My Nerves Are So Bad Today . . .

My nerves are so bad today . . .

How do I know?

Everything IRRITATES ME!

I am in excruciating pain on the inside

of my right shoulder,

too much fine tuning of photos,

and too much heavy shoveling of red dirt

to get the ground ready for the 

seeds I planted, cherry tomatoes,

green peppers, okra, squash.

I’ve had three Aleve.

Every minor thing irritates me,

like the way my stringy, sparse hair

falls, or doesn’t! That irritates me!

Sunday, it was all fluffy, thanks to 

some apple green mousse putty.

So, today, I am using sunglasses

perched on my head for a headband,

something like the way, director,

Harold Prince always wears his.

At least, that makes me smile.

I practically broke the patio window

trying to kill a young yellow jacket

trying to get in.

And my jeans are too hot today! 

Two mosquito bites are still itching

on the fingers which were holding the hose.

One bit me on my ankle through my sock.

I could throw something,

or just plain SCREAM!

I thank the Goddess of Temperance

for looking over me and helping me

actually stay calm,

 and not trip,

 or hit my head on something,

 because . . .

THAT WOULD HAVE DONE ME IN!

The AC man came for service

and said I needed a new capacitor,

“I’ll say!" I said, "After you put one in the

AC fan, put one in ME!”

I’m eating strangely, maybe that’s it!

Maybe it’s my diet!

Like Sunday, an entire can of asparagus.

And part of an avocado for breakfast.

Yesterday, boiled okra.

Today, smoked oysters with rice,

a bosc pear and almonds.

I had to take a photo first thing this morning!

Like an obsession!  Get out a tablecloth

pick flowers, get the journal, the purple pen

with little mirrors, the necklace,

those bosc pears that look like they

came out of a Dutch Masters’ painting.

Fill the thin green wine glass,

Oh, and the Women Writer’s coffee mug!

I think, what poem would I write in

one sentence about the photo . . .

Insane photographer thinks she is a poet!

And this is my garden which quietly keeps me sane.

 where you can come for a visit, sometime!

~ ~ ~

I think this is EXACTLY what a blog 

IS supposed to be LIKE.

stay tuned . . .

------

Poem - After an April Rain

I can get lost in the beauty

of the garden after an April rain,

and forget that the bulldozers

will soon be here.

If the driver could see these flowers up close

he might step down and walk away.

I can get lost in the beauty

of this garden after an April shower,

and forget about  . . . that soldier

with his eye on a computer screen

who will soon discharge

a lethal weapon 

to a target
 6000 miles away.

If the soldier 

could see into the eyes

of his victim

he, too, might step down.

and walk away.

I am still so proud

of that Chinese student

who stepped in front

of the tank in Tiananmen Square.

There are so many better

things to do than make war,

like eating wild strawberries

or taking a nap.

~ ~ ~

I started this poem because I’d taken

these beautiful garden photos.

After completing most of the poem

I remembered a photo I’d taken

of the napping Buddha, so I added that thought.

But I needed another illustration.

Soon after that I was walking around the yard

and saw those wild strawberries.

~ ~ ~

That’s sort of the way I write music and lyrics

One art form enhances and prompts the other.


and now I've made a video
http://www.youtube.com/janamedrova#p/u/0/uGjPnsPq314

~ ~ ~

stay tuned . . .

(It's A) Georgia State of Mind

IT'S A GEORGIA STATE OF MIND!

(from the lyrics to a song I wrote)

“. . . sippin’ honeysuckle wine,

right off a tangled vine,

It’s a Georgia State of Mind.”

Here’s how I came to write a song called

It’s A Georgia State of Mind.

I’d written a musical, Silent Dreams,

brainstormed how to sell it.

“What about a Radio Musical?"

 I said.

"Maybe on Prairie Home Companion?"

Then my brain took a sharp turn

 and asked,

“If we had a Georgia Home Companion

radio show,

 what would the theme song be?”

And I sat right down and composed it!

I tried to put in every famous place

 I could work in,

from Tallulah Falls to the Okeefeenokee Swamp.

Peachtree Street,

 Stone Mountain,

 Tybee Beach.

"peaches and pines and kudzu vines,"

"cypress knees, and blackeyed peas,

and even Sea Island, for the rich!"
~

I finally got to hear it sung!

The Lyric League sang it as their Finale

in a Summer Concert, Aug. 2007.

Right there in Seney Stovall Auditorium!

I got to join ASCAP after that!

Thanks Dell!

~

P.S. I’d still like to hear what a radio program

Georgia Home Companion would sound like! 

Here's "It's a Georgia State of Mind" with me singing on four tracks.

That's my mother wearing 
the leather flying helmet 
in the 1933 photo.

Hope you enjoy the nostalgic photos
of growing up in Georgia.

stay tuned . . .

POEM - OTTER WOMAN

This is me in the early morning

on the deck where I write in my journal,

where lots of poems come to me.

Here's one of the first poems I ever wrote

 -- over 20 years ago.

~~

OTTER WOMAN

I call myself otter woman, now.

Older and wiser

On my own

moving at my own pace

to my own particular rhythms.

Now I can yield, without submitting,

Bend, without conforming.

Peaceful, playful, contented.

Oh, joy in the morning!

Did I mention I quit my job!

~~~

A view from my bed to the deck.

stay tuned . . .

Best & Worst Photos of the Day!

Photos make a great prompt for a Blog . . .

but I missed the chipmunk scooting across the deck,

and I missed the red headed sapsucker,

or was it a flicker, digging for grubs?

So, I took one of a delicate blossom among 

the Japanese painted ferns.

and the Fairy roses are in full bloom.

While planting two hostas and two Lenten roses

in the shade garden, I noticed how the

Confederate jasmine had grown up into the cedar tree.

Gotta get a photo of that, I thought . . . 

it’ll balance the snake skin left on the stone wall.

I really, really hate snakes!!!

But the snake was already gone,

but not forgotten.

I wonder if it’s poisonous!

Oh, well, here's a close-up of a Confererate Jasmine blossom!

I planted it many years ago

and now I have a photo.

I love close-ups!

POEM - THIS WHIMSY OF A FLOWER

(Photo from the Sketch Journal)

THIS WHIMSY OF A FLOWER

This whimsy of a flower I’ve sketched,

looks as if it’s flung itself

onto the page,

right out of the shower!

Hardly taking time to

dry off her leaves,

or comb her petals,

or touch up

her yellow puff of stamens.

She looks so happy half drawn.

So alive!

So eager to live forever

on this page in my journal.

POEM - OATMEAL WITH BROWN SUGAR

(From Blue Tomato’s Sketch Journal)

OATMEAL WITH BROWN SUGAR

Grandma slurped Eight O-clock coffee

from a thick white saucer

at the wooden side table.

Her long muslin apron was already tied

round her frail waist,

over her homemade gingham dress.

Underneath she wore thick hose

knotted at the knee.

In sturdy black oxfords

she stirred the oatmeal bubbling

in a double boiler

on the back burner

of our tiny Magic Chef stove.

She spooned it out for my breakfast

adding brown sugar,

butter and canned milk,

while the Germans were invading Europe.