Echoes off the tops of our lungs with undeniable ease. Friends. Like random hellos, or a courtesy goodbye. Like a sporadic gesture among the land of foreigners, friends too has become a strange language; its value in a strange land as it falls off the edges of our tongues. Words have no meaning for many of us. They race from underneath the spaces of our hearts to descend empty into the air. To land idly among the elements, or on the tops of buildings and of trees. After all, “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” We chant this saying from infancy to adulthood, carrying perception on our shoulders like truth. Meanwhile, words will go on to hurt and heal, afflict and inspire. Friends. Technology says we can find them on Facebook. Fly away with them on Twitter and update relationships instantly. Though I’ve never known a friendship to be built so fast. What kind of lessons do we learn in a world that laughs at murder because words after all have no meaning, so “I hate you” doesn’t mean that I might as well have killed you. Friends. There is no greater person than one who is willing to lay down his life for his friend and yet, the word leaps as it wills off the edges of our tongues. Such a light hearted fantasy. Everyone is a friend today, though not everyone is willing to die for you. Friends. So often do we fill it with air and toss it around among our peers; an enslaved basketball among the bars of netted string is this word. Nothing more than a one syllable title we release into the air to become captive to whatever it wills. But what does it truly mean to be a friend?
So, it has not been a full week yet since I did not start this at the beginning of the week. Therefore, on this beautiful sunny day I am continuing International Viewer Appreciation to all of our viewers outside the U.S.
What’s going on India! Morocco! Bulgaria I see you!
Trees that died in vain
Wasted paper
Blind post
Wingless words
On a road to nowhere
Reaching no one
It seems
invisible value
but learn to value what the eye cannot see
To dance to whispered songs
With loud messages
Screaming purpose
that it takes another set of eyes to see
Regular eyeballs just can’t
Invisible trees stand erect in that storage place
Invisible bank accounts
Unseen credit
A worth beyond the U.S. dollar
cuz its backed by paper
but these trees never die in vain
wasted paper
blind post
wingless words
on a road to somewhere
behind the eyes
a purpose beyond the page
and in-between the lines
This weekend, focus not on your actions but instead, try to focus on your thoughts before they become actions. I guarantee then we are all bound to learn something new about ourselves. This weekend, as you break, let the rejuvenation of your mind and the search of your soul be the pillow to which you rest your thoughts. Enjoy your weekend people :).
So as everyone whose probably tired of these posts by now already know, I am showing love to all my viewers who I see stop through to peek at this blog who are from other countries outside the U.S. It is something I don’t think is done very often, and not too long ago I saw a view come in from Russia! Welcome Russia! Do come Again.
I believe life tends to happen in stages. There are certain bridges that we have crossed as stepping stones to get to where we are; a small portion of the bigger picture to lead us on. And even where we are today is of itself a mere foundation for where we will be tomorrow. As I think about this, I am recalled to Lucille’s quote and I am reminded of the compassion and the respect that we should have for one another because you never know what’s beyond those eyes. What they have seen, what they see, or what they have endured. And even our idea of what seems difficult or simple can play a different role in the life of someone else. I may have known homelessness but the man who lost his mother to cancer may experience a struggle that would have broken me, whereas my homelessness could have broken him. Makes me think about what each person has endured and how it has contributed to their strength. No matter how seemingly small it was something that we ourselves probably could not have faced if given the chance to do so.
About the Author:
Lucille Clifton 1936–2010
What I noticed right away about Lucille is that she puts the sweet in “short and sweet”. Her poems are often not very long-winded, but they are short, almost speeding like, but not tasteless. Clifton is noted for saying much with few words. In a review of her work, Peggy Rosenthal commented, “The first thing that strikes us about Lucille Clifton’s poetry is what is missing: capitalization, punctuation, long and plentiful lines. We see a poetry so pared down that its spaces take on substance, become a shaping presence as much as the words themselves.”
In an American Poetry Review article about Clifton’s work, Robin Becker commented on Clifton’s lean style: “Clifton’s poetics of understatement—no capitalization, few strong stresses per line, many poems totaling fewer than twenty lines, the sharp rhetorical question—includes the essential only.”
In addition, Lucille Clifton’s work hinges largely on life, emphasizing endurance and strength with a focus particularly on the African American experience and family life. It is another reason I enjoy her poetry. In 2007, Clifton was awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize in which the judges remarked,
“One always feels the looming humaneness around Lucille Clifton’s poems—it is a moral quality that some poets have and some don’t.”
In addition to the Ruth Lilly prize, Clifton was the first author to have two books of poetry chosen as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir, 1969-1980 and Next: New Poems (1987).
An additional plus is that Lucille was not just a poet, but she was also an author of children’s books, designed to help them to understand the world and enable an understanding of black heritage specifically.
In books like “All Us Come Cross the Water “(1973), Clifton raises awareness of African-American history and heritage. Her most famous creation, though, was Everett Anderson, an African-American boy living in a big city; an eight title series that won the Coretta Scott King Award. Connecting Clifton’s work as a children’s author to her poetry, Jocelyn K. Moody in the Oxford Companion to African American Literature wrote: “Like her poetry, Clifton’s short fiction extols the human capacity for love, rejuvenation, and transcendence over weakness and malevolence even as it exposes the myth of the American dream.”
And that’s it for this weeks episode of Writers Quote Wednesday!
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Yes. The flowers are budding. The birds are singing. And everything is in its state of renewal and freshness. As the children prepare for spring break there is something we adults have always looked forward to ourselves. That’s right: Spring Cleaning. It may sound simple enough, but there are lots of people with hectic schedules and little time to dedicate to the home front. But male or female, it is important to keep a clean house, especially in heat. Here are some tips to help get you motivated and to ensure that domestic duty never finds itself being neglected. They are also tips from my personal stash, meaning these are tips I actually use:
Tip #1: Paper Craze
One of my biggest faults is having too much paper and stuff laying around. You know what I’m talking about: Those papers that are too important to throw away but not quite important enough to keep? Yea, those. I always find myself holding on to what looks needed but in reality is just occupying unnecessary space. If you don’t nip the paper craze in the bud though, it can create unnecessary mess. To solve this problem, our first tip is organization. First, set-aside a paper bin. You can even name it “Paper Bin” to add some fun to the mix (it also helps to date it so you know just how long you’ve had it). Every time you find paper you can put it in the Paper Bins. Next, clean the Paper Bin! Every so often your job is to sort through the bin for papers you know you don’t need. Be honest with yourself. Don’t try to hold on to old stuff you really don’t need. Make this a weekly chore. Once every week throw something away. This helps when you need to add more papers to the Paper Bin. The last step is very important because if you don’t start throwing stuff away the paper bin will get crowded and you’ll find yourself in the same position. Consider it taking out the trash or doing laundry. If you don’t cleanse, things can pile up around here!
Tip #2: Laundry Day
This point is mostly for those of you with multiple little ones. If you have lots of children or just more than one (especially if they are small), laundry can be a scare. However, there is hope: Laundry Day. Set aside a day specifically for washing clothes outside of your normal household duties. By doing this, it lessens the load of everything else you already have to do. Why not give yourself room to really focus on cleaning by not worrying about the laundry too? Setting aside a separate day for washing clothes organizes your cleaning in a way that fits your schedule. I do it myself and getting laundry out of the way makes my Special Cleaning Day a breeze.
Tip #3: Special Cleaning Day
This is especially great for those of us who work a lot throughout the week. Set aside a special cleaning day; a day that will be dedicated to scrubbing, washing, and wiping. On this day, you want to clean the house from top to bottom without sugar coating it. This is not the time to scoop things into secret places or leave lingering for too long. On special cleaning days, you clean the house spotless. Why? It will help you throughout the week!
Tip #4: Weekly Tidying
One thing that helps me keep a clean house is to perform little jobs throughout the week. This is not the big cleaning you do on Special Cleaning Day; this is the minor stuff such as vacuuming a few rooms and keeping things out of the way. Doing something new every day helps ease the load on Special Cleaning Days and Special Cleaning Days helps to ease the load throughout the week. See how that works? It goes hand in hand.
Tip #5: Kitchen & Bathroom Taebo
The key to maintaining a fresh look even if things aren’t really as clean as you would like them to be is all in these two places: Kitchen & Bathroom. If you manage to keep dishes out of the sink and rings from around the tub, it tends to give the house a clean feel to it. Even if your dirty clothes basket overflows and there is dust elsewhere, you can still maintain a good grip by combating these two beloved places by keeping them nice and neat. It also helps for uninvited guest. Obviously it’s not a good idea to have a nasty home, but that doesn’t mean things can’t get messy (especially if you have children). Hey, it happens. But if you understand people you know they are apt to keen in on two places: The Bathroom and The Kitchen. Someone almost always enjoys a sit at the kitchen table or need to use the bathroom. Keep these tight and there are no surprises.
And I actually have one more: Life. Don’t just stop at cleaning your home, but take this time to reflect on life. What is it about your personal life that needs a good scrub? Now is the time to do it.
Do you have a Spring Cleaning Tip? Be sure to share it with us!
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