Featured Blog Posts (759)

'My Mama's Eyes'

copyright 2011 by Rick Reiley 

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My mother is an iron will and a strong determination.  She is a cloud of White Shoulders perfume once tinted with Aqua Net.  She is Ranger's baseball and every tear-jerker ever broadcast on the Hallmark channel.  She is a huge pot of red beans and a plate of sweet cornbread with little green onions on the…

                                                        (image compliments of Google Images)

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With the dog days of summer just around the corner, nothing quenches your thirst better than a fresh margarita.  You can sidle up to the local Mexican bar with store bought mixer, or whip up some fresh margaritas on your own!   Forget that sour mix and ream some lemons and limes—this one is a keeper.  This recipe, courtesy of Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, beckoned to me one warm, spring afternoon.  My husband, David was feverishly working on the monthly bills at our dining room table.…

May I just say up front, that my relationship with vegetables of any sort is tenuous at best.  As a child, I remember swallowing green peas one by one like aspirin just to get them down.  I fed broccoli to an unsuspecting blind and mentally challenged, older than dirt pooch under the dinner table.  I was unsuccessful.  My mother would put creamed corn on my plate and it was all I could do to not heave right there at the table. Brussel sprouts—yuck.  Even the odor was enough to keep me…

I remember it as if it were yesterday, or was it perhaps just then? It was around this very time at night and unseasonably cold, much like now. Ah, deja vu, it appears to have found me! But this is neither here nor there. I have a tale to tell and so I shall tell it.

I'd been tossing and turning all night, as I tend to do, when I heard a sound that sounded like nails lightly scraping my window. At first, I dismissed it as a branch from our old tree blowing in the wind. But,…

I am going to the Royal Wedding with Fergie of course!!!  No, no, no, not the singing one, the one who threw her head back and brayed like an ass in the Royal Carriage after her own Royal Wedding!!  She has always been my favorite and the only one of the lot, with the possible exception of Harry, who doesn't…

 

 

“GOOD FRIDAY” – by Christina G. Rossetti

Am I a stone, and not a sheep,

That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,

To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,

And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved

Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;

Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;…

Temporarily jettisoned back to 1983, I pull out my fax copy of a recipe that my roommate, Cathy and I used to make in our little apartment on King Street, Shippensburg University.  Our apartment was just above the green awning, and PS—in 1983, it looked NOTHING like this!

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Spring is here!  Bulbs are sprouting, greenery is appearing, birds are returning to the feeders and the delicate scent of hyacinths are in the air.  That can only mean that summer is just around the corner. Clean off the grill, dust off the propane tank and get ready for a BBQ!  As important as the main course, the side dishes always make your mouth water. …

Can I please keep my head in the sand, 

and not be informed of every injustice in every land?

It breaks my heart, it makes me cry.

I feel hopeless to help, and think "Why even try?"

Uncountless wars, plain hating each other,

whatever happened to "Love your brother"?

And sisters, too, lest we forget.

Who the hell's gonna throw us a net?

They're taking away our human rights,

and we're all on the net, too…

The rhythmic pounding of my feet on the rain-soaked pavement calms me as I push myself onward. I focus all of my energy on getting to the end of the long, dark, empty road. The lone streetlamp on this stretch flickered off during my run two nights ago and has yet to be repaired. I like it like this. It's just me, my lungs, my legs, and the pavement. The rain gets heavier as I get faster. My lungs burn as water pours down my face. Am I crying? It's hard to tell. It feels good to get it out. I…

This is the one I want to enter for contest

You’re in Love

Words and Music Sherry Somach

Well, hello

Been such a long time

How are you?

Who’s your friend?

Pretty and special, I’m sure

Is she someone new?



Old memories

Heart skips a beat

Hope starts to rise….

‘Till I look into your eyes



Chorus

You’re in love, I know

When you look at her, you glow

I’m in pain, can’t you see?

Cause that’s…

so the future arives

in full bloom 

and wanting 

all i said before 

was candy 

and I glossed my 

over my eyes 

over and again 

'til something rang my bell 

alone upon a hill 

I heard the rhythm 

blanking me away 

and soon did something else come 

into the empty places 

filling spaces left vacated

by the endless stream of lonelinesses 

dancing in my…

A lump has formed inside my chest. It is heavy, a true burden. I don't know when it became. It just is. It is rude and interrupting, like a telemarketer calling during Christmas supper. It burns inside of me; yearning for attention, wanting to affect my every thought, my every move. It claws at my heart, my lungs, my ribs; its only purpose to cause harm and distraction. It scars my organs and tears at my throat with a passion so thorough it is terrifying. I begin to feel nauseous, as though…

There are those who say the fault belongs to mining.  Take out so much of the earth's core and it will surely collapse.

There are those who say the fault belongs to Christians who asked God to "open the eyes of the Atheists."

There are those who say the fault belongs to HAARP...  I had to look that one up because I couldn't figure out how old retired people could bring about an earthquake!!

There are those who say the fault belongs Jessica Simpson.  I didn't research…

Eloise and Evelyn got to the top of the escalator, eggplant firmly in hand. As they got off, they couldn't help but notice that a priest, a rabbi and Batman were getting on the descending escalator. The de-escalator, as it were.

"What is this... a joke?" Evelyn groaned.

"We're going to a bar!" Batman boasted.

"Why don't you join us?" rasped the rabbi.

"Please!" panted the priest. "Bring your eggplant!"

"What the…