Category Archives: Life Lessons

April 5, 2026

Na/GloPoWriMo 2026 ~ Day 5

Well, for today’s prompt challenge I started with this…

don’t you just hate it…

I can say without a second thought
I have never hated anything
your assumption sounds like lecturing
I thought you knew me; well I guess not

but let’s go there since it seems you forgot
it’s not in my nature to be such a thing
I can say without a second thought
I have never hated anything

I’m love, light and peace, hateful I’m not, 
spare me your know-it-all blustering
I ha-, dislike it greatly, you think
I could hate, well that hurts me a lot
I can say without a second thought
I have never hated anything

…but I have to come clean…there is one pesky thing, or who rather, that irks my ire!!!


living rent-free in the gray

my insular cortex cannot insulate me 
from that intrusive voice, those vile lies, you know who
before long my putamen disrupts my deep sleep
turns my prefrontal cortex gray matter to goo

to hate is not me, just don’t mention DJT
what’s a peace, freedom-loving, old hippy to do
my insular cortex cannot insulate me 
from that intrusive voice, those vile lies, you know who

I have loved, loved, and loved ‘til I’m blue can’t you see
I am done playing nice, i am nobody’s fool
this regime’s got to go or democracy’s doomed
the cruel things he has done to us all makes me scream
my insular cortex cannot insulate me from that intrusive voice, those vile lies, you know who 😡


and then there’s this…I am having way too much fun with today’s challenge… does that make me a bad person? Don’t answer that! 🤪😳🤣

inedible weed

I abhor it, you know
loathe it, disdain it
find it totally disgusting 
abominable, utterly repulsive 
it makes me sick
ruins a perfectly good dish 
makes it utterly distasteful
you know exactly that weed
I am talking about…
CILANTRO
but to say I hate it? 
hate is not a strong enough 
four-letter expletive
to describe something 
as nauseatingly repugnant 
as this so-called delicious green
that leaves a lingering foul taste behind
pass the guac, hold the…
I can’t even say it without 
throwing up a little in my mouth

~kat

Na/GloWriPoMo 2026 Day 5 Prompt: write a poem in which you talk about disliking something – particularly something utterly innocuous, like clover. Be over the top! Be a bit silly and overdramatic.

Todays poetry form: the Rondel

A Rondel Poem consists of 13 -14 lines in 3 stanzas
Rhyme scheme: ABba/abAB/abbaA-B (uppercase letters are refrains)
Usually 8 syllables per line

Today’s Glimmer…Realizing that even when life is coming up dandelions, it is a wonderful, very good thing. The roses will flaunt their ruddy faces soon enough.

Much love, peace, glimmers, and dandelion wishes to you!

~kat ✨✨✨🐝💚🐝✨✨✨

Leave a comment | tags: Challenge, Cilantro, dandelions, digital photography, free form, free verse, Glimmers, hate, Na/GloPoWriMo 2026, nature, Poem a Day, Poetry, Rondel | posted in 2026, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, free verse, Life Lessons, napowrimo, nature, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Rondel, Social Issues, Spirituality

April 4, 2026

Na/GloPoWriMo 2026 -Day 4

By Kat Myrman

midnight moon

i like the dawn golden in hues, powder blue
with lemony mist creep-creeping mid-tree 
east window undressed to take in the view
to rise with the sun, the first sight I see 
past settling dusk I prefer shadows cool
the slightest white twinkling star canopy
darkness as black as a patent black shoe
to swallow me whole into rem cycle sleep
but windows exposed to the fullest of moons
send me wearily toward sheer insanity 
I could cover the glare but I’d miss the dawn too
restless nights produce poems laced with lunacy

~kat

Na/GloWriPoMo 2026 Day 4 Prompt: craft your own short poem that involves a weather phenomenon and some aspect of the season. Try using rhyme and keeping your lines of roughly even length.

I may hop back on later today to share another glimmer. But at least for now, the moon though my side window tonight should be glimmer enough!

I love my naked windows most of the time. Mornings especially…and throughout my workday. And even most nights…except on those nights when the moon is full. As you can see I have a direct view of the moon when it is days before and days after a full moon. It makes me question my interior decorating practice of no window dressings for our house on the edge of the woods. Then dawn arrives and I find myself grateful for the view once again!

Can something that drives you bananas still be a glimmer? I’ll let you decide that for yourself. As for me…this evening’s glimmer became inspiration for a poem. As tired as I am that it’s going to take a few minutes longer before the moon passes through…I made good use of the time, and have a fun little poem to show for it. A glimmer in disguise so to speak. So that would be a yes for me. With some glimmers you may have to look for the silver lining!

Much love, Peace, and Glimmers to you

~kat

✨✨✨💚💚✨✨

5 Comments | tags: Challenge, digital art., digital photography, Glimmers, Poem a Day, Poetry | posted in 2026, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Essays, free verse, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Social Issues, Spirituality

April 3, 2026

Na/GloPoWriMo 2026 Day 3

By Kat Myrman

gatekeepers of the veil

there are angels living among us 
with years of education, clinical training, 
decades of fixing, managing, restoring…
all tossed to the wind to attend to a soul,
to quiet the angry flesh that binds it,
gently redirecting faltering hearts
to embrace mortality with grace, 
to enter the unknown known…
ER urgency, ICU diligence, code blue, crash carts,
extreme, experimental, extraordinary measures dismissed,
while convincing their charges to join them
having broken free themselves 
from all that their worldly title implies, their mission now simply,
compassion, comfort, communication…
they have learned how let go control 
with purposeful intention, 
to escort souls in transition
some people call them nurses, but
I am convinced they are angels
it takes an angel who knows the way
to direct us safely through the darkness
to the other side toward the light

~kat

Na/GloWriPoMo 2026 Day 3 prompt: write a poem in which a profession or vocation is described differently than it typically is considered to be.

Today’s glimmer is my crow friend. He comes by sometimes just to watch. He knows I see him. I know he sees me watching him. There is something extraordinary about being acknowledged by another living soul who makes its presence known with intention. We do this, we two, my crow friend and me, together. I see you seeing me, seeing you, and I choose to pause in your presence for a few magical moments.

We don’t actually speak, but we both know. And that is enough, and everything!

Much love, peace, and glimmering presence to you. I see you!

~kat ✨✨✨💚✨✨✨

3 Comments | tags: angels, Challenge, crows, digital art., digital photography, free form poetry, Glimmers, hospice, Poem a Day, Poetry | posted in 2026, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, free verse, Life Lessons, napowrimo, nature, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Spirituality

April 2, 2026

Na/GloPoWriMo 2026 ~ Day 2

By Kat Myrman

The Doe’s Motel circa 1955….photos by the current owner on yelp in 2026

the doe’s motel 

twelve is that awkward age in the best
of times, sweaty, smelly prepubescence with a touch 
of self-consciousness, breast nubs, and pimples,
no matter where home happens to be, in
a tidy cul de sac with a mailbox at the end of a paved 
driveway, edged by a meticulously coifed lawn 
with a lavender phlox border or at the Doe’s Motel 
on Route 45 in Libertyville, home to a family 
of eight kids who shared three rooms, the oldest
boy, a paraplegic who could swim like a fish in 
the kidney-shaped swimming pool and us, 
my dad, mom, sister and me, third kitchenette 
unit from the end, the only room with a colored 
TV, bought by my dad, with special permission from
the reservation office, to make it feel more like home…
normal is just a setting on a washing machine

I don’t know why it pops into my head all 
these years later, I don’t need remembering 
now with a steady roof, a proper address, a mailbox, cupboards 
always stocked, categorized, alphabetically, in tidy, unsettling rows, labels facing out, and 
a mortgage paid on time, the first bill paid 
every month year after decades before 
groceries, before anything, with a steady 
9 to 5, give or take, to sustain it all,
I’ve come a long way from the Doe’s Motel…I have…

imagine my surprise to discover it still 
stands, an RV stop these days, reminding 
me how fragile life is for survivors…
that kidney-shaped pool is paved over 
now, but the ghosts of us swimming 
like fishes that summer of 1968…
I remember us swimming all too well

~kat

Na/GloWriPoMo 2026 Day 2 prompt: write your own poem in which you recount a childhood memory. Try to incorporate a sense of how that experience indicated to you, even then, something about the person you’d grow up to be.

Time for a glimmer…in the midst of a deluge of storms yesterday afternoon well into the night we had a brief glimmer of sky and the setting sun at dusk. Proof that even in the midst of a storm…there are glimmers to be found!

Much love, peace, and glimmers in the storm to you!

~kat ✨✨✨💚✨✨✨

11 Comments | tags: Challenge, digital art., digital photography, free form poetry, Glimmers, Na/GloPoWriMo 2026, Poem a Day, Poetry | posted in 2026, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, free verse, Life Lessons, napowrimo, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Social Issues, Spirituality

April 1, 2026

Na/GloPoWriMo Day 1

By Kat Myrman

corvid clemency 

forgiveness from crows
is an honor, when bestowed,
not to be tested,
the faces they remember
rouse ire fueled by vengeance 

~kat

Day One Na/GloPoWriMo 2026 Prompt: write your own tanka – or multi-tanka poem. Theme and tone are up to you, but try to maintain the five-line stanza and syllable count.

Tanka is a traditional Japanese poetic form consisting of 31 syllables arranged in five lines with a 5-7-5-7-7 structure. Originating over 1,300 years ago, it is a deeply emotional, often melancholic form centered on love, nature, and personal reflection. It often features a pivotal “turn” (kami-no-ku to shimo-no-ku) between the first three lines and the last two, offering a “long haiku” with more depth.

A note about today’s poem:

The crow featured above is special because it is actually against a crow’s nature to forgive. a year ago one of their comrades died at my crow feeder. It was clear after this unfortunate event that my murder of crows thought I had something to do with its demise. As a result, they avoided me like the plague. Of course I was heartbroken. I kept putting out peanuts for them which they staunchly ignored. (The squirrels and blue joys loved having those treats all to themselves!) And then one day one of them got brave, I assume, and helped himself to a peanut. I was persistent and it seemed to pay off. Before long a half dozen, more than my original murder of three granted me clemency. They visit me everyday now. I am honored to have regained their trust, and believe me I don’t take likely the trust they’ve placed on me. It’s a true blessing. So of course the fellow above while paired with my cautionary tanka, is also my glimmer for today.

Much love, peace, and glimmers to you!

~kat ✨✨✨💚✨✨✨