The Poetics prompt today at dVerse Poets Pub is about signs. We had three choices:
a) recall an experience you’ve had where you’ve asked for a sign, or came upon a sign unasked-for, and interpreted it and write a poem about the experience, preferably in first person.
b) do some research and find a myth, legend, or story about asking for or interpreting signs and write a poem about what you find.
c) be the world creator and design your own signs and write a poem about it for others to be amazed and inspired by when they read it.
(I went with a).
The Sign That Opened My Ears
I don’t remember why we were talking about hummingbirds I think you were telling me your brother had put up a feeder and hummingbirds were coming to that little balcony overlooking parked cars and traffic in the city.
Here, surrounded by trees, looking at the lake, I had just said, “I’ve never seen hummingbirds out here,” and then VROOM there he was, so close to my eye: his needle-like beak could have pierced my iris.
His wings, vibrating so quickly they sounded like jet engines, were invisible blurs at the sides of his tiny, shiny body. “Ooo hummingbird,” I said, and he darted away.
We sat stunned to silence then both started laughing. The tiny visitor was a sign, or a message from a joker god Mother Nature telling me I just wasn’t paying attention.
Now I see him everywhere. I know his sounds: his song, and his sharp chirp at the height of his flight, yelling “look at me” to the pretty lady birds before dive-bombing the bushes like a meteor hitting the atmosphere.
Today’s prompt for Quadrille (a poem of exactly forty-four words) Monday at dVerse Poets Pub is “sliver.”
Tiny Little Slivers
summer barefoot joy running on docks and decks often leaves a tiny sliver the smallest almost invisible splinter deep under the skin creating a stabbing pain to the touch sharp and lingering like the stab in the back slivering its way to the heart
Little Splinters by Maria L. Berg 2023
And for all you poetry lovers, this is the first week of ModPo (Modern & Contemporary American Poetry). If you haven’t heard of it, ModPo is a free online poetry symposium available through Coursera.org and the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania. Each week there are poems to close read and discuss. This is my fourth year joining in. I hope you’ll join me.
Back on May 1st in my post Reviewing April and Contemplating May, I talked about my plan to collect all of the abstract nouns and place them in grids along the three axes of fear (fight to flight); control (inner to outer); and bias (positive to negative) in an attempt to find a new Big Five contradictory abstract nouns.
I made two charts (one for positive bias, and one for negative bias) with four squares on each representing: 1. inner control fight 2. inner control flight 3. outer control fight 4. outer control flight
I then printed and cut out abstract nouns and pasted them into my eight squares (see image above). I thought this would be easy and fun, but I found it hard, challenging, and time consuming. Very few of the words fit easily into one of the squares. As usual I was completely over-thinking the exercise, but that is why abstract nouns are so interesting: they are very difficult concepts that one can think about forever.
My charts, and my lists of abstract nouns, are very far from complete, but looking at them the other day, I finally found the interesting pattern I was hoping to find. Here is my thought process that led me there:
I’m glad I took a quiet moment to look at the abstract noun clusters I made. They are starting to make sense. I started with the Negative bias sheet since it is so sparse (which doesn’t make sense since there’s an antonym for every noun, but the list I used had a strong positive bias, so I started looking at the fight or flight of outer control and found Weakness in the flight outer control box. Since “strength” was one of Feuerbach‘s legitimate aspirations— where I found the original Big Five—weakness could be one of the new Big Five, so then I looked for its equivalent in the fight outer control box, and found Jealousy which I found interesting. Then in fight inner control I found Irritation and Annoyance, and in the flight inner control I found Worry / Anxiety; and right in the center Fear. So from only looking at the negative bias sheet my new big five contradictory abstract nouns would be:
I found a quote from Jon Meacham that said: “The opposite of fear is hope, defined as the expectation of good fortune not only for ourselves but for a group to which we belong. Fear feeds anxiety and produces anger; hope, particularly in a political sense, breeds optimism and feelings of well-being.”
While looking at the positive bias chart, I had put Hope in fight inner control, and Patience in flight inner control: Knowledge in fight outer control and Surprise in flight outer control. Right in the center I have Joy, Music, Delight Reality, and Helpfulness. So just based on my positive bias chart, my big five would be:
However, if I look at that quote and start with Fear / Hope what does that do?
Fear / Hope Weakness / Strength (inner control fight same as hope, so in my chart along the diagonal but on two different sheets) Worry / Knowledge Jealousy / Patience (forgiveness, decency, charity, calm) Surprise / Annoyance
Hmm, so this is interesting. To find the contradictory abstract noun in a more traditional antonym dialectic kind of way using my charts I go across the diagonal on the other bias, so if I start with an abstract noun in a positive outer control flight square, I look for its contradiction in a negative inner control fight square.
The question is does it work for every abstract noun in the square. Is pride contradictory to refreshment? Is Faithfulness contradictory to Adulthood and dictatorship? This interesting insight gives me reason to complete my list with a more equal amount of “negative” abstract nouns and continue to play with this concept.
After finding this pattern in the charts, I started thinking about the contradictory abstract nouns that are important in my life. I wrote, “I think Expectation and Disappointment are one of my big five. Impression vs reality, judgement vs. truth.”
I found disappointment in the flight outer control box of negative bias, so is expectation in fight inner control positive? I found Excitement, Enthusiasm, . . . I didn’t find expectation at all. I don’t think I would put it in fight inner control though. I don’t even think I would put it in positive bias. Expectations are often negative and lead to disappointment. They are outside one’s control, and are a kind of fight against the unknown. However, that’s other people’s expectations, what about my expectations? Still a fight against the unknown, an extrapolation of previous experience and learned knowledge, but they can still lead to disappointment. So what would be in the correct box as the contradictory noun to disappointment?
I continued trying to find the new Big Five with an emphasis on them being important to my life and here’s my thought process:
Fear / Hope : Fear / Acceptance Weakness / Strength Worry / Knowledge: Knowledge / the unknown Jealousy / Patience (forgiveness, decency, charity, calm): Jealousy / Charity is interesting Surprise / Annoyance
I’m not sure this is a big five list lets see: the first two work, but the next three don’t, so I’ll keep trying. Hope / Fear Strength / Weakness Expectation / Disappointment Value / uselessness, worthlessness Jealousy / Generosity OR decency / atrocity
I think this gets closer to my big five: though jealousy would be a human big five and so would decency, I don’t think they are big five in my life so Creativity / Literalness, reality
It’s strange that the only antonyms I found for creativity were Literalness, and reality. That makes creativity an interesting choice. So now I have:
Hope / Fear Strength / Weakness Creativity / Reality Value / Worthlessness Patience / Impatience or Persistence / cessation or determination / reluctance or doubt / certainty
Are those as strong as the first big five? Love / Apathy; Truth / Deceit; Beauty / Ugliness; Happiness / Misery; Wisdom / Naivete
Do they work as my big five? I think so.
What is the first contradictory noun pair I want to look at?
Hope / Fear Strength / Weakness Creativity / Reality Value / Worthlessness Patience / Impatience or Persistence / cessation or determination / reluctance or doubt / certainty
I’m having trouble deciding on that last one. Determination / Reluctance is a big one for me. Doubt / Certainty is also a really good one. Maybe I don’t want to look at hope and fear this time around, or maybe Doubt / Certainty is kind of the same thing as hope/fear. And Strength/ Weakness could be Patience/ Impatience or Determination / Reluctance. I don’t think I’m happy with Reality as the antonym of Creativity. or literalness either. There’s got to be a better contradictory noun. I keep thinking dullness. I’m playing over at thesaurus.com but it isn’t going well. The only antonym for creativity is reality. The only other word I came up with is actuality which is a little better.
As you can see, it took a lot of time and thought, but I have finally come up with five pairs of contradictory abstract nouns to explore in the coming months that are as powerful and meaningful to me as the first Big Five I was exploring. I’m excited to see where this new focus takes me. With my new list I can start with Doubt / Certainty.
Since it’s another cloudy, rainy day, today’s images beginning to explore the doubt in certainty and the certainty in doubt were taken in the mirrorworld where I have wrapped fairy lights around the three loops that were holding my collapsible laundry basket (this model is not the same as mine, but is similar) in a globe shape.
I’m glad I decided to participate in the Seattle Arts and Lectures summer reading book bingo this year. The categories suggested for each square led me to variety of books and many great book discoveries that I most likely wouldn’t have found other wise. Below is the list of the squares starting in the top left and going across each row with comments about the books I chose to complete each square. I linked each of the titles to the book’s page on Amazon using my amazon associate ID. If you buy the book using my link I receive a few cents, and it’s greatly appreciated.
Row One: Joyful – drinking from the river of light by Mark Nepo – each of these essays on creativity and poetry brought me joy. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Seattle Reads (Past or Present) – The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka – I thought I would really like this story because I love to swim, but it lost its connection to swimmers and became about memory loss and also lot me. Local Author – Ringing in the Dead by J. A. Jance – This is the first thriller novella I’ve read, and I enjoyed this story about a past case. I also was happily surprised that it mentioned Lake Tapps. Hip Hop – Hip Hop Family Tree Vol. 1 by Ed Piskor – though I enjoyed the story about Blondie’s “Rapture” overall I found this graphic novel pretty boring. Includes a Recipe – Aphrodite by Isabel Allende – I’m not usually a fan of memoir, but this memoir about aphrodisiacs by one of my favorite fiction authors was a real treat. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Row Two: Indigenous Author – Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty – This collection of connected stories was a great read. I really enjoyed it. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Recommended by an Independent Bookseller – A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan – I read this one near the end of my blackout when I was looking for thriller novels. I found this one in my local independent bookstore’s email newsletter. It was a fun read about monster hunter looking for a Nessie-like lake monster. Translated – The Sonnets by Jorge Louise Borges – I enjoy Borges fiction and have only recently started exploring his poetry. The man wrote a ton of sonnets, a large amount of them about historical figures. Sea Creatures – The Swimmers by Marian Womack – This book was advertised as a dystopian reimagining of Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, so I went ahead and read it too. And there are some noticeable echos of Wide Sargasso Sea in The Swimmers. And Wide Sargasso Sea is a story from the POV of the lady in the attic from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Trans or Nonbinary Author – PET by Akwaeke Emezi – Though this book
Row Three: Library Book List or Display – Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse – I found this one on the Recommended shelves near the entrance to my local library. Though I didn’t enjoy the characters being angels and demons or the world they lived in, the mystery of the story was interesting. Tue Crime or Crime Fiction – Macbeth by Jo NesbØ – In true NesbØ fashion, this modernization of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a fun, violent crime thriller. Free Space – Reductionism in Art and Brain Science by Eric R. Kandel – This is a non-fiction book about art and neuroscience. It looks at fMRIs and beauty, and talks about the viewer’s share as part of the creative process. A SAL Speaker – Deaf Republic by Ilya Kominsky – This was a moving collection of connected poems that tell a story, showing the horrors of a fictional war. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Workers’ Rights – Thanks to Frances Perkins by Deborah Hopkinson (Author), Kristy Caldwell (Illustrator) – I had no idea what I was going to read for this square, but luckily I found this picture book about the first woman to be in a president’s cabinet who also invented social security. This was full of interesting information. I shared it with my mom and she really enjoyed it too. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Row Four: Debut Essays or Short Stories – A Sliver of Darkness by C. J. Tudor – This collection of short stories was said to be horror, but it wasn’t scary. Some of the stories were fun reads. Older Protagonist – The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman – This is the second novel in The Thursday Murder Club series. Though I didn’t like it as much as the first one, it was still a fun read. Chosen by the Cover – The Hours by Michael Cunningham – When I picked this up at my library, I was surprised to find the little pocket-sized hardcover Picador Modern Classics version. It not only had a pretty cover, I enjoyed the reading experience. I enjoyed reading this shortly after reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. BIPOC Poetry Collection – The Country Without a Post Office by Agha Shalid Ali – As a collection, I wasn’t very excited by these poems, but the Ghazals in this collection were the first that really helped me see the power of the form. Manga or Graphic Novel – The Night Eaters by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda – This graphic novel, though pretty disturbing, has beautiful artwork.
Row Five: Read with a Friend – The Music Lover’s Poetry Anthology by Maureen McCarthy Draper and Helen Handley Houghton – This is by far my favorite poetry anthology that I’ve read. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ BIPOC or LBGTQIA+ Horror – The Atrocities by Jeremy Shipp – This was a quick-read gothic horror reminiscent of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, but isn’t very memorable. Audiobook or E-book – The Secrets of Human Perception by Peter M. Vishton – This series of lectures on perception is in depth and really interesting. Same Author, Different Genre #1 – Hagseed by Margaret Atwood – This was a fun modernized re-telling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest set in a prison with prisoners putting on the play. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Same Author, Different Genre #2 – Angel Catbird by Margaret Atwood – When looking for a Margaret Atwood novel to read for this different genre square, I was happily surprised to find that she had tried her hand at comics. Enjoyed two of her Angel Catbird stories.
Thriller Novel Reading Bingo
As I finished up the Bingo Card, I started filling in as many squares as I could with thriller novels because I am revising my thriller, and want to read as much in the genre as I can. I decided to make my own reading bingo card just for thriller novels. Here’s what I came up with:
You may want to play along as you read thrillers, mysteries, suspense and horror reading up to Halloween with Readers Imbibing Peril (this is the start post from last year, but it tells you what the challenge is). For once I remembered that it starts in September and not October.
Along with my thriller bingo, I’ll be switching up Reading Novels Like a Novelist (RNLN) to a thriller edition in which I compare ten thriller novels to explore some writing questions.
September’s also time for ModPo (Modern & Contemporary American Poetry) Live Symposium through Coursera.com. It’s free and a lot of fun. It starts this Saturday (Sept. 2). I hope you’ll join me and all the other poetry lovers who come back to be part of this poetry community year after year.
How has your summer reading been? What was your favorite book you read?
I had planned to swim to the (super blue) moon, following the light through the lake to forever. Something I used to love to do every summer. But this week is pretending summer’s over: days of heat and smoke replaced with rain and temps in the sixties. I thought this year would be like last and stay summer for another month and a half. Now I doubt my own certainty and some possible missed opportunities. Though swimming at night this summer may not be safe. It never is really, but there are too many boats breaking a wake in the dark. Showing no care for the lives on the water’s edge, or traditions of night swims and love of the feel of water against skin.
Super light aglow a second event in blue Moonlight shadows play
Today is supposed to be very hot with poor air quality due to smoke. It feels like a good day to stay inside with the blinds drawn and he fan on high for a stream of consciousness Saturday. And I’m in luck! Today’s prompt is “tune.”
Tunes for Tuning Out While Tuning In
Today is a good day to tune out, turn the dial to the snow and static leave the rabid dogs to foment and stir the eternal fires leave the smoke and the heat on the other side of the blinds and tune in to a hope for a better day, the day that will come when facts become facts again, but until then, I can create my own tunes, and sing them loud to block out the noise
I can tune up the sound vibrating inside, not as easily as I tune my bass, but with time and practice I can tighten my strings or loosen as needs be, until I am completely tuned
Today is a good day to tune out, let my vision unfocus, enjoy the blur, the color of the lights in the mirrors reflecting my reality back to me, not their delusion that they want so badly to see though a lie told a million times still isn’t true.
In here I get to shape the light as I will, into anything I want to see and it isn’t a lie, exactly. Only a tiny bit of momentary happy that I have no reason to defend. How will I tune their vibrations? What do I want to see? What do I want to capture to share?
Today is a good day to tune out the world tunes in my headphones help me refocus on what’s important in this moment and it isn’t out there though I’m still waiting for him to tell me which tune I was dancing to in his dream so I can be in it while I”m dancing later
*I didn’t expect this to come out as a poem, but it did. I added the title after the stream of consciousness poem.
Tuning In by Maria L. Berg 2023
For today’s image I tried a new composition, wrapping fairy lights around the plastic loops that held my collapsible laundry basket together, and hanging the three-loop globe in my mirrorworld. I’m excited to start experimenting with it.
The perfect summer sunlight filled the empty bottle once stopped it held a warm vibrating light the bottle sat on a shelf like a secret to not tell waiting for a winter darkness that was right
once stopped; it held the warm vibrating light when he reached for the shelf and grabbed the bottle during a the winter darkness that was right he placed it on its side in the center of the table
when he reached and grabbed the bottle and hoped as he gave it a spin placed on its side in the center of the table it felt like real life could begin
And she hoped as he gave it a spin that she would stop the neck of the bottle it felt like real life could begin but then the table wobbled and it toppled
that she would stop the fall of the bottle or the bottle still sat on a shelf with its secrets but the table wobbled and it toppled the perfect summer sunlight in shattered regrets
Ever Since I Was Little, I Can’t Help But Call Them Pine
I complain about the pine needles inside and raking up the pine cones They’re not pine, says he, correcting me, firmly, as I stare up at the giant evergreens We don’t have pines But this dictionary informs me firs are of the family pine
Something amazing and surprising happened this summer. My nephew became interested in reading and wanted to read my Gator McBumpypants picture books with me. He then planned out the next ten years of my life with new characters I need to make and write about. I still have the pictures I took in New Orleans and an idea for the story about what “home” really means, but I didn’t make it a priority because I’ve had trouble selling my books.
This last weekend, I was invited to have lunch with my father’s high school reunion group get together. And somehow, in answering questions about myself and talking about my photography and writing, my lunch turned into a Gator McBumpypants book signing, and I sold twelve books!!
It felt so good. I don’t know why this is the summer of Gator McBumpypants after trying for so long, but now that I have some momentum, I want it to continue.
I bring this up because this morning I watched a very interesting TED talk called “The four-letter code to selling anything” with Derek Thompson and I found what he had to say very interesting for all creatives and innovators. What people really want isn’t something completely new; they want something familiar. In other words there’s a fine line of acceptance between the new and the familiar, and the trick is to take the new idea and make it familiar enough.
I’ve always been interested in creating things that are completely new. I hate when people tell me (especially as a singer/songwriter) that it has all been done before. But now I think I get it (sort of). People need the new to be comfortable enough, in the familiar, to relate to it.
Björn’s prompt for Meet The Bar (MTB) inspired this post. He’s studying rhetorical devices and challenges us to use rhetorical devices to convince in a poem. I decided to combine what I learned this morning with some rhetorical devices to change doubt to certainty about buying my books.
The Brand New Book Like the Ones You Remember
Come take a look, a little look at these books for your little ones they’re so much fun You may wonder, even doubt and say, what is this about? Because the pictures in these picture books are photographs, and it’s a fact that you’re used to seeing illustrations when it comes to reading children’s fiction and photographs were just for facts
But watch your grand-kid’s eyes light up like sparkles on the pretty waves and the smiles that grow into happy laughs as they read and read then turn the page
Wasn’t Winnie the Pooh about stuffed animals too? And these days there’s so much more that photography can do Don’t you remember those pictures of Teddy bears? It’s the same but an alligator, and like the bear he doesn’t scare
He is happy, makes friends, and goes on adventures Adventures of stuffed animals at play At play the same way that children play made more real by the photographs of stuffed secret lives on display
though days are stolen by ants the morning light is enchanting through the sprinklers and chickens ate my barely-growing garden edible wild mushrooms appeared in the dying yard everything takes longer than I want it to and the days go whooshing by before they’ve begun but somehow the lake water is more refreshing and clouds, when they come, are welcome people seem more friendly and inviting and appreciation abounds
as if I too burst from a cocoon though I never felt confined in my chrysalis
Experience Writing 