What Do I Have to Write About?

It's pretty obvious that I enjoy writing. It's also pretty obvious that I have been ignoring my blog.

I have been writing. Writing for pay and for the business. Just not writing what I want to write. Which leads to the question: What do I have to write about?

I have a lot to say, but what do I want to say? What do I want to put out into the digital abyss in the hopes that it resonates with someone, anyone? And what do I want to safeguard? I mean, really...how much does the world need to know about me?

I've been pondering this for about year now. And I guess I've come up with the conclusion that it doesn't matter. I'm just going to write for the sake of writing. Life is a big enough adventure with lots of writing foder.

Not a mirror reflecting
But a woman projecting
I'm defending endangered pleasures
Mine

© 2013 by Tammy Newman. All rights reserved.

Knotted

Clenched
And knotted
Racing to a goal
Reaching high
And bending further
Surprised at the distance
Beaming
Arms raised high
Pumping pumping
Almost there
Check on the bucket
It's done and doing

An ode to the business I co-own with a dear friend. We recently franchised and our first franchise location is opening in Nov. Also inspired by Theme Thursday's Knot. It feels good to be writing again. Hoping I can find more time for it.

Tipped (Draft 1)

Mary Kline-Misol: Chicken Act, Balance Ball

I have no balance
Juggling on a ball
My feet try hard to grip
Running running running
Circles
Going nowhere
Battery dying

Chargeable existence
Seeking source
What feeds me?
Disciplined pausing
Rusty pipe reaching
Stretching to center
Directing
Formally directed
New shoes

Once consuming
Shelved in order
Looking for space
Fragile center
I claim me
Matter is rising
Downward dog

This is inspired by a recent effort to reclaim balance in my life, by Magpie Tales, and ABC Wednesday's letter D. I already have plans to revise this but thought I would post the first draft anyway, which is why it's a different photo than the Magpie photo. Look for the new post...soon I hope. :)

Blue Memory

Climbing down the 600 steps to Hades for the second time, I watch my step. You would think that climbing down would be easy, but it's not. Careful to miss what the donkeys before me left, I take my time. I'm in no hurry to get there.

It's hot. Litres of water are being consumed but with little effect. I'm tired and sticky. Sexy. Braided pigtails clinging to my neck. Freckles rapidly darkening in the sun. Why am I doing this to myself again?

Why didn't I just stay at the top with the blue domed churches?  Just to prove I can? Is that reason enough?

Although I've been here, done this and have the t-shirt packed with me somewhere, the view stuns me as it did seven years prior and I find myself elated. Crystal waters lay out before me like a blanket, enveloping the tip of an active still volcano, grey in it's ash.


An excerpt from my novel in progress, about my second visit to Santorini...In response to this week's Theme Thursday prompt of Blue.

Snap Shots

Cute and pudgy
Tiny toes
Little coos
Shoot me now

Running energy
Beaming face
Sundresses
Shoot me now

Shy wallflower
Bored by school
Boys with coodies
Shoot me now

Jeans and sandals
Def Leopard
Sockhops
Shoot me now


Higher moments of learning
Braided pigtails
Dreams and writing
Shoot me now

Greece and Italy
Backpacking
Missionary
Shoot me now

E-Learning
Remote employee
Home office mine
Shoot me now

Entrepreneur
Humble confidence
Love of a man
Shoot me now

Tomorrow
Buckle up
Ride's not over yet
Shoot me then

This is in response to Theme Thursday's prompt of camera.

Superhero

Faster than a speeding bullet
You are everywhere
Always with me

Through atomkinesis
I almost hear your voice
A whisper over storm

A pryokinetic ghost rider
What you sow is ablaze
Through cracked clay of your making

The empathic watcher
Vitakinetic
All is well

Resurrected
Spawn new life in me




This is in response to Sunday Scribblings' post of Superhero and ABC Wednesday's letter V. I'm not sure about this one. It may be too abstract, too out of the context of what is going on in my mind. Maybe some tweaking is in order....We'll see.



Electrical storm and fireball captured on camera © Phil Bland

Friday

TGIF indeed. My first thought this morning was an almost weepy relief of "it's really truly friday!"

What a hard week. I'm sure I have felt this drained before. I just can't recall it. A reflex maybe. I'm sure I must have felt like this that night when I got home from the store to no dinner, more work, and my car stuck in the drive. I remember that I felt bad. I just don't remember how that felt.

At this moment I feel like a knot loosening. Slowly because I don't really remember how to relax.

I'm finally sitting in my backyard. I've been wanting to be here all day. I'm writing as butterflies flutter around my head. Not as majestic as one would think when you find yourself ducking with each dive bomb at your skull. Pretty but doing nothing for my levels of tension.

I'm not one of those people who serenely sit still as a bright winged insect perch on their hand, shoulder, nose. No. I pull muscles as I jump, flinch, duck, jerk out of their way.

Finally, they've rested and I can enjoy their visit...from a distance. All the better to appreciate their beauty. Don't misunderstand and think I don't enjoy the outdoors or even mind sharing my backyard with God's other creatures. I just find sudden fly byes and attacks stressful.

There are tiny strawberries growing in my lawn and ants climbing my chair...possibly my toes as well. Buttercups, pansies, dandelions, and lupines. My lawn is a derelict beauty.

Ugh. My nemesis is on the move again. I'm going to seriously hurt myself. Sigh. I'm tired. Not physically. Mentally. This week took a lot out of me.

Something is eating the rhubarb. Maybe those kamikaze butterflies with diamonds on the tips of their antenna.

I'm hidden in the weeds and contented to be here. Taking what repreave offered from Friday evening and the promise of weekend.

Dah! Seriously, must they fly so low? Why insist on being unfriendly? How did I offend them so? Sneak attacks from behind are uncalled for!

We went to a butterfly farm in Martinique once. You can imagine how I fared. Shoulders raised and hood wrapped tight around my head. I imagine I was the fastest observer they met.

Tomorrow I'll google the butterfly diet. Stubbron I'll flinch and jump but go nowhere tonight. Right here I sit.

Coffee Shop Affair

I'm late
You don't see
I sneak to the back
How appropriate

Inching
I come closer
Oh
She smiles
Jealous I bow
Shuffle my feet
You expected me
Right?

Oh
She leaves
Beaming
Stretch onto my toes
Inching
Beside you now

Swooning
In a coffee shop
I smirk at your boldness
Oh
You smell so good
Dressed in green
You look like candy
My Mexican

 Get your own coffee cozy @ waysideviolet's shop on Etsy.

This post was in response to Theme Thursday's prompt, Candy. Coffee is my candy and as of now, my favorite is the Mexican coffee at Red Whale. I have a green cozy made of fleece that a friend got me at the local Eco Store, but love the one for sale above as well.

Head Butt Eve

He looked at what He created
And it was good
It was good

Silvery snake tongue
Try the apple hun

She bought it, ate it up
Then shared her cup

When I get to Heaven
I'm gonna head butt Eve

Pieces from a "song" I wrote years ago when a friend commented that she wanted to head butt eve. It made me laugh. I was reminded of it today when I saw mom's magpie posting so I am piggy backing on her insightful post.

Check out Magpie Tales for other great inspirations!

I should also add that I am a Christian and love my God. No disrespect is meant. :)

T

Time
Traverses
Tumultuously

Tying
Tendons
Tight

Tense
Torment
Total

Tenacious
Toes
Trail

Trying
To
Tether

Time
Tick
Tock

This post was inspired by ABC's Wednesday's letter T prompt.

Savouring Toes and Shiny Knight

Picnic and a blanket fort
Peacocking his building bent
She prepares the mealy banquet

Shoeless in the moment
Twirl on savouring toes
Spontaneous tangos

Falling angels in the
Blanket's wrinkle
Tipping gently bowl

He tames dragon shadows
On a fluttering wall
Her shiny knight tall

Inspired by ABC Wednesday's letter S, Sunday Scribblings' Dragon, the Magpie Tales picture shown above, and Theme Thursday's Wrinkle. Click each to participate and see how these prompts inspired others.

Also inspired by a date a friend of mine had recently where they had a picnic and built a blanket fort. Giggle. Sweet Romance. Love it!

Plenty of Fishes

Plenty of fish
In the sea
Big variety of fishes
Small variety of fishes

Cutle Fish
Octopus
Plenty of fish
In the Sea

This was written in response to this week's Magpie Tales. Visit the Magpie Tales site to participate or visit others who have.

This was also inspired by a sign I saw in Naxos, Greece a few years ago. It made me giggle then. It makes me giggle now.

Quandary

Honey and Lemon
Stir
Tink clink chink

Swirling black
Sip
Ahhh

Rattle
Bone on bone
Glances

Silence blankets
A drone ahead
Blah blah blah

Heads nod
Lulling or agreeing?
It's a mystery

Sip
Hours of minutes
Ladies room beckoning

Shift
Courage swells
Fades

Sigh
Sip
Shift


A very silly response to ABC Wednesday's letter Q: a conference room quandary, Theme Thursday's Mystery, Sunday Scribblings' Courage, and Magpie Tale's photo of a saucer (bone china?). Click each link to see other creative juices flowing.

Pink

Chewing it up
Spreading it out
Just right
Blow
Blow harder
Tongue pushing
Cheeks swelling
Bubble expanding
Pink growing
Pride swelling
Pop!

**************************

Pink is for girls
Blue is for boys
Red light stop
Delightfully color blind

Green is the new black

In response to Theme Thursday's prompt: PINK! and ABC Wednesday's prompt: P is for... Check each out to participate.

Bicycle

I’m proud to say that I want to be like my mother when I grow up. Ha; when I grow up. My mother has always been the youngest person I know: so full of life and ready for the next adventure. She taught me that life is truly what you make it. It can be about the picket fences and the nine to five or it can be about doing what you really want to. Don’t get me wrong, I think picket fences are cute and I’ve done my time but I wanted and still want more.

My friend Anna had moved to Japan, after living in England and Lithuania for some time. Working in youth hostels and mission fields she’s a gypsy I admire. I traveled during my time off, while she lived the travel and has the mud stains to prove it.

She was teaching English to a small school in Osaka and invited me to visit for the nth time. “I don’t know. It’s so far, costs a fortune, and honestly Japan has never been on my list.”

Never been on my list? What was wrong with me? I decided I needed to go, to be reckless, to do something frivolous because quitting my job to go on a six week trip to the Philippines wasn’t reckless enough. I needed to get out of my not-so-comfortable cubical and mundane every day.

So, I bought a ticket and found myself on a 13 hour flight to Japan. Hour six is the hardest. It’s when you realize that you no longer want to be in that can and know there is nowhere to go. Burdened with many forms of entertainment, forced sleep is what got me through it.

Anna met me at the airport, chauffeured by Maki, a now dear to me friend and Geisha. Excited to see someone from home, Anna was anxious to show me her Osaka, which of course meant playing Russian roulette with Octopus.

We hopped on her wicker basket adorned bicycle and started to pedal up the street. Wind in my hair, ass falling asleep from the metal bag holder over the rear wheel. I was on top of the world and thought I was Rose in that iconic scene from Titanic. Swerving here and there, off balance, the air tasted like frivolity, recklessness, and pollution.

I was grinning from ear to ear in my bliss.

Anna turned to me after we veered into traffic a second time and said, “Um, can you put your feet in? I’m trying to pedal here.”

An excerpt from my novel in progress, in response to this week's Theme Thursday's prompt.

His Girl Friday

Movies
Pizza
Cheesies and wine
Pjs
Snuggles
Chips and alpine

His Girl Friday

Response to ABC Wednesdays

Bottle

Sunday.

Bleck.

Tomorrow she leaves for a week. It sounds exciting: Washington, DC. But it’s work and it’s away from him.

Their relationship is new; comfortable and exciting. They hold hands while strolling, link arms when talking. She drapes her legs over him while reading and dreaming. He holds her tight.

A week without his snuggles. Boo.

If only she could bottle him.

Response to Theme Thursday: Bottle

When Pigs Fly There Will Be Latte

Eight years it’s been. Eight years since she canceled her cable. Seven years since she first unplugged her TV for weeks at a time. Seven years of watching DVDs of her favorite TV shows or memorized movies. She learned to paint, play guitar, craft, write, and spent much of her time reading. Eight years of missing pop culture references.

“It’s been a good run”, she thinks as she stands with her boyfriend ordering cable.

“The first six months are free, and you can have the technician install up to three boxes at no extra charge.” The agent tells them.

“Wonderful”, her boyfriend responds, “one in the TV room, one in the living room, and one upstairs in the bedroom.”

“The bedroom?!” She exclaims. “I’ve never had a TV in my bedroom”.

“Really? Never?”

“Never.”

“You’ve never had a TV in your bedroom?”

“That’s right.”

“I bet you have.”

“You’re on. I bet you a latte.”

“OK. You have one in there now.”

“What?” She muses. They are doing renovations in the bedroom and she wonders if he has moved a TV upstairs without her knowing...

...The light of realization dawns.

Crap. There may be no TV in her bedroom, but she is sleeping in the TV room.

Laughing she relinquishes.

“The technician will be there on Wednesday. Enjoy your latte sir.”

Response to Sunday Scribblings

What are you looking at?

What does the mirror see
When she looks at me?
Am I a reflection of who I want to be?

Theme Thursday: Mirror

The Medium is The Message

Sparkly marbles hold your stare
Silence blankets my smile
Naked in innocence
Standing imposingly before you
With a star beating in my chest

The medium is the message
I am yours

Sunday Scribblings - message