Late night drive. No blogging! Luckily, I wasn’t the one driving. (Poetic license in drawing.)
Posted tagged ‘elephants’
Late Night Drive
February 16, 2012Over Herd on the Hudson Line
November 2, 2011
Amazing sights outside the train window. Sorry for the blurs–train moving, me half asleep.
Mea Culpa. Blown Sestina. (Feels Bad But Could Be Worse.) (No Casualties)
September 28, 2011
In the early years of this millenium, I used to console myself when I made a mistake with the thought that I hadn’t invaded Iraq. (The idea being that if even supposedly “expert” teams of ex-think-tank leaders can make extremely problematic and terribly consequential decisions, I should cut my self-acknowledged dim wits some slack.)
It feels flippant to use such a consolation in the case of a poetic mistake, that is, the omission of a line in a poetic form. I could perhaps look for solace in less bloody, and perhaps more current, comparisons, such as “Hey! I didn’t invest in credit default swaps.” Or, how about, “I didn’t push Greek debt.”)
A plain old admission of “I blew it” makes a lot more sense.
So here it is–I blew it. My “sestina” posted yesterday is missing a line in the third stanza. This stanza only has five lines rather than the requisite six; the missing repeated word is “air.”
My only excuse is I wrote the poem in such extended scribbles (actually on a big index card while walking) that I scribbled over my little reminders related to the ordering of the end words. (I had posted them in pencil in the margin of my index cards.)
Of course, the poem is salvageable (if such a thing even matters). I can re-work the third stanza. I am also pretty sure that the additional line will make the poem better. My sense is that traditional forms became traditional because they have a certain ring–a kind of innate rightness, charisma.
So far, unfortunately, I haven’t had the time or the strength of mind to make the changes. (Embarrassment takes a certain hold, as in, that elephant up there is blushing.)
My apologies to all who complimented me on the good use of the form!
More Yankee Grit And More Tea
August 25, 2011
My favorite baseball team, the New York Yankees, once again gave a lesson in perseverance today, coming from a score of 1-7 (behind) in the 4th inning against Oakland to a final victory of 22-9, with a record breaking 3 grand slams. This, on a day in which the game was delayed for approximately 90 minutes because of rain.
I ponder this example of “sticktuitiveness” over my sixth or seventh cup of strong tea, hoping to get something done this damp evening, or to, at least, go to the gym. Caffeine is useful, but doesn’t quite seem to substitute for a good eye, apt swing, strong follow-through, stamina….
Blocked by Writer’s Block? Indecision Block?
August 21, 2011
I am facing a real dilemma as a would-be writer these days. I am almost (truly this time) finished with a comic teen mystery novel called NOSE DIVE. It is a silly but fun book whose final proofs should be sent to me shortly. (Hurrah.)
So, now what? I started working last weekend on a novel that I had written bits and pieces of for last year’s Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month.) Approximately 50,000 bits and pieces. Though I ended up last November with a framework that seemed interesting, it was as fragile of the mere vision of a house of cards, meaning that it will require a lot of work from scratch.
In the meantime, I have three or four (maybe even five or six!) pretty close-to-finished old manuscripts. These are each novels, mainly for children or young people, that I thought at one point were done, but then began re-writing repeatedly, and finally, out of frustration with my own questionable decisions during revision, abandoned.
So now here I am, mainly just spinning wheels (the little ones in the cranium). Last weekend, the Nanowrimo novel seemed the most exciting if difficult choice. At my increasingly gloomy age, taking on a new and more serious book felt almost like being faced with a diving board–one of those things that if not attempted now, would be out of reach for the rest of my life.
But intervening weekdays filled with job, housework, and obsessive escapist reading, not to mention a large variety of internet distractions, and a very depressing world newscape–all seemed to snip last weekend’s thread.
Plus there are the ghosts of all those old, once-loved, novels. (My brain feels like it’s on a diving board with them too–that if I don’t address them now, I never will.)
The terrible thing is that the last time my body actually was on a diving board and I did make myself do a spring dive, it was actually sort of problematic. I mean, sure, there was the rush of fear and bravado during the prefatory springy steps, the jump, the upheaval of legs and torso, feet and head, the exhilarating plunge into the surprisingly cold hard water, but then I went so deep so fast, my ears beginning to hurt quite a bit, my stomach too, that I really wondered if it was such a great experience after all.
So, maybe, what I need to do first is look for another metaphor.
Worrisome Sight Outside of Plane Window (Near Atlanta)
August 10, 2011I flew in and out of Atlanta today and yesterday and was somewhat perturbed by the crowding of the space both inside, outside, and above, the Jackson Hartsfield Atlanta Airport. And then there was this strange sight outside my plane window. (Or maybe just in my head.) (I really do recommend watching it full screen, if you’re going to watch it, as the creature was a bit too far for me to get a close view of his/her expression.)
Cartwheel With/By Elephant
August 4, 2011Happy Friday!
(P.S. Hard to see this guy’s face without making big/full screen. Take care; have a lovely weekend.)
Debt Ceiling/Noveling
July 31, 2011
The above is not a political elephant but the logo for my little publishing company called BackStroke Books.
In the midst of the debt ceiling debate, I am finally finally getting my new novel done (the next project of BackStroke Books!) I say new novel–it, like the “resolution” of the debt ceiling debate, is something that has taken far too long to finish.
On the subject of the debt ceiling (how’s that for a segue?): the Left is mad at Obama–for not asserting “leadership,” for not somehow mandating higher taxes on the rich, for agreeing to cuts in social services and entitlements, for agreeing to cuts in government spending during a time of economic crisis. But what I wonder, listening to it all, has the Left expected Obama to do?
The guy (i) doesn’t have the votes to get the deal he might want; and (ii) is already viewed as Trotsky by an alarmingly large part of the population. He’s talked about fairness, obstructionism, the economy, on and on and on. He simply cannot do what a Bill Clinton might have done–mainly, I think, because Clinton was viewed as someone, no matter what he said, with a soft spot for the rich, while Obama, no matter what HE says, is forever suspected of forcing the sharing “Joe the Plumber’s” wealth.
In the meantime, many on the Right have become completely intractable. For some, the attack on the debt seems truly an attack on government in general, the perceived interference of minimum wage laws, food and drug regulation, the separation of church and state, (God forbid) environmental protection….
Writing a young adult comic novel seems kind of trivial in these circumstances. Although there seem to be plenty of non-adults around in politics, the comic part seems to sometimes veer towards tragedy.
And now for the denouement.
Swallowtail Elephant
July 4, 2011
Happy 4th!
What the “Butter Cow” Lady Never Got a Chance to Sculpt
June 28, 2011
I was moved to read that Norma Lyon, a farm mother of nine who came to fame through her life-sized butter sculptures of cows, celebrities, and even apostles, passed away on Sunday at the age of 81. I can’t even DRAW a butter elephant, hard to imagine sculpting one, especially in the heat of an Iowa summer fair. She sounds like a resolute and resourceful lady.
ManicDDaily 
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