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Central Ohio folks: I’m participating in a mentorship program for emerging Ohio fiction writers. The application opens today! More info here: https://www.quotidianwriter.com/writers-rising

#columbus ohio #ohio #ohio news #creative writing #fiction writing

Sunday Seeds #8

Wonder

I have vultures on the brain. I taught a writing workshop yesterday and one of the attendees told me he first discovered my work though my poem “Clergy,” which is about turkey vultures. I’ll include the poem in the next section. Beyond being smart and social (I’ve met a few and this reputation proved true), they serve their ecosystem communities in numerous ways. I think their role as “purifiers” is particularly poetic. Vultures have specialized immunity to diseases lurking in carrion, so their simple act of feeding removes dangerous pathogens from the environment.

Whimsy

Thinking about words and vultures side-by-side, I’m reminded of how much I love the scientific name for turkey vultures. It’s Cathartes aura, which means “purifying breeze.” This is a lovely bit of found whimsy and I would like to hunt for more examples of poetic scientific names. If you know any, please share!

As promised, here’s the poem I mentioned above.

Clergy

Vultures are holy creatures. Tending the dead. Bowing low. Bared head. Whispers to cold flesh, “Your old name is not your king. I rename you ‘Everything.’”

Writing Prompt

Imagine a human filling in for the role of a plant or animal. What would you call that person’s job? How much work and technology would be needed to approximate the ecological benefits of your chosen organism? Would the human’s attempt to fill that role be possible or efficient?

[Support via Substack/Patreon for bonus poem and to have these delivered to your email weekly.]

[Here’s an old pic of an important sign Leslie and I discovered on a road trip to Florida]

#nature poetry #poetry #naturalist #poetsandwriters #poetscommunity #poems on tumblr #poetic #writers and poets #poets on tumblr #newsletter #weekly

Sunday Seeds #7

We are not our possessions, but we are our gardens. Within and without, our story is told through what we nurture.

Wonder

I’ve long wanted to keep an ant farm. Specifically, with a local species that I can observe and likely release in time. I’ve thought this for years, but I’ve never wanted to capture a wild colony (because of the harm I would cause) and I’ve never found a solo queen after her mating flight. This year, I found a carpenter ant queen just sitting on my bathroom rug. I said, “oh, hello, I was hoping to meet you.” She has since started her colony of sister-workers and is doing very well. Ants are fascinating and I find that I enjoy watching them do just about anything. I once heard a scientist describe individual ants as akin to cells in the body of the colony. I am enchanted by watching the endless, subtle business of a body so unlike mine, and yet unmistakably thriving here in our shared world.

Whimsy

Dragonflies have been around for about 300 million years. They have nearly 360 degrees of vision. And the one in this picture (below) was patient enough for me to get super-close with my phone and clip-on macro lens. I always feel silly in the best sort of way when I take that lens with me on a nature walk. Every time I do, I spend A LOT of time trying to be very still and inconspicuous, hoping to get close to bugs. I suppose that must be what a praying mantis feels like every day.

Writing Prompt

Try taking a very non-poetic form and making it poetic. Can a shopping list be poetic? What about instructions for a simple task or directions to a location? Think of how a list can become a narrative or how directions can tell you the character of the poem’s speaker by what they emphasize (or don’t).

[Support via Substack/Patreon for bonus poem and to have these delivered to your email weekly - Links in bio]

#nature #naturalist #nature poetry #poetsandwriters #poetscommunity #creative writing #on writing #writing prompt

I’ve visited a lot of cemeteries. I’ve read a lot of signs listing cemetery rules. None of those signs included “don’t smooch the moss.”

Food for thought.

#cemetery #moss #taphophilia

Anybody else like to look up diagrams of chipmunk burrows and fantasize about how cozy it would be to live down there?

#fantasy #chipmunk posting #eastern chipmunk #cozy #cozy vibes #cozy aesthetic #cozycore

Sunday Seeds #6

Taking creativity seriously means setting aside time for play.

Wonder

My back fenceline is full of thistle, so it’s also full of goldfinches. If a bluebird carries the sky on his back, then a goldfinch carries sunshine on the dandelions. When I start noticing a creature, I often start reading about them. So, I recently learned that goldfinch moms weave their nests from thistle down and spider silk. Goldfinches are also completely vegetarian, which isn’t typical among songbirds. This fact offers some protection from cowbirds looking to stash an egg (because cowbird chicks can’t survive on the finches’ low-protein diet).

Whimsy

Sometimes, I think of living things as an expression of the energy that fuels their lives. So, goldfinches are an expression of thistles. The thistles are an expression of soil and sunlight. The sun is an expression of grand universal laws of chemistry and physics. And so is the finch. So is the person watching the finch. You can follow this chain of energy in either direction and doing so always makes me feel the interconnectedness between grand and small. Makes me feel inseparable from it all.

Writing Prompt

In this week’s “whimsy” section, I talk about what feeds us as a chain of energy. So, choose something you’ve recently eaten and trace it back to sunlight. Now, move the other direction and bring choice into the conversation. What are you choosing to do with that energy from sun and soil? What does it mean that such cosmic power is yours to shape and direct? Are you an endpoint for that energy or is it passing through?

Bonus for Supporters: A Poem (unlock via Substack or Patreon)

#creative writing #writing prompt #whimsical #nature #nature writing #naturalist

As the friend or cousin people call when there’s a possum on their deck or a snake stuck in their garage, let me just say: Take a breath. They aren’t there to hurt or bother you. They are each living their own strange stories, not seeking to be a villain in yours. The most dangerous animal on earth is the mosquito, but I doubt it derails your day if you spot one on your porch.

#nature #naturalist

I’m tired of seeing people compare Mitch McConnell to a turtle.

I like turtles.

#mitch mcconnell

Hello! I wanted to send a note of gratitude for your new “Sunday Seeds” series. Not only do I thoroughly enjoy the Wonder and Whimsy sections, but I am glad to have the lovely little weekly reminders to flex my creative muscles through your Writing Prompts. Thank you for helping me get out of my writing slump and for bringing joy into the world. I look for forward to more tadpole/frog updates!

Thanks! Glad you're enjoying them!

We returned our new little frog friend back to his pond yesterday.

Sunday Seeds #5

I really loved Ezeekat’s short video about the “creepy-cozy” genre (and kind review of Strange Animals). Watch it here.

Wonder

The tadpole I’ve been raising for months in an aquarium next to my computer monitor suddenly has an arm this morning! Just one arm. But I can see the other will be along shortly. The process has been:

“Wow, this looks nothing like a frog. Clumsy little swamp-comma.”

“Hey, I think he’s changing shape… less ball-with-a-tail now.”

“Tiny legs!”

“Bigger legs”

“Ok, definitely frog-shaped now.”

“You grew an arm overnight!?”

Our guest is shifting from eating duckweed and algae wafers to invertebrates, and very soon we’ll return him to his pond. But it’s been really incredible to watch this metamorphosis. It’s been a reminder that there are levels of knowing. Yes, I knew tadpoles become frogs, but I had never closely watched the process for months. As ever, for the cost of a little attention, nature will fill your life with wonder.

Whimsy

Do you ever revisit a piece of media from your childhood and think, “oh, this shaped me in ways I never fully considered?” I did that this week with the show Fraggle Rock. The show is basically subterranean cryptids meeting other cryptids and having adventures. And check out this song from season 5 episode 7, “Gone, But Not Forgotten.” It’s about how our lives are akin to the water cycle:

Just A Dream Away

Feel the water flowing.

Feel it coming, feel it going,

In the river, in the rain or in the sky.

One day it's an ocean.

One day ice in motion.

One day it's a tear drop in your eye.

Once I wasn't here,

And then I suddenly appeared,

And now I seem to be at home in earth and air.

Just like water flowing,

I know where I'm going.

Look beneath your boots and I'll be there.

It's just a dream away.

You've got to leave to stay.

We'll meet again someday,

Just a dream away.

I love this song and you can listen here. Between Fraggle Rock and the various nature shows I watched obsessively (especially Wild America), it’s not hard for me to pick-out foundational pieces of my lifelong interests.

Writing Prompt

Consider the role of endings in change and cycles. Choose an example of something ending and write about the new pathways that open as a result. A dandelion tossed into the compost. A fallen tree becoming a home for carpenter ants. A chapter of your life set aside to make room for new growth or interests.

When writing about the productive side of loss, I think the trick is to also be honest about grief. It’s often a matter of perspective. Thanks to imagination, we can try on many perspectives and still come home to honest acceptance of whatever we’re feeling.

Bonus for Supporters: A Poem (find me on Substack or Patreon to unlock)

#nature #naturalist #poetry #nature poetry #poetsandwriters #poetscommunity #hopepunk #writing prompt #nature writing #weekly

We've been raising a tadpole. The transformation from swamp comma, to clumsy fish, to leggy fish, to frog with a tail has been rapid and dramatic. It's impossible and it's happening three feet from where I'm typing this. For the cost of a little attention, nature will fill your life with wonder.

#nature #naturalist #hopepunk #frogs and toads #frogblr #tadpole #wonder #whimsy

Honey is great, but have we really tasted every kind of slime that bugs make?

We could be missing out on something.

#nature #naturalist #cooking

Feathers are made of keratin, just like our fingernails.

So, wings are basically claws and flying is just fancy air-scratching.

#birding #birds #birdwatching #wild birds #birdblr