Thursday, September 2, 2010

I'm In My Own Way



Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
- William Ellery Channing


How to Grow Clouds
"It takes a lot of work: it is necessary to weed very carefully, to toss out muck and small stones by hand, to kneel on the earth, bend over, dig about in the soil, water profusely, collect caterpillars, exterminate aphids, loosen the ground and serve the earth; when your back hurts from all this and you straighten up and look at the sky, you will have the prettiest clouds."
- Karel Capek
translated by Andrew Malcovsky
wood's lot


Here's another offering for Three Word Wednesday. The words in italics are the words given to appear in the work. At this moment there are forty two offerings, forty-three different creative pieces from all over the internet. My poem will become the forty-fourth.

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As usual in these matters of love it turns out I am my own worst enemy.

I'm In My Own Way

You have given me
a real break, a fine, fine gift,
yes, one for the books,
and me, the guy who
stands here all so negative
in spite of your love.

I feel like a tired
swimmer struggling so toward
the surface of things.

September 2, 2010 9:38 AM

19 comments:

  1. I swear I am being serious, and since you are listing one of the recipes for clouds creation.

    Moisture, a slight electricity in the air with the right temperatures and varying cascade of temps (air's ability to hold water is adiabatically) and I am being dead serious, there has to be some dirt, dust, or another un-pure or contaminate present. :)

    Beautiful post and poems

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  2. loved the poem, the feelings it conjured.

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  3. I really like what you did with the 3 words, I also loved the quote about the clouds. :-)

    I'm glad to have discovered your blog.

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  4. Must be what I'm doing wrong - leaving out the digging and weeding but expecting the clouds to look good nevertheless! LOL. My garden thinks so, I bet! I loved that quote and enjoyed the way you got the three words to hang together.

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  5. Your words made a direct hit. I often feel like a swimmer struggling toward the surface. Well said.


    I loved the cloud quote too.

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  6. It takes dirt to make clouds. And when clouds really get going the dirt really flies. :D Yessir, clouds just love good gossip. Thanks for your comment, dirt.

    ThomG, I think to be true to the poem you sort of have to hate it or at least regret it. :)

    Karel Capek is Polish, I believe, Susannah, and I remember him from Speech and Drama I took in college a hundred :) years ago.

    Penny, thanks for saying so. I agree with you that our gardens have opinions. They are quieter in general than the gremlins though.

    Nara, I don't know whether to apologize or hold gratitude for direct hits like that. I guess it is a confirmation that some of the emotions that I know so well are common. I see by your site that you write romance. You will see by coming here that much of my poetry is romance. Or you can check my archives and find out.

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  7. yer spelin is getin mor unusuwel

    I luvs ya aniway.

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  8. I inhaled
    while submerged
    and became part
    of the vast wet

    but cells gathered
    residue of sky
    and blew out
    'til I popped up
    buoyed

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  9. hi
    i,m surfacing
    catching my breath
    soon i might be able to speak
    through my eyes full of water
    i can see :)
    the beauty
    of the photos on your blog
    and that
    your poem is written,
    in your own way,
    now,
    on the day you posted it
    x

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  10. Somehow Annie, that doesn't really feel all that comfortable. I'm happy you found sky.

    Jozien, I don't like the sound of wet eyes. I hope you are well. Yes. I posted a new poem because it figured in another place and I wanted the linkage. This will happen from time to time in order to do that. I love you, my lady friend. Don't let them getcha down.

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  11. Thanks, I'm very much okay love, it's just that.. well he left. One can swim under water only for so long i suppose.

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  12. You are a rich pepper diet. That might be too hot.

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  13. This succinctly conveys what, at least to me, is a very tangled ball of emotions; a nice piece! Liked the swimming analogy very much.

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  14. Christine, thank you for saying so. I hope that like the oracles of old, this is neutral in its own way enough that most readers can fill in the lines not drawn. This is like cartoonists who learned that a three fingered hand plus thumb saves time by being much easier to draw and so let us imagine the fourth finger, and how you don't need to draw every line to get by, especially true between forehead and nose. There are plenty of other stylized tricks.

    I hoped you noticed the background form of lines of haiku syllables. That's the form for my poetry, which developed from haiku on the blogs.

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  15. i am so taken with how all these ingredients work together, the image, the two lovely quotes and your use of the wednesday words in your thoughtful and gut honest poem.
    completely enjoyable. thank you.

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  16. You are sweet to tell me such things, my Harlequin.

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  17. Yes, yes, and yes. It is the work that makes the day valuable, the contrast that makes anything have meaning. Maybe this is where the silence comes from, knowing this, and then accepting it. It is just in the last few years I've learned this and it was a surprise for me. I had very big eyes. I laugh to think on me discovering it now.

    And so the word regret is the most ineffectual word ever.

    And yet, And YET (you know this) if I were a witch I'd gather herbs to part the crowd and have you find her.

    xo
    erin

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The chicken crossed the road. That's poultry in motion.


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