Monday, July 21, 2008
String Quartet
It is a mess at first
The bow strikes and glides across a single string and back again
The note wobbles for a moment
Then settles to a steady call
Joined then by the rocking and striated rhythms
Of another set of strings
And another
Then another
The tatters of sound assemble
Like clouds and squalls
Of a sea storm
Then silence before the storm
Slowly comes the rain
The thunder
The wind
Singing softly its message
We are awash in a sea
Of harmonies and melodies
Here it is useless to navigate
This storm will take us where it wills
Surrender is always
The best option
When accosted
By beauty
-Theo
NOTE: The local Eastern Music Festival brought four young people to play before a group I attended last week. I was inspired to write this piece after their tuning and playing.
Posted by: Theophany at 9:08 PM
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It is a mess at first
The bow strikes and glides across a single string and back again
The note wobbles for a moment
Then settles to a steady call
Joined then by the rocking and striated rhythms
Of another set of strings
And another
Then another
The tatters of sound assemble
Like clouds and squalls
Of a sea storm
Then silence before the storm
Slowly comes the rain
The thunder
The wind
Singing softly its message
We are awash in a sea
Of harmonies and melodies
Here it is useless to navigate
This storm will take us where it wills
Surrender is always
The best option
When accosted
By beauty
-Theo
NOTE: The local Eastern Music Festival brought four young people to play before a group I attended last week. I was inspired to write this piece after their tuning and playing.
Posted by: Theophany at 9:08 PM
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Monday, June 30, 2008
Writing Work
A friend of mine has recently helped me get motivated to begin a writing routine. I have a story (maybe a book?) that I started several years ago. I have set a time to write for 30 minutes each day.
It is strange to me how difficult it is to do the work of writing. I love creating the story and the task of putting it to words isn’t that difficult, but something stands in the way of spontaneously writing.
When I first began this work, it was self compelling. I had to make myself stop and do something else. Somewhere along the way, the internal motivation waned and I found myself choosing to do other things.
I believe I am about a good tale and it smacks of a specific genre’ and has a bit of originality. It is worth telling. It is a tale that is alive within me.
So, tell me dear reader, why is it such work to write? What is your take on the passion of creativity turning to the labor of necessity?
Posted by: Theophany at 9:01 PM
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A friend of mine has recently helped me get motivated to begin a writing routine. I have a story (maybe a book?) that I started several years ago. I have set a time to write for 30 minutes each day.
It is strange to me how difficult it is to do the work of writing. I love creating the story and the task of putting it to words isn’t that difficult, but something stands in the way of spontaneously writing.
When I first began this work, it was self compelling. I had to make myself stop and do something else. Somewhere along the way, the internal motivation waned and I found myself choosing to do other things.
I believe I am about a good tale and it smacks of a specific genre’ and has a bit of originality. It is worth telling. It is a tale that is alive within me.
So, tell me dear reader, why is it such work to write? What is your take on the passion of creativity turning to the labor of necessity?
Posted by: Theophany at 9:01 PM
|
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Never Quit
If you spent the last few years of your life trying to achieve a success, and you had fail not once or twice, but 49 times, would you keep trying?
I'm glad she didn't. Congrats!
Posted by: Theophany at 9:28 PM
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If you spent the last few years of your life trying to achieve a success, and you had fail not once or twice, but 49 times, would you keep trying?
I'm glad she didn't. Congrats!
Labels: adventures, Curiosity
Posted by: Theophany at 9:28 PM
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Thursday, April 03, 2008
Life Complaint #497
Leaving the gym this morning, I saw a 30 something woman park a large SUV in the front line handicapped space. She flipped a handicapped sign onto her mirror and literally jogged into the gym. Does this bother anyone other than me?
Your thoughts?
Posted by: Theophany at 1:11 PM
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Leaving the gym this morning, I saw a 30 something woman park a large SUV in the front line handicapped space. She flipped a handicapped sign onto her mirror and literally jogged into the gym. Does this bother anyone other than me?
Your thoughts?
Posted by: Theophany at 1:11 PM
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Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Red House Talking
heat scared twisted tin
metal remains of the shelter of generations
once marking the boundary between security and sky
seasons' harsh torments of ice and wind
once shielding mother and child and keeping
home hearths warmth within
sentinel timbers stand charred
remnants of hard taught lessons
essential knowings of word and truth
those shadows of learning that stand undaunting
proclaiming our way through life's course
holding us to right of way
paneless windows black and lost
tell of now absent eyes peering outward
watching for familiar faces and tracing memories
in winter vapor smudged glass and then speak
of curtains drawn tightly muffling the magic
giggles of life long love and randy youth.
now the boundaries of roof and wall
yield openly, freeing lives long bound here
prolific gaps grasp not even nature's breeze
but, to have it dance delight
fully resting
on my mind, heart and dream
then wafting on, free.
NOTE: I wrote this after visiting Levering Orchard in 2005.
Posted by: Theophany at 9:55 PM
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heat scared twisted tin
metal remains of the shelter of generations
once marking the boundary between security and sky
seasons' harsh torments of ice and wind
once shielding mother and child and keeping
home hearths warmth within
sentinel timbers stand charred
remnants of hard taught lessons
essential knowings of word and truth
those shadows of learning that stand undaunting
proclaiming our way through life's course
holding us to right of way
paneless windows black and lost
tell of now absent eyes peering outward
watching for familiar faces and tracing memories
in winter vapor smudged glass and then speak
of curtains drawn tightly muffling the magic
giggles of life long love and randy youth.
now the boundaries of roof and wall
yield openly, freeing lives long bound here
prolific gaps grasp not even nature's breeze
but, to have it dance delight
fully resting
on my mind, heart and dream
then wafting on, free.
NOTE: I wrote this after visiting Levering Orchard in 2005.
Posted by: Theophany at 9:55 PM
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Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Fresh from Reality
I just found this via a contact at work. Strengthsfinder.com is a test that rates your natural tendencies from a list of 34 talents/skill sets. You can purchase the book and it includes an online code to access the test and get your results. The concept is based on the belief that we will reach success by knowing and capitalizing on our strengths rather than trying to become good at something at which we are innately inept.
The test gives you a list of your top five strengths and a report detailing the strength and offering suggested actions to move into that strength.
My top five are:
Empathy - People who are especially talented in the Empathy theme can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others' lives or others' situations.
Competition - People who are especially talented in the Competition theme measure their progress against the performance of others. They strive to win first place and revel in contests.
Futuristic - People who are especially talented in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.
Communication - People who are especially talented in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.
Ideation - People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.
The report includes several pages of definitions and action suggestions. I’m off to discover more about me… It is all about me, after all.
Posted by: Theophany at 8:38 PM
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I just found this via a contact at work. Strengthsfinder.com is a test that rates your natural tendencies from a list of 34 talents/skill sets. You can purchase the book and it includes an online code to access the test and get your results. The concept is based on the belief that we will reach success by knowing and capitalizing on our strengths rather than trying to become good at something at which we are innately inept.
The test gives you a list of your top five strengths and a report detailing the strength and offering suggested actions to move into that strength.
My top five are:
Empathy - People who are especially talented in the Empathy theme can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others' lives or others' situations.
Competition - People who are especially talented in the Competition theme measure their progress against the performance of others. They strive to win first place and revel in contests.
Futuristic - People who are especially talented in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.
Communication - People who are especially talented in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.
Ideation - People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.
The report includes several pages of definitions and action suggestions. I’m off to discover more about me… It is all about me, after all.
Labels: adventures, Curiosity, words
Posted by: Theophany at 8:38 PM
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Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Talons, Fist and Teeth
I close my eyes. The breath gently flitters in and then out. I am there.
My meadow beneath me, again, welcomes me home. I raise my fist to the sky and he comes. I need not even look upward for I feel the familiar tearing of my flesh as he settles, talons grasping into my fist. The pain screams within and I welcome the greeting of my ancient friend. The blood streams briefly and stops as talon and flesh merge. I heal.
She strolls to my side, her weight leaning against my thigh. I lower my free hand and find her fur, thick and hot upon her neck. Kneeling, I wrap my arm around her and lower my face into hers, breathing deep upon her myriad of smells: scents of death, decay and fresh blood. I so love her essential primitiveness.
Now we are one, us three. I miss them when I cannot imagine.
Posted by: Theophany at 7:32 PM
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I close my eyes. The breath gently flitters in and then out. I am there.
My meadow beneath me, again, welcomes me home. I raise my fist to the sky and he comes. I need not even look upward for I feel the familiar tearing of my flesh as he settles, talons grasping into my fist. The pain screams within and I welcome the greeting of my ancient friend. The blood streams briefly and stops as talon and flesh merge. I heal.
She strolls to my side, her weight leaning against my thigh. I lower my free hand and find her fur, thick and hot upon her neck. Kneeling, I wrap my arm around her and lower my face into hers, breathing deep upon her myriad of smells: scents of death, decay and fresh blood. I so love her essential primitiveness.
Now we are one, us three. I miss them when I cannot imagine.
Posted by: Theophany at 7:32 PM
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Wednesday, May 23, 2007
As Sent to Me
Every year, English teachers from across the USA can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year's winners.
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at
4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.
18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
20. The plan was simple , like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
Posted by: Theophany at 10:03 PM
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Every year, English teachers from across the USA can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year's winners.
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at
4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.
18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
20. The plan was simple , like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
Labels: Curiosity
Posted by: Theophany at 10:03 PM
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