The Little Things

My sister describes waking up on Monday morning like this: "So I rolled over and opened my eyes and saw the sun was shining. And I thought... 'crap.'"

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Except Monday was okay. Tuesday... well, then I can relate. (Actually, my first thought today was more like "what sun?" because I woke to "Here Comes the Sun" on my clock radio and the day was overcast and dreary... but I digress.)

There are those mornings where I have to have a nice long conversation with myself to get out of bed. (Actually both amusing and disturbing come to think of it.) Today after my morning pep talk and routine, I got in the car to start the morning drive. There's still just a little chill in the morning air in April, a veil of fog and clouded windows that I normally love. But today... today it just felt oppressive, gloomy like the overcast sky. A prevailing sense of restlessness that's hard to describe until you've felt it.

But don't worry... this isn't an emo angst story after all. Because all through the day, I kept picking up on little things that made me grateful, or just happy. Things like...

1. The gas station I pass in Plymouth with a flashing electronic sign that says "Gizzards! Livers! Clean Restrooms!" Which is kind of disgusting, but hey... gotta love the randomness of Middle-of-Nowhere Florida highways.
2. Discovering new music by Sandra McCracken. Working on a review of her new album In Feast or Fallow, and these new old hymns do my soul good. It's loveliness.
3. Fresh coffee at work. It tastes so much better on the other side of Easter.
4. The simple fact that I have work, and that it's something I love that means more than a paycheck. So grateful.
5. Seeing and giggling at the following nerdy bumper stickers on the way home:
   5a) Library Punk
   5b) Powered by Infinite Improbability Drive (same car as 5a. I want to be this girl's friend.)
   5c) WARNING: Invisible Dragon in Back Seat

I could go on. I really could. Funny how focusing on these little things makes life so much more doable, more meaningful, even when it doesn't look it at 6:30 in the morning. I feel better already.


What makes you happy and grateful when skies are gray and motivates you to stop hitting the snooze?

Poem a Day: Day 15

Yesterday's Prompt: Deadline

Deadlines punctuate our days
A string of
Commas
In a run on life sentence.

People to meet,
Appointments to keep,
Marked off in
Convenient
Hour chunks of
Routine

I run them to
The razor edge,
To the wire.
Daring red circled
Calendar squares
To plot my destiny.

I have a love/hate relationship with the notion of deadlines.

An excerpt from what's shaping up to be a realllllly long poem. I normally go for brevity, but there are so many places to go. I kind of dig the metaphor/play on words in the first four lines. The last bit... meh. :)

This song may have been an inspiration. Because I couldn't get the line "Last week saw me living for nothing but deadlines" out of my head.

Awakening (Album Version) - Sw...

Well, that was fun.

Halfway through the Poetry Month challenge, and let's be honest... while I'm still mostly writing a poem a day (only missed a day or two, but I made up for them), the stuff I've come up with the past week or so is little unsharable scraps. Like, so rough and awkward I don't want them exposed to the light of day. Funny how protective we can be over our words...

But I AM writing. And that's the point, right? That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. :P

In the interest of sharing some writings I actually spent time on... here are a couple of features I wrote for JFH that were posted in the past week or so.

Interview with Meredith Andrews: I talked to Meredith on March 2, release day for her new album As Long as it Takes. Here's the transcript... on new music, God's pursuit, and the virtues of Hamburger Helper. :)

Needtobreathe Won't Turn Back Tour Review: I heart this band, and their show at House of Blues was fantastic. On the awesomeness that is a Needtobreathe show.

That's the shameless self promotion for the week. No more plugging on my end. I've been neglecting the blog lately (other than poetry posts) so, dear whoever is reading this.... how're you? :)

Poem a Day: Day 8 & 9

Today's prompt is horror. Eek! I have an idea I'm poking at that may or may not involve zombies and olde English balladry. =) But for now, here are the results of the past two days.

Day 8: Tool

Matches

The newborn flame,
A circle of warmth,
Strains to throw its light
Somewhere, anywhere
Beyond cupped hands that
Gave it life with
A strike and a spark.

Just a bit of an idea. You would think writing a poem using a tool for the title would be easy, but not so much! I think I jotted down four or five, and though I hated them all initially, this one held up the best a couple days later.

Day 9: Self-portrait

By Any Other Name

My grandfather's name was a flower
A thorny token of love.
It was passed to my father
To my mother
To my sister and me.

I’ve come to find it
Appropriate
To our condition
Romantic, beautiful,
But so very human.

Petals and thorns
Fragile and sharp
Strong as love itself.

I like being a Rose. :)

Poem a Day: Slacker Edition!

So I finally wrote my ekphrastic poem for yesterday's prompt... we had two pictures to choose from. I went with Pocahontas by Annie Leibovitz. (And if you're thinking, "Dude, that looks Disney-ish!" then... you're right)

Day 6: Ekphrastic + Pocahontas

Historically Accurate

They never claimed you were historically accurate
Older with a long, lithe frame,
Talking tree mentor,
And raccoon sidekick.

And you never married John Smith anyway.
That whole romance probably never happened.
But it made for a good story
And a catchy soundtrack that 12-year-old me
Could sing along with over and over,
Dreaming of colors in the wind.

So forgive me if in my mind
The brave little princess became
A Disney princess
Or for feeling just a tiny bit
Of righteous anger
Seeing Jessica Biel
Pretend to be you.

Hey, I loved Pocahontas. My childhood is ruined. :)

(Have you seen these pictures by the way? They're over a year old now, but I just now found out about them. Celebrities as Disney characters. Nice photography, but the concept freaks my inner old school Disney fan out just a little.)

Day 7: "Until _____" Been trying all day. I got nothing. Except this.

Until I Feel Inspired...

Don't really feel like
Writing poetry today.
Here's a video.

Lazy? Slacker? Yes. But a haiku (albeit a stupid one) is a poem too. I need a day off. :) And come on... if you have love for Dr. Horrible and NES games like I do, it will make you smile.

Resuming my regular real writing tomorrow. At least I'm caught up on the blog part of it now!

Free Music Win

This album has owned my car's CD player since my drive home last night. It's not too often that you find music so beautiful and haunting that you have to turn it up and just do nothing else but listen. (as it should be if you're driving. because, y'know, it's not safe to do stuff other than listen while driving. but I digress)

Best of all, until tomorrow (Thursday April 8), Storyboards by Sleeping at Last is free on Noisetrade. Can't beat that.

Download. Listen. Love it too. I think I'm on the fourth spin and find something new every time I listen. My only regret is that I didn't discover Sleeping at Last sooner. This would have totally been on my best of 2009 list.

Poem a Day: Catch Up!

Haven't been posting my poems... mostly because I catch myself scribbling my daily them right before bed. I promise, I haven't missed a day. I just have to sit on them a day or two to decide if they're utter crap. :)

So here's a couple that turned out kind of okay. They still need revision, but at least they're going somewhere. Early drafts to prove I'm writing, open for constructive (friendly) critique.

Day 4: History. I've tried over and over to capture the essence of the Easter Sunrise Service I attended at Sea World. This one is a work in progress for sure. Next draft, I'm shooting for more vivid detail, but here's the general concept.

The sun melts the fog into
Faded orange and pale blues
On the horizon.
Something about poetry
And music
And hope
Brought us here.

A hallelujah
Screams above
Giving voice to the silent force of wonder
That tightens my throat so
I can only listen
No longer able to sing.

We are one in this history
Two souls woven
Into a story far too great
To see this close.

One’s shouts of joy
Is another’s silent tears.
Each from the same place

Day 5: TMI. What's the ultimate TMI? Twitter of course!

Flow

In bursts I watch the world.
Tiny scraps of thought
Shot into fiberoptic threads
Transmission to the eyes
Of those who care to look.

Friends and acquaintances
And a stranger or two(hundred)
Tick through a timeline.
Refresh, compulsive
So I don’t miss a beat.
It’s a matter of convenience.
In tune, first to know
Of road trips and broken arms and earthquakes.

But is it too much to ask
For a cup of coffee
And a little more than 140 characters?

More daily prompts this month at Poetic Asides. Today's challenge is to write an ekphrastic poem (which is, like, the coolest-sounding literary term ever). Basically, it's a poem inspired by another piece of art, and he gives two pictures to write from.

Uhhh... neither really inspires me so far. Maybe I'll just look to the posters on my wall instead...

Poem a Day: Day 1 & 2

I found out today that this Poem a Day Challenge I'm taking on is also called NaPoWriMo in some circles. Poet bloggers have been doing this a while, it seems.

Hey now. NaPo it is. Makes me feel better about skipping Script Frenzy. :)

I'm normally squeamish about sharing my poetry... it's weird, but of all forms of creative writing, it feels the most raw and personal to me. But hey, perhaps sharing, even when they are a little rough, is worth something. Here's what I wrote yesterday and today using the prompts provided at Poetic Asides. Interesting how the prompts really did lend themselves to the final days of Holy Week.

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Day 1 Prompt: Lonely. Quite appropriate for Maundy Thursday. (Note: Blogger ate my formatting. Pretend lines 3 and 4 are indented.)

Gethsemane

Even God Himself knows
When prayer feels more like
Weeping help mes into the night
Whispering thank yous into the night
When the wind in the leaves is the only reply
Wind that once bowed
To the same voice

Day 2 Prompt: Water. A haiku for Good Friday.

Finished

In Your final breath
Cracked sky, torn veil, blood and tears
A mourning world cleansed

Anyone else out there trying to write a poem a day for National Poetry Month?

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Also, one of my new favorite blogs, Mama:Monk (not your average mom blog) has been posting artwork and some truly beautiful poems by Mary Karr for Holy Week. Go read them.

Today is Good Friday, and the dawn is coming. Looking forward to Easter more than ever this year.