1446

[quote courtesy dVerse Poets Pub]

 Life Lessons

Seconds, minutes, hours,

They dance their choreography,

Now you try it,

And; one, two, three,

Plié, relevé, plié.

Some of us capsize

At the last plié,

Some of us never rose

At the relevé,

Life is like that,

A strict harsh teacher,

Never stopping to cuddle,

Ever shouting the instructions,

To rise, drop, rise again.

At the relevé,

You should breathe,

That's you cuddling you,

Or you'll stay capsized,

On the floor.

The rhythm is:

One, two, three,

Plié, relevé, plié,

Gracefully, now.

gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

Poetics Tuesday: To ma’am/sir…

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1445

[image courtesy dVerse poet's Pub]

Xenolith Silly

Xenolith

Xenolith

Where art thou, without a wit

Xenolith

Xenolith

I thought i heard a bird, a twit

Xenolith

Xenolith

Come now say you'd sit with it 

Xenolith

Xenolith

A rock a sediment to wit

Oh Xenolith

Truly you are it ,

You are it.

 gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

Quadrille #255: X marks the spot

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1444

[Apple of discord by Ramaz Razmadze 2002 from google]

 Buenos dias,

When did night creep in

Like a stallion's gallop,

Hope can swim too,

Even if butterflies are end product,

Run run skip hop jump,

The reason romance fails is,

The heart always never  wins,

Where goes greed?

Tomorrow,

To another man's party.

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

  Poetry Form: Descort 

Descort - a poem of deliberate difference

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1442

[image from google]

 Here Comes The Bride

Time was when i sang in the senior choir at my church. The choir is still in existence, only i do not sing anymore. 

In those days we had choir practise, at the old church weeknights. And on a Sunday morning we sang at Holy Mass.That was before Covid19.

We sang too, at funerals and at weddings. In those days, i loved weddings. Now too, i still love weddings.

happy bride and groom 

yet some people sniffling -

weddings make me cry

 © gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

Haibun Monday: Wedding Bliss

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1441

[image from google

You have got this body now

To live on this earth

A planet impermanent

Where you call your home

Emotions form part of life

The sadness and pain

Some losses and some gains too

There is time to spend

Lessons to be lived and learned

Tread lightly go slow

But time passes quickly though

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

OpenLinkNight #414

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1440

[Egon Schiele, Field of Flowers (1910), courtesy, dVerse Poets Pun]

 Dense intense vibrant reds

Hold the garden inbreds

Very much like the crowd

At a football match loud

Enough to be seen yet and

Bold as the fervor of passion

Sharing the frenzy of the match

Less rowdy always sedately watch

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

Pulling poetry from the landscape

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1439

[image from google]

 He of the talent of words,

His is the greatest protest, 

Please, give us your fervor

Of the fondest amor -  love,

The steepest mountain climb,

The coldest winter morn,

In agreement of seasons 

But no, it is never so,

So clever is he, protesting.

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

Quadrille #354: I Protest

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1438

[AI generated image]

 Daylong 

wishing it was still yesterday

i closed tightly shut my today

in daydream

at times the dawn is late coming

with herald birds sweetly singing

it's daylight

wings flapping in pairs and in threes

flocks fly high above the tall trees

look! daymoon

lingering still amidst the clouds

sentient being yield to clouds

at daybreak

gratitude is all  that we need

nourish our thoughts for this seed

through daylong.

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

MTB: Compounding the Stem

revisiting a prompt that is the Compound Word Verse. (here)

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1437

[Image by Hannah Timms, courtesy dVerse Poets Pub]

Just Once

Once in a lifetime, the fog will be kind 

to you, 

absorbing love laughter and too, pain

like a smokey dragon, 

inhaling instead of exhailing, 

so much so, 

your mind is muddled to a squash, 

delicious only if cooked to right consistency, but leaving you 

absent of the hunger needed for a repast, 

then you realise 

without the hunger, the anguish and the longing

for what isn't 

you lose nothing.

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

 Poetics: Once In A Lifetime 

 ‘The Window’  by .Mary Jean Chan here

Challenge: Re-read and explore Chan’s poem,  particularly the use of line breaks and caesura to build rhythm and evoke emotion, and the three-word movement: “anger is like the sun, which is like love”.

Now write a poem in the first person, beginning with "Once in a lifetime"

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AUGUST IS STEELPAN MONTH 

HRRE IN T&T🇹🇹 

ENJOY THE MUSIC

1435

[The Circle Theatre by Edward Hopper, 1936: courtesy dVerse Poets Pub]

Staid

We should just stop here,

For healing and sustenance,

Are all contained in this block;

The empty billboard -

Is it a sign of no stars?

Is there no one good enough?

What is important,

That will surely be obtained,

Excesses - not important;

Even the clouds, look!

Seeming quiet and staying,

While folks, are roosting indoors.

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

  Open Link Night #413 with Live Edition 

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1434

Raining - A Fold

 It's raining it's raining i close the window

Well, because only that one was opened

Sweet and low

My eyes snapped a blossom

But  before i close the window

I look up at the sky

There above not below

Crying its heartfelt rain

In the rainy season's sun glow

Steelpan music all day long

Irregardless it's raining, i close the window

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

 dVerse Poetics — Have You Ever Seen the Rain? 

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1433

[AI generated]

 Jumping In

To jump or rather not to jump,

I fancy my thoughts would 

Contemplate, before words 

Enter a blank page 

Having had the mentorship of 

The words, the punctuations 

Then would bravely follow. 

Comma is the contemplating sage 

The jumps is an adventure after all 

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

 Quadrille #353: Jumpstart your Poem 

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1432

[AI generated]

 No Nada

Even if i'm sad

I will not cry

Enough is enough

My station is empty

Should morning evade birdsongs

I will not scowl

Nor shush the daymoon away

When it rains

I will not join in

With my lonely memories

Caring for yesteryears

Is it not the nature of life

To spin changes through

Ever occuring joy and sorrow

No i will not make a fuss

 © gillena cox 2026

BLOG HOPPING TODAY WITH 

  

MTB – Just say no (again)

❧✿❧

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1431

[ Green marble, rice paper and wandering skipper, butterflies from google]

Butterfly Fold

Two butterflies scallop through my garden

They seem to have great fun

They fly high and fly low to sadden

Even the sun in their playfullness 

I would display there in my garden

Had i known their names

Maybe i could ask a warden

Neither Green marble, Rice paper nor

Wandering skipper, i beg your pardon

Just two whites skipping and tasting

Sight of butterflies two in my garden

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

  Poetics: But no, a butterfly 

To choose at least 3 butterfly names from a given list to compose a poem

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1430

[Salybia Beach image from google]

Retreat Salybia

Those day, singing in the senior choir we would during tbe Lenten Season, put aside a day, to go somewhere out of the city, somewhere remote, somewhere we wouldn't dare travel to everyday.

So there we are in the mini bus, some call them maxi taxis. We always prayed the rosary on the way. On our retreat day to Salybia, we leave St James around 6:00AM. 

We pass through forested areas to get there.At the retreat site  there is the sea in  the background.

sandals in hand

we walk along the beach sand -

Lenten retreat

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

 Haibun Monday 8-3-26: Journeying 

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1429

[Henri Rousseau, La Promenade dans la Foret (The Walk in the Forest) (c. 1886), oil on canvas; courtesy dVerse Poets Pub]

 Treasure

“We salute you Gentle Rousseau you can hear us,

Through the noise of modern day styles,

Set to canvas enduring,

We meditate beside your palette of colours and textures,

Bearing in mind,

That greatness is recognised in your passing,

Leaving behind for us treasure 

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

 Launch: light and truth of painting 

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1428

[donkey from Pinterest]

Who cares whether sun or moon 

Is showering light from the sky 

Whether rain beats down on the roof 

Or birds dare to sing early and sweet 

I once met a donkey with ears 

Large enough to hear 

But stubborn enough not to respond

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

 Q. 252 – Quadrilling without a care in the world 

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1427

[The Troubadour by Honore Daumier, courtesy dVerse Poets Pub]

 Althought shines the moon  so bright

And night its questions held so tight

What matters most to each born star

Is how the gazers seem so near

When from its shimmer oceans speak

In dark stages to applause

How goes the muster of this mood

So somber and resilient

Two hearts in synchronicity

Watch for the favour of  night

The twinkle of stars, beats of hearts

And naturally glowing sparks

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With

  Meet the Bar with ballads 

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1425

[AI generated dragon; edited at Picsart]

Until another taught trends its way in, i leave this dream to awaken to sunlight: soft in the morning haze and torrid as hell at noontime. 

 When the darkness returns stark as the surety of orbiting planets, i sense you, i know you, creature of shadows. For i am the creature who smells your darkest thoughts. Knowing whether you be phantom of ghost. 

 Nurturing a young moon has its challenges, should she be bright as a carnival shimmer, or curved as a hosay crescent. There are questions to be pondered, you know.

© gillena cox 2026

Blog Hopping Today With
 Prosery: Of Jaguars and the Night

Challenge to use the line--“I am the creature who smells your darkest thoughts”
From “Jaguar Song.” by Arthue Sze

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NOTE

To answer questions posed in comments i had edited this post to add noted and hyperlinks

Hosay is a solemn festival about 2 martyrs. observed by the muslims in T&T. The festival exyends to the streets with art  and music. Both muslims and non muslims look forward to the street art the drumming and food with family and friends. Moon sightings deceide the dates for the festival

HOSAY 2008
HOSAY 2015

1424

 Tower darkening on.

And now from heaven’s height, 

Night showering upon,

The sleepy village site.

To what questions.

The closed window shutters,

Tight and safe from,

The torrents.

The moon's hidden play.

A game of bright here,

And gone to coy behind,

A shadow of cloudy sphere.

Is the night her playground.

To hide and seek the poetry,

Of a writer's craft,

Or his fantasy.

© gillena cox 2026

The line "Tower darkening on. And now from heaven’s height," - is from  A Thunderstorm by Archibald Lampman (1861-1899)

Blog Hopping Today With
 Open Link Night #411

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