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Friday, August 17, 2012

Mary's Mixed Bag - Neighborhood

Neighborhood

Mazatlan, Mexico neighborhood
Photo by Mary Kling


This week here at Mary's Mixed Big I'd like people to think a bit about neighborhood. Sometimes I feel like we have an ideal 'neighborhood' here in the Imaginary Garden, don't you?  Sometimes I also wonder about the real life neighborhoods that Toads and Friends here live in. Wouldn't it be fun if we could take virtual visits and zip around and visit one another's neighborhoods?

I think the neighborhood of mine that lives the strongest in my mind is my childhood neighborhood. It really IS the neighborhood that I still know best. My impressions of it are the strongest of any neighborhood I have lived in.  I wonder which of your neighborhoods lives the strongest in YOUR mind. (Perhaps you can respond to that in the comments section.)

New York City neighborhood
Photo by Mary Kling

Today I would like you to choose one of the neighborhoods you have lived in or the one you live in today. Write a poem about it, giving us as many sensory details as you can muster. Give us its flavor, perhaps its cast of characters, the sights, the smells, sounds, and hopefully some of the goings on. Write the seen and perhaps the unseen. (All neighborhoods have undercurrents, don't they?)

I look forward to reading what you write, of visiting you in one of your neighborhoods and will enjoy it if you pay a visit to mine!


Milwaukee, Wisconsin neighborhood
Photo by Mary Kling


16 comments:

  1. I have a lot of happy childhood memories of wonderful neighborhoods, playing outside, block parties, friendships... but this is what came to mind today.

    Thanks for the thought-provoking prompt, Mary!

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  2. Good prompt, Mary. It was fun visiting my childhood neighborhood once again and I even found an old photo of our street.

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  3. Hi Kerry and Mary, Forgive me posting an old poem on what is a rather personal prompt (in the very best way). It got me thinking sad thoughts which I didn't want today, so to cheer up I am posting a poem about my Quaker meeting and going out to the neighborhood pool about a mile away. Hope it doesn't storm. Then my Meeting is having a good-bye party for a young adult. A good neighborly feeling resides in both places. Have a great weekend.

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  4. I love this prompt, Mary, and will enjoy visiting the various neighborhoods. I hark back to my childhood neighborhood too, but as you described yours so well, I decided to write about a larger neighborhood:) Hope you like it.

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  5. I have enjoyed the 'neighborhood' poems that have been posted so far & look forward to more. If any of you who have posted so far have another 'neighborhood' you want to share, feel free. Laurie, your poem reminded me of an old college 'neighborhood' as well. I may (or may not) write it too.

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  6. Lovely prompt Mary ~ I will probably write for this at another time as our family is going away for a few days ~

    Wishing you all a happy weekend ~

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  7. I love the prompt Mary. This sparked a memory of a neighborhood I lived in when I first got married.

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  8. I'm horribly late, but I've linked in with a piece about the neighborhood where I had the most fun as a child.

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  9. Another excellent challenge, Mary. I'll be around to read tonight and Sunday.

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  10. Dear Friend here's my contribution I hope this time the submission is Ok. Thank you for such a lovely idea to write on.memoirs is my favourite area of writing.
    http://poeticocean.blogspot.com/2012/08/in-response-tohttpwithrealtoadsblogspot.html

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  11. Great prompt! Childhood triggers many a memory .. however the neighborhood I live in right now is spectacular. Working on a poem.

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  12. Thanks, Mary. I enjoyed this.
    I just had to go with the neighborhood where I'm living with my husband and our dog, Lindy. I have lived in many neighborhoods, with fond memories of several, but this poem insisted on being written and illustrated.

    I'm already late posting, and am now going out to lunch with friends, but will be back to comment on other Toads' and visitors' posts.
    K

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  13. Thank you Mary,
    Probably mine is not the kind of neighbourhood you have in mind. But it is mine, and I love it.

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  14. Just posted my neighborhood poem!

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  15. I really loved reading each one of your poems! Thanks to each of you who shared your 'neighborhood' with us.

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  16. It was an interesting post! Thanks.

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Much time and effort went into this post! Your feedback is appreciated.