Category Archives: Essays

March 18, 2018

Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 18 March 2018

By Kat Myrman

There is something to be said for the wisdom that comes with experience. The past week presented a whole host of challenges…my partner’s unemployment, the daily saga, firings and resignations, from the bowels of our tenuous government, stressful workplace drama, a late winter snowstorm that shut the city down. I’m not looking for sympathy. This is life. And I am fully aware that my week might be viewed as a piece of cake compared to the challenges of others who may be facing real tragedy and loss.

I say all this to acknowledge that when I was younger even the slightest shift in my universe would throw me into a tizzy. Now, with decades of survival under my belt, even the most challenging calamity is met with a “meh”.

There is comfort in that. Comfort that I’ve earned over the course of a lifetime. Winter is but a temporary season…spring is coming; there will be a new job, just in time, and likely better than the last; my country has a fickle affair with politicians and the bad eggs are eventually tossed into the compost heap of history, and my stressful job? It pays the bills, but it’s not my life. I am reminded everyday that the world ticks on and that deadlines mean nothing in the grand scheme of things as I gaze out my window at ancient mountains and wind tossed trees.

With age and a sure and steady track record of survival thus far I have reached a certain mellowness…like fine wine or cheese, life in all its variety, meant to be savored slowly.

Have a lovely week in spite of it all. ❤️

Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 18 March 2018

what I crave is more sleep
snow storm, don’t lose your head
cool stillness
whispering soft on fragrant swells
But, can I be honest?
winter stings budding trees
melted snow, muddy swamp
perseverance in winter’s wake
frigid gusts bend branches
though chances are slim
blue serene, sweet greenness
say a prayer for me
a blissful sight, dreaming
beautiful bird song
the one true thing
poetry is a window

~kat

A 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 ReVerse features the words of one writer, providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week.

6 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Reverse Poem, Shi Sai, Week in Review

March 18, 2018

Bunglesome -Friday’s Word of the Day

By Kat Myrman

Friday’s word of the day at dictionary.com is identified as an Americanism dating back to 1885-90. Bunglesome is characterized as or marked by bungling, clumsy, awkward, or incompetent. What really intrigued me about this word is the idea that it is considered an “Americanism”.

In case you are wondering, an Americanism is a word or phrase (or, less commonly, a feature of grammar, spelling, or pronunciation) that (supposedly) originated in the United States and/or is used primarily by Americans. Some accounts state that the term was first coined by the Reverend John Witherspoon, founding father and signer of the Declaration of Independence and president of what would become Princeton University.

Here’s are a few notable phrases and words: wigwam, pretzel, spook, depot and canyon, that borrowed from the Indians, Germans, Dutch, French and Spanish.”

Here is a list of Americanisms and their British English counterpart:

American English/British English
antenna/aerial
mad/angry
anyplace/anywhere
fall/autumn
bill/bank note
attorney/barrister, solicitor
cookie/biscuit
hood/bonnet
trunk/boot
suspenders/braces
janitor/caretaker

Read the entire list HERE.

So bunglesome is apparently an Americanism. In fact I also learned that you can add the suffix -some to a whole host of words. It makes the root word an adjective that implies more of the root word it is attaching to.

Well, I had best get to the Haiku. I’m already late, but bunglesome is too good a word to miss!

for bunglesome pols
appointed to a play a role
loyalty is key

~kat

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Essays, Haiku, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Word of the Day Haiku

March 14, 2018

Spring Interrupted

By Kat Myrman


Spring Interrupted

tender
tenacity
verdant shoots sprout in spring
perseverance in winter’s wake
frosted
~kat

An American Cinquain for Colleen Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge using synonyms only for the prompt words: patience (tenacity, perseverance) and green (tender, verdant).

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in American Cinquain, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Fiction Series, nature, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings

March 11, 2018

Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 11 March 2018

By Kat Myrman

This past week provided me with a reality check. It was a gray meteorologically, but an astute observer might also have sensed a tinge of internal grayness in my writing as well.

As weeks go it wasn’t extraordinary, but it wasn’t a total wash either. I managed to eke out a respectable collection of poems. I received a decent annual review from my boss, a tiny bump in salary, coined a new poetry form, mastered a new recipe, and found out that my next grandchild, due this summer, is a girl.

But it was overcast and stormy all week which cast a cloud on everything. How easily swayed I am by external things that don’t matter. It’s not like the bad weather affected me so much that I wanted to find a dark hole to curl up in. But I allowed what should have been a fairly good week to be cast in shades of gray. And I really had no reason to feel blue. It was actually a good week!

Well the universe wasn’t having it. If I was determined to be blue then I should at least have a good reason for my sour mood. On Friday my partner was let go from work. OMG! WTF! Really?!

Never underestimate the power of a real downer to snap you into the reality. When I was younger, this sort of news would have sent me into a panic, but with age and experience come wisdom. After getting past the initial shock, I took a deep breath and examined the situation. Suddenly the gray skies didn’t matter. Those good things I listed above came flooding into view. Bad news was tempered with good and I settled into the moment with the assurance that everything would be okay because I could recall similar challenges that turned out okay.

In that moment I realized how much I have evolved over time. I listened to my slow steady breathing. There is a line in the middle of this week’s reverse: “wasted hours can’t be seized”. True enough. But wasted implies past tense. Those hours are over and done. What I can seize is this moment. And in this moment, I’m okay…better than okay in fact. And I am determined that wasted hours spent worrying about the past, or dreading the future will not seize me. Right now, in the midst of gray-skies and challenges on the horizon, I am counting my blessings.

Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 11 March 2018

all this fuss over tweets
no clouds in sight, just blue
how my soul longs
Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
grey clouds descend again
reminding us of ourselves
wasted hours can’t be seized
snow flurried, spring’s first blush
that reeked of deception
dandy shoots dot the lawn,
but demonyms fall short as they should
feathered shadow in flight
a whisper in the stillness…
we always long for more
faint of heart
it rustles and murmurs
when clouds block the view

~kat

A 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 ReVerse features the words of one writer, providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week.

7 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Reverse Poem, Week in Review

March 10, 2018

Demonym – Friday’s Word of the Day

By Kat Myrman

Today’s word of the Day on dictionary.com is demonym. It is defined as “the name used for the people who live in a particular country, state, or other locality: Two demonyms for the residents of Michigan are Michigander and Michiganian.”

Its origin from dictionary.com:
The name noun demonym is clearly from the Greek dêmos, “people, common people, common soldiers, (as opposed to officers) popular government, democracy, district, country, land.”. The second part of the word comes from Greek dialect (Doric, Aeolic) ónyma, a variant of ónoams “name” s very common in compounds like antonym and pseudonym. It entered English in the late 20th Century.

From Wikipedia:

National Geographic attributes the term “demonym” to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in a recent work from 1990.[10] The word did not appear for nouns, adjectives, and verbs derived from geographical names in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary nor in prominent style manuals such as the Chicago Manual of Style. It was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals.[11] However, in What Do You Call a Person From…? A Dictionary of Resident Names (the first edition of Labels for Locals)[12] Dickson attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his Names’ Names: A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon (1988),[1] which is apparently where the term first appears. The term may have been fashioned after demonymic, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as the name of an Atheniancitizen according to the deme to which the citizen belongs, with its first use traced to 1893.

I discovered that there official or common demonyms and then there are colloquial demonyms. For example, someone from the USA is officially an American or a Yankees or Yanks; Zimbabweans are also called Zimbos; the French are Frogs or Gauls; Faulkland Islanders are Belongers; Costa Rican’s are Ticos; and Canadians are Canucks. Here in the states we have Buckeyes (Ohioans), Ice Chippers (Alaskans), and Cheeseheads ( Wisconsinites). You can see a comprehensive list on Wikipedia, HERE.

There is an unspoken rule when crafting a demonym. If you’re stuck, go with what the locals call themselves.

Normally I do a Haiku but given the word of the day I am thinking only a limerick will do.

There once was a dude from the hood
Who lived life upstanding and good
Now he was no gangster
Say bro, he might answer
But demonyms fall short as they should

~kat

 

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Essays, Limericks, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings