Bucket List, Take One

While I could write a million poems inspired by Anais Nin quotes, my hometown doesn’t inspire me the same way.  Instead of poetry, I will share some of the places on my Bucket List that I would like to visit, in no particular order.

 

1.    Scotland, again - While pretty much exploring the entirety of Scotland is on this list, I dream of devoting an entire month to the Isle of Skye, preferably in a thatched roof cottage.  *sighs*  Who wants to join me in that dreamy local, exploring the Querying, Fairy Glen and the Fairy Pools?

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.   New Orleans (but not during Mardi Gras because that would be insane).  I imagine Bourbon Street would be a really fun mixture of great music and food.  Oh yeah, and booze :P

 

 

3.    Africa – An African safari would be a thrilling adventure, which must include a stay at Giraffe Manor.  This is definitely Top Three material.

 

 

4.    France – In particular, (a) Paris *le sigh* (b) The Louvre, and (c) Givenry, where I could spend an entire blissful day in Monet’s gardens.

 

 

5.    Some nonspecific place where I can see fireflies in person.  I think that would be spectacular.

 

 

6.    I’ve always wanted to drive cross-country to New York.  I kinda think that would be the ultimate road trip.

 

 

To quote one of my favorite bands:

“Take a road trip.  Go soul deep.”

 

 

7.    DeAnna and I have talked about walking the Camino de Santiago, so that would be cool (I still need to see that movie you told me about, but I don’t remember what it’s called).

 

 

8.    Italy – Also near the top of my Bucket List is a stay in Cinque Terre.  Even though Italian food is my least favorite - I don’t like marinara sauce and can’t stand cooked tomatoes *shudders*  I will even scrape the sauce off my pizza if I feel there’s too much on there.  But there’s always pesto, right?

 



9.     Thailand – because Thai food is the bomb!  Plus, I imagine it's breathtaking  there.

 

 

10.  This place:  

 

 

 

     I don’t know where this is, it could be anywhere.  Surprise me.  Just take me to a warm, tropical beach island.  You can even ‘forget’ to bring me home, and I wouldn’t mind at all.

 

© Dahlia Ramone:  April 8, 2018

This was written for Blogophilia

Week 6.11 Topic:  My Hometown
 
Bonus Prompts:

Hard (2 pts):  Quote Anais Nin (photo quote)

Easy (1 pt): Include a food you wouldn’t want to eat (cooked tomatoes)



One Song Leads to Another

So I’m sitting here in California, Dreaming of not being sick.  I’ve just spent some time going through a large selection of George Gershwin song titles, and there are quite a few I could incorporate into a poem, if I felt better.  Then it occurred to me as I was going through the list of songs, that many of them reminded me of other songs. So instead of writing, I’m going to share those songs with you now, and maybe I’ll get that poem written at the end of the week. 

 

(btw, I got sucked into Youtube, as one is wont to do, and got a little carried away.  Pick and choose the songs you want to listen to, there are a lot lol! )

 

So, the Gershwin songs:

Blah Blah Blah (made me think of this song by Brooke Valentine)

Blue Monday (kind of a no-brainer)

 

End of a String (made me think of a kite, which made me think of this song because the last stanza references kites and strings)

 

 

Far Away (this song was instantly in my head)

I Don’t Think I’ll Fall in Love Today (this probably isn’t what Gershwin had in mind, but it’s the first version that came to my mind)

 

If Love Remains (reminded me of Gavin’s song)

 

 

Love is in the Air (for some reason, I couldn’t get this song out of my head lol!)

 

 

Love Walked In (great ballad, by Thunder)

 

 

Once (this immediately made me think of the musical ‘Once’ and it’s theme song)

 On and On and On (this song by Streetlight Manifesto is on my iPod)

 

Heaven on Earth (Heaven is a place on earth 😉 )

 

 

Hey Hey Let ‘er Go and Hi Ho (these two songs right next to each other on the list were just too much like Hey Ho Let’s Go to ignore)

 

High Hat (this song instantly made me think of Déjà vu by Beyonce, because “hi hat” is mentioned in the very beginning of the song)

 

 

How Can I Win You Now (‘how can I win’ went to ‘never win’ in my brain, which reminded me of this song by Fischerspooner)

 

 

I Am Only Human After All (I immediately went to this song by Rag’n’Bone Man)

 

 

I Don’t Know Why (made me think of Norah Jones’ song)

 

 

I Got Rhythm (yeah, girls got rhythm :P )

 

 

I Won’t Give Up (love Jason’s song)

 

 

I’ll Show You a Wonderful World (reminded me of Joey)

 

 

In the Swim (reminded me of the song ‘Swim’ and I’m actually really surprised it was on Youtube.  For my AI friends, the singer of Spahn Ranch is Athan Maroulis)

 

It Could Have Happened to Anyone (made me think of the song ‘Til it Happens to You)

 

 

Let Yourself Go (Another song from my iPod)

 

 

Lonely Boy (immediately thought of this one)

 

 

Modernistic Moe (just made me think of Mediocre Fred – maybe they’re related lol!)

 

Names I Love to Hear (This didn’t remind me of a song, but it made me think of one of my favorite names, which is Guillermo.  Don’t know why, but I just love that name).

 

Nice Baby (couldn’t read this without reading Nice Nice Baby and well, you can imagine where that lead to)

 

 

Same Old Story (another one from my iPod)

 

 

So What? (Good one from Pink)

 

 

Someone to Watch Over Me (but, who will watch over you?)

 

 

Tell Me More (yeah, so I couldn’t get the “tell me more” chorus out of my head)

 

The Lonesome Cowboy (‘Cowboy’ and ‘Lonesome’ made me think immediately of this song by the Cowboy Junkies)

 

 

The Search is Over (made me think of the lyric in this song)

 

 

The Show Must Go On (who doesn’t immediately think of this one?)

 

There’s No Holding Me (never mind, I lied.  Hold me now)

 

 

Where East Meets West (the obvious choice)

 

 

Where You Go, I Go (yeah, this is where my mind went)

 

Why Do I Love You? (or the flip question would be, why do you love me?)

 

 

You Started Something (always wanna be starting something)

 

 

Oh, and let's mention rainbow colors...

 

When a list of colors is mentioned, specifically if red is included, I always think of the song Red and Black from Les Mis.

 

 

 

Of the remaining rainbow colors, I am not a particular fan of green or yellow, blue is my favorite color, orange is my second favorite color (for flowers), violet reminds me of Violeta, and indigo is my favorite word.

 

(c) Dahlia Ramone:  March 25, 2018

 

This was written for Blogophilia

Week 4.11 Topic:  California Dreaming

 

Bonus Prompts:

Hard (2 pts):  Use a George Gershwin song title

Easy (1 pt):  Name all the colors of the rainbow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A morning ramble, and a dedication



So, I woke up this ‘morning’ a little before noon-thirty.  I’m rarely up before noon on the weekends.  I don’t even feel guilty about it.  I know a lot of people accomplish a multitude of things by, say, 11:00 a.m., but at 11:00 a.m. I’m still trying to catch up on sleep. (9).  In typical weekend fashion, I was up late last night watching T.V.  I think around 11:00 p.m. I was texting my nephew (11) in a brief conversation about the show I was watching (Unsolved: The Unsolved Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.). 

Armed with a cup of coffee from my Verismo coffee maker (10), I opened up my tablet and eagerly searched out this week’s Blogo topic – an Ocean’s Eleven theme with a “meet & greet”.  The prompts this week are crazy – so many and all over the place.  I felt like a squirrel trying to cross the road, darting here and there and back with those sharp, quick moves that remind me of Daffy Duck in one of my favorite Looney Tunes episodes (“duck, dodge, thrust, parry.” Damn, I miss those old cartoons.  I feel like the programmers now might as well be on Mars, they’re totally missing the mark). (8)

Anyway – the prompts.  Though we can divide them between two consecutive weekly writing assignments, the masochist in me had to try to incorporate them all in one write.  I do love writing challenges.  I’ve been participating in them since my early days at Myspace (4).  (Ah, Myspace *nostalgic sigh*).  A quick aside about me:  I love writing. I love music.  I love flowers (the name Dahlia Ramone comes from both flowers and music and was inspired by the now-defunct band The Blue Dahlia (which also incorporated my favorite color, a happy coincidence) and, of course, the Ramones.  Also, I love my friends. In fact, my FB crew (3) is primarily comprised of the same circle from my Myspace days.  I love the love, comfort and security they bring me.  One friend in particular who has been with me since the beginning and who has been instrumental in introducing me to many of my lifelong friends (as well as a little writing project known as the PRT), is someone I fondly refer to as My Rock – Michael.  He introduced me to Blogophila back when I was in self-imposed exile from MS.  He coaxed me over with these three words “Is it time?”  I will never forget that. And I wrote my very first entry for Blogophilia that week.  As it so happens, that topic was “The Ides of March.” (1)  Funny how things are circular.  And since one of the bonus prompts is to repost a previous write, I am including it here. (6)

I write about love, mostly.  Sometimes I write about the moon, but since I believe the moon to be synonymous with love, I guess I pretty much just write about love.  I saw this quote by Paulo Coelho, (from his book “Eleven Minutes”) (7) and it pretty much sums up why I do:

 “I need to write about love. I need to think and think and write about love - otherwise, my soul won’t survive.”
(Paulo Coelho, ‘Eleven Minutes’)

Of course, you can’t have love without grief.  In Richard II, Shakespeare wrote “grief makes one hour ten.” (5)  Using that formula, perhaps I’ve spent more hours writing about grief (looking through my archives, this is quite plausible).  But since I hate math and I love the moon and I love love and my soul must survive, I will continue writing about love, with the help of Blogophila and its weekly prompts, for many hours and many moons to come.

Now, I’ve written at length (congrats if you’re still with me), and I have one prompt left to incorporate.  I’ll close with a quote from Ocean’s Eleven: “Don’t use seven words when four will do.” (2) This quote resonated with me because it instantly made me recall these four words: “I’m mad about you.”   You know the song.  And today, for the eleventyseventh time, I’m dedicating it to Michael.

Michael, you started me on this journey with three words.  So here is our song, and my three words for you:

Love you madly ~

 

This was written for Blogophilia

Week 1 Topic: “Ocean’s Eleven”

Bonus Prompts (Choose from below)

Prompts:

1.    Incorporate the “Ides of March” in your blog *

2.    Integrate a line from the movie “Ocean’s Eleven” (Rusty, last minute tips to Linus: “Don’t use seven words when four will do.”) *

3.    Name something used in planning a casino heist (a crew) *

4.    Incorporate a song title from the group Eleventyseven (Myspace) *

5.    Use a quote from The Bard’s 11th Play (Grief makes one hour ten,

      from Richard II)*

6.    Repost one of your favorite Blogophilia posts (please provide the link to the old favorite blog) *

7.    Incorporate a line from Paul Coelho’s book “Eleven Minutes” *

8.    Mention Mars and include a Looney Tune *

9.    Name something you do at 11 AM (sleep) *

10. Name something you would give as an 11th anniversary gift *

      (steel, coffee maker)

11. Name something that you might do with a friend at 11 PM (text) *

 

*** 

(Original ‘Ides of March’ poem):

She was a young girl

and he was her world.
He told her often that he loved her
and she believed it to be true.

He bought her flowers and small trinkets

that brought a smile to her lips;
the thought never crossed her mind
that perhaps he was buying her.

She thought their love was perfect

for he said it often enough.
She was more than happy to do his bidding
her friends saw her less and less.

She never seemed to notice,

she was so wrapped up in his web,
until one day a friend convinced her
to look beyond the façade.

The friend said “search within your memory

can you tell me one time
that when he said I love you
he looked you in the eye?”

The seed of doubt was planted

and her perfect world began to crack.
She began to notice other things
that she never saw before.

Deceived and played the fool

she realized now he had been using her.
The flowers have all long died
and the trinkets lost their sheen.

She tasted love but it turned to bile

and eroded her virgin heart
She vowed never again
to fall victim to hollow words. 

If truth is the daughter of time

and lies became all she knows
then she is an iron maiden
with an iron heart that cannot bleed.

© Dahlia Ramone:  March 13, 2008

Blogophilia Week One (2008)

Topic: The Ides of March 

Bonus points (hard, 2 points): Mention a band which recorded a song entitled "The Ides of March" (Iron Maiden)

Bonus points (easy, 1 point): Quote a Roman author (“Truth is the daughter of time” Aulus Gellius)