poetrybyheart.me

The Daily Prompt wonders how I misuse words. I do, too.

On a perfect summer afternoon I was sitting in our usual place under the oak tree by the pool with my friends the “Word Ladies”. The apartment manager years ago gave the ladies a round metal table and matching chairs that a departed tenant left behind. That afternoon someone brought out the gray duffel bag containing the water-proof chair cushions that we keep stored in the bath house. Someone else retrieved the red bag containing cards for playing our game, Scrabble Dictionaries, the bottle of Listerine we use as bug spray – it really works! – and the black plastic bag of small rocks we use to hold down the cards on a windy day. When we look out our windows and see the red bag placed on the metal table we know that the card game is on for that day. It’s like a flag on the beach that signals to “come on in, the water’s fine”. Over time we have developed rituals worthy of any Japanese Tea Ceremony.

The game we play is called Royalty, a descendent of Scrabble. Each player is dealt a hand of seven cards with letters on them instead of little tiles. Like Scrabble the object is to make words. Unlike Scrabble we build on and change each others words to make new ones. The fun is changing other players’ words. In the process of creating new words from existing ones, we come up with words we aren’t sure how to spell. In this case I tend to spell from the sound of words and find “u”‘s combined with “a”‘s and “o”‘s particularly challenging. On this perfect afternoon I was so challenged. I told the ladies that I was sometimes loose with my vowels. There was dead silence followed by a roar of laughter. When I “got it” my face turned red. And then I joined in the best belly laugh I’ve had in ages.

When I consider my blog as a mirror with revelations to offer me I first look at my posts. I see them going round in a spiral echoing the same experiences, ideas and feelings. There is a basic word-field I use to express myself. I love words – and writing. Maybe I write because I want to be heard, or at least to figure out how to be heard. Sometimes writing is how I play, especially my poetry. My blog is all of these things and still all-of-piece.

I named my blog Cronechronicler in collaboration with my son who is a writer. He remembered my identification with the idea of crones as women wise and free, set apart from society after their reproductive days were over and now occupying their unique niche. I chose Vivachange77 to represent my intention to get a new outfit for my life after the old one had become threadbare. I planned to complete my move by the time I turned 75 and did – hence Viva! – long live change. My current age is 77 and  I’m still going strong.

After choosing and abandoning several ideas for my blog’s theme I came up with the lines of a poem by David Whyte titled Journey that I feel define my journey.

” Sometimes everything
has to be
enscribed across
the heavens

so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.”

Finding the design for my blog was serendipitous. From among the designs that were free I  chose one with an owl creature and a sunburst behind him that I thought fitting for a crone. Later when I wanted to know more about the possibilities for this design I window shopped other designs. In the process I accidentally replaced my wise owl design with my current one, Brand New Day, only with a pale aqua background. Posts were printed in white letters and were difficult to read so I went shopping again and learned that on Brand New Day I had a choice of background colors representing the cycles of the day. I chose Night which has a deep ocean-blue background and quite legible white lettering. I’m a technological neophyte so I leave the organization of my blog to the wisdom of the genies of Word Press. Recently much to my joy I stumbled on how Tags operate. I have much to learn.

My About section is abbreviated and refers only to very recent events. I plan to flesh it out. Also I considered choosing a new design for my blog until I realized how appropriate Brand New Day is. It expresses my life choices. The moons and planets in the night sky reflect the idea of my theme that everything has to be “enscribed across the heavens.”

When I pull back and look at the elements of my blog and how they came to be I’m reminded of the Ghanaian saying I originally chose for my theme.” When you don’t know where you are going, and you don’t know how to get there, you arrive there just the same.” Whether it is the mirror speaking or me that’s pretty much my operating principle.