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The upside of participating in projects like ReadWritePoem, Three Word Wednesday and other prompt/thought provoking sites and groups is the exposure of others to my work.  Another bigger upside is seeing others works.

The downside, or hard part for me, is leaving comments on the blogs of other poets.  Beyond, "I like this" or "Wow!" I have a hard time writing what I think sometimes.  Or even getting something concrete beyond "I like this" or whatever is going through my head at the moment.

I think some of it is due to the fact that where poetry is concerned, I am a neophyte.  It would be a true statement to say I probably write more of it than I read away from LiveJournal (That means I don't include you on the Mighty FList in that equation).  

So, I struggle.  Mightily...so much so that I have given thought to not playing publicly...but then I wouldn't get to read some great work because I wouldn't always feel like it.  And reading poetry from a variety of sources helps me because I am exposed to so much more....

Anywho, just a few thoughts for a Friday...

Elaine calls me a while ago...to tell me that she has decided we are adopting two kitties.  Cute, small, baby, orange, kittens.

Um.....yeah.

This is a bad idea on so many levels.  Poison Ivy doesn't play well with others, they'd starve because Pollyanna would eat all the food before they got any and five cats is enough to drive me bug shit.  Plus, we rent...

She tells me that she has the adorable little fuzzballs in a cage in her office if I don't believe her.  I don't believe her.

After stopping at Sonic for liquid fortification (Scotch during business hours is frowned on) and go to her office.  There are indeed, two very small, cute, adorable and very orange kittens in a cage in her office.

I still don't believer her.  But I'm getting very nervous...

One of them has what appears to be respiratory issues and a messy, drainy eyeball.  Not a well kitty, in other words.  So, if she was telling me the truth, then they needed to go to the vets office.

Well, somebody in the office let the cat(s) out of the bag and I finally tumbled to the fact that Elaine was pulling my leg.  Which was not a surprise as Elaine can't lie worth two cents.  And pulling this sort of thing off required lying through her teeth.  No way...

But I was worried for a while.  She loves cats....

And even though they aren't coming home with us, they still need to go to the vets.

The Cow Face Seal of Approval today.

And it is also for the rest of you as well.  Why?

Well, I just got an acceptance letter from physiognomy in letters accepting one of the poems I threw up for thoughts on 6/22.  They took the first one, that I did the rewrite on and shared.  I ended up titling it "Automatic Frequency Adjustment"

I cannot begin to tell you all, especially those of you who read and comment regularly, how much I appreciate and geniunely value your time and thoughts that you share with me here.  In large part, it keeps me going.  Having this outlet here is a great comfort.  And a challenge as well.  A challenge to myself to get better, to keep throwing things at the wall, to see what sticks and what doesn't. 

So, to everyone...I bestow the Moo Cow Seal of Approval.

Let's all hop on the Pancake Truck, ride 'round the fountain and a jolly round of huzzahs for everyone!

I share my joy in this with all of you!  :-)

Oh yeah, there was this also....

I have been responsible for breaking many windows in my life.  We lived in a old house with a great basement for kids in Minneapolis.  Big concrete wall with a dinky little window that opened up to a scenic window well.  Meaning, outside of a hint of sunshine, you couldn't see much.  I managed to break the window with a tennis ball.  Dad replaced the glass with plywood.  No more sunlight. No more broken glass.

We had a garage with a basketball goal over it when we moved to Ann Arbor.  Over the years, as the glass got broken, plywood replaced the glass.  For a while, it looked like the door was leering at you what with the patterns of glass and plywood.  Woe to the door to door salesgirl with a low cut blouse...

My parents lived in dire fear that a baseball, football, soccer ball, snow ball or body would come flying through the scenic plate glass window looking out onto the front yard of that same house.  I am pleased to report that they lived in fear for nothing.  It wasn't for a lack of trying, but I somehow managed to not break that window.

After Dad and I moved to WI, I had a problem with forgetting my keys.  I could always tell you where they were inside the house.  Did me no good when I was outside the house, but there ya go.  So, I broke the small window in the front door with a gloved hand, reached through like a crook, and unlocked the door.  In I went. I did this enough times, Dad replaced the glass with plastic.  Cheaper to replace, and harder to break.  I figured it out.  He wasn't impressed.  *shrug*  He got over it.  I hope.

I put my arm through a window and cut it up pretty well.  Still have the scars.  Lost my temper and rather than hit the girl I was mad at, I broke the window.  As I recall, Dad offered to put me in a bunker with no more windows...cheaper that way.

Car windows and me don't get along.  Oh, I can see through them okay, but I tend to break them.  Not the windows so much, but the rolling up and down thingie's.  I've had problems with most cars I've owned.  Eventually, sooner or later (most likely sooner) the windows have come off their track and when they roll down, they roll up funny.  Takes two hands. Not fun at 70 MPH.  Or very safe.  

It's even worse when you start talking about power windows.  Which are great, mind you.  Most of the time.  When they work.  And when they don't, you can have problems.  Like the recent problem I had.

Elaine and I were going to Hannibal and had stopped to take a look at the Mississippi River from one of those 'Scenic Outlook' places by the side of the road.  I saw a neat photo op in the woods.  The sunlight was really dappling them leaves back in there and the contrast of light and dark was something.  Except Elaine pointed out some Poison Oak.  Didn't want any part of that.  Which is where the problem started...

I "had a better idea" which involved rolling down the balky window on the passenger side of the van, taking my picture, rolling back UP the window and moving on down the road.  You can see where this is heading, can't you?

That's right.  Window jumped the track and went "THUNK" as it struck the bottom of the inside of the door.  I couldn't prop it up in the opening because I couldn't get a handle on the window.  It was way down there.  I was also without a screwdriver.  Which meant Elaine couldn't close the window.

I felt terrible.  And like a fool.  And Deja Vu all over again.  And what's funny is Elaine wasn't as bothered as I was.  So, we continued on our way to Hannibal, took in the sights (never straying too far from the car with a hole where a window should have been) and went along to Quincy for lunch.  

You know what happens next, don't you?  I don't really need to tell you that it rained, do I?

The upside of having an iPhone is the weather apps.  The downside of owning an iPhone is the weather apps.  Which told me that there was a whopperjawed storm headed our way.  With a great big hole where a window should be.  *sigh*

We stopped to buy some screwdrivers, and went looking for an overpass to park under.  Naturally, they were all on vacation or something.  Never find a darned overpass when you really need one...so we stopped at a local burger joint.  Just in time to improvise.  Which meant I found a poncho we had bought a few years ago for going to a Packers football game in Green Bay.  It ended up not raining, so the poncho was still all folded up, nice and new and fresh plastic-ee smelling.

Not for long.

Neccissity is a mother...and brother were we in dire need.  We elected to take that poncho, open the door, open the sliding door behind the passenger door and sort of tuck, fold and insert so that the hole where the window should have been was covered up enough to avoid a flood inside the van.  Meanwhile, we went inside to eat and get odd looks from the other patrons.  Except for the one guy who did stop and ask us if we needed any help.

When the worst of the storm passed, we decided to leave.  With the poncho still covering the window, and flapping in the breeze.  Which meant that the metal grommet on one corner was bang-bang-banging away on the sliding door.  Doing who knows how much damage to the paint, body and my nerves.   Elaine remained very sanguine about the whole thing.

Most of the rain was gone, so we stopped and removed the poncho from the window.  Elaine used it more as a blanket from there to home.  With sporadic dribbles of rain and such, we made it home relatively unscathed.  We returned the poncho to the hole where the window should be and went inside.

At one point, I apologized to Elaine for ruining the day by mucking about with the balky window.  Her response?  "It wasn't ruined.  Just because we had to think and use our imaginations a little to solve a problem doesn't mean the day was ruined.  It was a good day."

No wonder I love that woman.

And as a final thought?  When I hugged her later, her hair smelled like sheets that had been hanging on the line to dry all afternoon.  That, my friends, is one the greatest smells ever...

Ever since the demise of Pravda and Grit, I've had a hard time finding a news source I can trust.

We have had this question, or a close relative of it, asked recently.

With that in mind...my first LJ entry was about how I imagined all manner of....

Based on the feedback I got from my shorty-short story that I ended up titling "Breakfast on Saturday" that I wrote from a prompt provided at The One-Minute Writer, I entered the story in a Flash Fiction Contest.

They announced 40 winners out of 280 entries.  My story wasn't one of them.  I did a smidge of editing, but not much.  I wasn't surprised, but I am a little disappointed.  Not because the story wasn't "good enough" but because I am human and disappointment is a human feeling.

Part of me wonders how I could have written the story better, or what I could have done differently with it.  I am not so attached to most of what I write that I won't make changes to improve it...

As an aside, it was a 2-step process.  Members of the forum voted and on a 1 to 5 scale, I got 56 votes, for an average of 2.55.  Objectively, that's probably about right.  Personally, "Ouch, Dammit!  That's harsh!"

Anyhow, back to the drawing board.  I've not lifted a pencil to attempt to draw in a few weeks.   ;-)

If you have any thoughts, I'd sure love to hear them.

Please!

In which I get my OverWrought on...


Cracked Lens

Contemplating you
Your visage I consider
To view you as you
Consider yourself
is my goal

This task, I cannot
Accomplish for where
I see glory and radiance
You, only tatters and
the bizarre.

A shame, that...

----

From the photo prompt at ReadWritePoem