Twitter Foray

So, I was surfing blogs yesterday and found a posting about Twitter at cbethblog. I am aware that Twitter exists, but have never indulged. So I thought, what the heck, I'll go check out what all the fuss is about.

I signed up for a Twitter account and, just like my blog, I may not be nearly as popular as my secret heart desires. The plain fact is that I just don't know that many people. *sigh*

But, if you're into Twitter and you're at all interested you can follow me here on Twitter. It may not be life-changing conversation, or even scintillating. In fact while I'm working it's likely to be a lot of snarky comments about medical transcription (which is a subject I know you're all just dying to hear about...hanging on the edge of your seat, I'm sure).

But maybe I'll manage to slip in some witty asides, or some sage wisdom. You'll never know ulness you come follow me!

Hope to see you there....

Novel First Lines Quiz

If you go to this link you can take a fun little quiz about famous opening lines of novels. It's 13 questions. Unfortunately it's not interactive - you have to write down your answers then compare them to the correct answers at the end. But it's still interesting.

I managed 8 out of 13 correct, but considering I haven't read many of the books, I think that's pretty good!

A Sonnet

I spent part of the weekend sorting through all of the papers I've written while completing my BA degree and putting them all on a flash drive for safe keeping.

One of these papers was a sonnet analysis I did as part of my British Literature course. I chose to analyze the last sonnet in the sonnet sequence: Pamphilia to Amphilanthus. For those of you who are not English majors, this may sound obscure. And it is. The sonnet sequence is 84 sonnets and 15 song appended to a prose fiction work called The Countess of Mountgomeries Urania, published in 1621 by Lady Mary Wroth. I chose to analyze the final sonnet in the series.

The reason I'm telling you all of this is because by the time I finished the paper I was loopy and because the instructor has a sense of humor and I was feeling cheeky, I wrote a sonnet of my own. It matches the rhyme scheme and meter of the original sonnet and summarizes Lady Wroth's concept fairly nicely. So I thought I would share it with you today!


Lady Wroth wrote sonnets about virtue,
And claimed the standard to men should apply.
Pamphilia was a queen, and to her lover was true,
But her lover, with her example, would not comply.
She begged, and cajoled, and pleaded her case,
And, at first, he was not so impressed,
But she continued to love him despite his disgrace,
Until his fidelity he finally confessed.
In the end she tells Love to rest in relief,
And to enjoy this true love forever.
To be faithful to one love is not such a grief,
But a gift to be equally endeavored.
At last Pamphilia, her lover’s true honor has won,
And Amphilanthus is resigned to no more have fun. (ha!)

Your Six Word Poems

Here are the poems I constructed using your collection of six-word lines. I had enough to make two poems.

1.
Bird song wakes the slumbering sun.

Fresh blossoms of hopeful new beginnings,
Would-be flowers exuberated beneath melting snow;
Winter whimpers at spring’s cheerful promise.

Breezes soft, nights cool, dreams aloft.
Sun, wind, water, sand, moon, tide;
Rainy day woolly clad comfortable ease.

Wind blows birds and cleanses me.
Breathing the breezes, winter is done.


2.
Spring brings change, but not enough.

Lawn to mow, golf to play;
Softball Sunday my knees are shot.

Spring nice, but I want summer!

Patio lunching, warmed by the sun,
Beloved late night cakes and friends.

Cherry blossoms blow away a lonesome
Wedding cake, mine too I hope.


I had fun doing this. I hope you did too! Thanks to everyone for participating.

Six Words Poetry

I'm borrowing this idea from some of the women on the International Center for Women Playwrights listserv. It was lots of fun over there, so I thought it would be fun to continue it here.

The idea is that you send me 6 words that typify your current mood, or springtime, or your mood about springtime. Or just 6 words you like. Once I receive enough of them, I will put the groups of words together to form poems. It's an exercise in putting together random thoughts in order to make something meaningful.

Of course, this requires a lot of participation! So post your 6 words in comments, then send your friends over to do the same! If we get enough participation, I'll post the poems next Friday.

I'll start things off:

Winter whimpers at spring's cheerful promise


Send as many as you like, and remember to tell your friends!

Water Still Rising

Just a quick update....the river is higher this morning. It look like it's about 5 or 6 feet from breaching the dike. I'll check it again later this afternoon. Yikes.

Flood Pix

Here are some pix of the imminent flooding. It's getting a little scary, though these pix don't do it justice.

Here's hoping the dike holds.