Porthole

23rd week of the year 179

28 agosto

51 degrees at 9-ish. Typical for late August.

August 28, 1963 "I have a Dream"

Ate cake. Ate chicken. Making rice. Enough kitchen aromas for now.

Today is Wash day. Have stuff set aside. No rush. Should be sunny and breezy and not hot today. Good day to clean.

Important to write/post a new/old poem or story today. End of the month...

65 sunny puff-lambies-in-the-sky degrees at 12:12. Oh my bleating heart.

Wash done.

62 degrees at 9:30. I don't think it got above 74 today. A two-day respite.

KE: "Your opinion sit softly on my shoulder, sloughs off with the gentlest breeze." Thinking of folks who ghost us here.

55 degrees at midnight. G'nite.

27 agosto

59 cool degrees at 9 am. Market Day in Missoula.

To QotD: "I avoided birthday parties by age 4. Refused to have one. I still avoid them.

I will avoid the Birthday Bash here at WDC. Too much trauma, too much drama. I feel like a dog on the 4th of July. No thanks.

Interestingly my fav number is 22. And my last party was a 'surprise' when I turned 22. Haven't had one since."

Thoughts for 1st Chapter: Hug the ent but mind the thorns. We aren't triffids. I hug the Tree; the tree hugs back. 4 Kids: taking my elm to school "Elm and I".

Cool partly cloudy day. Missed the melons and peaches. Irina was almost out of everything. Got a lemon pastry. Saw Nancy... as a vendor she's skipping the market until winter. I'm sitting in Butterfly Herbs after inhaling my peach-cardamom shake. Nancy came in so I shared my concern about my emotions. She's run away so she knows the feeling. Plus, she's my age. I also scored half her hummus sandwich as she insisted.

Bought 15 sticks of incense for $1. 12 different scents including patchouli, sandlewood and rose.

Shortest poem ever written?

"How do I love thee, let me count the ways".

__________

I'm not doing well emotionally. But how can anyone care if no one knows?

Checked on flights to Phnom Penh, Saigon and Bangkok. Thai visas are now 45 days, so... time to book, plan and go!

Write a 'pregunta', Bianca exclaims... maybe 8 lines set aflame? A red wasp?

70 degrees and breezy at 4 pm. Never did get hot. Folks at the Rootfest today are prolly happy.

At times I felt as if 'pelos de gato' were caressing me. Less than a mist or a spray, just intermitant and very fine moisture.

https://semanariouniversidad.com/opinion/espanol-de-costa-rica-baldazo-y-pelo-de...

58 degrees at 23:35. It's been cool for hours so it's getting cool inside in spite of me cooking: yellow butter cake with sesame seeds and chicken wrapped in bacon with blackberry sauce and onions.

Tomorrow is Wash Day. Finished Vice Versa episode 7 (Sunset Orange). It's been a strange day of odd ups-and-downs.

26 agosto

76 degrees at 3:33. Bry came today but we didn't get much done (my fault). She comes back on Tuesday so I have the weekend to get ready. We did get things out of the closet.

I didn't bother posting the Cramp yesterday "3 Brazilian haiku [179.72]"  as I didn't feel like axing a bitem. Today the prompt is a clerihew, which is a humorous form. We'll see...

Lunch was salisbury steak with mushrooms, which was very good. Later: popcorn.

Sat with Laxmi, Ernie and Gayl (they used to run a hostel in town).

Generated at https://theyfightcrime.org/

He's a witless playboy boxer who believes he can never love again. She's a vivacious psychic wrestler who don't take no shit from nobody. They fight crime!

He's a globe-trotting arachnophobic jungle king for the 21st century. She's a sarcastic African-American museum curator in the witness protection scheme. They fight crime!

He's a lonely dishevelled senator searching for his wife's true killer. She's a man-hating kleptomaniac pearl diver who can talk to animals. They fight crime!

He's an old-fashioned moralistic vagrant living undercover at Ringling Bros. Circus. She's a high-kicking communist journalist with a song in her heart and a spring in her step. They fight crime!

He's an old-fashioned Catholic rock star on a mission from God. She's a radical Bolivian nun looking for love in all the wrong places. They fight crime!

"Take Joyce Carol Oates’s flash fiction story Widow’s First Year. The story reads, simply: “I kept myself alive.”"

We need friends is the prompt at "Invalid Item" 

Thought: Nature would take care of plastic, eventually... Lots of plastic will be left behind, but nature will have plenty of time to adapt. Microbes that feed on plastic will likely develop.

80 degrees at the Vesper Hour. It that's the high then it's low.

63 degrees with 66% hummidty... almost midnight.

Entered "Anatomy of a pochette [50]"  into Brenpoet's Poetic Traditions.

25 agosto

61 degrees this morning at 9. Cooled down nicely outside and we did have some showers.

🌋

No volcano activity today in Montana... that I know of.

79 degrees at 2 pm and clouds are gathering. Is it a thunderfest? Am I invited?

We got sprinkles.

69 degrees at 9 o'clock. I took out one bag of garbage and sauntered across the river to the Thursday Night Out event in Caras Park. Wandered around and came back. At least I got out.

Earlier I baked chicken with blackberry sauce and sesame seeds. Added the drippings to a cup of water, a half-cup of rice et voila...

I wrote 3 Brazilian haikus. Not much but something.

Orioles win 4/3 over ChiSox in 11. Stowers home run (his first) ties game in bottom of 9th after two outs.

$4.09/gal gasoline.

61 degrees at midnight!

A comment I have a problem with: "If we wish for good things and are a Christian, God will be there for us." I won't say who, because it's a very common belief among Americans and widespread here at WDC. It's thoughts-and-prayers and not actions (see James 2:14–26). And it's exclusive like a gated community.

https://www.theologyofwork.org/new-testament/general-epistles/james-faith-works/...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/mind-and-soul/church-talk-i-question-religio...

In response to Cubby's post: "I never wanted to be a writer. Seriously. I was happy to be a gardener and a reader. Something happened in '99 and I became one. In '03 I started a journal. Showed up here in '05.

I basically agree with Stik. I have many interests. These days mostly traveling and writing. I've never had the sustained focus to edit, reedit, promote, submit, which is what is needed to be published and considered a professional writer.

That said... advice is nice and support is wonderful; but, I write because I have to."

Two responses to Neva:

1. "Any short writing... just write. I'm mostly amazed and sometimes amused where my pen takes me.

Posted prompts may force me down neglected paths but I tend to just let my mind wander and voila! something emerges from the recesses of light or dark."

2. "I see the struggle with superstition and tradition presented in Thai TV programs all the time.

In the US I see the fear of the unknown future in the adherence and devotion to the past. "

24 agosto

64 degrees at 7:37. The 15% chance of rain is washing the windows, rumbling in the alleys, swaying the locust trees with blustery blasts from the east. Woke me up. I opened the door to get this place aired out.

Shopped. Remembered to get scrub pads. Bought eggs... not cheap. But Post Raisin Bran was on sale.

15:45: 83°F NE breezy @ 14 mph, showers forecast this evening? Any day under 90 is a blessing.

Wrote some doublets; need to write some more; want to write a good one. Practice doesn't always equal perfect or even progress. We'll see. "Doublets [179.70]"  Posted on the Newsfeed and got some feedback.

Going on 10 pm, 70 degrees.

Ate corn-on-the-cob from Saturday. Not bad, but fresh is best.

It's time to post for contests. If bitems are needed... old works don't necessarily fit if prompts are narrow. I haven't written to every form, every trope, every genre. Maybe I should, but with possibly 10,000 'titles' over 22 years I'm not exactly a newbie.

66°F going in midnight. Wet and breezy.

One stray click and lost over an hours worth of work...

Views, reviews but no ribbons:

14 lines: 1561128
20 lines: 1561139
12 lines: 1572750
17 lines: 1703972 (has been submitted before) Last looked at, continue from here

Book: 1563173

Views, no reviews:

12 lines: 1586507

Old poll: 1620097



23 agosto

61 sunny degrees at 09:40. I woke up earlier but slept in a bit. Bry came at 10 yesterday so I was up at 8. I sleep best in the morning.

Weird waking dream but not threatening. Didn't sweat as much last night. Sometimes I'm drenched.

Sweet coffee.

My sister's birthday.

To Jayne: "Good advice. Plus, I do need to make folders (an organizational trick). I have no clue where some things are stored. I cross-filed poems years ago but didn't keep it up. Because I usually write 365+ pieces/year (this is an 'off' year) and I've been here 17 years (writing for 23... since May '99) I have written over 7,000 during that time and over 10,000 total (a wild guess). It's why 'everything' is numbered and dated and have unique titles (I use all 30+ letters of the roman alphabet). No one cares but me, but it helps.

I'd love to have a secretary (and an accountant and a house-keeper and a...). I have 10 reams of paper but no printer. If I printed stuff at the library I'd end up living there!"

87 at 5:05. Ate in God's Waiting Room. Chicken and quinoa was very good. Scored a bag of bacon. Sat with a couple I barely know. Took out money from the atm because it's my home bank. $10 bills.

Orioles won; hanging in there.

The dragonet/wyvern flames in the west, the glow captured by clouds scuddering east. What news of the hatchling will they bear?

Written as a 'pi' but not about pie... "A hatchling... [69]" 

72 @ midnight. Hoping it cools down. Still a tad warm inside for sleeping.

22 agosto

62° this morning.

Sore... maybe due to lifting a box. My body just isn't very forgiving.

Up date after Bry's visit... hope to move forward with decluttering. She's stronger than I am.

87°F at 14:10. if it stays under 90 for the daily high this week we'll be past the worse heat of the summer.

Bry helped move some stuff to the dumpster. My back complained about every time I bent over. IT helps to have someone coming in. She'll be back on Friday at 10. By noon it's too hot to work in my place.

Meatloaf and corn-on-the-cob for lunch. Chatted with various friends.

To Tina [edited]: "Is the contest named yet? I make contests a 'favorite', but until it's on-line and open I can't do that.

Have you found poets to review poetry yet, and story-tellers to review stories?

I find it disheartening when contests don't have limits but the judges only award E-rated 'roses are red' or bible-school 'Jack and Jill'.

I've read some very good traditional stuff... but if creativity or anything uncomfortable is going to be outright dismissed then many of us need to know upfront.

Being 'open' around here [doesn't always translate into] accepting or tolerant.

Project Axe:

No r/r
"Brown eyes [#28 Mark]" 
"This and every November [#4 Gary Mc]" 
"Final chords [#31 Myrt]" 
"Water lily [#33 Bonnie]" 
"Dental work [#25 José Enrique]" 
One r/r
"Gypsy [#30]"  (unpublished elsewhere)
"Walk among these hills [#34 Kelly Hart]" 
"Blue iris [#26 Irene Blumen] " 
"In the barber's chair [#24 Malcolm]" 
"All things sweet and Hungarian [#22]" 

It's a pleasant 80°F at 18:30. Pleasant = as long as I don't exert myself. My pee was golden earlier, a sign of dehydration. I drink lots of water, tea, coffee. I sweat a lot too. I average two showers/day.

74°F at 8 pm after brief showers.

Re a comment by huser:rinsoxy: "I do have these [old items mentioned above] stored in a book entry and I could make new book entries for each one if needed; but, many contests demand bitems. Also... some of these aren't too bad, and it would be nice to get feedback from WDC.

When these came out I wasn't too concerned. It was a "NaNoWriMo" effort on my part and the writing, editing, choosing, and putting my own chapbook together was enough work. I did it, but 'marketing' here wasn't on my mind. Blogville was dead in 2013 and I don't believe there was a Newsfeed.

Plus... I don't think WDC understood blended writing forms like prose-poems or haibun. Still don't.

I could write a potential Pulitzer Prize piece and some folks would still be focused on word-count, line-count, contest rules, grammar, spelling, anything other than whether the actual writing was worthy of being read.

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