Getting up every morning.
PROMPT: Habit
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Category Archives: Life
BOOKS: “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes
The Weary Blues by Langston HughesMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Available online — Lehigh University
Langston Hughes was one of the greats of 20th century American poetry, and The Weary Blues was his first collection (1926,) containing some of his most beloved (and anthologized) pieces, including: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “I, too, sing America” [a.k.a. Epilogue; which plays off Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing.”] I’ve always loved how Hughes used the rhythm of repetition and the technique of standing in for the everyman (as he famously did in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” but in other of his poems as well.) He also had a gift for concision.
These sixty-nine poems deal in a wide range of themes including race, travel, love, etc. Music, be it Jazz or Blues, is an ever-present force in Hughes work. In addition to the aforementioned classics, among my favorite pieces from the collection are: “Winter Moon,” “March Moon,” “‘The Night is Beautiful'” [a.k.a. Poem,] “When Sue Wears Red,” “Water Front Streets,” “Long Trip,” “Seascape,” “Suicide’s Note,” “Songs to the Dark,” and “Lament for Dark Peoples.”
I’d highly recommend this collection for poetry readers.
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PROMPT: Anywhere
I could happily live any number of places — e.g. several places in Southeast Asia, the Caucasus (particularly Georgia — though with language concerns,) Taiwan, and South America spring to mind. As long as it’s neither brutally hot / humid most of the time nor Winter more than three months a year (and isn’t pricey,) I can probably learn to love it.
I would point out that if this is a forever and always deal, I’m not in. I don’t want to / plan to live any particular place for the rest of my life.
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PROMPT: Chaos
A little of every kind of stressor is good for us. A human is a system of antifragile systems. Our bones get denser if we load them. Our muscles get stronger when we cause microtears in them. And our minds can cope with a wider variety of experiences when exposed to a wider variety of experiences.
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PROMPT: Love Now
Absurdity.
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Icarus Tree [Senryū]
a dead tree
stands above the living;
it didn’t pace itself.
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PROMPT: Successful
Adjust your definition of success until you’re there. It is, after all, a completely subjective term.
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PROMPT: First Time
Daily writing prompt
What’s a book, movie, or TV show that you wish you could experience again for the first time?
I would not be the same person. It would not be the same book.
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PROMPT: Grown
Horizontally.
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PROMPT: 20-year-old
Daily writing prompt
What is something you wish you could tell your 20-year-old self?
I’d probably tell myself to take a different undergrad major (I did 4 years of military before college, so it would still be relevant.) That said, I don’t know that my 20-year-old self would listen to me any more than he did to anyone else.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 