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 |   Second blog -- answers to an ocean of prompts |
 "Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself." CHARLIE CHAPLIN  Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you. David Whyte        This is my supplementary blog in which I will post entries written for prompts. |
| Do you write with music playing in the background? If so what kind of music inspires you? Feel free to share a song with us. If you don't why not? ======= I love music, especially the classics. If I were to write while music would be playing in the background, that would probably be something from Vivaldi, Beethoven, or Ravel, but I don’t write while listening to music. Usually, I listen first, then write because my words would evaporate since music has a way of taking me away out of this world. I would end up listening to music and wouldn't be able to concentrate on what I am writing. As to the kinds of music that I like, in addition to the Classics, I'm also partial to some of the pop pieces, folk songs, jazz, Broadway pieces, and easy listening, which my kids call elevator music. Among my favorites are Elvis Presley, Simon and Garfunkel, and some songs of the 1950s and 1960s. |
| Prompt: A colorful way of living. Write anything you want about this. === When I was much younger, I painted the walls in our bedroom, each wall a different color. Then I painted one wall blue in the living room but left the rest of the room stay white. The other rooms had dark panels, so I couldn’t touch them. Yet, there is no need to come up with any coloring inside the house. I think, now, just being outdoors and watching the colors in nature is enough colorful living. Especially where we live now, we get fantastic sunsets with all the colors, different each time. Granted they don’t last long for being in the subtropics, but the colors are amazing. I also like the greens, all kinds of them, and multicolored tropical plants. Color is a flexible thing, based on mood and time. Now that we are in April, the poetry month, colors exist in poetry too, and they can change or stay the same as a poet reacts to whatever he or she is writing about. Color in poetry comes about not only with the actual colors on the color wheel but also when the words and their sounds come together with a visible and energetic regularity. Can you see the colors in these lines by Rimbaud? High glacial spears, white kings, trembling Queen-Anne’s lace; I, bloody spittle, laughter dribbling from a face In wild denial or in anger, vermilions  |
| Prompt: Write about an eighth-grade memory. -------------- Eighth Grade? So distant…I guess it was too dull or something, I have difficulty recalling anything interesting, except for reading, studying and then studying some more as I was attending an accelerated school…against my will. The most exciting thing for that year has to be my hair. I wore a ponytail, then, and had zits enough to frighten Count Dracula away. And I was in the drama club and in the astronomy club, not that they amounted to anything…in the long run. Oh, I also began reading Dostoyevsky. This may not mean much to most people, but Dostoyevsky was a turning point for me with the way I have perceived literature ever since. Fast forward half a century to about three hours ago, today, something funny happened…or ridiculous, depending on your judgment. After a morning’s appointment, Hubby and I were having lunch in a café. Our table was for four people, but the two chairs opposite us were missing, possibly because the servers took them to accommodate a larger group. So, we sat side by side with our backs to the wall. An old man walking by stopped in front of us. He was carrying a take-out in one hand. Suddenly, he started twisting his body and making some kind of dancing movements. Such a WTF moment, right? I looked around. Nobody minded him but no one was laughing either. The man was staring directly at us as he danced. Then he stopped and said jokingly, “No chairs. Open view! I am providing you live entertainment.” We thanked him. So considerate! He gave me something to write about, together with the faded-away eighth-grade memories. |
| Prompt: What can be the source of relationship adversities and do you believe that relationship adversities (any kind of relationship: parent-child, lovers, husband-wife, teacher-student, etc.) can often spring from other earlier adversities or do they just happen on their own? ------- Surely, many traumas and adversities can happen in an adult’s life. Take fighting in a war, for example, or being kidnapped or wrongly accused or seeing others suffer or illnesses of the self or loved ones. Then, there are social microaggressions that wound people deeply like racism, prejudice, poverty, etc. But basically, most kinds of troubles do spring from childhood hurts and traumas. Then, with the help of the coping mechanisms of our minds, they take different forms and show up in all kinds of relationships. When something goes wrong or unexpected, even a tiny thing like a smirk on someone’s face or the car not starting, like an underlying disease, the childhood trauma shows up wearing a different mask. The way our brains process, shapeshift and spew out the hurts and traumas is unique, inventive, and creative. To figure what to do and how to deal with what our brains supply us with, we need to be hyper-vigilant and watch our hair-trigger responses so we don’t add on to the negativity of a present situation. The questions “Why did I respond this way” or “Why did this situation or words hurt me this much?” that we need to ask ourselves can be the starting points of such vigilance. Any adversity can turn to be devastating, to lead to addictions, helplessness, suicide, unnecessary aggression, touchiness, and other misfortunes, and the more the time passes, the more the results of adversities become part of our DNA to show up as reactions. Yet, adaptive responses and positive reactions do exist, and they can be learned and re-learned, sometimes over and over. Finding out and facing the initial adversity usually eases its later effects. Therapists, once they discover the root cause of an exaggerated reaction, recreate the situation that the initial trauma occurred but under controlled conditions. And those who do overcome an adversity, even if partially, begin to grow from it. As they say, what doesn’t kill us can make us stronger. |
| Prompt: Elizabeth Strout says she listens in others’ conversations a lot, and in one of her books, she lets one of her characters say, “People are always telling you who they are” even when they are talking about other things. Do you agree? Do you favor this method of seeing into people, then using it in your writing? ===== Yes, I agree. Listening in on conversations and taking an interest in other people creates a habit of observation that will not let a writer down when he needs new ideas. Even though many of us are chastened from childhood for eavesdropping, listening in on random conversations helps give authenticity to one’s writing and improves the dialogue in the stories because the ways of expression and local vernacular never stays the same. Some writers carry a laptop to type what they hear, but that can be risky as someone may peek over your shoulder and get mad at you for not minding your own business. I find a small pad or small pieces of paper to jot down the overheard conversations works better, or if you have a good memory, you can listen first and write down later. I find hair salons, car repair stations, car dealers, airports, restaurants, coffee shops, doctors’ and hospitals’ waiting rooms--where people are more talkative---are good places for listening in on others’ words. It also helps if you can glance about and at people without arousing suspicion, so you can also catch the gestures and nonverbal communications, too. Most of the time, what they say is secondary, but what is implied or hidden can be priceless. What can be difficult is when people speak or complain in a meandering stream of consciousness; then, if you can manage to catch at least a few choice sentence fragments, they could add drama to your writing. I wrote about something that happened to me more than two decades ago in an earlier journal. For comedy’s sake, I’ll repeat it again. We were in a restaurant and I had a notebook with me that I was writing into. At that time, cell phones and pads were not of the quality of what they are today. The restaurant staff thought I was a food critic writing about their restaurant, as in those days, food critics had something to do with a restaurant’s success, and it was known that they carried notebooks with them. I didn’t accept nor deny the question when they diplomatically asked about it because I didn’t want to show them what I had written. We were very well treated after that. Then, there was another time when I told a busybody that I was writing a grocery list. Maybe I was too conspicuous, but these things can happen. These days, however, with people constantly talking on their cells through their earpieces and all the weird actions that go on, no one seems to mind an old woman taking notes with pen and paper. |
| Prompt: What has Spring sprung into? -------- In my neck o’the woods, spring has sprung into yo-yo dancing with cold and hot at unexpected intervals, and today, we have much rain, and much-needed rain it is because of the several brush fires, but the rain is tapering off, and the sun and the rain are waltzing together, outside. It is a dark trick the spring has sprung on us. Still, I am grateful we don’t have what the poor northeast of the country has been going through. Wasn’t spring meant to be butterflies, flowers, and budding trees alone? Nope. This year, spring is having mental problems, for sure. This morning was so warm, I ended up wearing shorts and a sleeveless tee. With the porch door open now, I am feeling the coolness after the weakening rain. I have to get up and change again. This isn't an easy feat. My closet has turned into a jumble of stuff with colder and warmer wear having serious altercations with one another, and I am hesitant to go in there and face their fights. If I do, I’ll end up straightening up the place for the umpteenth time, as I did during the last couple of months. Today, I want to read and do other things I like. But then, maybe I should wear longer pants, too. It just shows, this year, spring has sprung only to confuse me. |
| Prompt: “When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” - Audre Lorde Do you agree or disagree? Have you seen situations where women have hesitated speaking about a topic even though they are very knowledgeable but feared their opinion wouldn't be welcome? ----- Yes, I certainly agree. This doesn’t mean, however, that women (or men) should butt in and argue about matters that they are not knowledgeable enough and that do not concern them. This prompt brought to mind the opening page of Jane Eyre when Mrs. Reed in the orphanage--after a complaint from someone named Bessie--decided to exclude Jane “from privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children. “What does Bessie say I have done?” Jane asks and she is scolded. I always thought this exchange sowed the seeds for the rest of the novel in which a young woman alone fights her way in the world. That Jane asked that question about her fictitious misdeed is a good beginning. Even though the novel was written during the Victorian times, it opens up the way for women to question situations concerning their selves. In the same vein, the US law gives us citizens (women or men) the benefit of the freedom of speech. I think it may just be the best law ever invented in human history. I also defend the right to silence, kind of taking the fifth. Because what is the use of speaking and arguing in a situation where speech would hurt rather than help? For example, I would not present my opinion contrary to that of an Alzheimer’s patient, but if I saw someone berating or attacking an innocent person, I would say (or do) something.  Prompt: Write a poem, story or just share something in your blog using these words: April, life, love and law Waking up alone, ecstatic, mouth agape, you begin to invent a new life on a buoyant morning in thoughts cloaking themselves with love regardless of the law of clouds that trick you, an April’s Fool |
| Prompt: What does the idea of global living mean to you, and do you think it is wise and doable? === Aside from the fact that there is a magazine called Global Living, the idea of global living is usually thought of as being connected to worldwide travel. I, however, have a different take on what global living is. To me, global living will be the erasure of all visa, passport etc. obligations and people should be able to go anywhere and visit anyone in the world, and in such an ideal time, everyone will have to be accepting of everyone else. No more of us-versus-them feeling or notion. Of course, I am thinking of no wars, no hunger, no major troubles, and in short, world peace. Global living, on such terms, is not doable at this time in history, but it is a wise thought. For it to succeed, all the nations in the world have to come together, share their cultures and riches, and at least, partially agree to the policing practices, and then, they all should enforce those practices with equal zest. Then, if qualities like compassion, decency, morality, wisdom, etc. can be cultivated and instilled in people through efficient and moral education in favorable environments on a worldwide scale and for the duration of a few centuries, humankind may be able to learn how to live better and globally. Although all this seems to be impossible at the moment, “hope springs eternal,” and I so hope there will be a way... |
| Prompt: What classic book would you love to have reviewed when it was first published? Why? ===== Possibly, The Idiot by Dostoyevsky, as it is my favorite book of all time, which would make me a medical miracle for having lived since the mid-nineteenth century, as that book was first published in 1868-1869. According to Wikipedia, its publican began as a serial in a Russian journal, The Russian Messenger. Why? The Idiot, aka Prince Myshkin is a fool but a perfect person. It is no wonder that some reviewers think of him as the likeness of a Christ figure. Dostoyevsky’s idea of creating this character, in his own words, was "to depict a completely beautiful human being." The plot is secondary in this book, but the character’s passionate intensity and the idea of his making other characters react in original ways impressed me a lot. In addition, the prince has a serious health problem, epilepsy, just like the author. There are also interesting and varied themes inside the story, like the negative or sometimes positive influences of religion, spiritual thirst, death, love, attachments, etc. The amazing fact is that the author’s handling such a good character is a feat in itself. Almost all plots depend on conflict due to a character needs, shortcomings, or passions. Such a splendid character as the protagonist has to become a problem. That may be why at the end, Prince Myshkin turns mad, after turning everyone else’s lives upside down and causing havoc with his goodness. All this makes me wonder. If I were the first to review this book at its first publishing, would I see what I see today or is some of this coming from the views of my lit teachers since my favorite teacher had adored The Idiot?  Prompt: Is April Fools' Day really just for kids? What are some of the best pranks you've played or had played on you? ===== I never liked pranks. Harmless joking, yes. Pranks no. Pranks are usually practical jokes taken to extremes. There are no best pranks. When I was a child, I would hide under tables and behind doors and suddenly come out screaming ‘boo’ and startling people. I am sorry, I did that to my loved ones. Those were terrible actions and could have caused someone to have a heart attack. I am not proud of them. Prompt: "The Vermont bill raises the age for gun purchases to 21 and expands background checks for private gun sales. It also bans magazines of more than 10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for pistols as well as rapid-fire devices known as bump stocks." https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/in-gun-friendly-vermont-lawmakers-pass-firearm... Do you agree or disagree with the bill? Do you think it will make a difference? ===== I certainly do agree. It is a good move and an assault weapons ban has to work, at least partly. Besides, I don’t think the second amendment directly points to today’s weapons. If it did, what would stop every single one of us from getting an atomic bomb? It is also true that killings can happen without the use of firearms. Just think what boxcutters were able to do on 9/11! We should be vigilant all the time at every place for just about anything that can possibly go wrong. Terrorism, school shootings, and other mass killings are big problems, and we need to address them from every angle. In addition, all mental health problems can be handled better. I always thought that closing the state mental health facilities during the early 1980s and letting the patients out on the streets showed a lack of judgment. Yes, there was an over-reliance on drug treatments in those hospitals, but that could have been adjusted and handled better. Wouldn’t we be less traumatized if the killer was over-drugged instead of committing the latest school killing that took the lives of 17 kids? As the last word, if we took our problems as our problems and not as something related to partisan politics, maybe we can prevent at least most of the unnecessary heartaches that affect us all. |
| Prompt: "A little impatience will spoil great plans." ~~ Chinese Proverb "Crossing over to a path that suits your passions and your dreams are possible if you live your life on purpose."~~ Glenda Hatchett What are your thoughts? ------------- I don’t think a little of anything is all that harmful, unless you’re talking about snake venom or saran gas. A little impatience is a push to action. A little impatience occurs when people have a goal. It pushes us to reduce the costs of reaching our goal, or to switch goals. In addition, people may feel a bit impatient if or when they have other options, which can be better picks to work with instead of waiting. A big impatience, on the other hand, may mean rash decisions and disaster, and too much patience leads to sloth or waiting for something to happen that will never happen. Can a little impatience spoil great plans? Possibly although rarely, but a true blue impatience probably would. As to Glenda Hatchett’s quote, if a person knows what his passions and dreams are, that person would be happier if he or she followed through and found a suitable path. Knowing one’s passions and dreams is knowing one’s purpose in life as well as getting a hint of what that person’s strengths are. When we work from our strengths, we are bound to become successful, if not externally then internally. Our time on earth is precious and limited. We need to make the most of it for ourselves and for the world that sustains us. Prompt: Robin Williams said: "Spring is nature's way of saying: "Let's Party!" What are your thoughts on this? Party? I rather think nature is saying, “Get to work.” All that blood rushing to young heads and making them jittery, from people to birds, beasts, and plants. Yes, the flowers are fun, especially the first eager beaver crocuses, lilies, and tulips. Their appearances signal the coloring of the bare ground and bring the crestfallen grass of winter to green excitement. Then, of course, those of us who are impeccable housekeepers get into the flow of spring cleaning. Does spring cleaning remind you of partying? Not me, it doesn’t. If anything, as much as I dare praise those do-gooders who are attached to their brooms and mops, I don’t think they are partying. On the contrary, their zest and enthusiasm makes me sick to my stomach. |
| Prompt: What is charisma to you and can too much charisma be harmful? ======= Charisma is something like a talent or a charm that one can have or acquire. Such a person inspires dedication and admiration from those surrounding him or her. Charismatic people are at their best when their attentions are focused on others rather than their own actions and positive sides. That is when they can fully influence, attract, and charm others. As to too much charisma, since charisma comes equipped with a high degree of self-confidence, such people may, at times, can be seen as braggarts, even if they may be open to new ideas and can establish new methods for stronger successes. Even for a charismatic person, it isn’t always possible to capture everyone’s attention and get them to share a vision. Then, a highly charismatic person who is exploring a new idea may not be able to follow up on it because he or she may be attracted by another idea or strategy since most extremely charismatic people are drawn toward new and exciting venues. With that in the works, who in their right mind would want to follow such a person even if that person is very charismatic! Charisma can also be harmful in the way that highly charismatic people can be suspected of being fake, and not having a genuine goodwill in their relationships. Granted that some amount of charisma is needed for accomplishments, but too much of it may prove to be too much of a good thing. |
| Prompt: “Art is amoral, whether we accept this or not; it does not take sides. The finest fictions are cold at heart.” John Banville What are your thoughts on this quote? -------- I have difficulty with this quote; that is why I asked about it to other friends. The word amoral means, “lacking a moral sense; unconcerned with the rightness or wrongness of something.” As far as the word amoral is concerned, I can accept that. One can write a fiction piece about a stage in an immoral person’s life or one can write about the doomsday for the planet. This doesn’t mean the writer accepts immorality or wishes the worst possible outcome on the people and the planet. Still, the “cold at heart” phrase throws me off. I believe good writing should evoke some emotion in the reader; although this can be done by showing the worst things to elicit fear or empathy, it can also be done by elevating the good. But then, this is where I have a problem with my writing. I need to like my main characters. Then, because I like them, I tend to take it easy on them. In the same vein, I just finished reading a suspense story, Framed by James Scott Bell, where the author took no pity on his protagonist, until the end of the novel. One can learn so much from other writers and the ways they treat their characters, but I digress. Fact is, how can one not take sides? I find a slant in just about every work I read, even if that slant is not openly mentioned or shown. Take any prize-winning work; Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See just came to mind, which won the Pulitzer. Such a novel can show the atrocities or the negatives realistically, but it is still on the side of the positive. So, where’s the cold heart in that? I have to believe the finest fiction has to have the warmest heart, although that heart may be concealed expertly. |
| PROMPT: At what point do we concede the generation coming after us may be right where we were not? -------------- The next generation may be right in many areas but that, only time will tell. I think, this is because what we do today has its repercussions tomorrow and those repercussions will be highly influenced by the circumstances of that time. My hope for the human family is that each generation betters what comes before it so we see progress in our species. On the other hand, it seems our race takes one step forward while taking two or more back and rarely, when we get lucky, vice versa. There is no smooth way of evaluating the events of today and figuring out where we are wrong, since even the idea of right or wrong changes with time and with generations. Taking into account the way the kids of today want gun control and better management from those who have the say in those things, kids’ point of view feels right to me, but also, we have the second amendment and there are people who defend the opposite and show good reasons for their beliefs. Who is really right I can’t say for sure, and neither can I tell if the kids are mature enough for some of the serious decisions. All I can see is that they are hurting and rightfully so, and we have to respect that and their views. Then, when I was young, that is several decades ago, my generation, too, thought they could change the world for the better. In fact, at that time, we were very sure of that. Today, I am not sure we were 100% successful, if at all. |
| Prompt: "We need to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves. We have to step up as women and take the lead."~ Beyonce --- Do you agree or disagree with Beyonce? What are good examples in your opinion of women taking the lead? Bad examples? ------ I agree with the first sentence. The idea in the second sentence we shouldn’t force, not before we’re perfectly qualified and not looking for an easy way in, just to take the lead. The first sentence, “We need to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves,” is absolutely correct. In my dinosaur time, no man ever held me back. It was the other older women who were acting more for their kings than the kings themselves, which was during the late fifties and sixties. This stance applied not only to the women around me but to the majority of them. “Of course, my dear, the home should be the woman’s first concern and being a good wife, you wouldn’t neglect your home, hour husband…blah, blah, blah!” Luckily, we had the seventies and the women’s undertaking for equality. Nowadays, most women are stepping up, but are they taking the lead? I think yes, but only sometimes, and not always. Then, at other times some women rise in the ranks without due qualification, and for superficial reasons. Think Hollywood! Think Harvey Weinstein! This bothers me a lot. Women, as well as men, should be able to take the lead only when they deserve it and for the right reasons. Prompt: Use these words to weave us a freaky Friday tale. account date paper blackmail hit soul seed boat ====== The Gift He had received a boat as a gift from her on a Friday, a freaky Friday, after he had accused her of blackmail, making a mess of their accounts, and forging the date on their bank statement. He had shoved the documents to her face. “Look, how the paper is scraped and there’s a white glob on the side! Your handiwork, ain't it!” She could have hit him right there and then. Instead, she had shrugged it off, but the seeds of her disappointment had to sprout somehow. So, she had bared her soul, among other things, to the bouncer at the bar, who had said, “He shouldn’t talk like that to a woman like you. I’ll piss on him for you.” And the rest was history. As she swirled around the pole to the applause of the customers, she thought about him now, in his water-logged boat with barnacles stuck on its sides and the algae dancing over him at the bottom of the ocean. |
| Prompt: "There is something delicious about writing the first few words of a story. You never quite know where they will take you." What are your thoughts on this quote? ----------- I think this is a pantser speaking. I am of two minds on this. I love just to write anything and take it from there, but I consider such stories or other writing as free-flow, which I am guilty of doing quite often in a physical notebook. Free-flowing, in other words pantsing, is the ultimate, oxytocin-producing delight for me. When I am into this kind of off-the-cuff-production, it leads into the propagation of side stories, subplots, far-out ideas, and I have no way of figuring out the end or the length of the story. Still, unlike some writers, I have never worried about the so-many-pages-to-fill dilemma. Yet, seeing the botched-up results of such delightful experiences, I learned to write with an outline especially when venturing into longer works. Still, in the case of the from-an-outline story, the first few words and the first paragraph usually become torturous because I begin mulling over the entire novel and try to foreshadow the conflict without giving it away. I think the best way might be, if writing from an outline, to put down the beginning without thinking too much, then coming back and fixing it once I get into the story and the characters lead me into their ways. This is due to the fact that, even with a detailed outline, I find that things change mostly because characters speak up and push their own agendas into the story, even to the point of altering the setting or adding to it. This characters’ taking-over-action happens when we are good with characterization. That is when our characters gain individuality, a way of life, a bit of humor and a strong sense of drama with a knowledge and the acceptance or sometimes the rejection of other characters’ idiosyncrasies, motives, passions, and hooplas. With pantsing, the fun is discovering our story along the way, but without any thought or even at least a premise, one can get lost so easily. On the other hand, if you wait until you are really familiar with every aspect of the story and you have completely figured out what you’ll write, you’ll never be able to start. I know some writers who plan for years to write one short novella. I even suspect some never start putting down the first word. After all, writing itself is a catch-22 situation, isn’t it! |
Happy First Day of Spring! Prompt: Baby animals are born in the spring. You can pick any baby animal for a pet. Which one would you choose and why? --------- I am kind of partial to kittens and puppies because I know a little bit about them. They also stay tame when they grow up. I don’t think it is moral to get any baby animal--just because you think they are cute--and when they grow up you discard them. If I knew I could send them to a place where they would be getting a good care when they are older, I could go for other feline babies like tiger or lion cubs. I think most baby animals are lovable, anyway. Also, I love all birds who deserve to be wild and free, and baby chicks and ducklings can be delightful to watch, but they should belong with their families in the chicken coop or wherever the farmers keep the duck families. On the internet, I have been watching from a webcam a bald-headed eagle nest for a few years now, and their eaglets are adorable, but wild animals do belong in the wild and we have no right to try to tame them or keep them as our captives. |
| Prompt: If you travel a lot, how does traveling affect your writing, and even if you don’t, in what ways do you think traveling experiences might help your writing? --- I am not traveling like crazy anymore, but I used to. Traveling and gathering new experiences and insights surely has a positive effect on writing. Plus, as writers, all we need is paper and pen and it is available everywhere we can go. On the other hand, it is a fact that, at times, I couldn’t go anywhere without my netbook or a laptop because I like using the keyboard and seeing what I write on the screen in front of me. Yet, in the far distant past, I used to borrow or rent typewriters where I went just to copy and send what I had put down on paper with a pen, but those days are prehistoric for people who are born after the eighties. Still, paper and pen can be enough to jot down what we see and feel. When we are on the road or when we visit a place for the first time, we find so much to learn from the tastes, smells, sounds of a place to the people or nations who are hosting us. In most situations, we easily recognize the strangeness or the familiarity of mundane things and our own shortcomings, too, when we are face to face with a different culture. Even in the internet age, the better authors make it their business to visit the settings of their stories because seeing a video of a site isn’t enough. A writer needs to breathe the air, understand the positives and negatives, sense the depth and riches of the local nature, and feel the pulse of the residents of a place, so he or she can reflect all those things inside her words to instill a certain truth to his or her work. Being a visitor or a tourist makes a person ready to notice things. This noticing habit, or astonishment, can later be adapted to everything and everywhere else, including our own hometown and street. It may even let us notice the peculiarities inside ourselves and our everyday life. |
| Prompt: The Polish poet Adam Zagajewski said that in his country, “poetry killed communism.” Do you think poets can be the forerunners of social change, and if so, how are they managing to bring such revolutions about? Here's an Adam Zagajewski poem: http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poem/item/11970/auto/0/NEW-HOTEL ---------------- Poets certainly can and do initiate social and political changes by appealing to the emotions of the people and by pointing out what is missing from their lives or the way they are governed or by pointing to a disturbing status quo. Here are a few lines by Gregory Corso “The umbrella’d congressmen; the rapping tires of big black cars, the shoulders of lobbyists caught under canopies and in doorways…” In its essence, poetry can be the perfect setting for social change no matter what the specific subject may be, and whether the feeling is nostalgia or hope, poetry projects confidence in the power and wisdom of a society. This stance isn’t only in our present day but in history, too, for example Percy Bysshe Shelley’s 39 and 40th stanzas of Song to the Men of England “What is Freedom?—ye can tell That which slavery is, too well— For its very name has grown To an echo of your own. ’Tis to work and have such pay As just keeps life from day to day In your limbs, as in a cell For the tyrants’ use to dwell…” And in his Chicago Poems, Carl Sandburg talks about the power of the people to not forget wrongs while learning how to correct them and be better in the future. “Great men, pageants of war and labor, soldiers and workers, mothers lifting their children--these all I touched, and felt the solemn thrill of them. And then one day I got a true look at the Poor, millions of the Poor, patient and toiling; more patient than crags, tides, and stars; innumerable, patient as the darkness of night--and all broken, humble ruins of nations.” Poets can also make the people aware of certain ideas that may be alien to them such as awareness of the animal species decreasing or the weather creating havoc in everyone’s lives. Here is an excerpt from Robin Becker’s Elegy for the Northern Flying Squirrel “Once the cambered airfoil of furry tail struck an Olympic landing on a trunk. We did not witness or admire the aerobatic, nocturnal feats, visible only to other canopy dwellers and the field biologist…. The fast decline of the Northern Flying Squirrel: symptom of larger malaise” Then, they can point to injustices and human right violations as in the poem of Sarita Callender, which talks about human trafficking in her poem Fus Ro Dah. “The pain, the fear, the unknowing. The starvation, separation and threats. The rapes, the bleeding, hope lost. They took my children away from me.” And in Maya Angelou’s On the Pulse of Morning You, created only a little lower than The angels, have crouched too long in The bruising darkness Have lain too long Facedown in ignorance, Your mouths spilling words Armed for slaughter. The Rock cries out to us today, You may stand upon me, But do not hide your face. Better yet, evoking hope for the betterment of social and international structures can drip from a poet’s pen. From I Am Waiting By Lawrence Ferlinghetti “and I am waiting for the lost music to sound again in the Lost Continent in a new rebirth of wonder” From To Hope by John Keats “Let me not see the patriot's high bequest, Great Liberty! how great in plain attire! With the base purple of a court oppress'd, Bowing her head, and ready to expire: But let me see thee stoop from heaven on wings That fill the skies with silver glitterings!” |
| Prompt: Something's got to give...but what/who/when/where/why? ============ “Something's got to give” ? Ahha! It is a Marilyn Monroe movie, which when I was young my mother banned any Marilyn Monroe movie until she saw it first and deemed it proper for my viewing. But something did give…I read weird(!) books hiding under the tables and beds and, later on, watched all the improper (!) movies with my friends. This was in the dinosaur times of the 1950s and 1960s when most women were protected{!} first by mommies, much later by husbands. Why? I can’t tell. Must be due to some kind of a brain fog, although I don’t think this one was the result of the ingestion of mercury-laden fish, as in those days, beef and potatoes were the norm together with sudden heart attacks. Of course, something had to give. You see, I am not all that crazy about the “good old days.” But then, this is an idiom, too, isn’t it? Thus, it can be applied to many situations. If I wrote all about those situations, I’d have to write volumes on mostly iffy hypothetical circumstances like the environment, like the lack of world peace, like anything political…so on and so forth. ‘Something’s gotta give’ can very well apply to my life right now, too. I never thought I’d be this busy in retirement, and not because of having fun with other retirees, either. It is because I find myself doing much more work in every area possible than the time when I was in my thirties and forties, and with a weaker body yet. Not to mention the constantly-coffee-needing mind and whatever else. Still, as of today, something’s-got-to-give didn’t happen. Thank God! And Thank God that I am loving every minute of my life, no matter how difficult or busy it gets. |
| Prompt: Let a little bit of leprechaun mischief or magic slip into your blog today. Have fun... ------------ Never Cross a Leprechaun Now, do not smirk and do not yawn! You must not cross a leprechaun, short, green, and tricky, he’ll be gross, icky with cheap tipple, yet unseen brawn. Sophic vision, if you've amassed, won’t amount to digestive gas or your drunken dream of surging upstream holding on to a blade of grass. Then, keep off from his fairy rings and don’t touch the imps’ flimsy wings, daring though this is, you are not a wiz you’ll feel the blahs and raging stings. A leprechaun is magical, he can dance, prance, but is fickle, and while snores and sleeps, he casts spells in heaps. Then, zap! You’ll be in a pickle. |
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