Great Poetry

I got some really great responses to yesterday's post. I highly encourage you to go back and read the comments from that one as several people left some wonderful poems. So I decided to share a couple of my personal favorites.

I once memorized an amazing poem by Robert Service. You may have heard of it.

It is called >>>The Cremation of Sam McGee<<<, and you can read it by clicking on the link. (It's too long to retype, though doing that might refresh my memory of it).

I love almost every poem written by Shel Silverstein, and have many of them memorized. But if I have to pick one favorite, it is probably this one:

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THE GARDEN

Ol' man Simon, planted a diamond,

Grew hisself a garden the likes of none.

Sprouts all growin', comin' up glowin',

Fruit of jewels all shinin' in the sun.

Colors of the rainbow,

See the sun and rain grow

Sapphires and rubies on ivory vines,

Grapes of jade, just

Ripenin' in the shade, just

Ready for the squeezin' into green jade wine.

Pure gold corn there,

Blowin' in the warm air,

Ol' crow nibblin' on the amnythyst seeds.

In between the diamonds, ol' man Simon

Crawls about pullin' out platinum weeds.

Pink pearl berries,

all you can carry,

Put 'em in a bushel and

Haul 'em into town.

Up in the tree there's

Opal nuts and gold pears-

Hurry quick, grab a stick

And shake some down.

Take a silver tater,

Emerald tomater,

Fresh plump coral melons

Hangin' in reach.

Ol' man Simon,

Diggin' in his diamonds,

Stops and rests and dreams about

One....real....peach.

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Any more good ones you can think of?

Poem in my Pocket Day

Today was Poem in my Pocket Day at the elementary school.

Mark picked out a poem immediately that he wanted to carry around, but CJ was reticent until I told him a poem that my dad used to tell me.

These are the poems they took in their pockets:

Mark took

Read This Poem by Douglas Florian

If you don't read this poem real soon

I'll make you eat a rotten prune.

And if you stop just halfway through,

I'll pinch you till your face turns blue.

Don't even think to finish here

Or else I'll have to pull your ear.

But if you read it to the end,

I promise that I'll be your friend.

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CJ took

Fleas

Adam

had'em

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I'm not sure, but that one might be by Mark Twain.

If it had been me I might have taken a good Shel Silverstein.

Do you have a favorite poem?

More Flight of the Conchords

Recognizing that I have a skewed sense of humor, I think this band is one of the funniest I have heard or seen.

This is just a short version of just one of their songs. It's not even the complete song, but none of the full versions were very good quality.

Enjoy it any way.

And if you end up watching related videos for hours and laughing yourself off your chair, I take full credit.

If you don't like it, well, there's no accounting for taste.

An Evening at Mt. Trashmore

Last Saturday, (yes this post is late), Mark asked me to take him to the rec center.

Well, by the time we were ready to go the rec center was closed. So we decided instead to go to Mt. Trashmore.

What the heck is Mt. Trashmore? you ask.

The story, as I understand it is this: Several years ago, before Virginia Beach was as big as it is now, this was the local dump.

The city was encountering 2 problems. First, the dump was getting too full, and second, the city was growing to close to it.

Someone had the bright idea to cover the whole pile of garbage with dirt and call it a park.

Thus Mount Trashmore Park was born.

Now this might sound like an odd idea, but it was successful. And this park is one of the best in the city.

There is an awesome wooden playground called Kids Cove. Plus several other playgrounds scattered around, (but Kids Cove is the best).

CJ and Mark played in the park while I had a quick run around the 1.85 mile paved path that circles the perimeter of the park, even going around the lake.

Mark had brought his scooter and wanted to go into the free skate park, but he forgot his helmet and wasn't allowed in. (Though I saw one teenager whose helmet was a red plastic firemans hat that they give out to kids at a local restaurant, and apparently, that was enough to get him in).

After my run and after the boys played in the playground for a little while, we ventured up to the top of the hill.

There is a good breeze on top of the hill and several people were flying kites

At the top of the hill I turned around and took a picture of the view, including the Kids Cove.

If the hill was a little higher I probably could have seen all the way to the ocean, which is only a few miles away.

On top of the hill there are 2 pipes like this one that release the methane gas from the decomposing garbage underneath us.Turning 120 degrees to the left you get this shot of the downtown city skyline. And another 120 degrees gives you a shot of the lake that I ran around.

We walked - actually, I walked and the boys ran- down the hill to the lake where they, in true boy fashion, spent a glorious 15 minutes throwing dirt and rocks into the lake. CJ likes the camera. Why is it impossible to take a picture of yourself without it looking like you are taking a picture of yourself? But since I like to give at least one of my bloggies a hard time for never including pictures of herself on her blog, I want to put one up of me.

The park closes at sundown, so I took this as we walked back to the car. It was a glorious evening, and I had a great time with my boys. Tell me when you are coming to visit me and I will take you to see Mt. Trashmore. You will love it too.

Dinosaur Stew

Many years ago, when I was a second grader, during our study of dinosaurs, we were all given the assignment to bring in an ingredient to make Dinosaur Stew.

I remember this clearly, and remember thinking how good the stew was.

So this month, while my cub scouts were learning about dinosaurs I decided they should have the same experience.

I made the recipe ahead of time at home, since it takes a few hours to cook in the crock pot, but I had my scouts prepare another batch during den meeting. When they were done compiling the ingredients, we enjoyed the prepared stew.

It was highly successful, and I thought you might enjoy it too.

Here's the recipe:

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Dinosaur Stew

by 2nd grade teacher Dashel Watkins

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2 or 3 seaweed roots (chopped carrots)

chopped club moss (chopped celery)

white sand and volcano ashes (salt, pepper and oregano)

1 can red swamp water (tomato soup)

3 stegosaurus eggs (diced potaotes)

ground brontosaurus (hamburger)

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Brown the brontosaurus, add all other ingredients, cook in crockpot or stew pot.

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I doubled the recipe and ended up with a second batch that the scouts made. We enjoyed it again for dinner the next night.

My cub on the left is on his second bowl here, while Mark was polishing off his stew. I hope your family enjoys it too.

Testing.
Blogger says I can send a text message to post on my blog.
You tell me, did it work?

Be As The Little Children

LOT'S WIFE

The Sunday School teacher was describing how Lot's wife looked back andturned into a pillar of salt, when little Jason interrupted,

"My Mommylooked back once while she was driving," he announced triumphantly,"and she turned into a telephone pole!"

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GOOD SAMARITAN

A Sunday school teacher was telling her class the story of the Good Samaritan.

She asked the class, "If you saw a person lying on the roadside, all wounded and bleeding, what would you do?"

A thoughtful little girl broke the hushed silence, "I think I'd throw up."

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DID NOAH FISH?

A Sunday school teacher asked, "Johnny, do you think Noah did a lot of fishing when he was on the Ark?"

"No," replied Johnny. "How could he, with just two worms."

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HIGHER POWER

A Sunday school teacher said to her children, "We have been Learning how powerful kings and queens were in Bible times. But, there is a Higher Power. Can anybody tell me what it is?"

One child blurted out, "Aces!"

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MOSES AND THE RED SEA

Nine-year-old Joey was asked by his mother what he had learned in SundaySchool.

"Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his army build a pontoon bridge and all the people walked across safely. Then he radioed headquarters for reinforcements. They sent bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved."

"Now, Joey, is that really what your teacher taught you?" his Mother asked.

"Well, no, Mom. But, if I told it the way the teacher did, you'd never believe it!"

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THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD

A Sunday School teacher decided to have her young class memorize one of the most quoted passages in the Bible - Psalm 23. She gave the youngsters a month to learn the chapter.

Little Rick was excited about the task - but he just couldn't remember the Psalm.

After much practice, he could barely get pastthe first line. On the day that the kids were scheduled to recite Psalm 23 in front of the congregation, Ricky was so nervous.

When it was his turn, he stepped up tothe microphone and said proudly, "The Lord is my Shepherd, and that's all Ineed to know."

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UNANSWERED PRAYER

The preacher's 5 year-old daughter noticed that her father always paused and bowed his head for a moment before starting his sermon.

One day, she askedhim why.

"Well, Honey," he began, proud that his daughter was so observant of his messages. "I'm asking the Lord to help me preach a good sermon."

"So, how come He doesn't?" she asked.

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BEING THANKFUL

A Rabbi said to a precocious six-year-old boy, "So your mother says your prayers for you each night? That's very commendable. What does she say?"

The little boy replied, "Thank God he's in bed!"

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UNTIMELY ANSWERED PRAYER

During the minister's prayer one Sunday, there was a loud whistle from one ofthe back pews.

Tommy's mother was horrified. She pinched him into silence and, after church, asked, "Tommy, whatever made you do such a thing?"

Tommy answered soberly, "I asked God to teach me to whistle, and He did!"

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TIME TO PRAY

A pastor asked a little boy if he said his prayers every night.

"Yes, sir." the boy replied.

"And, do you always say them in the morning, too?" the pastor asked.

"No sir," the boy replied. "I ain't scared in the daytime."

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SAY A PRAYER

Little Johnny and his family were having Sunday dinner at his Grandmother's house. Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served.

When Little Johnny received his plate, he started eating right away.

"Johnny! Please wait until we say our prayer." said his mother.

"I don't need to," the boy replied.

"Of course, you do." his mother insisted. "We always say a prayer before eating at our house."

"That's at our house." Johnny explained. "But this is Grandma's house and she knows how to cook!"