Ruth and Ruthlessness, seven tiny poems
Hello! I gave myself a nice long break from posting on Hive. It wasn't intentional, or not exactly anyway. I had been thinking of giving myself a hiatus for a few months, but one day, I woke up and found I had nothing I wanted to report to y'all. That sums it up I guess - I no longer cared to report my goings on, I simply wanted to experience them.
It's been a relief actually. No more compulsive checking my blog, no more wishing I had included this photo or that word, no more wondering if I would finally hit pay dirt from the big curators.
I felt as though I had been liberated. And I suddenly had a lot more time on my hands. Time to sit and wonder about things, to watch the clouds move overhead, to listen to birds, wind and the weird things that go through my mind when it's not focused on the impressions my words might make on other minds.
However, I did occasionally come up with a little poem. Here are seven of those:
is nothing more
than redirection
shredded cannas
disable my ruth for
Japanese beetles
a good day is
one on which I do not
look at my list
you don’t have to have
a cup of coffee
to get things done
sometimes it helps
to drop things
from great heights
the big question -
should I water
when I hear thunder?
surrender
is nothing more
than child's play
I hope you have enjoyed my tiny poems. Thank you for reading them.
Brilliant! You're back!
I'm glad you're happy! Now you have some idea of how I felt after your much longer hiatus. I wonder if you felt the same about being inactive. I hope I don't start posting a lot! I like the new me.
Hahah, I liked the old you:)
I moved from town to country the day before the lockdown in 2020 and had no internet for months. While I was off line Steem changed to Hive and when I eventually got web service it was patchy and I couldn't do much. After a while I just lost the habit, busy setting up our off-grid homestead. What d'ya think? Good excuse?
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This resonates today.
Was your list too long? Mine is always very long. This makes it even harder for me to look at. I take whole days off. Retirement and empty nesting isn't all bad. You can say screw it to everything except nourishing yourself.
I have been thinking of doing the same, I do not read as many posts as I used to or spend as much time on the computer, but I still want to write my freewrite, it is hard to stop.
Nice little poems.
You write every single day, don't you? It would be hard to break that streak.
I try to write every day and if I miss a day I try to make it up by using the prompt in my next post.
I’m sure you’re talking about other things, but one thing that comes to mind is ego. 🤣
I love this poem.
And the last poem really resonates with me as well.
I totally understand the need to take a break. I’ve been on an extended break from design and art since March. I hadn’t intended for it to last this long, but I’m just going with it.
The event associated with two of the photos inspired the poem, but the broader message is more metaphysical. Drop things! Smash stuff! Grow anew! something like that.
Sometimes we need to let go of things. I guess I have been living that particular poem in a way. Here I am, watching for rewards and comments. I love the comments, so thank you very much for having something to say here! But man do I ever feel shallow for caring about the rewards.
Those are my two faves of this batch.
When you believe in the quality of what you share and then compare the rewards that you get to others, whose posts seem of lower quality to you than your own, this place can be tough psychologically.
One post a week is al I can handle.
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I think that cats all over the world would agree with this sentiment 😸
Wonderful poetry, @owasco!
Thank you @litguru!
It's good to see you back to posting again @owasco!
I know that feeling very well lol. It does come as a type of relief because blogging takes a lot of mental energy with all of the encompassing aspects, and a lot of time as well. It's not uncommon to feel like it's a full time job with feelings of associated dread after a while. It's hard to describe but I totally get it.
I like this one because I see a literal meaning and a meaning that is not so literal :)
I'm glad you can see two meanings. That one, especially (although that is something I try to do, have more than one meaning) has two. I got it from trying to disentangle the pots of canna. Wet or dry didn't matter. No tool helped and many of them did damage, but holding them as high as I could and smashing them on the ground broke the mass apart without harming the canna at all.
All are just sweet and sublime. Love them. I'd be hard pressed to choose a fave.
I do love this one though. Dizzying.
I haven't much felt like posting either tbh.
And yet you've done it often! With what all you've got on your plate, I marvel. I hope you have an easy trip home, and reconnect with all that is beautiful there. I just read the poem you posted a few days ago. It's very beautiful!
At last a post! I learned the word ruth and have seen pictures of the plant, canna. I am glad that you initially had ruth for the beetles. some people don't appreciate beetles at all.
Around here Ruth is only used as a female name. Pronounced almost like root.
And then there's the list. To make one is the only thing on my list.
For the time being I try not to drop things. But any day soon I will again gain the audacity I am sure. If not I am in problems.
No darling. The beetles disable my ruth, and I happily chopstick them into baths of toxic chemicals, then gleefully watch them struggle on their backs as their life force is snuffed out.
I started this Japanese beetle season as I always do - hopeful that they will be few in number. I compassionately let the first few go. I even gently carried one copulating couple over to the neighbor's rhubarb (they love rhubarb, which I have now annihilated in my garden), in hopes the rest of their kind would know where to go. I audibly admonished one of them to "tell your friends to go elsewhere, or I will have no choice but to kill every single one I catch unawares." Alas, they refused to leave my yard, and so, now they die horrible deaths.
Japanese Beetles actually get smarter as the season goes on. In a couple weeks,they will all dive to the soil below as soon as I reach for them. I have to be wily about my ruthlessness: I must switch up my (organic, so it's OK) methods of annihilation.
(I'm doing the part of The Steward in Into The Woods, and I have decided to try him as the unseen hand of all things, the evil heart of the seeable universe. Murdering innocent beetles is method acting preparation)
I feel a poem coming on
population conditioning
is a method acting exercise
gone viral
haha next Friday my Saturday list is going to be "Make a list." I love that. That is a brilliant way to give myself a no-holds-barred day off. haha
You do have a tendency to fill up your buckets to overflow capacity. Is "overflow capacity" an oxymoron? Do you sop up the sloshing?
Thanks for the chat. It's Sunday, and there's paperwork that must be done by Monday start of business (legal crap, what fun, I'm being sued, maybe put that in your text, little old ladies being sued, we become ferocious), so off I go. This has been fun.
There had to be some able ruth before it was disabled. Could be that was only for a very, very short moment of course.
Your words have a way of transporting us to a more serene and introspective space. Welcome back to Hive! May your return to Hive be filled with joy and inspiration.
Sorry, I'll your help on something really important. @owasco
Yay, I've messed your writing. I had a wee bit of a break too and also cut back in my posting. Got lots to be doing offline.
It's good to take a break from the online world. But also good to reconnect every now and again.
I love all seven of your poems.
I love to be outside in a thunderstorm, so yes to watering and yes also to surrendering being child's play. xxxx
I'm happy to see you back but do think it's healthy to take breaks. Blogging shouldn't feel like work or a burden and when it starts to feel that way it's time to hit pause. I've been to that point ten or so times in my eight years. Nice little poems! I especially liked...
one on which I do not
look at my list
is nothing more
than child's play
Great stuff! I've been meaning to ask, have you watched The Bear on Hulu?
Binged the first two seasons. It really gets the controlled frenzy of rush hour, so fun to be back there for me. The personalities, and how we navigate around each other. Wets the taste buds too. I might wait a bit to watch season three so I can binge all three. I feel like there's a lot I missed.
It’s phenomenal, isn’t it? I bet Anthony Bourdain would have liked it. We’re four shows into season three and it isn’t quite as good for me. It seems like they’re trying too hard to replicate the chaos of season two’s holiday dinner episode.
Keep up the good work. 👏🎵
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