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About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write.
Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground.
 
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Daily Cascade
Since my old blog "Everyday Canvas "  became overfilled, here's a new one. This new blog item will continue answering prompts, the same as the old one.
Cool water cascading to low ground
To spread good will and hope all around.
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Prompt:
Have fun with these words: lesson, snarl, guitar, draft, length, rifle, acquaintance, funny and shift.
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His Guitar Hummed
a *snarl of wind beneath the moon
as his *guitar hummed a mournful tune
the *draft slipped through a broken pane
in the *length of night, as if a *refrain
and his *rifle rested by the hearth's gleam
like an *acquaintance in an old dream
conjuring up ghosts that drift and *shift
a *lesson taught, yet not *funny to uplift
the old cowboy on the strings strummed
and his guitar a sad tune it hummed
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Prompt:
On this day in 1965, state troopers used nightsticks and tear gas to attack American civil rights activists as they crossed a bridge in Selma, Alabama, during their attempted march to the state capitol in Montgomery.
Are you concerned that history is repeating itself with all the recent changes to equal rights and diversity rights?
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I'd be so off base if I were to comment on a situation while we are in that situation. The bottom line is, we don't know all the facts and a haphazard comment could get in the way of the progress. I'd say let the chips fall where they may and then, we could analyze it. Which shows that I'm no history maker but only a history reader, and yes, history does have a way of repeating itself, but it wears different outfits each time, so we think the stuff is new and original.
As to MLK and Civil Rights Movement, the history books, when truthful, do a better job of giving us such facts. Those of us, who were around during the nineteen-sixties, know something about those events, more or less. What still disturbs me, though, during those MLK-led marches, is the cheering from the onlookers, all white people, while the troopers attacked the demonstrators with clubs and tear gas. About a week later after the first march, a church deacon died in the hospital as the result of that unnecessary police force.
Still, a second march took place. Although Johnson, the president, had told the marchers not to try again, he changed his mind once the March went on anyway, a few days later. This second march was the undoing of the Alabama Governor Wallace because he ordered the state troopers to stop the march. Also because, during the flow of events, Ku Klux Klan was involved, and the Klan killed a housewife who was about to help send the marchers home.
While all this was happening I was about to graduate from College and the news shocked us, since some of it we couldn't believe and other parts of it we were terribly upset about. Plus, we all seriously disliked Governor Wallace.
As the result of those marches, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which seemed to be doubtful at the time, but that led to many other more favorable things. I only hope our present-day events take much more positive steps, to satisfy not just one faction but our entire country.
The situation in our day goes to show that what President Johnson said about the right to vote--“the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice"-- was not enough. This is because injustice is not only against skin color, but its roots have penetrated inside many other areas of our society.
It must be our deficit as humans that we always find someone or some group to trample upon once we get the chance. In my opinion, therefore, many other areas of our national soul and being need to be paid much more attention.
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Prompt:
"Your speed doesn't matter. Forward is forward." Write about this in your Blog entry today.
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I believe this quote is talking about progress, as long as it is there, be it fast or slow.
Progress's definition in the dictionary is, "Forward or onward movement toward a destination." To me, this means the destination is the aim and not the speed.
To begin with, life's journey is different for each one of us. As long as we are moving forward, be it one small step at a time, we are advancing. This is so important when we are facing self-doubt, setbacks, or challenges. Good teachers know this and in very good schools, such as those operating on the Montessori system, they let students advance at their own pace and their results are fantastic. I know this for sure, since one of my sons attended a Montessori school in his earliest years. Today, he has quite a few degrees and certificates and at 56 years of age, he's still learning.
Then, this idea of moving forward can be applied not just to teaching systems but to many other aspects of life, from careers to fitness to personal concerns.
Unfortunately for us humans, in a world that applauds speed and instant success, sometimes we forget about patience, self-love, and perseverance. We need to remember that life is not a race where we are made to compare our pace to others. We also need to remember to keep our focus on our own life journey. As long as we are in the process of moving forward in tiny steps, without comparing ourselves to others where speed is the concern, we have a very good chance of becoming winners.
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Prompt:
Write about March Madness for your Blog entry today.
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Interesting prompt! But I had to look it up to find out to what "March Madness" exactly refers.
"The NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament is a single-elimination tournament of 68 teams that compete in seven rounds for the national championship. The penultimate round is known as the Final Four, when (you guessed it) only four teams are left."
From---https://www.ncaa.com/
I never liked to watch others play a sport on TV. I'd rather be a player in that game myself. When I was 12, one of my uncles took me to a soccer game. The poor guy paid for me and all that. But I was more interested in the people on the stands screaming obscenities and jumping up and waving their arms up and down. I was so intrigued and entertained by those people that I had no idea what was happening in the game. Soon enough, my uncle caught on to my interest in the cursing and what not. That must be why he never took me to another game again. To this day, the people in the stands fill me with wonder. Is it because they associate "their team" too closely with their own psyches?
The association of "March Madness" relating to basketball came about in the 1980s. If instead of soccer, had my uncle taken me to a basketball game, I might have shown more interest in the game since I played basketball in high school...well, not so greatly, but still, I liked the game.
I don't exactly know at what else we can apply the phrase "March Madness" other than basketball, but I can guess. To me, personally, there is madness in March with all the March birthdays including mine, as I mentioned in an earlier entry. Then, sometimes, a department store will advertise its sales as "March Madness" but their voice sounds definitely muted in comparison to basketball.
It might just be that the term may have referred to the tempestuous character of the weather in March. And just maybe, to the people who were born in March. 
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Prompt:
"If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”
Vincent Willem Van Gogh
What is Van Gogh trying to tell us and what do you think of his paintings?
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I believe what Van Gogh is saying to us is: "You don't have to go with the flow of the current ways or the common appreciation of anything. Do your own thing and let the chips fall where they may." This advice, I think, does well by us writers, also.
Taking his own advice, then, Van Gogh became a missionary of some sort and was able to transform the western art. He could do this by introducing an appreciation of different, or rather, abstract ways of looking at things. In fact, he must have mixed dreams with reality and that is why what came out of his brushes has a dreamlike, mystical quality.
In his paintings, his straight lines become wavy, his sun, or his sunflowers give the impression of they are in action and turning, as his brushwork is unbelievably expressive. The paint is also thicker while the colors intensify. I am guessing, he often squeezed the paint directly onto the canvas right from the tube .
Above all, I think he must have had some kind of a love affair with nature itself. That may be why his appreciation of nature is carried into the views of the Parisian suburbs and city life. In the same vein, since he probably felt that he himself was part of nature, too, he painted many portraits of himself. Those portraits in their totality have impressed me greatly, partly because I was intrigued by his life and delicate psyche. As such, his last self-portraits show the restlessness in him that did him in at the end.
Today, without Van Gogh, modern art would have looked very different. This may be because he gave something from inside himself to his art with the symbolism of his forms, the intensity of his colors, and his very expressive brushwork.
Most importantly, to us and to the art world, Vincent Van Gogh gave himself.
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Prompt:
"If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music."
Gustav Mahler
What is Mahler trying to say, in your opinion? And is music more expressive than words? What do you think?
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I guess it is the melody, harmony, and rhythm that does it...such as, a single chord progression awakening sadness, joy, or tension. Then, there is that power of performance, also.
With the violin, for example, Jascha Heifetz's or Itzhak Perlman's out-of-this-world performances come to my mind. On the other hand, if you didn't want to hide and plug your ears when your child started his first violin lessons, I would call you a saint. Another aspect of performance has to do with sight more than the sound. A live performance can offer emotion by using not only sound but also body language, and energy and interaction with the audience.
With me, however, this on-stage-overacting thing never sat well. Oldies like me will remember Elvis Presley's antics on stage. I hated that part of his performances but I did love his songs when on the radio or on LPs and later on tapes and such. In fact, some of his songs are among my favorites.
This is because with music, I like to listen to it without my other senses getting in the way. Yet, as much as I like listening to music, I hated playing it. Then, this may be why:
In my earliest days, I took years of lessons to learn to play the piano and I did advance well enough and could, after close to ten years of lessons, play the most complicated pieces. But the feeling wasn't there. I was always concerned with hitting the right note at the right time and intensity, which took away from the emotion thing for me. So, I dropped out, to never touch those keys again. In hindsight, I'm wondering if it was the strict teacher that I had in the beginning, for he would mostly stand up behind me with a long ruler in hand and touch my fingers with it as he yelled at me when I couldn't reach a key or hit a wrong note, and as an eight-year-old, in the beginning, I felt even more confusion, fright, and frustration. Later on, I had a teacher who was less strict, but still, I wonder if those earliest negative emotions were being easily stirred up whenever I sat at the piano-bench, so when and as soon as I could, I dropped the whole piano-playing thing in my late teen-age years.
On the other hand, I could always lose or, maybe, find myself in a book, since I had learned to read when I was a four-year-old. A book and its words would be so enchanting that I wouldn't hear people talking to me unless they touched me to get my attention.
Still, some say that words have fixed meanings and music is universal. It is true that we do communicate in different languages, but then, each word may suggest a different meaning at times, too. This may be because words have their own strengths, and especially when used well, they can articulate complex ideas and stories with precision.
Also maybe, as a consequence of my personal experiences, I ended up favoring the word-arts, which doesn't mean I don't appreciate music. In fact, I love it, and especially when I am sad or emotional in some way, music has a way of lifting me up and carrying me over my own stumbling blocks. It may just be that music does better with fine and raw emotional impact.
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Prompt:
“The guitar is a miniature orchestra in itself,” said Ludwig van Beethoven
Do you like guitar music? Why?
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Do I like guitar music? Well, who doesn't! Imagine the sound of guitars or even that of a single guitar.
To me, guitars or rather good guitarists are magical, with their intricate finger picking and soft passages and their sudden energetic solos. In the same vein, music made for guitars is deeply personal. What is deeply personal finds itself inside many listeners hearts, adjusting its notes and timbre to the feelings or each person with melodies that range from soothing to delicate to powerful and electrifying.
I can understand why my favorite composer Beethoven would say that the guitar is a miniature orchestra, and aptly so. Guitar music is versatile. From Classical to Flamenco to the soulful Blues, a guitar speaks to me in many languages with nostalgia and peace. Surely, the electric guitar also can ignite much energy and strong passions.
Then, with me, Flamenco and Classics are the first choices on a long line. To tell the truth, rather than an electric guitar, I prefer the simple, or rather not-so-simple, original instrument, the acoustic guitar. I remember, decades ago, falling in love with the guitar music when I first listened to Albeniz's Asturias and Francisco Tarrega's Recuerdos de la Alhambra. Soon after that Granados's 12 Spanish Dances took my breath away.
And surely, who can forget the master, Andres Segovia, especially when he played Bach on his famous guitar, his fiery strumming with his each note capturing the essence of longing, love, joy, or sorrow? Each note is the keyword here, because with a guitar you may really hear each note, connecting people to one another universally, through cultures, genres, and generations.
So, just six strings on one acoustic guitar and it can remake me by transporting me to many different worlds, telling me stories without words, stirring feelings of nostalgia and peace in me. Now, what could be better than that!
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Let this thought inspire your entry today, "March may start off slow, but once it gets going every flower will bloom and every bird will sing" .
Do you feel renewed energy in March like the plants and the birds?
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Do I feel any renewed energy? I'm not sure. Not where I live, anyway. Here, with March or rather toward the end of it, comes the warning of the scorching sun. Granted, I don't have the danger of slipping on ice and killing myself here, but I may end up frying after a couple of months.
Still, March has many special meanings for me. March 1 is my birthday, but it was also my father's birthday. Talk about coincidences! Other coincidences have to do with the birthdays of many friends in March. Especially, March 15. March 15 is the birthday of my best friend and cousin and also several other friends. So for me, March is the birthday month of the year.
Yes, I also have to say, as a birthday month, March is transitional. This is because it starts off slow, when the world may still seem dormant with bare trees and cold winds up north, but with a stronger sun where I am. Then, as the days pass, the weather keeps jumping up and down and huge changes in nature can be observed. This is when the flowers and plants push up through the soil in the northern regions. This is when the birds that sing to us here down south during the winter months begin offering their spring songs to the northern regions.
So as March suggests, slow beginnings can lead to better or different and maybe even magnificent outcomes. It is like life when progress is sometimes slow and change seems distant. With time and persistence, however, the future falls in its rightful place.
Now, if I only felt that renewed March energy like the plants and the weather warming up...Well, just maybe! With March enters some hope.
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