Category Archives: Essays

Arting and Humming  

My twins, coloring. ~kat

Mostly, I remember the smells…of linseed oil and turpentine, earthen clay and play dough. I can lose myself inside the lid of a fresh box of crayons. If I close my eyes I can imagine the sensation of finger paint, creamy cool between my fingers, and the sublime feeling of peeling elmer’s glue “skin” embossed with lines and creases from the palms of my hands. My introduction to art was a sensual, tactile experience.

Nowadays, I hum when I make art. I’m not sure why. It is not usually a recognizable tune; more like a droning purr of random notes. I suspect it is my left brain overflowing; bits of my soul released to be splashed onto a canvas, sculpted in clay, or scribbled on a page. I’ve been accused of being a bit crazy because of the humming. Or maybe it just drives others crazy because they can’t hear the music. All I do know, or am, at the very least, most certain of, is that art and music make me happy and touches the core of my being in ways that I can’t describe. So I hum and I art.

art by numbers
left-brain daubs inside the lines
magnum opus dreams
right-brain wild synapses
purr in rhapsody, the muse

~kat

For Colleen’s Taibun/Tanka Tuesday, prompt words Art and Music (Rhapsody).


Twittering Tale #40 – 11 July 2017

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About the challenge: Each Tuesday I will provide a prompt, and your mission, if you choose to play along, is to tell a story based on that prompt in 140 characters or less. If you accept the challenge, be sure to let me know in the comments with a link to your tale.

A final note: if you need help tracking the number of characters in your story, there is a nifty online tool that will count for you at charactercountonline.com.

I will do a roundup each Tuesday, along with providing us a new prompt. Have Fun!

Twittering Tale #39 – The Round Up

 

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Photo by Ottavio at Pixabay.com

From Michael at Morpethroad:
I’ve bits not functioning as designed
I’m falling apart
grey and decrepit.
Once I could run for buses,
No more.
I sit watch and await,
a miracle.

(140 Characters)

From Kathryn at AnotherFoodieBlogger:
The bridge was in a lot better shape when I hid the stash under it two years ago, but we really need the money. Just two more ste… SPLASH!

From Through My Heart’s Web at Soul Connection:
Two Strangers..
You Sure We Can Walk On This?
You Follow Me.
Why You Stopped?
To Kill You
Leave Me
Are You Scared
Let Me Go

From Lady Lee at Lady Lee Manila:
In the journey of life
Who says it is smooth sailing?
Rough roads and broken bridges
Stepping stones or barriers?
Shall we take the challenge?

From Reena at ReInventions:
“I admire optimism. It takes courage to build it, and then allow gaps”, said the sarcastic boss. He did not know the trap was laid for him.
(139 characters)

From Di at Pensitivity101:
“What the hell’s got into you?
Last week you had me climbing pylons. Now you want me to cross this?
Sibling rivalry sucks. Forget it!”
(132 characters)

From Jane at Jane Dougherty Writes:
Hefty foxhounds scrabble at the broken boards, baying as the whipper in calls them off. Fox on the far bank flicks his brush and disappears.

From Vaidehi at Young Mind:
Little feet walking on the bridge.Bags on shoulders and lives on risk.To some getting educated has a huge cost to give.It is worth it?

From Weena at Teleporting Weena:
Rotted wood and rusty wire
Explosion proves Devil’s a liar
No escaping Demon’s pyre
Now situation classified dire

From Irena at Books and Hot Tea:
Not real, they said.
But when she ran, shadows followed.
Then path became a broken bridge.
Abyss underneath, not as scary as her illusions.
(138 characters)

From Willow at WillowDot21:
Broken that’s what they called her, no longer intact. She knew when she found the bridge and felt safe. A few more steps, then peace
{140 Characters}

From Sight11 at Journey:
Standing to support
It is now standing alone
Broken and shattered
It falls..
Ready to be embraced
By its enemy standing below..

From Sandi at Flip Flops Every Day:
Get to the other side?
Got to build damn thing ourselves
obviously attempt was made by another
Yeah, but not successfully
ended in their demise

From Riya at AestheticGraphy:
My life hasn’t always been what I wished it to be
Wrong situations
But I know this
A dash of hope and huge leap in faith is all i need.
Character Limit: 139

From Peter at Peter’s Pondering:
They’d met at the bridge all those years ago. She thought love would last forever. Now the bridge was broken, just like all his promises!
(138 characters)

From Sangbad at Thoughts of Words…a quote and a tale:
In the darkness of pessimistic lies the optimistic. Dig Out & Discover a New You…
Sangbad

Those are gaps, Dad…no, honey, look like this they are optimistic portal…see the shade there, it’s where the belief in yourself lies…
[140 Characters]

From Kitty at Kitty’s Verses:
Five..Four..Three..Two..One..Come out of your hiding place between the rocks, short fins.I can see you from up here, grunted amphy, the frog.
Exactly 140 characters.

From Edwin at Edwin’s Journal:
“Mommy, I’m really scared.”
“Don’t worry dear; you won’t fall. Think that we are crossing a dimension filled with adventurous realities.”

From Francine at Woman Walks Dog:
Magic herb down there growing in the ravine, the weird woman says. Makes you ever-so happy.
I’ll keep watch up here, you go down OK.  Careful the bridge is cracking      oh    no !

And…starting us off…here’s my little tale:
“Where’s Sophie?! Oh god!”
“It won’t hold you Sue. See if she’ll come back to you.”
“Come to mommy Sophie. Come…”
“Sophie…no!”

“Got her!”

NICE! Everyone. Your imaginations really spanned a reach of possibilities. Just as I had imagined, some of you were quite retrospective in your takes. Those are always so interesting. And then there was a host of fun tales where more than a few ended up in the drink. There were adventurers and critters and sibling rivals. Bravo! I loved every single character of your 140 character tales. Thank you again and again for joining me each week to have a go at the challenge. I’m hearing that tweeting is still all the rage these days. We are on the cutting edge no doubt. 😉

On to this week’s challenge. I found this interesting closeup of a vinyl record. You know, these are making a comeback. I remember when cassettes evolved into 8 tracks and then CDs came out. It was the CDs that blew us away. The sound was so crisp and clear. Of course, now we have digital. Nary a blip of noise to adulterate the pure sound of a recording. But there is something special about the scratchy background drone and skipping pops of a vinyl record. The sound of the needle when it first touches the surface; that dull, crescendoing popping noise. It is mesmerizing, almost magical.

Your challenge this week is to write something about this scene. Is it a noir mystery…or a romantic interlude…or a nostalgic memory…or a philosophical reflection? I know you all will come up with something special. Can’t wait to see you all next week at the Round-up.

Twittering Tale #40 – 11 July 2017

recordplay

photo from pixabay.com

Scratch-pop…scratch-pop…scratch-pop
She couldn’t bring herself to right the needle. Was she depressed? Maybe. Monotony helped her sleep.

~kat
(139 Characters)


Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 9 July 2017

There is a full moon outside my window. The sky is almost cloudless and the moonlight is washing everything in a pale frosted glow. 

During the day when the sun is bright and high in the sky we are told as children not to look directly at it for fear of damaging our eyes. But it is in the cool shadowy hours of the night when we can gaze directly at the sun’s reflection on the face of the moon. It is not in fact moonlight that we see, for the moon has no light of her own, but it is the sun’s reflection. 


Sometimes I feel like the moon. Face half hidden in cool gray matte while the other half brightly glows … or like the moon in its phases, in full face glow or completely hidden, shadowed in gray. 

I need to remind myself that I am not a moon. I am not meant to be a reflector of everything around me. But that can be a daunting task when faced with the troubles of our times. It seems so much easier to turn inward when the going gets rough. 

But the truth is I am much more like the sun. Reminds me of the little Sunday school song many of us happily sang as youngsters…”this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…let it shine…let it shine…let it shine. 

We can’t afford to brood; to become reflectors of light hoping to deflect the darkness, because we are suns. If we don’t let the little sparks within us shine the world will just get darker.  

Thank goodness for the dawn and its daily reminder that offers an example to each of us to rise anew, to be light and hope, warmth and healing from the inside out. 


“This little light of mine…I’m gonna let it shine…let it shine…let it shine…let it shine…Have a wonderful week. Your light gives me hope.

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 9 July 2017

nature’s song in green
got her
it was a good death, as deaths go
but it could be true
parched, we are drowning
those who dream dance on
their dreams frail as dust
to greening flush and browning
driving us mad
with longing
as though they are gods
out on digital screens

~kat

A shi sai or ReVerse poem is a summary poem with a single line lifted from each entry of a collection of work over a particular timeframe and re-penned in chronological order as a new poem. Unlike a collaborative poem, the shi sai features the words of one writer, providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week.


Phenology – Friday’s Word of the Day Haibun


Happy Friday. Today’s dictionary.com Word is Phenology. According to dictionary.com, “Phenology entered English in the 1880s as acontracted variant of phenomenology, with restrictionto climatic phenomena.” It is defined as “the science dealing with the influence of climate onthe recurrence of such annual phenomena of animaland plant life as budding and bird migrations.”

After a further bit of research I learned that the study of phenology goes back thousands of years and is in fact one of the oldest sciences dealing with the natural world. According to the website, Windows to the Universe, “The Chinese are credited with the first written phenological records dating back to around 974 B.C. For the past 1200 years, observations of the timing of peak cherry blossoms in Japan have been recorded.”

I also learned that there are a number of proverbs and sayings that refer to phenology. Here are a few that I found:

“If oak’s before ash, you’re in for a splash. If ash before oak, you’re in for a soak”.

And another version along this line…

“If the oak is out before the ash, ‘Twill be a summer of wet and splash; If the ash is out before the oak,’Twill be a summer of fire and smoke.”

“In like a lion, out like a lamb”

“Christmas in clover, Easter in snow”…

“Spring is sooner recognized by plants than by men.”

Windows to the Universe explains: “Phenological observations have been used for centuries to maximize crop production, prepare for seasonal allergies, and anticipate optimal wildflower viewing conditions. Today, this well established science is used to track the effect of global warming and climate change on organisms and to make predictions about the future health of the environment.”

Did you know that scientists have tracked and discovered that the beginning of spring starts a week earlier in Europe in recent years? I didn’t. It’s called “season creep” and it is the sort of things that Phonologists study. 

Phenology is obviously an important science…for those of us who believe in science. 😉 Some cool new scientific terms I learned in my research include “green up” and “brown down”, having to do with infrared wavelengths from the sun. Can you guess which phenophase is being described by those words? Tick tock tick… Spring and Fall of course. Clever! Tracking green ups helps to identify species of plants that contribute most to the “infrared reflectance values”; a process is called “ground-truthing”. Another cool term!

There is so much more to learn about phenology. Do rev your google engines and learn more if you are a nature lover…or just curious. Or peruse an Old Farmer’s Almanac for that matter. I, on the other hand have a Haiku to write! Have a great weekend!

What force spurs seasons
to greening flush and browning?
Phenologists know!

~kat


Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 2 July 2017


“Happy Sunday!”

“Happy, you say?!”

“Well, in a transcendental, metaphysical, quasi-spiritual, dreamy, optimistic sort of way, yes, happy. And it is a fact that it is Sunday…unless you reside in the Far East…then it is almost Monday…but I divagate.”

“You what?”

“Divagate….as in digress? Remember? The new word we learned this week.”

“You’re such a diva!”

“Am not! You are! But back to your original question, ‘happy, you say?!’ … yes, I take it you’re not.”

“Well, how can anyone be happy when everything in the world is spiraling out of control?”

“Take a Dramamine?”

“Come on! Global warming, a heath care bill that is going to kill people, an insane, mean old man running the country, Russia (need I say more?), collapsing infrastructure, the assault on our public schools, voting rights, gerrymandering, voter suppression, nationalism, travel bans, ageism, misogyny, racism, homophobia, religious profiling, insane tweets, the wall…”

“Feel better yet?”

“No, I’m just getting started. And just you wait. Tomorrow something else will happen to prove  we’re all up shit’s creek without a paddle. So forgive me miss giddy twinkle shoes if I can’t be happy right now! I’m mortified! It’s terrifying!”

“Oh, but you can. Be happy that is. It’s all a choice. It only takes a second.”

“Harrumph! Delusional you mean!”

“No. Happy. Right here, right now, this moment. Let me show you. First, close your eyes…now think about something that makes you happy.”

“You mean used to…”

“Give it a chance. And you opened your eyes…start over. Close your eyes…think happy something…anything. Got it?”

“Yeah. Okay now what?”

“Now take a deep breath in. Imagine yourself completely enveloped by your happy thing…don’t breathe out just yet…imagine…okay now…slowly…let it go. Feel better?”

“I do actually. I get it. I remember. Thanks self for pulling me off the ledge one more time.”

“Don’t mention it. We’re in this together you know. Happy Sunday?”

“Yeah, I’ll give you that. It’s happy enough, given the circumstances.”

“You’re exhausting!”

😳😊😟😉😜😀😢😣😐😘😌☺️😒😅😮

And…welcome to my world! My mind battles itself regularly. Yeah, the world is a bit, chaotic these days, but it’s important to unplug when it gets to be too much.

We’re gonna survive this, like we have survived every trying time in our history. I’m not going to tell you, “don’t worry, be happy”. That is a bit delusional, and it is important to stay engaged as a member of “we the people”. But…there is nothing wrong with divagating into your happy place every now and again.

Look! There goes a butterfly! A beautiful graceful butterfly…and there! Look! A flower! Oh, and I just noticed someone being kind…Wow! It’s not as hard as you think.

So…Happy Sunday y’all! I hope you can find your happy, if even for just a moment, this week. Just remember to breathe. ❤️

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 2 July 2017

If people only knew
never say it…only
smoldering remains
weeps perfume when crushed
from obsidian to glass
Some souls find heaven in hell’s corridors.
look! a butterfly!
divagating tweeted blips,
because that is what those with the truest hearts do
softly
magic is in the air
make love bloom
dreamers ask,
“why not?”

~kat

A shi sai or ReVerse poem is a summary poem with a single line lifted from each entry of a collection of work over a particular timeframe and re-penned in chronological order as a new poem. Unlike a collaborative poem, the shi sai features the words of one writer,providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week.