I read these in an email doing the rounds:
- There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. Ben Williams
- Scratch a dog and you’ll find a permanent job. Franklin P. Jones
- I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult. Rita Rudner
- Anybody who doesn’t know what soap tastes like never washed a dog. Franklin P. Jones again.
- The most affectionate creature in the world is a wet dog. Ambrose Bierce
- If your dog is fat, you aren’t getting enough exercise. Anonymous
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I got a shock yesterday when I noticed the date – only a month to Christmas! I have never been so behind in my shopping – I normally start in the January sales and stock up through the year. My kids are gonna cry come December 25th when all they get is three pairs of socks and a tin of deodorant.
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The prompt for this week’s Big Tent was a wordle. I used all of the words but I could only manage three senryu, and I’m not particularly happy with them.
Cry Baby
A mother cupped
her baby’s face with a gentle
hand: peace was restored.
*
Inspection Passed
Ash-pit re-surfaced;
ancient boiler fork-lifted
away from the site.
*
A Reason To Stay Awake
Words clunk from my nib.
Once hung in the air – studied –
lush rhymes will follow.
*
For a linked senryu on what South Africa sounded like to me, go to my other blog: South Africa: A Love/Hate Story.
The Laughing Housewife 
There’s nowt wrong with these senryu: each one a gem.
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Aw, thanks xx
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What a fantastic title for your post 😀 It has me smiling still. I’ve never come across senryu before…think I need to go look that one up 😀
Have a great day xx
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Thank you 🙂 and thanks for your visit.
I learned about it from Stephen Fry’s excellent book on poetry, The Ode Less Travelled. Until that point I thought I had been writing haiku! Broadly speaking, haiku is man on nature and senryu is the nature of man. I break the rules, of course, particularly as I always have titles which gives me an extra line!
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Fantastic – I look forward to reading more 😀 xx
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Thank you Chloe 🙂
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I love the first one! If only that’s all it took to calm the crying world!
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Wishful thinking on my part…
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Three senryu – great idea and use of the words. I especially loved the first one. Very sweet.
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Thanks Nan 🙂
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What a title!
marked
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🙂
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Tilly,
Love your use of the words.
Pamela
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Thanks Pamela 🙂
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Hello, I love all the doggy stuff, but I love doggies.
I also love poetry, unfortunately I am dyslexic and was held back at school for many years. I finally figured out how to read at the age of 26. I write a lot of poetry, I haven’t got a clue what group any of it falls into. I just write what comes into my head. So…if you go onto my blog and read any of it please, please, please be kind…lol
Love and hugs.
Lisa. xx 🙂
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I think your approach to writing poetry is excellent – exactly like my own!
I will go into your blog and I’m always kind, don’t worry! A tutor whose opinion I valued once put me off writing for five years with his casual, ‘It’s not very good, is it?’ so I am careful never to make anyone feel as horrible as I felt that day. Now that sounds like I have decided you’re rubbish before I read any of your work, but I’ll be nice anyway lol 🙂 You know what I mean, don’t you?
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Yes I get you, I think we have a very similar humour.
It is so great to meet someone similar and another BRIT too. That is just so super-duper double cool.
Love and hugs.
Lisa. xx 🙂
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They were (all three) wonderful! Difficult words to incorporate this time, weren’t they? But you pulled it off.
http://liv2write2day.wordpress.com/2010/11/26/big-tent-poetry-the-gospel-according-to-st-john/
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Thank you 🙂 It was the toughest prompt bar one that I have worked on. The bar one was to write a poem on a pre-Raphaelite theme, to be performed tonight at our local art gallery. Gulp.
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Tilly, didn’t we do a pre-raphaelite poem for that Walker Art Gallery thingy? Mine was about the Millais picture.
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I thouroghly enjoyed the doggie intro. One of the pleasures I must forego in my apartment living. Just glad I know several people who have pets and don’t mind sharing them. Thanks for explaining the difference between haiku and senryu, have been wondering about that but too lazy to remember to look it up. Like your three and how you used the wordle words. They weren’t an easy bunch,
Elizabeth
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Thanks Elizabeth. This was a difficult wordle; the most difficult I can remember – but isn’t that half the fun?
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Very nice – each one a gem!
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Thank you 🙂
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loved the post title…. don’t like to go christmas shopping till the lights go up, the carols are singing, and everyone is running around like their outta time… me, i relax and enjoy the scenery… i laughed so hard with the dogs… r u puttin on a halloween costume?? love, love dogs their like big babies but their yr best friend… and the tree, this year im gonna have a little one way up high so the cats can’t reach… yea right!!… and the senyru… love the momma one,sigh… and no 2 great use of the wordle and no 3 well we can all relate to that… voodoo child
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I like to get my shopping done so that I’m not running around like I’m out of time – I want to enjoy the season 🙂
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Nicely captured sentiments in senryu..gotta look up that form. Zilch Christmas shopping for me as well.
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Thanks 🙂
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A clever way to tackle using so many tricky words — with the separate senryu. i especially like that last one!
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A bit of a cheat, really; but the important thing is to be writing, isn’t it?
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Fork-lifted in particular was difficult, wasn’t it? You’ve put it to excellent use here.
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Nothing’s a cheat when it comes to the muse! Well done (and a take I may partake of myself, next time)!
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A piece of advice I take to my heart 🙂
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