Close Meditations of a Visual Kind

Yes, it's been ages.

I freely admit, I followed the tide (rather than fight it) over to That Faciem Liber place. Which isn't exactly free, and which, after many years of perusing, strikes me as not exactly listening to those who subscribe. Then again, why listen to the sheep that one is fleecing of their data for ones own profit?

Moving with my usual prodigious speed, I've been meditating about rejoining the world of blogging. It's not nostalgia, quite. I do recall the days of LiveJournal and melding into DreamWidth with fondness. I am not so naive to believe that things haven't changed, even here. However, it does still appear to be a place to practice writing, and do so with much less personal angst about the aforementioned fleecing.

Along with the times changing, so too my interests adjust. Not all, nor even in depth considering I call myself an Artist. My time situation the past year and a bit involved a good deal more spent on The Ranch and projects, while still maintaining at Hospital for the steady income. Consequently, Art needed to take a hit. The visual artwork I do, involving photography as a foundation, is or may be time-intensive. Most art is. Visual needs the ability to see; digitised needs a computer with some power. Since I prefer making large prints, a good sized display is preferable. I've tried working on laptops, it is do-able. Not the best. As for smart phones or tablets, far from optimal for my needs.

Writing, on the other hand, I can do using the smart phone, or a tablet. I can do it while riding the bus/coach to and from Hospital, which adds a good 20 minutes at least to working time. So I moved to writing again. A bit of poetry, not much. And to see what I could do, plus being curious enough to already begin exploring that world, Fan Fiction caught my attention. I started in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter universe, because she is fairly friendly towards Fan Fiction. Don't dupicate her published works; but filling in Missing Moments, or creating Alternate Universe is quite acceptable.

That, plus missing the whole atmosphere of blog space as opposed to Faciem Liber space, brings me here again. For the nonce, I plan to come back by to read and occasionally natter. And, perhaps, once I've gotten a better lay of the virtual land, perhaps publish as well.

Most people if they've read any poetry or taken classes on it are somewhat familiar with haiku. A Japanese form, and English speakers will say 14 syllables in 5 - 7 - 5 arrangements. This is close, probably as close as translation of any poetry works from any one language to another. In Japanese haiku comprise 17 morae or on, which corresponds closer to their written language (kanji, hiragana and katakana syllabaries). Haiku also, by tradition, focus on seasons and nature.

Senryuu (a long U sound) is similar to haiku in that the number of morae/on/syllables is 17 and in that 5 - 7 - 5 arrangement. The difference is that senryuu focus more on human foibles rather than seasons or nature. May seem a fine distinction, yet these fine distinctions are rather a Japanese trait, at least in my limited experience.

In English, pretty much 'haiku' covers it all. In my playing with words, until I learned the second term, that's what I called them, too. Over on Flickr, there is a group called the Haiku Me group. The rules are simple: write a haiku to the photograph immediately before the photograph you post. I'm not a regular nor frequent player, yet I do visit and play. Over time I started collecting the ones I wrote as well as those written to the photos I posted. One reason I started collecting is that on a day reviewing the group, I discovered a couple haiku that I'd written disappeared, forever, as the person on the account holding the photos I'd written to deleted their accounts.

Very Zen, that.

Anyway, if you're interested, this is the collection (with a bit of a description or title on the photos involved) of the ones I wrote. I suppose I could include links. However, that seems like too much work, on the spur of a moment when I reviewed them and before heading out to feed teh Ranch this chilly morning.

( Haiku. Or Senryuu. Rather a number of them... )

Think I forgot to mention in the weekend summary yesterday, also changed out a flat tire on Forrest NissanPickup. Not sure why the tire went flat. Might of found a bit of debris through the tread, and we did use the pickup to pull the fence wire. The spare is a regular tire (as opposed to a 'donut' spare often seen these days... it is after all a working truck), but a left-over from a previous tire change purchase. It's showing signs of age and riding around under the truck. Holding air though. Herself is supposed to take the tire to the tire place to day, check if it can be plugged or what.

Other things happened yesterday evening. Ranch things. Some of it is related to the time of year. Parts of Baja Jorja are on fire... must be spring. Indeed, we received enough rain in March & April to cause the grass to turn green and trees to sprout. Then, nada, it's gotten dry (another reason I worked on water points and water conservation over the weekend), and the grass isn't growing. For the horses and cows, this means not much graze. With the cows specifically, if they get hungry enough they'll start testing fences again.

Woke up around 02:00 and couldn't get to sleep again, did drift in and out sometime between 04:00 & 05:00 when the alarm went off. Could be hamster wheels, could be other things. Mostly spent the time meditating to keep the mind clear and encourage going back to sleep. Right.

So you get a wee poetry lesson, in the sense that a thought which did percolate through all of this, I recorded, more or less for reference. It's an iambic couplet, not iambic pentameter as there are only four feet, and not rhymed as it is. For something which would be rhymed, the scheme is implied. It could also work in free verse.

A: In dark of night my thoughts are bleak
B: And brown as drought-burnt pasture grass.

One of the benefits of using a PDA, or PDA smartphone combo is I wrote this in a note on the Treo, using the tiny QWERTY keypad. Thumbs only typing, and not bad for sometime around 03:30. I will state my position that I typed it in Early American English, since it says 'thoughtf' in the note, not thoughts.

It's a poetry lesson because:
- it's iambic
- it's a couplet
- it's recorded, so I won't forget it which is important if I'm ever going to use it (who knows), and
- it's written, and as someone I've been reading recently pointed out, the fact that I've written it makes me a writer (unpublished, or self-published considering it's in Live Journal now).

So.

Morning. Yes, that's the time of day. Probably not so bleak as this sounds overall, just another day here in North Central Baja Jorja.

And to (somewhat) commemorate my upcoming hadj to AORN Congress:

For House of Delegates Roll Call, 48th Annual AORN Congress

From Florida to this one destination
We've journeyed across our great nation,
From where Mr. Mouse
Keeps a much larger House
To partake in collegial oration.

And it should be a rousing debate.
Just how shall we nurses relate?
Will it be much more fun
To vote One by One,
Or shall we continue to Delegate?

As we gather now, colleagues, take note,
With traditions, but never by rote,
As Members-at-Large
And by States are we charged,
And from Florida 77 will vote!



( And a wee bit of background... )

A draw do rule designing
To close as awful winger
I turnoff to gout cross

Um... yeah.