How to be Drawn

How to be Drawn by Terrance Hayes

In Circling Minds section, I liked these

Self-portrait as the mind of a camera

We should make a documentary about spades

Antebellum house party

Ars poetica for the ones like us

How to Draw a Perfect Circle

What is your Apron?

In 'A is for Apron' introduction, Nathalie Mornu says "When I put on an apron, I feel transformed. the apron seems to channel everyone who's ever worn one before. I'm suddenly more efficient, more in charge, and totally up to the task before me .."

What people do after breakups

take pictures of them everyday
make a wooden cutting board

A poet is happy

when the poet can just say

or is a poets language
different
like a notary's

Ideas for product

What  hurts?
holding your tablet with both hands

The head of a tripod

Did you know that the tripod
has a head
which wills to be corked
by any right sized
mount opening

The true spirit of anything

ADOMI 6 Foot Deluxe Fully Decorated Artificial Christmas Tree 10 Kinds Red/Gold Shatterproof Christmas Ornaments (141Pcs), Unlit

The true spirit of Christmas

First there is anything
Say Christmas
And then its meaning is lost
then you talk of its spirit

A spirit lamp is what I think of
so the fun is limited?
the oil/alcohol runs out
til you find new wells
big well to small well

you heart swells with joy
and when it doesnt no more
you go to the true spirit

like with law
you say letter of the law
intent of the law
why wasnt the intent
in the letter?

No contents says the
iphone

When we get the true spirit
do we go back to
anything

spirit of love
do you go back
to noun or verb
or meaning of it.

The True Spirit of Christmas

Christmas warms us up to the familiarity of the same 'The Christmas' movie run on TV every year. Well two years ago.. 'Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus'.. was a new Christmas story for me. If thats so in the movie world. Book world too has its new additions each year. last year it was 'The Wondrous Tree' by Gramps Doodlebug.
This year's 'The True Spirit of Christmas' by Dorothy Thurgood Manning, a picture book with rhyming verse will make the readers reflect on why is Christmas so wonderful time. Yes we receive gifts but more fun than receiving is giving. The little girl in the story realises the value of making gifts with her own hands. The illustrations have a pleasant feel. All the gifts involved in the book can be used as craft projects too. A popsicle stick jewellery box is a cool idea.. so are the rest of the gifts. So not only do we appreciate the spirit of Christmas but we get to implement and share the joy should we want to make those gifts.

The Very Red Water works

Above ground
water pipe at the school
very red like blood

Second Know

We first know things say by reading. But how do you internalize it so you can use it when you read it like you know it. What I call the second know. Recalling something like you know it already.

How kids learn planning

Bambo Nature Extra Large Pull Up Training Pants - by Bambo Nature

My toddler is helping me fetching a diaper for the newborn. Some times I need two quickly. I wonder when kids learn planning and think that 'If I give two diapers, then she can use it or not'. With wipes, she asks me how many are needed, since she cant get more or they'll get useless by drying out.

learning to read to reading to learn
how kids learn

Poets respond

Things happen in a week
but a poet
has no time
to respond to them

A poem has come
from
distractions of life

What does everything say?

"the unfurling carpet of guiding lights that say here, 
the voice of the controller that says now; " - Mark Vanhoenacker

we might say that we have essentially launched new stars into the sky
Internal Guidance system

Bloods orbit

If arteries and veins form  Bloods Orbit.
Internal and external metaphors. Different Scale.

Air Alert

The exercise you can do anywhere

Country Living Smart Solutions

white plates with dictionary-like drawings of butterflies and insects.

Wit

“Wit makes its own welcome and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good will.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lately I have noticed, that I am talking differently. I dont know my sentence till I say it. Long time ago, I would tell the sentence to myself, to make any correction (for example - not hurting others) but would say as is, not taking the advantage of the exercise.

1. You want to chose a carpet thats neither light nor too dark.
If its dark its depressing
If its light it will  (I said this impromptu) get depressing with stains and all..

2. Daughter crying at summer camp at a different school. She went late. I asked her of anybody else was crying and then made a stupid crack about how if she had reached the school early, she would have been done crying along with the rest.

Earth as poetry

“It is only when we are aware of the earth and of the earth as poetry that we truly live.” 
― Henry Beston

Seafoam is when ocean has seizures.

What would your poem be with 'earth as poetry'?

Stunning photographs

Icebergs look like Giant Penguins

On the right side, can you see

the hind of a bear

One outstretched shadow

brings to light fifty other narrow egrets shadows

Year of the Dunk

ideal workout as finding a DVD you like in video store

Books by weight

In Driving hungry, the author refers to Antiquariat in Berlin where used books are sold by weight. Well, in India too when you are selling away used books to a recyclist, you do that.
In rajasthan, my father and I were shocked to learn that bananas were sold not by the dozen but by weight.

Relax-a-bye Baby: A bedtime guide to help your little one relax and sleep tight

'Relax-a-bye Baby: A bedtime guide to help your little one relax and sleep tight' written by Mimi summers and illustrated by Dana Theveneau uses 'body scan' technique to help the baby go to sleep, with steps that make him/her appreciate and thank the body. The lyrics rhyme. The illustrations have a lot of colour with very few lines and objects befitting the winding down for a good night sleep. Since the book is not just read-aloud but act along, but like the shavasana in yoga, it is an easy, calming read. The book is too long, so you shouldnt need to read all of it. With time, one it becomes a practice, it will be easier to fall asleep, just like meditation gets easier with practice.
The body scan technique can be used even while bathing, so kids will learn naming the body parts and become familiar with the getting to bed routine.

I paused at this sentence

Set on thirty five leafy acres on a hillside
Thatch of curls

The Other "F" Word: How Smart Leaders, Teams, and Entrepreneurs Put Failure to Work

"Bad companies are destroyed by crisis; good companies survive them; great companies are improved by them." - Andy Grove.

In "The Other "F" Word: How Smart Leaders, Teams, and Entrepreneurs Put Failure to Work" by John Danner and Mark Coopersmith, you get to see what the crises can be and how your company size will change your reaction to it, what you can learn from it and how you can remember that to learn from failure as an individual and team.
With Edison and WD-40, we have learnt how taking more risks, we increase our chance of success. But to keep on going ahead like King Bruce, we have to know that we are not going to build that web the first time, learn and improvise from each attempt.
The Failure Value Cycle is about how to mine gold from your crash and burns. With its 7 step process, you create an environment where you accept the ubiquity of failure in a venture, prepare for it, be on the lookout for it, respond, avert and get back on track.
The authors have referred to the latest security debacles of great companies. After each chapter, there is a summary of what are the keypoints. There are questionnaires about how failure is treated in our organisation. There is an encouragement to show off not just your laurels but your albatrosses too.
The best I like are the 3 Rules of learning - from others, by play and thinking and by doing, 'What has to be true' exercise.

You are your worst competitor

The truth waiting in the object

"All truths wait in all things." - Walt Whitman

Jane Hirshfield's interview

one person's tilt of memory
like it were astronomical
and had a course

Spare poem

How would you describe a  Spare poem ?

Not spare like sparse
spare like stepney

Muddy rice and black sake

On reading following Bashos lines

I sit facing muddy sake
and black rice

I thought of the images of Muddy rice and black sake

"Avoid
Adjectives of scale,
, you will love the world more and desire it less.” - Rober Hass paraphrasing Basho.

In the sky

Birds flew together
like
grad caps

Green peach

A peach
is
green peach
at first

Does red apple start green?

Creativity

is like sugarcane
get the most out of it
by optimally recycling
it through the machine

use it like
an essential oil
a drop is enough
to get you
started

Dip in that inkwell
often but scantily

I started with thoughts become things rock inspiration with words become things in mind, but when I started writing it out, it took its own direction and became two things.

Leverage

1. employing experts. Steve jobs about hiring smart people
2. Integration instead of reinventing the wheel.

Starting with a word

solopreneur to slopreneur
entrepreneur to rentrepreneur

This is how
words can become things

By naming it
you can make it

At a Home Sales Office

A broken
message rock

"Thoug hts
  becom e
    Thin  gs"

A child had chucked it
to the ground
not sure if

with  thought
to break it
to see if it would break
to see if it would not break
to see if it will bounce like a ball

Rocks Message
I break

What happened to my morning tea?

Why does coffee heated up in the microwave foam up when sugar is added

What is an Experiment?

It makes the effect
of the invisible atoms
visible

Invisible here is
to the human eye

California two-spot octopus
sees with its skin

Whats inaudible to us
is not to dogs

Animal dictionary
does not match ours

Is life's purpose a
unified dictionary?

In the dark
does it matter
what color the octopus is?

It all depends on the prey's
eyes

Can a blind person
now see with his skin
or a deaf person
through some other
mechanism than ears?

Biomimicry
until all living things
sense in the same way.

What stone lends

Today inspiration - sculpture

Stone lets human body
defy gravity

Enabling Acts: The Hidden Story of How the Americans with Disabilities Act Gave the Largest US Minority Its Rights

I had read about the demonstration on the subway stairs in Newyork prior to ADA in 'Million Years with you': A Memoir of Life Observed' by elizabeth Marshall (great author), in which her daughter contributed towards ADAPT (Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transport). At Tovrea Castle, one of the floors was closed because it couldnt be made accessible. Thats when I realised the ADA provisions. So its history hooked me right from the cover.
As a foreign national, this book is a great way to learn how things come about in law in America. For example, the relay service adding to the phone surcharge bill, number of employees of a small business being changed to 50, so really small businesses dont go out of business trying to retrofit to ADA requirements.
I have lots of notes from the reading to refer to various acts example Decoder Circuitry Act.
The book's main premise is that its not just the activists with the demonstration that got about the ADA to happen, but the politicians and the staffers too had a great role. The book goes into great detail about people, their characteristics, background, their views towards disability, change of mind of those who were not ready for ADA, organizations that melded together for the final act.

Dissent and the Supreme Court: Its Role in the Court's History and the Nation's Constitutional Dialogue

I came across 'Brandeis Briefs' in 'Enabling Acts: The Hidden Story of How the Americans with Disabilities Act Gave the Largest US Minority Its Rights' by Lennard J. Davis. Before I found the time to refer to it, I opened 'Dissent and the Supreme Court: Its Role in the Court's History and the Nation's Constitutional Dialogue' by Melvin I. Urofsky who happens to have written a book on the very Louis D Brandeis who led to 'Brandeis Briefs' with his 'compilation of scientific information and social science than on legal citations'.
If you are into legal history, you will have a ball reading how the tug of war settled in many cases. The how could involve interesting Concurrences and or Dissent. Concurrence is when the end is same but the reasoning to get to the outcome is different. Dissent is being at odds with the outcome. The expectation of the Supreme Court is to be the final word on law but for democratic purposes and future thinking, dissents are encouraged.
The book goes into detail about many cases. I enjoyed not just the specifics of the cases but also the thought processes. How prevailing legal opinions change overtime, how nature got its legal rights, what charter means for property rights.

Performance Breakthrough: The FOUR Secrets of Passionate Organizations

'Performance Breakthrough: The FOUR Secrets of Passionate Organizations' by Mike Goldman is narrated as fiction but speaks to a company with disengaged employees trying to get back on its feet. The first time I read a book fictionalized in business is 'Revenue and the CMO: How Marketing Will Impact Revenue through Big Data and Social Selling' by Glenn Gow.
In the recent times, I have read the concepts of knowing your 'employee culture' in 'Under the Hood' by Stan Slap and playing ignorance in 'The Ignorant Maestro'. Knowing your employees and building trust among them is covered in detail in the former, empowering your employees and trusting them to do a good job, giving them the needed freedom is covered in the latter.
So the concepts have all been there. But this book acts as a quick reminder to get the train onto the track. The format has two layers of fiction. One is the personal life of the narrator which feeds directions into his office life.

This Digital Life

A mommy's nesting instinct
includes unsubscribing to
unnecessary emails

'you may like' of a e-newspaper
lists tragedy

Summer, Manair Dam

The kids went
 Swimming in the water
They came out
in a two person carriage
their hands held out taut
like marionettes with
invisible strings



Dry drowning every parent needs know
Secondary drowning
Biology of drowning
Breath holding in the pool can spark sudden blackouts and death

Restricted areas accessibility

"Under this law, the space shuttle would have had to be accessible " - James Weisman

So is the space shuttle accessible?

Scoping requirements

Unresume

A summary
of who you didnt be
of what you didnt do

First time

you heard a phrase
When you hear it again
you recall that first time
you heard the phrase

Perspective

Yesterday, one of the apartment building looked as a bigger, whole pattern. Like the white with red roof buildings of Europe. Since then its a beautiful walk toward that side.

Ekphrasis

Rattle ekphrasis
"You don't just have to open the door; you have to rebuild the door" - Justin Dart

The door was never there
like you were never there
until the woods grew
and sustained life
that flew
that gnawed
that sawed
and built a door
to the woods
that vanished life
of the last feather
jaw
man.

Socrates insisted that we define our terms before using them - Michael R Burch

The rhymes and rhythms are my wet paint - John Whitworth


1. Define a term.

2. "Where the house is cold.." - The Examiners, John Whitworth. Reminded me of Tagore's poem Where the mind is without fear. What is your imaginary 'Where'?

3. Was Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle after Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?

Translate

All the night sleep came not upon my eyelids

Still Life Paintings

Joris Hoefnagel

The collection of life in these paintings in inspiring.

Botanical paintings

Measure for Measure

At Last the Women are moving

Effort at speech
Dusk July
Vermeer at the Frick
For Once, Then, something - those solitary moments
The reemergence of the noose
Lucid waking

Thanks to Measure for Measure, I found my favourite meter to be Sapphics, Alcaics, Hendecasyllabics, Lesser Ionics which I have never heard of before. I mostly enjoy free verse. I tried learning how to write formal poetry using "The ode Less travelled: Unlocking the Poet within" by Stephen Fry. As a creative writing exercise, it was great but now I realise that liking formal poetry is about knowing the meter style that appeals to your inner formalist.