Poem: "If You Can Do Just One Thing Well"

This poem is spillover from the April 20, 2021 Bonus Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from librarygeek. It also fills the "technology" square in my 4-4-21 "Aspects" card for the Genderplay Bingo fest, and the "disability not erased by killing or curing" square in my 9-1-20 card for the Fries Test Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by fuzzyred. It belongs to the Daughters of the Apocalypse series.

Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes the apocalypse, the Grunge, mass casualties, refugees, death in childbirth, birth defects, fisticuffs over rudeness about disability, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

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Poem: "Rainshadow Road"

This poem was written outside the regular prompt calls, inspired by discussions with Anonymous on Dreamwidth. It fills the "Rainshadow Road" square in my 2-1-21 "Romance Book Titles" card for the Valentines Bingo fest. It belongs to the Daughters of the Apocalypse series.

This microfunded poem is being posted one verse at a time, as donations come in to cover them. The rate is $0.25/line, so $5 will reveal 20 new lines, and so forth. There is a permanent donation button on my profile page, or you can contact me for other arrangements. You can also ask me about the number of lines per verse, if you want to fund a certain number of verses.
So far sponsors include: DW user Freshbakedlady, DW user Nsfwords, general fund, DW user Fuzzyred, janetmiles,

1288 lines, Buy It Now = $322
Amount donated = $152
Verses posted = 159 of 376 
Amount remaining to fund fully = $170
Amount needed to fund next verse = $0.75
Amount needed to fund the verse after that = $0.75

Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes the Aftermath of apocalypse, reference to wildfires and town collapse, road disrepair, accidental self-poisoning, messy medical details, low-tech medicine, semi-literacy, needing help and hating it, reference to the Grunge and its casualties, severe gender imbalance and age imbalance, plus their social impacts, past refugees, group marriage, food shortage, slow healing, difficult survival decisions, supply shortage, fraught discussion of transferring someone from the armey to the caravan, emotional agony, feeling abandoned, group misery, difficult goodbyes, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

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Character notes for "Rainshadow Road"

These are the character notes for "Rainshadow Road."

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Birdfeeding

Today is partly cloudy, breezy, and warm.  There's a chance of rain today and tomorrow, and some of the clouds are darkening.

I fed the birds.  I've seen doves, house finches, and cardinals today.  Also there are robins and blackbirds pecking the lawn that got mowed a couple days ago.

I planted marigold and moonflower seeds in the barrel garden.  I topped up some other pots and planted nasturtiums, shasta daisies, and two different types of petunia.  Of these, the shasta daisies are perennials and can be planted at the end of the growing season, where they may sustain themselves in the ground.

The shipment from Spring Hill Nursery came in, a solid 2 months late.  These are spring ephemerals, fortunately still dormant for the most part.  I don't know how well they'll survive trying to establish in the summer heat, but we'll see.



EDIT 5/25/21 -- I planted more flower seeds in pots.

EDIT 5/25/21 -- I planted more flower seeds in pots, this time including wild leek seeds in the deep narrow pots I saved from previous purchases of prairie wildflowers.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.

Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, June 1

This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, June 1, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "I never thought I'd have to say that." I'll be soliciting ideas for explorers, partners, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, activists, rebels, other people who get into odd situations, parenting, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, the forest primeval, liminal zones, schools, churches, sharehouses, kitchens, campfires, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where the unexpected happens, sudden surprises, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, Get a Life Program, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One is developing its own neurovariant culture.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past.

A Conflagration of Dragons has the Six Races (plus the dragons) who all have different cultures and climates.  This often poses challenges for the refugees.

The Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find enough resources to survive, when former cities are unsafe.

Eloquent Souls presents a setting where soulmarks are common, leading to many odd expressions as people try to make their Words distinctive.

Feathered Nests is about humans interacting with birdlike aliens, and their cross-cultural dynamics.

Frankenstein's Family features two scientists running a valley in historic Romania, along with a pack of werewolves, a couple of vampires, and a mummy.

Hart's Farm is a free love community with lots of interesting relationships.

Monster House is suburban fantasy with a diverse household.

The Moon Door explores a women's chronic pain group and lycanthropy.

The Ocracies has a wide variety of countries crammed together, each with a totally different government.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society.

Or you can ask for something new.

I have a linkback poem, "The Loving Embrace of Night" (11 verses, standalone).

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, June 1

This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, June 1, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "I never thought I'd have to say that." I'll be soliciting ideas for explorers, partners, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, activists, rebels, other people who get into odd situations, parenting, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, the forest primeval, liminal zones, schools, churches, sharehouses, kitchens, campfires, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where the unexpected happens, sudden surprises, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, Get a Life Program, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One is developing its own neurovariant culture.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past.

A Conflagration of Dragons has the Six Races (plus the dragons) who all have different cultures and climates.  This often poses challenges for the refugees.

The Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find enough resources to survive, when former cities are unsafe.

Eloquent Souls presents a setting where soulmarks are common, leading to many odd expressions as people try to make their Words distinctive.

Feathered Nests is about humans interacting with birdlike aliens, and their cross-cultural dynamics.

Frankenstein's Family features two scientists running a valley in historic Romania, along with a pack of werewolves, a couple of vampires, and a mummy.

Hart's Farm is a free love community with lots of interesting relationships.

Monster House is suburban fantasy with a diverse household.

The Moon Door explores a women's chronic pain group and lycanthropy.

The Ocracies has a wide variety of countries crammed together, each with a totally different government.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society.

Or you can ask for something new.

I have a linkback poem, "The Loving Embrace of Night" (11 verses, standalone).

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

Setting notes for "Rainshadow Road"

These are the setting notes for "Rainshadow Road."

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"Rainshadow Road" is now open for microfunding!

Thanks to a donation from scrubjayspeaks, you can now read the beginning of "Rainshadow Road."  This introduces Maggot to Clearwater Caravan.  If you only have a few dollars in your budget, this poem offers great bang for your buck, since it's locked at the half-price of $0.25/line.

Content notes for "Rainshadow Road"

These are the content notes for "Rainshadow Road."

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