This phrase, which was discovered on this post at The Noisy Plume.
What do I think it means? Not choosing the same things. Breaking patterns. Seeing what can change.
It can all change.
Month: September 2015
“Everyone is talented at a certain age.”
This is the quote I always think of if I wonder why I don’t write poems anymore. But it turns out I’ll write just about anything when money is on the line: A few months ago I entered an arts contest sponsored by FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake and ended up writing a poem instead of an essay. And I ended up as a finalist, which means I get to go to the main event Friday to read the thing out loud and see if I won.
Join me! I’ll be wearing a hat and trying not to freak out about “young girl poetry.”
It’s Coming
Our early spring means that we’re getting the first fall colors now–I think they’ll peak by the end of September, versus early October. So get yourselves up into the mountains!
(Taken in Little Cottonwood Canyon, from the Red Pine trail.)
Friday Unrelated Information
1. Growing up in the 80s, I remember Charmkins and Rainbow Brite and Rose Petal Place–and Lisa Frank school supplies, which were a must have for fourth grade, what with their rainbows and cute animals. Twenty-five years later, I now love the tumblr “Nihilisa Frank,” what with its rainbows and cute animals and NIHILISM:
2. If you want to read a long piece about the history of gin, feminism, Victorian society, and modern lady distillers, this is the piece for you: “Travels in Gin and Gender,” from The Toast.
Literary Gifs
This has been making the rounds, but the subtle gif animation on the covers of books is really kinda mesmerizing:
They’re by Javier Jensen and you can see more here.
Wednesday Poem
School Prayer
In the name of the daybreak
and the eyelids of morning
and the wayfaring moon
and the night when it departs,
I swear I will not dishonor
my soul with hatred,
but offer myself humbly
as a guardian of nature,
as a healer of misery,
as a messenger of wonder,
as an architect of peace.
In the name of the sun and its mirrors
and the day that embraces it
and the cloud veils drawn over it
and the uttermost night
and the male and the female
and the plants bursting with seed
and the crowning seasons
of the firefly and the apple,
I will honor all life
—wherever and in whatever form
it may dwell—on Earth my home,
and in the mansions of the stars.
(All joking aside, “healer of misery” is pretty powerful. Who wouldn’t want to be that?)
Hammocking
Doc brought me a Kammok camping hammock last week (because he gives awesome gifts) and so we took it out on the deck and up into Millcreek over the weekend. Expect many more “view from the hammock” shots in my future.
Labor Day Links
1. While it’s overshadowed by sales and barbecues, don’t forget that Labor Day stands for the labor movement in the US and that without it we wouldn’t have weekends or eight hour days or child labor laws.
2. Here in Utah, there’s a special Labor Day concert in honor of the centennial death of Joe Hill, IWW organizer and songwriter.
3. And the local paper put together an extensive interactive microsite about Joe Hill, including really cool recordings of his songs made at sites in Salt Lake City relevant to Hill and performed by local artists:
So give a thought to the labor movement–past and present–and have a good weekend.
Nostalgia
Somehow the topic of childhood toys came up over the weekend and I ended up telling Doc ALL ABOUT Charmkins. Which meant that I had to find pictures. Which made me want to go get my old Charmkins from my parents (who keep everything). Which got me thinking about other childhood toys like Rose Petal Place and Rainbow Brite. Which sent me to YouTube. Where I learned that Marie Osmond was the voice of Rose Petal.
Which is about as 80s as you can get, I think.
PS, Rainbow Brite episodes are on YouTube, too.
On Writing
