solo donkey: so lonely that it might be human with us.
Lonely Donkey [Senryū]
1
PROMPT: Chocolate
Tastes like chocolate, but with the caloric density of broccoli.
[And because someone might insist on trying to make such a monstrosity in reality, I must add a third criterion: should NOT result in me shitting my pants. (There are no free rides in life.)]
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Safety Geese [Senryū]
foraging geese, with heads down, honk to prevent collision.
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Cold Moon [Haiku]
my breath mingles with a bright white moon, on a cold winter night.
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PROMPT: Childhood Book
I remember an adaptation or condensed version of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. The castaway theme probably resonated with my introverted nature.
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Fluid [Free Verse]
bulging undulation of water, the rolling topsides of wave bumps catch a blazing white shimmer every square meter is in unending flux, shifting & rolling, growing & shrinking the wake of a ferry causes wave to roll into wave at odd angles, sending the ripples into a cross-hatched madness of bobbing water i watch for hours and the same sea never repeats
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DAILY PHOTO: Bhubaneswar Temples Near Lingaraj Mandir
BOOK REVIEW: Mindfulness in Wild Swimming by Tessa Wardley
Mindfulness in Wild Swimming: Meditations on Nature & Flow by Tessa WardleyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
Release Date: June 13, 2023
As the title suggests, this is a book about combining mindfulness and swimming in natural bodies of water. It’s part of a large series of “Mindfulness and …” books, and this particular volume is a re-release of a title that came out a couple years back.
While the book does provide an overview the basic methods and considerations for both mindfulness meditation and wild swimming, it’s largely a peptalk or enticement to take up wild swimming as a means to improve awareness (as well as to bolster physical health and mental well-being.) That said, some of this peptalk is artfully, almost poetically, written, and the book is a pleasure to read.
The book discusses solo swims versus those in a group, and it even explores using onshore experiences to bolster mindfulness — e.g. using the sensory experience of the water as a focal point for practicing awareness. The around- (v. in-) water discussions are probably in part because the book uses seasons as a secondary mode of organization, and long and leisurely winter swims in lakes and rivers aren’t an option for people in many parts of the world.
I picked up some interesting food-for-thought in the book, and — as I say — it made for enjoyable reading.
View all my reviews
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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.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 