The Poetics prompt at dVerse today is play. I was inspired to play with motion in the mirror world with my new filters which was fun. And for my poem I played with the answer ball I created over a year ago.
The answer ball is a ball of photographs of specific nouns. The idea is to ask it a yes or no question, throw the ball, and interpret the noun that comes up as either yes or no.
Playing with the Answer Ball in a Thunderstorm
I feel the plush wine carpet between my toes, run my fingers along the couch while watching the thunder roll in over the lake and ask, Is this real? I roll the ball which bounces along the carpet and lands on scissors. Scissors slice through doubt, cut through the crap, and carve out a truth. But is there truth?, I wonder as I toss my oracle down the hall. It wobbles then stops on afternoon. So the morning is a deceit, and evening is a lie, but the slightly slanted sun overhead, casting a shadow on the grass has my trust, but can I trust? I ask my oracle as it rolls across my shadow, Are you lying? It lands on poison. Every lie a bit of hemlock, a death cap stealing meaning from interpretation, clouding doubt over perception, leaving so many questions unanswered.
During my break, Experience Writing reached an exciting milestone. Over a thousand people have chosen to experience writing with me. Thank you. I’m so glad you are here. Please let me know how I can bring value to the time you spend here.
I’ve made some small changes to Experience Writing, including adding a publications page where you can find links to my stories and poems that have been published, and are upcoming.
My break lasted a little longer than anticipated, but it was just what I needed. After looking at January journal entries from previous years, I noticed that I had the same goals and ideas I’ve had every year, and though I make a little progress every year, I appear to get derailed and distracted from my main goal which is finishing and publishing my novels. So this year will be different!
I spent the last three weeks evaluating where I get derailed and making small changes in my mind-set, environment, and behavior that are already showing results! I’m so excited to share what’s working, but I also want to continue the things I enjoy about blogging so . . .
It is quiet. The trees must not threaten when naked, for there is no whine of chainsaws, even though it is not raining. Winter is when I forget the battle of man and nature while I watch the birds, and the lake is only a mirror for the mountain when it brushes back its cloud toupee.
Robins in the yard peck, then stand at attention while seagulls gather
Winter Robins by Maria L. Berg 2022
The Year of Finishing
Though I really enjoyed the daily photography and poetry posts I did last fall, I didn’t reach my main goal which was, and has been, to finish my novels. I’m not willing to face another January with the same exact goals, so I have to make some real changes. I hope you will join me for this year’s exciting writing experience of finding the grit and drive to follow-through to the finish.
The first step that was very important for me, was to look back through my journals and notebooks and critically look for where I get derailed. Lucky for me, I write dated morning pages, and have for many years, so I read from January first where I would be writing about all the great goals I had with all my hope and enthusiasm and then read until it fell apart. What did I find? Cramps, erratic sleep, and the next new distraction.
I readily found three areas I could work on: Better sleep, hormonal imbalance, and priorities. I have a wonderful local library system that lets me check out twenty-five e-books at a time, so once I had defined the areas where I want to make change, I filled up on every book I could find. As I finished one, I found another, and I have many on hold, that will trickle in as I learn. I will be adding a resources page to Experience Writing with links to the best books, websites, and other resources that I am using and finding valuable. If you have similar issues to mine, or are interested where I started, these are the three books I would start with:
In the FLO: Unlock Your Hormonal Advantage and Revolutionize Your Life by Alisa Vitti: I wish I had found this book a long time ago. I was diagnosed with endometriosis as a teenager. The doctor delayed the laparoscopy until after his vacation as if my pain was nothing, and then after burning the external tissue off said the only treatment was the pill and my mother refused. As an adult, when I did try the pill, I ended up having my period twice a month and couldn’t afford it anyway. Because of shame and bad doctors, I have ignored my hormonal health (and possible condition) and suffered my whole life. Now, I am taking the small step of color-coding a calendar with the possible dates of my cycle so I can explore how my hormonal changes affect my productivity. And the best part is the book talks about every aspect of respect for your cycle like diet, exercise, mind-set, etc.
Soon after I found the areas I wanted to work on, I stumbled across The Best Year of Your Life Summit, which was a free series of videos put together as a ten day online Summit. A majority of the presentations were about meditation and mindfulness. It was fun for me to watch Sharon Salzberg’s presentation because a friend gave me her meditation CDs a very long time ago and I enjoyed them. It also reminded me that I had Madhu Bazaz Wangu’s Meditations for Mindful Writers , which has been a great anchor habit to create my daily writing habit. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
If you would like to join me on my journey to finishing my novels, and I hope you will, the first step is reflection. You may have another goal, it can be anything, that you haven’t been able to finish because it overwhelms; because you don’t feel good enough; because even though you love it, you can’t seem to finish. Please join me.
The first step is to evaluate why. Why the goal is important to you. Really dig deep and be specific and honest with yourself. Then, look at why you aren’t finishing: define your fears real and imagined, define your time limits, your self-perception. All of it. Why is this goal not happening so far? Then go back to specifically defining why you want it, really want it.
I’ll talk more about what I discovered exploring my whys and some useful resources in my next post.
If you’re curious and want to look back over what I created every day for 100 days, you can click on October 2021 in the column on the right under Archives, and hit “older posts” at the bottom of each page until you get to October 1st when this posting streak started.
In the gray in the office warming in the office chair in the house that rejected its drainpipe tossed it to the porch In the expectation of a possible visit for repair In the cleaner, but still messy interior with the vacuum out and waiting in the fifth hour since waking, still hazy drinking coffee and chomping on a candy cane In the morning pages in the artist sketchbook in the middle of the desk I let the words flow in the stream of consciousness I hope to wade in all day
New Poem
For today’s new poem prompt I browsed my WordPress Reader and found:
If, after a year of temerity, one finds oneself in disparity and wishing for a clean slate
wait, and think if erasure is truly the only answer before taking such a drastic step
all those hard-earned failures failed better to face again and the neural trauma it will take to clear every foolish and rash deed from your pate
might be worth this heap of embarrassment in the end
Kitty Yells 100! by Maria L. Berg 2022
And we have arrived! Here we are at the end of the journey: 100 days of photographs and poetry. It has been fun, and I have explored so many new ideas, techniques, and forms. I hope you have enjoyed my triumphs and failures through this writing experience. I’m going to attempt a week (or two) off, then come back with some new experiences for 2022.
If you’ve enjoy the photographs I’ve been taking, I’ve added some to my RedBubble store and I’m excited about the new products. The abstract bokeh really lends itself to product design. So fun. If you get a chance to take a look, please press the hearts on the images you like. It will help my work get noticed. Thank you.
This is it, the penultimate post of my daily photos and poetry. It’s fun that I will reach day 100 on a Stream of Consciousness Saturday.
Yesterday, I got a rainbow of both chisel tip and thin Sharpies for putting words on the world, so I thought I would continue my found poetry project with some blackout poetry. I’ve seen some blackout poems that don’t only black out the words but make pretty designs over them, and I have wanted to give it a try.
Childhood Quest by Maria L. Berg 2022
Childhood Quest
Did you ever quest for a hundred other objects of value, clamored brilliancy extravagant, wonderful, and mirth-provoking mindful of the foam of perilous seas through these enchanted windows the dreaming hedged about with dangers at the end? Childhood has this: no power to prevail against its simplicity and unconsciousness of evil
While looking through and collecting some lovely examples of blackout poetry on Pinterest, I discovered the work of Tom Phillips. His altered book A Humument is a large volume of blackout poetry. I highly recommend giving it a look.
Another Quest by Maria L. Berg 2022
Another Quest
Go smear thyself Plunge boldly to the surface attempt the bridge Again
Yesterday, while looking at New Pages and planning submissions, I happened upon a call for found poetry from Heron Tree. The call is to create found poetry from works published before 1927. I hopped up and grabbed my copy of More Fairy Stories Every Child Should Know: Magic Casements edited by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith and published in 1907. I found this lovely treasure in an antique store a long time ago and have not spent enough time with it. I was inspired by this call for submissions to dive into the book and interact with it in new ways.
I did a little research, and it turns out that Kate and Nora were sisters. Kate is best known as the author of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, but she also was an educator that started many kindergartens in and around San Francisco. I tried to find out more about my book and the series it was a part of “What Every Child Should Know Library,” but the only thing I came up with was a Project Gutenberg digital copy of one of the other books in the series, Tales of Wonder Every Child Should Know.
Beautiful Title Page by Maria L. Berg 2022
After reading some of the past issues of Heron Tree, I realized that there is an area of found poetry I haven’t tried: fitting to form. I enjoy trying poetry forms each year during NaPoWriMo and OctPoWriMo, and the form challenges from dVerse Poets Pub, but I have never tried a form with cut-ups or collage poems.
I have photocopied the preface of the book and a few of the stories to get started on my quest for found poetry. Along with blackouts, cut-ups and collages, I’m going to try fitting my found words and phrases into some of my favorite forms.
A Parent’s Worried Mind
Three unmarried were too many. Over with according to the forest. And be careful. Soon they recognized anything, that feast.
A father threatened had spoken. Three unmarried were too many. Ordered his son, the Hedgehog, be together and he would cleave to
business brought sharp spines enjoying themselves then three drops exactly three unmarried were too many making straight seven years only
to longer endure parents would choose one question, so they thought. They parents thought hedgehog and hedgehog. Three unmarried were too many.Truth on the Rain by Maria L. Berg 2022 (because I wanted some extra truth in the world today)
That was time consuming, but fun. I started trying some Cinquains, but liked the repeated line of the Quatern. I found the repeating line amusing.
From the Outside to the Center by Maria L. Berg 2022
Today I thought I would have some fun and combine my photography and poetry for Of Maria Antonia’s 2022 Weekly Photo Challenge prompt “On the Shelf.” I rearranged my bookshelves to create poems from the book titles.
Here is how I read the first bookshelf poem:
From the Outside to the Center
The outsider in the garden of blue roses below the golden house is nowhere wild, or the watcher in the woods lying in wait I hear the owl call my name and say, “The heart is a lonely hunter. Teach yourself to dream while on your journey to the center of the earth.” After 20,000 dreams, does the center hold?
Roads to the City of the Beasts by Maria L. Berg 2022
Roads to the City of the Beasts
Stained glass back roads, Gaia star mandalas of cognitive rehabilitation pass the hollow where the people of paper are story-telling. It’s easy just looking at great cathedrals along the road to the city of the beasts.
Zesty Kitty by Maria L. Berg 2022
That was fun. Unlike book spine poems I’ve done in the past, both of those feel like starts to longer poems, or works that may become strong poems through revision. And to go along with my title “poetic bookshelves,” the poetry books I’m reading and enjoying right now are (amazon associate links):
And some days are about comfort like furry cuddles and pizza and foreheads full of purrs that leave the big questions unpondered or wrestled and wrangled by other minds while I wrestle warm blankets and purloin pets not striving for more
What a Difference a Day Makes by Maria L. Berg 2022
As you can see, the snow is gone. I know I said I wasn’t going to publish all my word pictures here, but I wanted to show the result without the snow, and then I did some playing indoors.
Playing Indoors by Maria L. Berg 2022
New Poem
The dVerse Poets Pub is open after a two week vacation and today Lisa invites us to write a “celebration” haibun. I haven’t written a haibun in a while, so I think I’ll give it a try.
Celebrating Release from a Beautiful Imprisonment
I saw large, white flakes fall during my white-knuckle drive home through thick rain and sporadic drivers with speeds from infrared to ultraviolet.
Ten days it snowed since we opened presents, and ate Mother’s delicious strawberry cake, everyone generous and grateful. I remained sustained.
Overnight snowmelt frees me from joyous ice jail I return with treats
I’m sitting at my desk, looking at these pictures, singing “This is freakin’ fun, this is freakin’ fun.” Though many of this morning’s experiments didn’t work (the filter didn’t work with my other lenses, so I couldn’t put “WONDER” on the mountain), I’m still so excited about my ability to put words in my world. I love to put wonder in the world and it is also one of Of Maria Antonia’s 2022 Weekly Photo Challenge prompts. It was also fun to discover that the color of the ink is captured, so that can add more possibilities. I’ve decided, as a little side project, I’m going to put my favorite words on my world, one a day all year. I won’t post them here, but maybe at the end of the year, I’ll make a book of them or something.
A revolving door is at first, fun, exhilarating pushing the heavy bar running in circles watching sidewalk then lobby park then escalator man walking dog woman with briefcase through the glass
Now I’m stuck and want out to reach my destination but I’ve built up speed and inertia keeps a body in motion
I want new doors perhaps heavy oak with worlds of secrets behind them I want keys to locked doors big, ornate, heavy keys that are kept in locked chests that need little keys to unlock them because the process is the adventure and unlocking those doors opens awe and wonder that won’t come around again
Wonderful Snow by Maria L. Berg 2022
I haven’t heard from any of you yet about what you would like to experience this year on Experience Writing, so I thought I would try a poll. Thank you in advance for sharing your answers.
Today, in response to Of Maria Antonia’s 2022 Weekly Photo Challenge prompt “A New Year,” I tried something I’ve been thinking about. Using the same clear plastic that I used for my “snowglobes,” I created a filter with written words and put them in the world. This opens up so many possibilities, an exciting discovery to start the year.
Snow Writing by Maria L. Berg 2022
Stream of Consciousness
It’s stream of consciousness Saturday. The prompt for today is “resolve.” I am resolved to have a day of stream of consciousness. Let those thoughts flow unfettered. When I looked up resolve, I was surprised to find it’s almost a janus word. It has the definition I expected: to come to a definite or earnest decision, but it also means to break up or disintegrate. It also has the musical meaning to progress from dissonance to consonance which could work well as a triple meaning in a poem. If my song ends resolved, is it determined to act, dissolved and broken, or just not dissonant? It can also mean to clear away or dispel (doubts, fears, etc.), so in that way it is a janus because if you resolve an issue, you can come to a decision about it or clear it away and dispel it.
New Poem
For today’s new poem prompt I browsed my WordPress Reader and found:
We have said goodnight but light’s fingertips grip the horizon the triumphs and horrors dissolve and for a moment peacefulness smells like melting orange dreamsicles and the chill of brain-freeze does not hurt but excites almost every note I breathe is a harbinger of resolve
A Bright & Shiny New Year by Maria L. Berg 2022
Dreaming of a Happy New Year by Maria L. Berg 2022
If you’ve enjoy the photographs I’ve been taking, I’ve added some to my RedBubble store and I’m excited about the new products. The abstract bokeh really lends itself to product design. So fun. If you get a chance to take a look, please press the hearts on the images you like. It will help my work get noticed. Thank you.
Experience Writing 