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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, 2018 at 10:26pm January 31, 2018 at 10:26pm
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Prompt: "Memory is subject to a filtering process that we don't always recognize and can't always control. We remember what we can bear and block out what we cannot." Sue Grafton Your thoughts on this?
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Basal Ganglia is to blame say the scientists for this peculiarity of the brain. It seems basal ganglia affect the prefrontal cortex, which is the thinking/rationalizing part of us. This means the whole thing is actually based on the body-science.
Even so, who put together this thing in our brains that works like a circuit breaker, which protects a whole house going up in flames if an electrical short took place? Isn’t it impossible not to believe in a fantastic unearthly mind or a higher being who planned our bodies and brains?
I think this is a big deal, a very big deal. Here, we go into the spiritual philosophy of things, which I stay away most of the time because of the fact that most of us may believe wholeheartedly in our version of a higher being and there are so many differences in the ways we believe.
Whatever beliefs we may hold, this filtering of the memory is something I am thankful for. As an example, one of my cousins was hurt in a car accident some time ago. She says she doesn’t remember the accident at all. She was taken out of the car by the jaws of life and she has no recall of any of that, Thank God! Although she’s fully healed now, she doesn’t mention it and none of us remind her of that horrible occurrence. If she did remember, chances are she wouldn’t bear the memory of it.
In the same vein, if we recalled every single rotten thing that was done to us and every single rotten thing we’ve done to others, we’d have no friends in the world and we wouldn’t be able to stand ourselves either. What we remember and feel bad about is bad enough as it is. Don’t you think?
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January 30, 2018 at 11:25pm January 30, 2018 at 11:25pm
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Prompt: "Life was reduced to it's 4 basic elements: air, food, drink and a good friend." Sue Grafton What are your views on this?
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Since a good percentage of the earth’s population cannot have those four elements and a certain percentage of the folks do have the first three but not the last one, ‘a good friend,’ the world has a long way to go for supplying all the basics to everyone.
Speaking for myself, however, those basic elements I appreciate very much, of course, but without the arts, music, and writing, my alphabet isn’t complete, but then, Sue Grafton’s wasn’t either, although she almost made it with Y is for Yesterday.
I’ll miss Sue Grafton. There was a time when I was following Kinsey Millhone’s exploits as if her shadow. Too bad for the letter Z. This is what happens when you are the last one waiting on line.
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January 30, 2018 at 1:24pm January 30, 2018 at 1:24pm
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Prompt: To what degree are character and reputation related? Your thoughts…
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An old English proverb says, “Give a dog a bad name and hang him.” My take on it is that it is very difficult to get rid of a bad reputation. Still, a reputation is an up and down thing.
On the other hand, once fully developed, a person’s character does not change. While a person may adapt to his surrounding conditions, his basic character stays the same. A person's character is the complex interwoven mental qualities, moral beliefs, and behavior in him.The character of a person determines how he responds to situations in life regardless of success or failure and applause or scorn.
As to the relationship of reputation and character, with reputation, names have some weight. If you call someone a good name, he’ll try to live up to it. The name is part of a person, and he will try to live up to it partly because of other people’s reactions to it. It is a well-known fact that people with common first names fare better than those with unique ones, when employers pick resumes, for example. Then, a phenomenon called implicit egotism exists where people are unconsciously drawn to things, people, and places that sound like their own names.
Yet, a reputation is more than a name. A reputation happens as the result of people’s experiences with one person, which is sometimes unfair, either way. This means a reputation can never be a hundred percent factual. Still, it is something to go by, since no one can perfectly predict anyone else’s true character.
To put it in a nutshell, a person’s character is much more than his reputation because it is who that person is when no one is watching. Someone with a good character does the right thing intrinsically because it is right to do what is right and he doesn’t mind living or not living up to any reputation.
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January 29, 2018 at 3:51pm January 29, 2018 at 3:51pm
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Prompt: “Your Calling Is More Powerful Than Your Resume,” says TAMA J. KIEVES in the January 12, 2018, issue of Signature. In what ways can you imagine your writing to be more powerful than your resume?
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My resume is very close to my writing; actually, it does involve writing and a lot of it since it has been research work on languages and literature, but the irresistible obsession of writing poetry and fiction came to me much later in life. Earlier, that was something I did for myself on the side for the fun of it, and if someone published a thing or two, I didn’t keep records of it. I didn’t feel it was something I could depend on for life and didn’t need to because I loved my work immensely.
On the other hand, it doesn’t matter what I did in the past. It matters what I do now, as the desire to write has always been in my blood. Writing, any kind of it, is important because through it, we interact with the world and more so, we may see what is there within ourselves.
Through these interactions, writers--we average, normal people--share our truths in a pleasing, entertaining way, hoping something in them will signal the concern or love we feel for the humankind. Stories and poems, as imagined as they are, show the fundamental truths of existence. Through those dark or light truths and the love that flows from our pens or keyboards, we hope to make the world a better place or at least change a tiny part of it; although, the word hope is the key here.
In short, writing matters because it has the power of hope to change the world for good.
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January 28, 2018 at 9:54pm January 28, 2018 at 9:54pm
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Prompt: You've been commissioned by your local art gallery to come up with a painting for their next exhibit...but you can only use three colors and it has to be an inanimate, stationary object. What did you come up with and why?
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My painting will have to be a Tiffany floor lamp with gray-brown, blue-green, and bright yellow colors. I could use the bright yellow for the light the lamp emits as well as a highlighter on the glass shade.
I chose this lamp because a lamp lights up what is dark, and a Tiffany lamp itself is a work of art. Globe shapes are reserved for the floor lamps, and even the word globe has its connotations. Lighting up the globe would be a wonderful thought, and thoughts reveal how we make sense of the world and what we do in it and why. It is a matter of value judgment, I suppose.
Then imagining further, a Tiffany lamp is a rare antique like some poets who sit in the gloom of a lamp sighing with a broken heart, while Sara Teasdale writes,
“If I can bear your love like a lamp before me,
When I go down the long steep Road of Darkness,
I shall not fear the everlasting shadows,
Nor cry in terror.”
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January 27, 2018 at 12:23pm January 27, 2018 at 12:23pm
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Prompt: We all live a reasonably normal life, we have friends, we've got hobbies, and we'll gladly wander around a store looking for an item rather than ask a clerk where it is because then we won't feel guilty if we don't make a purchase. Reader's Digest claims that we're actually normal but we do have our fair share of idiosyncrasies. Do tell what are some of yours? Are you nuts or normal?
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Who says I “live a reasonably normal life”?   Believe me, I never did.
Okay, here goes an example. Palmetto bugs drive me nuts. I don’t mind little cockroaches, but when the cockroach is the size of a mouse, I scream. They disturb me so much that I can’t even kill them. I just run away while pointing a bug spray at them. Taking care of Palmetto bugs, dead or alive, is hubby’s job.
On the other hand, with snakes, hubby and I exchange places. FL is full of snakes. Only six species are poisonous, though. So, I keep shooing the snakes out of the garage and the porch. This happens regularly every few weeks or so.
Each time, I end up devising a different approach. Just a day ago, Ned watched a two-foot-long black snake slither from under one of the sliding doors of the porch; he was frozen and totally unable to scare the snake away. If I were there, it wouldn’t come inside the porch in the first place. Anyhow, I pulled out a wooden stick that was at the end of some cleaning brush and chased the snake out of an open door. I don’t hurt snakes. I never have. I just threaten them. I guess a snake can’t sue me for threatening. You think?
Prompt: Pick a fun fact you've come across this week and share it with us.
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Florida State, in general, is a fun fact in itself. Let me count only a few ways of it.
Florida has more toll roads and bridges than any other state.
Florida has more golf courses than any other state and is home to the World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Augustine.
The Florida Everglades is the only place on the planet where crocodiles and alligators live together. Now we have unwelcome pythons, too.
Florida’s largest river, the St. Johns River, is one of only a few major rivers that flow from south to north.
Florida is the largest producer of watermelons in the country. It also produces the most tomatoes, strawberries, and sugar. All these are produced much more than oranges; although Florida still produces the most oranges.
Made mostly of Florida pine, The Belleview Biltmore Resort and Spa, northwest of Tampa Bay is said to be the world’s largest occupied wooden structure at 820,000 square feet.
Jacksonville, Florida is the largest city in the United States. Surprised? It is a fact.
No dinosaur fossils have been found in Florida. We must have scared the dinosaurs away.
Florida driving test doesn’t require parallel parking. Go figure!
Prompt: 1500! Wow. Write anything you want about 15. 15 favorite things, a poem or whatever you want.
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15th century poets
William Dunbar, was born around the time of 1460, he has left vivid images of Scotland in the reign of James IV.
This is considered to be his best poem.
To a Lady
SWEET rois of vertew and of gentilness,
Delytsum lily of everie lustynes,
Richest in bontie and in bewtie clear,
And everie vertew that is wenit dear,
Except onlie that ye are mercyless
Into your garth this day I did persew;
There saw I flowris that fresche were of hew;
Baith quhyte and reid most lusty were to seyne,
And halesome herbis upon stalkis greene;
Yet leaf nor flowr find could I nane of rew.
I doubt that Merche, with his cauld blastis keyne,
Has slain this gentil herb, that I of mene;
Quhois piteous death dois to my heart sic paine
That I would make to plant his root againe,--
So confortand his levis unto me bene.
Another 15th century poet is Francois Villon who was born in Paris in 1431 and disappeared from view in 1463. He is the best known French poet of the late Middle Ages. He was involved in criminal behavior and had multiple encounters with law enforcement authorities.
The Debate Between Villon And His Heart
by Francois Villon
Who's that I hear?—It's me—Who?—Your heart
Hanging on by the thinnest thread
I lose all my strength, substance, and fluid
When I see you withdrawn this way all alone
Like a whipped cur sulking in the corner
Is it due to your mad hedonism?—
What's it to you?—I have to suffer for it—
Leave me alone—Why?—I'll think about it—
When will you do that?—When I've grown up—
I've nothing more to tell you—I'll survive without it—
What's your idea?—To be a good man—
You're thirty, for a mule that's a lifetime
You call that childhood?—No—Madness
Must have hold of you—By what, the halter?—
You don't know a thing—Yes I do—What?—Flies in milk
One's white, one's black, they're opposites—
That's all?—How can I say it better?
If that doesn't suit you I'll start over—
You're lost—Well I'll go down fighting—
I've nothing more to tell you—I'll survive without it—
I get the heartache, you the injury and pain
If you were just some poor crazy idiot
I'd be able to make excuses for you
You don't even care, all's one to you, foul or fair
Either your head's harder than a rock
Or you actually prefer misery to honor
Now what do you say to that?—
Once I'm dead I'll rise above it—
God, what comfort—What wise eloquence—
I've nothing more to tell you—I'll survive without it—
Why are you miserable?—Because of my miseries
When Saturn packed my satchel I think
He put in these troubles—That's mad
You're his lord and you talk like his slave
Look what Solomon wrote in his book
"A wise man" he says "has authority
Over the planets and their influence"—
I don't believe it, as they made me I'll be—
What are you saying?—Yes that's what I think—
I've nothing more to tell you—I'll survive without it—
Want to live?—God give me the strength—
It's necessary...—What is?—To feel remorse
Lots of reading—What kind?—Read for knowledge
Leave fools alone—I'll take your advice—
Or will you forget?—I've got it fixed in mind—
Now act before things go from bad to worse
I've nothing more to tell you—I'll survive without it.
Happy 1500, BC! 
Prompt: Watching "Heartland", Ty was training his horse and it wasn't going well. His girlfriend Amy's grandfather, owner of the ranch, said: "If you act like you just have 15 minutes, it will take you all day to train that horse. If you act like you have all day, you can have him trained in 15 minutes. So, with that in mind, what things have you done that took all day or just 15 minutes? What was your frame of mind trying to get these things done?
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My frame of mind to get anything done is to just do it. If I don’t do something right there and then, it becomes a burden on my mind. So, whenever possible, I immediately do that thing or let it go. The things I give importance to I spend more time with; with the things that have to be done but are not of great importance to me, the resulting quality depends on luck.
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January 23, 2018 at 6:10pm January 23, 2018 at 6:10pm
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Prompt: Since I am reading Adrienne Rich at the moment, here’s a quote. “Until we know the assumptions in which we are drenched, we cannot know ourselves.” This quote blew me off. If what we have been taught, believed, witnessed and agreed with were, in fact, assumptions, how in the world can we get to know our real selves? Your thoughts?
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Just imagine! What if anything and everything we believed about ourselves and our environment were to be fake, made-up, and false? I guess I wouldn’t be here and who I am would be a falsetto, which would mean my name, my family background, what I've been taught, what I believe in, my love for the people in my life, my love for reading, writing, and other things like that…The list is endless.
Surely, I don’t believe my life is full of assumptions. But thinking about those things tosses me into a different reality as if I were suddenly thrown into the wild waters of an alien planet. This also means if I ever attempt to write a sci-fi story, I know where to start.
Then, there is also something to thinking about the what-ifs of our established or taught beliefs. If we all truly did examine those by taking our present-day issues one by one, we’d get rid of our preconceived ideas, false presumptions and, most important of all, our biases. That wouldn't be so bad, don't you think!
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January 22, 2018 at 3:57pm January 22, 2018 at 3:57pm
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Prompt: Everything has something that resembles it or is equivalent to it in some way. What is writing’s equivalent for you besides reading, which is its obvious twin?
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Creativity is just as important to humans as the need for air because it gives meaning to living. Creativity also builds character, which means writers are creative people. At this time, and always, I thought writing to be the most creative and the closest to my heart. With that, there is no equivalent anything.
As for my attempt at creativity other than writing, I studied the piano and then painting, at an earlier time. Then at another time, I put in and kept a vegetable garden and a rose garden with 55 rose-bushes.
Now in my life, since I don’t live in that house with my gardens anymore, my interests have dwindled down to a few flower pots. Nowadays, on a minute scale, I am trying to learn photography. Also, sewing, baking, and cooking are what I do. Of everything I played with up to now, I miss painting the most, but it is difficult to deal with paints and such again when I have so many other things to do, especially writing.
I have always believed that when we practice any form of creativity, we also express our reality by producing concrete things that result from our ideas. In addition, when the events of life can cause conflicts and may haunt us, working at something creative can be a therapy because while we create, we also build self-worth and face our fears of failure. As a result, we may learn to look at life through a more positive lens.
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January 21, 2018 at 11:49pm January 21, 2018 at 11:49pm
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PROMPT: Write a funny/satirical entry describing something (or some things) you'd like to get away with now that the US government is in shutdown mode.
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Okay, since there wouldn’t be enough eyes to figure out my hidden desires through citizen spying and to see and hinder my resulting actions, I’ll sneak into the hangars and commandeer a space shuttle to go to any other place in the cosmos where there are no governments, shutdowns, political parties, infights or wars.
Phew! Glad you guys are coming with me. Make sure you have some writing implements and stuff with you. Just maybe, we can form and live in a decent community elsewhere. If there are ten of us and each one of us writes a couple of books every year, we’ll have enough reading material to sustain us for some time.
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January 19, 2018 at 11:43pm January 19, 2018 at 11:43pm
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Prompt: Creative Saturday, have fun with these eight words.
spill // identification // curtain // chin // pool // wash // option // indication
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Poor dear! She spills all over you, and pulsing with pleasure, you unclothe your body and mind. Now, you have no option but to lower your chin and jump into the pool, pushing hard against the curtain of water that rises up on contact.
Her clear blue-green irises stare at you with a predictable indication of desire, tinged with determination. You, the flamboyant funambulist, boogying aquanaut, washed-out comic, float to the surface and turn from broadside to profile to revel in your identification of her applause, which sounds to me like a crack of doom on your ‘single’ status.
Yet, you still think you are the barracuda while her hook has sunk into your wide open mouth.
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January 19, 2018 at 3:42pm January 19, 2018 at 3:42pm
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Prompt: Since Megan raised the question yesterday about the organization in the kitchen, I'm going to take it one step further.
Are your husbands, boyfriends, roommates helpful or a hindrance when it comes to the organization overall? Do you split the rooms, tasks? How do you make it work?
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Hindrance is more like it. No, there’s no job distribution either. I do just about everything or sometimes, or rather more so, do nothing. Hubby is a great guy but he’s older than me, which I use as his forever pardon. And rather than chewing the cud on the subject, I’ll tell you a story. Use it as an analogy.
Diogenes of Sinope, a.k.a Diogenes the Cynic, lived as a beggar on the streets and made a virtue of extreme poverty. He taught contempt for all human achievements, social values, and institutions. This story is attributed to him as if a legend.
According to ancient people, one day, Alexander the Great came to visit Diogenes. It was a sunny day and Diogenes, having scanty clothing, was warming himself up in the sunlight. Alexander stood up in front of Diogenes and asked him what he desired and how he, Alexander, could be of help to the philosopher. Diogenes replied, "Just don’t block my sunlight. I don’t need any other gift.”
This goes for me, too. No gift, no help, nothing. Moreover, I have been doing things that he used to do that have nothing to do with housekeeping. It is a miracle or a grace of God that I find the time to do anything else. 
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January 18, 2018 at 6:06pm January 18, 2018 at 6:06pm
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Prompt: How do you keep your kitchen organized?
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Organized? Forget it! I’m barely managing to survive in an odd-shaped kitchen in which the top cupboards are so high that I have to get on a stepstool to pluck anything because the original builder must have had an amazon woman as his mate. I am 5’ 3”, which should be low average height, and moreover, despite the large bedrooms, huge living area, and four big bathrooms in our house, the kitchen is a long corridor with only a walkway for one person in between its two flanks. I bet the builder’s Amazon woman never cooked because that long walkway in between the two sides is much narrower than an alley at which bowlers throw their bowling balls.
On the other hand, the bright side is, when I am cooking, I shoo others away since there’s only room for one person to move up and down. Also, I made it so that the things I mostly use are in the middle of the kitchen’s long galley way, which reminds me of a very long bedroom closet, and not a walk-in one, and it has counters, oven, stove, fridge, drawers, and cupboards on its two sides; therefore, while I am cooking, I can reach to what I want if I pivot on my heels only.
Another thing I do while I cook is, I clean as I go along, which also involves washing the dishes and pots and pans that I have just used. I never leave dishes in the sink or dirty anything or food outside, the simple reason being that we live in Florida, the heaven for all kinds of critters. I won’t go into the kinds of critters we encounter here, but I’ll only say that they’ve managed to heighten my screaming pitch. So, if I mop the kitchen floor every night and then several times during the day, it isn’t because I’m clean-crazy; it is because I am critter-weary.
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January 16, 2018 at 11:37pm January 16, 2018 at 11:37pm
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Prompt: What do you think it means when someone says: "They have done it all and been everywhere?" Just curious about what others think about this.
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Those words only remind me of a Johnny Cash song. Other than that, I’d revert to logic and question that someone about what he or she is saying. Who are “they”? What do you mean by “all” as no one can do everything that there is, and where is everywhere? Does that everywhere include the other star systems and galaxies for example?
Truth is, this saying is a hyperbole, which means it is an exaggerated statement or claim not meant to be taken literally. In other words, don’t pay attention or look for meaning in that person’s speech. If the statement would be in the first person as “I have done it all and been everywhere,” then, I’d think the person saying it was suffering from exaggerated false pride. As it is, the statement is just a manner of speaking in a gossipy, exaggerated fashion. To find meaning in it, one has to know the other sentences around it or the topic of discussion.
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Something Possibly Usable:
Looking through an old flash drive, I found a few notes in a word file. A long time ago someone must have sent me these 10 most important scenes to include in a novel. Not that original and I’ve never used this before; plus I am not sure who it was that did the sending. (C.S. Lakin maybe?) Since I want to keep the information as a reference, as formulaic as it is, I am posting it here.
#1: The hook and opening setup (first scenes)
#2: The disturbance or opportunity (10% mark) that starts the new direction.
#3: First Pinch Point: usually introduces the force of the opposition (33%, also called “First plot point”) and pushes the character along.
#4: Twist #1. Complication before the midpoint that impacts protagonist’s path toward his goal (which is locked in around the 25% mark).
#5: Midpoint. Character balancing on the knife’s edge—going forward now means no going back.
#6: Pinch Point #2. The opposition comes full force. New developments add tension and complications
#7: Twist # 2: big complication that will lead to scene 8. Usually some reversal, betrayal, unforeseen complication.
#8: Dark night of soul (turning point #4). Utter hopelessness. Biggest danger and belief she will fail.
#9: The big climax moment when hero reaches her goal and realizes her true essence.
#10: the end and resolution that wraps it all up and shows the results of reaching (or not) the goal.
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January 16, 2018 at 6:30pm January 16, 2018 at 6:30pm
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Prompt: “A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing."
William James
What do you make of this quote?
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Common sense is something that arises from wisdom. Wisdom is giving each thing, event, or feeling its reasonable place in life. Humor helps this process flow more smoothly.
When we meet challenges with a sense of humor, we are better able to see new possibilities and options. Otherwise, we would run the risk of seeing the darker or grayer areas in everything.
As an example, why do people dance in weddings? A wedding, in its essence, is the celebration of a serious affair, a marriage, which is two people tying up the knot or rather themselves to each other for the rest of their lives. When you think of the repercussions of the seriousness involved here, nobody would dare get married, but the fun part of it, the wedding, makes this very serious idea easier to handle. The wedding and the dancing emphasize the good-work or good-relationship idea in the serious business of marriage through fun and laughter.
A sense of humor has the same spirit-lifting and lightening effect on wisdom and its offspring, common sense.
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January 15, 2018 at 8:10pm January 15, 2018 at 8:10pm
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Prompt: “One of the most persistent narrative patterns in literature, including journalism, is the manner in which a curse can become a blessing and a blessing can become a curse.”
John Casey, Beyond the First Draft
What do you think about this quote and what about real life? Can you pinpoint instances in life, yours or in the life of someone you know, when a blessing and a curse exchanged places?
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Sometimes a curse-- in other words a tragedy-- can bring people together and unite a fragmented family or group. In this way, that curse can become a blessing. Then, while a person is trying to deal with a curse, he or she can discover the strengths hidden inside him or her. Unfortunately, most of the time, we dwell on the negatives and cannot see the positives that may be hiding inside those negatives.
Surely, a blessing can be a curse, too. A charge card for example that gives a young person some freedom in getting the things he or she wants, but if she or he isn’t careful with the spending, his or her future will signal a risk of bankruptcy. Then if a windfall can open a person to the criminals’ activities, due to his or her enriched status, that blessing of a windfall can easily turn into a curse to threaten even his or her life.
All religious thought believes that God can turn curses into blessings for those who heed God’s word. Whether we trust in any one form of religion or not, I believe our deep sense of caring should push us to be better people. If our reactions are based on what is positive for everyone concerned, all curses may easily turn into blessings on their own or through God’s hand if you are a believer.
I have witnessed this happening in my life and in the lives of the people I am close to. If, for example, we hadn't moved to Florida, our son wouldn't have met our daughter-in-law, who is a wonderful person. We moved to Florida because I grew highly allergic to ragweed, developing serious asthma. At first, I came here alone during the ragweed season. Then, when my husband retired, we moved altogether. Our older son had already moved out of the house, then. He opted to stay in NY, but the younger one came with us. The move was a blessing for the three of us, I think. At least, we don't have a 300 feet of snow to shovel several times every winter.
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January 13, 2018 at 8:13pm January 13, 2018 at 8:13pm
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Prompt: How do you respond under pressure...deadlines, due dates, tests, etc.?
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First, I try not to panic. Then I make the time, get to work, and do the best that I can. If my output doesn’t live up my or anyone else’s expectation, so be it. I have worked with tight deadlines in the past and I was okay with that, but I wouldn’t like to be pushed around again, in my later years.
Some people need and crave deadlines; otherwise, they procrastinate. That isn’t me. I’d rather have some kind of a time limit but a flexible one.
Prompt: You've been given diplomatic immunity. Would you break any laws knowing you'd never get prosecuted for it? If so, which ones?
To start with, I try not to break any laws, diplomatic immunity or not.
Let me think of a situation, though. If someone is hurt in some way and I can do something about it, I will. I am not going to stop and ask, “Are you a criminal, an illegal alien, or running away from the law in some way?” I might still ask those things, but after I’ve given a person any help that I can give.
Prompt: Maybe it's just the lack of sunlight, the weather itself but I've been in a dark place emotionally. What about you? Does the weather impact your moods?
Sorry, you aren’t feeling up to par. 
The weather itself doesn’t affect me. I am adaptable with that.
Yet, the results of what the weather causes can make me upset, like what happens after a hurricane, the mess I have to clean up and the people I need to find to fix the broken parts of the house.
In cold, icy, snowy weather, when we had the 300 feet driveway and I had to shovel when others couldn’t, that used to make me upset.
If I lived in California, which I wouldn’t want to for many reasons, I wouldn’t like to go through what those people are going through with the earthquakes, fires, and mudslides. Just watching them on the news makes me upset.
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January 11, 2018 at 7:23pm January 11, 2018 at 7:23pm
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Prompt: What is something that a lot of people are obsessed with but you don't get the point of?
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“Let me count the ways…” But I can’t. There isn’t enough time and space. So it is meeny, miny, mo. Twitter following stresses, body image, bitcoin…Well, okay, among all those, I think I’ll talk about the one I least know about.
Okay, bitcoin it is. It is a currency. I get that. It is made for online usage. I half get that, and I don’t mind a currency to be used online, only. That could work. Just maybe.
But now, that bitcoin and digital assets idea have gotten out of hand.
Don’t we have enough currencies in the world and enough black markets for them, already?
I mean, go back a few decades, some countries didn’t let their citizens take out a lot of cash to use in their travels or business. Guess what? Those citizens bought foreign money, usually the almighty dollar, from black markets. Later on, Euro became just as usable as the dollar, but there are still countries in the world that don’t let their money flow out of their boundaries. True, bitcoin may ease this situation, but can you find a merchant to accept it for the things you most need, if you were, for example, visiting among the Sherpas?
If bitcoin was such a great invention, why would its inventor opt to get a fake name and remain anonymous? His alias is Satoshi Nakamoto, a Japanese name. My paranoid writer’s mind has come up with a few stories about this.
• He is really Japanese and wants to take revenge on the world for Nagasaki.
• He’s a terrorist of unknown origin (or you put in a country of your choice) who wants to mess up with the world’s money systems. In fact, my choice is that he is from North Korea and is a close associate of the rocket man, but I digress.
• He is an investor in some byzantine, electronically-complicated scheme, waiting for this currency to rise to the skies. Then he’ll do something to make it crash bigtime.
• Or he is a fourteen-year-old who went over his head.
Any other guesses?
Prompt: Chocolate is perfect food. It's wholesome and delicious. A beneficent restorer of exhausted energy. What are your feelings on chocolate? Write anything you want about this.
If candies were up for a beauty contest, chocolate, as weird looking as it is, would win hands down or maybe hands stretched out to get more of it.
The way I and my friends collectively go for any piece of chocolate, you’d think we’re practicing candy monogamy. How can we not? Chocolate, as plain as it looks, manages to dress in a variety of outfits and shapeshifts, such as the colorful M&Ms, Butterfingers, Twix, cute Dove pieces wrapped in sparkles, Snickers, Hershey’s Mini’s, Nestle’s any kind, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate…etc. Sigh! Fortunately, if I deplete my stash, I can always delve into the bag of chocolate chips for baking. Nothing will make me be without chocolate.
I bet chocolate is responsible, in its insidious fashion, for the crime of half my wardrobe items shrinking in size each year, but what’s a little bourgeois sin when the taste is kingly? I forgive it, and now that my mind concentrated so much on it, I think I’ll get a bowlful of chocolate pieces. Yum!
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January 9, 2018 at 7:29pm January 9, 2018 at 7:29pm
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Prompt: If you could eliminate one weakness or limitation in your life or in the life of someone you know or even a story character, what would it be?
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Only one weakness? I should count the ways. Instead, I’ll generalize it and pick the main one.
My weakness is gluttony, and not only with food, either. My worst gluttony aims at books. Books have a charm, a kind of an enchanting magic, which I cannot resist. My house can pass up as a mini library, with books and bookshelves stashed everywhere, even though I supposedly eliminated some of the books I already read, but then, whenever I eliminate one book, I get at least four more. Since the e-readers, Kindles, and Nook showed up, my buying paper books has somewhat lessened, but now, in my Kindles and in Amazon, I have around 4000 e-books, waiting to be read, which I do, but I’ll never get to all of them, even if I were Methusaleh. No life is that long. I need at least ten lives, and I need Amazon, B&N, and my house to store and keep my books all through those lives.
I don’t know how I could eliminate this weakness, but chances are I would never want to. Unless someone comes up with a creative solution. How about a brain chip that reads a book, any book, in a few seconds. Probably advanced computers can do that. Why can’t I!   *temper-tantrum*
prompt: Isabel Allende says in her novel, Maya, “Our demons lose their power when we pull them out of the depths where they hide and look them in the face in broad daylight.”
What do you think of those things Allende calls demons? Are there any such demons you can think of that are hiding deep inside you or in someone you know that could inspire a story, novel, or poem? How?
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Too bad we all don’t have our personal Yodas to teach us how to use the lightsaber or fix the stuff in between our ears. Neither do we have Harry Potter’s gall to face the dementors. Still, I believe we can do something about them. If we can’t succeed to eliminate them immediately and for good, we can still use them to our advantage.
Demons usually hide in our insides, and every once in a while, when we least expect them, they make their presence felt. If the demons are the pulling-down kind, one way to evade them is to concentrate on something happy. That could be a memory or a present-day occasion. Once we laugh or find something to be happy about, the demon will tire or walk away or get back into hiding in their shell.
One thing about demons, they don’t like fighters. If we fight them, they retreat. They may show up again dressed in different garbs, but eventually, they will lose their power. I don’t know of any inner demon anyone was successful to hack in one day. So, we have to take our time with them.
My demons have to do with past experiences so far away in my life that even their memories have become strangers by now, but they had been quite powerful at times. They sometimes showed up as anger, sometimes as sadness, and sometimes they caused me to clam up. Since when it is fight or flight, I usually choose the flight option, which is my modus operandi, but I always did something about them or to them even when I was fleeing. That something had to do with the arts of any kind.
Then I began to address them, ask them questions, and argue with their viewpoints. I found that as harsh and cruel as they seemed, they were there to train me. Once I began dealing with them, they shapeshifted like mighty dragons turning into earthworms to cultivate the soil. Could I eliminate them? Absolutely not, but I use them. I use them in understanding others; I use them analytically and as examples and analogies; then, I use them in my writing.
Our lives belong to ourselves with their demons and angels. If we don’t use them, who is going to?
Prompt: It's one week into January...what do you make of people who still have their Christmas decorations up?
I still have the wreath on the front door. You tell me what you make of me.
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January 6, 2018 at 12:37pm January 6, 2018 at 12:37pm
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Prompt: Woohoo, it's the first Saturday of the new year. What cartoons as a child did you watch on Saturday morning? Do you ever get tempted to watch cartoons now?
At first, my mother didn’t like to have a TV in the house. Since I learned reading before I was four, books enchanted me a lot and I skipped the TV's lure. Then my grandmother wanted a TV. Since she was living with us, we got a small one in black and white. I vaguely recall watching Looney Tunes characters and Fred Flintstone. I didn’t like the cartoons in black and white, then, but I loved them in the movies, at the children’s matinee. Later on, when I was a bit bigger, I fell in love with Casper the Friendly Ghost. If I am not making this up, I think it was called Harveytoons. I still recall Casper’s kind and funny character and smile and I did love the recurring theme of good overcoming evil.
Nowadays, cartoons annoy me, especially the so-called adult cartoons, but I did watch cartoons with my children, especially the Charlie Brown’s gang and their adventures. Those we all enjoyed.
Prompt: "Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band
Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you'll marry a music man
Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand
And now she's in me, always with me, tiny dancer in my hand"
How does it make you feel?
Elton John was so young then. I barely recognized him. I am not too crazy about his piano playing. Needlessly harsh fingering, here. The lyrics are okay, though.
On the other hand, I feel like wanting to run away, and then, put on Ravel’s Bolero or something or, at least, some Simon and Garfunkel.
My old ears, you know!
Prompt: "How beautiful thy frosty morn when brilliants gem each feathery thorn! Write anything you want about this.
“Thy frosty morn”
is lovely, when I watch it
from afar, on the TV screen,
since that image hides
the dead birds,
lying under broken branches,
not much of “brilliant gems”
and I imagine
how those feathers
must have felt like thorns
while they were freezing solid,
and then, I worry about
much larger beings
on city streets,
living in cardboard boxes,
shivering, with eyes closed,
which makes me wonder
why each beautiful thing
is also cruel enough
to carry its own special venom.
Sorry! I am not a lover of winter, and it is cold even here in South Florida. Extreme weather of any kind makes me irritable.
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January 3, 2018 at 1:27pm January 3, 2018 at 1:27pm
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Kitchen Utensil
Prompt: What is the one kitchen utensil you could not cook without?
I have a big Ginsu knife, which I use the most. Then, I have tongs for picking hot things out of the pots and pans. Those two I love, although I could do without them if push came to shove.
2017-2018
Prompt: I’ll never forget 2017 because….
And I’m looking forward to 2018 because…
2017 with all its ups and down showed me the true character or rather the favoritism and predisposition of human beings, how they can blindly defend an indefensible person of their own persuasion, gender, or whatever. I hadn’t quite realized, earlier, as species, we could be as stupid. Then, I learned a few things about myself. Things I thought I couldn’t do, I found out I could and with extras if I pushed very hard.
2018 is just a baby. I can’t detect which direction it is going to bend and pull us along with it; however, I am looking forward to it, to whatever it will bring and which lessons I’ll learn from it. Frankly, I have no alternative either. There is no going back.
Productivity—January 2, 2018
Prompt: “True productivity is not about volume of work. It is about doing what matters on demand, without the pressure of external deadlines or forces.”
Nicholas Erik, from The Writer’s Productivity Crash Course
What does productivity mean to you--in writing, in personal life, or in general?
I somewhat agree with the quote, but only with reservations because sometimes, the volume helps the outcome; for example, writing everyday helps the ease of writing. Doing effectively only what matters is of course important and it is a short cut, but there is that learning phase of effective action in anything we do.
Also, one’s direction matters, too. What one likes doing, where he or she wants to end up eventually, what the road to the end will be like or if that person can bear the hardships of that road are all important things to consider. This has to do with focus, too, as one’s focus needs to be trained, so the action one takes is effective as the result.
Part of productivity has to do with good planning in advance for any possibility; that is, without going overboard.
Some people work well by setting goals. I don’t. If I set a goal or a new year’s resolution, I’d end up beating myself on the head while working and that is not healthy. I don’t mind small goals or easier deadlines but a long-term, difficult goal would do me in; for example, I’m going to become a state senator (!) and change the world, lol! On the other hand, I give myself goals I can do. For example, I am a big reader. I probably read 50-100 books a year, if not more. I don't usually set goals of reading this many books in this short a time. Goodreads, on the other hand, wants us to do just that. I was evading them. This year, they kept writing to me and wanted me, for their weird reasons, to pick a number. So, I said 30 books, which I knew I would read very easily. The extras will be a bonus. Then yesterday, they e-mailed again, saying "You read two books already," which is correct because I read in bed regularly at least for half an hour each night. Daytime reading is extra, also. On top of asking to commit to reading a certain amount of books, if they told their readers how many books they read during the course of the year past might help, too.
As much as I don’t like long-term goal-setting, I do like building good habits and encouraging positive mindsets in me. Those things matter the most, in the long run.
Productivity has also something to do with energy management. I neither need nor want to deplete what little energy my mind and body has. So I try to do different things throughout the course of a day, hoping that varied undertakings would be less taxing on my constitution.
Energy Level --Dec 31
Prompt: Does your energy level or your relationship to your body change during certain seasons? Does your body feel, act, or respond differently in the winter? Summer?
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If my body responds to seasons, I haven’t noticed it. I lived in NY and other places and also in FL. I didn’t notice any change in my mindset.
Now, what the seasons brought according to location is another matter. In NY, I had terrible allergies in fall and spring. Then, cold weather triggers the asthma, too, but my energy level or mood has been more or less the same.
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