Rononvan's Weekly Haiku Challenge

All Afire: Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Challenge

Ronovans’ Haiku prompt ‘Flame & Kiss’ is setting the tone for Valentine, wink, wink 😉

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He stole a quick kiss
setting her all afire
with lingering flames of desire

♥

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Rononvan's Weekly Haiku Challenge

Coast Along – Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Challenge

I laughed out loud when I saw Ronovan’s prompt ‘car & coast’ for the weekly haiku. I had just written a post about road trips and my desire to travel, so it’s in sync 🙂

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Get into the car

to simply coast

with nowhere in mind.

—

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Rononvan's Weekly Haiku Challenge

Skip, Hop, Life is a Joy – Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku

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Her laughter, little skips, and spins

around the dancing tinkling water fountain,

a simple statement of Life’s joy.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Are you looking for something fresh to do? You could join Ronovan’s weekly haiku challenge.

Rononvan's Weekly Haiku Challenge

Ringing my bell…

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The children press my doorbell in mischief,

it’s ringing, jingling Christmas tune

has become their temporary source of delight

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

I smiled when I saw the prompt for Ronovan’s weekly haiku door & bell because it was easy to choose what to write about.

My Christmas doorbell that I put last week has been pressed twice more than usual, sometimes by my own children and sometimes, I hear the high excited voice of the neighbours little daughters as they press it and run down the passage.

Their squeals make me smile 🙂

Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

The Sharp Drama’s of My Life – Streams of Consciousness Saturday

Sharp contrasting thoughts muddle my mind with sheer self-castigation as I look at the year dwindling to an end and find myself counting the things that I had mentally set out to achieve for myself but find that I fall far short of my own expectations. I started out the year on such a highly motivated note but I guess that I am suffering from battered emotions syndrome. Some are self-induced, while life brought it’s own baggage along. I am seized with the desire to do absolutely nothing almost to the point of it getting scary.

Sharing my thoughts might help to crank up my gears and pull me out of wallowing in shallow thoughts and sheer laziness. I have an attitude that believes in pulling myself out of depressive moods, but for reasons that I can’t put my fingers on, I simply wish to burrow down, dig the hole deeper and just roll in the muddy waters of woe-is-me.

Self-pity has never been my thing otherwise, I would never have survived some of the hard balls life had tossed my way. I find that despair and depression are twins and that most times it’s far easier to give in to the whiny pair than to get up and fight. I find that as a highly motivated, driven person that the bar I set for myself is usually high and that whenever I fall short of these expectations, I feel the burn.

I’m trying to step back and take all the necessary thoughts into account without clouding my mind with any unnecessary feel good feelings or numbing myself with so much work that I’m too tired to think. That is why I deliberately chose not to blog for some days.

Sometimes we have to go through the motions and not bury our emotions otherwise, they will simply fester and actually grow bigger. I’m not making excuses for falling off the wagon and failing to achieve the short goals that I set for myself, I am not making excuses for depression that hits me at times with visceral pain and trying to wave it away with a wand.

I will not try to shake off these Debbie Downer feelings and cut short my low moments because they will simply hibernate and possibly drag their sorry ass selves into my next year. No! I can’t have that.

I am sitting here in my raggedy PJ’s and floppy rabbit slippers, with a carving knife in the shape of a pen. I’m going to cut myself to pieces, bleed, cry into a box of tissues, eat chocolate, drink stale wine, eat chocolates again, watch a soppy MGM movie, cry some more again, cut myself some more until my nose gets bulbous and my eyes are swollen shut from crying tears that cause my shoulders to shake.

I’m not going to look pretty, but I can bet your bottom dollar that I am going to feel marvellous after all the shakeup. Then I’ll patch up the pieces that I shredded.

P.S. Please excuse me for not visiting for a while. My door is shut while I’m going through some drama. I’ll be back shortly.

Yours,

Jacqueline

SoCS – ‘sh’

Rononvan's Weekly Haiku Challenge

Gifts of Gold – Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Challenge

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Bearing gifts of gold, myrrh, and frankincense
they sing songs of Joy
and bow to the Him, The Cornerstone

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Ronovan writes weekly haiku challenge – Gold & Sing

Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge Image 2016

Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

Few of my favourite things – Streams of Consciousness Saturday

I love pretty things. They are delightful to look at. I’ve always loved colour splashes and if truth be told, I have no favourite colour ‘cos I love them all.

There’s something pretty about each hue and my eclectic self can never seem to decide on a colour that’s the best colour.

I’m a sound of music kinda girl and at the same time a spirited ruff and tumble kind of person.

I no longer try to define myself because no definition does a pretty good job of summing me up. I confuse the heck out of my dear Himself at times 🙂

Pretty ribbons and sashes, pretty flowers, a pretty, frilly, girly frock are a few of my favourite things.

A pretty frock on a little girl or indeed a lady transforms her. I do own several pretty dresses though my jeans are my quick get-ups to wear when in a dash.

On Sundays, I enjoy dressing up for Church, in a pretty dress, my heels and sometimes a hat or scarf depending on my mood.

My walk simply changes and the swing in my hips decidedly pronounced, I guess it’s the combination of the heels and dress and my dear husband loves it too 😉

These days, I take my time to shop – except for groceries that are essential to survival. I choose carefully what I want to buy either for my home or to wear. It has to be pretty, aesthetically pleasing. Something that would make my heart smile.

There’s no point acquiring things just sporadically and for the fun of it. I try to surround myself with those pretty things that warm me up and enhance my sense of pleasure.

Life is pretty fast these days and the days are too short to waste on ugliness.

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

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SoCS prompt – Pretty

Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

Yesterday’s Dreams – Stream of Consciousness Saturday

Ghosts of
yesterday’s dreams
lie beaten
in the abyss
of unrequited desires
crushed and dejected
stretching bony limbs
that wraps
skeletal fingers around legs
dragging its’ bony frame along
and
slowing down
today’s dreams

Let us
bury yesterday
say our goodbye’s
with tears in our eyes
to dreams aborted
like unwanted fruits
embrace with a purpose
golden opportunities
of today dreams
that we may profit
from its’ fruits
lest they fall
like yesterday.

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt – YES

Rononvan's Weekly Haiku Challenge

I Can’t Breathe…

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I can’t breathe…
thoughts trapped…
is new, death?

©Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Ronovan writes weekly haiku challenge – breathe&new

Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

Personal Memories – Streams of Consciousness Saturday

Memories are powerful parts of who we are, where we are coming from and most times they inform how we venture further afield into life. Some memories fade with time, while some hold dark moments in our lives even when we try to suppress them.

Some memories burn vivid and bright in our minds and evoke a sublime state of happiness in our lives that we unwittingly wish to cling to such memories even when that time has long passed. These are the memories that I wish I could hold in the palm of my hands, but I store them in a better place – my heart.

A lot of times, I remember moments in time of my childhood when all I knew was the cocooning love of my parents and as an adult, I crawl back into my head into those moments that suffuse my entire being with softness and warmth.

Each day that passes by brings memories of my loved ones’ who have passed on to the other side to my mind. They are the one’s who shaped my life and molded my values as the human that I am today. My late dad and my beautiful, enigmatic grandmothers.

My dad is/was a man amongst men. A gentleman to the letter. A firm, fair-minded and peaceful fellow. He loved music. He was creative and diligent. He loved people. He worked hard. He was a good man, good father, and provider. He loved me.

Sometimes, memories of him bring bittersweet tears to my eyes’ that even after 3 years of his passing, I get a lump in my throat whenever my thoughts dwell on him. He was my anchor.

Memories of my grandmothers’ are filled with softness, with laughter, with tales of folklore, proverbs and life lessons. With pampering with one hand and a hard smack on the butt for misbehaving, with eating freshly prepared meals made on firewood and earthenware pots. They are filled with remembrance of massaging aching muscles with locally prepared shea butter and the heartfelt thank you that my gran would say. As I write this I can hear the echo of her voice in my head as she says ‘Nnedim, Ezigbo nwa.’

Now I have the great urge to eat from an earthenware pot, to sit on a three-legged stool in the small kitchen back in my village and to watch the pregnant nanny goat as she chewed a portion of yam peels with certainty.

Linda, thank you for taking me down memory lane with today’s prompt. As we remember the heroes in our lives, the heroes past, it comes to my mind to point out that heroes are not only those who fought armed battles but all those who make sacrifices every day to ensure that our future is better. Go and be someone’s hero today.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Quick glossary:

Nnedim – In Igbo language means ‘my husbands’ mother.’ My gran believed in reincarnation and that I’m her mother-in-law who she spoke of with such fondness and love.

Ezigbo Nwa – means ‘good child.’


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