I have a quirky little book called The Book of Forms that lists hundreds of different forms of poetry from acrostics to villanelles, but found poems are not among them. I think because they have no truly set forms--they are ultimately choose your own poem adventures.

There is an approximation that is inherent with metaphor that I both love and hate. I love it because it is handy, tres useful. What I mean is that I get the idea the truth and our experience are often at odds, a cognitive dissonance. I hate the metaphor for the same reason. One of the most important discoveries botanists have made about tree ecologies is that the arboreal reality of the above ground tree is inextricable from the fungal/bacterial nature below the ground. The rhizome provides, among other foods and needs, the carbohydrate that the trees need. Freaky and amazing, but they definitely don't dance away.

Some might say the world is already painted.

Some might say you, "No,you are reeling it in with every cast of the line."

Whatever it is, it is not a metaphor.

It is not the gesso on the page

nor the paint upon the gesso

nor anything at all upon the canvas and frame.

It is more like a picnic cloth upon the ground

where you lay out all the things that you are.

and invite others for a feast,

but didn't I already say it wasn't a metaphor?

Oh, well...

Your are the wild brain.

Unflattened.

Direct

address

Full of

feelings

only you know

for sure,

but I do know this:

you bear us all up

on arms

that are as hopeful

as feathered things.

Maybe I'm not a yam.

scape it off like they used to when they all performed on vellum

Whst kind of wages does reality pay?

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47555/digging

Today I am digging elderberries to plant elsewhere, I know not where, And thinking I am done, but knowing that is not the last of them.

a monad

And I am a yam

and that's all what I am.

the lushness of bees

linguistic erectile dysfunction?

Sorry, that's what the poet in my head said so I could not resist.

Having participated in at least one worthwhile and effective online CoP and another f2f one, it will be interesting to make a checklist of design elements and note how they align with my own experience.

Here is a continuously updated resource drawn from the article, its annotators and its curators

Charlene, are we a value creating group and if so then how did that happen? The platform? Previous sharing? Empathic teaching vibes?

A moment of silence and then listening to this:

https://youtu.be/8e3rVcSy3IQ

Not sure what this means. Rewilding? Hacking surprise? How is it related to the future of work and leadership?

I will be the judge of that.

A really useful example of this is from the podcast, Reply All. They have a segment called "Yes, Yes, No". In it they analyze what I think of as really dense tweets and memes. Here is a list from Reddit so you can find them. Are there teachers working to help students to analyze like they do in Reply All? I find myself swimming in riptides like this quite often. I call it 'rewilding'.

This is the wrong lever for change. I am terrible at it and worry how much of what I think I know about racism,sexism, et al is ...bullshit.

This is an utterly passive statement. They are connected to it? NO. They are shown a context. The learners must be the ones connecting. Otherwise we get inert learning.

All worthy literature is about life. How the hell can that be disconnected from students' "lived experience" (whatever that piece of jargon means).

What is a competency? A skill?

I have never expanded my digital literacy via any curriculum process. In the classroom I have taught students how to raise and answer research questions with both digital and analog tools. I don't feel the need to have a separate curriculum for the tools. For example, I use Zotero as my digital database. It helps me seek, make sense of, and share answers to questions, but I could do quite the same with 3X5 cards just like Niklas Luhmann did with his zettelkasten method. Because there are so many glaring inequalities in digital spaces, I always teach analog and community processes first and digital literacies second. You never know when the electrons will fail.

mediated=intermediated=media?

Why the choice of this metaphor? Is literacy an accordion file? Is it that the definition of literacy is expanding? Who has the right to say what literacy means or how it expands? Or is this position statement a backward looking report on the change that has already taken place? I have been using cheap and adaptable media tools for years but I am still writing "essays" and "poems" and research presentations with them just like I did in the analog 20th century days.

You are the trim tab, Dan.

As a teacher that was my role, same as you. I am inspired by your work and am creating an email list of former students in the fond hope of reconnecting as their "teacher and fellow learner". When you retire from teaching, you have to reach up and out and back and forth. I am doing that, too.

I love to think about the long-term passion and learning that has occurred in your heart and mind as a result of your work. In an era where the word 'long-term' is a non-starter, you are a star. I bless that and I am blessed by that.

The world seems to be collapsing and if we pay attention it is American interventions that is constantly raising the level of suffering even in our own country. I only have to note the horror of Yemen to make my point. As for Ukraine, does anyone realize that we were promoting regime change there in 2014 when by some miracle there was a coup there that did change the regime. But point taken, Dan, it is getting worse.

uridf;'gpihik

metaphor of nature as writer...fun...how far can it be extended?

A rich sound from this word: 'nd' sounds mixed in with 'r's'.

And some Velvet Underground to spice up the comments:

https://youtu.be/QgzAk3k7PA8

Love the anticipation of "some paths" with "others'. And, of course, Antonio Machado

...By walking one makes the road and upon glancing behind one sees the path.

Something sublime this way comes...from you.

Maybe better would be "ponder and wander"?

That last ambiguous couplet is so delightful.. Yes, we keep watch and we watch. Yes, the dust falls, nothing new there, but the glorious dual meaning is so cool. What is 'inflight'? Dust? Poets keeping watch? Sweet. I was reminded of one of my fav American artists of the 19th century, A.P. Ryder, whose paintings are ambiguous, too, although part of his problem is the materials he used have not weathered well. I suspect the last couplet is one of the most lyrical you have ever written. Thank you for sharing.

I am incredibly lucky to know all my annotators. Love youse guys.

and those moments are one fluid river that is never the same

Now, D.C. al fine

Grateful for the twist. Every art has this possible harmonic relationship, peopled adjacence.

This is what I mean, Addition by subtraction. Repetition that is not repetitive. Great.

I love the repetition. So useful. So helpful to the reader.

Take Two...or five

https://youtu.be/OOVTa7A3WUo

The purpose of playing is to hold as ‘twere the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.” In other words, Hamlet the play AND the poem are the thing, they are what is real in our lives and in our world.

The mirror scene in Duck Soup

https://youtu.be/kVI5ono8M1w

a waltz? a jitterbug?

https://youtu.be/-EjukzL-bJc

and every universe

Persuasion ia not a trim tab?

Here is a bit of inspiration from Ted Hughes' Poetry in the Making

You take a moment

and say to yourself,

"That's a good flat one,"

and you skip it across

the poem's mirror flat surface--

skip, skip, skip, skip.

Was this the order he said. What if it was the other way round, have fun, play well.

Or play fun

Subtract as much as you can until you can't anymore and see where that brings you.

working through, the obstacle becoming the way?

happy couplet, I could see it inscribed on a plate somewhere, maybe the case?

why did you choose 'gifted' instead of 'gave'

The whole poem is worth reading for this telling detail cuz you can't make it without gallons of spit.

And I am here again with the Muse. She is tres amusant, not.

Seeds.

Seeds in the mail.

Seeds saved.

Truest species of anticipation.

My simple heart

in solidarity

with the seed,

bursting with joy

at the thought

of my granddaughter

growing up in our garden,

a forever place to keep her safe.

Favorite poet. Famous for his consideration of a non-color color, "Dolor".

https://youtu.be/-f4A862uvNE

Note that I have added the words "without fear or favor". I mean it. In those eleven minutes I ride the thought feldgang and vacuum up everything that arises, even the dead carp and floating cigarette butts. The last lines of my feldgang are just that sucking up. Eleven minutes triggered my watch alarm and I coasted to a stop with what I think will end up as a poem.

Steven Pressfield in The War of Art argues that we must fight the Resistance every day. Or at least engage with it in a wrestling match.

"What's important is the work. That's the game I have to suit up for. That's the field on which I have to leave everything I've got." (The War of Art, 65)

Sometimes I don't have much faith in what I've got. I just shut up and keep swimming and in the end offer up a hunk of my kill. I have earned my keep another day. (BTW, I am at this point stealing liberally from Pressfield's text, but what of that.)

I am thinking of something analogous I do with my morning reading and work routine. I will show you some versions of this as a I go through the morning.

Can't the more refined materials circle back and inform the raw stuff as long as you don't force it too much?

Or maybe think of this as "underboard", a game to be played by two barely attending members of the audience, a teetotalling version of a State of the Union drinking game.

OED "whelmed"

whelm, v.

(hwɛlm)

Forms: 3–5 quelm, 4 welme, 4–7 whelme, 5–6 Sc. quhelm, 8–9 'whelm, 5– whelm; 9 dial. whalm, whawm, welm. Also whemmel.

[? representing OE. hwelman, parallel to hwelfan whelve.]

†1.1 intr. To overturn, capsize. Obs.    In second quot. perh. pass. of sense 4.

   a 1300 Cursor M. 24862 Þaa sori loked ai sua for-suonken, Quen þe scip suld quelm and drunken.    a 1513 Fabyan Chron. vii. (1811) 599 By the mysgydynge of the sterysman, he was set vpon the pylys of the brydge, and the barge whelmyd.

2.2 trans. To turn (a hollow vessel) upside down, or over or upon something so as to cover it; to turn with the concave side downwards. Now dial.

   c 1340 Nominale (Skeat) 360 Apres beyuer hanap endente, welme the cuppe.    c 1440 Promp. Parv. 524/1 Whelmyn a vessel, suppino.    14‥ Med. Receipts in MS. Lincoln A. i. 17, lf. 285 (Halliw.) Tak a bryghte bacyne, and anoynte it with mylke reme, and whelme it over a prene.    1513 Douglas Æneis v. xii. 18 And, with that word, his helm Befoir thair feit all void down did he quhelm.    1530 Palsgr. 780/2 Whelme a platter upon it, to save it from flyes.    1590 Lucar Lucarsolace iv. i. 147 Whelme a new elme bole in the bottome of the said hole.    1604 N. F. Fruit. Secr. 18 Whelme downe the maunds, emptying them gently, into small baskets.    1618 Bolton Florus (1636) 201 The barbarous whelmed their shields over their heads.    1643 Lightfoot Glean. Ex. (1648) 47 On the top‥lay a golden dish whelmed downe.    1657 S. Purchas Pol. Flying-Ins. 178 A tub‥which as soon as you have emptied, suddenly whelm it upside down.    1687 Settle Refl. Dryden 2 That the Earth is like a Trencher, and the Heavens a Dish whelmed over it.    1712 Phil. Trans. XXVIII. 254 It was found with the Mouth whelm'd downward.    1796 Troutbeck Scilly Isl. 171 Their ovens are large iron pots which they whelm over things to be baked, upon heated iron plates.    1842 Florist's Jrnl. (1846) III. 24 Pansies that were planted out in the autumn, should be protected by whelming a small pot over each plant.    1854 A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss. s.v., Whelm that dish over them currants.

†b.2.b gen. To turn downwards: in quots. with reference to Fortune's wheel. Obs.

   c 1470 Gol. & Gaw. 1225 Quhan on-fortone quhelmys the quheil.    1532 Chaucer's Wks., Troylus i. 139 And thus Fortune a lofte And vnder efte gan hem to whelmen [MSS. whielen, weyle(n] bothe.

†c.2.c To cover (a thing) by turning a vessel, etc. upside down over it. Obs.

   a 1400–50 Bk. Curtasye 703 in Babees Bk., A qwyte cuppe of tre þer-by shalle be, Þer-with þo water assay schalle he; Quelmes hit agayn by-fore alle men.    1532 Tindale Expos. Matt. v. (c 1550) 24 b, As men lyghte no candle to whelme it vnder a bushell.    a 1651 Gataker Parker in Fuller Abel Rediv. 524 Those that are wont to wrap up their talent in a towell, and whelm their light under a bushell.

d.2.d To throw (something) over violently or in a heap upon something else, esp. so as to cover or to crush or smother it.

   1624 Donne Serm. xix. (1640) 185 Hill upon hill whelmed upon it.    1637 J. Pocklington Altare Christianum 96 This Milstone of a consequence the Author has whelmed upon himselfe.    1686 Plot Staffordsh. 166 Fig. 3. is to be whelmed upon Fig. 2. so that A. in Fig. 3. touch A. in Fig. 2.    1752 Young Brothers i. i, Not seals of adamant, not mountains whelm'd On guilty secrets, can exclude the day.    1888 Sheffield Gloss. s.v. Whawm, Whawm that cloth over that pancheon.    1894 Blackmore Perlycross vi, With‥a broad hat whelmed down upon his hairless white face.

†e.2.e To turn over (soil, etc.) so as to expose the under parts. Also absol. Obs.

   1652 W. Blithe Eng. Improver Impr. xxviii. 193 The phin made broad, descending or whelming to the right hand.    1759 Mills tr. Duhamel's Husb. i. ix. 49 In this plough, the place of breast-board must be supplied by an iron plate, which‥is‥carried back, and gradually brought to whelm, as if it would fall upon the furrow.    1795 Vancouver Agric. Essex 180 To bury every weed by whelming the slice or furrow completely over.

†3.3 intr. (poet.) To come or pass over something so as to cover it. Obs.

   c 1440 Bone Flor. 683 Garcy hyt Otes on the helme, That upon hys hedd hyt can whelme.    1690 Dryden Don Sebastian i. i, The Waves whelm'd over him.    1697 ― Æneis ix. 725 The Tow'r that follow'd on the fallen Crew, Whelm'd o're their Heads, and bury'd whom it slew.    1700 Blackmore Job 98 Dismal floods of grief whelm o'er thy head.

4.4 trans. a.4.a To cover completely with water or other fluid so as to ruin or destroy; to submerge, drown; occas. to sink (a boat).

   1555 T. Phaer Æneid. i. (1558) A ij, Let out thy windes & all their ships do drown wt waters wylde, Disperse them all to sondrie shores or whelme them downe wt deepe.    1598 Shakes. Merry W. ii. ii. 143 Giue fire: she is my prize, or Ocean whelme them all.    1697 Dryden Æneis vi. 455 He saw his Friends, who whelm'd beneath the Waves, Their Fun'ral Honours claim'd.    1725 Pope Odyss. iv. 658 Whelm'd in the bottom of the monstrous deep.    1818 Scott Battle of Sempach xxxvi, He 'whelmed the boat, and as they strove, He stunn'd them with his oar.    1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 295 Marsh land‥has at last been over⁓flowed, and thousands of the inhabitants whelmed in the waves.    1889 Jessopp Coming of Friars ii. 105 Flocks, and herds, and corn and hay being whelmed in the deluge.

b.4.b To bury under a load of earth, snow, or the like.

   1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions i. iii. 35 So whelmed in sande and grauell, that there is nothing but mere barreinesse.    1583 B. Melbancke Philotimus X iv, Whelmed be the World with fire and brimstone, that [etc.].    1601 Holland Pliny xxxii. vi. II. 437 To coole oisters forsooth, they must needs whelme and cover them all over with snow.    1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xiii. §60. 601 A couragious Esquier of Yorkeshire, whom the sodaine ruine of a Tower‥whelmed and slew outright.    1668 Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. i. xiii. 32 The Pancreas doth lie out of the reach of Medicaments, being deeply whelmed among the Bowels.    1793– Aikin & Mrs. Barbauld Even. at Home (1805) IV. 3 He‥dug over the whole bed, and whelmed all the relics of his flowers deep under the soil.    1801 Farmer's Mag. Jan. 52 A size of furrow-slice is raised sufficient to overlap or whelm up all the weeds.    1883 R. Broughton Belinda ii. viii, A day that wrecks ships by fleets;‥that whelms trains in snowdrifts.

5.5 transf. To engulf or bear down like a flood, storm, avalanche, etc.; hence, to involve in destruction or ruin. a.5.a in material sense.

   1667 Milton P.L. vi. 141 Who‥with solitarie hand‥at one blow Unaided could have finisht thee, and whelmd Thy Legions under darkness.    1740 Dyer Ruins Rome 529 The Goth and Vandal‥Rush, as the Breach of waters, whelming all Their Domes.    1817 Shelley Rev. Islam vi. vi, The files compact Whelmed me.    1847 Tennyson Princess Prol. 45 Some were whelm'd with missiles of the wall.    1864 ― En. Ard. 668 Where either haven open'd on the deeps, Roll'd a sea-haze and whelm'd the world in gray.    1883 Fortn. Rev. Feb. 162 The wind that would whelm the wilderness.

b.5.b in immaterial sense.

   1553 Primer Edw. VI, Prayer for ryche menne, Lustes, whyche whelme men into perdicion and destruction.    1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. xliii. 2 The light of lyfe driueth away the mist vnder which wee were whelmed in heauinesse.    1598 R. Bernard tr. Terence, Andria v. iv, My minde is so whelmed with feare, hope, ioy.    1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d' Alf. ii. 265, I lay buryed and whelmed-over head and eares in a well of miseries.    1791 Cowper Iliad ii. 204 Sorrow whelm'd his soul.    1832 Campbell Ode to Germans ii, And the tyrants now that whelm Half the world shall quail and flee.    1860 J. P. Kennedy Life W. Wirt I. xx. 302 Many other ladies were also whelmed in this awful catastrophe.    1891 A. P. Peabody King's Chapel Serm., Acts xiv. 11. 138 Christ‥whelmed with his forgiving love the penitent who wept at his feet.

Hence {whelmed} ppl. a., ˈwhelming vbl. n. and ppl. a.

   1819 Keats Otho i. i, In my grave, Or side by side with *'whelmed mariners.    1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 145 A common saucer and whelmed pot.    1898 Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 75 These tortures to distract her [sc. France] underneath Her whelmed Aurora's shade.

   c 1440 Promp. Parv. 524/1 *Whelmynge, suppinacio.    1670 Ray Prov. 282 (Scott. Prov.) If I can get his cairt at a whelming [1678, p. 379 at a wolter], I shall lend it a put.

   1637 Milton Lycidas 157 Under the *whelming tide.    1652 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. xxviii. 194 The Coumb or Wing so fixed‥to the Share, with its true whelming, hollow, cross winding, compass, just answring the cast or turn of the Furrow.    1658 W. Burton Itin. Antonin. 92 The all-whelming deluge of Time.    1725 Pope Odyss. i. 210 Doom'd to welter in the whelming main.    1792 Wordsw. Descrip. Sketches 207 By Him who saves Alike in whelming snows and roaring winds.    1799 Cowper Castaway 13 Not long beneath the whelming brine, Expert to swim, he lay.    1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. cxviii, If he may live for joys or sink in 'whelming pain.    1861 A. Beresford-Hope Eng. Cathedr. 19th C. 166 At a crisis of growing darkness and whelming confusion.    1891 Atkinson Last of Giant-Killers 145 Hidden by a whelming mass shot down from the hill above.

and the points don't matter to anyone else, just us, the underbored, the precarious proletariat

and identified with a kick

Is this Hypothes.is space the table that gives us freedom to secretly nudge each other under the table. I can imagine this as a faculty meeting where we send signals sub rosa.

Who's feet?

This is your filled in blank, your word to describe what I had no proper words for. Makes me think of Elon Musk and Boston's BigDig.

Or...I suspect a new word to replace a lost one? Yes, that is it.

The metaphor of "investment" might apply. You have put cognitive capital into the song. Some songs come full blown, like an idea that everybody wonders why didn't I think of that and other songs are premees at the hospital. You wonder how the Lord allows. It is all your creative decision how much more to invest. Don't involve the hedge fund dudes, that's my advice.

A fantastic, no-friction app. Love it.

I cannot believe sometimes the synchronicity of our work. I had just finished writing and posting a poem where the words "if only" shine with significance. I had not read this post, but I suppose your words were hovering in the air like reverse meteors in the sweet June air.

Love how all these words seem to mean "lost", but so much more. This is the glory of lyrics and song. They click in place like the mystery.

Fine Young Cannibals

https://youtu.be/tk6bnmVRbhw

I am going to put all the songs I am reminded of here with comments. I will start with Harry Nilson's "One" and Electric Six's version. They both work and both show us how tempo and tone can change any lyric. The point is they both fucking work and show us that writing the song is only the beginning of the work. Harry Nilson--man, what a damned lyrical songster.

https://youtu.be/haT8g7oKnns

https://youtu.be/hxe8Zb5jtIE

Always surprised by the gentleness of the Lou Reed and John Cale in this song: instrumentation can be so important: https://youtu.be/Xhbyj8pqUao

I just translated "I don't think I understand it" into "I don't get it"--and Bob's yer uncle.

What a wail from the harmonica to open this Cowboy Junkies song! You too?

https://youtu.be/BPZSPMCUGUA

The philosopher and inventor of calculus, Leibniz, had a word for this. He called them monads. We are alone but we ain't lonely because we are only one.

Do you ever wonder how lifelong collaborators like the Ira and George Gershwin or ...pick yer duo manage to add that layer atop what you have show us?

The mapping of the territory where the map is barely the territory. Just enough signal for yourself, right?

Cool, but ultimately too much friction. Voice notes would be cool too, but...need some proof of concept that shows it is simpler than what you are already doing.

Ever used Google Docs voice typing to sing a song down? Sounds like improv and rap, yes?

five chord cul de sac? Break on through

What is the setup man? You are suspending somthing in the air for us to hear---where will this lead?

Watch this first: https://youtu.be/qDpcVKtxB4g

Potential

https://youtu.be/0navfdj6TII

It is not apparent to me that nowhere is not a place to go be it fast or be it slow in whatever form that is becoming.

Yes, a real challenge to put yourself in his shoes. In all of these, the empathy hat is in full display. Would love to know the process here.

Story has lots of resolutions and still trying to figure out if there is one big one.

https://youtu.be/Mb4MNe1vk70

What about writing with lots of jargon or in this case hepcat argot.

https://youtu.be/42wcG1ulz-Q

The words ring a bit...off key?

An alternate title and fits with the original. What is a bad note if you are automatically hip?

clunker v clinker

https://youtu.be/fjNqLOorulI

rhyme perfect

Lyrical assonance with jazz and cats

This is the middle of a haiku. Here is the rest.

Dad said, don't worry, "Automatically Hip" is stamped on your genes.

he page note can function as a general guide. When I teach I use it as a place to share possible instructions. For example, I want to share a close reading of John's work so that we can be a bit better prepared for the meet on #nwpstudio for First Chapter Friday with John McCaffrey. Or as John writes in the short afterword in the story, "If you really want to know the real story: what I felt, why I did what I did, why I didn’t do what I could? Listen. Listen close. It’s the only way."

Instructions: do all of the items below in your own way as a way of respecting and rewilding the work.

Read aloud (SING!).

Observe.

Share.

Respond.

Make sense of.

Here is a YT version of the Road Goes on Forever:

https://youtu.be/Hu56oi8ui84

Here it is started a few minutes in:

https://youtu.be/Hu56oi8ui84?t=31

Here's a Spotify link:

https://open.spotify.com/track/7yIKCNRQqITi3yNWXTdmB5?si=e6cd24d81b7f4f68

Here's a Spotify embed code:

<iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/7yIKCNRQqITi3yNWXTdmB5?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="380" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture"></iframe>

Here's a poem video from my own channel, not monetized and no ads.

https://youtu.be/9LRW0tUpDj4

Here's an offiicial music video for the Spice Girls that I am trying to include in this annotation.

https://youtu.be/gJLIiF15wjQ

Always, always, always. This was my chief facilitation discovery during #clmooc. When connecting, participation is always assumed. In teaching, an invitation to participate is always a given. You can assess your assignment by asking yourself, "Will the class feel this is an assignment or an invitation to participate?"

Lord, grant that I may be regarded as a pirate without portfolio, sailing the seas forever.

feels like there is not certain time signature---that is rewilding. Text on top of text with sound-that is rewilding It is also a particular kind of remixing that reweaves surprise into the mix. The brain needs and loves this kind of synaptic exercise.

That feeling of self satisfaction is a happy end per se. I think it is a characteristic of rewilding if you are looking to assess that.

Really appreciate how you get the idea that rewilding is often about creating some new niche, a new ecology for an existing idea to live in combined with the willing suspension of disbelief that what you are doing is even adjacently possible.

This is exactly what I feel when I re-wild. I need to constantly remind myself (note: re-mind so close to re-wild) that the world is shiny and new forever if we will have it be so. The directions for rewilding can be surprising but they can also be very clear and extensive. I suppose the only rule is that you make the rewilding, even those you get from others, your own.

In other words, a feldgang?

I love how the words just swing and sway here. I sense a big kraken of a poem in this paragraph.

Make sure you date these so your older son can see the chronology, if that is important to you. More importantly, keep writing these Christmas Missives forever. Who wouldn't want a mother's reflections. They are like a mother's hands, warm and tender and caring. I would give up a lot to have a handful of letters tied in a bundle. What a legacy? Plus,you are teaching your child the way to be a proper ancestor

Elemental, atomic.

Here is a poem response:

Make

your own personal

wailing wall

in the failed infrastructures

everywhere,

paper & ink

bridging

the gaps

in the fatigued

metal

and wood

and concrete

in our own selves,

prayers buried

in

broken selves.

Your own personal wailing wall. We could all create a version for sharing our joys and unjoys.

Just a general note of thanks. I think maybe an e flat?

Yes, a felt board animation? I would love to see this done as a felt board movie.

https://youtu.be/FArZxLj6DLk

Perhaps each day might be said to have a landmark. I do write down at least one storyworthy moment each day. I use a Google Form to do this and I revisit these stories regularly, more often now that I have more time to reconsider. Story landmarks.

harlequin, n.

(ˈhɑːlɪkwɪn, -kɪn)

Forms: 6 harlicken, 7 harlaken(e, -keen(e, -kin, arlequin, 7– harlequin.

[a. Fr. harlequin (1585 in Hatz.-Darm.), arlequin, ad. It. arlecchino.    The Italian word is possibly the same as OFr. Hellequin, Herlequin, Herlekin, Hierlekin, Hielekin, Helquin, Hennequin, a devil celebrated in mediæval legend, esp. in la maisnie Helequin, Harlequini familia (Miège), a company or troop of demon horsemen riding by night. Of this the ultimate origin is possibly Teutonic. See Diez, Mahn Etymol. Untersuch., Godefroy, Skeat.]

I. 1.I.1 a.I.1.a A character in Italian comedy, subsequently in French light comedy; in English pantomime a mute character supposed to be invisible to the clown and pantaloon; he has many attributes of the clown (his rival in the affections of Columbine) with the addition of mischievous intrigue; he usually wears particoloured bespangled tights and a visor, and carries a light ‘bat’ of lath as a magic wand.    (In reference to quot. 1590, it may be noticed that the arlecchino is said, in Italian Dictionaries, to have originally represented the simple and facetious Bergamese man-servant. Cf. the stage Irishman.)

   1590 Nashe Almond for Parrat Ded., Taking Bergamo in my waye homeward‥It was my happe‥to light in felowship with that famous Francattip' Harlicken, who‥asked me many particulars of the order and maner of our playes.    1606 Day Ile of Guls ii. iii, Like a Harlakene in an Italian comedy.    1607 Day, etc. Trav. Eng. Bro. (1881) 56 Here's an Italian Harlaken come to offer a play to your Lordship.    1612 Heywood Apol. Actors ii. 43 To omit all the Doctors, Zawnyes, Pantaloones, Harlakeenes, in which the French, but especially the Italians, have beene excellent.    1676 Dryden Epil. Etheredge's Man of Mode, Those nauseous Harlequins in Farce may pass.    1704 Addison Italy (1766) 68 Harlequin's part is made up of blunders and absurdities.    1727 Fielding Love in Sev. Masques ii. i, A man of sense acts a lover just as a Dutchman would a harlequin.    1756 Foote Eng. fr. Paris i. Wks. 1799 I. 107 A bundle of contradictions, a piece of patch-work, a mere harlequin's coat.    1757 Smeaton in Phil. Trans. L. 204 As if an harlequin had leaped thro' the window.    1759 Johnson Gen. Concl. Brumoy's Grk. Theat. (R.), They represented‥a complete tragedy or comedy in the same manner as dumb harlequin is exhibited on our theatres.    1778 J. Q. Adams Diary 28 Apr. Wks. 1851 III. 146 In the evening we went to the Italian comedy, where I saw a harlequin for the first time.    1817 Byron Beppo iii, Harlequins and clowns, with feats gymnastical.    1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. I. 81 The papal guard in their‥party-colored dress‥looking not a little like harlequins.

b.I.1.b transf. A buffoon in general; a fantastic fellow.

   1878 Carlyle in Ld. R. Gower My Remin. xxvii. (1883) II. 175 [He called Beaconsfield] ‘that melancholy harlequin’.

2.I.2 A small breed of spotted dogs. So G. harlekin (Grimm).

   1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. III. viii. 286 The mongrel kind‥the Dutch mastiff, the harlequin,‥and the Dane.

3.I.3 More fully harlequin duck. A northern species of duck, Histrionicus minutus, with fantastically variegated plumage.

   1772 Forster in Phil. Trans. LXII. 419 Anas. A. Histrionica‥Harlequin Duck.    1863 Kingsley Water Bab. vii. 269 Swans and brantgeese, harlequins and eiders.    1876 Smiles Sc. Natur. xiii, The Harlequin‥and the Eider duck visit the loch occasionally in winter.    1884 Harper's Mag. Apr. 706/2 Harlequin-ducks of the gayest plumage.

4.I.4 The Oriental or noble opal. Also attrib.

   1873 C. Robinson N.S. Wales 62 Opals‥Amongst the polished stones are some of the harlequin class.

II. 5.II.5 attrib. or as adj. Having the characteristics of a harlequin or of his dress; burlesque, ludicrous; particoloured.    harlequin china, harlequin service, harlequin set, a name given to a set of cups, etc., of different colours and patterns.

   1779 Wilkes Corr. (1805) V. 223 A formal declaration of war by harlequin heralds.    1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) vi. i, A china Shakspeare and Milton in Harlequin jackets.    1859 Helps Friends in C. Ser. ii. I. Addr. to Rdr. 10 At this Harlequin period of the world what is written one week may seem obsolete the next.    1871 Mrs. Whitney Real Folks xiii. (Cent.), She had six lovely little harlequin cups on a side-shelf in her china-closet‥rose, and brown, and gray, and vermilion, and green, and blue.

6.II.6 Comb., as harlequin-leap, harlequin-preacher; harlequin-looking adj. Also harlequin bat, an Indian species, Scotophilus ornatus, of pale tawny-brown, variegated with white spots; harlequin beetle, a South American longicorn beetle, Acrocinus longimanus, with particoloured elytra; harlequin brant, the American white-fronted goose, Anser albifrons gambeii, also called pied or speckled brant; harlequin bug Austral., either of two bugs with brightly-coloured markings, Dindymus versicolor or Tectocoris diophthalmus; harlequin cabbage-bug, an American hemipterous insect, Murgantia histrionica, having brilliant markings; †harlequin deer, ? a particoloured fallow deer; harlequin duck: see 3; harlequin (eye)glasses, spectacles, spectacles with the frame tilted upwards at the corners (named from their resemblance to a harlequin's mask); harlequin fish, (a) Rasbora heteromorpha, a small cypriniform fish found in Thailand, Malaya, and Sumatra; (b) Othos dentex, the scarlet rock cod, a perciform fish found along the coasts of south and west Australia; harlequin-flower, a name of the South African genus Sparaxis, N.O. Iridaceæ, with great variety of colouring; harlequin fly, a fly of the genus Chironomus; harlequin garrot, the golden-eye duck or pied wigeon, a species of Clangula; harlequin (Great) Dane, a Great Dane having a black and white coat; harlequin moth, the magpie moth, Abraxas grossulariata; harlequin opal = harlequin n. 4; harlequin pigeon, an Australian Bronze-wing pigeon; harlequin ring (see quot.); harlequin rose, a variety of rose with striped petals; harlequin smiler, Merogymnus eximius, a small Australian perciform fish; harlequin snake, the coral-snake and other species of Elaps, so called from their variegated colouring of orange and black.

   1865 Wood Homes without H. viii. (1868) 176 The magnificent insect which is known to entomologists as the *Harlequin Beetle‥belongs to the wood-burrowers.    1882 Stanford's Compend. Geogr., Central Amer. 128 The most deadly enemy of the gum-elastic tree is‥the well-known ‘harlequin beetle’.

   1945 K. C. McKeown Austral. Insects xv. 81 The commonest and best known species [of Pyrrhocoridæ] is the striking red and black insect popularly known as the *Harlequin Bug (Dindymus versicolor Sch.), found throughout Australia, and attacking apples and other fruits.    1970 T. E. Woodward et al. in Insects of Australia (C.S.I.R.O.) xxvi. 450/1 Tectocoris diophthalmus (Thunb.), the ‘harlequin bug’ of Queensland, attacks the bolls of cotton, and is common on other malvaceous plants.

   1872 C. V. Riley in 4th Ann. Rep. Missouri Entomol. 35 *Harlequin cabbage bug.

   1778 Eng. Gazetteer s.v. Ickworth, A park well stocked with the fine *harlequin-deer.

   1945 ‘L. Lewis’ Birthday Murder (1951) i. 7 Her *harlequin eyeglasses became crooked on her pointed face.    1961 Wodehouse Service with Smile ix. 130 She was regarding him austerely through her harlequin glasses.

   1956 M. West Gallows on Sand x. 115 A school of *harlequin fish flirted away from my descent, their tube-like bodies flashing blue and gold, their ugly faces smiling like a circus clown's.    1959 Times 3 Mar. 7/1 The ‘guinea pigs’ in these experiments are inch-long harlequin fish‥from south-east Asia.

   1900 Miall & Hammond (title) The structure and life history of the *harlequin fly (Chironomus).    1956 Nature 17 Mar. 534/1 The family Chironomidae has scarcely been studied at all in New Zealand.‥ Known colloquially as the ‘Harlequin fly’, they are, it seems, almost ubiquitous.

   1863 Baring-Gould Iceland 162 A magnificent *harlequin garrot floated unmoved within a stones throw.

   1800 *Harlequin Dane [see Dane 2].    1909 Daily Chron. 28 July 7/1 A black and white or harlequin Great Dane.    1948 ‘Sigma’ in B. Vesey-Fitzgerald Bk. Dog ii. 420 When smart men drove a well-appointed turnout, a Dalmatian or harlequin Great Dane was necessary to complete the picture.

   1813 Examiner 1 Feb. 69/2 A *harlequin-leap through a window.

   1835 Willis Pencillings I. xv. 111 The *harlequin-looking Swiss guard.

   1887 Col. & Indian Exhib., Rep. Col. Sect. 70 Some specimens are of a rare kind, known as ‘*Harlequin’ opals.

   1847 Leichhardt Jrnl. vii. 227 We saw two flocks of the *harlequin pigeon (Peristera histrionica).

   1760 Jortin Erasm. II. 195 Stories of a *Harlequin-Preacher, who used to surprise his audience with his monkey-tricks.

   1877 W. Jones Finger-ring 414 *Harlequin-rings‥were so called because they were set round with variously-coloured stones.

   1876 T. Hardy Ethelberta (1890) 194 They were striped, red and white, and appeared to be leaves of the *Harlequin rose.

   1955 A. Ross Australia 55 ix. 118 Sharks‥whose presence causes‥coral trout and *Harlequin Smilers suddenly to evaporate.    1964 T. C. Marshall Fishes of Great Barrier Reef 326 Harlequin Smiler Merogymnus eximius.

   1885 C. F. Holder Marvels Anim. Life 131 The coloring of the *harlequin [snake]‥is exceedingly rich.

   1940 Optometric Weekly 19 Dec. 1262 The *Harlequin spectacle frame is protected by patents.    1962 J. Braine Life at Top xii. 154 Her harlequin spectacles didn't make her expression any less severe.

Hence harlequina, -ess, a female harlequin. harlequiˈnesque, harleˈquinic adjs., having the style of a harlequin. harleˈquinically adv., after the manner of a harlequinade. ˈharlequinism, the performance of a harlequin; action characteristic of a harlequin. ˈharlequinize v., to convert into a harlequin; to dress or do up in fantastical colouring.

   1867 *Harlequina [see harlequinade a.]

   1882 Stevenson New Arab. Nts. II. xii. 222 His blouse was stained with oil colours in a *harlequinesque disorder.

   1785 in Cornh. Mag. (1883) June 718 Humorous and characteristic masks; among the best of which we reckon‥a whimsical *harlequiness.

   1804 Miniature No. 4. 14 (title) Ode to the Rainbow, in the genuine Fantastical, Unmeaning, *Harlequinic Style of Sentimental Sonneteers.

   1824 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. CIII. 47 The Tale‥is‥so *harlequinically metamorphosing.

   1808 Edin. Rev. XII. 203 The philosophical *harlequinism of that valiant knight.    a 1852 Webster Wks. (1877) I. 345 In popular governments, men must not‥be disgusted by occasional exhibitions of political harlequinism.

   1876 R. Broughton Joan ii. viii. III. 225 The small dining-room‥is travestied indeed and *harlequinized like the rest of the house.

What is this space sensitive to? Time? I fill in the space with a color, a series of marks that make one thing inside the other thing. An advent calendar, a babushka, a recursion.

https://youtu.be/cjbV9z50gPM

https://youtu.be/JcCXUzZWWpY

I think you touch the issue here. Is transparency also the absence of color? Would that make black and transparent the same? The 'calendar' where you mark off the days is much the same.

https://youtu.be/YbFYs7u9OGw

Am I just marking time with an X to note the OBVIOUS or does the filling in represent something more generous, more interesting, and more nuanced that is emerging from my future. What could that be? What could I want it to be?

As above. Tone.

why couldn't I have filled the boxes with words...or something else like smells or tastes or textures. Yes, make an NFT of a month's retirement with snippets of textures,

Any buyers? Any excuse to create something and share it. Give it a go, Simon. I might even buy it.

Lovely understanding of the OBVIOUS. Capitalizing is an obvious convention like punctuation or other mechanics that is noticed usually only by proofreaders or...artists. Art helps make us experts in the art of noticing. Thanks so much for noticing. Whether the use of capitals is effective, well...that is another centipede, isn't it?

To day of separation re tire ment feedforward.

An "X" on the "x"?

Maybe I had this in mind all along. Don't know. Maybe this is all just a critique of the neoliberal state. You would not believe what a tornado makes of a tickytacky house.

https://youtu.be/LM8JhvfoqdA

Shaky X must be a kind of chrosome.

I considered before the Great Filling In that I might color code and be sensitive to mood, but I paused at imposing that much meaning onto the empty polygons. Are you wishing I had? I might try that next time unless a tornado rides me to ground.

Everything is time sensitive until it isn't.

De-markating? I make empty polygons that be presenting and representing I know not what. Dumb mud scratchings by a dumb mud trawling polywogynal animal.

A quartering of the universe

https://youtu.be/28XK3V3ACzc

I love keyword use and tagging. It makes me feel...more anchored.

We all know the cliche "gone fishin'" don't we. A shepherd like me might use the expression "gone woolgatherin'". It is the reason for the dead metaphor, 'a penny for your thoughts". In this case note the period between gone and fishing in my poem. Gone [full stop]. Fishing [full stop] . It is an imperative retort.

Here is a response to the dark poem above, a counterpoise, a balance, a re-leveraging.

Hold that darkness for a moment

we all might learn something.

Be opposed.

Hate humanity, but love every Karen, Chad, and Lenny.

Wash your hands in them.

Wash your hands with them.

Be steeped in solidarity.

Keep on!

Beckett wrote in "Waiting for Godot,"

“ESTRAGON: Don't touch me! Don't question me! Don't speak to me! Stay with me!

VLADIMIR: Did I ever leave you?

ESTRAGON: You let me go.”

I used to think

that even the worst of us

are worth fighting

and even dying for.

I used to stand in grocery lines

and think that the whiny stranger

trying to pass off

expired coupons for pork rinds

was worth not passing judgement over.

I used to think

every one of these lives

had weight and mattered,

obese with meaning

if only because they were humanity.

I wash my hands of them.

I wash my hands of you.

We are all on our own.

The fact is that all of these wishes are not little wishes at all. Consider what it takes to produce leather bound books and gin and really good bread. So, perhaps the poet is being a bit ironic here, saying they are simple and meaning the opposite.

I am reminded that in rural Kentucky where I live, when I taught high school fifteen years ago, it was an excused absence for boys to go hunting in season.

Billy Bragg's version of this classic union song:<br> https://youtu.be/vbddqXib814

And the Kronos Quartet, too: https://youtu.be/3guwqZpimbk

My question would be "why". Why assess? Why put these into some hopeless Procrustean bed? Just observe and sing, off-key or not.

Here is a poem I netted from your poem. Letting go

Cuddling

Sun and shadow

Surrounding

Settling

Warming

A maybe moment.

the carpet in the picture that you can only pick up with your eyes and a metaphor.

I love the word cuddle. Sounds exaclty the way it means.

Yes. Corporate greed is a big, fat foot thick ceiling that only a few may negotiate.

An invitation to a thinking sumo match. Pushing, pushing, pushing then release.

tribal

scribal

scribbles

one

alone

undone

It is so easy to plant the seeds too deep or too shallow or too early or too late.

All our writings

are at the margins

and part of using words

is passing over

theose liminal thresholds

and planting

paradise

in our own gardens.

I think that if Oppenheimer had practiced using his imagination in contemplating a nuclear weapon that perhaps we might not have used it. Then we would not be the only country in the world to have used nukes in war.

Might is the operative word. People hate poetry in the worst kind of way. They look at, if they do at all, with the quiet disdain of of noting its irrelevance and moving on.

War and interpretation.

definition and example. thank you.

a first run at the definition of 'politicization' (hell, it sure doesn't look right on the page as letters)

This is the reason why I write what I write: to be part of this profound ecosystem of connection. Thanks to Dan's analysis now have a way to use this new mental model.

I have always uncritically extolled slime-mold, but now I see they both have issues. They are both problematic, one is worse than the other. Pick your poison?

The relevant quote. In plague times it doesn't matter what your profession is--it all went bang and boom.

Nice, new genre. Fit that right next to cli-fi.

This sounds like a 21st century skill par excellente

This is Rao's flex--he connects the unconnected. It is a great mental model. He did the same thing with Ricky Gervaise and The Office

To generate value, you have to decide how something is valuable to you. If you are working in a network/institution/job, those values are largely preset. This invitation to connect via annotation is about as value neutral as possible. It is of value to you, right, and you define that.

My values here?

1. understand and apply a new term in a new context
2. discover a good Internet rabbit hole
3. share with others why I value certain annotated text
4. to reciprocate
5. to find others who like to reciprocate

You can share my values if you like or you can lay out your own in a page note or respond to this page note.

Facts. But are they accurate facts? what is left out when you state the facts?

Now it's capital T.

Another way into the poem is to look at what Dickinson wants to pay attention to because of repetition. The "t's" for example in the first line. Tell, truth (lower case!),tell,it slant

Also this is advice to the poet, but remember she is telling this truth (lower case) to us slant so we need to be careful about jumping to conclusions about what the truth is.

Success /Circuit: repetition of s and soft c in an echo. Iambic af.

One stance to have is to be aware of Dickinson's metacognitive journey in most poems. So...what is D's overarching point about poetry as a craft, as a vehicle, as a way of being and knowing?

Dunno why. Am reminded of this quote-- “An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind.” Ghandi

Well...she does point to this as her occupation, what she is occupied with. So fun. She is occupied and she occupies. Noun and verb. She is occupied by possibility and she occupies that possibility.

I love the term "adjacent possible" as applied to poetry. Here is Stuart Kaufman's definition and Steven Johnson's application in his book Where Good Ideas Come From. In poetry the adjacent possible is metaphor. Poets like Dickinson play the metagame by jamming house next to poetry. What sparks fly when you do that? Can they help you fly?

I=eye? This possibility didn't occur to me until I heard the reading by Al.

This is an example of one of the 'possibilities' Miss D mentions. She uses a simile that the house's chambers, inner rooms, are possibly rooms but tree-like, cedar like. Maybe an adjacent mention of the Cedars of Lebanon.

Never hurts to flatter the reader.

And this is what I do, this is what poets do: we gather Paradise. Again a reference to Blake's invocation in "Milton."

I use this invocation every morning when I write. It is the adjacent possibility of the creative act and I dwell in it to draw power from it and I advise you to share it with me:

O Muse, Come into my hand by your mild power descending down the Nerves of my right arm, from out of the Portal of my brain where by your ministry the Eternal Great Humanity Divine planted his Paradise.

The gambrels are the trusses that hold up the everlasting roof and they, the gambrels, are "of" the sky. The sky holds itself up forever and a day. The hint that the gambrels might refer to a horse's rear legs is interesting. Perhaps the idea that poetry is alive, kinetic, and awake unlike the static house of prose.

We all know that the roof is the most vulnerable part of any house once the foundation has been established. Only the house of poetry has an everlasting roof.

Unseen. Unable to be "breeched" is what impregnable meant early on from the French. Question: why is it important for us to know that these poetic chambers cannot be seen? Makes them special. Makes poetry special. That seems a bit infantile as an argument.

Also might be a play of wit: you cannot breach what you cannot see. You cannot come to know what you cannot see. Or perhaps Dickinson is arguing that prose is so plebeian as to believe that what you cannot see does not exist where poetry makes clearer what is impregnable to eye.

Here is a poem that fits Dickinson's, Pattiann Rogers' "In Order To Perceive"

Here is a really spot on journal article that addresses why poetry and metaphor might be superior to prose: "A Fairer House than Prose: Poetry, Science, and the Metaphors that Bind".

I think the references to Ricoeur and Lakoff/Turner/Johnson are apt and useful as well as practical.

She judges that poetry's possibilities are better that Prose's certitudes. In "Proverbs of Heaven and Hell" Blake wrote a similar axiom: The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.

In what sense fairer? Shakespeare does this ambiguity thing: fair as in beauty or fair as in business or neither or something else?

The possibility of Archimedes with his lever and fulcrum, ""Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the earth." Begs the question which is Dickinson, the lever or the fulcrum. Is the poem the lever? Is the poet the fulcrum? And what is being moved?

Blake and Dickinson connnected throught the "ancient of days"

Reminds me of Blake's invocation at the beginning of "Milton"

Come into my hand

By your mild power; descending down the Nerves of my right arm From out the Portals of my Brain, where by your ministry The Eternal Great Humanity Divine planted his Paradise,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baE6nF37bSI

taking in not taking from.

This abstraction doesn't work for me.

peer through that sweet splash peer through its sweet splash sing through that sweet splash.

Just experiment toward the concrete and see if it works better. If not, do whatevs.

Love the tentative rhythm and intent that seems to imply maybe never.

Reminded of the contrariness of the story of the prodigal son. The goal is not to disagree, but rather just to be.

Didn't John Berryman have a series of poems about a 'mad farmer'? Or maybe he was just a mad poet.

Notice all the caesuras in the poem?

karmic

Berry has an extraordinary unfinished way of ending this poem with a voice that is high and then low, "one" and then "way" and which is another iconoclastic bombastic Truth.

No truer words than the realization that we are the sum of our destinies and the gods who has driven us mad.

This is a valid metaphor for sharing with older voters.

Why should the rich take this leap of faith. What they believe in is Mammon, not mutual aid.

Recycling the failed terms of the Republican part seems a dead headed approach.

This seems secondary here. I thing it is primary.