Here are a few things I've heard recently out my window:
-$1,200 bucks a month? Damn Californians!
-It really isn't my fault.
-Do we really wanna live here?
-I used to do that shit.
And now I shall attempt to incorporate these seemingly random overheard snipits into a very short-short story/paradelle variation. Why? First of all, why not? Second of all, because it keeps the brain young and fresh. And c) because I'm a hopeless word geek and I like it that way. Oh, and Michael5000 suggested it, although that was before I was o'er taken by the paradelle.
Listening Out: A Paradelle
He didn’t want to stop, but she insisted.
He didn’t want to stop, but she insisted.
She gasped, “$1,200 bucks a month?” “Damn Californians,” he complained.
She gasped, “$1,200 bucks a month?” “Damn Californians,” he complained.
Californians insisted she didn’t want to stop, but he gasped.
“Damn,” she complained, “He bucks $1,200 a month?”
Considering their options, they discussed. “Do we really wanna live here?”
Considering their options, they discussed. “Do we really wanna live here?”
Looking around, he declared, “I used to do that shit.” She said, “It really isn’t my fault.”
Looking around, he declared, “I used to do that shit.” She said, “It really isn’t my fault.”
“He really used my shit,” she declared, looking around. “Really, considering it…do I, we wanna do that here?”
They discussed their options. Said fault isn’t to live.
They declared Californians want $1,200, gasped!
But he really isn’t looking to do it.
Really, considering that he bucks around,
We discussed, insisted she live here a month.
She didn’t wanna fault their options.
She said, “Do I complained? He used to stop my damn shit.”
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
The Paradelle: A Fantastic Hoax!
Turns out that poet Billy Collins fabricated the history and origins of the paradelle in order to give credence to this new form he created as a parody of other fixed forms. Nevertheless, it has taken on a life of its own and an anthology of paradelles has even been compiled, for which I am truly grateful. I completely enjoyed writing my first paradelle and expect that I shall make many more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradelle
http://www.redhen.org/bookDetail.asp?bookID=199
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradelle
http://www.redhen.org/bookDetail.asp?bookID=199
Sunday, September 9, 2007
My Very First Paradelle
So I was reading Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins, a collection of new and selected poems because it contains The Night House from Picnic, Lightning, which contains the most memorable image from a poem for me ever. Referring to the heart, mind, conscience and soul just before waking:
Then, they all will return to the sleeping body
the way a flock of birds settles back into a tree...
Flipping AWESOME! Totally WICKED!
So then I came across this other poem called Paradelle for Susan, and thought, what the heck is a paradelle? Lucky for me he added this explanatory note:
A paradelle is one of the more demanding French fixed forms, first appearing in the langue d'oc love poetry of the eleventh century. [Whatever that is.] It is a poem of four six-line stanzas in which the first and second lines, as well as the third and fourth lines of the first three stanzas, must be indentical. The fifth and sixth lines, which traditionally resolve these stanzas, must use all the words from the preceding lines and only those words. Similarly, the final stanza must use every word from all the preceding stanzas and only those words.
Thusly was the challenge set before me to write my very first paradelle, which I now present to you, gentle readers. I am most proud.
Then, they all will return to the sleeping body
the way a flock of birds settles back into a tree...
Flipping AWESOME! Totally WICKED!
So then I came across this other poem called Paradelle for Susan, and thought, what the heck is a paradelle? Lucky for me he added this explanatory note:
A paradelle is one of the more demanding French fixed forms, first appearing in the langue d'oc love poetry of the eleventh century. [Whatever that is.] It is a poem of four six-line stanzas in which the first and second lines, as well as the third and fourth lines of the first three stanzas, must be indentical. The fifth and sixth lines, which traditionally resolve these stanzas, must use all the words from the preceding lines and only those words. Similarly, the final stanza must use every word from all the preceding stanzas and only those words.
Thusly was the challenge set before me to write my very first paradelle, which I now present to you, gentle readers. I am most proud.
Paradelle for Mr. Karin
_
Sitting in the rising sun, longing for a drink
Sitting in the rising sun, longing for a drink
A family of sunflowers waves from nextdoor,
A family of sunflowers waves from nextdoor.
A family from next door, rising, sitting in the sun
Waves, longing for a drink of sunflowers.
_
A black creature bounds through the grass.
A black creature bounds through the grass.
Not a cat, it hops to me and nibbles, just as shy and allergic as you are.
Not a cat, it hops to me and nibbles, just as shy and allergic as you are.
You are allergic to me, just as the black grass,
And a cat hops, not nibbles. It shy.
_
Go away! Come back! My inarticulate dance.
Go away! Come back! My inarticulate dance.
You only sit still for a moment.
You only sit still for a moment.
A still moment, you dance away.
You only come back for my inarticulate, "Sit...go."
_
Drink in the shy sun, just for a moment.
Sit still not as a creature hops, nibbles through black grass,
As you are rising, longing for inarticulate me.
My dance waves and bounds back, sunflowers of sitting.
You come away from a family and the cat nextdoor
Only, allergic to it, go, "a...a...a!"
_
_
A note about process: I wrote the first three stanzas while, as you can guess, sitting in the sun in my back yard. The first four lines of each stanza are fairly easy to assemble, while the final two lines really take some mental effort. That's the fun part, trying make sure to get in all the words. When it came to the final stanza; however, notecards, pencil and scissors were called for, as I am quite visual and kinesthetic. I proceded to write down each word of the poem in rows on index cards. Then I cut them out, in the breeze-free indoors, word by word so that I could move them around the table, rearranging as seemed appropriate and delightful until I arrived at the poem you see above.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Listening Out 2
Father to small daughter: Get in the car. Get IN the car. GET--damn it. Where's Cassie? Gimme the damn gun.
Nice. I love my neighbors. On the other hand...
Stop. Stop. (In a calm and patient voice.) Look at my face. That's not safe. My job is to keep you safe. If you turn the corner, then I can't see you and you're not safe. You're my 4-year-old. You know better than that. Look at my little ones. They're not walking ahead. Okay, let's try it again and this time stay with me. Much better.
Nice. I love my neighbors. On the other hand...
Stop. Stop. (In a calm and patient voice.) Look at my face. That's not safe. My job is to keep you safe. If you turn the corner, then I can't see you and you're not safe. You're my 4-year-old. You know better than that. Look at my little ones. They're not walking ahead. Okay, let's try it again and this time stay with me. Much better.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Oh, so I'M it now, huh?
Well, thanks to the great Michael5000 who tagged me, I'm charged with the oh so painful task of listing "the top 10 reasons why you like yourself". Very likely this is difficult for anyone, but this is especially difficult for me right now because...I'm experiencing a low point, let's just say. But, damn it, I'll try. Big breath in (i'm good i'm good i'm good). Here goes...
1) I'm funny. I make people laugh. And I don't need a common language to do it.
2) I'm absolutely, totally, completely turned-inside-out in love with my brother's kids.
3) I don't want any kids of my own, though, and so I'm not having any. No, not even one.
4) I'm a really, really good teacher. I mean, the kind everyone wants. Recently one of my students (a 20-yr.-old) said, "I didn't know I could learn and have fun at the same time until I took your class."
5) I'm courageous. I stand up to injustice when I see it despite my fear.
6) I'm bold. I ask the people in my life what's up and I tell them what's up with me. There's no time for guess work, as I see it.
7) I'm open to new ideas. I used to be a fat, meat-eating, bible-thumping Jesus freak living in the burbs, whereas now I'm a fat, new-agey vegetarian living in the hood.
8) I'm a Triple Threat. I'm an actor/dancer/singer. (Well, I used to be a dancer, before I was fat.) But I can still belt a tune any time of the day or night and I can wrap an audience around my little finger.
9) I'm a damn good writer when I want to be. Don't believe me? Check out my other blog http://karinleak.blogspot.com/
10) I take care of my health. Okay, so I'm fat, but not as much as I could be given the SPAM and eggs model I was given. I exercise, don't smoke, don't drink really, I think about meditating and I talk, cry and journal a lot. This is a big deal in my family, this taking care of myself. I seem to be something of an oddity. So, hey, good for me, if I do say so myself.
There, I did it. That wasn't so bad. Thanks, Michael5000.
1) I'm funny. I make people laugh. And I don't need a common language to do it.
2) I'm absolutely, totally, completely turned-inside-out in love with my brother's kids.
3) I don't want any kids of my own, though, and so I'm not having any. No, not even one.
4) I'm a really, really good teacher. I mean, the kind everyone wants. Recently one of my students (a 20-yr.-old) said, "I didn't know I could learn and have fun at the same time until I took your class."
5) I'm courageous. I stand up to injustice when I see it despite my fear.
6) I'm bold. I ask the people in my life what's up and I tell them what's up with me. There's no time for guess work, as I see it.
7) I'm open to new ideas. I used to be a fat, meat-eating, bible-thumping Jesus freak living in the burbs, whereas now I'm a fat, new-agey vegetarian living in the hood.
8) I'm a Triple Threat. I'm an actor/dancer/singer. (Well, I used to be a dancer, before I was fat.) But I can still belt a tune any time of the day or night and I can wrap an audience around my little finger.
9) I'm a damn good writer when I want to be. Don't believe me? Check out my other blog http://karinleak.blogspot.com/
10) I take care of my health. Okay, so I'm fat, but not as much as I could be given the SPAM and eggs model I was given. I exercise, don't smoke, don't drink really, I think about meditating and I talk, cry and journal a lot. This is a big deal in my family, this taking care of myself. I seem to be something of an oddity. So, hey, good for me, if I do say so myself.
There, I did it. That wasn't so bad. Thanks, Michael5000.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Listening Out
For someone who lives on side streets, it's pretty noisy around here. I'm at the intersection of two streets that are both a block away from big busy streets, so I guess that brings in a lot of vehicular and foot traffic. On top of that, my building is right up against the sidewalk. Any "yard" we might have is entirely in the back. I mean, if not for the screens, we could hang out the windows and deal drugs like I see people doing out of their cars just there on the corner. To make matters worse, or better, our apartment is exactly at the corner of the building. So as I sit at my desk, I have the distinct advantage of hearing all manner of conversation that I'm not meant to hear--most of it innocuous, some of it interesting. Here's a smattering from the past week or so. I'll add more as I Listen Out (the Window), which the uppity among you might call eavesdropping.
· "Shit. It ain’t no thing ‘til you mutha fuckas left. And then shiiit."
· "He's so cute." "Yeah, I wish uh, he’d act is age though." (about a big puppy)
· "She’s been in my house every day." "Yeah. Well. That doesn’t surprise me."
· "What was the first level, bro?" "Yellow." "And what could you, what could you do with the yellow?"
· "You better wag yo little tail feather so I can tell where you mutha fucka at."
· "Oh and by the way, those Math people do not know the rule."
· "Shit. It ain’t no thing ‘til you mutha fuckas left. And then shiiit."
· "He's so cute." "Yeah, I wish uh, he’d act is age though." (about a big puppy)
· "She’s been in my house every day." "Yeah. Well. That doesn’t surprise me."
· "What was the first level, bro?" "Yellow." "And what could you, what could you do with the yellow?"
· "You better wag yo little tail feather so I can tell where you mutha fucka at."
· "Oh and by the way, those Math people do not know the rule."
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Belief-O-Matic
Your Results: er My Results:
The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.
How did the Belief-O-Matic do?
Well, I'm pleased to see that it acknowledges my shift toward the acceptance of many different ways to connect to God or practice spirituality. I'm quite surprised to see Reform Judaism at #2 and matching 99% of my beliefs, considering I really don't know what Reformed Jews believe, or do I?
And it's reassuring to note, that although in recent years my spiritual thinking has markedly changed from, "You don't believe in Jesus as your personal savior? I'm sorry, then you're going to hell, but I can help you with that. Here, take this Steps to Peace with God tract." to something more like, "Hey, you're doing what you can to make a connection to something bigger than yourself and applying that to your daily life? Well, good on ya, mate!" my ideas actually haven't drifted as far away from my Liberal Quaker friends (Friends, get it, haha) as they would have feared. (Is that a run on sentence? Let's just move on.)
Looking at the list again, I realize that, while of course I recognize the names of these major and minor religions and sects, I don't necessarily know what they believe, which leads me to a Life&Times of Michael5000-esque methodical inquiry into each of the religions on my list. Now, I long to be as methodical and thorough as M5K, but I am nowhere near as delighted by the slow tedium of the process as he is. Not at all. I will get bored with this, or in fact forget my own project altogether and move on to something else long before I've finished if I try to be just like him, which I'm very tempted to do. So, please, gentle readers, do not expect this to be a 27-month or 27-week adventure. I just don't think I have it in me. Having said that, I have every confidence that this will be a Kick in the Butt.
Here's my list:
1.
Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2.
Reform Judaism (99%)
3.
Liberal Quakers (97%)
4.
Mahayana Buddhism (92%)
5.
New Age (90%)
6.
Neo-Pagan (90%)
7.
Theravada Buddhism (88%)
8.
Sikhism (86%)
9.
Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (82%)
10.
Jainism (80%)
11.
Orthodox Quaker (72%)
12.
Taoism (71%)
13.
New Thought (71%)
14.
Orthodox Judaism (68%)
15.
Bahá'í Faith (66%)
16.
Scientology (65%)
17.
Hinduism (64%)
18.
Secular Humanism (64%)
19.
Islam (60%)
20.
Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (52%)
21.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (47%)
22.
Seventh Day Adventist (41%)
23.
Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (39%)
24.
Jehovah's Witness (37%)
25.
Nontheist (36%)
26.
Eastern Orthodox (25%)
27.
Roman Catholic (25%)
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html
The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.
How did the Belief-O-Matic do?
Well, I'm pleased to see that it acknowledges my shift toward the acceptance of many different ways to connect to God or practice spirituality. I'm quite surprised to see Reform Judaism at #2 and matching 99% of my beliefs, considering I really don't know what Reformed Jews believe, or do I?
And it's reassuring to note, that although in recent years my spiritual thinking has markedly changed from, "You don't believe in Jesus as your personal savior? I'm sorry, then you're going to hell, but I can help you with that. Here, take this Steps to Peace with God tract." to something more like, "Hey, you're doing what you can to make a connection to something bigger than yourself and applying that to your daily life? Well, good on ya, mate!" my ideas actually haven't drifted as far away from my Liberal Quaker friends (Friends, get it, haha) as they would have feared. (Is that a run on sentence? Let's just move on.)
Looking at the list again, I realize that, while of course I recognize the names of these major and minor religions and sects, I don't necessarily know what they believe, which leads me to a Life&Times of Michael5000-esque methodical inquiry into each of the religions on my list. Now, I long to be as methodical and thorough as M5K, but I am nowhere near as delighted by the slow tedium of the process as he is. Not at all. I will get bored with this, or in fact forget my own project altogether and move on to something else long before I've finished if I try to be just like him, which I'm very tempted to do. So, please, gentle readers, do not expect this to be a 27-month or 27-week adventure. I just don't think I have it in me. Having said that, I have every confidence that this will be a Kick in the Butt.
Here's my list:
1.
Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2.
Reform Judaism (99%)
3.
Liberal Quakers (97%)
4.
Mahayana Buddhism (92%)
5.
New Age (90%)
6.
Neo-Pagan (90%)
7.
Theravada Buddhism (88%)
8.
Sikhism (86%)
9.
Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (82%)
10.
Jainism (80%)
11.
Orthodox Quaker (72%)
12.
Taoism (71%)
13.
New Thought (71%)
14.
Orthodox Judaism (68%)
15.
Bahá'í Faith (66%)
16.
Scientology (65%)
17.
Hinduism (64%)
18.
Secular Humanism (64%)
19.
Islam (60%)
20.
Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (52%)
21.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (47%)
22.
Seventh Day Adventist (41%)
23.
Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (39%)
24.
Jehovah's Witness (37%)
25.
Nontheist (36%)
26.
Eastern Orthodox (25%)
27.
Roman Catholic (25%)
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html
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