What I want to be when I grow up

mom

veterinarian

singer/songwriter

novelist

actress

preacher

teacher

alive

 

 

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The blog strikes again.
This assignment:  Follow a prompt.
My prompt:
A List
Who doesn’t love a list? So write one! Top five slices of pizza in your town, ten reasons disco will never die, the three secrets to happiness — go silly or go deep, just go list-y

Retiring Day

Hot and humid,
trails of sweat running down noon,
pesky fruit flies circling her head,
mosquitoes whining in her ears,
weary Day
inhales deeply and terms a gust.

Slowly she pulls her dress
over her head,
tosses her gauze garment into the sky
(where it puddles as blushing cloud)
and wades into the sea.

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Today’s assignment was a fun one:

Write a post that builds on one of the comments you left yesterday.
Don’t forget to link to the other blog! Your blog is shaped by both your own thinking and by your interactions with others.  If you thought the original post was worth commenting on, that means it struck a nerve.

Yesterday I read and fell in love with Whimsygizmo’s Blog.  I adore her personification, and especially how she clothes the world.  Check out Persephone Puts on Pants and Paper Doll Moon.  Those poems and ideas inspired the above Retiring Day.

 

finding poems

Today I was an obedient student; I did what the Blogging 101 told me to do.  I surfed through some pretty amazing cyber-waves.

I went to Reader and browsed through the posts tagged with “poetry” as a topic.
I liked some posts and then followed some writers.  I commented on a few.

I thought I’d share some of the sites that appealed to me here:

Frowzy Days
Simple, yet elegant. Beautifully are these concise words woven.

Whimsygizmo’s Blog
Brilliant thumbnail pictures of sharp clarity captured in words.

Whimsy-mimsy
Fun, flair, and whimsy.

And now, after a    L O N G    first day of the new school year, I am retiring.
Until tomorrow.

 

Choosing a new THEME (à la Dr Seuss)

This one.
That one.
Green one.
Brown one.

One with whistles.
One with bells.
One with dolphins,
fish and shells.

One with photos.
One with food.
One guaranteed
to be viewed.

Simple, complex,
stripes or stars,
polka dots or
vertical bars.

I finally find one
that’s just right.
A quiet, modest,
pleasing site.

Choose it, save it.
Banner in.
Widgets, menus,
tonic and gin?

Custom colours,
fonts and then,
Save it. See it.
What phenomenon!

It’s the same theme
I’ve always had.
Am I crazy?
Going mad?

“Well,” I say,
“bit of a waste.”
But at least I know
I’ve got good taste.

 

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Today’s assignment: try out at least three other themes — even if you’re happy with the one you first chose. Try one you’re drawn to, and one you would never use.  (I like my theme.)

🙂

whenwe stories

My grandfather used to drive me crazy with his whenwe stories.

“When we were young there was no television. We went outside and made our own entertainment.”
“When we were growing up our mothers made all our clothes and we wore them or went naked.”
“When we were kids and we wanted to go somewhere, we either walked or took the bus. There was no one fetching and carrying us around like a private taxi!”
“When we were small we would never think to talk back to an adult. We had great respect for our elders. MY grandfather used to say, ‘Children should be seen and not heard!’”

Each of his whenwe stories ended with a dig at the younger generation. How spoiled and lazy we were! How easily bored we became! How discourteous we were!

We (thought we) listened politely, while rolling our eyes behind Grampa’s back. But he knew our attitude and shook his head while muttering something about “hard headedness.”

I caught myself telling whenwe stories over this last holiday.

“When we were in school there were no computers, let alone cellphones. If we wanted the answer to a question we had to go look it up in a book, or ask an elder. Professor Google wasn’t even an idea yet.”
“When we were small we played board games with each other, not individual hand-held arcade games with cross-looking birds being tossed around.”
“When we were growing up we sat around the dinner table and actually talked to one another.”
“When we were young we took a limited number of photos because the developing costs were quite high. It would sometimes take six months to use a roll.”
“When we were kids we would NEVER have thought to point a camera at our own face. Imagine that one woman who published an entire book of selfies! How completely Narcissistic!”

And as my children looked at each other with a particular smirk on their faces I realised I sounded just like Grampa.
It made me wonder what kind of whenwe stories my children will tell.

“When we were young we had to actually hold our cellphones and if we dropped them the screen would crack. And we had to download programmes and apps.”
“When we were growing up we had to deal with dust and entropy. We had to clean the house, dishes and clothes on a regular basis.”
“When we were kids people actually had to leave the house to go shopping, to attend school and to go to work.”

Every generation seems to have their own whenwe stories.

What are yours?

 

Blogland

My neighbours live
on four different continents
in seven distinct countries.

It is a community of words.

Some residents are always there —
every morning watering their garden,
sprucing up their yard,
walking up and down the streets,
cheerfully bellowing happy greetings to anyone they think might be home.

Others come and go,
drifting in and out of sentences,
dashing off lines before they rush off to work,
wanting to be more present in the page,
but living more in activity.

Some use their pad
as a soapbox for deeply held convictions.
They shout from the rooftops,
vehemently vociferating,
emphatically pontificating,
usually engaging with those who preach from their own parapets.

Others enthusiastically purchase a property,
start constructing a home
and engage with other townsfolk for a little while
before abandoning their resolutions:
comment, comment, like, like, silence, delete, delete.

This homeland is a tangled web
where denizens meet through screens and finger tapping,
sharing little bits of written code,
reaching out,
touching others,
sometimes more profoundly than ever could a raised or clasped hand.

This is a realm
of soulful messages
from the heart.

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Today’s assignment for Blogging 101 was to engage with the community by reading other blogs.

“Why spend time reading other blogs?

•  Publishing posts is only half of blogging — engaging with the community is the other.
• Considering what other bloggers write will inspire you and sharpen your thoughts.

  Part of what makes blogging a rich experience are the relationships we develop with people around the world. That only happens when we engage.”

I love reading other blogs.  But today our town’s internet is down (for a few days?) so I will have to postpone my perusing. (Publishing through limited cellphone data!)

I have been encouraged, inspired and joyfully surprised by so many other writers around the world.  I’ve made some very precious friends whom I have never met face-to-face, but I have laughed and cried with them and spent time on my knees praying for them.

The small piece above is a tribute to the world of blogging.  🙂

who am i

love words
i do.
all shapes,
all sizes,
weaving and lacing them together
into coats of many colours
to clothe the naked world.

teach
i do.
sharing the words,
throwing them around the classroom
in splashy messiness,
making stained glass mosaics
through which the sun shines.

worship
i do.
because i was made
to the praise
of his glory,
turning everything i touch
into honour and service.

i am a little learner
knitting tangible words
into ethereal garments
of grace.

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Yes, I did.  I signed up for Blogging 101.
I’ve done Writing 101 and 201 (twice)
but have never done a blogging course.

Today is DAY ONE and we are meant to introduce ourselves.
Since this blog, little learner, is mostly poetry/prose,
I thought I’d introduce myself in the style of the blog.

Hello!  Welcome to the wordy world of Little Learner!