Once again, from the beginning.
Slow it down and keep it steady.
Careful with the rhythm. Remember,
Rests are just as important as notes.
Try a new fingering here and here,
And leave that note out if you can’t reach.
Good. Now add more feeling to it.
Different dynamics may bring it to life.
Keep working on it. You’re doing well.
Practice a little more every day
And it will pay off. See you next week.
~ Tamary Shoemaker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(This was sparked by a prompt at Poetic Asides to pick a type of person and write about him or her.)
"The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
Monday, April 4, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Sermon
Strange how influential words can be:
Words can lift and heal, or crush and break.
Today words came from me that cut and raked
and sorry though I was, I would not yield.
Then a man spoke words as if for me:
Serve and love. Live the golden rule.
And suddenly my mind and heart felt whole.
How can I be crushed and yet be healed?
~ Tamary Shoemaker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(This thought wanted to come out in iambic pentameter. It was interesting to play around with a different rhyme scheme and some slant rhyme, although I'm still not quite satisfied with the result.)
Words can lift and heal, or crush and break.
Today words came from me that cut and raked
and sorry though I was, I would not yield.
Then a man spoke words as if for me:
Serve and love. Live the golden rule.
And suddenly my mind and heart felt whole.
How can I be crushed and yet be healed?
~ Tamary Shoemaker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(This thought wanted to come out in iambic pentameter. It was interesting to play around with a different rhyme scheme and some slant rhyme, although I'm still not quite satisfied with the result.)
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Music
Star Trek, Mission: Im-
possible, DS9, that
music is so cool!
~ T. Shoemaker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(T. says: "I was short of thoughts right then.")
possible, DS9, that
music is so cool!
~ T. Shoemaker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(T. says: "I was short of thoughts right then.")
Where All the Hot Water Went
Consideration
And conservation
And warnings of summer drought
Lose most of their power
At the end of a shower
When you really don’t want to get out.
~ Tamary Shoemaker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And conservation
And warnings of summer drought
Lose most of their power
At the end of a shower
When you really don’t want to get out.
~ Tamary Shoemaker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday, April 1, 2011
Balancing
Calculator in one hand, pen in the other,
I creep line by line through the checkbook
To reconcile it with the bank statement:
A list that sums up a month of our lives.
Everything we bought, how we chose to spend
The money we traded hours and days for.
Here it all is, even the things we lost the receipts for.
No way to change it now,
The $6.97 blown on a fast food lunch
When craving seemed more important than nutrition,
Or the $25.50 for the overpriced shirt
Which turned out not to fit well
And got a stain anyway the first time it was worn.
But there are good memories too, tucked in between.
The time we got pizza and ate and talked and laughed.
The theater tickets for me and my daughter.
Seeds for the garden, paint for the house,
Even a few dollars freely given away.
When I reach the end, how comforting to see the numbers equal,
To draw a final line and write below it: "Balanced."
I imagine there will be a harder reconciling
When my life’s final statement comes.
I hope enough good will be recorded
In between the bad
To be able to say
It balances.
~ Tamary Shoemaker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(This grew out of balancing the checkbook this morning and noticing how it brought back to mind all the purchases I'd forgotten through the month, even the ones I didn't want to remember.)
I creep line by line through the checkbook
To reconcile it with the bank statement:
A list that sums up a month of our lives.
Everything we bought, how we chose to spend
The money we traded hours and days for.
Here it all is, even the things we lost the receipts for.
No way to change it now,
The $6.97 blown on a fast food lunch
When craving seemed more important than nutrition,
Or the $25.50 for the overpriced shirt
Which turned out not to fit well
And got a stain anyway the first time it was worn.
But there are good memories too, tucked in between.
The time we got pizza and ate and talked and laughed.
The theater tickets for me and my daughter.
Seeds for the garden, paint for the house,
Even a few dollars freely given away.
When I reach the end, how comforting to see the numbers equal,
To draw a final line and write below it: "Balanced."
I imagine there will be a harder reconciling
When my life’s final statement comes.
I hope enough good will be recorded
In between the bad
To be able to say
It balances.
~ Tamary Shoemaker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(This grew out of balancing the checkbook this morning and noticing how it brought back to mind all the purchases I'd forgotten through the month, even the ones I didn't want to remember.)
Haiku
a boy leading ducks
down to the river to drink
same as yesterday
~ A. Shoemaker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
down to the river to drink
same as yesterday
~ A. Shoemaker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Green
pine TREES, MISTLEtoe.
bullFROGS, GRASS growth.
green HERE, GREEN There.
greeN, GREEn.
And THAT, IS it.
~ T. Shoemaker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(T. says: "The all-capital parts are in upbeat. This poem is free verse." I think by "upbeat" he means spoken with a higher tone than the other parts, to create a rhythm.)
bullFROGS, GRASS growth.
green HERE, GREEN There.
greeN, GREEn.
And THAT, IS it.
~ T. Shoemaker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(T. says: "The all-capital parts are in upbeat. This poem is free verse." I think by "upbeat" he means spoken with a higher tone than the other parts, to create a rhythm.)
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