PROMPT: Productive

Daily writing prompt
When do you feel most productive?

Uhh… when I’m being most productive, which is to say when I’m producing something in an efficient manner. (Not sure if it’s a trick question.) Obviously, if I’ve felt the need to check my phone, social media, etc. it’s not a highly productive time because I’m not engaged with what I’m producing. Also, I have lots of time when I’m intensely engaged with an activity, but I’m not producing anything, and so that isn’t being productive per se — though it may be highly beneficial and essential to well-being. (Although, my dictionary / thesaurus have definitions of “productive” that equate it with “constructive” which changes everything. Though it also equates “intelligence,” “erudition,” and “wisdom,” which is a highly suspect understanding of wisdom.)

DAILY PHOTO: Chapel on the Green

“Autumn Within” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [w/ Audio]

It is autumn; not without,
But within me is the cold.
Youth and spring are all about;
It is I that have grown old.

Birds are darting through the air,
Singing, building without rest;
Life is stirring everywhere,
Save within my lonely breast.

There is silence: the dead leaves
Fall and rustle and are still;
Beats no flail upon the sheaves
Comes no murmur from the mill.

PROMPT: Emojis

Daily writing prompt
What are your favorite emojis?

As might be expected of a device that only exists to facilitate lazy, I don’t have impassioned feelings about any emoji, but I do use the “thumbs up” more than all others combined, so I guess it would be fair to say that’s it. “Thumbs up” is very versatile, and if one is being so lazy as to use an emoji for communication, one might as well go all out an add ambiguity to the mix. “Thumbs up” just says, I have some kind of feeling between indifferent and ecstatic about what you’ve just said.

Stand Strong [Haiku]

overflown banks:
trees stand strong
against the flow.

DAILY PHOTO: Hualien Martyrs’ Shrine

Spring Snow [Haiku]

late Spring:
a dust of snow remains
on green mountains.

PROMPT: Discuss

Daily writing prompt
What topics do you like to discuss?

Virtually anything but myself. Philosophy, literature, science, economics, public policy, meditation, martial arts, health / well-being, travel, nature, culture, food, the end of the world as we know it, etc.

I do have some blind spots where I could not speak intelligently (e.g. large swathes of history, sports, and pop culture.)

“Soft as the massacre of Suns” (1127) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

Soft as the massacre of Suns
By Evening's Sabres slain

PROMPT: Risk

Daily writing prompt
When is the last time you took a risk? How did it work out?

I had lunch at a hole-in-the-wall joint with a truly astounding population of flies yesterday.

The meal was delectable.