Sunday Post: Shelter

Here’s my first post in response to the Sunday Post from Jakesprinter; find out more about it here: http://jakesprinters.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/sunday-post-shelter/

The first photo is a bat house.

The second photo is of a turkey taking shelter in the woods as I chased him trying to take his picture! LOL!

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Together

Together says family to me. I recently saw this mother goat and her babies.

 

 

The second photo shows a “family” of pigs as a sculpture.

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A Love of Poetry

In honor of April being National Poetry Month, I thought I’d share a quick story of how I fell in love with poetry.

I loved the book Tirra Lirra by Laura E. Richards (AKA Mother Goose), and Dr. Seus became a favorite (I think it is for most kids…his work is so FUN); song lyrics stuck in my head from a young age. My father was very proud that I could sing “My Country Tis of Thee” at 2 years old (of course I did not know what I was singing…it was years later that the words made any sense to me).

But I still remember the moment I discovered I loved poetry: I found a copy of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” in our attic. I opened it and began to read. I didn’t understand it, but it gave me a forbidden rush feeling; I LOVED the sound of the words. I remember sneaking it into my room and reading it aloud to myself. It was truly beautiful to me and made me feel like I was flying.

Celebrate Poetry!

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Sun

All living things need sun to grow and thrive: plants, animals, and people.

In the first photo, the daisies are bent toward the sun.

In the second, my nephew takes my great-nephew for one of his first swims on a beautiful sunny day.

And finally, my cat Zoee enjoys a square of sun coming through a skylight.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Two Subjects Redux

I couldn’t let the subject pass without a picture of my two kitties:

…Love from one being to another can only be

that two solitudes come nearer,

recognize and protect

and comfort each other.

HAN SUYIN (Mrs. Elizabeth Comber), Chinese Writer and Physician

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Two Subjects

A tough topic and a tough week. I’m only posting one.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Journey

I think this woman’s life must have been quite a journey (95 years):

Many journeys were taken on these tracks, but no more…

Finally, some people’s possessions will be going on a journey…

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For the Writers Out There…

Today I wanted to share this poem by Ted Kooser, former Poet Laureate of the United States.

A Spiral Notebook

The bright wire rolls like a porpoise

in and out of the calm blue sea

of the cover, or perhaps like a sleeper

twisting in and out of his dreams

if you wanted to buy it for that,

thought it seems to be meant for

more serious work, with its

college-ruled lines and its cover

that states in emphatic white letters,

5 SUBJECT NOTEBOOK. It seems

a part of growing old is no longer

to have five subjects, each

demanding an equal share of attention,

set apart by brown cardboard dividers,

but instead to stand in a drugstore

and hang on to one subject

a little too long, like this notebook

you weigh in your hands, passing

your fingers over its surfaces

as if it were some kind of wonder.

Ever been there? You go to the store to buy something utilitarian and then find yourself staring at it and contemplating it as if it were a piece of art?  You can find art everywhere if you try…

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A Journey that Started with a Song

The song, “Rattlesnakes” by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions is one of my favorite songs; I consider it part of the soundtrack of my life. It sent me on a journey, emotionally and intellectually; it reached its fingers out into different areas of my life. Here is the story.

I read the novel, Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion in a women’s literature class in college, and it hit me then. It hit me so hard emotionally I couldn’t write the required paper about it; I ended up writing a poem. My professor called me in for a meeting, “This isn’t an analysis, how can I grade this?” We actually had a good talk about my emotional reaction to the book and about my poem (I didn’t know the professor was a poet). When she was convinced I understood and appreciated the book, she gave me a B+. I found out Joan Didion and I had the same birthday, and I went on to read more of her books; she became a favorite author.

Flash forward a few years, and Lloyd Cole and the Commotions came out with the song, “Rattlesnakes“. When I heard it I knew right away what it was about; I was captured again. (Note: rattlesnakes are mentioned on the very first page of the book and are an important symbol throughout; the character’s name is Maria, not Jodie…but isn’t “Jodie” similar to “Joanie”?) But this is where the song took me on a journey. I checked out pictures of Eve Marie Saint and “On the Waterfront,” then I checked out Simone de Beauvoir. Ironically, I had always had an interest in the existentialist Jean Paul Sartre, and wonder of wonders, Simone de Beauvoir was his lifelong companion. I picked up her autobiographical book, “Force of Circumstance” (the Circumstance referred to in the song) and then most of her other books. I named my cat after her. I also went back to read many of Sartre’s books. I took copious notes with the intention of writing a fiction novel about the couple, but life went on and I never did. (I even visited Sartre’s grave on a trip to Paris; de Beauvoir died the year after I was there.) I can say, though, I’m quite an expert on their lives. All from a song – what an amazing journey.

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