Boviform
A "B" Entry for The A-Z of Unusual Words Challenge
Boviform: cow-shaped
My Connection: My dad grew up on a dairy farm in Montana. While we lived in Denver we would visit regularly and I have so many fond memories of our time spent at the farm. I especially loved getting to meet the calves and play among the hay bales. When I was ten we moved to Tennessee and visits to the farm became pretty infrequent. It's been just over a decade now since I last visited, but it is still a place that holds a lot of importance because of the family and love that it has come to symbolize.
My Poem:
Summertime, within hay bale forts we’d hide.
Bottle caps, dandelions, and bluebunch
In Big Sky, begging for a tractor ride,
Settling for sipping sun tea after lunch.
The Holsteins grazing grass in a green hue
Bright as Crayola, against a background
Of snow capped peaks piercing the brilliant blue.
Yellow plumed meadowlarks, their warbles sound
In a haven of ponderosa pine
Beside the white farm house, where one woman
Raised seven children and her son reared nine
On sweet raw milk from a stainless steel can
***
And one of the seven was my father
The nine just a handful of my cousins.
Yearly visits turned to hardly ever
One state away became half a dozen.
How can a place that’s mostly memories
And is more than a thousand miles away
Still mean so much and leave a missing piece?
A boviform one that can’t be replaced.
Suppose a heart is kind of like a tree,
It grows and stretches branches heavenward
But down beneath what you and I can see
Roots reach to anchor love when life gets hard
Author's Note: This piece was created for Penny Fuller's The A-Z of Unusual Words Challenge. Check out the details in the story linked below. My first entry was around 75 words and this one is about 175 words, so my average is meeting the 100-125 word count criteria...
About the Creator
D.K. Shepard
Character Crafter, Witty Banter Enthusiast, World Builder, Unpublished novelist...for now
Fantasy is where I thrive, but I like to experiment with genres for my short stories. Currently employed as a teacher in Louisville.
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Compelling and original writing
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'20/20'
"Do It Again" the track that would ultimately open the Beach Boys final album on Capitol Records which was released on February 10th 1969 had originally been released as a single in August of 1968. The track was the first of many post-Pet Sounds era throwbacks to the early Beach Boys sound which would become continually more cliched and eventually lead the Beach Boys to the level of self-parody they would eventually succumb to in the 1980s while their closest contemporaries The Beatles nearing the end of their run in 1969 would go on to be viewed as the most influential band of all time. However, the song itself is not bad on its surface, and it opens with a futuristic sounding (for 1969) drumbeat captured by then-Beach Boys engineer Stephen Desper using tape delays on the drums performed by Dennis Wilson and John Guerin. The song has been re-recorded numerous times over the years on various Beach Boys-related projects most notably the 2011 re-recording at Capitol studios featuring the five surviving Beach Boys at the time backed instrumentally by various members of both the Brian Wilson Band and Mike Loves touring "Beach Boys" to promote the then upcoming Beach Boys 50th Anniversary reunion tour in 2012. The hammering and power drill sound at the end of the song was an excerpt from a track called "Workshop" that was to be a part of the uncompleted "SMiLE" album.
By Sean Callaghan6 days ago in Beat
Comments (16)
Thanks for creating words that reflect my experience.
I really love the word boviform. I liked how the story of your connection made me feel like I was there.
What beautiful memories & photo 🤩…the poem fits perfectly.✅
Awww, I wanna play with those calves too! Your poem was so wonderful and I loved that word!
This is lovely. Childhood memories of that special place are the very best and you definitely captured that in your poem> Very, well done!
That was beautiful. And your right, the roots are planted in childhood, no matter how far we stray.
This is such an amazing and sweet poem complete with an array of fond memories so descriptively detailed.
DK, I love the nostalgic feeling you were able to impart within this! Thank you for sharing this memory with us!! 😊
I love the way family gets anchored in the relationship to the land. With these verses, "where one woman / Raised seven children and her son reared nine" you connect history to the pure emotions and the experiences you described in the beginning. 💛
I adore this- pure, heartfelt magnificence, D.K.!
Beautiful, D.K.! Montana is one of the few states I have yet to visit, but you portray it so beautifully, bovines and all, that I long to visit! (This inspired me to listen to some music by one of my favorite artists, George Winston.)
This moves beautifully from one powerful image to the next. It brought back wonderful memories of the time I spent just outside Absarokee on Rosebud Creek: https://maps.app.goo.gl/uw4wfbNcfzyaoJRx7 I can't wait to get back up there!
This was such a gorgeous poem. I could feel the place so perfectly. I'm glad Vocal has a save function now because I'll be reading this again later!
Can relate to this wholeheartedly as a farm girl. This was nostalgic, full of the strength of memory and longing for bygone times. Lovely, D.K. I've been transported too.
I just loved this to pieces!! The note and the poetry were full of emotion and wonderful word choices. Lovely writing :)
Oh, this is delightful. Truly delightful. Funny how places can etch a place in our minds, hearts and memories! Love the word choice.