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Lillian here. Delighted to host OLN where each of you is invited to post ONE poem of your choosing!
Since there is no actual prompt: I thought I’d just share a few of my favorite sayings I’ve collected over the years (author noted after each). Perhaps you’ll identify with one or two? Why not post a favorite saying of yours in this dVerse chat? Would love to gather new ones! Here’s some of my favorites:
The challenge is to accept change. (me)
Become a Possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities – always see them for they’re always there. (Norman Vincent Peale)
“Normal” is a setting on a dryer. (me)
Look up. Not down at your shoes. Not down at your belly . . . yes it’s sticking out. Look up. (Anne Lamott)
Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. (??)
Cancer is a word. It is not a sentence. (my cousin)
If you’re going through hell, keep going. (Winston Churchill)
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. (Henry Ford)
And this is from I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron, which is a great read – it’ll make you chuckle out loud. She wrote the script for When Harry Met Sally. Her exact words are in italics. The other part is my paraphrasing:
I am sorry to report that I have an Aruba. My Aruba is named after the Caribbean island of Aruba, where the winds are so strong that all the little trees on it are blown sideways in one direction. But my Aruba is not an island. It’s the thing happening with my hair, on the crown of my head, in the back. My cowlicks have won, and they are all blown sideways, leaving a little bare space. Not a bald spot – but my scalp is right there. I wake up with it. I fix it. But it always comes back. A spot on the back of my head where my scalp shows. I look fine from the front; as young as a person can look given how old I am. But from the back – I look a little bit bald. But I’m not. It’s my Aruba.
And that’s me……contemplating the meaning of these sayings and their relationship to life today, in the Age of Covid. SO — I”M READY TO READ YOUR POEM! Post it to Mr. Linky below!
NEW TO dVERSE? HERE’S WHAT TO DO:
- Post ONE poem of your choice (no prompt or particular form – but it must be poetry) to your blog AND add the exact URL for your poem to Mr. Linky below.
- REMEMBER to either TAG dVerse in your post, or include a link at the end of your post that leads readers back to dVerse (https://dversepoets.com).
- If there is no Tag or link back to dVerse, I will gently remind you to add it or remove your post from Mr. Linky. Sorry to be so harsh…..but this is just part of the requirements AND it will bring you more readers and lead more folks to dVerse so they can participate as well!
Welcome to dVerse on this beautiful sunny day in Boston! Come on in and let me know what libation you prefer. Happy to be with you all today and looking forward to you sharing some of your favorite sayings here as you greet everyone….and also looking forward to reading your posts!
Good evening everyone, and thank you, Lillian, for hosting.
I shan’t be staying at the bar for long as it has been a difficult day. Not only is it the anniversary of my father’s death, but I have also been ill for most of this week, and had to have a Covid test this morning. I won’t get the results for 48 hours and, if it’s positive, I won’t be able to go to my daughter’s. If it’s negative, I’ll go later than planned, giving myself some time to dose myself up with paracetamol and have a bit of a rest.
The poem I’ve linked up was posted on 6th August 2015. I updated the format and added some notes to it, as well as a link to dVerse. I will be back in the morning to read and comment.
Ohhhh Kim. I am so sorry to hear the news of your illness. I pray it is not Covid, not only for the obvious reasons, but also because I know you were looking forward to spending your birthday? with your daughter and grandchild. Take care of yourself, and certainly do not worry about getting to read and comment here. Everyone will understand.
Thinking of you….
Thank you so much, Lill. The result of the test should be sent as a text message within 48 hours, but there were so few people at the drive-through test site yesterday, I hope to get it today. if it’s negative, I will dose myself up with paracetamol and hope to be well enough to travel on Sunday. If not, then David and I must both isolate.
HOPING for the BEST!
Kim, hope you feel better soon and the test is negative. A sad time compounding the situation doesn’t help. May the barriers be put aside so you can see your loved ones ❤
Thank you so much, Lisa. I hope to too.
So sorry to hear you’re not well Kim, especially at this time for you. Sending lots of love your way and hope you feel better soon xxx
Thank you, dear Xenia.
Oh Kim, all my best wishes. Fingers crossed you’ll go on your long anticipated visit. Xxx
Thank you so much, Kim. I did get there and had a lovely week with Ellen and Lucas. He started nursery last month and, after a tearful start, is settling in well. he is currently obsessed with Halloween and loves everything, pumpkins, ghosts, monsters – but not skeletons.
Oh dear Kim. I’m thinking of you and hope your result is negative 💕 Stay strong.
Thank you, Christine.
All positive vibes coming your way, Kim.
Thank you, Ron.
Praying test is negative, Kim.
Get well soon my friend!
Thank you, Mary. No result as yet.
Oh, please get well soon, Kim. Praying that your test comes out negative. ~ Jay.
Thank you, Jay.
Oh, dear Kim! I hope you’re OK. Lots of virtual no-contact hugs.
Thank you, Merril. I got The result back this morning and, thankfully, I am Covid negative! I’ll be off to my daughter’s in the morning.😊
FABULOUS news!!!! Enjoy your time at your daughter’s…see you again in a week or so. 😊
Thank you, Lill!🤓
Good news. Have a wonderful trip!
Hello Lillian and All. My favorite quotes of that bunch are Churchill and the Aruba one. Its sunny and holding at 70 today, with a little breeze. A pint of Magners please!
Magners coming right up! Yes….I really chuckled when I read the Aruba explanation. I can certainly identify with everything she said there!
Glad to see you here today!
Cheers, Lillian! Thank you for the welcome 🙂
Hi Lil I tried to comment on your poem but, for some reason WordPress asked for my password, which it never usually does, and my comment didn’t show. My second attempt disappeared too. Here’s my comment, in case it is lost:
I so admire your early morning Cape Cod view, Lill, and the stunning photograph. The ‘Papaya stained sky’ is so vivid. I love the repeated image of the lone gull, which reminded me of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, especially when he soars toward the unknown.
Thank you, Kim….for posting your comment here. I’m so glad you liked it. I’ll check my blog and see if there are any comments entered there….hopefully it’s not my site that is causing the problem.
Take care of yourself! 🙂
Thank you, Lill. 🙂
Hello all. It’s a partial rainy day here and I’m enjoying it.
“The challenge is to accept change.” I can resonate with this very much. To evolve, to change is remarkable in its own right, but to accept it is the beginning of that in order to truly change. It’s only half the battle.
This is one of my favorite quotes: “And I on the opposite shore will be…” It’s a simple one from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, but it’s captivated my mind for reasons I cannot explain. To me, it’s beautiful diffused with imagery of two different shores.
I also posted a poem I originally wrote for a writing prompt. I took inspiration from Simon and Garfunkel’s “I Am a Rock” especially in the final two lines. 😁
I’m now off to read more beautiful poetry coming in.
I love the saying you’ve shared….The use of the word “and” as the beginning word makes it, to me, a positive statement, as if the two on opposite shores are looking across, reaching across, still somehow touching and caring and listening across shores.
Thanks for posting to the prompt…and adding a saying here as well!
Good evening everyone and thank you so much for hosting tonight Lillian! A saying that springs to mind is something Leonard Cohen said whilst he stayed in a monastery for ten years: ‘going nowhere is about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply.’ (quoted by Pico Iyer)
I’ve linked a haibun (of which the closing haiku is an echo poem) with a video and will swing by soon to read xxx
Glad to see you here! I love the quotation you’ve shared here. And although I’ve not been in a monastery for ten years, I have been pretty much confined to our condo since March 12th because of Covid. We’ve all found our activities curtailed and found our “space” shrinking. It certainly has made me look at the world differently…..and treasure simple acts I can no longer do. I find myself reading more….looking at nature more on our simple daily walks….
Yes, I very much like this saying!
Thank you dear Lillian, I think this is why this quote speaks to me so much in these extraordinary times and I’ve found a lot of comfort in going nowhere. It’s lovely that you’re reading more too. May you and yours stay safe and well 💜🙏 xxx
🙂
Thank you for hosting Lillian, and so sorry to hear about your illness Kim – I hope it is not covid and that you get to your daughter’s as planned. I like the Churchill quote best because right now I am going through hell and I need to keep going. Family matters. I have a post scheduled tomorrow which I would like to link back to dVerse. I look forward to reading all of your poems after (hopefully) a good night’s sleep. Love and blessings to all!
Sleep well! 🙂 Glad you dropped in!
Some great thoughts here, Lillian!
Kim – I hope it’s nothing serious and that you are well enough to make your trip. I know how much you’ve been looking forward to it. xxx
Nice to see you here, Sarah! 🙂 Have a great weekend.
Marginally on topic (not my writing):
As a beauty I am not a star
There are others more handsome by far
But my face I don’t mind it
For I am behind it
It’s the people out front that I jar.
And on that note, I always went with a humorous verse for my link!
ugh, alSO not always
HA!!! Love it! 🙂
Alexandra, wonderful!
First time sharing with the Pub. I hope I did everything properly. Thanks for the opportunity to share and read the other works presented.
D
Thanks for hosting and your pre-drink speech even inspired me to re-do into all new an old piece of mine about sayings, specifically my favorite one!
Always happy to inspire! Glad to see you here tonight.
Love the saying you shared Lillian. I always love Groucho Marx and Yogi Berra too. They are priceless 🤣
Hah! I remember the old Groucho Marx show….boy does that age me!
A couple of his famous sayings:
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them . . . well, I have others.”
and
“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.”
🙂
Oh those are good ones Lillian! 🤣
Thank you, Lillian, for tending to the bar. I’ve been giving Eric Hoffer’s words some thought lately, like these…
“The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”
Well, that explains it then.
Hah! Glad to see you here, Bill and yes! That quotation does resonate with me. It’s kind of like that old saying about the grass is always greener on the other side. But if you’re always looking for greener grass, there always will be some somewhere else and you won’t recognize the beautiful lawn you are standing on now! 🙂
Love the aruba explanation. One saying I revert to is “it is what it is”, and this year, of course, no one even knows what anything is. Taking a little break this week. I will be back soon.
Gosh you’re right there. There is nothing certain in today’s world….and when you think about the term that has gotten such widespread usage in the past four years, “fake news” and remember when the topic of discussion was “alternate facts” — and now we’re hearing following the science? It is what it is….except some folks don’t see it that way….as in the actual photos of the 2012 inaugural and crowds and then the 2016 crowds and people arguing over which was larger? And then add in the possibility of photo- shopping or adjusting which happens a lot….did you ever see the cover and inside story in one of the big fashion magazines (I think) a number of years ago with Jamie Lee Curtis where she didn’t have any make-up on, no photo-shopping and she went on either David Letterman or Jay Leno to talk about it….grey hair and all and showed her “arm fat” and “back fat” that is simply a matter of aging? What is real and what isn’t….very hard to tell when we look at photos these days. It is what it is simply and usually isn’t true any more. Hah…..you’ve got me philosophizing here! 🙂
Hi Lillian, appreciate your quotes .. here are a couple, forgotten who said the first and the later has been claimed by several ppl
“the past doesn’t define us but it does shape us”
” it’s not that I’m afraid of death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens”
Oh yes! I love both these sayings! Good ones! Thanks for sharing…and so good to see you here tonight 🙂
ah you drew me out with your quest to share … I don’t drink so not used to hanging out in pubs 😉
Ah….but we always serve nonalcoholic drinks as well….yummy hot chocolate in winters, iced tea, lemonade etc…..and always words words words in the form of poems poems poems and the occasional prosery too! Come OFTEN!
Thank you, Lillian. As for that last saying, by Nora Ephron, aI would say it has with style to to. Not going with the wind … Ai was encouraged, you know, by your prompt, so aI looked in this book of mine, which is Norwegian and called “Skikk og bruk”, which, according to Google Translate is “custom”, plain and simple, though more is like manners and class. And in that book there are some sayings, to point out what politeness is, in conversations. There are some Norwegian sayings, Latin and Greek sayings, English and American sayings, French sayings, and German sayings. One would wonder, why are there no Swedish sayings … Nevertheless, aI immediately found “Right or wrong, my country!” It does not say who the author is, my book. And you know, in the times of ours, here and now, maybe aI will make a poem of that thing, anyhow. If the good Lord lets me.
Nice to see you here tonight. Just looked up the saying, “Right or wrong, my country!” and according to what I’m reading, it’s originally attributed to Carl Schurz, in 1872 and the entire quotation was “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” When you read the rest of the quotation, it changes the meaning a lot, right? Very interesting! The abbreviated quotation can be the very definition of ethnocentrism to its extreme. In its entirety, the quotation takes on a more conciliatory tone…not sure that’s the right word….but one where a person is more willing to examine their own country’s policies, etc. and to admit a wrong and try to make it right. Ah….you’ve got me thinking here!
Ai will not say the saying changes meaning, reading the whole quotation. “Let us make the best out of it,” in both instances, is what aI read. It is is nice, though, to be informed about the origin of the saying, and aI will certainly look up who Schurz was. And, you know, if you understand Norwegian, you would hear in Norway we have a song writer who once made an emphatic case of that message of Schurz. Find it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/Qx-DW9_QGAs .
No Norwegian….but thanks! 🙂
“Normal is a setting on a dryer.” lol. Now we’re getting a setting “new normal”.
Yep. I love that saying! Glad you like it. Nice to see you here, Jane.
Apologies to all for the errant Linky (above). Thanks esp to Ken for pointing it out. Fixed!
I’m off to a virtual reading, but will be reading/commenting thereafter!
Not to worry, Ron. I deleted the one link on Mr. Linky that was the error. NO problem at all. That’s what tending the pub is all about. As long as we have ice behind the bar for those cold drinks in this hot summer weather …. 🙂
Taking leave from the pub for the evening. Key, as always, is under the mat by the door. Come on in and help yourself to some libations. No fee in terms of dollars or euros etc….only charge is a poem of your choice! I shall return in the morning, hot coffee in hand, to continue reading! Have a good evening everyone!
Lillan, your OLN pubtender
Interesting Quotes Lillian! I think I must have an Antarctica, instead of an Aruba, on my head!! :>)
Hah! You made me laugh out loud! 🙂
:>)
Here’s a quote that I have on a sticky note taped to my monitor, by our very own pub poet, Kerfe Roig:
“We are led not by lines, but by circles — fullness returning, renewed.”
Outstanding! Standing Out!!! 🙂
🙂 ❤
I LOVE this! 🙂 Thanks for sharing! It shall be written down!
You’re welcome 🙂
Thank you for hosting Lillian! 🙂 I am honored that my dear friend Carly Danyel has done a guest post that we are linking to OLN. Y’all just wrap your arms round her, she is amazing. I myslef will sit out until next OLN. luvs y’all. 🙂
Nice to see you Lona….sitting out is fine. Glad you could stop in for a quick chat!
Thanks for hosting Lillian, I hope you’re taking care of yourself and staying safe 🙂 I’ve submitted my poem, I wrote it few days ago. It’s based on a dream I had that evening. I hope you’ll enjoy it.
~Jay
Nice to see you here, Jay. Oh yes….my husband and I are hunkered down in Boston…only going out for a daily walk when weather permits….and a weekly walk to the grocer. We moved to Boston in ’97 and from that day on, we’ve been carless. So walking is good! Even when masked 🙂
Sounds pleasant 🙂
Hope I’m not too late, I have linked a poem for the first time. Now off to do some reading of all the others! 🙂
Back at the pub folks! I’ll be in and out until time runs out for OLN. So stop on by and leave me some sayings and poetry too! 🙂
sorry i am late i was else where as you can see the poem i linked in was with me.
thank you for having me
Always glad to have another poet meander into the pub!
PS: Have a great weekend!
You to
Lillian thank you for the quotes. I’m not a huge fan of Churchill, but I have always loved that quote, but my fave is your comment about “normal.”
I like the “normal” one too! 🙂
🙂
WOW! The bar is full of people tonight, and such good poems!
I thought some of you might find this poetry bath clip good, so I’ll post it. Good spoken poetry, truly. So here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKoVNqjNqtY&t=2356s
Thanks for the link!
Hi Lillian and All–I’m late to the dVerse party, as usual. I just couldn’t do yesterday.
“This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.”
Arthur Dent in Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979).
I decided to have a bit of fun with mine, and I will catch up on reading over the weekend.
Love the quotation and appropriate for you posting today! 🙂 Made me chuckle!
Thanks, Lillian! 😀
42
Haha. You’re a fan.
Zaphod Beeblebrox for President!
Anyone would be better than who we have! 😀
zactly!!
I am definitely late to this social gathering. All time is distorted for me lately. I am loving reading what folks have shared. Thanks Lillian for hosting and for your fun quotes.
Ah…. late is 800% times better than never! 😊😉
Ali : Hi again. I noticed while reading your post on Mr Linky that you forgot to Tag or link back to dVerse. That was my comment on your post. Please do read it and then adjust so I can leave up your post. I do want others to see it!
So sorry. Not surprised I made this error. Yesterday was not my best day.Thank you for letting me know so I can fix it.
Just updated. Again my apologies. I really like being a part of this group of poets.
And we like having you here! 🙂