.
.
wind swept leaves
a stop at mill pond
sudden arctic night
traveling on water
frozen in ice
.
TPOS: traveling by water
(Wings and Waves Waterpark) Gary Blankenship prompt
.
========================================
.
TPOS tanka prompt March 24, 2015 traveling by water
(Wings and Waves Waterpark) Gary
Hi.
It’s spring break in this part of Oregon
and we are entertaining our grandchildren
as the weather allows.
Sunday was bowling
and yesterday the indoor water park at McMinnville
– next to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum.
(Including Spruce Goose).
The water park has a large wave pools
and 4 slides coming from a Boeing 747 on the roof
–
one with a funnel.
.
Something for all ages.
BTW a water museum and café are included.
Our kids had oodles of fun.
What are your experiences with water parks and play –
pools slides Rapids and rafting.
How wet your tanka will get.
.
.
.photo: http://www.nursingexplorer.com
.
.
firm moves with gloved hands.
.
.
THE PROMPTS:
keen -/- Operating Room Nurse Day:
Another occupation we should salute
.
Keen: having or showing an ability to think clearly
and to understand what is not obvious or simple about
something
: very strong and sensitive : highly developed
: very excited about and interested in something
.
====================================
.
.
.
.
real or made up –
.
at unisex beauty shops
mall hours
twas nice to hide away
curlers and perms not pretty
.
.
Gary Blankenship prompt for Tanka Poets on Line
.
Kathabela’s wonderful prompts for the last week have sparked
a lot of nostalgic tanka, childhood memories.
Much of it about how the world has changed.
My reference is 50’s when we still had black telephones with party lines,
wringer washers (I caught my finger in ours more than once),
clothes lines, butter churns and push mowers.
In barber shops, the barber wore a white coat,
dispensed bay rum and a sucker to the kids,
and the town gossips lined one wall.
Typewriters were manual, computers were clunky
and bikes may have been brakeless.
There were frozen TV dinners, but they went in the oven.
There were three national television channels
and one or two local stations.
And each had a live kid’s show.
Ours were Sheriff Tex, Captain Puget, Stan Boreson
and No Mo, JP Patches and Brakeman Bill and Donkey
with the worse jokes ever. Most were icons.
If your era was later, you changes were different and today,
it seems there are more changes than in the old decades.
.
What changes have occurred from when you were a kid and now?
Which do you miss the most?
Some went through changes like the churn, oleo, color packs and on.
How has your favorite change changed?
Even poetry has changed with new forms
and modern version of the old?
How has yours evolved?
What will your tanka tell us about the changes –
too numerous to list in this short paragraph?
Photo from Button Central
https://www.facebook.com/ButtonCentral
used with permission
.
Prompt: Button, button, who has got the button (Gary)
Remembering
.
.
.
.
Prompt: bee balloons
birds do it ~ bees too
even balloon bees do it
fall in love
holding hands at dawn
Up up and away to the sky
.
.
tanka prompt – hot air balloons – up, up and away (Gary)
For twelve years we have stayed at the Blue Ox RV Park
in Albany Oregon for our grandson’s birthday.
Just before his big day is the Albany Art and Air Fair,
which we have been able to witness most years.
The balloons ascend from Linn-Timber Memorial Park’s soccer fields
adjacent to the Blue Ox over four mornings starting at about 6 am.
Albany is a small event with only 35 to 40 balloons.
(The largest in the world with over 600 balloons is at Albuquerque NM.)
Usually, the balloons are standard hot air shapes,
but this year there was nothing ordinary about one set of balloons.
Ascending this year with last place honors were the “Little Bees” from Arizona –
Lilly and Joey tethered together and Joelly,
the smaller kid (but still 50 foot.
His parents are 100 feet each.)
Two small facts – they are the only balloon group that flies together;
and
Joelly’s pilot is the first paraplegic balloonist
.
What is your experience with balloons,
even water balloons?
And other flying craft, such as hang-gliders and experimental planes?
Given the chance, would you go up in a balloon?
How do your tanka soar using alternative power?
For pictures of shape balloons at Albuquerque go to
http://www.balloonfiesta.com/pilots-and-crew/special-shapes-directory
And for an article on this year’s Albany balloons, including Little Bee Joelly and his pilot, Michael Glen, go to http://democratherald.com/news/local/flying-high-achieving-his-dreams/article_01a5772c-2b22-11e4-a2b6-0019bb2963f4.html
.
photo (c) 2014 Gary Blankenship used with permission
.
.Sharon Hawley photo from the Tanka on Site prompt
.
(You may read all about her biking adventures in her blog: Pedaling West II –http://sharonbybicycle.blogspot.com/2013_02_01_archive.html
.
.
a dusty town
the largest of western legends
dying along the river
the nightingale no longer sings
time for a trek over dusty plains
siggiofmaine 