Tag Archives: Poem a Day

April 4, 2025

NaGloPoWriMo 4 April 2025 ~ glimmer day 93

By Kat Myrman
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: , , , , , , , , | 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

pink flamingoes under the old white oak
Theo

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: , , , , , , , , , | posted in 2025, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Rhymed Verse, Social Issues

April 1, 2025

day 90 ~ Na/GloPoWriMo 2025 off-prompt 4.1

By Kat Myrman 
s(h)elf life 

I passed my “best if used by” date
over a half a century ago
exposure to the elements 
has taken quite a toll

my skin is leathery and dry
my hair is turning gray
I need bifocals for my eyes
my hearing’s fine…wait, what’d you say?

my plumbing’s gotten leaky
my pipes are filled with gas
I‘ve lost control completely
might toot toot as i walk past 

expirations come, no warning
and the end, I’m sure, is near
luck will keep me ‘til the morning
may the fates grant me a few more years

believe me when I tell you
though I’m slowly losing steam
my mind still thinks I’m twenty-two
filled with hope and unspent dreams

~kat

Na/GloPoWriMo 2025 April 1: Well, I’m not sure where that came from based on the prompt. I started looking at musical terms and artist terms and paintings and ended up considering the concept of shelf lives and expiration dates and how they relate to aging in humans. I blame this detour partly on my day job which bothers itself with product lifecycles, expiration dates and the like. I suppose it’s a sad commentary on the reality of my lack of work-life balance. But I digress. 

And…there goes a butterfly…will ya look at that!

Much love, peace, and unlimited, unspoiled glimmers to you!

~kat

Here’s a link to today’s Na/GloPoWriMo prompt, just in case you want to give it a try. 

16 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in 2025, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Humor, napowrimo, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Rhymed Verse

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: , , , , , , | 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
Remembering some past glimmers…

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: , , , , , , , , | posted in 2025, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, nature, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Reverse Poem, Shi Sai, Social Issues, Week in Review