Roberta Writes – d’Verse quadrille and It’s Noisy in Here and Thursday Doors #poetry #photography

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Kim’s d’Verse quadrille challenge was to write a 44 word poem using the word rumpus. You can view other contributions here: https://dversepoets.com/2025/08/25/quadrille-230-lets-kick-up-a-rumpus/

Garden Rumpus

A terrific rumpus reached my ears

Was my cat stalking the birds again?

Her inflicting grievous injury my fear

It’s hard natural instincts to contain

A gaggle of hoopoes with long tails

were fighting over bread on the lawn

squawking laughter in loud gales

Mish’s d’Verse prompt on Tuesday was to write a poem about noise. You can read other poet’s contributions here: https://dversepoets.com/2025/08/26/poetics-its-noisy-in-here/

White Noise

Our interactions with others

are always coloured by

the white noise in our minds

The vain will determinedly state

you are proud of your hair

believing you must see it

as your crowning glory

imposing their own vanity

onto an innocent bystander

Through the eyes of the entitled

everything you have must

have come through your privilege

It could never have been the result

of your blood, sweat, and tears

Acts of kindness and generosity

when viewed by the indifferent

must have an underlying motive

could never be a generous gift

unreciprocated and unencumbered

The white noise in our minds

interferes with our view of the world

tampers with our natural empathy

justifies selfishness and insensitivity

The goodness in our souls is warped

by this on-going internal turbulence

Thursday Doors

For Thursday Doors, I’m sharing a few of my photographs from Westminister Abbey in London. I still have about 100 photographs on my camera which I need to process. These are photographs I took with my iphone and today I’ve focused on my pictures of the entrance.

You can join in Dan’s challenge here: https://nofacilities.com/2025/08/28/pittsburgh-preview/

Picture caption: Entrance to Westminister Abbey
Picture caption: Close up of the door into Westminister Abbey
Picture caption: I really liked this gargoyle guarding the entrance
Picture caption: another guardian of the entrance
Picture caption: A close up of the entrance door

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Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

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90 thoughts on “Roberta Writes – d’Verse quadrille and It’s Noisy in Here and Thursday Doors #poetry #photography”

    1. HI Michael, thank you for your lovely comment. You identified these birds for me some time ago. They visit every now and then but are not permanent in our garden. The loeries and hadedas are year-round guests. In the spring, the weavers come back every year. My garden is currently a flurry of weaver nest building.

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  18. Very thought provoking poems. I agree, some cynical people view the success of others as a result of privilege, or kind acts as having an ulterior motive, but their cynicism is really is just a reflection of themself like a projection. Beuatiful photos of Westminster Abbey. I have been to England and Lonfo but never to Westminster Abbey.

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    1. Hi Thomas, White Noise is the result of people’s comments to me. I find it frustrating that people assume my life has been easy. My father went bankrupt when I was twelve and we had huge financial issues. I worked very hard and completed my university and training contract in six years instead of the usual seven. My entire degree and honours was done on a full scholarship which I had to maintain with distinctions throughout my university career. This poem was my outlet – grin.

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      1. You worked very hard under some very challenging circumstances. It is very impressive that you were able to sustain your scholarship the whole time and finish sooner. That is very impressive and you certainly don’t deserve people making assumptions about your life. Unfortunately, that is how many people are.

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        1. Thanks, Thomas. I had a secretary at work tell me the other day that I am wealthy and she is not. What annoyed me is that she came from a wealthier and much stabler financial background than I do. She made her choices and I made mine and it irked me that she was judging me with absolutely no knowledge of my life or me. That is how some people are, maybe all people. I try not to be judgy. I try to stand in other people’s shoes and think how things could be for them.

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          1. The way you approach things is with humility and intelligence. Some people do that, but many people are a lot more self-absorbed and try to judge others and elevate themselves in their own eyes. They even do it without knowing anything about the other person. The concept of “privilege” has of late been very overused and misused. I think it is very common, but there are also people like you, who are unpresuming and who think. But it is irksome when they are not like that, I agree.

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  21. What a surprising garden rumpus, Robbie! I would have been worried that my cat Luna was on the prowl, too. I would love to see hoopoes in my garden, they are wonderful birds.

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    1. Hi Kim, my cat, Push-Push, does try to stalk the birds. They merely laugh at her in distain. She knows she may not hurt them, and they know this too. Many of my garden birds live here in our trees. The grey loeries think they own the place.

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  22. Wonderful photos of Westminster Abbey. Although I live only Bout 40 miles from London, I rarely go there. (Too busy and crowded.)

    I love your poem about the noisy birds in your garden. There were hoopoos in our garden when we had a house in France. Lovely birds.

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    1. Hi Viv, hoopoes are wonderful birds. I raised one from a hatchling when I was 18. I also raised a dove. Westminster is amazing to visit but it is packed. It was a once in a life time for us though as it’s a 16-hour flight away.

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      1. Well, yes! That is a bit of a problem.
        Amazing that you raised a hoopoe. We don’t have them in the UK, but when we had our house in Brittany they were there every summer.

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  27. Interesting poems, Robbie. We all have our own preconceptions and inner thoughts.

    Wonderful photos! I visited Westminster when I was a child, but I only remember (barely) the inside, seeing famous tombs. That gargoyle is great!

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  28. Lovely presentation- i especially like the poem about the white noise in our heads- so true and something I have noticed about interactions with people in my own life. Brilliant!

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  31. “Squawking laughter” — what a good description! Good noise! Your poem about white noise is so on the mark! It’s so true about the tumult within, whether we know it or not. Then there’s Westminster with its visual noise. What a lot to look at! A great post. Thanks!

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  35. Hi Robbie, I loved the rumpus poem, and writing about white noise in our minds is brilliant. Westminster Abby is gorgeous! Your photos really capture the magnificence.

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  36. Robbie, I took delight in the thought of the birds laughing. The other poem is poignantly lovely. It reminded me of an article about a person who called themselves a keeper of secrets (or something similar) and people wrote letters to them, disclosing secrets of various kinds. One was from a relatively young man, confessing his shame. He had always complained about the weeds in the yard of an older neighbor. He revealed that after the neighbor died, he realized the older man just needed some help. I’m just trying to say that I hope your words sink-in for the people who need them most. Hugs.

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  37. Robbie, I really like how your “Garden Rumpus” captures the noisy scuffle of birds outside, while “White Noise” turns inward to the turbulence in our own minds. Taken together, the two poems feel connected to me—external commotion and internal static both shaping how we experience the world.

    ~David

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