Tag Archives: digital photography

April 4, 2025

NaGloPoWriMo 4 April 2025 ~ glimmer day 93

This is a photo taken of the morning sun using my iPhone camera. ~kat

beyond the frame

my room has frames of living art
shades of green and blue and gold
rain-splashed watercolored trees
clustered leaves in pale chartreuse 
exposed patches of earthen clay
rich in grubs, where turkeys play 

each window of my country home
reveals the splendor just outside 
i wake up to the sun at dawn
and drift to sleep by moon at night
my walls in general are bare
paint on canvas can’t compare
with nature’s perfect masterpiece
where I am a one with all I see

~kat

I have stated before that when we moved to our little country home in the Blue Ridge foothills we decided to leave the windows undressed. It felt weird at first. I felt exposed, vulnerable even. But as I settled into this new experience after decades of shuttering myself off from the world outside; from the noise and nosy passersby, I realized what a gift it is to live so close to the natural world. I experience the seasons intimately as the landscape moves through spring, summer, autumn and winter. Wildlife passes by everyday, the birds, the deer, raccoons, squirrels and opossums. Storms rush in, shaking the roof, bending the trees and soaking the earth before fading to mist under an occasional rainbow. I wake to the rising sun and sleep under a starry moonlit sky. I didn’t realize when we moved how much I needed this place. It has saved me in so many ways and I am reminded that I am not separate from the world around me, but intrinsically a part of it. I left town and gained the world.

Much love, peace, and glimmers to you. Every day is a glimmer waiting to be discovered!

~kat ✨✨💚✨✨

NaGloPoWriMo 4 April 2025 Prompt: Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own poem about living with a piece of art.

5 Comments | tags: Challenge, digital art., digital photography, free verse, Glimmers, nature, Poem a Day, Poetry, Rhymed Verse | posted in 2025, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, napowrimo, nature, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Rhymed Verse, Spirituality

April 3, 2025

NaGloPoWriMo 3 April 2025 – Glimmer Day 92

By Kat Myrman

one plus one equals two

if we’re comparing decimals 
i think the dewey kind 
I loved perusing card files
for books I sought to find
a statement that’s conditional
shouldn’t need an if and then
if you were to mention cosines
I might ask you for a pen
when looking for a difference 
it’s perception I employ
I’m not sure that it makes sense
“to find the difference…take away”
I cannot comprehend the math of
a, b, c, d, y and x
to me their value is in words
they’re building blocks of text
math and numbers rattle me,
a wordsmith to the core,
counting syllables at best I’ll do
equations I abhor 
oh I can do the basics 
add, subtract, and multiply 
but I’m a writer not a math wiz
you ask what…and I ask why

~kat

I’m definitely not into math. I’m forced to use it in my job, creating formulas in excel, doing balance sheets. It stresses me. After a day with my nose in numbers, I’m exhausted. But my job isn’t all numbers. I plan international travel itineraries, manage a series of monthly newsletters, write tutorials and SOPs (standard operating procedures), transcribe meeting notes and actions, manage calendars and schedule meetings. My day job involves only a small fraction of math…until recently. Now we’re drowning in tariff mitigations. It’s a self inflicted (by Donald T) catastrophe that has my team scrambling. “Just the numbers,” my boss tells us. “I need numbers.” **Sigh**

I don’t need numbers. I need words. I need affirmations to get me through the latest chaotic whims of this terrible administration. I need glimmers…every. single. day. I noticed this scene on my nightly walk this evening. Right on time. A glimmer, stirring lovely memories of my beloved rescue pup, Theo. This was his favorite spot in our yard. He loved those pink flamingos placed under our huge white oak tree. We’ve been waiting for the ground to thaw and soften to receive Theo’s ashes. Even in the bitter there is sweetness.

Much love, peace, and glimmers to you.

~kat

NaGloPoWriMo 3 April 2025 prompt: write a poem that obliquely explains why you are a poet and not some other kind of artist – or, if you think of yourself as more of a musician or painter (or school bus driver or scuba diver or expert on medieval Maltese banking) – explain why you are that and not something else!

4 Comments | tags: Challenge, digital art., digital photography, Glimmers, math, NaGloPoWriMo 2025, Poem a Day, Poetry, Rhymed Verse, words | posted in 2025, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Rhymed Verse, Social Issues

March 31, 2025

NaPoWriMo Earlybird Challenge ~ Glimmer day 89

By Kat Myrman

three generations

my first portrait
hidden deep inside the babe 
mother of my mother

~kat

There is a theory that the egg that became me (with a little help from my dad, of course) was carried inside my mother since all women are born with all the eggs they will have in their lifetime. Where it gets interesting is that, as your mother was developing in your grandmother’s womb, a part of you was there too. Having four daughters, three of whom have daughters stirs my imagination. To think that I once held the sparks of my granddaughters while I carried their mothers inside me. Isn’t life a miraculous thing!

That said, hidden in the old photo above is a glimmer of me.

Much love, peace, and glimmers of promise to you!

~kat

NaGloPoWriMo 2025 Early Bird Challenge: try penning a portrait poem of your own. It can be a self-portrait, a portrait of someone well known to you, or even a poem inspired by an actual painted portrait.

8 Comments | tags: Challenge, digital art., digital photography, Haiku, NaGloPoWriMo 2025, Poem a Day, Poetry | posted in 2025, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Haiku, napowrimo, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings

March 30, 2025

day 88 ~ a ReVerse Poem

By Kat Myrman

a ReVerse Poem ~ Sunday, March 30, 2025

we see the smoke billowing, blotting out the sky
liberty mourns for her children
death moans lazily
it was great for a while
there once was an old gal who rarely got sick
forced me to choose, I chose | to speak truth to power
overwhelming to bear
in my little world
call her what you will
winter is lingering
a dawn visitation
nature sings her song of spring
you cannot break us, not today

~kat

Interesting, challenging times we’re living in. It’s a time when writing this blog, and especially chronicling the truth of what is happening in my country feels like a bold act of resistance. These days other, more vulnerable people (due to their citizenship status) are randomly singled out by masked vigilantes (I don’t believe for a minute that these people are actual legally deputized law enforcement) and disappeared from sight to god knows where with no due process or recourse. It gives me pause. It should give all of us pause. In a matter of roughly 2 months the America I knew has been given over to criminals armed with the power to dismantle checks and balances, safety nets and systems, as they set the stage to coronate as dictator king, a felonious, serial predator, and liar who seeks to colonize and rule the western continents alongside his comrade with like motivations in the east.

I keep asking myself if I’m overreacting as ignorant, maga lemmings chide me that it’s not that bad, certainly not as bad as when “other” democratic leaders flanked the helm. It’s madness…or maybe I’m just mad, as in insane, but also as in angry as hell and incensed by it all.

So…I’m still here, and will continue use my voice, chronicling what it feels like to experience the end of a democracy. When this year began I determined, for my own sanity that I needed to deal with the fear and angst I was feeling. I found a life-changing article about glimmers. As a refresh…

Glimmers are small moments of joy or peace that arise from appreciating simple things like the colors of a rainbow, the scent of a flower, or the sound of the rain.
Glimmers and triggers are opposites in that glimmers spark positive feelings while triggers spark negative ones.
The practice of noticing and appreciating glimmers can cue your nervous system to relax and have a positive effect on your mental health.
To increase the odds of noticing glimmers, spend time in places that nourish you, connect with people you enjoy, limit screen time, and practice mindfulness.

Read more about glimmers and how they came to be here. Apparently the concept has taken off everywhere. I had no idea at the time I was joining a movement by focusing my little blog on sharing my glimmers with you. (Glimmers in the air…or the water perhaps? 😉) But here we are, and so it is…and most importantly, so it will continue. I have found that I cannot live without them.

Tomorrow we head into national/global poetry month. My daily focus will remain “glimmers” with the added inspiration from daily prompts. Rest assured I plan to keep the glimmers coming. And I hope you too to take up this practice. We need glimmers now more than ever.

Much love, peace, and glimmers to you!

~kat ✨✨💚✨✨

5 Comments | tags: digital art., digital photography, Glimmers, Poem a Day, Poetry, ReVerse, Shi Sai, week in Reverse, Week in Review | posted in 2025, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, nature, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Reverse Poem, Shi Sai, Social Issues, Week in Review

March 29, 2025

day 87

By Kat Myrman

bleeding hearts

our hearts…they bleed more every day
as the world’s woes chip away
small pieces of our tenderness
we’re not alone in our distress
over the cruelty on display

we cling to hope though, come what may
decry the wrongs they’ve put in play
they’ll find that they cannot oppress 
our hearts…

determined, we will find a way
to root out hate, it’s not okay
our voices will not be suppressed
our power is togetherness
you cannot break us, not today
our hearts…

~kat

I needed a rally cry today. It’s exhausting, trying to keep up with the latest left shoe dropping in what has become a massive depository of left shoes. Those us us with two left feet should be overjoyed…I’m not BTW…overjoyed, that is. I’m exhausted.

I have been reconnecting with friends and acquaintances to check in on them…to see how they’re doing in the midst of all the chaos and destruction in our country. Some responses have given me pause…”I’m doing great! It’s about time our government leaders clean the swamp…” That is not an answer I hoped to hear, but it lets me know where I stand, and who I can trust.

Now more than ever it’s important to identify the safe places and people in our lives, and to establish meaningful connections with them; to check in with each other regularly. This is not a time in our history to go into hiding, hoping the storm will blow over eventually. We know from history that apathy and avoidance is seen as acquiescence to malevolent oppressors seeking power and control.

So…today’s glimmer assignment, should you choose to accept it…reach out to those glimmering souls in your universe. Be a light for them and surround yourself in their light. “They” (the powers that be) want us to believe we are powerless. That’s a lie. We have each other…and we are legion.

Much love, peace and glimmers to you…btw…I see you ✨💚✨

~kat

Today’s poem is a Rondeau.

The rondeau is a French form of three stanzas, totaling fourteen lines. The rhyme and rhythm are very strict.The first stanza is a quintet (five lines), the second is a quatrain (four lines), and the third and last is a sestet(six lines).

The rhyme scheme is aabba aabR aabbaR. R stands for the refrain which is the first four syllables of the first line of the poem. The rhythm is iambic tetrameter (four beats per line) except for the refrain which is iambic dimeter (two beats).

And one more thing…