The Inner Life of Pets

Conversation overheard this morning just after I left for work: Magic: You may think you're going to get the spot on top of the chair, but it's mine, and I'm lying here to watch Mom drive out of the driveway.

Molly: Oh no you aren't - you always get that spot, and mom's really getting annoyed about that big squashed spot on the back of her chair because you're so heavy.

Magic: Any heaviness about me is pure muscle, you little fat fluff! Unlike you, who are so soft and wussy you can't even make it through the whole walk at night without Dad having to carry you.

Molly: Daddy likes carrying me! And I can't help it if my legs are shorter than yours and I get tired more easily.

Magic: You just need to toughen up, little sister. Why don't you get out of bed a little earlier tomorrow and I'll take you on my morning run around the yard?

Molly (sighing heavily): I really hate getting up in the morning. I love lying on my back underneath that nice ceiling fan mom and dad just bought. And ever since they got the king sized bed for us to share, there's all this room to stretch out! Mom hardly every kicks me in her sleep anymore.

Magic (yawning): I know what you mean. I've been sleeping a lot better since dad got those new down pillows - much more comfortable. Now, if we could just do something about his snoring...

Molly (snoring softly herself): Hmmm, you're right about that...let's just go back to bed.

Molly and Magic

More Games

Okay, I admit it, I've been lazy this week. Chalk it up to having company and too much work from my office job, but I've been diddling around online instead of doing any serious writing. Besides the book-blog haiku contest and the word cloud thing yesterday, I also found this site where you can play with magnetic words to create poetry. How addictive! I've never been one for computer games of any kind, but this one is just too much fun. Check out Passionate Soul, and Sacred Sisters, my fabulous creations! And go play yourself -it's much more fun than computer Solitaire, and you can at least feel like you're doing something creative!

My Word Cloud

This is my "word cloud," a neat design formed from some of the most often used words in my blog. I got this here, and this company prints up all manner of things with your word cloud on it, like T-Shirts, mugs, mouse pads, etc. I didn't buy anything (I'm tempted, though!) but it was fun to look at the words which appear the most, and they do jump out as some of the most meaningful ones. I was suprised that "coffee" wasn't really big, although since it's followed by the words "complete content," I think that gets the meaning across. "Life like little love"makes an interesting phrase of it's own. The "time traveling two" must be my husband and I (although the word "husband" appears in such small letters, I'm concerned that he's fading from the picture!) And it all finishes up with "years (big blank) young" at the end.

But my favorite message comes right in the first line, in a crescendo of word sizes. I'm taking this as my word cloud motto - "beautiful becca begin!"

The Power of Prose

Francine Prose's new book, Reading Like a Writer, is based on her theory that "the trick to writing is reading, carefully, deliberately, and slowly." Over at book-blog.com, Deborah Hamel has posted a haiku contest in which you must use the word "prose." The prize is - what else? - a copy of Prose's book! Anyway, here's my entry.

Study Prose -

edify writer's imagination

there are no cons

Now, I'm off to do some reading...

Poetry Thursday - Progress?

Within about five square miles of my home there are three new "strip malls" under construction - you know, the little strip of four or five small storefronts, which usually contain nothing you're remotely interested in stopping for - a cell phone store, a quickie haircut place, insurance, cigarettes. Everytime I see an empty section of earth being sacrificed for one of these, or for another supermarket, or Walmart, or gas station, my heart just sinks a little. Why do we need all these places to purchase things? Wouldn't it be so much better to surround ourselves with more land, to cherish those few acres of soil and pond and greenery that are left to us? This poem of Mary Oliver's perfectly reflects my feelings.

What Was Once the Largest Shopping Center in

Northern Ohio Was Built Where There Had Been

a Pond I Used To Visit Every Summer Afternoon

Loving the earth, seeing what has been done to it,

I grow sharp, I grow cold.

Where will the trilliums go, and the coltsfoot?

Where will the pond lilies go to continue living

their simple, penniless lives, lifting

their faces of gold?

Impossible to believe we need so much

as the world wants us to buy.

I have more clothes, lamps, dishes, paper clips

than I could possibly use before I die.

Oh, I would like to live in an empty house,

with vines for walls, and a carpet of grass.

No planks, no plastic, no fiberglass.

And I suppose sometime I will.

Old and cold I will lie apart

from all this buying and selling, with only

the beautiful earth in my heart.