Women’s March 21 January 2017- Roanoke, VA
~kat – 21 January 2017
Magnetic Poetry Saturday – The Poet Kit
Happy Sunday! Winter’s fury has descended upon many parts of my country. The weather forecasters and government authorities warn us to stay inside where it’s safe. And we know they’re right. We are reminded they are right by the sound of spinning tires on ice screaming from the silence late at night and by reports of stranded drivers and multiple car pile ups on the evening news. Some people just don’t heed the warnings. But not me. I’m happy to spend the day in my pajamas, eating and drinking warm things and napping between sappy movie binges. Staying safe is bliss!
But after a few days of slugging around behind my sterile four walls, I need a break, if for no other reason than to replenish my dwindling supply of milk and bread. So I dig myself out, venture past my neighborhood into the light of day and join the masses of other cabin fever sufferers who clog the highways and byways, narrow grocery aisles and shopping malls.
We are so predictable aren’t we? So predictable that we are easily convinced to take the safe route. Master manipulators hungry for power are well aware of our weakness. “Let us take care of things for you,” they say, “We’ll make the world great for you again. Let us tend to he details. Stay inside your tiny worlds where you feel safe. Let us handle things. We know things you don’t.”
But eventually it’s time to dig out, because for the world to hum, to thrive, to be great requires our participation. We need to join the masses. There are shopping malls to haunt, restaurants to patronize and grocery stores stocked to the rafters with milk and bread. No one can take care of the details for us. We are the ones who keep things humming.
So as we venture out after the storm, past soot-blackened snow mounds, scary ice patches and bumper to bumper uncomfortable closeness with strangers, with others, it helps to remember that, like us, they are doing their part too.
I’m guessing we’d miss each other if one of us didn’t show up…even the ones who didn’t heed the warnings. And I’m guessing we want us all to arrive safely wherever it is we’re heading.
Stay safe, stay warm…and stay in the game. We need you.
Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 8 January 2017
beautiful rain at dawn
flattened area under a tree.
lately is not late
time is a tyrant
early birds will lose
all it takes is a head spin
the sum of our parts
flowers and people
it’s not the destination
earth beneath resting
I got here just in time!
~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. 😊
Happy New Year to you! As I watched the ball drop in Times Square NYC on its plummeting countdown to 2017, I learned that this year’s Waterford crystal design theme is “Kindness”, revealed at its unveiling a few days ago:
“Waterford’s 2017 sentiment, unveiled at a Dec. 27 ceremony in Times Square by Waterford master artisan Tom Brennan, is a timely one. The theme: The gift of kindness. Brennan says the theme was not specifically intended as a response to recent political developments around the world, but take from it what you will.” Article from Quartz by Anne Quito
From Waterford’s website:
“Each of the design patterns on the Waterford Crystal triangles, has been inspired by the theme of international generosity. The series is called “The Greatest Gifts” Collection, which began in 2014 with the “Gift of Imagination”.
For 2017, the newest celebratory theme is the “Gift of Kindness”, honoring the spirit of charity and compassion, all in the name of promoting understanding, and strengthening the bonds of humanity.
The pattern itself has been designed with touching rosettes, supported on a base of olive cuts and rich diamond cutting. The pattern captures a sense of unity and togetherness, as the ends of each rosette reach out to form a chain or bonding circle in an expression of kindness.”
There is kindness in the air. Do you feel it? This week, I too employed the theme in my first poem for the week. Did I know that kindness would be the theme for this year’s ball drop celebration? Well, nobody knew until the 27th of December when it was unveiled. And yet the idea, the theme of “kindness” and our longing for it has been rumbling below the surface for a while now.
It’s the perfect theme, the extreme pendulous response to a year that fomented in all things not kind: terrorist attacks, personal vendettas, lies, slander, name calling, violence, rage, boastfulness, hatred. It is an understatement to suggest that humanity could use a little kindness these days.
As simple as kindness is, it is no simple or little thing. It has the power to change lives, and so often does it in ways we will never know. Acts of kindness are so easy to do. It costs very little, requiring just a spark of good intention for others. We may hold a door, smile, offer a place ahead of us in line, say an encouraging thing, leave the last cookie for the next person, offer to carry another’s load…you know there are so many ways to do it…to be kind.
I will end this week’s summary the way I started it: please be kind. As I suspected, this theme, this gift, is definitely in the air. I can’t think of anything we need more.
Peace, love and kindness y’all.
Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 1 January 2017
please be kind
when you tell it
remember to give them space
true joy can be known
it takes a bit of prep, but it is so worth it
leaving a trail of stardust to guide us home
delays one’s senectitude
it’s an advantage
it gives me hope that maybe I’m not crazy after all
i’ll do good if i can remember to breathe~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. 😊
Happy Friday! Today’s dictionary.com word of the day is another one that I had never heard of…Senectitude. It is decidedly old world as revealed in its etymology summary:
Senectitude comes from the Medieval Latin noun senectitūdō meaning “old age,” which in turn comes from Classical Latin senectūs, a derivative of the noun senex meaning “old man.” Senectitude entered English in the late 1700’s, more precisely, in 1796 in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
A search on the internet for more information does not return much in the way of its modern use, but, here’s a fun fact…if you spend too much time in Google looking for the word “senectitude” you will begin to see an assortment of senior-focused advertisements: insurance, nursing homes, Alzheimer’s medications, erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence remedies and “adult” vacation destinations. Who knew approaching senectitude could be so perilous and so fun!
But it is rather creepy isn’t it? The truth is that there is nothing secret or private anymore, especially if you have an online footprint. Your computer’s Network ID precedes you. If you tell your deepest secrets to Siri, Cortana, Alexa or any one of a growing number of intelligent bots, you may be lulled by their friendly, soothing voices, but do not be deceived. They will betray you in a heartbeat somewhere in the matix.
So I suppose I am branded now. Greedy businesses will begin clamoring for my attention and my dollar, with promises of an array of products offering to make me feel young again, or at least make my impending senectitude comfortable. Hopefully, this latest trend on my computer’s feed will phase out quickly and on to the next product du jour. I’m a baby-boomer. I know I’m headed toward senectitude. I just don’t need to be reminded.
Here’s a bit of haiku to lighten the mood. 😉
It’s an advantage
to bare one’s senectitude
for senior discounts!
Sixty as forty
delays one’s senectitude
and retirement.
kat ~ 30 December 2016
when we dance between two worlds
with angels and one another
hoping to belong
we start believing there is
an us….and…a them
and forget to trust our hearts
truly…we are together
in this life…and for always
please be kind
kat – 26 December 2016
(Magnetic Poetry – The Love Kit)
like mercury colliding... 