THE YOU
The you inside is biding its time,
Waiting to break out
as words in a rhyme.
Stuck in the subconscious
Playing its games,
Living on memories
that ignite its flame.
The You is happy to share
in past gladness,
But shrinks back inside
In its fits of madness.
The You is hiding
in a self made cage,
Longing to spill out
as words on the page.
(c) DiAnne Ebejer
11/11/2023
In my younger days it was dream of mine to have an old house and renovate it. Some old houses we looked at had already been renovated or partially renovated but usually overpriced, at least for our pocket-book at that time. This was a house we came across in Anniston Alabama. How did we end up in Anniston? Our son Jason was going to college at Jacksonville State. We made a low ball offer which was not accepted.
This house was the type of house we wanted but needed many many upgrades and renovations, not the least of which was all new electrical, plumbing and a roof. The house was located in a historical district and had a long list of must haves, must dos to meet city requirements. Before making a second offer we needed to get out of our euphoric mode and be logical. Aside from the renovating aspects, being in old town it was close to a hospital. So close that ambulances traveled right by the house. Another draw back was a 13 hour drive from home. We both worked meaning we couldn’t just buzz over to Anniston more than on weekends. This would slow down the renovation process and being there to work with the subcontractors. Additionally, the cost for renovations was skyrocketing more than we imagined. That said, the second offer was never made. We looked in Melbourne Florida where we live but old houses are few and when we did find one mostly cost prohibitive. We eventually gave up on this pipe dream. Now I limit my old house looking to the page on Facebook “Cheap Old Houses”. Ha!
My son Jason has become pretty good at taking pictures. He’s out on the water a lot so I picked some of those to share.
Grandma’s willow tree was in Dayton Ohio where I grew up. It sat out in front of Grandma and Grandpa’s little cottage which was behind the barn at the family homestead “big house” as we used to call it. Some of my Denlinger family members lived in the Big House.
They were immigrants from Germany and Grandma didn’t speak a word of English but always made me and my cousins feel welcome. This poem turned out to be my most liked poem on WordPress. As I strive to get back to my old poetry self, I may post some of my older “stuff” here.
It was under Grandma’s willow tree
I could always just become me.
Many summers past and many seasons ago
I always ran for comfort there – a safe place I could go,
It was there I would flee from all things scary,
And dream of the prince that I would marry,
Many things were wished for there and very large dreams made,
I told the tree of big futures and the best of plans were laid,
Her willow winds always blew promises no matter how bleak the day,
As I huddled there under her vastness I’d always find my way,
She sat at the rear of the family homestead right on the edge of of town,
It never occurred to me growing up that willow would ever come down.
Yet the homestead was sold to the city plus the land upon which it sat,
Including Grandma’s willow tree – bulldozed in the drop of a hat!
Though my memories of that willow tree are nothing short of sublime
What I wouldn’t give to sit under her branches just one more time.
© DiAnne Ebejer
These kinds of lists are always popping up on various social media platforms. I was going to try to write a poem today but my brain won’t engage so a be better list it is.
1. Compliment three people every day
2. Watch a sunrise at least once a year.
3. Be the first to say, “Hello.
4. Live beneath your means.
5. Treat everyone like you want to be treated.
6. Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen. 7. Forget the Joneses.
8. Never deprive someone of hope. It may be all he has.
9. Pray not for things, but for wisdom and courage.
10. Be tough-minded but tenderhearted.
11. Be kinder than necessary.
12. Don’tforget, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
13. Keep your promises.
14. Learn to show cheerfulness, even when you don’t feel like it.
15. Remember that overnight success usually takes about 15 years.
16. Leave everything better than you found it. 17. Remember that winners do what losers don’t want to do.
18. When you arrive at your job in the morning, let the first thing you say brighten everyone’s day.
19. Don’t rain on other people’s parades.
20. Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them.
author unknown
The world is crying
rife with all things woeful.
I have walked on broken stones before
But now I find them sinking,
Unable to hold me up.
And all my auras are sullen
dark and fading.
until they can’t be recognized
And the world’s tears
Are turning into waterfalls.
Washing away hope
Hope that all its wounds
will mend and heal.
And so I plead
to all that is possible to
short-circuit these woes
into healing warmth and light
and an all encompassing contagion.
(c) DiAnne Ebejer
11/07/2023
Sorry to be so glum but in all my life I have never been so scared for the world. The hatred and distress I am witnessing on all fronts is breaking my heart.
There was a time when Photoshop contests were frequent among digital artists. The company Design Crowd has carried the torch since 2014, and continued these contests. The following is the work of contestants putting exaggerted objects in cities for a contest themed “Exaggeration City”, (source:Bored Panda; photos via Design Crowd)
Photo by Zarfuego
Photo by Biana Backer
Photo by David Berettaowens
Photo by Rika Yoshiihara
Photo by Lucy Mine
Photo by Al Coiano
Pherdindus
Photo by Paul Hanson
Photo by Glotobarm
Photo by Storm
Photo by Sugarcane
Photo by Sugarcane
There are more of these pictures (source: BoredPanda). I had a hard time narrowing it down . My favorite is the last one; the cat. the man seems to be thinking “How am I going to get that big cat in this carrier”.
Sometimes I’d like to feel like I did
when I got my first puppy.
Everything was simple
and right in my world.
And my world consisted of
so little.
When innocence shut out
all the bad in the world.
Sometimes I’d like to feel like I did
when I got my first puppy,
11/06/23
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
― Albert Einstein
“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy.”
― Sylvia Plath,
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
― Mary Oliver
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”
― John Muir
She looked out the window
at nothing
thinking of a sky-song
she may have forgotten to sing
in one of her far off
crazy dream-scapes.
She was a moon child then,
full of hope and dreams
and plans steeped in
vast pools of her own idealism.
While she happily chirped
her way through her
dream-seeking days
there was yet a sullen greed
in her denials
of all that was
just not going to be achieved.
Things that were
lost to her forever
lay at the bottom
of the well in her mind
refusing to dissipate –
rancid puddles of lost hope
ever dwindling-stagnant.
Now asking if her dreams had
cracked in dry dark shadows
with questions unanswerable
seemed an act of unresolving
a trope for her own disclosure,
For now, she would just
have to write this off
as just cracked dreams.
© DiAnne Ebejer
Cracked Dreams is just one of my older poems.
I am really enjoying all the Cheer Pepper posts! Cheer Peppers Rock!
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a. painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. (source Wikipedia)
Here a a few of his words:
Leonardo was born April 15, 1452 in Anchiano Italy and died May 2, 1519. He was most famous for his portrait of Mona Lisa.
Will close with a couple surprising facts. He didn’t go to school. He liked to dissect corpses and he wrote in reverse. (source Wikipedia)
In as much as it’s been 2 years (November 2021) since I have posted here, I forget everything! But I will try to muddle along and make a post or two throughout Nano 23. More than anything I enjoy reading all your posts. I’ll be posting a mixed bag of who knows what in addition to reading Pepper daily posts. Today just a picture/poem I saw that I like.
Happy 2023 Peppering…..
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She didn’t know about the part – where she had to learn to lay down her heart.
Those who know her and had known her best said she just need to stop and rest.
But she had gone to a place her heart had never been – and lost the only thing she had ever let in.
But she didn’t listen to what they said – she was alone in that space in her head.
And so she kept walking down that hall – trying to break through the cracks in the wall.
© DiAnne Ebejer, 12-31-2025
I lost my other half after 42 years together on January 7th this year. I want to thank him for giving me a reason to write again.
DiAnne’s Scribbles 