#Poetry for the day, this terrible season.

#War

I'm seeing a lot of stressed out folks heading into the weekend.

Brain-stuff isn't much fun.

Here's a wee chuckle to offset the head-noise.

Take good care of yourselves, okay? ❤️

I've been flipping between projects all afternoon, but my brain no quiere brain-ar. 🙃

Some days it do be like that, eh?

Pancakes aren't really a thing here--and with no real maple (or blueberry!) syrup why bother? But there's nothing quite like an arepa con queso: a big floofy mound of flour and cheese, griddle-cooked, flattened but still pillowy-soft, and drizzled with a creamy sauce. It is a cheese vehicle, somewhere between grilled sammich and pancake, and perfect for cool wet nights. 😋 #CoSoFood #Colombia

Warm-up to fiction-writing tonight was a bit of poetry. Process photo below: I usually tinker with a key element in a few different ways (see: the chunks on the left, playing with image) before going for a full draft.

I like writing poetry by hand first because when you type it up, you can see the cheats you've slipped in, via cramped script on the page. Then you're forced to think differently about rhythm and the line.

How about you? How do you write your #poetry, if/when you do? 👀 #AmWriting

Rain again today--
my neighbour sleeps in a shroud
of all our design.

(I'm saving up for a low-cost tent and going to give him an old cooking pot for Thanksgiving. I've been watching for weeks to see how much he'd be at risk of greater harassment for having any property at all, but the others who pass through seem friendly. They share when they can in the afternoons. Helping is a complicated but necessary affair.)

Morning, CoSo! 🕊️

I meant to have this up yesterday, but I trip into pretty deep dives whenever I write on US case law. There are just... *so* many imprecise glosses of key issues in major media reporting, eh?

The dog-bites-man story:

A right wing supermajority SCOTUS is poised to help Republicans gut regulatory agencies and restrict individual protections.

The man-bites-dog story?

That's still in the works. Can US citizens fight for the country they want instead?
https://onlysky.media/mclark/a-new-term-for-a-sorry-supreme-court/

Also, @JakeA will definitely get a chuckle out of this one, but I think many of us can relate. Happy spooky season, fellow nerds! #Comics (Oglaf)

Today's wee chat about ethical living within oppressive systems reminded me of a recent Oglaf comic - one of the rare PG ones! 😉 #Comics #Politics

Rain gentles all things
in its passing.

How much must
even the smallest blooms recall?

#Nature

Now this is super lovely. On my way to the park, I found a new art installation: an ode to the street cleaner in our neck of the woods. Her name is María, a lovely little Afrocolombiana lady who teases the local vendors for the trash their clients leave, and loves her Sunday rest with her granddaughter. We always hug when we see each other in the morning. I bet she hasn't seen this yet, but she'll be chuffed!

It's nice to know when one makes a difference. 💛 We all do, in our own way.

Last one before bed:

I know fellows get fewer random compliments (for better & for worse: trust me, street harassment is stressful), so feel free to take one of these to the bank tonight:

1) You have a kind smile.
2) Your laugh lights up the room.
3) I love your arms; they look perfect for giving great hugs.
4) I could listen to you talk about Warhammer for hours.
5) Yes, you would totally be able to take on 100 preschoolers &/or one black bear.
6) Your beard is super nice.

Night, princes! 🤴

I'm returning to a lovely film inspired by Thai Buddhist beliefs today. It's a cherished piece among film scholars, because it blends the idea of visiting spirits with the memory-work of cinema itself. A dying man is visited by the dead who hold meaning in his life, and everyone reflects on the memories together. (Even bringing out albums to share with the ghosts!)

Every possibility is accepted as just part of the journey. Including this line, which always makes me chuckle.
#CoSoFilms #Buddhism

#Poetry break.

W.H. Auden, "Musée des Beaux Artes": a classic reminder that life contains multitudes - one grieving while another celebrates, and another still laments the boredom of the day.

I love English translation quirks on clothes here. :) I bet we have tons of Spanish errors on clothes up north, too, but it's just hilarious to think of English-ese as enough of a draw that errors don't matter.

#AmWriting

Best part of being up early is peace and quiet while working out in public.

Also, getting to ogle the awkward growth phases of local plant life in peace, too. 😊

Okay, CoSo.

I wrote a piece to offer some deeper and important history surrounding the latest mess in Canadian Parliament.

Yes, the Speaker has resigned.

But that's where the danger begins: when we have an easy target, which allows us to avoid thinking about the historical illiteracy that underpins these errors and allows old wounds to be opened and leveraged in current wars.

History is always a casualty of war. But if we can lessen the size of the wound, we should.

https://onlysky.media/mclark/war-makes-us-terrible-historians/

A lil' Hegel with your morning ☕, CoSo. 💫

I was thinking on Phenomenology of Spirit while trying to put my finger on a major problem with online discourse: the absolutism of truth & falsity it cultivates; the rush to refute or affirm placed well above the value of holding ideas in tension.

Reflecting on ideas in tension isn't apolitical, sadly.

Nuance is a privilege when surrounded by bad actors.

But man, we've lost *so much* to the ongoing work of limiting the harm they all do.

#Philosophy

This phone camera can never capture reds properly, but you get the idea. 💛

😂 CoSo!

Choose your reason for being committed from this fine chart of asylum admissions, 1864-1889, will you? What're you in for?