Year Of The Snake
Guys! It is officially the Year Of The Snake, one of the twelve animals in the Chinese lunar new year cycle. Years of the Snake have hosted some pretty upsetting shit in the past --most recently the Tienanmen Square massacre in 1989 and the attack on the World Trade Center in NYC in 2001. But this particular one should be a bit mellower in the violence department, thanks to it being a water snake year; water chills things out. The last Water snake year, 1953, the Korean War ended and color television began.
What has someone said to you that has, as they say, haunted you? Tell the story of them saying it. Then compare the thing, the thing they said, to a concrete object -- a wall, a mirror, a skipping record -- and then have a relationship with that object.
I woke up today and turned on the radio, and was met with Beethoven’s Symphony 9 in D Minor.
Write a poem within a poem. I don't know what that means either. But try this: write three stanzas about something you hide from other people. Print out (or copy down) two copies of it. On the second copy, white out some of the words to create a second poem. See if you can isolate only those words that if they hang on their own in the air, capture the essence of the thing you are hiding and why. Place the two versions atop one another or side by side.
Mercury is the planet closest to the sun. In Roman mythology it governs commerce, travel, and thievery, and in Greek mythology Mercury is the messenger to the Gods. But you already knew that. What you maybe didn't know is that Einstein's correct prediction of Mercury's erratic path helped prove the Theory of Relativity. So take that, Mercury haters who love science.
Once I was in Tucson, Arizona for the All Souls' Parade, which takes place along the train tracks running through downtown. There were magnificent costumes and makeup and enormous skeleton puppets and dancers and marchers chiding onlookers to "have fun now before it's too late." There was one man who had chosen to do the procession carrying what must have been over a hundred pounds of chains. He literally couldn't carry them alone. People had to pick up his chains and carry them for awhile, and then they would reach exhaustion and other people would step in.
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." - Ray Bradbury
Explore the origins of something necessary to your survival. (water, air, attention, Prince's greatest hits ...)
Consider a decision you are pondering, real or pretend, but one that has some emotional charge to it. First make two columns on a piece of paper and mark one column "option a" (or, for example "stay together" or "get the surgery") and the other "option b" (or, for example "break up" or "don't get the surgery").