Category Archives: Essays

May 26, 2016

Echoes of my Neighborhood

It’s Thursday and time to share some snippets from my world. Thanks to my friend Jacqueline for hosting this weekly invitation: Echoes of my Neighborhood.

This week I’m thinking trees. I love trees. Yes, I’m a tree hugger. Trees have stories to tell. Happy Thursday then…and do yourself a favor…hug a tree! ❤️

Starting this “tree party” with my latest obsessiion…the Faerie tree. she happens to also be a Dogwood. I love Dogwoods! ❤️

This lovely lady is Magnolia.

This great dame resides in Highland Park. She’s my favorite at the park.

This beauty is near the entrance of my office.

A posthumous remembrance…this lovely Weeping Cherry once graced the roundabout on my street. A derecho took her down.

From my weekend in Savannah.

The next four live along the Creeper Trail in Abington, Virginia

A frosty Fir tree in my neighbor’s yard next to my front porch.

Also my neighbor’s tree…it’s a “bottle tree”! 😊

…and a few blocks away…a stuffed animal tree. it’s proprietor claims she sought to beautify an ugly tall stump by hanging a few stuffed animals on it. over the years…yes years! people have given her more stuffed animals and the rest is history! An attempt to beautify an eyesore has now become one!

…and my own creation…digitally enhanced from my back yard…the tree with a bird shaped leaf in winter.

13 Comments | tags: Challenge, dogwood, Echoes of my Neighborhood, hug a tree, magnolia, Trees, weeping cherry, winter trees | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Random Thoughts and Musings

May 22, 2016

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 22 May 2016

By Kat Myrman

Another week, another shi sai…ReVerse…looking back in snippets so I can settle in for another week with a clean slate

But..
the slate, is never actually clean or completely clear, is it? Our lives are the sum of a multitude of experiences…flash points that leave indelible imprints in our memory.
The sun took a siesta this week, allowing hoards of gray, bloated, sweaty clouds to take up residence in its place. Endless gloomy weather does a number on my serotonin deficient brain. Even medicated, I find myself clamoring for bits of bright.

This is where mindfulness becomes my savior, especially if I surrender to each moment. Moments shift the spiral ever so slightly. It is there in the midst of beautiful chaos. It. Is. Here.

Have a great week, but first…take a moment…take two. 😊

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 22 May 2016

“Maybe” is too tenebrous.
Bolt, skedaddle, flit
Nope! I told you, I’m good…
visiting my dreams,
azure strokes of ink on parchment,
Blue
don’t forget to stir
darkening blots on gray matter.

~kat

4 Comments | tags: Poetry, ReVerse, Shi Sai | posted in Essays, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Week in Review

May 20, 2016

Inspissate – Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku

By Kat Myrman

inspissate

Today’s Word of the Day from Dictionary.com is Inspissate. Seems like a fairly cut and dried (pun intended) word. Think making gravy…adding a bit of cornstarch or flour and heat for thickening. At least that was my first take:

Inspissate Haiku

Try adding cornstarch
to inspissate thin gravy
don’t forget to stir!

But then I googled the word and found this it is heavily (pun intended) used in the medical field when referring to bodily secretions and excretions thickened through dehydration or disease. (See the google suggestions below).

inspissated

Of course I had to share my findings with you! You’re welcome! (…evil grin…) Think of me next time you sit down to a lovely meal with a steaming boat of savory, thick, or rather, inspissated gravy and remember that in some odd linguistic twist…we are what we eat…what goes up must come down…what goes in, generally comes out. EWWWW! I best drop off this spiral before I drown in this inspissating quicksand of ickiness! If there is such a thing as a word earworm…this is it!

Have a great weekend! 🙂

6 Comments | tags: Challenge, earworm, Haiku, inspissate, Poetry | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Essays, Haiku, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Word of the Day Haiku

May 19, 2016

Echoes of my Neighborhood

By Kat Myrman

How amusing to find that my friend Jacqueline of A Cooking Pot and Twisted Tales (and our Challenge Hostess) chose to feature art for her selections this week! I had been planning to share a peak into my art room for the past two weeks! My busy schedule did not allow me to share last week, but I finally found a quiet moment to pull out some of my paintings. The truth is I am itching to get my hands back at it. But I have so enjoyed writing. Trying to find the time to do both!!! At any rate, here’s a bit of me on canvas. Have a great week!!!! 😊

My first acrylic painting. Art class for a play day at work. 😊

“Loving With Arms Wide Open” 1999

Winter Tree

Moonlight

Beachscape – watercolor on gesso

Beach – watercolor

Jesus Weeping

Deceived

Blue

The Closet

Innocence

Angel

Eos Rising

Faerie

Seeker

Sunflowers

Grace

Flight

17 Comments | tags: acrylic, art, Echoes of my Neighborhood, gallery, paintings, watercolor | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Random Thoughts and Musings

May 19, 2016

Serendipity

By Kat Myrman

A Cleave Poem for Jane Dougherty’s Poetry Challenge “Message in a Bottle” with the prompt words: ethereal, placid, meander, forget, silver.

A cleave poem is three poems in one. To read it, start with the first “column” (in plain text) from top to bottom, then read the second (in bold italics), and finally read each line all the way across. In this Cleave poem there are two stories to tell, worlds apart until the message in a bottle connects them. It is serendipitous! 🙂

I found your message do you think of me?
as I meandered along the placid sea I know you are there
under the silver moon somewhere in the ethereal mist
I have sensed your presence forever so I wrote my heart
visiting my dreams, azure strokes of ink on parchment
your kisses on the cool breeze trusting destiny’s providence
waves caressing my feet to deliver this message
as the sun sets past the horizon on some distant shore
where you wait…and now I wait.