It’s fun to have a mix of specific and abstract words for prompts. When I think of “bells,” I have a specific image in my mind of what bells look like, but what does “Goodwill” look like? I had fun exploring different ideas.
Creating Goodwill by Maria L. Berg 2021See No EvilHear No EvilSpeak No Evil
New Poems
Today I’m going to continue to explore Rest, Sleep, and Hibernation as a poetry prompt for the Changing Focus December project.
The Dream Harvest
I dream of reaping a deep sleep a sleep so deep that I can’t crawl out until morning
to make it deep I heap the blankets on the clean sheets on the queen-sized bed and fall in
in the room of perfect heat for my feet I’ll meet an ease in degrees of appeal
and a treat so sweet to keep sleeping through the stream of scenes that seep and leak through
the sheer veil I’ll seek meals of meaning there in my deep sleep when I’m dreaming
I also grabbed my Z-shaped filter and caught some Zs.
Catching Zs by Maria L. Berg 2021
If you’ve enjoyed 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. While you’re looking, please click the hearts to like the images on the RedBubble site. It will help my work get attention. Thank you.
Lifting Up by Maria L. Berg 2021
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
This morning I finally tied up the other mirror and turned the mirrorworld into a triangle. This created some nice borders to attempt some light icicles.
Fresh cool pillows like fluffy clouds hold my head at odd angles, my neck sloped and kinked I fold the clouds turn and twist them violently Soft flannel plaid pajama bottoms bunch around my knees and heat my groin but leave a bare cold spot at the small of my back as if the top and bottom are magnetically repelled just there I tug and squirm trying to force their union Now the pillow clouds have changed shape and must be wrestled again I think about the computer something to distract me but it is no longer allowed in and it’s cold out there and I unplugged the internet anyway I roll onto my back I can’t sleep this way but a pillow holds my head for a brief truce and glimpses of colors and shapes behind my closed lids give me hope of fantastic dreams, so I roll to my side and rejoin the battle until the cat wants out.
Freezing Mist by Maria L. Berg 2021
Making a Poetry Collection: November PAD Chapbook Challenge
I’ve started working on my chapbook and wanted to share my progress. As with my poem revision process, my creating a collection process is already changing. I had Step 2 as doing the poem reviews, but while doing my read through, I found selection and organization came first. I am really glad that Step 1 was copying the poems into Scrivener, because I am finding that Scrivener is a great tool for this process.
Step 2: Rate the poems as Yes, Maybe, No – In my Scrivener template, I set up three sections. When I copied the poems into Scrivener, I put all of the poems in Section 1. Then as I read through them, the Yes poems stayed in 1, the Maybes went to Section 2, and the Nos went to section 3.
Step 3: Read for themes – In a brainstorming section outside the manuscript, I created a blank sheet for themes and noted the themes that stood out as I read. I noticed that many of my poems had a counterpart or pair which I found exciting. These pairs had kind of a before and after feel.
Step 4: Preliminary order – After discovering my poem pairs, I started moving my yes poems around and found a preliminary order. Moving the poems around so easily was a great aspect of using Scrivener. After I had a preliminary order, I opened the General Meta-Data and assigned labels and status. For my labels I chose: First draft, Revising, and Final. For the status labels, I changed it to form and labeled my poems as free form, rhyming, or specific structure. I may change what I use that for later, but during review it’s an interesting key.
Step 5: Review
Here’s my revised review checklist from my post Revising Poetry-a Demonstration Part Two: The First Redraft. I turned this into a template page in Scrivener and use the split screen, so I can see the poem while I review. I can make my notes for revision in the Notes section under the meta-data.
Identify POV, tense, form, voice
setting, narrative
themes, moods
identify sensory details
identify best lines
mark weak verbs & nouns
words to mind map
mark areas to expand
highlight cliche language
make easy cuts
choose what to edit to (theme, idea)
brainstorm alternate titles
make notes to guide re-write
do mind maps
free-write around best lines, character and narrative
do research
write a narrative poem
I’m making some progress with the review. Listing the sensory details is already pointing me toward some areas to explore. And choosing what to edit to is helping me focus on how I want the poems to work together as a whole. I’m also excited to start expanding the ideas through writing the narrative poems. This part of the process may take a few days.
As the Ice Forms by Maria L. Berg 2021
If you’ve enjoyed 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. While you’re looking, please click the hearts to like the images on the RedBubble site. It will help my work get attention. Thank you.
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Today’s Wednesday Poetry Prompt from Robert Lee Brewer at Writer’s Digest is to write a cut poem. This prompt instantly brought a lot to mind since already today I cut a new bokeh filter of bells.
Trimming Down
The cuts, so many cuts dicing the unwanted and splicing what’s left into a new continuum now to erase and replace memories and beliefs that would contradict the revisionist It must be exhausting work recreating reality in delusional contortion I hear the constant snips the busy sheers cutting cutting at the shape of me
Carol of the Bells by Maria L. Berg 2021Water Bells by Maria L. Berg 2021
The Changing Focus Blogging Challenge
December’s theme is Rest, Sleep, and Hibernation. Today, inspired by my photo prompt “bells,” I turned some vases into water bells and over the next few days plan to record myself playing them with different levels of water. What I recorded today would not be called “soothing” sounds, but I hope with some reverb, maybe changing the speed, etc. I may make some sounds to add to my collection. Plus, they’re really pretty and change in the light through out the day.
Reflective Water Bells by Maria L. Berg 20221
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. When you’re in my store, please click the heart on all the products and images you like. That will help my work get attention and hopefully help people find me. Thank you!
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Today’s Poetics prompt from Merril at the dVerse Poets Pub is “Passions Stamped on Lifeless Things.” I really like this quote from Percy Shelley’s Ozymandias. The challenge is to write a poem about an historical artifact.
I’m reading The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston right now, so I thought I’d focus on the artifacts found during that excursion in Honduras.
When the Future Comes to Plunder
Why do we carve the stone to imbue it with our judgement and put the fault on gods– a power over life, bringer of death Why do we, the grave-robbers, look upon these symbols and not imagine the artist, admiring the vulture and in joy scraping its likeness into stone or in awe of the beauty and the power of the jaguar pounding that emotion into symbol? No. The grave-disturbers see a representation of a shaman spiritually transformed or a half-human deity and a sudden, catastrophic disappearance. When I am at rest don’t lay my art beside For when the future comes to plunder I can only wonder what beliefs they would ascribe to me.
Elf Carolers by Maria L. Berg 2021
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. When you’re in my store, please click the heart on all the products and images you like. That will help my work get attention and hopefully help people find me. Thank you!
The Joy of Caroling by Maria L. Berg 2021
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
I had some other plans, but I like how my new filters turned out, so I went with it.
It’s All About the Hat by Maria L. Berg 2021
New Poem
Morning Dance
The baseboard heater ticks. It has no rhythm. The bathroom fan also dances to chaos, a Mandelbrot of rattles and hums. Tossing care I lose my pattern and pass some time grateful for heat, cold’s defeat in awkward, lurching meter. This morning is a chaos dance without fans. The baseboard heater taps its rhythm.
Blue Elf by Maria L. Berg 2021
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. When you’re in my store, please click the heart on all the products and images you like. That will help my work get attention and hopefully help people find me. Thank you!
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
I knew today’s photo challenge “cheer” was going to be tough. My cold is holding on tight and I spent the night coughing and shivering, but I was determined. So I made no-bake healthy oatmeal cookies to eat like Santa all day, and put on a Christmas record. Just as “Rudolph’s Christmas Party” started to play, I heard sirens. It seemed early, but I looked outside, and it was Santa! The world appeared to agree that I should be filled with Christmas cheer!
Today I found cheer continuing to develop yesterday’s ideas. I brought Christmas to the mirrorworld.
Cheery Frosty by Maria L. Berg 2021
New Poem
Poetic Bloomings has an interesting prompt today. Prompt #363 is “Marley Was Dead.” However, it’s not a morbid prompt. That is the opening of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The prompt is to write a spirit of Christmas poem exploring my personal Christmas past, present, and/or future.
Let’s see if I can get in the spirit.
Christmas Past is Present
I select the blue snow-covered trees open the fold and up pops Santa’s workshop like a setting for figurines and play things I think I’ll make some elves perhaps a polar bear and a talking snowman to act out the song-stories among the reindeer
I start the record and I am transported dancing in the living room by the light of the tree before playing with the decorations clipping and unclipping the painted wood birds as they fly about to visit the other ornaments
Soon the room would host a cardboard sleigh and reindeer, arriving Christmas morning with blow-up conical Santa at the reins somehow getting smaller every year his crumbling, slanting sleigh less full of presents
I hear sirens Can it already be? I fling open the door camera ready and there is Santa in his sleigh The firemen bring him by to wave “hi” a bit early this year.
Christmas Spirit by Maria L. Berg 2021
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. When you’re in my store, please click the heart on all the products and images you like. That will help my work get attention and hopefully help people find me. Thank you!
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
For today’s images, I tried three ideas. First, I created a holly filter with my new filter design that goes over the lens guard. Then I tried grouping my red and green lights on the multi-color strand with twist-ties. Then I put some plastic santas and snowmen on my white lights and made some Holly Jolly lighting as well.
Abstract Holly by Maria L. Berg 2021
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Stream of Consciousness
It’s stream of consciousness Saturday, and with my cold going into my lungs and not letting up, any activity in this mucous-filled brain at all is a feat of pure determination. The prompt for today is “rev.” To use the word rev or a word with rev in it. My first thought was rev your engines, then reverend and reverse. Then, of course, revise: what this blog was supposed to be all about this year, revision. I made a pretty good go of it until I landed back on creation in October. But I’m really enjoying these daily photos and prompts. For so long, writing these posts felt like time taken away from my work, when now, they feel like pure inspiration, part of my work. I would much rather enjoy what I’m doing than stick to the plan. So I’ve revised that plan of a year focused on revision, to push myself to try new things every day in my bokeh filtered photography and share my daily poetry practice. My main goal of completely revising and completing my novels is ongoing in its stuttering way. The experience of completely rewriting a novel is going well. The previous draft only had a few good scenes, and really was a barely fleshed out idea. So the year of revision continues, it just isn’t as fun to put on this blog. Also, I am beginning the revision process of the thirty poems I wrote for the challenge last month, so I guess this is still the year of revision. There’s no getting away from it. And each time I crop, or rotate, and resize these photographs to share with you, that is revision. There you have it. I have not strayed from my intention. It looks like next year will be another year focused on revision until I master, conquer, and find the joy in it.
New Poem
For today’s new poem prompt I browsed my WordPress Reader and found:
Misky posted a lovely poem about blackberries on Plumb-Lines in response to Quickly’s prompt Now / Then / When. The prompt asks to list words and phrases that evoke pleasant thoughts about the past then write their opposites next to them, and use your list to “play with ideas of pleasure and contradiction.” I love this theme and it should work well with taciturn.
That was a fun bit of discovery. Let’s see what that all inspires.
Calf Muscle Exercises
Holiday Mood by Maria L. Berg 2021
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.
Motivation and Reward: I put my second star on my calendar. It’s amazing how motivating a simple sticker can be, but it’s working.
Tools: Last night was even tougher than the first. My cold has progressed to include a cough, so I had to sleep somewhat upright, but after doing a lot of easy sudokus on an old daily calendar, I fell asleep. When I woke up in the middle of the night, I read The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story (associate link) by Douglas Preston for a little while and fell back to sleep.
I started recording calming sounds today. So far I’ve captured: kitty purring, rain, and the kettle boiling (mine is a clear glass kettle that doesn’t whistle).
For today’s images I tried something new. I thought I could just loop my lights in a circle and make bokeh wreaths, but that didn’t work. Then I remembered a metal loop a friend had given me with the idea of framing my fabric glass. I wrapped the lights around the metal loop, and it worked, but I needed serious distance to get the whole wreath in the shot. For some of the pictures, I put the wreath on my hearth and took the pictures through my open door from as far as I could push back into a bush and tree on the other side of the porch. For others, I hung the ring outside on my door and took the shots from the end of my driveway. I’m excited I got the look I was going for. I might try some more of these with different lights.
Rainbow Wreath on the Hearth by Maria L. Berg 2021
New Poem
Wreath in a Breeze by Maria L. Berg 2021
Stupid Cold
My nose is stuffed like a turducken frying My nose is as productive as the elves making toys My nose gushes like Niagara Falls during weeks of rain My nose is a geyser building pressure, about to blow My nose is as sore as calf muscles the day after a marathon My nose is as useless as my laptop without a charger My nose is as frustrating as slow internet My nose is full of itself like a megalomaniac with a podcast My nose is as evil as a troll on social media and stomping on people in Norway and people who prey on the elderly and identity thieves, and thieves in general because it stole my ability to breath and think My nose has turned me into a whiny mouth-breather I know it’s doing its job fighting the germs but it feels like I’m a casualty
Wavy Wreath by Maria L. Berg 2021
If you’ve enjoyed 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.
The Changing Focus Blogging Challenge
December’s theme is Rest, Sleep, and Hibernation. I didn’t get much done yesterday. I have a terrible cold and feel sorry for myself, but this challenge inspired me to clean my room to make it more relaxing for sleep. I also made a “Pleasant Dreams” calendar to mark the days that I don’t sleep with the computer, and I am happy to say, I put my first star on it this morning. It was a really tough night since I can’t breath through my nose, but kitty woke me up, wanting out, just as my dream was turning into a nightmare, so I can happily report, I did not have any nightmares.
Techniques I used last night:
Clean room
Unplugged computer and internet at least an hour before bed
bedtime tea
Write a worry list (I was surprised how well this worked. When I looked at the list of things that worried me about sleep and nightmares, it didn’t seem so bad)
Hot shower
positive imagery ( I propped open a page of my Tiffany glass book with a beautiful stained glass scene where I would easily see it from my bed)
read by bedside lamp (not overhead light)
And kitty cuddles definitely saved the effort.
So though I did not sleep through the night, and got up often, I call that a complete success for night one.
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Today I tried something new. I used clear plastic to create a new filter with some glue and glitter. Using the fisheye lens, my world became a snow globe. Using it as a bokeh filter, I created snowballs with light. Then I tried throwing them.
I. Like a snowball on the right day clings to more snow and grows, these fragments find each other and combine into fresh states of play
II. Plastic-coated self / with impenetrable walls wambles toward the evening / after pushing to exhaustion / again I fight into the correct coil
III. In the jelly shower of imagination where no one will deliver a pizza yet past this loop of secretive neighbors humility returns with the hitchhiker
IV. Being human is a window turned to mirror the mind’s eye light-painting an orange glass globe never in the same place in time / though I see the trees and houses from the other side
November PAD Chapbook Challenge
Today the Next Steps are posted on Writer’s Digest. I have until January 15th to revise and submit the poems I wrote in November. Yesterday, I copied all of my poems into a Scrivener file. Today, I’ll create a template page for reviewing each poem and start looking at the work I did.
free-write around best lines, character and narrative
do research
write a narrative poem
Throwing Snowballs by Maria L. Berg 2021
If you’ve enjoyed 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.
The Changing Focus Blogging Challenge
December’s theme is Rest, Sleep, and Hibernation. After brainstorming a bit last night, I thought I would start by collecting my own soothing sounds. Sounds I came up with so far are: kitty purring, the fire in the fireplace, waves on the lake, a breeze in the trees, bird songs, and rain.
I have a dream diary, which I have attempted to use over the years. I’m hoping as I progress this month, dream imagery will help me come up with some ideas for bokeh filters for the video.
Motivation and Reward: Today will be the first full day that the laptop is not allowed in the bedroom. I’m making a sign for the door to remind myself and a calendar to put stickers on to reward myself.
Tools: I’m going to re-read Teach Yourself to Dream (associate link) by David Fontana, PhD. I downloaded audio books to my mp3 player in case I need sounds to go to sleep.
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
I am enjoying how my photography is progressing. Like October’s daily photos, November’s daily photos built on each other, creating all sorts of happy accidents and new ideas. So I’ve created another calendar of daily one word prompts for December, starting with Lights, of course, because I’m excited to go play with some purple in my palette.
Seeing Purple Lights by Maria L. Berg 2021
As usual, my daily prompts led to a surprise. My camera does not see purple LEDs the way my eyes do. I was planning to combine the purple with other lights, but the challenge of trying to get my camera to see purple kept me busy. I tried every white balance setting, and every paint effect and the camera kept seeing blue.
Yesterday’s poetics prompt at dVerse was to use a line from the ABBA hit Dancing Queen. I chose “Watch that scene.”
In Perspective
Watch that scene unfold through the teary, bleary eyes of a cold, and menthol haze created glazed-butterscotch dream catch that sheen on everything watch that scene unfold the one near the end when everything goes wrong while sipping reheated soup and Throat Coat tea and it is still formulaic still contrived that everyone will turn their back at once that takes time, too much time for this scene and the reversal doesn’t happen, people fade away But as I watch this scene and the warmth flows down my throat, my tea tells me “the Earth laughs in flowers” and I smell them in the steam flowing up my sore nose and I might understand why the formula, so obvious, is used so often, because there will be an end to this suffering, these germs will eventually leave. I see past the teary haze, and burn my tongue.
Purple Lights in the Mirrorworld by Maria L. Berg 2021
November PAD Chapbook Challenge
The next step of last month’s poetry challenge is to select and revise the poems and arrange the collection into a Chapbook manuscript. Like I did with my poetry revision demonstration, I will use this experience to create and revise my process for creating a collection.
Step 1: Organize – Today I copied each of the poems from November’s posts into a Scrivener file. My template has three sections which I can use to move the poems into themes, or styles, or however I choose to organize them. Today, however, I’m not reading through them; I’m only copying them into the project file. That will give them all another day of rest, so I can see them with fresh eyes tomorrow.
The Swirling Purple Lights by Maria L. Berg 2021
If you’ve enjoyed 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.
The Changing Focus Blogging Challenge
December’s theme is Rest, Sleep, and Hibernation. To meet this challenge, I will attempt to document a concerted effort to achieve better sleep. My main issue is that ever since hurricane Katrina, I sleep with my laptop on with some show I’ve already watched a million times playing. I know it’s bad for my sleep, but at first that was the point, it helped stop the nightmares by waking me up throughout the night. I recently had some horrible nightmares with the computer going, so it’s not working and it’s just a bad habit.
I have accumulated many tools, read books, and tried to sleep without the computer, but I keep going back. So for this month’s Changing Focus, I am going to use this month-long project to conquer my sleep issue. Though it will be hard, I think I’ll have to go cold turkey and just not allow the laptop in my bedroom. But I will want something to listen to to fall asleep, so I think I’ll start by listening to an audio book or meditation track and see if that works.
But how do I turn this journey into a multi-media project? That is not clear yet. I’ll do some brainstorming today and hopefully come up with some ideas.
Experience Writing 