Porthole

Morning. It's not Good Morning till after coffee.

33 degrees at 7:03 a.m. Low clouds shrouding Mt. Dean Stone.

Back to itchy and dry swelling legs? Headaches? I hope not. Odd dream. It's a noisy Monday morning. Bridge work started early.

Better get something done today!

Blogs visited:

15. artimismad
16. sinbad
17. tigger
18. maurice1054
19. judithd
20. reamie (here many years but new to me?)
21. joycag (after 2 month? hiatus)
22. siscok (first blog entry in 6 years?)
23. jimminycritic

A comment left at Sinbad's blog:

"Here in Missoula Montana some friends have mentioned that I should shop at the Good Food Store because the food is a better quality.

But they have money to spend on food, a car to go there, or a car to haul bulk items from warehouses (like Costco).

Then covid hit and they thought that getting food delivered would be grand, ordering on-line would be better. It's 'convenient' they said.

Must be nice to have a phone, a car, your own bathroom...

I shouldn't complain because I have a cheap place to stay and the buses are free.

But... the trend towards privatization is a major problem as is the gobbling up of property by the wealthy who weren't properly taxed for 3 years.

This has been a trend for 40 years in the USA. The concept of working as a community isn't dead but it's on oxygen and gasping."

Not eloquent, but I haven't had a second cup of coffee yet. I'm normally not up this early.

Weekly goals:

Progress 1. Clean and unclutter. Take things down to the dumpster.
Yep. 2. Visit friends every day. Have a friend visit.
To post office. 3. Get across the river to the post office and library.
Nope. 4. Send a postcard.
Good progress. 5. Write every day. Flesh out my silkpunk characters.

38 degrees at 9:15 but it'll warm up. I took a nap. Now 47, sunny and warming up at 11:45.

Just got this in the mail :

Dark Poetry

This badge was given to you by: 🌑 Darleen - QoD Congratulations on winning Second Place in Round 44 of "Invalid Item"  with "Call us Boss" !

There were 24 entries and I was entry #24. This was written out of desperation on the last day. I should not do that. But still... 2nd place. I wrote for another contest at the last moment because I had made a promise. This month? I promise not to wait until the last moment.

55 at 1:35 p.m. We easily warm up 30 degrees in a day. Thursday is supposed to warm up to 83 after a low of 42.

A Newsfeed comment I left:

""Winter Morning Walks" by Ted Kooser really hit me. Not just the story behind it (postcards to a friend while fighting cancer) but because I lived in Nebraska. I know that landscape.

Richard Hugo's "31 Letters and 13 poems" gave me the affirmation that writing poetic letters to friends was more than okay. It drew me to Missoula. He taught at U. Montana.

I think any work in translation. I was gobsmacked by Rabindranath Tagore and Ko Un. Or works in another language like Jose Marti (Cuban) or Verlaine (French). Another time, another place, another language, an 'alien' culture. They all add to my own experiences.

Although my first exposure to reading as a young child was Basho, Busan and Issa, I didn't write poetry. Books and Plays from the Norwegians, Ibsen and Vasaas really influenced me. And "Cry the Beloved Country" by Alan Paton showed me that poetry and prose could be melded."

60 degrees at 5:05.

I need to make a list of poems that placed in contests: Grand, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, HM. I really should just make a small chapbook of them. Why? Because they have already been judged 'acceptable' by someone else.

Like: "Wavelengths [105] (17 lines)" . It received 3rd place in the Taboo Words contest for June '20. I came across it in the original form and thought... this is good... but forgot the new title and that it had actually won. By focusing on 'winners' of different contests it takes away the angst of deciding which of my own works are best. If asked why I included it I could shrug my shoulders and truthfully say, "so-and-so thought it was good.' Like the poem for Dark Dreamscape... it's not my favorite but it was chosen for 2nd place. I'm not about to argue with the Queen of Darkness. I value my flesh.

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