PROMPT: Positive Change

Daily writing prompt
Describe one positive change you have made in your life.

I’ve embraced the Crazy. #embracethecrazy

Squirrel Grandiosity [Lyric Poem]

Photograph of an Eastern Gray Squirrel taken in North Georgia.
A squirrel sat straight upon a dirt mound.
It could survey the woods for miles around.
Holding an acorn like a microphone,
The rodent seemed to be deep in the Zone.
Perhaps comedy stylings or folk songs?
But it just chewed its nut loud and long.

PROMPT: Challenges

Daily writing prompt
What are your biggest challenges?

Finding the humor in the collapse of Western civilization.

PROMPT: Pet Peeves

Daily writing prompt
Name your top three pet peeves.

In no particular order: farting on the escalator, eating rotisserie chicken during the opera, and the shouting of “fire” during a flash flood.

Tree Flight [Free Verse]

On a hike,
I come upon a tree
Raised up on its roots,
As if in mid-stride --
A long, cartoonish stride
That stretches across the trail.

But the tree doesn't stir --
No matter how quietly I wait;
No matter how long I wait.

Oh, how I wish to catch the tree
As it flees.

Falling [Lyric Poem]

The days of riches are now behind.
I think I thought I lost my mind --
It fell into a deep, dark hole
When my severed head took a roll
Up to the lip, over the edge,
Falling -- I took a solemn pledge:
That my skull drop so straight and true
To hit bottom and rip straight through
To the other side.

“Once there came a man” by Stephen Crane [w/ Audio]

Once there came a man
Who said:
"Range me all men of the world in rows."
And instantly
There was a terrific clamor among the
people
Against being ranged in rows.
There was a loud quarrel, world-wide.
It endured for ages;
And blood was shed
By those who would not stand in rows,
And by those who pined to stand in rows.
Eventually, the man went to death, weeping.
And those who stayed in the bloody scuffle
Knew not the great simplicity.

Mirror World [Free Verse]

Right-side-up or upside-down?

The flooded country becomes
a mirror world.

I spin in float
on a coracle boat --
mind fuzzy,
orientation unclear.

I feel I could flip,
and not take a dip,
but be righted
upside-down,
in the world beyond.

Ambiguous Living [Lyric Poem]

I am not now.
I was not then.
That makes it sound
Like I've never been.

But I once was
And will be again,
But who can know
Just where & when?

PROMPT: Negative Feelings

Daily writing prompt
What strategies do you use to cope with negative feelings?

A practice of feeling gratitude is extremely beneficial in that regard. Simple meditative practices help one become aware of thoughts and feelings more quickly, before they are fed through rumination, making the down-spiral cycle easier to disrupt.

And, sometimes, I rant. This usually veers quickly into comedic territory and I’m reminded of the ridiculousness of taking human life too seriously, given the absurdity of being primates in pants who love shiny things. (It would be unimaginable if human life weren’t absurd.)