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About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write.
Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground.
 
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Everyday Canvas
"Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself."
CHARLIE CHAPLIN
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.
David Whyte
This is my supplementary blog in which I will post entries written for prompts.
January 31, 2017 at 11:36pm January 31, 2017 at 11:36pm
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Prompt: "Poetry creates the myth, the prose writer draws its portraits." Jean Paul Sartre What are your thoughts on this?
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Megan, you just gave us a quote from one of my teenage idols, Jean Paul Sartre, who was an existentialist. Let me see if I may be able to put into words what I understand from it almost intuitively.
Poetry alters and enhances the relationships between the words and feelings through metaphors and other poetic tools, and thus, material things, elaborate descriptions, and straight meanings become superfluous. This is how the poet remains in harmony with his inner world. In this way, what the poet creates is like a myth, high up there, unreachable by the common pen or by the commoner’s thought processes or feelings. In other words, poetry creates poets who may probably be misunderstood, and in their being misunderstood, they may be looked upon as losers. They are, however, true winners even if they look like losers. A poet is a writer who is honorable and whose spirit is a self-respecting one, and that myth the poet creates is still a form of speech or writing.
Prose writer, on the other hand, explains that myth, opens it up to easier understanding, and explains the meanings, feelings, and thoughts that made those poets who they are. Although the prose writer expresses the concepts of the myth more clearly through significant, meaningful words as if connecting the dots hidden in a poem or as if “drawing the portrait of the myth,” his prose may still be under the influence of the poetry. So, even the straight, dry prose contains echoes of poetry because when words refer to clear concepts, social thoughts, or ideas, they may contain obscurities or hidden references to some feelings and notions as well, and then, same as poetry, prose contains words and is a form of speech and writing.
Prompt: “Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.” Rainer Maria Rilke
What is your take on this quote?
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We all have unanswered prayers or wishes. We may have unresolved hurts inflicted on us by life or other people, too. Instead of crying over spilled milk, I think Rilke wants us to look at and analyze the unresolved situations and learn from them.
In life, not everything has a solution and not everything needs to be resolved. It would be to our benefit to live life as it comes and not expect instant gratification for every single thing that pops up in front of us.
This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have dreams and goals, but what it means is we shouldn’t get hung up on a certain woe that can hurt us through the rest of our lives. If we feel grief or disappointment over a situation, we may question why we feel this way and then maybe readjust our understanding, quest, or dreams so they may come to fruition. That, I think, would be trying to love the questions themselves.
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January 30, 2017 at 6:19pm January 30, 2017 at 6:19pm
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“Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit”
Rabindranath Tagore—Where the Mind Is Without Fear
Prompt: Have you ever regretted your words that have sprung up from habit or do you know someone who does that? Why do you think people sometimes answer questions or talk in ready-made phrases, instead of paying attention to meaning?
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If we stopped and thought of every word that comes out of our mouths, we could say good-bye to any lively conversation. Then, if a question is of the commonplace sort, doesn’t it make sense to just answer it with the easiest ready-made comment? For example, to “How’s it going?” we may reply as “Fine, thanks,” or “So-so,” which would be sufficient to start a conversation. I guess we could think of clever answers to a regular question like “How are you?” but wouldn’t that be a waste of time?
Besides, the habitual answers have their uses, too. Little children and the new learners of English usually memorize those ready-made answers, so they can have a conversation with others and improve their speeches.
In scholarly writing, however, we need to weigh and choose our words well. In that respect, I am with Tagore one hundred per cent because being lazy and falling into the habit of using clichés or oft-used phrases would cheapen our work, leaching out the originality from its body.
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January 29, 2017 at 2:27pm January 29, 2017 at 2:27pm
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PROMPT: Is there a trend or short-lived fad from your childhood you secretly (or maybe not-so-secretly) wish would become popular again for a little while?
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Let me count the ways:
Not really short-lived, but I would like to have Elvis alive and singing again, plus another doggie series like Lassie, which the whole country would watch. In fact, I would like those fewer TV channels again, from 2 to 13, which had decent programming that united us. Also, the newscasters on TV were true newscasters who didn’t alter the news, newscasters like Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley who honored their profession rather than their personal political agendas.
In addition, I liked the transistor radios through which I could listen to a great number of stations. Those stations would play exquisite music, like classical, pop, or country, and didn’t try to push their version of religion or politics on us. Best yet, they were free. Today, nothing like those comes through the internet or Sirius and XM.
It seemed with so many different options during the later years, we have become culturally distanced and disunited. This may not be such a bad thing since it makes personal choices more possible and varied, but too many options might have caused the division we are experiencing today.
On the other hand, I am of two minds here. I love the new and evolving technology but do not like the feeling of separation from some of the people I only meet on the street or in public places. I recall, in my earlier days, when someone would start talking about the latest episode of —for example- Andy Griffith show in the supermarket or in any other public place, people who had never known one another before would offer their input on the show. This caused some kind of a bonding of the citizens in some way. The truth is, I mostly miss that kind of a comfortable bonding between citizens in public places.
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January 28, 2017 at 1:03pm January 28, 2017 at 1:03pm
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Prompt: Discovered this on Writers Digest and thought we could have fun with this, while I’m working on my worse memoir opening lines, what would be yours? This has so much potential, have fun.
“You’ve been tasked with ghostwriting a memoir for an extremely unusual person. You come up with many opening lines to the book, but one of them you write as a joke just to amuse yourself at how absurd the person’s story is. But now that person wants you to use that line. Share it…”
Warning: This is a joke…It is only a joke! 
Since a human-swine hybrid was created in a lab, I ended up becoming the human-swine hybrid. Chances are, as a non-human organism, human cells were introduced into my poor body as the host. In fact, in view of the critical shortage of donor organs, they did this to pick a harvest from my body. Would I let them? Definitely not, and not that my body rejected the intrusion of those cells either. If anything, my body loved those human cells so much that it adapted its own cells to them, and as the result, I took the human form. Still, the hidden superior characteristics of a swine rule in my disposition and dealings with other humans.
Stupids that real humans are, they can’t understand my excessive greed, my voracious eating habits, my huge head, and why I act like a feral hog when crossed. They can’t understand how I reached puberty at such an early age, fooled around with a huge number of mates, and produced a large number of litters, but I bet you the world that they’d give anything to become like me.
I first caught on to their wish of becoming like me when they chose me as…well, you fill in the blanks…
Prompt: Write about something that sinks deep into your heart before exploding. What event was like a force of nature in the core of your being? Detail the cascading effect it had on your outlook, your day, your year or in an instant.
Whatever sinks into my heart, I usually reason it out and not let it explode. I learned how to do this through determination and a bit by trial and error, plus with the passage of years.
I learned it because the worst had already happened when I was a child and my parents separated. It was then that I found out neither really wanted me for me, but the one that ended with me was there for her short ends. It took me decades to get over that disappointment, but I am fine now, fine enough not to let anything or anyone get to me like that.
Nothing is more valuable than the lessons learned in one's growing years.
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January 26, 2017 at 7:35pm January 26, 2017 at 7:35pm
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Prompt: "If you see magic in a fairy tale, you can see the future." Danielle Steel You can write anything you want about this.
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Surely, there is magic in a fairy tale because fairy tales are fantasies. If the fantasy genre and fairy tales were planets, they would spin in the same direction and their orbits would be called magic.
Imagining the future is also fantasy that can turn into reality, if the person imagining it can have the prowess to make it happen or can see it happen. For example, if someone had written a fairy tale in the year 1565 and imagined the existence of the internet, we would have thought of that author as having seen the future.
In fact, there are authors who have seen the future in their fantasies, such as H.G. Wells and possibly Carl Sagan. Yet, not all authors or artists who delve in any media of fantasy can create the future, but they can create fairy tales with magic in them that their readers and viewers can enjoy.
So, although some people can see the future in a fairy tale’s magic, I don’t think everyone who can see magic in a fairy tale can be as successful, but fairy tales are fun and so is fantasy in any shape or form.
Prompt: Kind Heart, Brave Mind, Fierce Spirit Use these words any way you like in today's entry.
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Your Smile at My Feckless Flippancy
As if in remorse,
I can see through your loving eyes
that brave mind detecting
the soot on my fierce spirit
and its need for meaningless comedy
directed at the nonsensical,
corrupt or eccentric.
So much for my florid phrases
like dimming stars on the night sky...
Yet, they slide their thin luster
toward your sacred duty to me,
that slight smile on your face
a sign of your kind heart
and my urgent solace.
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Note: In short, my husband laughs at my stupid jokes. 
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January 24, 2017 at 8:53pm January 24, 2017 at 8:53pm
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Prompt: What do you think intuition is, and have you had examples of intuition in your life you’re willing to write about?
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Intuition can be thought of as some mystical prowess or a matter of lucky guesswork. Although there are some scientific studies on intuition’s being a very real ability, I think intuition is something like a gut feeling, possibly based on some forgotten past experience. This is because our brains are processing information even when we are not aware of them doing that. For the same reason, when we sleep on a problem, sometimes a solution becomes evident to us when we wake up. Still, for the same reason, some dreams guide us to solutions. Remember Robert Louis Stevenson’s claim to writing his novels after dreaming about them?
I’ve had many instances of intuition in my life. Sometimes, I could reason out their sources, and at other times, I can’t even point to an inkling of them, but in some strange form or problem-solving method, I am quite sure they have originated as the result of my brain’s examining and deducing the data that might have been around me, although I might not be aware of its workings.
For example, at the end of September and the beginning of October 2016, a strong hurricane was coming at where we live. All the weathercasters were up in arms and everyone was nervous. I said the hurricane would pass by us, only touching a little bit on the coast. I was really sure of this as a gut feeling, but considering everybody’s nervousness, I still took all the safety measures for my family and house and asked a friend to take over what I do in WdC, should the hurricane really hit. Sure enough, Hurricane Matthew bypassed our area, just stealing the sand from the beaches, and caused some commotion further up in the state and made a landfall in South Carolina as a category one hurricane, while we didn't even lose electricity or the internet.
I think what happened was my mind’s assessing the situation, based on my at least 25 years of living in this state and comparing it with the information from earlier TV and other media’s hurricane reports and their hits and near misses, which my brain stored in its far corners.
There are other instances where I felt something did happen or was about to happen in some certain way and my gut feeling was right; except, some of those times, I couldn’t think of the clues that led my brain to its assessment. I am sure the clues might have been there, but I think they were just hidden from my consciousness.
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January 23, 2017 at 10:43pm January 23, 2017 at 10:43pm
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Prompt: Aphrodite, furious for not being honored properly, cast a spell on the women of Lemnos. These women smelled so horribly that their husbands left them.
Do you think a group of people can cast spells or, in other words, really persuade a second group of people into believing they are not quite right to such a degree that the second group's social lives are affected?
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On the flip side, someone on the net is providing her customers with “very powerful influence spells” to be used on just about any situation; however, this spell-caster can personalize the spell for fast results, only for 67.93 US dollars. This type of spell-casting, however, is not what I want to write about, as much as this lady's commercialism made me grin.
Coming back to Aphrodite or those like her, their first step has to do with control; that is, the control over themselves. When someone truly believes in something and has control over herself, controlling and persuading other people comes easy and often unnecessary; however, if some work of persuasion needs to be done, Aphrodite and the likes of her are usually willing to make their followers become more comfortable with their presence even if this is uncomfortable work. Building rapport is automatic for all Aphrodites for they have mastered the matching and mirroring of other people’s emotions and beliefs. Their modus operandi is a serious study for the psychologists, and one such book talks about how to do this: Power Persuasion: Using Hypnotic Influence in Life, Love and Business--By David R. Barron. In no way, I am promoting this book or this author, but only showing that such stuff exists.
Most of the time, persuasion happens through the use of values and negative persuasion through showing the other person his or her lack of values and convincing them of this fact. For example, I believe if those women didn’t ever go near or worship Aphrodite, no spell Aphrodite would have cast would touch them, but then, they probably had to leave Lemnos or maybe not be born or lived in Lemnos, at all. Those poor women were in a catch-22 situation. If you have a weak side, you either go along with friends or lovers stronger than you or feel damned under their spell.
Such an unfortunate thing always happens to those people who are not so sure of themselves and who try to find validation from someone else or from some group. This leads to mob behavior, carried to extremes by the influenced group led by their stronger maestros. We have seen it in our lives very often. In schools, this appears as peer pressure, and in real life as prejudice, racism, or reverse racism.
Playing with other people’s value systems and persuading them to act negatively or influencing them to feel bad about themselves surely is like casting a spell since the persuaded person gives his or her autonomy to the persuading party, and this results in some very unfortunate situations.
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January 22, 2017 at 8:39pm January 22, 2017 at 8:39pm
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PROMPT: When have you ever had to apologize for something you know in your heart you were wrong about? How did you do it, and how were you received?
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If I know 100% that I have been wrong, I apologize immediately, regardless of how it is received. This comes easily to me because of the result of my conditioning because, during my formative years, my tough-cookie mother made me apologize not once but many times for the littlest things I did. Was she right to do that? This is up for debate. I think she wasn’t, but I am prejudiced toward my own direction.
As to the results of my apologies, people sometimes say there isn’t anything to apologize for. Other times, they accept it. Rarely, if ever, have I received a negative reaction; therefore, my mother’s conditioning might have given some positive results.
"I won't kiss you. It might get to be a habit and I can't get rid of habits." ~ F.Scott Fitzgerald
Is there something you avoid because you're afraid once you start you won't be able to stop?
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In fact, I avoid many things because I am interested in too many things, and if I start working with and obsessing over any one of them, I’ll neglect what’s important to me. I know I run the risk of neglecting other stuff when I concentrate on any one thing. So, after years and years of watching how I tend to behave, I am limiting myself to a limited number of interests.
As to Fitzgerald’s quote, I wouldn’t mind "kissing" or, in other words, being nice to people especially if it will become a habit because people have to come first before anything.
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January 19, 2017 at 2:00am January 19, 2017 at 2:00am
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Prompt: Are we captains of our own fate or just passengers? Write your views on this.
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If we were the real captains of our fates, would we die?
We may think we are in charge. We may act as if we are in charge. We may even impress others with our self-determination and independence, but at the end, we all fall to what the fate or our genetic make-up has in store for us.
Still, for the length of time that we are alive, if we exercise autonomy and use whichever freedoms we may grasp, maybe for a limited time period, we might consider ourselves as co-captains.
Prompt: "I am going to make today so awesome that yesterday is going to be jealous." How are you going to make today awesome?
I just live through each day, trying to be my best self. The idea of “awesome” would scare me, and I like to live without scaring myself.
On the other hand, if we, as human beings, work hard to do better each day, we would improve more and more, and I guess yesterday would be jealous if any time that is in the past could have feelings.
Prompt: Mahatma Gandhi said, “The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.”
Do you think the power of love can overrule the love of power…ever? What are your thoughts on the subject?
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Although the saying sounds so beautiful, I don’t think it is doable for the entire population of earthlings. I wish it were, though.
The way the humankind has been behaving has demonstrated over and over that the love of power is addictive, and like any addict, a person who has tasted power and enjoyed it wants more and more of it. Greed, money, and fame--when disused and destructive--are the driving forces and the results of love of power.
Because of this addiction factor, love of power wins over the power of love, even when love is probably the strongest emotion we can feel. I am sure, though, for some saintly people, here and there, power of love may win over love of power. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like those saintly people will be able to spread their ways and feelings over the entire world.
Still, maybe we can hope...
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January 16, 2017 at 1:08pm January 16, 2017 at 1:08pm
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Prompt: What do you think people mean when they talk about a person’s potential and can human potential be measured?
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That ephemeral potential is, in fact, a possibility and not a guarantee, and I don’t think human potential can be measured. Just who can measure a possibility?
What annoys me is when people talk about potential as if it is a clear-cut promise of future. I heard it mentioned so much by my kids’ teachers: “He is doing very well, but he has so much more potential.” I always wondered just what the kid-improvement trade wanted from little kids who are only being little kids.
In this sense, the possibility (or potential) becomes an expectation, and therefore, a burden. My question is why do they want our kids to become stressed-out, miserable, self-conscious, and scarred for life?
Observe any child who isn’t pushed unnecessarily and you’ll see that they engage in learning and achieving more on their own, without falling prey to narcissism or the hatred of the adults’ antagonism.
On the other hand, to encourage children and older people alike by stating how good and important the work they are doing will give much better results. This happens in work situations, too. “We hired you because we felt you had potential.” Duh! Who hires anyone who has no possibility to do the job?
When people at any age know who they really are and honor themselves by never compromising their personal values or work ethics, they are already trying to be their best selves, which means they are already realizing their potential. So, using the presumed capacity of potential as a dowsing stick doesn’t produce results, and it is a wrong and unjust attitude to take toward any human being.
Copyrights of Song Lyrics
Did you know quoting song lyrics or lines from lyrics in your books and published work can get you in hot water where the copyright laws are concerned? The songs written before 1929 are all right to use, but not the ones after them.
I might have done just that mistake with one of my NaNo books, not to mention with what I write inside my blog. Luckily, neither has been commercially published.
http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/10/lyrics-in-books/?utm_campaign=BB1702B&utm_sourc...
The question that comes to my mind is this: What about those of us who hum or sing those songs in public places such as while walking on the street? Then what about the sites on the net that have the prints of the lyrics for public view?
Does this copyright law make sense at all? I don't think so.
Prompt: You have a terrifying secret that you never wanted anyone to know but the note taped on your car windshield suggests that someone does know. What are you willing to do to secure silence?
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Assuming that I really have a terrifying secret, I’d probably not do anything before I know the answers to a few questions. Come to think of it, even if I knew all the answers to all questions, I still wouldn’t do anything about it, except maybe coming clean in public, on my own:
Questions to consider:
1. Why would anyone tape a note on my car instead of talking to me or writing to me because any note taped on a car means the person who found out about the secret is not keeping it a secret since she or he has taped it in a place that is exposed to the public. From that point of view, there is nothing I can do about it.
2. Is this a blackmailing attempt? If the person who taped the note has the idea of a blackmail, he or she has got something coming to him/her. I do not succumb to blackmail no matter how terrible is my secret. Even if my secret’s being found out would result in my death, so be it.
3. How did that person found out about the secret? This would be something to make me curious. If that person found out about it, it may mean other people also know about it, which means my secret is not a secret anymore.
4. If he or she came across the secret by accident, what brought about that accident? I doubt that if I had a terrifying secret, I would leave any clues lying around. It may just be that the person is speculating or presuming that such a secret exists without any proof. I still wouldn’t do anything.
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January 13, 2017 at 12:51pm January 13, 2017 at 12:51pm
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Prompt: Close your eyes and Imagine for a moment...any lingering stress you have released out to sea. What will you let the waves carry away as you breathe clean ocean air?
I am not letting the waves carry away anything. Even the stress is important because I am a packrat and I keep everything for future reference, should I write another story or something. When something stressful happens, I tuck it inside a mental zip-lock bag and put it away in storage. Then, if I have a few minutes, I write it down in a notebook with a pen. Nothing diminishes stress as much as handling it long-hand.
Going with the ocean metaphor, I’d rather look at what the waves bring so I can pick and choose. I believe that, sometimes, they may bring real gems. So like a stealthy feline, I am still lying in wait…
Prompt: Do you have things around your house you should throw out but can't? Do they have sentimental value? Write about this.
My hubby is guiltier with the sentimental keeps than I am. That is why he can’t find anything and he always involves me in his searches.
As for me, I have tons of photos and books that are important and I am quite reluctant to do away with them. I also have two dolls I keep.
Then I have other items, which were given to me as mementos and if I were to do away with those and the people who gave them to me found out, they’d be very upset. So I keep those.
What I don’t throw out, at least right away, are the scraps of paper I have noted ideas, snippets of dialogue, or outlines. I keep them for a while, even after their use. Then, a few months later, I get annoyed at myself for keeping unnecessary clutter and dump them in the wastebasket.
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January 11, 2017 at 1:34pm January 11, 2017 at 1:34pm
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Prompt: There are two great days in a person's life. The day we are born and the day we find out why. How do you feel about this?
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Oh, my! Talking for me, I don’t recall the day I was born because the memory neighborhood in my brain probably wasn’t established, yet. There are, however, instances of people recalling their birth under hypnosis, according to the annals of hypnotism. Unfortunately, no hypnotist took me that far back or to any other time or place.
My only knowledge pertaining to me on the matter of my birth has to do with the first baby girl my parents produced. Since she was born with the cord around her neck and she died right after taking a breath, I became the do-over baby girl, the second-hand rose. After that, why I am here is the knowledge that is only known by the great planner of everything, but I still haven't found out about or sure of that why. I am quite certain some people related to me will insist on their version of the why, but I can only trust my own convictions.
I am sure people with higher self-esteem or those who know what they are doing can say why they were born, according to what seems important to them. My question is, how could anyone know that?
For example, was Rosa Parks born because it was written for her to refuse to sit in the back of the bus? What she did in those specific several minutes was very important, yes, but Rosa Parks lived a rather long life. Who knows what else made her important to some others or to some different section of life?
In short, I don’t think we can say with certainty why anyone is here. Maybe being born is a very important day, but after that, every day we live becomes just as important, too.
Just try skipping to live any one day... 
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January 10, 2017 at 6:51pm January 10, 2017 at 6:51pm
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Prompt: One of my sons came home from the second day of his Kindergarten career and announced, “I learned enough.” Taking your whole life into account, have you learned enough or at least as much as you’d like to have learned?
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I might have learned a lot but not enough. I would have loved to learn more, a lot more. Yet, to learn more, I probably need several additional lifetimes. Cross that. I need an infinite number of lifetimes because all knowledge multiplies, and possibly before it started multiplying, it was unreachably vast in the first place.
The study of psychology says learning is a key process in human behavior. I have to say that learning is a key component for the welfare of all living beings. A raptor that hasn’t learned hunting, for example, cannot live, build a nest, or even adjust to the weather and other conditions of its environment. Practice and experience make up what learning is, and a true learning continues with a change in behavior for any amount of time.
There are many areas of learning aside from theoretical and scientific knowledge, such as attitudes, problem solving, training the physical body, training the mental reactional behavior, etc. The best kind of learning, I think, is learning how to learn and learning to share what we have learned.
I don’t think I have mastered all of the above-mentioned learning areas, let alone all the established knowledge even in the specific areas I have studied. As I mentioned earlier, one lifetime is never enough, no matter how advanced one’s mental capacity for learning is.
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January 9, 2017 at 9:17pm January 9, 2017 at 9:17pm
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Prompt: “An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.” (Martin Buber)
What do you think about the expressiveness of an animal’s eyes, and did you ever have an animal companion whose eyes almost talked to you?
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The principle of life is alive in the expressiveness of animal eyes. That principle also contains the animal’s connection to its environment and to the other species.
The animals we have as companions in our homes all gain expressiveness that we can understand or relate to, the longer they live and bond with us. Then, they make sure we understand their needs and wants.
Dogs and cats especially have tremendously expressive faces because they are mammals and share some very similar neural history with us. They almost talk to us through their eyes because they, too, are capable of feeling emotions. They may also have senses foreign to us, senses that may sound fictional if we could somehow understand and accept their existence.
If a person hasn’t had the privilege of spending time with an animal, that person may think them as being dumb or selfish. Yet, those of us who love animals and have spent time with them know that their brains are always in motion, gathering information and filing it. We only need to look into their eyes and expressive faces to see a world of thought and emotion going on, just like us.
Then, on the flip side, the animals accept us the way we are. That, most of the time, we as people have a problem doing.
PROMPT: We're often reminded to not dwell on the past, yet it can be said that there is no future without a past. Of these somewhat conflicting viewpoints, which one do you think is more applicable to you and your lifestyle, and why?
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Surely, dwelling on the past and reliving it constantly in regret or anger is a negative, but learning from the past is a positive. If we stopped learning from the past totally, we would have to go back to learning how to walk, talk, read, write, etc. That wouldn’t be too becoming, would it!
I am glad to have learned from the past, but I certainly do not want to go back again. I am not one of those people who wish to be younger, say nineteen or twenty-five. I would dread to be a young person again because as agilely as a body can behave at a younger age, there are other factors that might make life a living hell.
I am happy my youthful days are over, but I am also grateful I lived through them and came up with a life experience and philosophy. Those experiences have propelled me forward and I hope they will continue to do so as long as I live and breathe.
Writing from Remembrance-What stories are in your hands? I've always been fascinated with the lines and stories in people's hands. When you look at your palms what stories do they hold? What have your hands built?
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All kinds of stories are in my hands because my wish is their command. I know how to use them but sometimes they are in the harm's way, like the time when I mistakenly poured hot water on top of my left hand and the instances I let the paring knife leave cuts and scratches. Still, my hands are forgiving. They heal and continue to perform as if nothing has happened. They even aid me with my gestures and with old muscles that complain.
I am not into palmistry, and I can’t say what the lines inside my palms say; although, some people have read into those lines with questionable accuracy.
Yet, my hands have held brushes, pencils, pens, pushed and fixed furniture, even walls and garden fences. They mixed soil, dug into sand, acted as fins when I swam, held and caressed babies, played games with kids, and felt the energies of other people. They cooked, sawed wood, sewed clothing and household items, held bowling balls and tennis rackets. Despite all those things they did and continue doing, they love the most typing to my commands and scrolling down or turning the pages of a book to let my eyes read through the written material.
In short, with everything they have done and keep doing, my hands have built a life, my life.
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January 6, 2017 at 5:55pm January 6, 2017 at 5:55pm
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Prompt: Write about a time you experienced music or a musician bringing a community together during difficult times. Did you feel more hopeful?
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Music is a shelter I like to hide in. I can just get lost in it as if my mind has taken wings, but I am more of a passive listener than a music maker.
At this point, I can’t remember an experience story that the prompt is asking for. The only music and community connection I can recall were the songs of the late sixties and seventies. “Where have all the flowers gone?” for example, and the songs of Peter, Paul, and Mary. One could say those were the difficult times with the Vietnam war going full blast. Such songs must have helped the population at large to deal with the horrid images on TV that caused frightfully negative emotions.
Earlier, when I was in my teens, a song would become popular and everyone around my age would be humming or singing it, even between classes and during the recess. Most love connections--that is, people who dated--had “their songs.” I never had a song with anybody, even my husband, although he favors or sings to me, “Fly me to the Moon,” which never meant all that much to me; therefore, it can’t be our song either. Except, I used to like the theme song of the Black Orpheus without it being attached to a guy emotionally. In addition, several other pop and folk songs and anything by Simon and Garfunkel have been and still are among my favorites.
On the other hand, my really favorite music is classical, such as Beethoven and Mozart, although I like to listen to most anything classical. Anything Beethoven especially the Moonlight Sonata and Chopin’s E-flat major nocturne are the pieces I listen to a lot. I also go nuts over classical guitar, especially Albeniz, Rodrigo, Granados, De Falla. Unfortunately, no one in my life understands those. They start talking or making comments while I am getting lost in the music. This feels so annoying. Thus, I mostly listen to my music alone, using ear pods and an MP3 player. It is much better that way.
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January 5, 2017 at 7:07pm January 5, 2017 at 7:07pm
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Prompt: Life is about using the whole box of crayons. What is your take on this?
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As profound and upbeat as it sounds, this quote is, in fact, a generalization. Some people try everything to find or create themselves; others come across their answers, by luck or by trial and error. Either way could work or fail. There is no set equation that is certain to succeed.
My usage of my life’s crayons depends on the picture I am drawing. I have to ask myself whether I am drawing a portrait, a landscape, a seascape, a still life, or an abstract. Then what about the size and proportions, and my use of color and shape, together with the movement of forms.
I would also ask myself this question: What is the mood, the story, or the impression I want the viewer to get from my picture?
In addition, a fully stacked crayon-box has an unlimited amount of colors. Wouldn’t my using and mixing all those colors make mud and result in little or nothing to show for my life? Too many colors but our too little time on earth do not make a good combination. A few choice colors, on the other hand, could bring clarity and better adjustment.
I used to paint once when I studied art to some degree, and I wouldn’t like to use crayons to draw my life. The wax in the crayons can be annoying. I’d rather prefer some of the other mediums, and the drawings of my life have to be the results of my free choice that represent their subject.
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January 4, 2017 at 3:54pm January 4, 2017 at 3:54pm
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Prompt: Dreams have no expiration date. Do you agree with this statement?
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I can’t say I agree or disagree because this depends on the dream. Some dreams are nightmares. Some dreams are brain trash. Some dreams are futuristic.
Of the futuristic dreams, those that target goals and wishes may not have expiration dates. Yet, those dreams that have been fulfilled or those that were impossible to fulfill are no longer in use; thus, they could be considered as expired dreams.
As for me, I like doing, not dreaming. I am hard and realistic that way, so different from those who walk around with their heads in the clouds. I might have been a dreamer like them in my late teens and possibly early twenties, but sometime soon life took over and cured me.
Although I like John Lennon’s song Imagine a lot, I know it is only wishful thinking. At this point, my only dreams center around keeping the status quo with no harm and I strongly wish for a world peace.
I guess World Peace is a dream or a wish, and chances are it will have no expiration date since it seems as if it will stay a dream till the end of time.
Imagine
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... Aha-ah...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... You...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world... You...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
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January 3, 2017 at 6:25pm January 3, 2017 at 6:25pm
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Prompt: Dostoevsky wrote his best work after facing a firing squad. Has an event in your life made you write more dramatically than before? You don’t have to talk about the event if you don’t want to, but try to put into words the feelings and the inspiration you got from such an event. If you wish, you may express that feeling in a prose-poem, poem, or story.
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I can’t recall any such event by itself, but sometimes when something inspires me or someone or some event rubs me the wrong way, I write about it. Sometimes I write about it longhand in a notebook, at other times in some file or in WdC in a book item.
If I were to face a firing squad like Dostoevsky, chances are I wouldn’t be able to write like he did; in fact, I am certain I’ll never be able to write like he did. If such an earth-shattering event like facing a firing squad ever happened to me, I would probably freeze or lose my speech altogether.
Thus, here is a poem:
Nothing Like Dostoevsky
Whatever might happen to me
it will be exactly like this:
The same work corner
the same desk
the same arthritic fingers
and the words I may have difficulty
finding
like old sorrows
and memories
that play hide and seek.
The trees will still smile
sunsets will still not last
and Sandhill cranes will still come
knocking on the porch door.
Whether the earth
holds itself still
or NOT,
my writing’s fate
will always be at stake
for depending on ordinary things.
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January 2, 2017 at 12:11pm January 2, 2017 at 12:11pm
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Prompt: Since we are in the first week of 2017, what do you think “a fresh start” is, and can there really be a fresh start for anything or anyone if that thing or being has had some kind of a life before?
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A fresh start is taking a beginning step and making use of a new opportunity without regard to the prejudices, left-over hurts, or even the joys of past events. This expression signals hope and transformation, and helps clarify a situation for a person in a bind who wants to change herself or himself or the situation at hand.
It is possible that we can all change direction and venture into new avenues when the going gets tough, but can we really get rid of the memories and the feelings of what happened earlier, unless we suffer from amnesia? I guess not.
If we can’t forget the past, how then can we succeed on the new road without the interference of the apparitions of the past or the memories of it?
My opinion is, there is no way that a different approach will not be influenced by the past in some fashion. Slivers of the past will keep sneaking in and each bump on the road will remind us of the potholes that we once fell into.
On the other hand, a different approach can succeed if we can clearly identify what we value about the new road we are taking and how strongly we value it. If that value is greater and more profound than the reminders of the past, then, we may have a very good chance at success.
A secondary aid on this road can be the support we can get from the people around us and our own abilities. We may be strong enough to keep at what we value on our own, but not everyone is. Some of us need a community to bolster our self-confidence. We need self-confidence to stay and be successful in the new area we are exploring. Self-confidence comes from mastering the ability to feel certain that we can achieve something, and it needs validation to become stronger.
To wrap it up, the past need not be the future, but it is up to us to stop making it so by shoveling away the past mistakes and wounds for today’s and tomorrow’s better choices even if erasing all our memories may be impossible.
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January 1, 2017 at 3:10pm January 1, 2017 at 3:10pm
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Prompt: Emily Dickinson wrote in one of her popular poems "I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you -nobody- too?"
What are your thoughts on Ms. Dickinson's phrase? Have you ever engaged with nobody? What insights are possible?
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The way I look at it, this poem is a satire with a sharp edge, pointing to the public figures and the general public’s adulation of them.
In Dickinson’s time, the published poets were considered to be somebodies, but Dickinson was neither a published poet nor did she try to be one; thus, to the most of the society of her time, she was a “nobody.” She took her being a nobody with cheerfulness and sarcasm, however.
In our time, since most anyone can publish anything, even the published are nobodies; therefore, to the question “Have you ever engaged with nobody?” I have to answer, yes. I engage daily with nobodies.
In a way, I agree with the poet in the sense that it could be a painful existence for me if I were to be adulated and my every step would be open to the public scrutiny. If such a thing could happen, my existence would lose its meaning totally.
From that self-valuing stance, I feel for the public figures and pity those who want fame as if it were Manna from Heaven. Just think of the writers who stopped writing and publishing for this very reason, like J.D. Salinger. As Simone de Beauvoir considered happiness to be found at the heart of freedom, in our time or at any time, it is important to me to think and perform with meaning and freedom, rather than fame.
Looking at the poem from another point of view, if being a nobody denotes feeling lowly or insignificant, this kind of a charge would indicate an underlying psychological defect or malady, but I don’t think this was the undertone of the concept Emily Dickinson was chirping about.
As the last word, I can only hope that some kind of a recognition might be possible without causing hurt or discomfort to an artist, writer, or musician because of his or her participation in the arts.
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