Category Archives: Essays

Sunday’s Week in ReVerse -21 February 2016

  
Happy Sunday! Well, what to make of this week, and this week’s reVerse? I was almost stumped by several challenges this week, (a tinge of writer’s block?) but I eventually pulled them off.

It takes discipline and determination to write on a consistent basis. The nice thing about writing challenges and prompts are that they force one to get the words out of one’s head and onto the page.

Writing is very much like labor. A process that takes time and requires a bit of pushing (in the form of prompts and challenges). But when I am most stuck in that process I do trust that the words are there waiting to be found and given life in verse.

The words are there.

I just need to be patient and surrender to the process. Happy surrendering to you then. May the coming week be full of new life and revelations of wonder!

Sunday’s Week in ReVerse -21 February 2016

What? Just like that? Wow!
Winter is having the final word!!!
She didn’t feel anything, except relief
we’ve received reports of a re-entry error
But he vowed he would quit
roots burrowed deep
In that moment we realized we are one.
implied survival.
And yes I generally wake up happy
Starting with a Bang!
promising delights.

~ kat


Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku – Cosmology

cosmology

Happy Friday! Today’s Dictionary.com Word of the Day is Cosmology. Originating from the Greek words kosmos (order/world) and –logia (discourse), it might surprise you to know that astronomers, philosophers and even astrologers have been studying Cosmology since ancient times. Through the years, mathematicians, engineers, physicists and even religious figures and politicians have weighed in on the ever evolving theories and philosophies of Cosmology. Here are a few names that you may recognize:  Plato, Aristotle, Copernicus, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Henrietta Swan Leavitt (one of the first women to enter the field of astronomy), Edwin Hubble, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

One of the most popular theories, of course, is the Big Bang Theory, but the evolution of the study of Cosmology has not stopped there. Other theories to be introduced in later years include the Oscillating Universe developed by Alexander Friedmann based on Einstein’s general relativity equations, the Steady State Universe (which opposed the Big Bang) and then a number of theories that have expanded on the Big Bang including, Inflationary Universe and Multiverse theory which see our organized, observable universe as one of many in an infinite cosmos that operates basically in a state of chaos.

The one thing we can know for certain is that as long as there are universes to discover, there will be great minds who seek answers to the questions, what, where, when, why and how. As for me, I prefer to gaze at the stars, become lost in their magnificence, and write poetry. BAZINGA! 🙂

Speaking of poetry…here’s my Haiku…

Theory not faith
Informs the Cosmologist
Starting with a Bang!

kat ~ 19 February 2016

 

 


Echoes of my Neighbourhood

Happy Thursday! With all the chilly weather I have barely made it out my front door for weeks. Except, of course, to head to work and back (gotta pay for that front door!) So I decided since the title of this challenge is Echoes of my Neighbourhood I could share a bit of my drive to the office with you.

This is me and my sleeping buddy…yes it’s Maxwell…and yes I generally wake up happy…much to the chagrin of my housemate who needs coffee before she’s able to deal with the world! 😊

The front step of my house and the audacious little weeds that thrive in concrete and inclement weather! Love those guys! They inspire me!

Heading downtown now…


And then about 5 miles West to the industrial park where I work…but not before passing the Chinese Buffet. Good place for lunch btw! 😊

…and a few more stop lights and we are here…


One last look at the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountain Range…

…and another day begins!

Until it’s time to go home to this! ☺️

sun

See other Neighborhoods at my friend Jacqueline’s blog, “a cooking pot and twisted tales” echoes…😊


As Smooth as a Milk Maid’s Skin – Haiku

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Dr. Edward Jenner

Well…this is interesting!

The saying, “As smooth as a milk maid’s skin” has a very interesting history. At first blush one might imagine that it meant milk baths or sweet cream facials for milk maids who, because of their ready access to milk, had exceptionally smooth skin.  It is true that certain milk maids did have smooth skin, but the truth is more sobering.

I found this snippet in Wikidpedia:
The expression “as smooth as a milk maid’s skin” means exceptionally smooth. This phrase came about as a result of exposure to cowpox, which causes no serious symptoms, but does convey a partial immunity to the disfiguring (and often fatal) disease smallpox. Thus, milkmaids lacked the “pockmarked” complexion common to smallpox survivors. This observation led to the development of the first vaccine.[1]

The first vaccine, in fact, was performed in 1796 by Dr. Edward Jenner in Berkeley (Gloucestershire), England. He discovered that milkmaids who had contracted cowpox did not get smallpox. When his patient Sarah Nelmes presented symptoms of cowpox on her hand, Jenner  “took the pus from a cowpox lesion and inoculated an eight-year-old boy, James Phipps, the son of Jenner’s gardener. After the boy got a slight case of cowpox, Jenner exposed him to smallpox. As he suspected and much to his relief, young James remained unaffected by the deadly disease.  (Read more about Dr. Jenner HERE.)

The visions of milky white, soft, beautiful skin that I once imagined when I heard this saying are definitely not what those who initially coined the phrase intended! The truth is quite gruesome, what with cowpox pus scrapings and human experimentation. But I suppose it is the final result, discovery of a vaccination against a deadly disease, that matters most.  Here’s the Haiku then…

She was one so fair
“As smooth as a milk maid’s skin”
implied survival.

~kat – 18 February 2016

This Haiku is in response to Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Challenge with the Prompt Words: Milk & Smooth. If you would like to read other Haiku or enter your own, click HERE.


Sunday’s Week in ReVerse ~ 14 February 2016

 

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Photo Credit: Kat Myrman 2014

 

Happy Valentine’s Day Sunday! If I may wax poetic, this week’s ReVerse is rather poetic…poetic in its melancholic musings, sentimental walks down lanes of memories wrapped in chocolate and flowers. Did I plan this? Most certainly not! It is a game the Muse plays with me. How very clever of her, don’t you think?

Not to worry, the week wasn’t all sappy and sweet. There were hints of poetic justice as well. Enter the scoundrels…the handsome blind date (or was he just a rude stalker!), politicians (no comment…), time…if time was a scoundrel (I have no doubt that our modern electronic clocks have an evil plan to drive us all crazy!), scary nature (requiring a safety net of creature comforts for those brave souls who venture off the grid), the corporate scoundrel…jerk! creep! *#%%%*#!!!!! (forgive me…too soon), and finally Jack Frost (well, he was certainly implied. Soon to sweep the blush from the daffodils.) As exciting as all this has been…what do I do? I take photographs!

I’m going to digress for a bit…but I promise to bring it home…trust me.

The greatest technology of the 21st Century for me is the phone camera! A few decades ago, I did labor in the bowels of my amber-lit basement, elbow deep in smelly chemicals developing my own photographs. Editing required cutting and pasting (really!…cutting with scissors and pasting with glue), re-photographing and developing. All things being digital has opened up a whole new world to us all.

But here’s the thing…yes, there is a thing…

My last story this week reminded me of a lost art that needs a revisit…letter writing. Lovely handwritten notes on pretty paper penned by one’s favorite pen (for me it is a fountain pen loaded with cerulean blue ink). I even read last week that schools are considering dropping cursive writing lessons from their curriculum! A very sad turn of events indeed!

And so as I look forward to next week, I’m planning to pen a few letters to those friends who do not frequent social media…and maybe even a few who are digitally savvy. I have become woefully out of touch with them. What better day for inspiration than today, Valentine’s Day!  Join me if you’d like. If there is one thing I’ve learned in life it is this, those who love you don’t want your chocolates or flowers…they want your words…<3

Sunday’s Week in ReVerse ~ 14 February 2016

A treasured timepiece,
here or hereafter.
sweet dreams to all you dreamers.
They are forever etched on my heart
She always reserved room for chocolate.
He knew she was lying.
fair blooms in waiting.
you certainly cannot win
abstaining from all pleasure
take a moment to breathe
proving their own lack.
She had the last laugh.
to appear able
a luddite’s nightmare!
But not without a backpack of creature comforts.
He took credit for her work.
So I took a photograph for you.

~ kat

If you’re new to this blog, a bit of background to explain the verse above. It is a line from each poem or prose from the previous week. Lifted and placed in the order written. A snapshot review of the week. It helps me to prepare for the upcoming week with a clean slate.