MONDAYS ARE FREE 056 — 060
Blueberry Pancakes. Blooms. Rivers. Animals. Hands.
EXERCISE 056: TUNE IN
just for the sound
Throughout the day, pay close attention to what you say and to the conversations you hear. (It can help to go to the post office or DMV!)
Write down words you like just for the sound. The word’s definition and/or associations don’t matter. You might dislike cinnamon as a spice but love to say its name.
Put the list away and write a poem using as many of the words that come to mind without looking.
Blueberry Pancakes
Jameson chasing blueberry pancakes and hash on English after flag football and a torn meniscus.
To Haniford’s once a week, golf, and then Gina’s pool. Haniford’s. Golf. Gina’s pool.
But not with him, he always has one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake.
Pool. Boat. Island. Lighthouse. Stress Test. Pool. Island. Lighthouse. Stress Test.
Leaving logistics. Leaving logistics. Leaving logistics. The UPS drive around.
EXERCISE 057: HONOR THE BLOOM
you encounter today
Let’s write an ode to the first in-bloom flower you encounter today.
Magenta sunshine heart burst blessing blue green sea.
You listen to the music of waves crashing and light house horns singing and children dancing.
You laugh with the wind over jagged ancient rocks that tell the story of the earth before time.
You write tomes about cold winters and early mornings and ship wrecks and vacation yachts.
You tell earth, air, and sea secrets.
You know perfect time. Blooming is perfect time. Beyond pain. Beyond silence. Beyond death.
You know beauty. That beauty grows in the cracks. That beauty heads toward the sun. That beauty that lingers, softens, and survives.
You know breath. Salt air. Deep roots. Petals touch the sky.
EXERCISE 058: HONOR THE RIVER
what people commonly do
Write an elegy for a body of water. Briefly state one fact about that body of water, then tell us what you’ve observed of humans at that body of water. By the end of the poem, you must appear. The poem should be written in one sentence. It should consist of seven tercets (three-line stanzas) with lines that are approximately the same length.
Elegy for the Ohio River
at Louisville, Kentucky
Lewis and Clark’s highway west, fossil and flood, current and communion, movement and strength, width and depth, barge and steamboat, fish and frog, bird and boat, calliope and cat tails, ice in January and mud in April, city and farmland, glacier and bridge,
City and park, firework and concert, soccer and baseball bat, butcher town and basketball, Spaghetti Junction and the Seelbach, Brown Hotel and Muhammed Ali, Churchill Downs and Bourbon, horse shoe and small Coke bottle at a lunch counter,
Geographies of time and place — like home — remind and warm, unearth and heal, create and locate, I go to the Ohio River to find and hold center, to feel through words and wounds and dreams and imagination and heart.
EXERCISE 059: HONOR THE ANIMAL
a critter you find
Think of an animal or critter you find off-putting, even repulsive, one that you do not particularly want to look at or touch, or perhaps one you find plain dull. Pay that animal or critter 100 compliments.
At one time, the Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco, Texas hosted an exhibit to the armadillo. Having lived in Texas for a few years, I was curious and a little bit in love with them, found myself in Waco, and visited the exhibit.
Hey Armadillos! You are cool because:
1. Some of you can curl up into a ball. 2. Your armored shell of bony plates reminds me of superheroes. 3. Your pointy nose helps you find food. 4. Your strong claws help you dig holes. 5. You can hunker down in place until you are safe. 6. You are related to the sloth and anteater. 7. Your name means little armored one in Spanish. 8. You have short legs. 9. You move quickly. 10. You eat ants, grubs, and other invertebrates.
11. You have been around 52-55 million years. 12. Your poor eyesight is coupled with a keen sense of smell. 13. You use your claws to burrow. 14. You give birth to four identical quadruplets. 15. At one time. 16. You do not share your burrows with other adults, unless you need to gather for warmth. 17. You are used to study leprosy because you are the only mammal, other the humans, that can contract it. 18. You can jump 2 to 3 feet in response to being startled. 19. The Beginning of the Armadillos is one of the chapters of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories. 20. Shel Silverstein’s two-line poem called "Instructions" on how to bathe an armadillo.
21. You prefer warm, wet climates and live in forested or grassland habitats. 22. You can hold your breath for up to six minutes. 23. You can swim or “walk” along the bottom of rivers. 24. Your abandoned burrows are utilized by other animals. 25. You typically live from 7 to 20 years in the wild. 26. Your ancestors as big as Volkswagen Beetles once roamed across the Americas beginning around 20 million years ago. 27. There are twenty different species of you. 28. You generally weigh from 5.5 – 14.3 lbs. 29. Though you can weigh up 22 lbs.
30. Your head and body length is 15–23 inches. 31. Which combines with the 10–21 in tail. 32. Your total length is 25–42 inches. 33. You stand 15–25 cm (5.9–9.8 in) tall at the top of the shell. 34. Your outer shell is composed of ossified dermal scutes covered by non overlapping, keratinized epidermal scales, which are connected by flexible bands of skin. 35. This armor covers the back, sides, head, tail, and outside surfaces of the legs. 36. The underside of your body and the inner surfaces of the legs have no armored protection. 37. Instead, you are covered by tough skin and a layer of coarse hair. 38. Your vertebrae attach to your carapace. 39. Your claws on the middle toes of the forefeet so you can dig.
40. Your low metabolic rate and poor thermoregulation make them best suited for semitropical environment. 41. Your nine-banded armadillo cousin cannot roll itself into a ball. 42. It is, however, capable of traversing rivers by inflating its intestines and floating. 43. Or by sinking and running across the riverbed. 44. The second is possible due to its ability to hold its breath for up to six minutes, an adaptation originally developed for allowing the animal to keep its snout submerged in soil for extended periods while foraging. 45. Although nine is the typical number of bands on your nine-banded cousin, the actual number varies by geographic range. 46. You possess the teeth typical of all sloths and anteaters. 47. Your teeth are all small, peg-like molars open roots. 48. With no enamel. 49. Incisors do form in the embryos. 50. Quickly degenerate and are usually absent by birth.
A compliment poem woven from Wikipedia, Natural Geographic, and the National Wildlife Federation.
EXERCISE 060: TRANSMUTE
different animals
Describe your hand as fifteen different animals.
My hands are birds pecking a keyboard forming words. My hands are dogs barking joyfully and lovingly following each syllable. My hands are fish swimming through stories. My hands are snakes molting as my mind expands. My hands are lightning bugs flashing between imagination and inspiration and creation. My hands are rabbits hopping from idea to idea to idea. My hands are cats curling up in the afternoon sun reading a book. My hands are butterflies flapping in a chrysalis becoming strong and articulate. My hands are worms digging in life’s soil feeding on richness. My hands are frogs breathing in and out telling stories of strength. My hands are hummingbirds pollenating flowers in the garden of ideas. My hands are horses with 8 pound hearts running wild and free. My hands are bees making honey from life’s sweetness. My hands are whales singing from the ocean depths. My hands are wolves circling, protecting, and conjuring from all that is true.