This week: Take A Trek Outside Your Comfort Zone Edited by: fyn  
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The comfort zone is a psychological state in which one feels familiar, safe, at ease, and secure. You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.~~ Roy T. Bennett
I have realized; it is during the times I am far outside my element that I experience myself the most. That I see and feel who I really am, the most! I think that's what a comet is like, you see, a comet is born in the outer realms of the universe! But it's only when it ventures too close to our sun or to other stars that it releases the blazing "tail" behind it and shoots brazen through the heavens! And meteors become sucked into our atmosphere before they burst like firecrackers and realize that they're shooting stars! That's why I enjoy taking myself out of my own element, my own comfort zone, and hurling myself out into the unknown. Because it's during those scary moments, those unsure steps taken, that I am able to see that I'm like a comet hitting a new atmosphere: suddenly I illuminate magnificently and fire dusts begin to fall off of me! I discover a smile I didn't know I had, I uncover a feeling that I didn't know existed in me... I see myself. I'm a shooting star. A meteor shower. But I'm not going to die out. I guess I'm more like a comet then. I'm just going to keep on coming back.~~C. JoyBell
When we get too comfortable, we stop dreaming.~~Joyce Rachelle
Don't keep forever on the public road, going only where others have gone, and following one after the other like a flock of sheep. Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. 'Every time you do so you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before. Of course it will be a little thing, but do not ignore it. Follow it up, explore all around it; one discovery will lead to another, and before you know it you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind. All really big discoveries are the results of thought.~~Alexander Graham Bell |
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A BOUTS-RIMÉ is an odd duck of a poem. It is backward in a sense. Typically, one has an idea to write about and off we go. It spills or is yanked forcibly from us. It explodes or dribbles until we have this poem on the page. This is a bit different. Typically about eighteen lines long with an abab/cdcd/efef/ghgh/ii rhyme scheme, you start with someone else's words. They give you eighteen words that rhyme. Any words. Doesn't matter if they go together or not. Doesn't matter if they are long or short, although, I think longer rhyming words make it more fun! It can be a mix. They could be cooking words mixed with seasonal words matched up to weather words or emotional words. Anything as long as you've pair of rhyming words.
The trick is to take these disparate words and make a coherent poem that makes a point. Because he was handy, I asked my non-writerly husband to give me the words. In the wee hours of the morning.
"What kind of words?" he asked. "I'm not a writer."
"Any kind of words, about anything. It doesn't matter," I told him.
"And you'll find a way to have it make sense?"
I nodded. "Well, okay," he said doubtfully.
Late that night he handed me his list. Honestly, I thought he'd forgotten all about it. I didn't want to bug him and make it one more chore on his list. It was almost bedtime when he handed me his paper with his word list.
"Hope it's okay," he said.
"Whatever you came up with, I'll make it work."
He shook his head. "Don't see how."
"Just wait. When you come home from work tomorrow, I'll read it to you."
His word list:
measure/pleasure
rabbit/habit
ocean/devotion
railing/trailing
evolution/revolution
tote/goat
fruit/suit
pond/wand
llama/drama
Well, he'd done as I asked. I fell asleep thinking about the words. As yet, I had no clue where the poem would take me. Goats and rabbits, ocean and fruit. Oh, and a revolution thrown in just to complicate matters. Just as I was nodding off I had an idea. It'd be a bit funny and poking fun at me, but I thought it might work.
Like a carrot followed closely by a rabbit,
he follows behind his life's devotion,
as much a desire as a habit,
as they head to her beloved ocean.
The weight of the duffle bags he dares not measure,
plus camera bag, and her onboard tote,
and yet, if not his greatest pleasure,
it's worth it because, to her, he's her G.O.A. T.
Just get to the hotel room, lean on the lanai railing,
drink in the view, in hand a cocktail with pineapple fruit,
then even if his energy's trailing,
he'll exchange a golf shirt for his fussy suit.
A par five course awaits with palms and pond,
on Maui time, there exists no drama.
Hibiscus fairy will point her wand
and fractious wife becomes docile llama!
He understood, he did, her 'need to get away' revolution:
A deep breath, a sigh, and thus starts their evolution!
Maybe not the most brilliant poem I've ever written, but I did it. And it makes sense. He laughed. (So us when leaving on vacation!)
Thing is, it forces you to really have to play with the words. To look at things from a different perspective as your ideas need to conform to the words given. It is a different approach, and something to try. I did a search for this type of poem on WDC and came up with zilch - except for another I've written. So, I thought it might be a fun idea for folks to try. Ask your kids, your folks, your best friend, or your significant other for the words. Let it marinate and then see what you come up with! Email me a link and I'll reward your attempts! No cheating though! You get no input on the words! :)
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Just because it's the one that came up in the search!
Some other forms of poetry. From haikus to pantaums, sestinas and more.
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JCosmos  says: so sorry to hear about your brother passing away suddenly. Reminds me when I lost my sister 10 years ago when she died unexpectedly we were not that close as she was eight years younger than me and I always regret not having a conversation with her before she died. Glad you had that opportunity with your brother.
Thank you.
Monty  writes: So true, I lost my wife just over a year ago and have written a few poems about our life together but the loss has not faded much. When I read entries in my two Groups, The Veterans Group and The Senior Group, up here on Writing I get some reprieve.
It's hard. No doubt about it. Guess it is the flip side of loving deeply. |
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Poetry: February 16, 2022 Issue [#11220]
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