A to Z Challenge

tacet – silent, no part given for a particular instrument or voice during a section of music

When I was a kid little inflatable letter people came to the classroom to teach us our letters.

tie – curved line over or under two notes of the same pitch, notes are sounded once and held for the value of both
tremolo – the note is repeated as fast as possible during its duration

NaPoWriMo

Prompt: write a poem about a particular letter of the alphabet, or perhaps, the letters that form a short word

Since today’s A to Z letter is T, it makes sense for me to start there.

PAD Challenge

Prompt: Social (Blank)

In a time when we are avoiding being social, I thought taking a look at Social Studies might be interesting. Social Studies is an educational discipline that includes the study of many aspects or branches of human society including: history, geography, economics, political science, philosophy and psychology.

If you want to learn more about Social Studies there’s a lot of information at PBS Learning Media. There are some cute hip-hop lessons over at Flocabulary. Ted Ed has so many interesting videos. I enjoyed Infinity according to Jorge Luis Borges this morning. The New York Times has set up a Learning Social Studies section. In other words, there is no excuse for not brushing up on our Social Studies.

I did not expect to find this Social Studies while researching social studies.

For fun, I thought I’d share this little combination of Social Studies and the letter T:

The poem

Social Studies at a Distance

Moving along a a one-way street
well-worn and familiar
so familiar your mind wanders;
your journey on remote control
Screeching to a halt
smelling burnt rubber
It’s a dead end
Looking right and left at the unknown
You idle and idle

It’s history repeating, right?
Give me liberty or give me death!
Some cry from their stalled gas-guzzlers
wearing cheap knock-offs of American flags
in unflattering cotton knits
They really mean give me liberty and
I’ll give you death
Not the same

Taking a smaller route
it curves like a hook
Some get stuck on his hook
too sick of themselves to be patient
wanting to run from what they see in the mirror
they listen to the foolish and throw
sense out the window
to see if a neighbor has a racket
to hit it back

On this route you come to a crossroad
perhaps a small cross
since no one else is coming
you get out and sip some tea with your
knowledge and beliefs
and ponder society
what it was and what it might become
you are at the tacet in your opus
and decide to go home and practice your tremolo
before turning to the terrible tarantula
and telling him to
take his tackiness to Timbuktu (sorry Timbuktu).