Category Archives: somethin’

voices and friends . poetry reading

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Today is the first Monday gathering of the links of people that want to share poetry in a very special way.  That way is by reading the poetry aloud.  I love to be read to and i love to hear poetry.  I hope that there will be several people that give this a try.  If you need time to think about it, there is still the listening, so click on those links and have a listen.
There is a web page called soundcloud that is easy to use and they give free time for recording and trying out what they have to offer.  All you do is go there and sign-in, press a couple of buttons to record something, read into your computer microphone, do this until you have a recording that you like, and press another button to save it.  Then you can post it on your blog page.  After you sign-in, the instructions are pretty easy.
If you would like, it would be nice to have the written words posted along with the recording.
Remember to come back here and share your “post link” (on mr. stinky linky) along with (i hope) the many others.

Since Mr. Stinky and SoundCloud are not behaving well together on my blog, i now have a blog that is just for my poetry sound recordings.  You will see my post link below.

Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets — Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
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second thoughts

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I realize that the voice cloud is very cool thing.  I totally love hearing the voice of others, but, realistically my own voice needs to be seen or read.  Except when i’m on the phone or in your face.  It’s just that the voice that i hear in my head, is not the voice that comes out of my mouth.  So i really do need to leave the poem reading and recording to others.  As for using Mr. Stinky, i want to do that in Monday’s post.  I want to gather sound clouds here.  Clouds of voices reading poetry.  And Maureen Doallas has agreed to post and link a poem, and maybe she will be reading “Pages of White.”  So, anyone interested in recording your voice at soundcloud and doing a post, i would be honored to have you link your post here, on Monday.  A gathering of voices reading poetry…i can see it in my mind.   And it looks like a bouquet of summer’s wild flowers, in a mason jar of fresh water, gracing my table.
☁ soundcloud :  it’s easy and they allow free recording time to become acquainted with the service.

poem reading and linky test post

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I would like to do a post once every couple of weeks where friends can record their reading of a poem, post it, and then link it here.

I have been having a little fuss with the soundcloud recordings on my posts when i use mister linkey.  So i am trying it again.  The sound recording widget window moves over to the right, but the sensitive area that  should align with the image of the play button is unseen and over to the left of said image of the play button.

But when i deleted the whole post along with the mister linky and the widget window for the sound recording, all of the other sound recording widget windows on the other posts went back to normal.

Anyway here are the written words…

Pages of White

the venerable dogwood
stood alone
in a sea of grass
hauntingly dark limbs
outstretched
into night
beginning to give way
to the whisper of day
remembering
the promise of spring
and the blossoms held
pressed
between pages of white
each one a poem
the words rise
with the wind
flowering words
a most shimmering feast
in the warmth of day

okay, i tried again.   mr. linky is still messing up the soundcloud widget placement.

hearing voices

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As you can see, i have always liked looking at pictures. The love of reading came later in life, and of writing came even later. Another thing i have always liked, is to be read to. I like hearing people’s voices as they read. And lately i have been hearing voices.  Real voices.
The first voice was of my friend Maureen Doallas. She started using a web site that allows her to record as she reads her poems aloud and then post the recording. It was great to hear her voice, after getting to know her by the written word. Then Glynn Young wrote this totally cool poem, recorded and posted it. Again, i loved hearing the voice of a friend that i only knew through the written word. I tried the same web site at the same time that Glynn tried it.
I have to say that my voice does not sound like a poet’s voice. It’s hard to really know what your own voice sounds like unless it is recorded. Kind of like how we don’t really know what we look like, until we see a photograph of ourself. It is a telling process. And the recording of my voice was a hard process, because my voice has never been…well, pretty or sexy. It often sounds like i am about five years old, and it doesn’t carry. I don’t sound refined or intellegent. But, i jumped in and did it before i could think about it too much.
It wasn’t too bad, because my friends here always write encouraging comments. You all are so careful to accentuate the positive in cases like this. And your kindness and acceptance is truly appreciated. So hearing my own voice is not so bad as all that. And i get to have fun along with all the other lovely voices.

continued reading

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mere christianity . by csLewis
the three – personal God

i read this chapter, twice. 
there were a few things that i could agree with but, most of
what read… i seemed whacked out.  like a “this is your brain on
drugs” kind of thing.  i don’t even have the energy to go into it.

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Focus

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Today i am a Guest at the High Calling FOCUS.

And my post is called “Grey Areas: From Film to Fiddling”

I do a lot of fiddling and…yes, i find that life has many grey areas.  Many shades of grey.  Times when we don’t see the right from the wrong, the up from the down.  Things that are good can appear awful, and vice versa.  Walk in the company of the Lord.  Your soul will be refreshed, your heart will be renewed.  Much like photography, we look through the lens and focus, and we begin to see everything differently.

for the HCB post click here.  :-)

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lines and signs

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What do you think about share buttons at the bottom of a blog post?  I like belly buttons, and clothes buttons, and the buttons on the phone (even though dial phones were much cooler).  At first the  share buttons appeared to be just plain ugly.  Over time i began to accept the ease in which things could be shared.  And yet, sharing can take place fairly easily without them.  Still, i am just not sure about those silly buttons.
It makes me think about how we see our self and how others see us.  How we can easily step over a line and not realize it for awhile.  There is one line i cross over constantly.
You know “that line” we cross… from the side, of trusting and doing, over to the side, of trying to control.
Have you ever seen street business where a flag appears out front?  Then a banner may be hung up.  Oh, and then why not a few more little signs?  Maybe the merchandise makes it way outside.   Before long it starts to look like a yard sale.  Yet, they are actually all pre-going-out-of-business signs.  And it isn’t long before the place closes it’s doors.
This is an example how we can try too hard to control something.  We can be fooled, and yet not everyone else is fooled along with us.  There are a few others that can sometimes see what the signs mean before we do.  But, usually they don’t say anything to us.  We might not listen if they did.  We would probably just get angry or offended.  Oh, yeah.  I’ve done this too.
What i guess i am saying here, is that
sometimes, we just try too hard to control…and that can be a sign.  
A sign
that
we have
crossed
a line.
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p.s.  It is mainly a sign to have a talk with the Lord.  Sometimes we need to let something go, it could be letting worry go, or letting something else go.  Sometimes we need to receive something, like advice or help in what we are doing.  God will lead us in this.

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share

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photo from flicker, with crop and tint

Yes, sometimes i get tired of my own stuff so when i saw the old typewriter image on flicker, i scooped it up and started to play with it a bit.  A little cropping and a bit of tint was all.  But, i would not want anyone to think that it was my piece of work, because it’s not.
I like it when people share.  Especially when they share ideas and art.  I understand that there is an extreme to not sharing and an extreme to using.  What i am talking about a kind of exchange that is amicable.  Where one person is not opposed to sharing an idea, and another person uses it in a new way that does not take advantage of the person that shared.
For example, let’s say that i showed five people an idea and told them to do a piece of their own art with that idea in mind.  I am certain that there would be five new and different pieces of art that did not look at all like the original.  In that case, i would see these as being done by the five artists.
Ideas are reprocessed and changed, and they become new ideas.  Then those ideas lead to new ideas.  If you are not going to use an idea…you don’t have to keep it to yourself.  You can share it with others.  Maybe even create something with another person or a group of people. 

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iStockphoto

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Above is this week’s “free download” shot from iStockphoto.

I’m looking at the iStockphoto web site this morning.  Actually, i’m going through the training manual as to what they expect for stock photos and getting the idea that they need to be very direct and clean.  Great for the use intended, and to sell as stock photos.  And yet, in their perfection they can present the unreal as real.  I like photos to appear unreal, yet, i get kind of tired looking for, and seeing, plastic perfection ( in a “this is what your life should look like” kind of way).  Though, i don’t think that all the photos that iStockphoto accepts are plastic perfection, they are certainly in the advertising art genre.  I am going to continue to look through and see what i can learn in the process.

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Continued Reading

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Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis

When this book was written, there was a popular idea that he wrote about, that is similar to ideas of today.
“For when you get down to it, is not the popular idea of Christianity simply this: that Jesus Christ was a great moral teacher and that if only we took His advice we might be able to establish a better social order and avoid another war? “
Well, this lie may have just enough truth to it to make the whole thing seem true.  Yet, it is a lie.
Jesus does teach us.
However, Jesus was not just another teacher.
Jesus the Christ is the Son of God.
Jesus gives us much more than advice.
He speaks to us of new life, in Him, with the Spirit of God.
A Christian Life is for living, now and forever, with God; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
A life that involves the body, mind, heart, spirit, and soul in communion with God.
You can ask Jesus to show Himself to you.  He knows your heart.

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10 Top Travel Tips

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Ten traveling tips for visiting the land of Childhood.

1.  Pretending is a way of life.
2.  You can dance, sing, laugh, cry, and sleep anywhere and at anytime.
3.  You can spit out things that don’t taste good.
4.  You can colour outside the lines.
5.  You can sit under tables.
6.  You can wear any colour and pattern of clothes that you like.
7.  You do not need to know how to tell time.
8.  Reading is optional.
9.  Making up stories is encouraged.
10.  Making up words is also good.

*check with the nearest child for more information and tips.

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in the vineyard

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Have you ever worked in a vineyard?  We have a small vineyard at our house.  It was planted just a little bit before we started to build the house.  That should give you a hint about my husband’s priorities.  
This morning, while it was cool, i decided to have a go at trimming the vines.  The grapes are a bit behind this year.  The set was good, because the weather was dry when the grape flowers opened.  But, then the weather turned cool and stayed that way.
Anyway, i thought i knew how to trim back grape vines, you know, just cut them back.  Well, after all these years, i learned a bit more.  Thing is, that knowing these few things made a difference in what i cut.
I found out that these leaves only process the sunlight to energy for around sixty days.  And of course the older leaves are much bigger and darker than the new leaves and they tend to shade the grapes too much, as grapes need the sun to ripen. 
I also learned there is something called a “second set,” where new flowers try to form new bunches.  These can really drain a lot of energy that should be going into the grapes.
The next little bit of information was that that each grape cluster needs ten leaves to provide for it.
And the last thing i learned was the reason for why i have always cut the new growth off of the tops of the vines.  I was informed that they can cast shade on the grapes of the next row.
So as i was cutting, i was thinking of these things.  Cutting back the large dark leaves from around the grapes, picking away the little flower bunches (lots of perfume for such a small flower), trimming back long growth off the top of the row,  picking back other big, old leaves farther up (but not too many), and either cutting-off or tucking-in vines that were growing out sideways because they shade the grapes.
I thought that maybe this would possibly help our grapes to ripen, since they are so far behind this year.
There were also grape plants in the columbia gorge that got frozen this winter, and they will not produce a crop at all this year.
I have a few more rows to go.  Tomorrow morning, perhaps.