Just thinking. . .

"Autumn has given way to a dusting of snow. Barren tree branches rise to a wintry sky. The sepia-toned landscape lends itself to the touch of a paintbrush or the writer's muse. What color shall we add today? What stories shall we spin while the snow drifts in dreamy spirals past the windows? Muse to muse, it's the perfect time of year to travel by tapping away at the computer keys and reviewing. Spin a tale for me to read. Let's weather the winter through wit and novel writing." mia

My poem, "THE BARRENESSES" won First Place!

The BARRENESSES
By Carol St. Ann


Circle, you leafless trees,
shed of autumn's dressage.
Lift limbs; embrace the breeze,
rapt with heaven's message.

Lay bare your naked bark,
and wave to passing clouds;
a shadow, cold and stark,
still standing ever proud.

Beneath the starlit skies
a gentle, rumbling sway
rustles like midnight cries.
Alas, it's how you pray.

The winter-sweet repose
fuels springtime's joyful burst
when green bud forms and grows,
and rains quench newborn thirst.


CSA, 2011
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I am pleased as punch to share the news: This poem received First Place honors in the 76th Traditional Poetry Contest.

REVIEWS:


"The Barrenesses is a poem with a lyrical quality that aptly describes the trees in a wintry state, praising their creator. It is beautifully written and rolls sweetly off the tongue, leaving the reader with an enchanting flavor to chew on for a while."
~~ "Critic Quotes Review"

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"In going through your portfolio initially, this was the first piece that caught my eye - the exceptional title, the multicolored preface, the stark yet beautiful photograph with the absolute perfect perspective for this piece.

The poem's structure itself is excellent, adhering to six-syllable quatrain stanzas in a 4x4 presentation. The tone speaks as if a call to arms from the author or the naturalist observer - one that has spent time among these trees and knows them well, appreciates them, beckoning them to new heights of poetic piety. Excellent development.

Your third stanza, "Beneath the starlit skies..." was most enjoyable for me, as I myself have found many a respite with Orion high in the sky, shining bright through the reaching limbs of these majestic, dormant titans of symbolic creation.

My only concern with a poem this eloquent, naturalist, perhaps even druidic in its equation of trees with holiness, is that it might find a very limited audience in the populace as a whole. If it were a work of mine, that would be all the more reason for me to go as far out of my way as possible to promote it...but I have a knack for finding and stubbing buttons when and if I can. I think in a specifically targeted setting, this would certainly do quite well, and it certainly performed well for this reviewer, indeed.
~~ "This is Why We Write, A Drew Review"

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"Perfection in meter and rhyme, and a beautiful statement in reality and metaphor.
~~ Desi MacDaniels

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.

English: Its Own Worst Enemy!

(Thanks to Fyndorian)

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, mustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succor, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough --
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

(Apparently excerpted from The Chaos by Gerard Nolst Trenité.)
CM/CSA

Am I being courageous or just plain cranky?

"Courage is the human virtue that counts most — courage to act on limited knowledge and insufficient evidence. That's all any of us have." – Robert Frost

About Robert Frost
Robert Frost, the influential American poet known for his rural settings, uncluttered language, and meditative themes, wrote the poems, "A Road Not Taken" and "Mending Walls," among many others. He was born in San Francisco in 1874 and moved to Massachusetts at age 11. He ran a farm for ten years, selling it to move to England and become a full-time poet. After achieving his goal, he moved back to New Hampshire. His ambition was to write "a few poems it will be hard to get rid of." He died in 1963.

Thanks to Daily Inspiration's Quote of the Day for this!
(I'll insert the subscription link as soon as I can figure it out.)

All-righty, then!

I'm in a conundrum today, trying to decipher (and put into action) my best course of action for a number of interesting but highly annoying circumstances that have literally invaded my otherwise pleasant every-day existence. No matter which option I ultimately choose I will need a good deal of courage to carry it out - because every one of them involves entering unknown territory!

Today's categories include:

My Writing:
Articles, feature articles, and essays: I need to refrain from editorializing, just now. See, my attitude is tainted by my mood, rather than by well thought-out opinions. So many things are jumbled up in my personal life - not all in a bad way, mind you, but in ways that require time and attention - causing sleep-deprivation and stress.

The Novel: Things couldn't be better just now I've had a major breakthrough in understanding how to manage a plot point that's been giving me fits for a long time; how to write it effectively and integrate it into the story seamlessly. This is huge for me as it's been a hindrance to the book's completion.

My relationships with several other authors, some of whom I love, adore, and admire; and some of whom I don't even like, need changing and revising. Categorizing, if you will. Ugh! Additionally, one of the writers' websites I frequent seems to be going through something. Not in any of my groups, but the overall site is suddenly developing a sort of undertow... I can't quite put my finger on it, but I can say, most emphatically, I don't like it.

My Family:
Who is this smart-mouthed, teenage, know-it-all? And how long is she planning to stay? I'm just asking.

My own adolescence revisited?
Okay, I admit it. I have a crush on someone. It's been a long time, and I'd forgotten how much fun it is... Do I tell myself I'm acting like a schoolgirl and being ridiculous, or do I enjoy the ride and flirt my middle-aged heart out?


Always end on an up-note, right?

Later,
Carol

Pearls of Wisdom from Sir Francis of Hoboken

"Critics don't bother me because if I do badly, I know I'm bad before they even write it. And if I'm good, I know I'm good. I know best about myself, so a critic doesn't anger me" - Frank Sinatra

OK, if the other video didn't work, how about this one?

A is for Audi!

OK.

So yesterday I took my car (2004 Audi A4 Cabriolet) in for the long awaited service it was to have.

I've had to reschedule the appointment four times for various reasons, mostly revolving around snow-storms and loaner unavailability. No problem, really. Although I did worry that driving it might damage it more... and one thing I surely did not want to have to deal with was another in-transit breakdown.

I needn't have worried, though. I made it into service with no problem and decided since I was there, I'd stroll around the showroom before leaving to do my errands with the nifty little A4 they'd given me as a loaner.

Oh, stop tisking me. This is not a terrible thing. It's no secret that since this past October, I've been thinking this was the time (February) to purchase a new car.

So here I was considering switching from Audi to Toyota. (I'd had a Corolla back in the mid 80's and really loved that little roust-about! So why not give them a look-see.)

My friend Paul had recently purchased a Camry and is over-the-moon happy with it. Additionally, I'd become quite enamored, on several levels, with the Prius. And this may seem odd, but I also thought the Highlander might work for me. The last car I've been researching is the Nissan Altima. Audi wasn't even in the running, as far as I was concerned.

But then I got to thinking. For the past five years, I have enjoyed every minute in that car - with the breakdown exception. It is such a pleasure to handle. Their suspension package is unmatched for shear pleasure-of-driving satisfaction. Would I be this happy in any other car? I was starting to waver in my choices, but persisted in my research.

I had narrowed it down to the Altima, Highlander, and Prius - with a strong lean toward the Prius.

Then the Toyota-recall shocker. All the things I am learning about Toyota, now, as a company have blown me away. Their one-time track record of customer satisfaction excellence, has been missing for far longer than I realized. This was coming to light during my research, but the scope of their failure was so much broader than I had originally suspected. The question loomed: Do I want to do business with this company? No.

My parents had a saying for the type of thing that has plagued Toyota and brought about it's current struggles: They're too big for their britches! ...Sad, though; very sad.

So here I was meandering about the Audi showroom when I happened upon this shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxin', waxin' A5 convertible. Black on black with a dove gray interior.

I'm not sure but I think I heard it speak my name...

I circled it.

Circled it again.

Nah. To much money. Can't do it. No way. *big deep pitiful sigh*

Salesman asks, "Can I answer any questions you have today?" Hmmm... a closed ended question.
"Oh no. I was just looking. By the way, do you have any A4 convertibles coming in off a lease, say 2008's?"
"Come on over and have a seat, I'll check."

He had several. I didn't like any of them.

Memories of my days in the auto business kicked into high gear and were picking up speed.

Sha-ZOOM! I say to myself, It's February. I might be able to find a way to make this happen. What have I go t to lose? I'll either get it or I won't and either way, I'll be no worse off than I am now. Besides, I know myself; if I don't at least try to make this deal, it'll bother me forever.

"By the way," says I - with a flip of my chin in the car's direction, "what about that A5 over there. Tell me more about that one."

Long story, short...

I'm picking up the A5 tomorrow. My monthly out-lay will actually be less than I am paying for the five-year-old A4 I now have. My insurance will stay the same. I had enough equity in the older Audi to cover the down payment, and I'll have a brand new car with a new 50K mile warranty.

Damn!

This car is a thing of beauty, and so is the deal I was able to work out.

*SNAP*

If you're in New Jersey, and you want an Audi, give my uber fantastic salesman, John Oliver a call over at Mendham Audi and see what I'm talking about.


--
Disclaimer: neither I nor any family member of mine is employed by Audi or any auto dealership that sells Audis. My only interest in making this post is in relating a great experience I had as a customer.


"I am relatively convinced that in a past life I was Walter Mitty!" -- me

"I love historical fiction; it gives me the pleasant feeling of learning something while indulging my novel eating habit. Sort of like eating chocolate that has fiber." --Martha

"When you come to the edge of all the light you have known, and are about to step out into darkness, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: there will be something to stand on, or you will be taught to fly." -- Richard Bach

There's GOLD over on YouTube

This show is at Kiel Opera House in St Louis June 65.
Carson hosted....
Carson had the Tonight Show.
The Rat Pack were playing Vegas.
This is supposed to be the ONLY time Carson sang in public.
Quincy Jones was conducting the Basie band, and he is visible in the background...

ENJOY!



YouTube Credit: Nd179