Category Archives: Random Thoughts and Musings

Retroreflection

Having a bit of fun as usual with TJ’s Household Haiku Challenge. He gave us a Theme: Retro and a Prompt: Reflect. I wondered to myself if there was such a thing as a “Retroreflection” and to my surprise, there was! It all has to do with lights and lasers and prisms and reflections. Basically it is when light bounces off the side angle of the inside corner of a prism to the other side and back forming a reflective ray that is parallel with the source ray. I also learned that it is the science the behind the reflective paint used for street markings and traffic signs! Who knew?

At any rate, here’s a little diagram for you and my Haiku.  Have a lovely Tuesday! 🙂

retroreflection

This diagram is from Edmund’s Optics Worldwide’s webpage titled: Introduction to Optical Prisms. Click HERE to learn more!

Retroreflection – A Haiku

Retroreflection…
prismatic parallel rays
yes, it is a “thing”!

kat ~ 6 September 2016


Bending…The Rules

deep-root

The aftermath of a derecho. The tree was in my neighbor’s yard; it’s upper branches soon to fill my back yard past the second floor of my house! Fortunately it only took out our fence and two pine trees that we wanted to remove anyway. 🙂

This week’s Haiku Horizon Challenge word prompt is “Bend”. I have seen what damage can be done when trees stand too rigid against the wind. And I have seen what can happen when a friendship is tested requiring one party to bend too far. In this case there is a fine line between helping and enabling. A good friend knows the boundaries. 🙂

Here are my Haiku then…one about bending and one about knowing when to stand firm. 🙂

Bending…The Rules

good friends will often
bend over backwards to help
but not enable

deeply rooted trees
may only survive tempests
by learning to bend

kat ~ 6 September 2016


Magnetic Poetry Monday ~ 5 September 2016

intuition rocks our world
with wild seeds of secret
knowing…it is like a
tendriled root vining a
deep path through one’s
soul…no peace…quiet
only if we listen

kat – 5 September 2016


Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse ~ 4 September 2016 

Happy Weekend! For many of us in the U.S. It is a holiday weekend, Monday being Labor Day. For me it also meant having Friday off as well. It was an opportunity to catch up with family.

I am blessed to have a big family. Of course it is my own doing in part, having raised four daughters. Through them I have gained sons, grand children and grand pups. It is amazing how one person can sprout off in so many directions…from one to two, then four, then seven or eight, then sixteen and counting in a matter of a generation or two. I wonder as I get older if fate will allow me to see another generation blossom, launching me into “great” status. Would that be grand!

We have so little time that flashes by in a wink! We busy ourselves in passing with such petty concerns…He said, she said’s, I’m right, you’re wrongs’s, oh no you didn’t’s, can’t believe you just’s, I’m over it’s, talk to the hand’s or don’t talk to me at all’s. Our egos would like nothing better than to have us all to ourselves. There is a hefty price to pay for self-righteousness.

I don’t believe I have seen things quite as divided and contentious in my lifetime as it is right now. There are no fine lines, just walls…and we’ve become quite comfortable with crossing them.

In the end we all need to answer just one question. How we answer it makes all the difference.

Is being right and winning the most important thing?

If you can manage a “no” then it’s not too late…there is hope.

Be gentle with yourself and with those who share air space with you. Love while you can. Life is short and only as sweet as you make it.

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse ~ 4 September 2016

we each hold a sacred trust
to become strong, resilient
love is consuming
with power to smooth rough stone
‘Twas a simpler time
let’s hope we can bridge the divide
I used to wish upon the brightest star
several minutes of polite conversation,
with open hearts
and minds
that quietly listen

~kat

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The Shi Sai, (formerly known as a ReVerse) is a new form I came up with during Poetry Month in April 2016. I’ve actually been writing shu sai for years but was inspired to give it a prooer name. It is a poem created by taking one line of verse from several poems of an author’s own collection. The shi sai is done as a review of a series or collection of poems and therefore, each line should flow in chronological order of the dates the poems were written (from oldest to new). The lines chosen should be the author’s favorite from each poem. This form works best if the author resists the temptation to read the full new poem before all the verses have been added. (It helps one to resist the impulse to change a line to make it “fit”.


Gaposis – Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku

Happy Friday! Today’s dictionary.com Word of the Day is Gaposis! I could not find a lot of information about this word. It is a facetious term coined in the 1950’s that describes someone who suffers from clothing so tight that there are bulging gaps between the buttons or snaps. 

These days the gaposis afflicted may be seen congregating at Walmart. These late night creepers might imply that gaposis has spread to epidemic proportions! But fortunately they seem to be isolated to the deep dropping sales aisles. I’m not sure why. Just an observation and fortunately, it does not appear to be contagious. 

The worst cases of gaposis to be documented in modern literature and film are the Incredible Hulk, Alice of Wonderland after one of her unfortunate growing spurts…and last but not least, poor Violet Beauregard of Willy Wonka fame. You may know of others… 

I don’t believe I’ve ever suffered from gaposis. But it might be said that I have the opposite -osis…if there was a word for it…tentosis. The propensity to wear loose fitting clothes. What can I say? I like to be comfortable…and covered! 

At any rate, here is my haiku. Have a great weekend!

    Photo credit http://www.tumblr.com

    Her bulging gut proved
    she suffered from gaposis…
    She was no size 5!

    ~kat 2 September 2016