Harry Savage.
PROMPT: Name Change
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Category Archives: Blogs
The Cough [Free Verse]
Remember the days
when you dreaded
a scratch at the back
of your throat --
harbinger of a cough
that you thought
would get you rushed off
to quarantine.
Or, at least, get a footlong swab
shoved through your nasal cavity.
Best case, it would put all eyes upon you,
as the public wondered whether
you were their Typhoid Mary --
(Except Mary was asymptomatic,
and - clearly - you were not.)
We all learned that the one cough
that one can never suppress
is the one that you desperately
wish to.
That cough won't be silenced.
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PROMPT: Three Books
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
This poetry collection teaches that most challenging of human skills: how to be insanely confident that you can do anything without being a jerk about it. (Also, how to see beauty beyond the societal consensus of what’s beautiful.)
Zhuangzi by ZhuangziThe virtues of a carefree, spontaneous, minimalist, and down-to-earth approach to living explained through tiny stories.
The Tragedies of William Shakespeare by William ShakespeareA master class in things that can turn a life into a tragedy.
Titus Andronicus: Live by the sword = tragedy (An eye for an eye, and everyone dies.)
Romeo & Juliet: Grudges (+ Lust) = tragedy
Julius Caesar: handing your adversary the mic (/ the fickleness of crowds) = tragedy
Hamlet: indecisiveness = tragedy (i.e. On or off the crazy-bus.)
Othello: jealousy = tragedy
Macbeth: excessive ambition = tragedy
King Lear: needing gratuitous signs of affection = tragedy
Timon of Athens: expectations of reciprocity = tragedy
Anthony & Cleopatra: mixing one’s love and work lives = tragedy
Coriolanus: a crotchety old warrior in peace time = tragedy
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PROMPT: Brings Joy
Describe one simple thing you do that brings joy to your life.
Feel gratitude, daily.
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DAILY PHOTO: A Bangalore Bungalow
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PROMPT: Friend
What quality do you value most in a friend?
Thoughtful, & conversationally fluent, on a variety of topics.
Must not play the bagpipes.
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PROMPT: Religion
Do you practice religion?
Not even a little.
I thought of starting my own, but having seen what people have done with ones founded by genuinely wise and good individuals (e.g. Buddha & Jesus,) I became preemptively disheartened about the prospects for one started by the likes of me.
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PROMPT: Internet
Do you remember life before the internet?
Yes. Travel was dicier because you just showed up in a random town and took whatever room you could find. Sometimes going door to door, making inquiries.
But people occasionally paid attention to what they were doing and to other people in their immediate vicinity, so that was kind of nice.
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Light & Color [Haiku]
light makes greens greener,
and clouds glow brightly; its lack
makes the blues bluer
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PROMPT: Having It All
What does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable?
Being healthy of mind, body, and in one’s closest interpersonal relationship(s.)
Yes. It’s absolutely attainable.
I subscribe to the thinking of Epicurus — i.e. “Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.” And Socrates — i.e. “The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”
