This Winter Day

The kitchen is its readiness
white green and orange things
leak their blood selves in the soup.

Ritual sacrifice that snaps
an odor at my nose and starts
my tongue to march
slipping in the liquid of its drip.

The day, silver striped
in rain, is balked against
my window and the soup.
~Maya Angelou

How are you enjoying your day after Christmas?

nah

Poem:  Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

Short Story: The South by Jorge Luis Borges

Essay:  In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell

Photo Source: 1

  Maya Angelou – “The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.”

The first entry for my first quote analysis is a quote from the author Maya Angelou from her book, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” released at 1969, though I haven’t read the book before but I’ve seen her quotes for quite sometime back when I was still in high school, and I remembered one of those quotes is perfect for the beginning of this blog, “The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.”, well I will begin with the biography of Maya Angelou.

Maya Angelou born Marguerite Ann Johnson (April 4, 1928) is an American author and poet. Angelou is best known for her series of autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of seventeen, and brought her international recognition and acclaim (Wikipedia).

Well, the quote analysis is start here, if you read the quote, there is a chance that you will post it to your facebook wall, but wait a minute you there, personally, I think the quote is irrelevant to put it on everyday use for our time, this quote is really obsolete, and I am not so positive and not so easy to trust people nowadays where the crime is substantially high, the first time someone shows me who they really are, I don’t think I will believe them already, it takes time to know people and people like me tends to see people suspiciously, and I suggest you do the same for me as this is the first time I show you my post, and I believe you wont believe me if I say otherwise.

Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover phrase is also works as a criticize for this quote, because if you want to know people, it takes time and great deal of emotion and the first time someone shows you who they are, I don’t think that we can believe them outright.

The Verdict is that this quote is quite obsolete for our age, and for that reason, I suppose that most of you may realize this fact, but I really not recommend this quote for use except the circumstances changes and it’s really is up to you though, because like I said before; I believe this is the first time I show you my work, I don’t think that you believe me outright, right?

Well, I think I must read the book at least, if you against me, please let me know!

“You may be pretty or plain, heavy or thin, gay or straight, poor or rich. But nobody has more votes than you. All human beings are more equal to each other than they are unequal. And voting is the great equalizer.”

Maya Angelou

Hey everyone, I have to go out for a bit, back later – and will catch up with your emails asap

Never get tired of doing little things for others. Sometimes those little things occupy the biggest part of their hearts.

As Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

This not only applies to the people you care about, but also to complete strangers. It’s a small world that keeps on getting smaller, and you never know who the person you juts held the door open for is, and how they might help you in the long run. Even if you don’t ever see that person again, at least you made them smile. I believe that Karma will eventually make it’s way back to you.

My rule of thumb is to try to positively impact the day of everyone with whom I interact. This is the basic principle behind the daily random act of kindness.

Dr. Maya Angelou

Courage

-nah

Aloud I said, “Good God Almighty isn’t she as gorgeous as a fresh Georgia peach glazed with the heaven’s rain!” Trying to save face, I always assumed Applonia never heard my ridiculous outburst of joy, though her build makes me happy. It began on November 11^th 1986, when I was born to an Egyptian mountain lion and American brown bear; unfortunately I inherited an abnormal allergy to fresh fruits. The allergy makes our relationship a miracle! Her eyes are made of sweet, red apples with green stems for eyebrows. Her tits are perfectly mounted watermelons that contain melon juice for nurturing my childlike imagination whenever I long for her fuzzy farm. Most women are made of flesh, but she is made of fruit, a direct descendent of Eve. If Adam couldn’t resist one fruit how does the Creator expect me to stay free from falling into the creation that He made slippery? Her vaginal walls are coated with freshly squeezed peach juice, which oozes down her banana legs with every stride she takes. My eyes envy my tongues journey when she denies me learning the depth of her garden. On the tips of her watermelons are raspberries, deep purple in hue, which signify the rich soil from which her areola’s roots were founded. She teases me with a taste of their exquisite succulence. Two cantaloupes are suspended from her grapevine of a back; I straddle their weight equally across the private proximity of my extremity. She sits her fruit upon my grass as I shower her with the moons milk after sundown. Her tree is life; a field of fruit heaven sent for the picking. I hurl the fragments of all other fruits contrary to hers. My allergy is somehow no more whenever my face explores the galore of her juicy fruit.

TEACHING IS LEARNING.  Who knew :)  And to think, I have not been teaching long, bits here and there, so what this process brings a month, year, lifetime from now?  I can only imagine it gets better and deeper with time.  Exciting.  It’s like the saying, ‘you never know what you’re going to get’, because it literally is a grab bag every experience.  People are pretty much the most unpredictable of all the predictable ions out there.  And I assure you, this is a good thing.  People surprise us.  And who doesn’t like surprises?  I know I do.  It’s that moment when we stop trying to figure out what the surprise is going to be, that the wonder of the surprise takes over.  It is not magic, it’s actually quite a good amount of work.  Work, practice, teach.  When you make it your job to show people the light they didn’t know they had, you can’t help but see it in yourself.  Grab a friend or stranger – and tell them a story.  You’ll end up teaching them, and yourself, as you give what you thought was yours, away.

“I don’t know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, ‘Well, if I’d known better I’d have done better,’ that’s all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, ‘I’m sorry,’ and then you say to yourself, ‘I’m sorry.’ If we all hold on to the mistake, we can’t see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can’t see what we’re capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that’s rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.”

(Maya Angelou)

Agreed. Humankind learns from history, the goal of which is to not repeat our errors and to form a better future than our past. And agreed. Not repeating history takes enormous courage and sacrifice, both political and personal. One may argue that it is a choice, made consciously to not repeat and relive what one deems unproductive and atrocious, a choice that one may unconsciously believe to be made independently with not divine intervention of time and its surroundings.

But history repeats itself. Hence, Winston Churchill famously said, “Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.” The current repetition is best described as a series of uprisings. Although the degree, form and purpose differ vastly across continents, an overlap exists: the “commoners” demand to be heard.

Post first World War Egypt was changing rapidly, particularly its social and economic settings. New industries were developing, a different capital flow was coming in, and most importantly, the commoners, who were mostly slaves in the past, were awakening to realize their enslaved hardships. Literacy rates were at an all-time high, and means of communication, although still sluggish, were rapidly improving, allowing information and ideas to flow freely throughout the country. This synergy created a seething bond, a nation, resulting in an uproar for individual freedom and democracy.

A century later, modern Egypt birthed another uproar. The story sounds eerily similar; freedom suppressed for decades by a dictator, improved communication webs enabling the free-flow of ideas, and most importantly, commoners realizing their depressed current states and doing something about it. This wildfire has spread with bushfire speed, and has engulfed Syria for the past fourteen months. Syria indeed is on the extreme end; thousands of civilians have lost their lives. However, the pattern of revolt is nothing new.

No literal bloodshed yet, but a similar pattern is detected in South Korea. A formidable potential candidate has emerged in the race for the Blue House. Dr. Ahn Chul Soo, currently a professor at Seoul National University and formerly the founder of Ahn Lab, the first company to create and distribute computer vaccines in Korea, is riding a tidal wave strong enough to shake the foundations of the political establishment. What is striking is that Dr. Ahn has no political experience to speak of, and that he has not even formally declared his candidacy. What he has done for the past decade is simple: connect. Whether or not his motives are genuine, Dr. Ahn has become the symbol for what the Korean commoners want in their president. Someone who embodies two-way communication, someone who is genuinely concerned for the well-being of the common, and not thrashed around by the current establishment dominated by wealthy conglomerates.

Freedom does not endure. Fantasize all you want, but history does not lie. A once-successful uproar brings about a period of liberties, and the commoners thrive and rejoice. That period is almost always followed by a dictator, albeit in different forms and figures. The commoners are subdued once more, until another spark ignites the courage and necessity to realize and fulfill one’s destined freedom.

For tickets, VIP opportunities, sponsorship information and more, visit http://www.BrilliantLectures.org or call (713) 974-1335. For more information on “Friends For Life,” visit http://www.NoKill1.org. The mission of the Brilliant Lecture Series is to motivate and inspire by presenting national and international leaders, role models, philanthropists, artists, humanitarians, authors, and entrepreneurs to the great city of Houston. Since its inception, the Brilliant Lecture Series has presented luminaries: Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, Sir Sidney Poitier, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Diana Ross, Dr. Maya Angelou, and George Clooney to name just a few. Photo by Scott Council/Contour by Getty Images.

I’ll do so again, because today her post was about criticism, a delicate subject that she – as with most subjects – grips well.

As I prepare to publish my first novel independently, I worry about criticism.  I don’t fear receiving disapproval; I know this is a certainty, as the masses are generally unappeasable. (Also, my novel highlights some touchy subjects.  In general, people naturally react when you poke them in a tender spot.)

My concern is how I will ingest this criticism.  I’m sensitive by nature.  And my memory is pretty clear (except for the occasional lapse in the location of my car keys).  Thus, I foresee a pretty painful (and repetitive) reaction to the first Goodreads review starting with, “What is this crap, anyway?”  Just the idea of that possibility makes me cringe.

When I think of this, I recite to myself the following:

“Don’t pick it up, don’t lay it down.”

Another brilliant writer, Maya Angelou, is the inspiration for this mantra.  In an episode of Iconoclasts, in which Angelou and Dave Chappelle discuss criticism, Angelou recites an African proverb:

“I don’t pick that up; I don’t lay that down. Because, if I were to pick up the one (the compliment), I have to pick up the other (the reproach). And I still have my work to do!”

What Cashore is saying in today’s blog post is the same.  You cannot let anyone else’s words affect your work in either direction.  You have to know your work is what you want it to be.  That it achieves your goals and meets your expectations.  That is what matters.  Everything else is just noise.

But.  I know myself.

And no matter how often I chant Angelou’s words, when I come into contact with that first wave of knives directed at the heart of my plot/character development/intellectual prowess, I will be devastated.  I will curl up in my comfort corner and cry.

So, just so it’s handy, here’s a few other words from Angelou to lift me at that moment:

“Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called ‘Jabberwocky’?”
“Let’s hear it, ” said Humpty Dumpty. “I can explain all the poems that were ever invented – and a good many that haven’t been invented just yet.”
This sounded very hopeful, so Alice repeated the first verse: -
‘Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
and the mome raths outgrabe.
“That’s enough to begin with”, Humpty Dumpty interrupted: “there are plenty of hard words there. ‘Brillig’ means four o’clock in the afternoon–the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.”
“That’ll do very well”, said Alice: “and ‘slithy’?”
“Well, ‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy’. ‘Lithe’ is the same as ‘active’. You see it’s like a portmanteau–there are two meanings packed up into one word.”
I see it now”, Alice remarked thoughfully: “and what are ‘toves’?”
“Well, ‘toves’ are something like badgers–they’re something like lizards–and they’re something like corkscrews.”
“They must be very curious creatures.”
“They are that”, said Humpty Dumpty: “also they make their nests under sun-dials–also they live on cheese.”

And, so the conversation continued. I still love that I understood the explanation only slightly better than I did the poem. Almost thirty years later it is one of the few poems I still carry around in my head, almost complete. The fact that it seemed to appear from nowhere and lodge itself in my brain got me wondering what else was lodged in there. It turns out that I seem to carry an index of first lines in my head. Realising that I no longer have to wade through piles of books in order to find my favourite poems came as a pleasant surprise. Thanks to the internet I can find them all by simply searching the first lines. So if you want to play along at home, here are a few of my favourites:

“puffing on tiny cigarette butts as the world washes to the”
- Charles Bukowski’s ‘Edward Sbragia’

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness’
- Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’

“A free bird leaps”
- Maya Angelou’s ‘The Caged Bird’

“O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring”
- Walt Whitman’s O Me! ‘O Life!’

“Nobody cares about your father!”
- Michael McClure’s ‘Blues’

“The rat is in trap, it is in the trap”
- Ted Hughes’ “Song of a Rat’

“The host, he says that all is well”
- Hart Crane’s ‘Fear’

To find anything I’ve written I need to wade through pages and pages and pages of writing buried beneath layers of scribbled edits. I really ought to make the time to put numbers on the pages. I was a little surprised to realise there are a few first lines lodged in my head that have the poems buried not too far beneath them. They are:
“Gilmore lived at number 99.”
“How horrible i should judge”
“Her Asiatic screams pierced the night”
“Flashing neon billboards”

You can read the poems here.

The picture Jabberwocky is from The Complete Illustrated Works of Lewis Carroll and the illustration by Sir John Tenniel.
The first line of Ginsbergs Howl is from Howl: A graphic novel and the animation is by Eric Drooker who has done some amazing covers 
for the New Yorker and has some great stuff on drooker.com

People say that the best short story writers are poets. Poets have a skill of making every word count. I remember in school I read a poem by Sylvia Plath and I was amazed at how she described a cut on her thumb. Her thumb! She made her description into the most symbolic and gracious lines that I have never read before. The grace, the pain, the beauty, the overall cadence of the lines stuck with me for years.

I wish I was a poet and trust me I have notebooks filled with my attempts. But I am a short story writer, essayist, and novelist who adores and learns from poetry.

The things I have learned from Plath, Angelou, Shakespeare, Bryon, and many others is that when making a story make every word like an important screw. Pick every word so carefully till the point the story would fall apart without it. I know this can be difficult and I am still learning how to do this but having this will make you a powerful writer.

For me by my third draft of my story, I take a magnifying glass to see which words are hindering my story. This can take days or even weeks. But in the end, I am always happy with the changes I have made. In the end, I have strengthened my story.

Sometimes it is difficult to cut from my stories. It feels like I am taking a pair of shears and giving my teenage story an awful and unforgivable haircut. However, I remember that I have to take charge and choose my words precisely like the great poets.

So Remember don’t be scared to cut down on your stories. Sometimes great stories can be only a few words long.

Love ya,
Your friendly neighborhood writing addict

Bukowski  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/july-poetry-day-1-bukowski/

Adrienne Rich  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/03/north-american-time/

Anais Nin  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/july-poetry-day-3-anais-nin/

Wilfred Owen  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/happy-fourth-of-july-poetry-day-4/

Kahlil Gibran  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/poetry-day-5-kahlil-gibran/

Mary Elizabeth Frye  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/06/july-poetry-day-6-mary-elizabeth-frye/

Z Deacon Blue  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/july-poetry-day-7-z-deacon-blue/

Doug Draime  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/july-poetry-day-8-doug-draime/

Pablo Neruda  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/july-poetry-day-9-pablo-neruda/

Edgar Allan Poe  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/july-poetry-day-9-edgar-allan-poe/

Jim Cooper  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/july-poetry-day-10-the-beauty-of-alzheimers/

Dante Ocariz  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/july-poetry-day-10-the-beauty-of-alzheimers/

Li Po  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/july-poetry-day-13-li-po/

Langstone Hughes  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/july-poetry-day-14-langstone-hughes/

Patrick Graven  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/july-poetry-day-15-a-bit-of-ireland/

SA Griffin  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/july-poetry-day-16-outlaw-poetry-s-a-griffin/

Maya Angelou  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/july-poetry-day-17-maya-angelou/

DA Levy  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/july-poetry-day-18-outlaws-continued-da-levy/

Kell Robertson  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/july-poetry-day-19-kell-robertson/

Anne Sexton  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/july-poetry-day-20-anne-sexton-after-auschwitz/

Lewis Carroll  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/july-poetry-day-21-the-jabberwocky/

Jax  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/july-poetry-day-22-fools-daydream/

Emily Dickinson  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/july-poetry-day-23-emily-dickinson/

Derek Walcott  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/july-poetry-day-24-derek-walcott/

Sara Teasdale  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/july-poetry-day-25-sara-teasdale/

Mary Havran  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/july-poetry-day-26-am-i-to-be-tested-by-fire/

Rich Quatrone  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/july-poetry-day-27-rich-quatrone/

Rumi  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/july-poetry-day-28-rumi/

Z Deacon Blue  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/july-poetry-day-29-and-the-president-didnt-call/

Peter McWilliams  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/july-poetry-day-30-peter-mcwilliams/

Galway Kinnell  http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/july-poetry-the-final-day-wait/