MOMENTS
LIQUID TIME
“I don’t think it is possible to contribute to the present moment in any meaningful way while being wholly engulfed by it.” Maria Popova
Z grasps the fringe of Khronos
“Zehara! Nooooooo…”
“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” ~ ~ Albert Einstein
COMMENTS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME AND APPRECIATED.
THANK YOU.
Once
My tongue was set on fire
Molten heat singed my teeth
Roof of the mouth was a blister
Waiting to burst.
But
Vocal cords remains charred
The throat a useless thing
Nostrils spat out flames
Then it reached the brain.
So
The cerebrum was basted
By the runoff of the mind
Thoughts became wasted
As the inferno left no room.
Yet
It never reached my heart
Though it felt twisted and dry
When everything fell crumbling
I refused to just stand by.
Author’s Note:
“Songs of joy and peace” come from Joni Mitchel’s beautiful song, River. I had listened to it only minutes before when I shut off my music app and tuned into that night’s writing group, River River Writer’s Circle. The prompt was “When the weather changes.” The above happened, was shared, and got the suggestion: “Think about expanding this out” (well, “stretching it out”). So, I let it sit, came back to it, and the above is the result.
Thank you, Ms. Mitchel. A sad, but integral song for many. What I wrote is no reflection on her song. The fourth line of the first stanza stayed with me.
The opening stanza from Joni Mitchel’s River is:
It’s coming on Christmas
They’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
EDIT: Boy, am I dense!
RiverRiver Writer’s Circle.
I just realized it. Not planned at all. Doh! Oy! :::palmface:::
It's assault! It's abuse! You molest by your touch You fondle my privates It enhances your lust Keep on going, you pig, It's against my will. Shit for brains, I said NO! Summoned to the office Pushed against a bar A car ride home Some places you control In your sick little mind To feel me up It's your "due!" Hey! But I said NO! Gropefest commences Why don't you hear the NO? Hand over mouth No one hears screams deep within my soul. You think I want this? Ha! Only in your dreams Hey Shit for brains, I said NO! No one believes me Most don't want to hear A groper now but Rape is in the air Justice gets served, on the TV Real life? Why won't they listen to me? I said STOP! I said NO! It's sexual abuse, sexual assault Get off on what you thrust up It's the power that You think you have over me Molestation was when you pawed up and down Keep your hands to yourself Keep you dick in your pants I said NO; I said STOP No No No NO NO NO
NO STOP!
Quote from Host Bev Sykes of sundaystealing.blogspot.com and the blog “Funny the World”.
Welcome to Sunday Stealing.
This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. (Past hosts include: Our first – Judd Corizan, Mr. L, Kwizgiver and Bud) Cheers to all of us thieves!
This week’s questions were originally from: Thought Provoking Questions
1. Do you own your things or do your things own you?
I’d have to say both. There are a lot that’s “When in doubt, throw it out!” and (too many) that are “Mine! Mine! Mine!”
2. Would you rather lose all of your old memories or never be able to make new ones?
Hard one. I live too much in the past, and the negatives surface way too often. New ones: that’s a fear, already, as I get older.
3. How do you deal with someone in a position of power who wants you to fail?
Happened to me way too often; it’s why I prefer working for myself, but I can be a real PITA to myself as well. In the past, keep going on until I can find a way out (job; etc)
4. What do you have that you cannot live without?
Friends and family.
5. When you close your eyes what do you see?
Whatever is running through my mind at the time. Vivid thinker.
6. What sustains you on a daily basis?
Hope. Wavers way too often.
7. What are your top five personal values?
8. Why must you love someone enough to let them go?
It’s a hard thing for me: see above-living in the past. If they really need to leave, I hope it’s to their betterment, in whatever way they wanted.
9. Do you ever celebrate the green lights?
Big time. Biggest thrill is hitting a long patch of green lights while driving. Try 2nd Ave (Manhattan) in the middle of the night. I’ve made it from 91st street down to 12th without a red light.
10. What personal prisons have you built out of fears?
Having to push myself to leave the house.
11. What one thing have you not done that you really want to do?
Get my work published.
12. Why are you, you?
Heart and mind. I do not think linearly, mainly non-conformist, question authority, am a bit rebellious, and I embrace my inner child and my inner darkness. Pretty sure it all comes from seeing others and going “that’s not how I want to live.”
13. If you haven’t achieved it yet what do you have to lose?
I assume this goes with #11. Procrastination gets in the way; fear of never achieving it. I see the problem there.
14. What three words would you use to describe the last three months of your life?
Hectic. Painful. Lonely.
15. Is it ever right to do the wrong thing? Is it ever wrong to do the right thing?
Both depend on who/what sets the judgment of “wrong thing/right thing.” One example: people were fined (arrested?) for cleaning national parks during the “shut down.” I think that’s a no brainer: clean up the garbage.
16. How would you describe ‘freedom’ in your own words?
Nothing left to lose. Yeah, I know.
17. What is the most important thing you could do right now in your personal life?
A mutual love, caring, sharing, enjoyable, and respectful (of each other) relationship. Oh, wrong answer. Right now, stop procrastinating.
18. If you could ask one person, alive or dead, only one question, who would you ask and what would you ask?
My dad. “What drove you to survive through the things you experienced?”
19. If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich?
The process of sharing fun learning experiences without needing an end product.
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So, second time in two weeks, I have a blogging award. Never heard of this one before, but it was created by Dear Kitty: Some Blog in 2014.
I was nominated by someone new (to me) who I discovered, again, through the 2018 AtoZ Blog Challenge. The blogger behind A Creative PTSD Gal is busy busy busy. She writes from the heart, and it has been a pleasure to discover her. Two blogs, a whole big family, life…and she does it. Not everyone can. Since she writes a bit more personal items, I don’t think it’s in my wheelhouse to go deeper into her reasons. Check out the above link and I think you’ll be pleased you did. Thank you for the nomination. I hope I can remain neato keeno.
Here come the rules:
The Rules:
PTSD Gal’s Questions for MOI:
Bloggers I nominate are:
Seven Real Neat Questions:
It was unbelievable to him, to be able to pass over the border, to be waved through with such freedom. Just a few months had passed, and the changes…a month ago, he just expected every next second would be his last. Now, this!
He had gained some of his weight and strength back, again something he thought would never happen. Proving his worth by being able to speak so many languages, he had worked hard, helping others like himself who had been so lost.
The border far behind him now, he stopped at the crest of the hill.
Home.
Home!
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For the April 2014 A to Z Blog Challenge, you will find a story a day (except Sundays) from me. A to Z: Staring with A on Tuesday, April 1st and ending with Z on Wednesday, April 30th.
Signs is my theme for this year’s outing. Road signs, building signs, warning signs…Signs alert us to a multitude of messages. My plan is to use the alphabet through Signage, but not to stick to what the sign was originally intended to convey. So, the genre of story writing, and styles, of the posts will vary as my mood and interpretation sees fit. Possibly a poem or two. We’ll see.
I’m also trying something more of a challenge: each post will be a Drabble. A Drabble is 100 Words Exactly.
Hope you enjoy the stories.
Swan Rise Apartments went out like an exploding lamb; it came in like a sleeping lion… but the building, and its inhabitants, did not always remain so. They lived lives that were hungry, playful, sleepy, lusty, fearful, agitated and on the prowl; they reared their young, and did what they needed to survive in this vertical village.
Welcome to… Swan Rise Apartments
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…and so, the story unfolds. 26 interlocking stories set in the world of Swan Rise Apartments, all written for the A to Z Challenge that ran throughout April 2012.
You’ll find links to all the stories below; each one stands alone, but many have roots and connections in other chapters. As a whole, it tells a story of the lives that swirl around apartment building life.
Each Sunday, I’ll re-post these links in case you missed any and for your ease in finding them.
The stories will remain up only for the month of May. As of June 1st, I will be taking all of the stories down from Tale Spinning so I can work on a larger second draft of the work. Some of the earlier pieces need fleshing out, and discoveries I made along the way need their roots dug deeply in the beginnings.
May 30th will be your last chance to read, and comment, on these stories. Hopefully, you’ll eventually hold an expanded version in your hands.
Comments are always welcome no matter when you read the story.
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Pollination in the Parking Lot
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Marc Chagall
His hands played along the surface of the violin, tracing the patterns worn into the wood. Slight depressions, imprintings of someone’s fingering, their palm, chin, sweat. Empty of catgut, Avram, the luthier, caressed and stroked the violin that was given unto his care for restoration. He closed his eyes, held the violin to his nose, and breathed in its history.
The drawing of the horsehair bow that had slid along the strings left intermittent grooves in the wood. They showed where a well loved piece was played, how the violinist drew against the grain of the violin itself. Clumsy or a style, it was all the same to Avram: this was a well loved instrument, that was apparent, and it would become one again.
He noticed the nicks, the dimples in the varnish, the grain of the wood, the stains not readily perceived, but there. There was a very slight crack near the base of the right F-hole, the chinrest needing to be replaced, a refastening of the tailpiece and scroll. Sitting on his wooden stool, Avram kept the violin out of direct sunlight, a strain for his eyes but a blessing for the instrument.
The tuning pegs were worn down, without sheen. Avram could tell that the strings had been replaced, often, their lifespan given to the music: either no longer playing true, losing the desired tone, or snapping in the frenzy of the player. That did not matter to Avram. He would eventually make a new marriage, adding the G first, then the D, followed by the A and E. He would attach them at the base, up the bridge, along the neck and finally connect them all to the pegbox. All would then be tuned, in harmony, restored.
This though, was still a ways to come. All in due time…
Eventually, time for music to be lifted out and carried, vibrating its musical message to others. Time for this violin to find new hands, a new lover, to be held towards and against the player, to communicate and be in tune once again.
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Author’s Note:
I was given a newspaper article by my SO about Violins of Hope, a project of restored violins that had a history of pain: they came from musicians who “experienced” the horrors of the Holocaust. There was a concert in Charlotte, NC in April 2012. The violins are now back in Israel.
This immediately got my writing gears in motion: I have plotted out titles of chapters, an outline, for what I will be working on next. I plan to get a first draft done of all this while it is still “hot” for me; then, in June, I’ll put this aside and start working on the second draft of the Swan Rise stories.
This was just to whet your whistle. I will NOT be posting any of my Violin stories on Tale Spinning after this: I want it to be marketable for an agent/publisher, if worthy. I WILL be looking for readers along the way, to form a small core group, maybe our own writers group, so if you’re interested, please EMAIL me (please don’t post it here: my email can be located on the right sidebar).
As to Tale Spinning: I’ll be dropping some pieces here and there throughout May, as the story comes to me or I find a fun prompt that inspires. Please check out my backlog of past pieces; there is a lot here, and if you’re new, well…then they’ll be new to you as well.
Remember: comments are always welcome.
Tale Spinning 