Tiger Riding for Beginners

Traveling Poet Philosopher & Occasional Wiseacre

DAILY PHOTO: Scenes from Lake Titicaca

Posted on June 3, 2026 by B Gourley

Photograph taken from Amantani Island in Lake Titicaca. Taken from the hilltop over the roof of a thatched hut.

Photograph taken on one of the Uros floating islands of Lake Titicaca with a reed boat along the island's edge.

Photograph of a boat at dock on Amantani Island in Lake Titicaca.

PROMPT: Minimalism

Posted on June 3, 2026 by B Gourley

Daily writing prompt

Do you believe in minimalism?

View all responses

Absolutely. The IKEA Nesting Instinct has run amok, and Consumer is a definitionally discontented state of being.

Personally, I hate that I know what a duvet is.

Blank & Blue [Haiku]

Posted on June 2, 2026 by B Gourley

Photograph of cacti, blue sky, and mountains, taken near Huambo, Peru in the vicinity of Colca Canyon.

sky -- blank & blue --
 stretches mountain to mountain;
  unseen raptor: "screech!"

DAILY PHOTO: Scenes from Cebu City

Posted on June 2, 2026 by B Gourley

Photograph of Fuente Osmeña Cir in Cebu City, Philippines.

Photograph of Oriente Building on Colon St. of Cebu City, Philippines.

Photograph of the Cebu Provincial Capital (Kapitolyo sa Sugbo) in Cebu City, Philippines.

PROMPT: Out of a Movie

Posted on June 2, 2026 by B Gourley

Daily writing prompt

What’s a moment in your life that felt like it was straight out of a movie?

View all responses

I once slipped and fell on ice, and it was like an outtake from a Jackie Chan movie.

Frame of Reference [Free Verse]

Posted on June 1, 2026 by B Gourley

Photograph taken at a butterfly sanctuary on Bohol Island, Philippines.

a butterfly hangs
   upside down,

but it seems upside down
   is as meaningless an
       an abstraction for it
 as the two million km/h
    that a human sweeps, 
       spins, expands, etc.
            through space
    is for the person who
        feels only the couch
             against his backside.

what must it be to not know
     upside down -- to feel free
         to fall, knowing the air
              will catch one?

Fungi Time [Haiku]

Posted on June 1, 2026 by B Gourley

mushroom stands tall;
 wasn’t there the day before,
  may be gone the next.

FIVE WISE LINES [June 2026]

Posted on June 1, 2026 by B Gourley

Photograph of sunset taken at Moalboal, Philippines across the Tanon Strait.

When I was younger I could remember anything,
whether it had happened or not;
but my faculties are decaying now and soon
I shall be able to remember only the things
that never happened.
Mark twain