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Consequences
Topic: Consequences
You never know where life might take you. Always consider the consequences of what you do. The person you work with today may one day interview you for the job you really want. The next thing you write might be published.

Always think ahead in what you do, what you say, and how you interact with others. This could help you in the long run.

More Inspiration Ideas
I read an interesting idea for writer's block today. Pull a book off your shelf and using a pin, open the book and stick a word with the pin. No peeking! Do this again. You now have two words to play with. See where those words take you.

Write a few sentences using these words. I've also heard there are web sites that will supply random word combinations to spur the imagination. The combinations might be bizarre at times, but that could be very good.

There are so many options available to writers suffering from writer's block. Now, don't shut this out...Poetry.com still does their magnetic poetry "poetry in motion" contest. I'm not suggesting that you actually participate in the contest. I'm suggesting that you go to the site and use their resources to get your juices flowing. If you come up with something good, write it down or type it out and then abort the operation. We don't want to contribute to their scam. I see no harm is using some of their resources though.

I still like the idea of taking a paragraph from a magazine and using those words as magnets. I know there are some advertisements that have some substantial copy. Can you imagine using the copy from a viagra advertisement to write a poem? I can see it now.

Go borrow some words and use them to write. And, have fun with it.

Sometimes
Topic: Sometimes
Sometimes being a writer doesn't pay. We're doing a publication at work. This publication used to be done quarter, then twice a year, and now annually. Because of one thing or another, the book is five months overdue. It should have been done in January. The last person that had my job left in February and I wasn't hired until the end of April.

Long story short, this book needs to be out like next week. It needs to at least be off my desk by next week. It is coming along quite nicely. The general idea right now is to get it done. We can make some real changes with the publication in January when we prepare the next edition.

The problem is that most of the information in this thing is simply carried forward from one period to the next. Dates and figures are updated to coincide with the current year, but the basic verbiage doesn't change much. The basic verbiage is in need of some serious help. I have updated some wording along the way, but there needs to be a major over-haul.

This is an internal document that basically shows our strengths and weaknesses. We are a health insurance company. When we start talking about market growth, people understand what we are talking about. When we try to talk about the reverse, I find it totally unacceptable to talk about retarded growth. That word just doesn't belong!

I vow that the next edition will have a new overview that uses fewer -ing words. I vow that the user of this document will not have to read a sentence three times to figure out what we're talking about. My co-worker and I have done just that and we're putting this document together.

This is only one of life's little challenges in the world of work. Even if I wasn't a writer, I would hope that I would have enough sense to know that this document could and should be better. Since I am a writer, I will do my damnedest to make sure that it turns out better. It is a little better now. It will be a whole lot better on the next go round.

Exercises
Topic: Exercises
We've spent a lot of time talking about doing different things. It is harder to do than most people think. We get into a rut and just keep going forward the way we always have. Maybe what we've always done just doesn't work any more.

We may just be in need of fresh material. When was the last time you wrote about a picture? I have one waiting for me to write about it; usually I do them the day they are posted. Reminder to self, check Rolling Thunder to see if they have a new picture.

When was the last time you wrote an acrostic? Spell the word down the page and use that letter on each line to start your line. You can actually come up with some pretty interesting stuff doing this. Shall we try one now?

abnormal thoughts
create temporary
realities; beautiful
oxymorons clamor
starkly in attention.
temptuous vixens
itch to wontonly
control our spirits.

Okay, so it is disjointed and doesn't necessarily make a whole lot of sense, but I had fun. Didn't you? If you will read down the first letters, I spelled out acrostic. I think the word and the ideas are supposed to actually have some relationship. Tough!

Give it a shot.

Change
Topic: Change
Change is always difficult. When we move away from the familiar and begin to explore uncharted waters, we must learn to swim or we drown. This is true in most every instance of change. A new job can be an excellent example of this. Sometimes we don't have the time and luxury of learning to swim, so we might swallow some water along the way. When someone leaves us, we experience change.

On a more positive note, though, sometimes change is much needed. Maybe the breast stroke just tires us out too much and we need to try the crawl for awhile. This can be very true in our writing. If you've been part of a web site for a long time, maybe it is time to find another outlet. If you've been a writer of poetry, maybe it is time to try some short stories. This change can be good.

When we change what we do, we are still, of course, influenced by what we've always done. The change can be a source of illumination and call to our attention our trends and tendencies. When we change the type of writing we do, it can make us stronger when we go back to the original. It gives us a new perspective within ourselves. Maybe we can look at a short story and say "what would I need from this story to make a poem?"

Whatever changes we make, they don't have to be big changes. I would not suggest that someone who has written their whole lifetime simply stop writing. That would be wrong. We want writing to be a part of our lives. We want it to be a daily exercise. We also want it to be fresh and exciting. Try to make a change. Remember, though...it is best shaken, not stirred.

Ignorance is no Excuse
Topic: Ignorance
Ignorance is no excuse for negativity and rudeness. I've been watching some of the younger members on the poetry board. The comments they make are horrible! The comments are downright rude.

By the time you reach your teens, you should be able to identify the components of a sentence. You should at least know that they start with a capital letter and end with a period. I find myself having to re-read some of these comments and mentally insert the periods.

If nothing else, you should be capable of a complete thought. Spelling is another issue altogether. Most of the subject matter deals with "love." Most of the comments deal with "hate." I attribute this to the fact that they just don't know any better.

And what does "ok" mean when you're critiquing a poem? I think these kids needs to do some growing up before they venture out into the world wide web. They could get crushed so easily by adults that just have so much more experience.

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The Ending Wrote Itself
Topic: The Ending Wrote Itself
When you see Mike and Austin together, you just have to smile. They are so different. Mike is tall, dark-haired, lanky and quiet. Mike wears glasses. Last time I looked, though, he was not sporting a pocket protector. He does have a heart of gold, though. Austin is short, blond-haired, outgoing, and independent. Of course, Austin is only five years old so he has an excuse for being short. Just like salt and pepper, when you find one, you expect to find the other. I feel privileged to have Salt and Pepper as my neighbors.

Our building has four apartments, two on each floor. Mike and Austin have the other apartment on the first floor. The apartments are long with a hallway that runs the full length from the living room to the dining room. Kids love this hallway, it is their runway. I take pleasure in hearing Austin come home from day care. He tears down that hallway as if he’s impatient to see everything he missed during the day. I hear him through the walls and say “Austn’s home!” I don’t see my neighbors often, but will always gravitate to my back door if I hear a child’s voice on the porch. I’m considering calling Austin my little leprechaun since he was born March 17. Maybe he’ll lead me to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Austin joined our neighborhood almost three years ago. When his mother died unexpectedly, his uncle, Mike, took him in. Austin’s father was in prison for crimes against Austin that are too horrible to recount. Mike became his world. It was obvious the feeling was mutual. From the very beginning of this newfound relationship, Mike decided to adopt his nephew. In March of this year, he succeeded in his quest.

Since I don’t have children of my own, I rather “adopted” Austin. Every time I got a toy in a box of cereal, or with the purchase of another product, I put it aside for him. At Christmas, I would buy him some coloring books and crayons. They were always little things, but to Austin, they meant something. Now, though, when he sees me he wants to know if I have any presents for him. I think we need to break the cycle just a bit.

Mike got sick a few months back. When his car didn’t move for several days, I finally knocked on his door to see what was going on. After several weeks of illness, he was diagnosed with mono. Since he was very weak, Austin was spending some time with other family members out of town. He and Mike spoke daily on the telephone; but it was the first time they had been apart in two years. It was hard on both of them. Such is the trial of single parenting. Fortunately, Austin seems to be quite hardy. Aside from the scar that was a souvenir from his father, he’s quite a healthy little boy.

I learned today that Mike has bought a condominium. My Salt and Pepper will be moving. Since Austin will be starting kindergarten in September, Mike needed to make some choices about schools. He did not feel the schools in this area would do. Austin deserves to have a real home. Currently, Mike sleeps in the sunroom of the apartment so that Austin and his roommate had their own bedrooms. This was part of the adoption process so that the child would not feel as if he was a disruption in the household. He needed to have his own space, his own room. There are only two bedrooms on that side of the building.

The back porch and driveway of our building aren’t very good playgrounds for kids. The elementary school playground is not that far away and is a great treat for Austin, but it is not the same as having your own yard right outside your door. It is also not something that Austin can really do on his own. So, I’m very happy for both of them. I will definitely miss Austin when he moves. I will miss Mike, too, but I probably wouldn’t have really known Mike if it hadn’t been for the little boy who stole my heart.

The red tape Mike went through to provide a home for Austin will remain vivid in my mind. The slowness of the adoption process and inappropriate consideration for the natural father will always cause me to shake my head. An adoption of a foreign child would have been a much faster process. Mike is undoubtedly a stronger person today than he was before Austin came to him. He will be a good father. I hope Austin one day realizes just how lucky he is.

---

Today is such a big day
in your young life.
You’ve gone
from “uncle”
to “dad”
at the fate of the court.

All of your hard work,
persistence, love, and money
have paid off.
Your sister couldn’t have
asked for more.

Most of all, your belief
in the good things in life
have saved you both.
Look forward
with pride and hope.
You have
a wonderful son
and he,
a perfect father.

Years Later
Topic: Years Later
There's no law that says how something must be done. I'm of the opinion that as long as the job gets done and no one gets hurt, it doesn't matter how it is accomplished. Of course, the definition of hurt is relative.

I've finally got some constructive feedback on some poetry I wrote last month. I copied the comments into an email to myself just so that I wouldn't lose them. I was actually ready to believe there was nothing wrong with the poem. I'm so glad I had a second set of eyes looking out for me.

I've gone back and revised or re-written poems from my high school days. Once I knew how wrong they were, it was relatively easy to pick up where I left off all those years ago. Hopefully, this last revision will only take me a couple of days rather than a couple of years.

Happy weekend all!