Parm's Pleasant Pondering Place at TORC: Christmastide

[prmiller]

A little shout is upward cast...
Look! 7000 posts..at last!
And see! It only took twelve years
through gales of laughter, storms of tears,
some deathly valleys, fearful heights,
Orcish foes and barrow wights.
Noble folk, both great and wise,
kept a watch with godly eyes.
Here, at last, with cheer and toast,
I write my seven-thousandth post.

Oh,joy, joy, joy,

Pmiller
Aka
Parm

[Calma]

Well, look at you with all those posts.
Congrats on 7000!

[prmiller]

To be sure, the huge broadswords of adversity
can fell any mighty warrior of life,
but it is also the unattended drip...drip...drip of
life blood from the stilettos of stress and daily woundings
that can also bring one down.
I am grateful for respites along the way,
but, it is the daily encouragements
that keep me from perishing completely.

As with us all, life has brought us its own challenges,
but it is lovely thing to come to this place to find
a cheery hearth, a good flagon, and the warm crusts of bread
of companionship.
Good things, indeed!

Glad for the company,
Parm

[Vanaladiel]

Ah fall and her gentle changing of clothing. From the greens of the summer to the subtle at first changing to the bright golden yellows and reds of fall. The seasons marching on to the next. A race to leave this year behind seems to be on. It feels to me as if we just started 2012 and here we are at the waning edge of 2014. Too fast the days are gone and joys of the year become mere memories.

I see that our beloved PARM has attained another milestone with 7000 posts. How did I miss this and it has been two months since the feat was made. I am sorry for my absence and my sleeping through this major event here on the boards. Your posts have always been with great thought and witty scenes for our pleasure. Thank you for being here PARM to brighten our days and lift our spirits. I do know that you have been having trials of your own. I pray that all is well with your family, we sure do miss you all.

I do look forward to times such as Christmas with the many beautiful lights and the songs of our Redeemer's Birth, but I long for the days of renewal of the greens of spring and summer days. I will not deny that the first flakes of snow falling on a quiet winter night is beautiful, I just prefer them from the quiet comfort of my warm home as I sit with a cup of hot chocolate and mini marshmallows, a good book and my blanket. All too often I am out somewhere or at work and must endure the trek home with idiot drivers who don't think they have to slow down to navigate safely.

I hope you enjoy Autumn and the blessing there of be bestowed upon you with all grace from out Lord and Saviour!! Love you PARM!

[prmiller]

I do give thanks for what befalls,
for interlopers down our halls,
for conflict's pain and healing word,
for seeming random wrongs absurd,
for all claws that rip and jaws that bite
for things a-bumping in in the night.
I recognize the wisdom gained
for what has wounded and has pained,
for what embarrasses and shames
for needless hurts to cherished names,
all these I know, and understand...
so when dark shadows cross my land,
and Mordor's mountains seem as fangs,
and I feel grief and sorrow's pangs,
I will not leave this place on whim,
despite the struggle long and grim...
No, I shall come and rest in here
and wait for music's calling cheer,
for friendly voices walking past,
and join you all...at last...at last.

Parm

[Calma]

parm!!!

Hope all is going well for you and yours.

[Connmhach]

My memory is gentled nudged
with note-like hints, regarding twelve,
of leaping lords and milking maids
and rings of gold that miners delve.
Twelve Years of TORC! I look...'tis true!
This month, this day to celebrate.
The first few posts? With awkwardness,
then accolades felicitate:
"Lighthouse of the Boards" I'm called,
a symbol I have gladly used,
Red Pencil, Starbrow, then one year
a verb appears...I was bemused:
"Be Parmed" I learn, is how one feels
when I, with poetry, bring cheer,
and like the dawn proclaiming day,
my role among you shines most clear...
I am the one you count upon
to fill the skies with sparkling praise,
cause earthquakes of delight to break,
bring fulsome gladness to your days.
In truth, like rice, my head bows low,
filled full by all your thankful hearts,
and should my name beyond here go,
know this: you honed poetic arts.
Thus should great accolades pour in,
get wet with all the joy they bring,
and should the world with gladness shout,
my poems, with your notes, they sing.
Thus twelve full years seem swiftly gone,
and I am here, soon sixty...too!
My happiness in life has grown
from goodness given here...by you!

Blessings to you all,
Parm

You are a wonderful poet. Everything on this thread is great!

[prmiller]

My memory is gentled nudged
with note-like hints...

Thus twelve full years seem swiftly gone,
and I am here, soon sixty...too!
My happiness in life has grown
from goodness given here...by you!

Blessings to you all,
Parm

You are a wonderful poet. Everything on this thread is great!

To Connmhach:
I am most grateful that you took the time
to read these poems, often framed in rhyme,
and I am truly learning other forms,
to write in ways that comforts friends in storms,
or cheers a grand accomplishment or skill,
and laughs with friends and all their flagons fill.
May you discover in this wondrous place,
community of wit and love and grace.

Blessings,
Parm

[prmiller]

They fall everywhere
those leaves from all those trees
that gives Calgary renown
mostly rich yellows
we poets call golden
that snap and crackle under our feet
while we walk with our muse
and look for inspiration in this
breath-catching
wonder.
Biologists could outline
the salutary nature of these
expired engines of photosynthesis
still
I love the leaves
with a sound like wrapping paper
coming off a gift
that makes
one more memory.

Blessings,
Parm

[prmiller]

For nearly thirty years my days
dipped into to vast Osaka's haze
or scrabbled up Mt. Fuji's slopes,
or licked a thousand envelopes
containing awkward Japanese
with thanks for gifts (not meant to please)
yet still delighted, nonetheless,
for ways our friends hoped to express
their gratitude for foreign friends
who awkward English (gratis) mends.
Some days I sat with glowing screen,
enjoying Canada, with scene on scene
of glinting snow and maple trees
and floralled meadows (were there bees?)
I sighed and looked out on "our hills"
with flowers framing window sills,
and did not fail to thank the Lord,
though typhoons came...and my! It poured!
Now I am here, amid those trees,
have hiked through meadows (Flies! not bees!)
I shovel snow, de-ice my walk,
learn to use Tim Horton's talk,
groan with others who decry
how swiftly summer passed us by.
Now I am here...and all is good...
yet here I miss that neighbourhood.

Blessings,
Parm

[prmiller]

Somewhere in the midst of gnomes
stands a pillared box, with tomes,
beckoning the curious
to sample novels spurious.
Thr3e (by Dekker), Lord Foul's Bane,
Spiderman and G.I. Jane,
graphic novels (comic books)
...or some just...graphic...by their looks.
This the mini-li-brar-y
found in north-west Cal-ga-ry.
Our alder-person, Druh, by name,
hopes to parlay charm and fame
by planting these delightful boxes
offering Green Eggs and foxes,
(or was that Ham?) I soon shall see
if Seuss books bless that li-brar-y!

Blessings,
Parm

...and the inspiration...
http://article.wn.com/view/2012/03/15/Little_Free_Libraries_bring_communities_together/

[prmiller]

Onward and Outward!

To all my students reading here,
for those employed, both far and near,
my heartiest and fondest hopes
to learn, with growing skill, those ropes
that your employers need to see
develop with alacrity.
Keep touch with classmates (or with me)
to share your stories eagerly.
Now onward! Outward! Off you go!
Go show the world the stuff you know!

All the best, to our new ELF's
Parm
aka
"Professor" M.

[Tookish_Traveler]

Hey Parm!!! Glad to see you!

Yes, we are glad, not at all sad.
Neither are we mad, egad!
And not bad, it's no fad!
Not even a tad!

[prmiller]

Hey Parm!!! Glad to see you!

Yes, we are glad, not at all sad.
Neither are we mad, egad!
And not bad, it's no fad!
Not even a tad!

Oh, look at you, all rhyming and such,
and though you may not think it much,
I am quite glad to see see you here...
enjoying the rhymes that often appear.

Blessings,
Parm

[Tookish_Traveler]

Don't encourage me.

[prmiller]

<For J.G...the Poetry Mum>
You cause a giggle or smile
to bless your daughter's busy days,
why should I not, with likewise skill,
support these gifts with words of praise?
You may not think you rank with Keats,
or challenge Shakespeare with your rhymes,
but what delight your efforts bring
that brace a heart for darker times.
I am most honoured knowing you,
and for examples that you set.
May all that loved poured from your heart,
be wonders she shall not forget.

Blessings,
Parm

[prmiller]

Computers hum
at attention for commands
there are no bodies in chairs
no fingers peck-pecking at keyboards
all is still
waiting
and this place
like the students
who come here are
warm with potential
all is empty but
ready
as I am

Blessings,
Parm

[prmiller]

I knew that I was
on a cleanse,
where fruit and cheese,
like Shylock's scale,
are weighed so that not one minim
is above
or below
the desired amount
where supplements and vitamins are
portioned out with exactitude
rivalling the tithes of cummin and mint
that Pharisees delighted to subdivide
I knew all that...
but...
there was this hot dog, see,
and it spoke to me,
clearly...
with a thick, steamy, sultry tone...
Hi, there!
Well...?
How could you resist?
How could you heartlessly pass by
without at least a brief hello,
the tiniest of caresses
along its smooth, tanned, firm...
crust.
I submitted to its seduction... .

It was after our time together...
scant minutes later...
that I realized
how swiftly I had been swept into the sensuous joys
of meat and bread
and mustard-ketchup-relish...with sauerkraut
(of course).

O create in me a clean heart!

I will be more circumspect
next time
I gaze down from my balcony
to the vendor's venue.
Amen.

We'll gaze at each other,
wink
and remember
that at least we had Paris.

Parm

[Calma]

tsk, tsk, tsk....


Now you have to start all over, parm.
But I understand your lack of willpower
It's my downfall, too.

[prmiller]

The glint of sun on windowpanes,
the slosh of rain down eaves and drains,
the poignant trill of robin song,
that summer storms will not last long;
bright fireworks on festive nights,
fireflies' elusive lights,
booths with fruit one can't pass by,
lightning bolts that crack the sky;
laughter from some folks at play,
barbecues that last all day,
ambling through a park with trees,
savouring the cooling breeze --
ah! it's summer, and my door
is open to its call once more.

Blessings,
Parm

[prmiller]

I visited a scholars' place
where CVs and lists of accomplishments
paraded in monochrome enthusiasm
down avenues of pages and pages
and I
on the curb
applauded those skills
of linguistic legerdemain
of juggling bright spheres
scintillating with brilliant ideas,
of heart-stopping trumpets of accolades
marching out from places where
much was given
and where much has been produced.
Oh yes
I air-juggled
and mimicked the heralding blasts of achievement
then sighed
knowing that I belonged to a different
parade
the march of life
that does not need me to be brilliant
but be present
that does not need my erudition
but my steadiness,
that does not need my performance
but my service
I cannot cartwheel compassion
I must step in and be bloodied
I cannot merely whistle a happy tune
I must sing the song of healing into a fractured heart
In my parade
the only ones clapping
are angels
and only then
at the end.

Blessings,
Parm

[Tookish_Traveler]

So nice to see you, Parm.

[prmiller]

So nice to see you, Parm.

...and I glad to be around to be seen!

Though Life Beats Hard

I knew that life would have the rain,
the raging storms, the niggling pain,
the sudden shocks, the growing grief,
I knew these things would need relief...
and that is why my faith and friends,
help bring these crises to their ends.
Bright sunshine rainbows on the clouds,
See? Starlight breaks the midnight shrouds!
Despite the ways that words haves stung,
new days have come and larks have sung.
Though life beats hard upon my heart,
I shall not let these sorrows start
to wrap me in a cynic's crust.
No! I know what and Whom to trust.
The smiles, the poems, all you see...
are shared with authenticity.

Blessings,
Parm

[Calma]

Hey, parm!
Everything ok?

[prmiller]

Hey, parm!
Everything ok?

I am all birthday-ed, candled, caked,
all present-ed with smiles unfaked,
well-carded, I, with Hallmark verse,
all solid rhymes -- have done worse.
The songs, the talks, the memories,
old tales regaled (Oh, once more...please!),
the giggles--pause--and yes, the tears,
the wisdom gained from knee-scraped years--
all these and more emerged that day
as daylight gently dimmed away.
Farewells, and hugs, and "Call me, please!"
the fading laughter on the breeze,
a wave goodbye, then lights turn out...
all glad how this day came about.
Goodnight stars, goodnight air,
goodnight loved ones everywhere.

Blessings,
Parm
...entering into sixty-one-derful years!

...So, yes, Calma,
everything is OK.

[Tookish_Traveler]

Happy Birthday!!!!!

[Calma]

Yes, Happy Birthday!

So glad everything is ok.

[prmiller]

My most very dear friends and co-posters here at TORC,

My absence from the board is from sheer busyness.
My new role as a tutor at SAIT Polytechnic has
grown and grown and changed and changed
so that I am very much in demand, working
8 hours each day meeting students to coach,
to encourage, to diagnose and rehabilitate,
and occasionally give out tissues for weepy
moments. I love my work, but it does keep me
from places and from people I enjoy.

All is well. Mrs. Parm and I are doing well...she has
even gone back to school to become an even
better employee at a legal firm, and all the Parmettes
are at different degrees of enjoying life.

I love using my spare moments to visit, such as this,
but I hope there are not mounting fears that things
are amiss in my world. I can honestly say that our
life here in Canada has been healing, enabling, and
enriching.

My most enthusiastic greetings to you all.
Parm

[Calma]

Oh look at you sneaking out and sneaking back...

Happy to hear all is well in the house of parm!

[heliona]

I concur, sneaky, sneaky.

Glad to hear that all is well and that you're keeping busy, although hopefully with time to rest and play. (Even if it is not here. )