Zombie Flamingos

Welcome to my April 2026 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…maybe even with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, X is for … eXperimenting with translation.

Truth is, I don’t know what I would ultimately do with this, but this is Emily Dickinson’s There Came a Wind like a Bugle translated to Inuktut and back to English. What’s your favourite line change in the final version?

Original poem, Emily Dickinson

There came a wind like a bugle;
It quivered through the grass,
And a green chill upon the heat
So ominous did pass
We barred the windows and the doors
As from an emerald ghost;
The doom’s electric moccasin
That very instant passed.
On a strange mob of panting trees,
And fences fled away,
And rivers where the houses ran
Those looked that lived—that Day—
The bell within the steeple wild
The flying tidings whirled.
How much can come
And much can go,
And yet abide the world!

Translated into Inuktut

Anuri tikilauqpuq qummuattitautititut;
Quaqsaalauqpuq siurarmi,
Ammalu uujaujaq niglasuktuq uqquunaqtumi
Taimaimmat kappianaqtuq anigulauqpuq
Igalaangit matungillu matulauqtavut
Taimanna tarraqtugarmik;
Doom-kut uajamuuqtut muukasin
Tainna anigukautigilauqtuq.
Kamanaqtummarimmit napaaqtunit,
Ammalu sapuulutait qimaallutik,
Ammalu kuut igluit aqqutigivalauqtangit
Taikkua takunnalauqtut inuujunik—taissumani ullumi—
Sivaniruti iluani tuksiarviup uumajuit
Tusagaksait sanguvallialilauqput.
Qattinik tikitittijunnaqpat
Ammalu amisut kajusijunnaqtut,
Ammalu suli maliktauluni nunarjuarmi!

Back to English

The wind came like a thunderbolt;
He shivered in the sand,
and green is cool in heat
So the panic was over
We closed the windows and doors
Like a ghost;
Doom’s Electric Moccasins
That time passed quickly.
Wonderful trees,
and the fences fled,
and rivers through which houses
Those who watched the living—on that day—
Bell inside the Temple Animals
The news began to spin.
How much can they import
And many can pass,
And still follow the world!

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Thanks for visiting my 2026 A to Z Challenge – Letter X.

Welcome to my April 2026 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…maybe even with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, W is for … A wandering kind of poem. 

Seasons

Fingernails ground in earth,
palm lines etched
black. We dig,
tools and gloves
forgotten inside
with sudden urge
for preparing soil,
planting seedlings, our
hopes for summer bounty.

I lie back in soft summer grass, a child unafraid
of spiders and worms crawling
over my prone body. Gaze up at clouds
to imagine I float among, perch
on top, dangle beneath
from a swing the shape of a dolphin.
Until winds scatter puffs back to heaven.

He crouches still,
hidden in pinprick
caves dotting the tundra.
You see him from above, spy
small movements, the only
signs of life in an eternal
winter landscape.

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Thanks for visiting my 2026 A to Z Challenge – Letter W.

Welcome to my April 2026 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…maybe even with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, V is for … Very close to the end…

Nature’s “Candy”

You, you shriveled
face of elder grapes,
bruised skin
of rotted purple.

You, you shrunken sugary,
pitted mummified
fruit, gritting sand
on my tongue.

You, you leather
pips, poor
excuses for the nature’s
candy they claim you are

at Hallowe’en. You,
you shameful chocolate
chip in disguise, ruining
cookies in your wake.

You, you who hide
in folds of cinnamon
buns, a foul joke
with our morning coffee.

Thanks for visiting my 2026 A to Z Challenge – Letter V.

Welcome to my April 2026 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…maybe even with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, U is for … Using lines from other people’s poems…a Cento man.

Dressed for Peace: A Cento

I’ll wear it like bones, like skin.

It’ll be the goddamned dress they bury me in.

I swear, you will wake
& mistake these walls for skin,

vague as fog
and looked for like mail.

Draw us into daylight in our beds
and clear away what presses on the brain.
As freedom is a breakfast food…

questions prowl
stream-like through the dirt —
it’s late

but everything comes next.

From:

Ocean Vuong, Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong
Kim Addonizio What do women want
Sylvia Plath, You’re

Elizabeth Bishop, love lies sleeping
ee cummings, Adult Nursery Rhymes III

Laurie Sheck, In Curious May

Naomi Shihab Nye, Jerusalem

Thanks for visiting my 2026 A to Z Challenge – Letter U.

Welcome to my April 2026 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…maybe even with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, T is for … Telephone Wires, Ode To

Ode to Telephone Wires

Crisscrossing the skies
Spiderwebs running currents
Lead us into light

Thanks for visiting my 2026 A to Z Challenge – Letter T.