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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.
September 28, 2017 at 1:48pm September 28, 2017 at 1:48pm
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Prompt: Have you ever used a typewriter?
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Yes, I certainly have. Many times and for many years. I have used typewriters both mechanical or non-electric, electric, and automatic electric. I wrote my thesis on a non-electric one, a Royal, which we had to have three good copies to hand in. The copy papers didn't work well, so I had to type the stuff three times. What I mean by "stuff" was over a hundred pages. In my earlier years, during high school and college years, a gift of a typewriter was something much appreciated. We could type our stuff on school's machines, but usually, we had to wait in line.
I owned several different typewriters over the years: Remington, Smith-Corona, Brother, etc. The fancier ones had red and black ribbons. In the better ones, you could use the ribbon you wished, plain black, black and red, and later, black and white, the white for erasure. Sometimes, the keys or the carriage stuck or the ribbon mechanism malfunctioned. For those mishaps, there were typewriter-repairmen or shops.
My latest typewriter was semi-computerized and had some memory. It would only print a piece after you saw it on its screen and okayed it. When I was in high school and college, not many people owned even the crudest typewriter. There were even typists who typed stuff for people. Their fees were usually based on word count or you could rent a typewriter.
Thirty to forty years or more ago, we didn’t have much of an alternative. It worked, though. It wasn’t as horrific as the younger, nowadays writers would probably imagine. The thing was, for me, I had to have a perfectly handwritten copy first, so I wouldn’t have to resort to white-outs or white-tape, which came later on. Plus, white-outing was acceptable practice in the earlier times, as long as it wasn't used too many times on the same sheet.
Believe it or not, fifty years or earlier ago, lit and other magazines accepted hand-printed submissions, too. Imagine doing that, today!
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September 27, 2017 at 1:53pm September 27, 2017 at 1:53pm
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Prompt: Autumn mornings, sunshine, crisp air, birds and calmness, year's end and day's beginnings. Write anything you want about this.
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I wake up, thinking
this huge world is one word
yet, who’d guess it?
in my garden, the day’s beginning
in seasonal triumph
since the sun shines, the air’s crisp
the ground’s rusted with leaves
a lone bird sings lusting for spring
on this autumn morning
for others, though,
war, hunger, natural disasters
thickening like distant clouds
and I wish for an imagined bridge
over all the dirt of our world
worth everything we own
a huge puzzle this world
yet who’d guess it
it is only one word
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September 26, 2017 at 7:01pm September 26, 2017 at 7:01pm
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Prompt: “A screaming song is good to know in case you need to scream.”
Maurice Sendak
What do you do when you feel like screaming? What kind of things make you want to scream?
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When I feel like screaming, I don’t do much. Most of the time, I just go on with whatever I am doing. Sometimes, I write about it.
As to what kind of things make me want to scream, I have to make a list for this and keep adding to it.
1. All kinds of fakery
2. Narcissists
3. When I witness my-way-or-no-way kind of thinking and people pushing others around.
4. When I lose something and can’t recall what I did to it
5. When I say something I don’t really mean or something thoughtless
6. When I mean to write something and the result is something else.
7. When I am mad at someone’s words and can’t come up with a good response or just freeze
8. Palmetto Bugs, which are big cockroaches. I could take a snake, a hippo, or a rhino, but not a Palmetto Bug.
And more to come…
Prompt: “People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What are your thoughts on the subject?
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The way I see it, this quote is only partially correct.
I know someone whose view of the world is, in her own words, “Life sucks and then you die.” This person is miserable most of the time and I have rarely seen her laugh, although she doesn’t have too bad a life, but of course, I don’t really know what made her like that. It could be a genetic disorder or it may have been acquired through a bad experience after her birth. Her opinion, in either case, shows her pessimistic character.
If we believe everything is falling apart and can’t be helped, overcoming the obstacles may be impossible, but if we believe in the obstacles being only temporary and we take action to overcome them, we may have the character of a leader.
Extremely disturbing life experiences aside, at least some of the time, what we think has a way of showing itself as the truth, which could be the result of the mind sneakily causing or creating such circumstances because the mind takes its orders from our thoughts.
Having said all that, some truly terrible conditions and circumstances can exist, such as Nazi Death Camps. In such conditions, acknowledging the disaster we are in shows only our realism and is not an indication of character.
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September 24, 2017 at 2:30pm September 24, 2017 at 2:30pm
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PROMPT: Are national anthems before sporting events really necessary? What purpose do they serve the average in-attendance fan before the game?
Something needs to be there to remind the folks that a game is about to begin. Otherwise, they wouldn’t pay attention to what’s going on the field and miss some of the action, which would lead to audience apathy.
A national anthem, however, should be spared for national days and celebrations, in my opinion. This way, public disrespect to the symbols of a nation may be avoided.
As an alternative, maybe someone should come up with a sports anthem to be used everywhere in the world because other nations, also, use their anthems before their sporting events.
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Prompt: What did you do on the first day of fall or spring depending on where you live? Share your ordinary or maybe not so ordinary day with us.
I think the first day of celebrating any season is from much earlier eras when people depended on the seasons for their food production and other welfare, before the greenhouses, factories, and such stuff were invented. Sometimes people celebrated those days by also attaching a religious concept to them.
As for me, the first day of any season is just another day. While I lived up north, I know a few first days of spring when a snowstorm was raging. The first day of fall where I now live is just as hot or quirky as in August.
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September 22, 2017 at 9:31pm September 22, 2017 at 9:31pm
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Prompt: 10 countries you would love to visit and why?
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1. Ireland—My first reason is Mrs. Crowley, (RIP) who used to babysit for my kids and she was their Grandma. That I always loved the photos of sheep on green pastures is second. Shannon airport and the environs I’ve been to, but that wasn’t the true Ireland. I would also love to stay in Dublin for a long while, to visit a down-to-earth Irish Pub, and talk to a few Irish seafarers by the ocean towns.
2. Scotland-Diana Gabaldon and the Outlander series is responsible for this curiosity. Before that, I was afraid of the Clans and doing something off to rub them the wrong way due to my ignorance of the culture.
3. New Zealand-I read a bit about this Island nation, and it arose my curiosity.
4. Australia-Is Ayers Rock really a sacred, weird, spiritual place? But I’d really like to see Sydney.
5. Chile-Some of my favorite writers are from here. Maybe I can get by with my half-cooked Spanish.
6. Argentina-Some friends of mine have been to Argentina and have lived there. They loved everything about it. Also because of Isabel Allende. I don’t think there’s any book of hers that I didn’t read.
7. Tibet –I think I am curious about the Sherpas, but not the monks so much.
8. Peru—Once upon a time, I wanted to go to Macchu Picchu but I have asthma. I think I’ll be happy to just look at Lake Titicaca from a distance and somehow manage to go to Aguas Calientes without having to hike.
9. Cuba- Blame Hemingway for this. It is said that Cubans have kept his house and his effects with utmost care. I’ve been to the Hemingway House in Key West, but I’d love to see the one over there. Then, more than ten years ago, there was a writer who wrote his Cuban experiences with gusto in the Miami Herald’s Spanish version. His name passes me by, but I learned a lot from reading his articles. Plus, part of my daughter-in-law’s family is from Cuba, although many of them are not willing to go back, even for a visit.
10. Egypt-Although not at the moment because I am not too keen on their present government. Everyone I know wants to see the pyramids or the Great Sphinx, but I’d love to loiter around the Nile.
As to why I don’t have any ambitions to see Europe…been there, done that! The same for some parts of the Middle East. Asia is too far off for me, although I had some very good friends and neighbors from India and Japan, and I used to play tennis a long time ago with a South Korean friend.
Truth is, travel isn’t what it used to be anymore. I used to love the air travel. I made many long trips alone and with hubby and it was wonderful. Not anymore. I hate the checkpoints, the carry-on restrictions, and being pushed around in the airports. For that reason, I am boycotting travel, especially if it is out of the country. I got too old for all that, now.
Prompt: Do you wander when you go shopping or you focused on a prepared list?
Both. I always make a list. Some of the time, I forget to take the list with me. Then in those times when I do, I usually buy more than what’s on the list. Still, making a list before I go shopping organizes my thought processes, whether I take the list with me or not.
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September 20, 2017 at 9:24pm September 20, 2017 at 9:24pm
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Prompt: Many people showcase their pumpkins like art objects of porcelain or pottery. Do you feel this way about displaying your pumpkins?
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Not really. A pumpkin can only serve as a temporary art because, in time, pumpkins shrivel, go bad, and smell. They are not worth the time to turn them into art objects, but I am sure there has to be a way to keep them longer; if not, it will be invented quite soon, as there is something about pumpkins that make me and most other people feel happy.
When my kids were small, I used to buy the largest pumpkin I could find. Then we’d carve it and put it by the fireplace. Nowadays, if I find pumpkin colored gourds or really tiny pumpkins in early fall, I line them up on the window sill in the kitchen. That is about it.
Here's one of our once-upon-a-time photo.
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September 19, 2017 at 10:04pm September 19, 2017 at 10:04pm
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Do you think we humans are successful as species? If so, what aspects of humans have made us a successful species?
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We, humans, are the only living things that have evolved through learning and discoveries. With that endeavor, we are successful. Other species go through life by adjusting to the existing conditions of the area they live in.
Humans, because of their evolutionary successes, have developed relatively larger brains with cortexes and temporal lobes that make abstract reasoning, language, problem-solving, tool use, culture, and sociality possible. These assets may also be present in some animal species but to a much lesser degree. If we weren’t successful as species, our numbers in existence wouldn’t have been 7.6 billion.
Having said that, humans, also, are depleting and harming the resources of the earth, the only place we can live in, and shaking up the natural balance that might put us and other species in peril. That, I think, takes away from the success we might have enjoyed up to the present millennium.
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September 18, 2017 at 5:38pm September 18, 2017 at 5:38pm
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“The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.”
Wallace Stegner, The Spectator Bird
If you agree with the quote, in what ways is the scar tissue is mistaken for wisdom? If you don’t agree, from where do you think wisdom in life is gained?
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I have to say wisdom or callus depends on the person. Some people turn into pessimists with a negativistic outlook on life. They automatically assume nothing will work out at the end for themselves or others. They love other negative thinkers like themselves, and they try to make the positive thinkers accept their ways and be like them. They do not easily forgive others, and others’ successes and good outcomes they give to luck. Worse yet, they think they have gained the greatest wisdom possible due to having gone through a bad experience, and they are there to sermonize anyone who happens to be passing by.
Others, however, gain insight into themselves and the human nature as a result and learn to adapt to changes in a positive way. I don’t know if there’s a statistic as to what percentage of which group reacts to the life’s lessons, but in my experience, the first group weighs more heavily.
Although a life’s wisdom can show up in a person through numerous ways, the real road to gaining wisdom, I believe, is done by people who go after wisdom consciously. This may be done by living the life consciously and through astute observation and not just by living it through emotions or cultural habits and beliefs. This may also mean a person of wisdom reads a lot in different areas, digests what he reads, and is aware of what happens inside himself under any given situation. I suspect, most of the time, a life’s wisdom shows up in the shape of empathy, which is a lot different than sympathy; however, empathy and sympathy are the subjects that deserve their own entry.
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PROMPT: The Sunday News! Share with us some good news that's happening in your area, or give us an opinion on some current events from the past week.
We had a hurricane hitting our area, so not that much good news there. Yesterday, we went to Publix for the first time. Some of its shelves were still empty.
To the right of our house, new neighbors moved in a week before the hurricane hit. They were all shaken up and didn’t know what to do as they were from Minnesota and were--earlier--congratulating themselves for skipping the snow shoveling for the rest of their lives. We tried to help. They seem to be really nice people. My good news is meeting them.
Another good news is that our street didn’t suffer much damage, only minimal, which might happen during any electrical storm. Also, our electric company, FPL, deserves major kudos for being possibly the best in the world. We never lost electricity during the storm, and in our town, those who lost electricity got it back within a couple of days, mostly.
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September 16, 2017 at 10:11pm September 16, 2017 at 10:11pm
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Prompt: Let's talk about pet owners. Today, I saw two odd things a lady walking a cat on a leash. That's not too strange but the cat was wearing boots and had a cape. Her version of puss n boots, I guess. The second thing was a man in the pet store buying white mouse. I wouldn't have thought anything of it except his shirt moved and a large snake slithered up his shirt and peeked his head out. The guy told me not to worry he was hungry and smelled the mice.
So with my two crazy experiences in mind, what are your craziest experiences with pet owners or even your own pet story.
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Wow! Those are really crazy animal incidences. I only see such stuff on Youtube or other places online, not in real life.
I never had such crazy experiences, although I had a number of cats and dogs that kept me company in the past. I had a cat who loved to walk on the piano keys and he’d meow for me to put the lid up. When I wanted to practice, I had to put her out of the room. Afterward, she’d act upset with me. Luckily, the piano was in a room with a door, and not in the open living area.
The craziest thing I can come up with, though, is that we once had a Newfoundland, Joe, who was very friendly with all the neighborhood dogs that used to come to our yard to visit him. Joe tolerated and played with every dog that found his way to our yard, but once, when one of the dogs followed him in coming inside the house, Joe went berserk. I thought he’d kill the other dog. Our entrance suddenly turned into a chase-and-bark playground, except it was no doggie play anymore. Joe was furious. We could barely let the other dog out without her getting torn to pieces. I guess Joe saw the house as his territory but not the yard.
The weird thing was, he didn’t mind the people who came to visit us, at all. It was the other dog that got to him.
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September 15, 2017 at 6:50pm September 15, 2017 at 6:50pm
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Prompt: Create a blog entry with this opening line: "It was a death that began it all and another death that led us on."
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"It was a death that began it all and another death that led us on."
I started this entry with this quote only because the prompt asked us to do so.  
Googling the quote gave me a few links to a 14th-century murder-mystery book called Morality Play by Barry Unsworth 206 pages. Doubleday/Nan A. Talese, as Morality Plays were the literary norm of that century. The story is about a monk who gets involved in a small-town murder drama.
As intriguing and apocalyptic the meaning of the quote may be taken, it starts with the monk and other people of religion like him making the soul-passage easier on the dead/killed people. This I say because I read the first page of the book on Amazon, though not the entire book.
Therefore, I wish to write on the idea of a soul’s passage rather than the death itself, and since I can’t claim to know what happens to people after death, I’ll attempt to focus my thinking on the passages a soul takes during its limited time on earth.
It might just be that the first passage of a soul is when a person grows up outwardly or inwardly and finds the courage in himself or herself to decide for herself or himself how to think, how to feel, and how to act. Once he or she realizes this is his nature-or-God-given right, that person has successfully completed that passage.
Yet, that is not all. When people begin to decide for themselves, knowingly or not knowingly, they fall into the trap of self-sabotage. Truth is, nobody sabotages himself while having a good ride. As the poet Shinji Moon said, “There is a shipwreck between your ribs. You are a box with fragile written on it, and so many people have not handled you with care.” Most self-sabotages happen because of open or hidden fears, suffering, having been mishandled, or hopelessness, but there is always hope, nothing to fear, and people who can truly decide for themselves can easily get over this self-sabotage phase. When they do that, another soul passage is achieved.
If the above passage is completed successfully, people have become wise enough to hold on to their place in society, in their circle, or in their home, and they don’t give up their rights unnecessarily. A mother, for example, doesn’t think twice to take time off for herself. After all, she knows she has a right to a downtime just like anyone else.
Another soul passage is truly accepting oneself and others the way the person and anyone else is, regardless of looks, financial or social status, or even past or future achievements.
But the most important soul passage happens when a person can give his or her heart to true love, and by love, I don’t mean only the romantic kind. There are many kinds of love, but rising in love in any one of them is the same. (Mind you, I didn’t say falling in love.)
As a Sufi poet says: “The quest for Love changes us. There is no seeker among those who has searched for Love and who has not matured on the way. The moment you start looking for Love, you start to change within and without.” This soul passage is what the saints are made of whether canonized or not, in any religion, belief or disbelief, and saints are many among us as they belong to all of humanity.
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September 14, 2017 at 9:36pm September 14, 2017 at 9:36pm
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Prompt: Pillows are the jewelry for a room and they have to be perfect. Do you decorate with throw pillows? I want to know!
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I use throw pillows not because I am so in love with decorating a house but because a nice old lady keeps giving them to me as gifts, and I do appreciate them. One thing I never understood is the fashionably made beds with ten to twenty throw pillows on them. That should make going to bed a major chore.
My throw pillows, all gifts, are on my living room sofa and loveseat. Sometimes I use the slightly larger ones on the backs of the chairs for comfort, only. I am all for comfort and ease, but I won’t be a slave to interior decorating.
Pillows are good for cuddling for some. For me, I use several pillows to sleep on due to asthma and Gert. I love their support with gentle softness, just like some people who give you support, lift you up, and are so gentle doing it that you don’t feel what they are doing.
Pillows are also good for hiding a journal or a book under them. Then even Hollywood people use them by having actresses throw themselves on a bed just to weep into a pillow. The fiercer the sobs, the softer their pillows. 
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September 13, 2017 at 5:15pm September 13, 2017 at 5:15pm
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Prompt: It could be said that gardening like painting and photography is as much as an art as it is a passion and nature's abundant variety offers a seemingly limitless palette to the gardener, providing not just visual appeal but life-sustaining nourishment. What are your views on this?
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This prompt immediately brought to mind Monet’s garden. It was that very garden that inspired the painter.
Is gardening an art form? It has to be. It takes just as much work, sweat, and discipline as what we put on a page or a canvas.
Amateur or professional, a gardener is someone who is producing and enjoying an art form. Although one may need some kind of a license to be considered a garden designer, who says an amateur--who puts into effect, on impulse, his very own gardening ideas--is any less of an artist?
More than twenty-five years ago, when we owned a place with about two acres of backyard, I raised vegetables and designed my own rose garden, in which I had about 55 rose bushes. On one bush, I grafted five different roses. It was a delight to see the bush bloom in different colors and shapes. That bush lasted only two years after a lot of hard work, which meant digging up one side of the bush all the way to its roots and letting it rest flat covered up in winter. Since the second winter was extremely cold and I couldn’t properly keep the bush warm. The bush didn’t come back for its third year of life. Still, the memory of it still lingers.
More than anything, I miss putting up a chair in between the rows of rose bushes and reading. It was like poetry turned into a rose garden. Maybe because of that experience, I can still sense the words of a lovely poem to be like those rose bushes of yore.
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September 5, 2017 at 12:57pm September 5, 2017 at 12:57pm
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Prompt: “You have to use the strength to get to the weakness.” I heard this on the tennis channel. What do you make of it?
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Although this was said about backhand versus forehand strengths originally, I thought it would also apply to life and subsequently to writing.
It is important to see the weakness as it is, no more, no less, and in wherever or which area it may be. Then, we should also look at the strengths through the same criterion.
In our personal lives, we can confront the dark parts of ourselves with our strengths, which begin with forgiveness and our willingness to wrestle with what’s dark.
Generally, in life, one good strength to nurture is love. When we love people, things, and doing things, we end up performing more. People who love more can perform more and can accomplish more.
As much as love is our greatest strength, fear is our greatest weakness. Fear, although it is a weakness, may have its uses, for it alerts us to what is dangerous and what it is that we need to work on and overcome. Fear makes people hide; love makes them step forward and take on what is needed to be done. Second to love, a great strength is tenacity, in order words, keeping at it and not giving up.
Applied to writing, although we may love our work, our characters, our story, if we lack tenacity, we won’t be able to finish a story or write anything else. And fear as a weakness, applied to writing, won’t let us try a new idea, a new approach, or working with something we think only the professional writers and poets can handle. It is true that maybe our first try won’t be getting a huge applause, but if we love the art of writing enough and keep at it and repeat our efforts while learning more on the subject, it is highly possible that we will end up with an award-winning piece.
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September 4, 2017 at 11:21am September 4, 2017 at 11:21am
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Prompt: What is beauty to you? How would you describe beauty?
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Beauty is interpretative, and not only according to each person but to each time the same person sees beauty. We all see beauty in different things at different times because it is everywhere and in everything. Something or someone can be imperfect or permanently flawed, and still be beautiful
Beauty can be in small things like an act of unselfish kindness or a single cloud in the sky or the sun going down slowly at a colorful sunset or a tiny flower or weed pushing its way through a crack in the most unexpected places.
On a larger scale, nature such as forests, clouds in the sky, wheat fields, vastness of the ocean, rivers and waterfalls, mountains and hills, or moonlight on a pristine snowy backyard give comfort to the spirit and bring forth thoughts of the value and duty of the living things, especially human beings who should leave their marks in the least obtrusive and blatant way. I think nature is a grant to humankind, not only with the sight of it but with the other sensations it evokes like the smell of dark earth after rain or the cawing of the blackbirds or meowing of kittens.
Then, beauty is in the arts. Music defies description. I know it from the way it makes me feel, the way it makes me hold my breath and listen. Also, all visual arts and writing. When I read a passage in a book or a friend’s poem I receive such a strong emotional response that makes me want to be in the piece of writing, become the words and the lines, and I hold my breath and wish to keep reading the same passage over and over or look at a piece of art that brings about such a response.
Being with friends and family members and doing things together is another form of beauty to me. It is the beauty of the moment, a deeper kind of beauty that stays in the mind for decades.
Above all, I believe that beauty is implanted in the human soul and what a human being sees to be as beautiful is the mirroring of herself or himself.
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