Comment from michaelcahill

Excellent

I've read this several times, I suppose it's about time I told you how much I enjoyed this and the great original contest you devised. I haven't been around too much lately but this looked like fun. You have sooooo many great unexpected rhymes here. It brings a smile right away and it never leaves. You're going to be a busy gal, that is for sure. Loved this, mikey

 Comment Written 08-Dec-2016

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reply by the author on 08-Dec-2016

Thanks for the encouraging review. Funny because I just found an on line course for American sign language, love it. My mom, a very healthy 87, has lost her hearing, so intead of repeating things endlessly.... I will just sign from across the room, cheers, j ps enjoy your loot.

Comment from pome lover

Excellent

or three or four! whew! you better get busy, girl.
I love this. two questions: burning man? and inuk shuk?
actually three questions. Are you in Tanzania for good? Four: Do you ever get home to Canada? but back to your bucket lists - you pack a lot into this poem and you do it well. Pricks my imagination, for sure. wonderful rhymes and the end is great.
Katharine -pome lover

 Comment Written 07-Dec-2016

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reply by the author on 07-Dec-2016

Thanks for the review. Burning man is a gathering in America every year where like minded peaceful people go to heal and connect. Much like the Bread and puppet in Vermont every sunday. An inuk shuk is a Canadian thing, it is a man made of rocks. The eskimos live in a vast area with no street signs, so these markers are used as reference points when they are travelling. I want one right in the middle of my butterfly garden, holding a hummingbird feeder ,ha ha

I have been in Tanzania now for 20 years. I usually go home in the summer for a few months and my husband tries to go back for C'mas (like he will this year) When he comes back in January I will go to Zanzibar to get in shape with swimming. I buy a few kilos of vanilla beans, then in Vermont I buy little mason jars and fill with beans and vodka. I put a cute fabric on top and sell to the country stores as vanilla extract. People love it. Then I will go home in May.

While Mike is gone I will turn my bungalow into a gym and really focus on the keto diet. I have already found an online site to learn American sign language and do an hour a day. My mom is a very healthy 87 years old, perfect health except for her hearing. Instead of repeating myself endlessly, we will sign. I remember last year, she was working on a little project and I said 'I love you.(no reply)...I love you..(no reply).....I LOVE YOU!!! This way I can just sign I love you when ever she looks up.. I go to Montreal for a couple days to see family, then my mom and I head to the woods and my cabin. In October I will come back with a good friend and take her on safari and zanzibar. She has never left Vermont so this will be quite an adventure. I have an open invitation to the writers on this site to come visit me in vermont this summer. They saw my cabin and want to see for themselves. It would be fun to put some faces to the words, cheers, j ps that story about my mom reminds me of a joke.The nurse is plumping the pillows of an elderly man and says I wish I had a million patients like you..... EHHH? I said I wish I had a thousand patients like you....EHHHH? I said.....I wish I had a hundred patients like you. haha

reply by pome lover on 07-Dec-2016

that is funny!
well I could never keep up with you. I am catching up with your mom, but I can hear, just can't remember squat. Words I know as well as my own name, just can't think of them sometimes. Only positive thing about that - my friends all have the same problem.
Good for you, learning sign language. Your mother will love and appreciate that.
Your schedule sounds exciting and wonderful. I loved hearing about all this. Thank you for telling me.
Katharine

reply by pome lover on 07-Dec-2016

PS
so you and your husband sort of "pass in the night"?

reply by the author on 07-Dec-2016

I think that is the secret to our 20 year relationship. He is a workaholic and I am a hedonist. I always tell him, I like it when I leave (all excited and free) then I like to come home (familiar comforts, plus my dogs adoration), I get treated like a little princess when I get back from long safaris. Breakfast in bed as I nurse my jet lag heehee. Usually, if I want breakfast in bed... I have to sleep in the kitchen, sigh. Cheers, judester my mom calls me tin tin

reply by pome lover on 07-Dec-2016

sounds like the perfect marriage. and you've still got your mom. win-win. good for you. enjoy. thanks for the visit!
PL

reply by the author on 07-Dec-2016

I'm a lucky girl, cheers, j

Comment from Franklin Price

Excellent

As I began reading the "Bucket List" contest entries, I found my self thinking: "how am I ever going to be able to choose one these for my vote?" Then I got to yours and began reading. The further I got, the more it spoke me and, by the time I got to the end, I had no choice; I had to vote for "My Life, My List". Outstanding!

 Comment Written 07-Dec-2016

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reply by the author on 07-Dec-2016

Thanks for the encouraging review.I could have written another 20 stanzas I believe. It was a fun write, cheers, j

Comment from Kai Michael Neumann

Exceptional

The bucket overflows so nicely into two. This is very original and has very good rhymes too. I guess this will have to be my favourite. Good luck for the contest. Kai

 Comment Written 07-Dec-2016

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reply by the author on 07-Dec-2016

Thanks for the review and sparkly stars. This particular poem caused me some grief, but I learned alot. A one star review (my first! ha ha) and a great lesson on forced rhyhm. I could have gone on for another 20 stanzas, sigh,,, ha ha, Cheers, j

Comment from Pam (respa)

Excellent

-I love the image and happen to love huskies, too.
-A good poem for the contest.
-I like the rhyme and descriptions of so many items on your list, like
"'69 camero, candy apple red."
-I like the conclusion.
FYI: From one Aries to another, wanted to see if I could raise your rating.

 Comment Written 06-Dec-2016

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reply by the author on 06-Dec-2016

That is very sweet. I learned alot from this poem, like forced rhyming, so I am changing it around.That's what I'm here for. I could have gone on for another 20 stanzas ha a, cheers, thanks for the review, j

Comment from rjuselius

Excellent

i fell in love with the last stanza, it says it all dear anonymous! i think your list is grand but on some ocassions the rhyme is slightly forced and the rhythm is off balance. but a nice effort here.
thank you for sharing!
good luck!
blessings!
Rebekka x

 Comment Written 06-Dec-2016

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reply by the author on 06-Dec-2016

Thanks for the helpful review and I will revise the forced and off balance rhythm. I appreciate your thoughts on this one, cheers, j

Comment from sanejane

Excellent

How long are you planning to live? :)

I love this bucket list - it all sounds good to me, except for one item:

A gambling trip to Vegas
just to try my luck,

All those lights - NOOooo!!!

Now I'll take a look at your etsy site.

 Comment Written 05-Dec-2016

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reply by the author on 06-Dec-2016

That Vegas one was personal. My sister always goes and I would love one week end with her just to see what it's about (30 years ago would have been better) My etsy site is going for an overhaul. I have better anklets. better beads.They removed alot of items because you have to renew every 3 months I think and didn't ... sigh. I would love to send you a special ankle bracelet, if you want,,,, send me your address (judylynnmcintosh@gmail .com) and I will send today, you can get by Christmas.Cheers, j

reply by sanejane on 06-Dec-2016

The trip to Vegas seemed out character, but now I understand. It's true there's not much on your etsy site, but what is on show is lovely. I've agonised over your thoughtful offer of an anklet as I find it hard to accept gifts. If I send you my address, it means I've given in to the temptation. We'll see :)

Comment from Joseph Pedulla

Poor

I like the sentiments, but this is not really poetry. There is nothing transformational about it. The thoughts are, though cute, left untransformed and therefore come out as direct thoughts rather than thoughts "changed" by the poet's perception. The poet must combine his perception of an experience with the experience itself and come up with a third reality that is neither his perception alone or the experience alone. The whole things, passes, as it were, through a prism. Once through this prism, it comes out the other side a transformed reality which we all a poem. In Robert Frost's "After Apple Picking," for example, the poet's perceptions of life's being like a harvest of apples accomplished over an entire lifetime is combined with the apples themselves. The whole is put through the prism and comes out the other side not as his direct articulation of such a life, but as a transformed statement in which apple picking becomes a metaphor for one's life's labors unfinished and, perhaps, unfulfilled. The poem is a third reality proceeding from the combination of perception and experience. It is a "prismed" perception. That's the best I can say about this subject, and unless a poet--or someone claiming to be one--understands this, no poetry will be written. However, once understood and practiced, wonderful things can come forth--like charms from a fairy's wand.

 Comment Written 05-Dec-2016

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reply by the author on 05-Dec-2016

Thanks for the review. It is called a list poem. Why haven't you written anything after a year on this site? "Charms from a fairy's wand?" Give me a break, judester

reply by Joseph Pedulla on 05-Dec-2016

You can mock the review, but it will stand the test of time. Your poem will not. Transform, transform, transform!

reply by the author on 05-Dec-2016

Why don't you write something so I can see how a real poet does it?

reply by Joseph Pedulla on 05-Dec-2016

Oh, I will. Trust me. And you will see.

reply by Joseph Pedulla on 05-Dec-2016

On the Picking of Strawberries

Our picking pail is full, my son

With ripe and green and past their prime;

I'm not quite certain what we've done

And what has happened to the time.


In cents per pound we're lunatics

To pay the same for sweet and sour.

Let's say our eyes were playing tricks,

And blame it on the darkling hour.


How else describe the magic sense

Of things as they were meant--

Or how it made a difference

In being indifferent?


The pragmatist could not appraise

The worth of things so seen--

As though before created days,

Like Being before it's been.


Yet that's how fresh the berries seemed--

Or so they did to you.

And their so seeming did redeem

The old and make it new.

reply by Joseph Pedulla on 05-Dec-2016

Dirt

I think I'll make

A novel thing

I'll make it after me,

Design it with a difference

And for eternity.


Not that I have need of it

Or cannot do without

Perhaps to give the best of them

A thing to figure out.


Or fiddle with fecundity--

Creating on and on.

I mean to make them think they're meant--

The only sine qua non.


How desperately they'll fight the fight

For bread and love and fame.

And I the while will delight

To watch the endless game.

reply by Joseph Pedulla on 05-Dec-2016

Flying Fish

Like flying fish

Under

Then

Up

a

Moment

Before under again,

We rear our

(Oh! I am significant!)

Heads up into air

and, for a trick

Of seconds

And glinting scales

And fin-wings that flick

The drops of ere

We were infecunds

Back to the whales,

We think, we think . . .

(Oh, I am sick

With novel fear!)

Oh! Is this . . . ?

But then we sink

(One fin-wing-flap-aged)

Back to the abyss,

None the worse

For wear,

And nescient

In reverse.

reply by Joseph Pedulla on 05-Dec-2016

Incarnation

I like to think He

lacked one thing--

The composer who

commands all notes

but cannot sing.

That there was something

more in flesh and blood

than all He was

and had found good.

A joy of things

below--

A knowing all-knowing

did not know.

reply by Joseph Pedulla on 05-Dec-2016

By the way, these are all copyrighted and in print elsewhere. You may read them, and that is all.

Comment from Thomas Bowling

Excellent

An excellent contest entry. You should do well. It seems to meet all the requirements for this contest. Good luck. I hope you win.

 Comment Written 05-Dec-2016

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reply by the author on 05-Dec-2016

Thanks for the encouraging review Thomas. I thought it would be interesting to see the varied lists, cheers, j

Comment from Mark Valentine

Excellent

A great take on the contest -and it added two words to my vocabulary (souk and inukshuk). I love the items you included on your list (the '69 Camaro and the cooking class in Italy in particular) - the seem exactly like the sort of things - neither too outlandish nor too mundane - that most people would include.

The rhyme and the meter work for me -I especially like the three-syllable lines that begin with "visit Greece" - it breaks up the poem nicely.

Should be a contender in the contest.

 Comment Written 05-Dec-2016

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reply by the author on 05-Dec-2016

Thanks for the review. I could have gone on for another 20 stanzas, ha ha. The inuk shuks are used by Canadian eskimoes in their vast landscape, when they see the stone figure, they know it is a reference point. Cheers, j