Tag Archives: Perception

PROMPT: Local Custom

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Daily writing prompt
What’s the most interesting local custom you’ve encountered?
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My wife and I once had tea in Nagaland with men who’d been cannibals in their youth, but they weren’t anymore (and — in point of fact — probably didn’t have the teeth for solid food anymore,) so I don’t think that counts.

For the most part, I don’t think of customs as being more or less interesting, just — sometimes — unexpected. I’ve noticed that most people see cultural customs as the strange behaviors other peoples do, while their own culture’s customs are largely invisible to them (i.e. “That’s just how things are done; it really couldn’t be done any other way.”) So, I guess it’s been most interesting, having returned from living abroad for more than a dozen years, noticing just how many strange and baffling things Americans do.

This Is Not My World [Free Verse]

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Photograph taken on Siquijor Island of the Philippines at sunset as low clouds reflected on the Bohol Sea. 
Every once in a while,
    you see a sight 
    that makes you say,

"This cannot be 
    the world I know!"

PROMPT: Super Power

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What super power do you wish you had and why?
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Invisibility. I like to see, but not to be seen.

Perspective [Lyric Poem]

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Photograph of a monkey looking sideways through the bars at a temple in Lopburi, Thailand.
Perhaps, you cannot change your jail,
   And you can't choose the lumps and scars --
 No matter how you scream or wail --
   But you pick your view through the bars.

PROMPT: Judge of Character

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Are you a good judge of character?
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While I might flatter myself that I can recognize an asshole when I see one, the truth is that stealth assholes are real.

PROMPT: Passionate

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What are you passionate about?
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I’m passionate about being passionate about anything worth doing (and half-ass everything else.)

River Vision [Free Verse]

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in a flat, wide river:
   something juts up
   from the water --
   far in the distance

for an instant,
   i startle:
   seeing it as an
   extended arm...

like that Stevie Smith
   poem, but i discover
   it's neither waving,
   nor drowning, but 
   merely protruding...

a dead limb
   stuck in the river,
   drag & pull balanced,
   waiting to be 
   carried away.

“The earth has many keys” (1775) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

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The earth has many keys,
   Where melody is not
 Is the unknown peninsula.
   Beauty is nature's fact.

But witness for her land,
   And witness for her sea,
 The cricket is her utmost
   Of elegy to me.

Night Swimming [Free Verse]

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Trudging into lapping waves
   On a dim and dusky eve.

Chest deep
   One pops up, pressing one's chest 
      Onto the water,
   And swims toward a distant 
      Silhouetted rock outcrop.

But it doesn't stay silhouetted.

Soon, one is heading into
      A grand, black abyss,
   There is no shape in this world,
   Only the feel of limbs -- pulling & kicking.

Sounds grow ever more feeble --
      And ever more rare --
   Until the smell of seawater becomes
      A bright and vivid sensory experience --
         Layered & textured.

Rolling onto one's back, one can see
   Patches of sparkling stars
      In the cloud gaps. 

One lays upon the waves --
   Feeling as though one conforms to them 
       As one floats like a piece of driftwood --
   And sees the twinkle of distant stars,
      In a world too vast to understand.

Wen Fu 1: “Poetic Experience” [文賦一] by Lu Ji [陆机] [w/ Audio]

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The poet stands in the Center
   And stares into deep mysteries.
 He's nourished by reading Classics
   And tombs of the men in Histories.
 He sighs as four seasons pass by
   And thinks upon ten-thousand things.
 He's saddened by Autumn's leaf drop
   And gladdened by the tender Spring.
 He feels Winter's frost on his heart,
   Though his mind may be up in a cloud.
 And when he sings of ancestors'
   Heroic deeds, he belts the song aloud.
 He combs through great literature
   Just as he roams the forest wild,
 But in search of a "natural" --
   Shown in elegant phrase and style.
 And it's just such thoughts and feelings
   That set my brush and mind wheeling.

The Original Chinese:

佇中區以玄覽，頤情志於典墳。
遵四時以嘆逝，瞻萬物而思紛。
悲落葉於勁秋，喜柔條於芳春，
心懍懍以懷霜，志眇眇而臨雲。
詠世德之駿烈，誦先人之清芬。
游文章之林府，嘉麗藻之彬彬。
慨投篇而援筆，聊宣之乎斯文。