Today, I finally got to another process I’ve had in mind. I used “crack” to come up with some Yes or No questions for my Oracle, and wrote the questions with oil pastels on butcher paper. It was sunny, so I thought I’d try my concept outside before putting it in the mirror world.
A Cat With All the Answers by Maria L. Berg 2021
November PAD Chapbook Challenge
Laughter Is the Answer by Maria L. Berg 2021
Today’s prompt is to write an ekphrastic poem. I chose to write an ekphrastic about today’s photographs.
I Opened the Door a Crack
Begging the universe to give me answers, we found a balance exceedingly vague. When I asked, Will I crack? I was answered, box which was no, but upon condition I could finagle, and when I asked, Is it too late? laughter was the answer which was yes, and with derision. As the ether laughed its mocking laugh at me, I crawled into my box, but left the lid open a crack and laughed back secure in secret wisdom.
Will I Crack? Box by Maria L. Berg 2021
*A little bit of fun serendipity occurred after I posted this. I went to MasterClass and took a look at the new class with Cornel West on Philosophy. The course discusses “What It Means to Be Human,” and Mr. West says we are “cracked vessels.” I thought that was a fun tie-in with my work today.
November 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 wanted to build on yesterday’s fun discovery. The eye photo from yesterday makes me think of an oracle. Then I thought of a magic 8 ball. I used to have one and really liked it.I found an online 8 Ball, but it just wasn’t the same. The physical holding and shaking of the ball, watching the words rise to the surface, how could I capture the feeling and experience? I thought of the joy of Erica Baum’s photographs of clever found text in the world. I have a triangle bokeh filter.
Then I looked at the theme for today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday which is “cam.” When asked to think of a word with cam in it, of course I think of camera, then camera, then camera, so I put cam in a search and got “campfire.” I haven’t had a fire yet this yea,r and I had a small dry log and some kindling in the fireplace from a photoshoot I did in October, so I decided to light that up as my background. Not exactly a campfire, but though it is not supposed to rain again until tonight, the world outside is way too wet, so the fact that I have one small dry log is in fact “lucky.”
With fire as my backdrop for my oracle, I needed to figure out how I wanted to gather my questions and my answers. How would my oracle answer yes or no questions? I wanted to find the text on things around me, but how to get the words in my triangle, in front of the fire?
The classic 8 ball had 20 answers: 10 affirmative, 5 maybe, and 5 no. I started taking pictures of text I thought would make good answers. Then I saw my word jars on the mantel and thought, what could be more found-text oracle than randomly pulling nouns from a jar to represent yes, no, or maybe? So I pulled out 20 nouns and got to work.
I must be the luckiest person: I went to the oracle and the oracle said Only Yes or No questions so I asked: Will I meet my soulmate? They answered: nest Which is exactly what I needed to hear It makes sense that I should make a home, a comfortable place, for love to be drawn to Then I asked: Have I found my purpose? They answered: smoke which confirms that life is fleeting and I need to follow my heart, so I asked the question burning inside: Will I be remembered? They said: flavor And I knew I would leave good taste in the world.
I must be the unluckiest person: I went to the oracle who said ask only Yes or No questions so I asked: Will I ever find love? and they answered: sneeze which only confirms that I sneeze funny and it puts people off I asked: Do I have a purpose? They said: poison Which is what I’ve been dreading; I’ll have to quit my job before that go-getter poisons them against me. He probably has already, so I asked: Will anyone notice if I am gone? They answered: key Exactly as I expected. No one will miss me unless I don’t turn in my keys.
Yes or No Answers by Maria L. Berg
NaNoWriMo
Last night I did 20 minute word sprints with my ML (municipal liaison) and the part of my story that had me a little stuck opened up in a new direction. It really is amazing to me how just knowing that someone else is out there doing timed writings “with” you does actually make a difference. Strange human mental gymnastics, but whatever works. I’ll be trying the zoom write-in today and see if that works as well.
Fire Oracle by Maria L. Berg 2021
November Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Experience Writing 