It's been quite awhile since I've written & posted here. A hot minute, as the younger generations might say. On this Monday, my second day off, I'm sitting at my computer going through some graphic design tutorials, writing off & on in a journal & watching a tiny spider crawling on the wall behind my monitor. For the time being, I'll leave the tiny creature alone - having read that it's bad luck to kill a spider. I suppose you could say that I, at least rather half-assedly, believe in the saying If you want to live and thrive, then let the spider run alive.
Much as I can recall, I read the spider thing in a book on luck that I bought in a charming, small town bookstore. There are two ways that I make exceptions when it comes to killing spiders - the first one is born from leaving my car sunroof in the vented position on a Summer's evening only to be driving down the road hours later & seeing a spider descend from the roof of my car right in front of my face. I'm not gonna lie, that freaks me the f'k out - & during such moments, the spider's actual size is exaggerated a minimum of ten times & its fate is sealed - unless I fail. Never mind all that - I ain't here to write about spiders.
I'm sitting here listening to Radiohead, wondering about the bulk of my music library - which I'm also not here to write about, though I could easily ramble on about that.
I'm here to write about the clues & telltale signs of getting old - or as I like to say, older. Never mind the exact amount of mile markers here, if you know me, then you know how many. If you don't know me, feel free to speculate.
Incidentally, said spider that was crawling on my wall & made its way onto my monitor platform & then my desktop, is now under a small Ziplock food storage container awaiting transport to an outdoor location. I have no affiliation with Ziplock & I have not received any compensation for mentioning their products.
One of the behaviors I've noticed in myself that makes me feel old...er, is that I've come to enjoy listening to NPR when I drive to & from work. There are various segments I enjoy, I get a minimal dose of news - which these days is mostly troubling & I learn a bit. Sometimes a segment will be so captivating to my ears that I'll sit in the car & listening to the remainder of it at my destination. I'll note things to look further into once I'm home & recently one of the segments I really dug was one with a local poet, George Bilgere.
Initially, I would've thought I wouldn't be interested in listening to anyone talk about poetry, but as Bilgere spoke about & read some of his work, I became very interested. I ended up catching the whole segment on my way home from work, which was a nice surprise. My NPR time is never planned out - if I'm driving, I turn it on & if I find it interesting I leave it on, if it bores me I turn it off. Sometimes I miss the rest of segments that I like because I've arrived at my destination & there isn't time to sit & listen. I'm glad I caught all of the George Bilgere segment & I was inspired to pick up 2 of his works to read on my Kindle.
So the more I get into this type of poetry, the more I will explore trying to write some of my own. One of my items on my list of things that I want, is to improve my writing & find an outlet to get either or both of the following: 1) Published 2) Paid
These days there are lots of ways to get published - some opt for self publishing, but for me at least, being/getting published would mean some publication being interested enough in something I've written that they want to include it in their publication. As for the being paid part, well not many people are likely to see dollar signs being a poet. Songwriters, particularly great ones, are poets - at least in my view. Anyway, while I'd love for some of my poetry to be considered good enough to be published - and dare I say, paid for....I suppose I'd be happy with the former & not hold out much hope for the latter when it comes to poetry.
There you have it folks, that's a wrap for me on this Monday afternoon. I've got a lot that needs done around here & it's time to get moving. Stay tuned...
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