THROWBACK THURSDAY POETRY READINGS: PAINTING PICTURES (WITH WORDS)

Hey folks! Welcome back to my regular Throwback Thursday series of Poetry Readings which this week features a spoken word recitation of a poem called Painting Pictures with Words. I wrote it for my first poetry book: SNOWSTORM OF DOUBT AND GRACE. I’ve added the written version of it underneath so you can read along with the recording. Hope you enjoy reading and listening to it! 🙏🤞

PAINTING PICTURES (WITH WORDS)

Paint me a smile to end this drought

Give me something to laugh about

Instead of the sadness which has long

Invaded me, time for this song

To take a different route than the rest

You’ve forgiven and I’ve confessed

By painting pictures with words.

Paint me a smile so I can start afresh

With a blank canvas so I can mesh

Past experiences & new beginnings

With the sound of angels singing

Over my new found lyrical salvation

Aided by heavenly inspiration

To paint some pictures with words

Paint me a smile with these two feet

With something melodious so I can complete

This life which you have given me

Dancing just to know that I am free

But in case I happen to trip and fall

Help me not to forget my call

To keep painting pictures with words.

Paint me a smile with a paper & pen

Give me some words so I can tend

To the walking wounded & broken hearts

With uni-stained words of comfort from my cart

Of vocabulary learnt in the school of hard knocks

Time to roll up my sleeves & pull up my socks

And paint some pictures with words

Paint me a smile & I’ll give them a song

Give me a tube & they can sing along

Something that will help ease their pain

And keep ’em from slowly going insane

A felony that you will never let

A melody that won’t let them forget

Those pictures I painted with words.

THROWBACK THURSDAY POETRY READINGS: FREEZE TIME

Hey folks! Welcome back to my Throwback Thursday series of Poetry Readings. This week will feature a recitation of a poem in memory of mother called: FREEZE TIME and posted earlier in the week. Hope it helps you in some way. Video above and written version below.

Wish that I could’ve frozen time

Halted it completely in its tracks

Made it that the bells wouldn’t chime

That you wouldn’t fade to black

Wish I could’ve wrapped you

And your fragile little frame,

Stooped in humble service

Like a perpetual prayer,

up in cotton wool

In bubble wrap

In my arms

Breathe fresh life

Into your lungs

But cancer had set its trap

Aggressively it had struck

And your body slowly wasted away

To mere skin & bone

As if you were made to atone

For some ancient sin

You’d buried deep within

A thought I scarce can entertain

For it would stain

Your memory

Your legacy

You were too pure

Too gentle

For this earth

Hope you find the peace

You’re looking for

To make your sacrifices

Worth.

Wish that I could freeze time

Halt it completely in its tracks

Get a marker & draw a line,

Across which you cannot pass

For fear that you might get older

Grow up too soon

Lose your childlike innocence

For you’re too young to shoulder

Such burdens.

If that makes any sense.

Put together your very own

Wardrobe to Narnia

Where you’ll never grow old

Or succumb to disease

Where you’ll never be told

What to do

Or have to appease

You’ll sit on the throne

Guided by the great lion

And rule your kingdom

With kindness and compassion

Love and wisdom

Strength & dignity

For the whole of your life

FREEZE TIME was first written & published by me: Ken Hume back on 23/03/2019 over a month after my mum passed away 4 years ago today. First half talks about wanting to prevent the subject of the poem (my mum in this case) from dying. The 2nd half of my poem expresses a yearning to keep one’s kids from ever growing old!

TWO STEPS BACK – THROWBACK THURSDAY POETRY READINGS

Shared today for those of ye struggling with ye’re New Year’s resolutions or goals. Be kind to yourself; dust yourself off and get back on that horse.

TWO STEPS BACK

One step forward
Two steps back
Sidestep a curveball
While doing a little dance. You strive to be better But life gives you another smack Not because you deserve it. But simply because it can
You try to make progress
But the odds are stacked
Against you
And you’re struggling
To keep track
Of the time when
Things were so black
And white.
Your future was packed
With your hopes & dreams
Like a holiday suitcase
Bursting at the seams
And you had the knack
Of saying the right thing
While under attack
You have the courage
But the fight you lack
To keep getting up
After falling on your ass
So you go around in circles
Till you’re right back
Right back
To where you started

BLOG GOALS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

Hey folks! Hope ye all had a lovely Christmas full of the people and things you love. 🤞🙏😁😊 I enjoyed my break but it’s good to be back blogging. So, welcome back to my weekly Blog Goals for the Week/Year Ahead where I set out my blog schedule and creative goals for the coming week.It promises to be more of the same great posts you’ve come to know and love plus a few enjoyable changes to the schedule.

First up, later on today, will be my first poem of the New Year featuring an amalgamation of 2 poetry prompts (Saturday & Sunday gone by) from Ragtag Daily Prompts titled NEW PATH. Should you wish to participate in the prompts then you can access them through the following links:

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2022/12/31/rdp-saturday-new/

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2023/01/01/rdp-tuesday-path/

Tomorrow, I’ll be returning to my regular motivational running quotes for ye’re inspiration! This will be followed up by my poetic response to Sadje’s latest #WhatDoYouSee #WDYS Poetry Image Prompt which I’ve missed taking part in. Should you wish to participate in the prompt then you can access it through the following link: https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2023/01/02/what-do-you-see-167-2nd-january-2023/

On Wednesday, I plan on responding to d’Verse’s latest Tuesday Poetics Prompt which I always enjoy participating in.

Then on Thursday I’ll be posting my 2nd Motivational Running Quote of the week for ye. Later on we’ll be returning to my Throwback Thursday series of Poetry Readings with a recitation of a piece I wrote back in November 2021 titled: TWO STEPS BACK. Appropriate for this time of year I’m sure you’ll agree when you hear & read it?! 👍😁

On Friday we’ll be reflecting on some more of my favourite poetry quotes, taking lessons from them and applying them to our lives as poets and readers alike.

Saturday will see us post our final motivational running quote of the week for ye folks and exploring some more poetry prompts such as Moonwashed Weekly Prompts and Weave Written Weekly fingers crossed.

Of all this will be closed off on Sunday with my regular Sunday Blog Recap with links to all the blogs I posted during the previous week. Especially designed for those of you who have busy lives outside of the WordPress blogosphere. So please stay tuned. Until next Monday, mind yourselves; stay creative and take care. 🙏🤞😊😁

TOP 10 BLOG POSTS OF 2022

Well folks! Yes, it’s that time of year again where we look back over the year gone by and see which blog posts were the most popular, which struck a chord most with ye guys & gals. It’s been a quick year and 1 which saw me change things up a bit with the range; quantity and quality of my output. I view my most popular posts as ones which didn’t necessarily receive the most likes but received the most views.

1. In light of that criteria so, the most popular blog post this past year was my the 1st part of my BRILLIANT BLOGGER POET INTERVIEW with the provocative Romanian blogger/poet by the name of Bogdan Dragos with a total number of 219 views. You can find the link to it here:
https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/08/31/brilliant-blogger-poet-interview-provocative-daydreaming-with-bogdan-dragos-part-1

2. 2nd on the list was the profile I did on the aforementioned poet: Mr. Dragos for the Brilliant Blogger Poet initiative. It received 194 views and you can access it here at the following link:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/08/24/brilliant-blogger-poet-profile-bogdan-dragos/

3. No. 3 on the list was a poignant reflection titled KEEP ON WALKING on tragic; untimely demise of a popular young; local woman by the name of Aisling Murphy. She, unfortunately met her end while out for a run along the local canal back in January. It garnered 133 views. Here’s the link to it:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/01/16/keep-on-walking/

4. This was followed up by 2nd part of my Brilliant Blogger Poet Interview with Bogdan Dragos receiving 119 views. The link to it is here: https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/09/07/brilliant-blogger-poet-interview-provocative-daydreaming-with-bogdan-dragos-part-ii/

5. The Brilliant Blogger Poet initiative certainly seemed to be the order of the day this year as 5th on the list was my interview with the kind; generous and ever creative: Mr. David Bogomolny over at The Sceptic’s Kaddish. It gained 84 views. Here’s the link to it: https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/06/08/brilliant-blogger-poet-ben-alexander-aka-david-bogomolny-from-the-skeptics-kaddish-interview/

6. 6th on the list was my Recital of an old poem of mine titled: COFFEE SHOP AND ME for my new blog: THROWBACK THURSDAY POETRY READINGS which received 63 views. You’ll find the link to it here: https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/10/13/throwback-thursday-poetry-recordings-the-coffee-shop-and-me/

7. There’s just no getting away from our BRILLIANT BLOGGER POET INITIATIVE is there? As the next highest views on 58 was the profile I did on the aforementioned Mr. Bogomolny titled Skeptically Seeking David. You’ll find the link to it here: https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/06/02/skeptically-seeking-david/

8. At no 8 we reflected on how poetry can save our lives through the greatest of sorrows and highest of joys in my regular Poetry Quotes Blog. It had 54 views. 😁You’ll find the link to it here: https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/07/03/poetry-saving-lives-through-sorrow-joy/

9. We return to my Throwback Thursday series of Poetry Readings with a recital of A SHADOW CAST, a poem I wrote shortly after my father had passed away back in 2015. It had 51 views. Here’s the link to it: https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/09/29/__trashed-2/

10. Last but by no means least was another THROWBACK THURSDAY POETRY READING with a recital of TOOK THE PLUNGE which received 48 views. Here’s the link to it: https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/10/27/throwback-thursday-poetry-readings-took-the-plunge/

That’s it I suppose, except to say thanks ever so much for all ye’re amazing support; feedback & encouragement throughout the past year. It means an awful lot and gives me a great lift to know people are regularly reading & enjoying my poems and blogs.

Hope ye all have a very peaceful Christmas and a Happy; productive & creative New Year. See you all in 2023.

THROWBACK THURSDAY POETRY READINGS: UNFORGIVING SUN (Dark Eyes Squint for Mercy)

It’s a sunny, Sunday afternoon
Inebriated bones are slowly stirring
As we slowly emerge from our cocoon.
And the coffee machine begins whirring
Like our heads, the heat makes us swoon

As we gingerly make our way outside
The fierce morning sun unforgiving
Of last night’s escapades, as our dark eyes
Squint for mercy, and we’re driven
For the only place where we can hide

And converse about whatever dumb
Things we may have done, but can’t remember
Think it all went downhill after the rum
Like that crazy night back in mid-September
But all vices look brighter under the sun

It’s okay though, we always have Facebook
To see if we were caught on camera, tagged
In some state of compromising debauchery, look
There we are, our pristine reputations dragged,
Through the mud of intoxication, think we’re stuck

SUNDAY BLOG RECAP

Afternoon folks! Hope you are all having a lovely weekend! 🤞🙏😁 Welcome back to my weekly Blog Recap with links to all the blogs I posted during the previous week. Especially designed for those of you who have busy lives outside of the WordPress blogosphere.

On Monday; Wednesday; Friday & Saturday morning I posted motivational running quotes for ye’re inspiration. Hope it helped. 🤞🤞 Here’s the links to all of them:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/11/14/running-enjoying-the-process/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/11/16/running-born-to-get-up-move-run/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/11/18/running-doing-it-while-others-are-sleeping/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/11/19/running-the-new-best-part-of-waking-up/?preview=true

Also on Monday I published my Blog Goals for the Week Ahead where I set out my blog schedule and creative goals for the coming week. The link to it is here: https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/11/14/blog-goals-for-the-week-ahead-10/?preview=true

On Tuesday I published the 1st of my poems for the week titled Dreadlocked Invocation composed in response to Sadje’s latest #WhatDoYouSee #WDYS Poetry Image Prompt. This was followed later that day by another piece called “Taste The Fear.” It was inspired by something Grace, my oldest daughter asked me the previous week. The links to both of them are below:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/11/15/dreadlocked-invocation-sadjes-whatdoyousee-wdys-poetry-image-prompt-160/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/11/15/taste-the-fear/?preview=true

Then on Wednesday I posted my 3rd poem of the week titled: WAITING IN THE WINGS written in response to d’Verse’s most recent Quadrille Prompt. You’ll find the link to it here:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/11/16/waiting-in-the-wings-dverse-quadrille-164-winging-it/?preview=true&preview_id=4264&preview_nonce=6494a213e9

On Thursday we had our latest edition of my new Throwback Thursday Poetry Readings which this week featured a recitation of an old poem titled SILVER SCREEN OF MEMORY. This was followed up later in the day by a new poem called: “Cold Blanket; Heavy Fog.” You’ll find the links to them below:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/11/17/throwback-thursday-poetry-readings-silver-screen-of-memory/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/11/17/cold-blanket-heavy-fog/?preview=true

On Friday & Saturday I published 2 more poems. The 1st of them, written in response d’Verse’s latest Poetics Prompt was titled: No-Body Knows! And the 2nd one was inspired by a picture prompt from Reena’s Xploration Challenge called KEY TO FREEDOM which I quite enjoyed writing. The links to both of them are here:

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/11/18/no-body-knows-dverse-poetics-no-vember/?preview=true

https://kenhume31.wordpress.com/2022/11/19/key-to-freedom-reenas-xploration-challenge-257/?preview=true

That’s all the round up for this week folks! Thanks so much for stopping by and joining me on this catch up! 🙏😁😊 Until next Sunday, mind yourselves; stay creative and take care! 🤞🙏

THROWBACK THURSDAY POETRY READINGS: SILVER SCREEN OF MEMORY

SILVER SCREEN OF MEMORY

Reality is a world of dreams
Some broken; some unfulfilled
Played to us on that silver screen
Of memory that’s not yet stilled

There hope and regret perform for free
In the head and for the heart
One promises great things to be
The other mourns what must depart

Dreams of plans yet to be
Reflections of love gone by
Join in uneasy matrimony
Behind the floodgates of our eyes

Trodding the tear ducts of sorrow
With footsteps from history
They dance slowly to the flow
Of the ‘hard knocks’ melody

That plays frequently in our heads
With the beat of the drum
And tells us our dreams aren’t dead
Until our time on earth has run

Written by Ken Hume
10/09/09

THROWBACK THURSDAY POETRY READINGS: BARE KNUCKLE WRITER

Hey folks! 👋 Welcome back to my Throwback Thursday series of Poetry Readings. For this week I’ll be reciting a poem I wrote nearly 2 years ago titled Bare Knuckle Writer. Hope ye enjoy it, looking forward to seeing what you all think of it! 🙏🤞😁

BARE KNUCKLE WRITER

All this sanitizer
Facebook uprisers
Here comes phizer
Vaccine
Are we any wiser?

It’s not fair
This quiet despair
Nobody there
To talk to
The cold air

Cuts through
The bones of you
Hands are blue
Stripped
Of moisture too

Dried
Stretched
Tightened
Till it begins to crack
Frightened

Resigned
Like my mind
Undefined
Teetering
Between sick and the sublime

Till my thoughts disassemble
My hands tremble
And they begin to resemble
That of a bare knuckle writer
Who secretly revels

In throwing words around the page.
Unlocking them from their cage
Like punches filled with controlled rage. My vocabulary is my armoury.
Piece of paper is my stage

I’m a bare knuckle writer
Dressed as a bare knuckle fighter.
Yearning to be lighter.
Shed a few pounds from my mind.
Before I lose sight of

What was weighing me down.
Laying them down.
Flat on the ground.
With a literary hit.
Meant to confound

I trust my hunches.
And I pull no punches.
As another word crunches.
Off the inside of your head.
As your brain munches

And digests on the brutality.
Of this world. The banality
of the everyday. The finality
Of a loved one’s passing
Love; life and death in it’s totality

My anger I own.
So I cut close to the bone.
Delight and disown.
The gloves are off.
I feel at home.

BLOG GOALS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

Afternoon folks! Hope ye all had a lovely weekend. 🤞🙏😁 Welcome to my weekly Blog Goals for the Week Ahead where I set out my blog schedule and creative goals for the coming week. I’ve already shared my 1st motivational running quote with ye so I’ll get cracking with Tuesday’s lineup!

I hope to post my 1st poem of the week, written & published almost 2 years ago now, titled BARE KNUCKLE WRITER in response to today’s Ragtag Daily Prompt using the word: KNUCKLE. This will be followed up by my 2nd poetic offering to be inspired by Sadje’s latest #WhatDoYouSee #WDYS Poetry Image Prompt. Should you wish to participate in the prompt then you can access it through the following link:

https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2022/11/07/what-do-you-see-159-november-7-2022/

On Wednesday I hope to post my 2nd motivational running quote of the week along with my response to d’Verse’s latest Poetics Prompt, whatever that may be.

Then on Thursday, I’ll be returning to my new series of Throwback Thursday Poetry Readings with a recitation of an old or old-ish poem. Of course you’ll be able to read along while I’m babbling away with the written version of it underneath the video. This week’s poem will be: BARE KNUCKLE WRITER to keep it on this week’s theme. And possibly responding to this week’s W3 Weave Written Weekly Prompt over at the Skeptic’s Kaddish

On Friday I’ll be posting my 3rd motivational running quote of the week. This will be followed up later by another poetry quotes blog where we reflect on some favourite poetry quotes of mine; break them down; analyse them and apply the lessons learned to our lives as poets and readers alike. I’ve not chosen the quotes yet or they haven’t chosen me should I say. Please tune in for that! 🙏😁

On Saturday, I’ll do my usual amalgamation of poetry prompts to come up with a new poem and follow it up with my final motivational running quote of the week. And I’ll round up my weekly Blog posts with my regular Sunday Blog Recap with links to all the blogs I posted during the previous week.

That’s all the plans for this week folks, so far anyways. Please tune in for further updates and thank you all so much for ye’re wonderful & continued support! 🙏😁😊