Experience Writing

Day Thirteen: The Amazing Joy of Kindness

Kindness

Kindness is another of those abstract nouns with a circular definition. It means to act with benevolence. What does benevolence mean? An act of kindness. It also means a desire to do good to others, but good is a whole bunch of vague and abstract.

This morning I read that yesterday, April 12th, was declared “One Kind Act a Day” Day in Utah. Complicated in itself, right? If the goal is to do one kind thing every day, how can you have one day for it, but that’s a question for the governor of Utah. The examples given as kind acts were: to pay for the dinner of the people at the table next to you in a restaurant, or to buy the coffee of the person behind you in line, but is that actually kindness? Those people are already at a restaurant, or in a coffee shop, so they have the means and intention to pay their own way. By paying for them, you haven’t found a need and fulfilled it. You haven’t done something that lessened their burden (much).

When I think of kindness, I think of taking the time to observe, pay attention, and listen, truly listen to what someone needs, then give what you can to ameliorate that need if within your means and ability. Listening in itself may be the biggest kindness.

With that in mind, I continued the approach I started yesterday, putting light in the mirrorworld. I added three more lights: two overhead clip lights, and a multi LED hanging light.

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Today’s prompt is to write a poem that joyfully states “Everything is going to be amazing.”

Poem A Day

Today’s prompt is a title made from How to (blank).

The Poem

How to Show Kindness

When intending to act with kindness
the ego may get in the way
slay the impulse to project
your moving picture is singular
only a ghostly image
when applied to others
patient observation is going to be stupendous

When one kind act is needed a day
shatter every stifling fear
kindness takes courage
like the fragile mouse
grab the thorn and tug
yank it from the giant paw
expecting the lion’s roar
sympathy is going to be astonishing

a kind word soothes
the savage beast
and tastes sweeter
than a barbed tongue

When kindness is key
tear through apathy to care
lend a keen ear
with an open heart
aware like soft slant light
revealing specks of dust
as floating glitter
tenderness is going to be extraordinary

Day Twelve: Finding Joy Making the Small Things Count

Joy

Thinking of the light and bright feeling of joy, and the effect created from over-exposure for “hope,” I tried something completely new today. Usually when I create bokeh images in the mirrorworld, I shut off all of the lights except for the string lights, and close the door to make it dark. Today, I left the door open, opened all the curtains, and added two lamps with full-spectrum daylight bulbs. The process felt less magical in the light of day, but I found joy in the results.

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Today’s prompt is to write a poem about a very small thing.

Poem A Day

Today’s Two-for-Tuesday prompts:

Write a Counting poem, and/or…
Write a Not Counting poem.

The Poem

Countdown to Joy

All those dancing electrons–
electrons sparking, sparking
eight to each atom
of oxygen I breathe
–excite neurons firing, firing
eighty-six billion neurons
in this bundled brain
igniting the peripheral nervous system
forty-three pairs of nerves,
that’s eighty-six nerves connecting
connecting to my limbs and organs
unprotected and exposed
to toxins and injury
controlling the muscles
triggering the ten muscles
tugging at my lips
relaxing and contracting
into a smile

Day Eleven: A Great Big Powerful Idea

Idea

A new thought, conception, or notion may occur when looking at something in a new way. Today’s idea for my photographs came from the bulbs in my overhead light burning out. Because the overhead light didn’t work, I turned on the lamp on my bookshelf. Looking up at the glass over the dead bulbs overhead, I admired the pattern reflected from the light coming through the curtains. Then I saw the curtains reflected over the art in the hall. I played with how the lines bent as I changed my position. From the Greek, idea means “I have seen, I know.”

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Today’s prompt is to write a poem about a very large thing.

Poem A Day

Today’s prompt is to write a power poem.

The Poem

Great Big Ideas

Sometimes an idea arrives
like Godzilla to a major metropolis
stomping and destroying
planning and construction
that was built before
setting it all aflame
with his breath
a ravenous rancorous reptile
with limbs stuck in his jagged teeth
his mighty metallic roar
radiating, shaking and breaking
any remaining windows

Sometimes an idea arrives
like King Kong breaking his chains
beating his chest, climbing
to the tip of the tallest building
to escape the maddening crowd
only wanting to return
to his ancient jungle home
to be alone and in peace
a gentle giant beyond the wall
worshiped with sacrifice
separate from the tribe
gargantuan gorilla of
tremendous tenderness
hidden in the thick lush heat

Sometimes ideas come
tumbling and competing
like a Kaiju battle royale
Best to stay out from underfoot
watch from a safe distance
quietly, quietly, and without judgement
for giants, like ideas,
can change; not only in appearance
but allegiances, fickle monsters
not looking at their feet
still stomp
and destroy

Day Ten: Elaborate Tastes

This is the second Sunday of the of the month, and there is no A to Z on Sundays, so today’s photo-challenge is a little different. I’ll be using the photos I took this week to create visual poems guided by a homograph.

Elaborate

Elaborate is a homograph with two pronunciations and meanings:

adjective (ih-lab-er-it) worked out with great care and detail; marked by intricate and often excessive detail.

verb (ih-lab-uh-reyt) to add details in writing, speaking, etc.; give additional or fuller treatment

This will give me a chance to elaborate on my new thoughts on comfort, and the connections between goals and failures, hope and destiny. I included my magnetic poetry kits to create more elaborate expressions of the week’s abstractions.

Elaborate Destinies by Maria L. Berg 2022

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Today’s prompt is to write a love poem.

Poem A Day

Today’s prompt is to write a taste poem.

Elaboration of Comfort by Maria L. Berg 2022

The Poem

Love’s Many Flavors

Like thoughtful morning
sweet celebratory strawberry
preserves delineating layers
of comforting cream
with the patience of
delicate shortcake

Like rich euphoric
European milk chocolate
brought back in baggage
rewarding worry and wishes
while each melting square
mends the forgiving mouth

Like fresh fervent
new garden kale
crisp, crunchy leaves
that survived harsh winter
forgotten and left for dead
offering vitality freely

Day Nine: How Hope Breaks Through

Hope

Hope is “the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best; a feeling of desire for something and confidence in the possibility of its fulfillment; a thing, situation, or event that is desired.”

For today’s images I thought of hope as a bud opening, or about to open. I explored perspective and exposure with budding flowers inside and outside.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday (#SoCS)

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness is “how.” Here’s an excerpt from today’s morning pages in my journal:

How can I turn things around? How do I drum up interest; stand out from the crowd? How do I create a craving for my aesthetic–not my know how, but my snow how? How will I break through? Part the sea of noise. Float to the top of the muddy puddle. Breaking the molds leaves me seeping shapeless in all directions. A movement that could spread, but how? How can feel hopeless when there is no answer that works. How can dishearten when no solution is found. But floundering is often a way through how, for now, casting a wide net, throwing out all the hooks, until the right one bites.

Hope Springs Eternal by Maria L. Berg 2022

The Poetry Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Today’s prompt is a form prompt to write a nonet: a poem of nine lines with descending syllables.

Poem A Day

Today’s prompt is to write a breaking poem.

The Poem

Hope Breaks Eternal

Hope breaks through last night’s disappointments.
How does she find the way each dawn
through the heaps of discarded
broken dreams’ jagged shards?
Hope slips through unscarred
cool and shining
in the slant
morn light
how?

Hope breaks the mold of expectation.
How does she keep leaping caution,
springing from the darkest hours
where nightmares cloud reason?
Hope jumps unstartled
unique and new
a glimmer
of thought
how?

Day Eight: They Never Tell You Goals Are Squirrelly

Bokeh squirrels on the lake photographed through the hedge and tall grass. — Lofty Goals by Maria L. Berg 2022

Goal

A goal can be a concrete noun, if you’re playing soccer (football in most of the world), but as an abstract noun–“the result or achievement toward which effort is directed”–it is a squirrelly concept. Since the beginning of the year, I have read a pile of books on the concept of goal setting, creating and changing habits, motivation, and achieving goals. I’ve written about it in a series of posts (The theme for this year is “A Year of Finishing Novels”), but goals are shifty, and when captured tend to grow larger, or run further away.

I’ve never made a squirrel filter. That’s a good goal for today.

Colorful bokeh squirrels of different sizes overlapping in the mirrorworld. — My Squirrelly Goals by Maria L. Berg 2022

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Name your alter-ego, and then describe him/her in detail. Then write in your alter-ego’s voice.

Poem A Day

Write about what “they” never tell you.

One bokeh squirrel on the lake by some leaves. — Focused by Maria L. Berg 2022

The Poem

They Never Tell Me Where They Put the Goal Posts

They keep moving the goal posts
but never tell me where they put them
always changing the rules when
I think that I’ve learned them

They say good things come to those who wait
but never specify how long or what’s good
And while I’m waiting, imagining my good things coming
they move the goal posts again when I’m not looking

Of course they aren’t the ones in the now
in this crowd, feeling this beat pull them
from their seats to move their well-shoed feet
and return my smile

They say grab life by the horns
but they never say how it feels to be torn
when those horns gore through
or how long it will take for the wounds to heal

They say time heals all wounds
but they never specify how much time
and does this count as time waiting for good things?
Because that feels like a cheat, when the good things
I’m waiting for are a hit song and a huge cheering crowd
I’d rather not have wounds in the first place
if healing them is the good things I’m wasting time
waiting for, and if it’s the wound I got from grabbing
life’s horns, that’s a double cheat.

I shoulda grabbed life by the tail and held on tight
and let my legs fly out behind me
Gotta watch out for hooves ‘n shit, but it’d
be better than being gored and then not
getting good things because I’m waiting for
holes to heal. Where did those goal posts go?

They say nothing lasts forever
but I think waiting might if
I listen to them. Luckily
the music’s so loud
I can’t hear them
I can’t even hear myself

Day Seven: An Aubade to An Abundance of Failures

Failure

Today’s post on Blogging from A to Z has some quotes to help us focus on a successful future. Two of them are about failure:

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” –Winston Churchill

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember, that’s where you will find success.” –Thomas J. Watson (CEO of IBM from 1914 to 1956)
Every time I post a photograph that I consider a success, there are many photographs that I consider failures. Like beauty, failure has to do with the perception of the beholder. Thinking of failures as stepping stones to success, I created a filter that represents a stepping stone then I looked for ways to break some of my stones using the string between the lights in the mirrorworld.

Double Your Failures by Maria L. Berg 2022

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Today’s prompt is to argue against or question a saying or proverb. To go with my theme, I chose “Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.”

Poem A Day

Today’s prompt is to write an abundance poem.

dVerse Poets Pub

For today’s MTB: Critique and Craft prompt, Laura challenges us with an aubade. To include “Morning” or “Aubade” somewhere in the title, and to write either:

a poem evoking daybreak/greeting the dawn, or
a poem about lovers parting at dawn

Failures Find Solutions by Maria L. Berg 2022

The Poem

Aubade for an Abundance of Failures

Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up
unless your goal is falling itself
an abundance of falling like a skydiver with a
parachute packed on her back
refusing to jump from a plane
or a climber who like a cat up a tree
won’t repel from the cliff climbed.

Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up
unless your goal is to stay prone
like a yogi in corpse pose
in an abundance of lying still
or a fighter who cannot take another hit
waiting for the slow count of ten
a glorious end to fight another day.

Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up
unless you’re desperate for a full night’s sleep
like me, and dawn has arrived once again,
forcing another failure, another red-eyed morning
an abundance of half-waking hours
Success would be refusing to get up, but
Dream lovers never arrived or slipped out
with the blur of fur when I slid open
the glass and was met by frozen dew
Perhaps I’ll get a glimpse of dreams unseen
as a fleeting memory in the afternoon.

Day Six: Expressions of Things That Go Bump in the Night

Expression

From dictionary.com I learned that “expression” is about transformation, manifestation, and communication. 1. the act or an instance of transforming ideas into words 2. a manifestation of an emotion, feeling, etc, without words 3. communication of emotion through music, painting, etc.

Visually, that leaves the possibilities wide open. I could express absolutely anything. But how to express expression? I thought about the expression on the jack-o-lantern’s face I made out of wire last fall, and decided to attempt an expressive silhouette.

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Today’s prompt is to write an acrostic, a poem in which the first letter of each line spells a word or phrase.

Poem A Day

Today’s prompt is (blank) in the (blank) as a title.

The Poem

Things That Go Bump in the Night

Ephemeral visions of non-corporal flight
X-ray film echoes reach through the weakened veil
Phantom fingers tapping and tickling the darkest hour
Reflexive tension shivers jump at each bump
Each clunk and bonk and creek and wail
Specters of possible horrors dwelling in an anxious mind
Suddenly all too real and tap, tapping at the window
I become the fool in the film searching out the sound
Only to find a trapped hawk moth tormenting cats outside the screen
Nefarious ne’er-do-wells slink back into the shadows drenched in dawn

Day Five: Weaving the Allotted Lengths

Destiny

Destiny is a fascinating concept: “a predetermined course of events often held to be an irresistible power or agency” (Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary tenth edition). It is human nature to want to have a purpose, to search and strive to find the why of existence. But why try if the course of events is predetermined? “It’s my destiny” sounds so final and important, but what if I’m destined to fail, or destined to die a horrible death? I would rather believe I have purpose and free will. Destiny’s tricky.

Luckily for today’s images, my abstract noun is also a proper noun that answers today’s NaPoWriMo prompt. The Destinies, also known as the Fates in Greek Mythology, are three goddesses who assign the portions and weave the destinies of the lives of both the humans and the gods. Their names are Clotho (The Spinner), Lachesis (The Allotter) and Atropos (The Unturning).

Inspired by these Destinies, I wove thin copper wire into my triangle shape filter and used my strand of purple LEDs with the pastel LEDs in the mirrorworld.

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Today’s challenge is to write a poem about a mythical person or creature doing something unusual.

Poem A Day

Today is the first Two for Tuesday of this year’s challenge. The prompts are:

Write a Make Sense poem, and/or…
Write a Don’t Make Sense poem.

dVerse Poets Pub

Today at dVerse, there’s a repetition prompt which I’m excited to add to today’s creation. Sarah challenges us to use anaphora with a repeating verb from this list:

remember
dream
eat
choose
love
fear
hope
paint
lose

I love how the prompts are coming together today. “I choose” feels like the perfect phrase for the Destinies while doing something unusual.

The Poem

Weaving the Allotted Lengths

Clotho: I choose to reweave the threads.
Let me spin the azure and gold.
Lachesis: I choose the threads cut short I’ve collected.
Let matching the hues be sent to Hades.
Atropos: I choose to leave it as is, and not
Let you neglect our destinies.

Clotho: I choose to match the original texture,
Though some of the strands have worn.
Lachesis: I choose this length never assigned.
Though short and course, give it a chance.
Atropos: I choose not to be as silly as you two wasting time.
Though time we do not control, you know.

Clotho: I choose to replace the rubber backing,
As I do not know the way, who will help?
Lachesis: I choose Atropos to approach the tree
As she is obviously not busy.
Atropos: I choose to ignore you both
As the rubber tree has no use for me.

Clotho: Then I choose a tighter weave and when we
bathe we will see if it holds.
Lachesis: Then I choose a longer, more twisted strand
bathed in waterproof coating.
Atropos: And I choose not to repair this ridiculous bathmat at all. We bathe in the light of falling stars, for Olympus’s sake.

Day Four: Reexamining Comfort

It’s storming today, so I put some comfort on it. Thinking about the definition of comfort as relief in affliction, I used blue dots for prickling sorrows, and contrasting orange as its consolation. I’m glad I had an umbrella handy.

Comfort

When I think of comfort, I think of physical calm, lack of irritation, things like hot showers, warm, soft blankets and thick socks when I’m cold, or a cool breeze and diving in the lake when I’m hot. But when I looked up the definition this morning, the majority of the definitions were about consolation and relief: “relief in affliction; consolation; solace.” The definition of consolation is “The act of alleviating or lessening the grief, sorrow, or disappointment of (or state of being consoled).” When I looked up “solace” I got into a definition loop because it is defined as comfort.

I was planning on playing with the textured clear filter I used for snowballs last fall, but now I’m looking at comfort differently. How will I visualize relief in affliction, and alleviation of sorrow? This is much more challenging than I imagined, and may be a theme for an entire month of study or more.

After meditating on how I found comfort in my grief, I realized I found relief working with my hands. When I was suffering, I focused all my attention on my fabric art and costuming. So for today’s abstraction, I used the hand-shaped filter I created for “altruism” last December. I completely changed my color palette, using the soft light of small plastic globe lights and pastel LEDs. Then I played with the depth of field of the mirrorworld to create the shape and its opposite and the impression of hands joined in work.

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Today’s prompt is to write a poem in the form of a poetry prompt inspired by the poems of Mathias Svalina. I especially liked December Poetry Writing Prompts: Day 1

Poem A Day

Today’s prompt is to write a catch up poem.

A glowing green hand in front of a burgundy circle. — Solace by Maria L. Berg 2022

The Poem

Poetry Catch Up

Shut it off. Shut it all off:
the information overload; the over-excited electrons; the demands of self and others
Go outside and look up, all the way up.
Unhunch, unclench, wriggle until the latch breaks
Catch blossoms on your tongue
Catch dew on your lashes and light in your eyes
Catch bee vibrations and birdsong frequencies
Catch orange blossom and exhaust, dead fish and night jasmine, sweat and cinnamon all rolling on a breeze
Catch the moment in your mitts
Take it inside
Squeeze it, compress it into a poem

Kindness

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Poem A Day

The Poem

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Joy

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Poem A Day

The Poem

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Idea

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Poem A Day

The Poem

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Elaborate

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Poem A Day

The Poem

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Hope

Stream of Consciousness Saturday (#SoCS)

The Poetry Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Poem A Day

The Poem

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Goal

The Prompts

The Poem

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Failure

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Poem A Day

dVerse Poets Pub

The Poem

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Expression

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Poem A Day

The Poem

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Destiny

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Poem A Day

dVerse Poets Pub

The Poem

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Comfort

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo

Poem A Day

The Poem

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