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One more thing…

Regrettably, Greg Schiller is having to pull the plug on Writing Essential Group at WordPress. Thank you, Greg, for your service! It’s been a nice forum and it’s been nice to hang on to this clutch of Gather friends. My SunWinks! columns will continue on my blog SunWinks! as usual.

Today, however, I got hit with a last-minute project on a tight deadline, so this is a placeholder for SunWinks! for the moment. The next full column will appear as soon as I can manage it.

I want to say one more thing about oxymorons. “Military intelligence” is not an oxymoron. “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you” is not an oxymoron. These are jokes. The joke is that “military intelligence” should be an oxymoron. The joke is that “military” and “intelligence” are direct opposites.

That doesn’t mean this sort of construction is bad, per se. It’s a great way to construct a one-liner. If you are writing a funny poem and you want to make this technique the basis for a little gag in your poem then by all means do.

Have a great weekend!
Love, Doug

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C is for… Part 25

Life on the roller coaster.

cgholden's avatarCarolLines

C is for Cornucopia

 There have been so many things to write about, that I’ve been a little overwhelmed and I fear I have been procrastinating.

 Lately I seem to be on an emotional rollercoaster, but more on that later.  Let’s start with the most obvious:

 

C is for Christmas.

 Ever since I was a little girl, I have waited to hear the right Christmas tree “talk” to me.  Only then would I know that that was the perfect tree to come home with us.  Sometimes it took a couple of tree lots and I am amazed that my father, and later Doug and the girls were so patient, ( though the girls bought into the whole concept immediately!)

 This year we decided that we would go all out for Christmas as we were probably going to step aside as the hosts for the family the following…

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SunWinks! August 24, 2014: Keeping It Short

SunWinksLogoDear SunWinkers!

William Stafford got up at four in the morning and wrote a poem every day. Robert Bly admired this and spent a year writing a poem a day, which he subsequently published as Morning Poems.

 I’m just guessing here, but I don’t think you can write “The Waste Land” or “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” every day. I was writing almost a poem a day a couple months ago, not in response to a challenge, just feeling fecund. Most are a page to a page-and-a-half long.

You get a feel for a certain length. The beginning is about half a page. The development is about half a page. And the ending is about half a page. You write the beginning, and after about 6-10 lines, it’s time to start thinking about getting into the development. It’s very much like the difference between sitting down to write a minuet or a sonata. Continue reading →

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C is for…Part 12

If you don’t know, Carol is blogging her cancer experience. Follow it for all the dope. Here’s the latest installment!

cgholden's avatarCarolLines

C is for Conduit

 

Okay, it really isn’t called a conduit or even a portal…they call it a port which stands for port-a-cath, but it is a way to take Chemo or give blood with out being stuck a million times, in a million veins, and today I had my port put in my chest.

Doug drove me, of course,and because I’m always such a nervous-Nelly about being on time, we got there about a half an hour early.

Boom ! I was registered, by Debra.  Do you know they put the identification band on the patients ankle now instead of the wrist?  I was glad I had a nice pedicure!

Boom! Marcia called my name and took Doug and me into a room.  Room number 1313.  Hmmmm.

Labs, tests, questions.  Yes, my birthday is STILL 12-21-48.  Seriously, I know they ask to make sure they have…

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