Join Diane, Delores and me as we explore this week's theme, "positivity." You are welcome to leave a poem in the comments section of any of our blogs, or, if you'd prefer, post it on your blog and leave a comment to tell us where to find you. It's free and fun, and sometimes frustrating and futile; our poems don't necessarily have rhyme schemes or fit a pattern, but they're ours! Also, we work our little brains to mush creating them, so we get kind of attached to them.
And -- we're off!
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Well, no, we're not off yet; we need the Donkey Preamble.
My brain is still hurting from writing last week's overly long poem. Sometimes the critical lines of a poem pop into my head fully formed and I only have to expand on those. Other times, nothing comes to mind except the "angle" on the theme that I wish to use. Either way, I try to visualize the overall direction of the poem and work toward it. Sometimes it feels like driving a large boat using only my mind. The boat keeps wanting to go one direction and I want it to go another direction. The words and the rhythm are like currents that can either help the process or interfere with it. Often I delete whole verses that I really, really like because they are taking the story in the wrong direction. I probably need to do it oftener, but I'm afraid I'd give up writing altogether if I had to change more than I already do.
All that just to say that this week's offering is going to be short and sweet. Short, anyway.
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Positivity
It's easy to be positive when all is going well,
But oh! so much more tricky when the world is going to heck in a handbasket.
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What, you thought it was going to rhyme?? Feel free to substitute whatever you need to, in order to make it sound more pleasing to your ear :)
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Quick, kitty! Get out of that basket before it's too late! |
Have a good week, people!
Truth.
ReplyDeleteJust as it is easy to be objective when it is not my sacred cows being herded up the street.
We are a consistently inconsistent species aren't we?
Hah! I love that line about sacred cows being herded up the street. Me too ...
DeleteLol! There’s so much in the handbasket now!
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be, doesn't there? :)
DeletePositivity? Kurt Vonnegut: "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt."
ReplyDeleteNice poem, by the way.
-Doug in Oakland
I haven't heard that Vonnegut quote before but I like it.
DeleteHello Jenny, Your poem last week was brilliant, so I can understand you getting writers block. It must have taken you all week to write it, there was so much detail.
ReplyDeleteI looked back on some of the poems I'd written in the past to see if any of them could pass for 'positivity' to save me thinking of something, unfortunately none did. So I had to put the little grey cells to work and tried to think of what I had accomplished that could be called positive and all I could come up with was Family History. It was nearly 40 years of research with some breaks of months at a time, so I was always refreshed and positive I would find out more to add to their stories.
Anyway, here it is -
Positivity
It started as a bit of fun,
When a friend told me what she had found.
I wasn't expecting anything great,
But soon my curiosity was spell-bound.
At first, as a novice,
I travelled the usual trail.
Making many surprising discoveries,
And a few amazing tales.
I searched and I searched,
No stone was left unturned.
Following every clue I possessed,
Until I knew all that could be learned.
There were a few brick walls,
When information was a little slack.
But, with the help from many kind strangers,
Pretty soon I was back on track.
I wanted all their life stories,
I wanted the weak and the strong,
I wanted their fears, hopes and dreams,
I wanted the right and the wrong.
I beieve I have achieved all that,
I have flesh on the bones of those passed.
They still live in my pages,
Those ancestors from whom I'm cast.
At the beginning it was a bit of fun,
To research my ancestors from before.
But soon it became a mission,
To find everything I could and more.
Some of the many strangers went out of their way to help, of which I shall always be grateful.
Take care and have a good week.
Joan (Devon)
That is a wonderful accomplishment and truly an example of keeping going when the way got difficult. How far back were you able to go, in the end?
DeleteThank you for contributing, Joan. I especially like your verse that tells you wanted it all, good and bad. That is another way of being positive.
On my dad's side I've got back to 1770 and my mum's side 1733. I did find someone had published names, dates and places of some of my mum's earlier ancestors to 1522 on the internet, but although I made a note of them I didn't reearch any of them. Doing the research I was determined I wasn't going onto Ancestry.com or any other web site for information but I did pay for research from a few Record Offices who hold all relevant information, but only up to a certain date. This way I was able to get flesh on those old bones and found a few interesting characters on my dad's side, particularly my two Great-Grandfathers.
DeleteIt is definitely an obsessive hobby!
Joan (Devon)
This amazing, Jenny! I can't think of anything more positive than researching your family history! What a treasure!
DeleteWho need rhyme when you speak the truth.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's so easy to rhyme if you care to :)
DeleteHa! I think that's called "free verse." :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe I was being too obscure ... a little substitution and it not only rhymes but has proper meter!
DeleteI read your last week's poem to my bird watching group before we started out walk. They liked it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for letting me know, Red! I'm kind of thrilled about that :)
DeleteAdorable! Both the poem and the kitten!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Diane, and I know you're not really a cat person, so that one must be extra cute!
DeleteIf things didn't go badly once in a while we wouldn't recognize it when they go well.
ReplyDeleteThere's something to think about!
DeleteNational security threat?
ReplyDeleteI seem to think
Trumpelthinskin in the white house
is such a stupid dink.
Heh heh ... he really does seem to have a thin skin, doesn't he? Thanks for sharing that :)
Deletehahaha your poem!
ReplyDeleteit's truth but it could be more pithy ;)
I do believe you are thinking the same thing I'm thinking, kylie :D
DeletePositivity
ReplyDeleteWhen
The positive electrode
Was connected
I began to
Scream
Woke in a sweat at 3 a.m.
Was it but a dream?
Well, that's a take on the theme I'd never have come up with! Thanks for contributing, YP.
DeleteShort and sweet and got the message across. Cute kitty.
ReplyDeleteShort but maybe not so sweet - ha ha
DeleteHaha. I've never heard the expression "heck in a handbasket" but it made me grin. I have the feeling that kitty likes the handbasket.
ReplyDeleteKitty is very sad looking, so I wonder about that!
DeleteHa! Love it! So much truth in only two lines, and a giggle at the end. :-)
ReplyDeleteHaha! Glad you caught that :D
Delete