjoyed your photos
Ah….I deleted it and added a new one for you. I’ll check to make sure you don’t have two now, Glad to see you here, Jane.
Great shots Lillian, glad you’re resting … jet lag hits us all in different ways but usually hard 🙂
Oh yes it does.
It was an amazing journey and I had a hard time choosing just a few photos to share. The photos from the huge fish shops are incredible….maybe another time! 😊
good for you 🙂
I’m not even late to the party, I’m staggering in the morning after, when there’s nothing left but a couple of dried up sandwiches and the dregs of a few glasses of wine. Regardless, it’s lovely to see your pictures – looks like an amaxing trip. I suspect poetry will bubble up from it.
Oh yes indeed….I think there will be some poetry coming out of the trip for quite some time. It was amazing….glad to see you here! Sorry about the stale sandwiches…I just refreshed the pub so help yourself to some goodies and I’ll pour you a mimosa this morning …made with fresh squeezed orange juice!
A mimosa sounds good. And maybe some coffee…the sandwiches actually weren’t stale at all 😉
😊
Good morning everyone!
I’ve been back at the pub since 5:30 this morning and enjoying all the posts!
Jet lag is a bummer…but this too shall pass. Japan is 13 hours ahead of Boston. While in Japan, it was fun to “celebrate” birthdays with emails to folks….the email would be sent for example, on Japan’s April 20 at 10 AM….and it would say something like “Happy birthday from Japan where it’s your birthday today, which is your tomorrow! So while you’re just contemplating your birthday tomorrow, we’re already celebrating it today!” Make sense?
I love the cloud mountain. Thanks for hosting Lillian. (K)
My Fuji is beautiful. We were so lucky to see her. Many days she hides herself in the clouds.
I added one: https://myforever.blog/2019/05/03/purest-of-the-pure/
Super. I’ll be reading again in a bit.
Good Evening, poets! Thanks, lillian, pubtending OLN. I’m a day late but not a poem short! 😉
Glad to see you here, Frank! Pub always open for you 😊
Thank you for sharing your pics. Your trip looks wonderful!! I hope you will be able to help me, I get notices of prompts long after the cut off date. Can someone help me?
Hi Annell: I’m so sorry you’re having difficulty posting to dVerse. I shall forward your message on to Bjorn and Grace and see what they say.
However, I know one way to insure you get the prompts! I actually never get notices of prompts….I didn’t actually even know that could happen. Instead, I just know that prompts appear every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 3 PM Boston time. I also know that they stay active for at the very least two or three days. So I always just log in to http://dversepoets.com every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday after 3 PM Boston time, or the next day to get the prompt.
Mondays are always quadrille, haibun or a soon to be announced new type of prompt called “prosery”. They alternate. If you look at the top of the website, you’ll see d”calendar and it will give you the dates for each prompt. Again, every Monday at 3 PM Boston time a new prompt appears.
Tuesdays are what is called Poetics and a new prompt appears at 3 PM Boston time. It can be a word, a topic, a piece of artwork to respond to. I always find Poetics has interesting prompts.
Thursdays are either OLN (Open Link Night) which is what this was where folks can post one poem of their choosing….or MTB (Meet the Bar) which explores a particular form.
I think the thing to insure you always get a prompt in time to post to it, is to just log in every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, after 3 PM Boston time.
Hope this helps. IN the meantime, I’ll also check on whether there are “notices.”