Tag: Writing and Blogging

at a loss for words…me?

This and That

Sitting at the keyboard waiting for the Muse to show up is something of an alien concept to me, I always have something to say, and have written numerous posts regarding writers’ block and various other excuses for not writing at a given time. “Just write it…” was my pat answer to students who “didn’t know what to say.”

According to my blog stats, provided by WordPress, since 2011 my blog Sometimes, has numbered 880+ posts published. Subject matter has included everything from political rhetoric to poetry; photos of all sorts including Cats, Flowers, Views from my front and back decks, Animals ranging from opossums, deer, raccoons, ants and spiders.

The Sometimes Stats Page counts 928+ followers, which I call Very Cool Bloggers. The all-time most popular posts dealt with Cinnamon Rolls, and Gingersnap Cookies.

Use Your Head, Fred

Poetry, Sometimes, This and That

 

*Use Your Head, Fred

I am always calm.   If my hand is shaking and coffee
is spilling over, it is only because
of a struggle to remain calm.

If I seem cold, cool, reserved, or quiet,
it is because I am  inwardly trying
to contain any emotions ready to spill
over and drown out common sense.

If I am silent it is because I want to
decide which words to use to express my
thoughts, instead of erupting spontaneously
into speculation or over-reaction.

If you think I’m oblivious, nonchalant, uncaring–
then you are wrong. What you may call detachment
is struggle to avoid the quagmire of indecision,
uncertainty, misinformation,  untruths.

Things are rarely exact as they seem, differences
lie in the grey area between sanity and madness.
“Let cooler heads prevail” should be the rule
to ward off any injustice of a knee-jerk reaction.

Perhaps you’re thinking I don’t give a damn.
That I know all the facts, but choose to ignore
or defy them.   Or make excuses or alibis…
and hasten to justify or explain in haste.

If I seek to understand solutions or possibilities,
rather than countermand decisions or explanations,
My reason is to attend and gather the facts
before escaping into comforting panic or supposition.

To use the vernacular: going off half-cocked…
or losing one’s head– is always counterproductive.

©Sometimes,2016.

 

*(I am including the following reference to this excellent childrens’ book because it is also paraphrased for the title of this post.)  There is a childrens’ book that I have always liked, and in fact have quoted from it frequently. My kids may have had the book, or we may have gotten it from the library….way back in the day! The name of it is Fred, Fred, Use Your Head, …written by Barbara Klimowicz and illustrated by Frank Aloise… published in 1966 by Abington Press.

Fred is a little boy who learns to think before he leaps into anything, thereby saving him from jumping to conclusions or questionable activity.

(The photo of the book cover is borrowed from the Amazon listing.)

 

An Elegy to an Endless Moment in Time

Poetry, This and That, Writing 201 Poetry

Day 8: Writing 201,Poetry:   Flavor, Elegy, Enumeratio

An Endless Moment

Sometimes a moment can encompass an hour,
a few days or a week enhances the power
of a memory — how poignant or sweet
or mundane as a walk down a street.

Fraught with danger, when meeting a stranger,
some moments include a flash of lightning
that strikes like a bolt and never retreats
no matter how old, or how far time has traveled,
the moment lives on and is never unraveled.

A moment remembered in memory unchanged, ever the same
no embroidery of the facts of the night.
The sprinkle of stars on the velvet black sky, lit the atmosphere
as the brilliance of a meteor shower, creating a twinkle in time.

Over and over, in reminiscence, we walk down that street
his hand takes mine, and warms to the welcome and tries a kiss…
and the rest of the tale is history

There is no happy sequel, all things being equal
but never forgotten by time as the years preserved and enfolded
that sweet long moment in time.