Thursday, January 25, 2024

Words are pilgrims

I'm curious. Period. I find everything interesting. Real life. Fake life. Objects. Flowers. Cats. But mostly people. If you keep your eyes open and your mind open, everything can be interesting.
~Agnes Varda



Hi y'all! Happy Poetry Friday! I've been thinking about charming worms today, but I'm posting about losing control. Singer Teddy Swims has a "Lose Control" challenge, inviting people to write their own stanza and sing it. I love the ways that people ran with it! (Note: There is cursing! The video goes on for a long time, so just listen to a sample if you want!)



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And now, let's talk about punctuation!

The Case for Punctuation
by Murray Silverstein

Periods are gods, semicolons angels, the commas
their wings. It’s the words that are always wrong, ​

sinful and broken, intoxicatingly other than what
is meant. What does the wound remember? ​

          this morning, low tide, the gulls...


read the rest here

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Chicken Spaghetti has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Susan!

16 comments:

Susan T. said...

Wow, that first duetter reminds me of Amy Winehouse. That is a cool project. And worm-charming? Who knew! Thanks for all the goodness here, Tabatha.

Patricia Franz said...

Wow - I could listen to that all day! Such a great dip into letting go. And then the poem! The BEST! I'm holding a ton of frustration right now and you may have just inspired me to go try singing...or at least ranting-poetic. Thank you, Tabatha!

Carol Varsalona said...

Tabatha, I enjoyed this post from the song right down to the poem. Many thanks for bringing energy into my morning.

Rose Cappelli said...

Thanks, Tabatha. Your post is full of goodness. I'm a big fan of the em dash so I especially appreciated the punctuation poem.

Linda B said...

The song is waking me up this morning, listening while reading others, now back to you, Tabatha, and liking all about the punctuation, but loving the 'commas are wings', carrying on those 'bad?' words! Thanks for making me think again!

Tracey Kiff-Judson said...

Holy moly! Those are some powerful voices, and what a creative idea to allow fans to add a verse. I could listen to that all day!

Janice Scully said...

Tabatha, you completely got me with this video. It is fabulous! And of course the poem about punctuation is great, too. I always enjoy ruminating about it when I write a poem.

Michelle Kogan said...

Ah what a tribute to our punctuation—that hopefully helps us not lose control, or maybe just the opposite… A yay for Varda's curiosity and keeping our eyes peeled. And Charming Worms, I'm slightly familiar with it via birds that stomp around and bring the worms up–definitely cool, thanks Tabatha!

Denise Krebs said...

Tabatha, what a wonderful thought about the power of punctuation. Although Murray made the case for punctuation with that word choice. Spectacular! The song was fun. Thanks, as always, for sharing such a lovely variety of fun on your posts. You are a master!

Ruth said...

What a fabulous poem!

Mary Lee said...

Poor words. They get the brunt of it in that punctuation poem. But I will never again look at a period, semicolon, comma, or em dash the same way! Gods! Angels! Prophets! (I wonder what the exclamation point would be? Or the question mark?)

Irene Latham said...

Brilliant punctuation poem! Thank you, Tab. xo

Elisabeth said...

That poem about punctuation is wonderful - I'm always playing with line breaks and punctuation in my poems, so it was fun to read a poem about the impact punctuation has on what we write! Thanks for sharing that with us today!

KatApel - katswhiskers.wordpress.com said...

Tabatha is here with so much to make us think about creativity in its many forms. Those gulls, rising as one to suture the sky. So good!

laurasalas said...

The words ARE so often what's broken, and I always hope I can fix them with the rules of good punctuation, but no. Thanks for this video! My husband and I are catching up on Graham Norton episodes, and we just watched one last week where Teddy Swims was the musical guest and sang this. Love this!

Gail Aldous said...

Hi Tabitha,

I was reading some of your past blog posts. I enjoyed Agnes Varda's quote. I like how she puts periods after single words, which to me makes more of an emphasis on the word, then when it in a sentence. I am also curious. I find real life, flowers, CATS, people, children, and nature interesting. Love her the truth in her last sentence "If you keep your eyes open and your mind open everything can be interesting." I enjoyed the poem about punctuation, and I think I've read it a long time ago. I love the thought of parenthesis being angel wings.

On a previous post I enjoyed the artwork on wolves. I have always been fascinated with wolves and foxes. I enjoyed reading the tidbit about a genetic mutation in wolves becoming smaller before domestication. I have also read interesting articles and books on wolves. In an article, I remember reading those certain wolves, who were loners and didn't quite fit into a pack of wolves were some of the first wolves to live around humans. humans. I don't remember exactly how the words that the author used to describe these wolves' behavior, but it was like these wolves were less wild than the wolves in packs and over many years this eventually led to wolves who stayed close to humans, genetics becoming less wild and tamer, which I found fascinating. I wish I could remember where I read it.
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I also want to thank you for your beautiful new year postcard. I love Elena's swirly dragon painting with the contrasting colors and those fiery eyes. I love the rhyme and historical words in your poem. I especially enjoy these lines "Stow words and memories that heal, Keep compassion on tap and pour a deep flagon... here be dragons." I'll raise my mug of green peppermint tea to that. Cute map, also. I hope you are still able to receive comments from an older post. :)