We’ve had days of rain with short breaks of clouds, but my writing/blogging has been barren. I’ve been sick (literally) and frustrated with no desire to write. After writing faithfully since last fall, this was a surprise and disappoint. Anyway . . . tonight was the end of a lovely sunny, cool day. I sat on one of our benches to enjoy the end of the evening and watch the bats flutter overhead. I like them. They are like night’s butterflies the way the move in the sky. It was a good end to one of the best days I’ve had in a while.
bittersweet
sunset fades–twilight
loons’ farewell
Shiteki Na Usagi 
Well you see we all have ups and downs in our lives . But the key is to smile even during troubled times. Don’t get disappointed with life . ” Cry over a trouble and it grows double , but if you laugh at a trouble it disappears like a bubble” !! Isn’t it right ?
The Lifestyle Test – How do you live your life?
http://www.3smartcubes.com/pages/tests/lifestyle-test/lifestyle-test_instructions.asp
OH! ALSO, I LLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVEEEEEEEE Your new avatar!!! Brilliant times a zillion! 😆
Blissbeam,
It was irresistible. When I first saw it, I thought, “That is so me!” Yep, the slumping blogger bunny. Glad you like it. That’s part of the fun.
Hey Yousei! Wow. That’s just going around, it seems. I’ve been in SUCH a long phase of nothing to say and not wanting to draw or paint. I feel I’m waking back up. I think all we can do is trust those phases of incubation….but Lord….they tend to be a little unsettling. I’m glad You had a nice day when You wrote this. I’m thinking of You! Big Hugs and Cheers and Namaste. 🙂
Blissbeam,
I recognize understanding and experience in your comment. It is most definitely unsettling. We now have wifi, so computer putt-putting should not be an issue anymore. No . . . now it’s just writer putt-putting. Take care.
Hi Yousei,
You are not alone. I feel the same way, and I’m not sure if it’s entirely because of lack of time–it feels more like lack of spirit at the moment. I know it will pass, though, and it will pass for you too. 🙂
calliopespen,
You are right on it–lack of spirit. May it pass for us both. May we both breathe deep of the earth and fill ourselves with all around us. May we see clearly, live deeply, and write with spirit. Thank you for your visit and kind words.
Please help send hugs and good wishes to Viola and Ibok…
thanks a ton!
🙂
Jingle,
Thank you for the heads up.
Where are you girl? I have been worried about you. I hope you are just busy in the garden using up your muse there.
Lisa,
Still hiding and struggling. My children are doing there best to fail their classes. Beyond my understanding and frustrating. I’ll write again, trying for daily, when school is out. Thank you for your concern and support. As for the garden, the flowers are lovely despite the weeds.
I hope you are not still sick, Yousei. Sending well-wishes to you today!
Ironically, I had another cold/allergy attack and was sick for a week. It’s cleared up, and I’m finally feeling like getting a few things done. Hope to visit soon.
I am delving deeper into writing about nature. Rather, using nature. Focusing on the content of my work, not so much the delivery of it, even as I use rhythm and rhyme to its fullest effect, it feels like less effort and more passion.
I wrote this one piece. Was intensely happy after I wrote it. Took concentration and revision.
I am beginning to develop a taste for revision. It’s like exercise but in a country of fat people; poets are now people of the instance, not of the future. It’s the internet, you know. Who wants to edit when one can just write another? Type type type, never the backspace, ever the enter-key.
When you get your groove back (and please build on it) take a look at this piece called “They who pass for brothers.” Or it may be renamed by then, am thinking of “Two together would gasp and fall,” it depends on where revising takes me. Really, Yousei, you should be your main readership. Read every poem twice for someone who reads it once. Fix the faults. Fix the weaknesses of thoughtfulness. My motto is: write and think in inequal measures.
I think you need some poetic discourse. None of this “hey hun how ya doin’,” no, real “Keats was onto something, Nabokov’s Pale Fire was interesting, Neruda made mistakes in his work and was for it,” actual discourse the way poets used to have. Talking between a worthy peerage.
I wouldn’t talk to my friends about poetry, let’s leave it at that.
–Jeremy
Nice.
Bill,
So happy to have you stop in. Doing lots of writing? Get your paper finished? Come back again soon.
please visit Brian to wish his 14th marriage annivesary.
Thanks a lot!
Jingle,
Thanks for the info. Fourteenth! Cool!
Yousei! I haven’t been writing either – maybe even longer than your dry spell! Just this week though I tried a new poem – will hopefully put it out there soon. In the meantime, I think these spells happen for a reason – and we come back with a different way of being and perhaps different forms of motivation. Continue to trust the process!
Jennifer
Jennifer,
I look forward to reading your new poem. Send me a message when it’s ready. Best wishes to you.
I haven’t blogged for 2 months now. I’ve been busy living life, getting over the appendectomy (I’m well), and thinking about things that would make great posts, but that never get written. I just seem loath to spend as much time sitting in a chair and staring at a screen as it requires to blog regularly. Maybe one day soon…
Carmen,
I am now humbled. So little to really complain about. So much other suffering compared to my own insecurities and sadness. Always good to get perspective. Look forward to talking with you later.
deadline is with 24 hours,
please vote!
Dropping by for the first time in a few weeks to say, everyone’s muse needs a break once in a while. Even poetry can get repetitive and dry and banal, and you must seek out other places for inspiration. Take the time you need, and your work will be the better for it. 🙂
Joseph,
Sooooooo happy you stopped by. Inspiration isn’t the only thing in the way, but I am fighting against all the barriers and will face my fears soon. Thank you for your encouragement. I look forward to catching up on all you’ve written. How did finals/papers go?
well glad to see you writing today, my friend.
rdl,
Thank you for the visit and comment. I’m glad to get an occasional word in. I plan to write more once the school year is over. Hope your writing is going well.
we all have our seasons. Some highs some lows
I can hear your spirit starting to sing with those last words
I’m here for Jingle (she is always thinking of others)
I’m at moondustwriter.com
moondustwriter,
Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving this encouraging comment. I hope you will visit again and hope to visit you site as well. Thank you again.
another poetry award 4 u.
have a beautiful day!
I appreciate your uplifting comments and handsome spirits.
cheers!
Jingle,
Your enthusiasm and cheer warm my heart. Glad your blogging, my friend.
We all need to take a pause sometimes.
Truth is i force myself on half the time.
Maybe the next great poem or story s just round the corner.
This haiku certainly ain’t bad
Kokot,
You are a braver man than I, to write when confidence and fear are in the way. Thank you for your encouragement. Best to you and hope to visit you soon.
yousei dear,
do not let the rain dampen your spirit. and the loneliness of the twilight is an honest acceptance that in life, we sometimes have gloomy days punctuating brighter days. if not for the night, how can we appreciate tomorrow’s daylight.
just for thoughts.
hames1977
I agree, but sometimes the dry spells are more difficult to endure than the rain. I’ll get through it, or rather I’ll write through it. 🙂
Most creative souls, I think, live in the shadow. Will the muse leave me for good? I could create 100 sculptures (I did, and more) and I could write a few thousand haiku (I have) and still, I find myself sitting at the keyboard sometimes… just sitting.
And after a while, often not that long, the voices start in my head. “What if I can’t come up with something? Maybe it’s over. Blah Blah.”
I’m glad I stopped by your blog. Because in the back of my mind, those voices are trying to talk to me a little bit tonight. I’m rather tired, and that doesn’t help. Sometimes the creative well does run dry. I just have to remind myself that it will fill back up again. Always does. I know the things to do to help make that happen. I think you do, too.
In fact, one of the things that works so well is spending time in nature. That’s always a good way to help fill the creative well back up… 🙂 And you did that, and it worked…
Don’t worry. You have plenty left to write. You’ll be lucky to have enough time to get it all on the page!!!
Robert,
Thanks for the encouragement. I don’t really understand why I’m so reluctant to write. Being outdoors is helping. Struggling with teenagers who don’t care about passing is not. School will be over soon. I plan to start writing daily again then, whether they pass or not. Sigh. There may be summer school though.
love to see you smile and become creative!
cheers!
😉
Jingle,
Hope things are going well for you. Thanks for stopping by.
Good to hear you’re feeling better!
Desiree,
Thank you for your visit and kind comment. Look for more posts in the near future.
I haven’t visited in awhile. It doesn’t sound like you’re doing well. we all experience writer’s block every once in awhile. I hope you feel better.
sweetiegirlz,
Hope you’re doing well. Thank you for stopping in. Once school is over I plan to write daily. Hope your life is going well. I’ll try to visit again soon.
I am glad you are feeling better. As the weather improves I hope your spirit improves.
Lisa,
After a second round of colds-allergies, I am finally feeling better. Hope to be writing daily again within the next few weeks. Trying to get my kids through the last few weeks of school. They are hating it–severe spring fever issues. Wish you well.
i’ve missesd you, cuz. (more like sister) and can relate to your latest post tremendously. it is difficult to turn around and find the cycle spinning down into rest and a seeming desert of creativity. nature has a way of restoring us gradually, it seems. god’s love is right there in the breeze. big hugs…
Hey New Sis!
Thank you for the encouragement. Feeling better, though still not writing. Had another bout of cold-flu-allergies. Hope to be back to writing very soon. Probably after my kids are done with school.
Sorry to hear you haven’t been feeling very well. Your haiku says you are enjoying your evening outside. Feel better!
Technobabe,
Sorry for the delay in replying. I had another run in with allergies-cold. Finally shook that off. Hope to get back into daily writing very soon. My eldest has finals, and I’m trying to help him prepare for English. Thanks for stopping by.
awe, sorry to hear things have not been good I did wonder because u are always posting, glad to have u back dear, were u belong, lovely post xxx
william,
Thank you for your good wishes. I’ll be back at it when the school year ends. Best to you, my friend.
`something finally grew’ – connects with my own passion for togetherness with nature, a feeling kept so distant for writers and artists in Malaysia. Just as I touch my mango, guava, lime, drumstick and coconut palm saplings urging them to grow, I have to coax my subconscious/muse to inspire me to write against the plastic atmosphere of city life especially in a mismanaged developing country like Malaysia where jungles are decimated whimsically to feed corrupt politicians.
sittam,
Welcome. Thank you for visiting, reading and sharing your thoughts. Other than the corrupt politics (Aren’t most politics corrupt?), Malaysia sounds lovely. Hope you’ll stop by again sometime.
Watching the bats tonight here, too…
I know how feeling sick can leach away creative energy. Hope you’re feeling better and reinspired soon!
Jacquie,
Thanks for the positive vibes. I get into an occasional funk, but these past few weeks, I’ve been outright depressed. Quite frustrated with my kids and their apathy toward school. Of course, my apathy toward housework is on par with that. Irony. 😉 Hope things are well with you.
I have so missed your voice upon these pages…I am so sorry that you have been ill and hope that you are feeling much better now…it so good to read your poems again.
slpmartin,
Feeling better. Thank you for your well-wishes. Been very busy with my kids and their school work as the school year ends. Don’t expect to be on much until that is all resolved. 😦 Best to you.
Happy you had a good day at last my friend. Take care, I am not on the computer these days because my husband just had surgery today. Am really tired when I come home from the hospital.
Viola,
Hope all is well with your husband now and that you can get some rest. Thank you for your comment. Best to you both.
glad you had a great day and that it signaled an end to your woes and writing block…a wonderful verse…see you again soon.
brian,
Thank you. I’m glad too. Best of the weekend to you.
Have had the rains south of you, Yousei, I’ve done two weird paintings in those rainy days. I think it affects anyone trying to be creative. Your haiku is beautiful and was glad to read it as today was a day I was able to be outside and weeding and organizing the beds around my home. It is nice to know that someone else feels the same today! Happy writing!
Leslie,
I will definitely head over and have a look. It has been soooo long since I’ve visited. All the plants growing, even the storms in the wonderful fierceness, are good. I just hate being in a slump. You’ve been weeding? Now I feel guilty for ignoring my beds. I do believe I’m cultivating all plants. 😀 Maybe I’ll get out and pull the naughty ones this weekend.
Hey Yousei;
your not barren
you’ll never lose it
just taking a rest is all
waiting for the spark
of creativity
and the urge
to flow
the pages of words
we weave
sometimes to no one
but ourselves
yet we continue
why?
because we are
suckers
for
punishment
but we love
it anyway
take a swig
of your world
famous eggnog
your eyes
will light up
you’ll be flowing
with things to say
we will be waiting
to read them
have a fantastic day
my friend 🙂
Sir Ichabod,
Oh my! You’ve uncovered a new . . . ok, maybe not new, but renewed muse . . . the Eggnog Muse. What amazing erudition follows that rich, creamy lady. 😉 Good to see you my friend. Thank you for stopping in and delighting me as the ink dries on that post. So good to have you here.