A Break in the Levees

Quite the useful metaphor for being overwhelmed, right?
We all know what it is to let the pressure build to the point of bursting.
We also talk about constructing walls to protect our hearts
And needed to let people in those walls in order to love
Or some shit.

Maybe we don't need levees and walls.
Perhaps floodgates would be more apt.
We can open them when we need to release a little bit
Or keep them closed at the necessary times.

New metaphors for new frames of mind.
New frames of mind for new times.

A Break in the Leaves

It's the way the light slices down on the porch
In the morning and grows slowly dull
As the earth tries to roll away from it.

It's the droning thud of the smaller rain drops
First announcing and the increasing menace
As the clouds release their cargo.

It's the steadfastness of the dead bird
In the driveway until suddenly there
Are only a few bones and feathers.

It's the single, solitary, lonely gray hair
Who arrives like a vanguard heralding
The arrival of time, age, change.

Monday's Musing on Mortality

(I've always loved Caravaggio)

I've sadly discovered that it's very difficult to get people to talk about Death. For some reason, Death has been taken off the table and placed in the corner with Politics and Religion. Which is terrible because it seems like those are the three most unavoidable things in our lives. Even if you aren't religious, it's likely that you've made a choice not to be so we can replace Religion with Philosophy and that's fine with me.

On to Death, I find that first of all we must admit that we all have it coming; it's the price of playing the game of Life and to ignore its existence, to me, is unfair at least, and infantile at most. This might help:

“DON'T THINK OF IT AS DYING, said Death. JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.”  -- Good Omens

So this week's assignment is to meditate and ruminate on your own imminent doom without inciting within yourself a paralyzing sense of dread. We'll pick up from there next week.

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

This week's word is not the sexiest sounding but it's one of the sexiest ideas. It's the underlying cause of so much sexiness, albeit unconsciously. You know why we euphemize sex with the phrase "being intimate"? Because that's what sex is, intimate. But sex isn't the only intimate act between two or more humans. One of the most intimate acts is a conversation of confessions. Sitting together in a darkened room, glasses half-full of bitter concoctions, smoke drifting around lazily, perhaps music playing but not being heard, and one of you says something that you've never said aloud. The reactions from the others are key and they know it. They also know you trust them. You just made that connection for them by spilling the beans, letting the cat out of the bag, or DISBOSOMING. 

That's right. If you reveal or confess something, you know, get it off your chest, you DISBOSOM. 

Makes sense to me. Also, bosoms...

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

Chthonian is a word that we need more often at night in dark places when the chill bumps start to tingle and the cold breeze comes inexplicably through the warm, humid room.

adj. -- of or pertaining to the deities, spirits, and other beings dwelling under the earth.

Need a little help saying it aloud? I'm here for you, sweetpea.

We start with the lithe and lovely TH with the tongue stuck between the teeth tho thweetly. The O is long enough to let your mouth go around it nicely. We like Ns too and if you sandwich the IA diphthong between them, we're in heaven. Don't stress about this word, my darlings. Once you've got it, you'll be the belle of the ball. Even if that ballroom is a cave filled with bats and eyeless newts and the sounds of water dripping from stalactites. Don't get me started...

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

Few lullabies are so instantly recognizable and agreed upon as the gentle lapping, splish-splashing of water. To lie beside the sea and listen to the waves, some large, some smaller, come up to greet the shore with a sudden pop then slowly slide swishingly away is universally desirable.

And sometimes the water is crystal clear, allowing one to see individual grains of sand several feet below the surface but sometimes a deep blue engulfs all light and any small stones one may happen to toss in. The magic of the clarity or the mystery of the darkness holds us in awe.

Then there's the feeling of the salty water on your skin, the slight abrasion as the waves press the grains against you. And the taste of your skin after a refreshing dip, like sweat but fresher.

Thalassic

adj.-- of or relating to seas or oceans. 

Not all voyages are across the globe and not all sirens sit on rocks to lure Odysseus but we can all be sailors in our own ways. We can sing while we scrub and we can glean pleasure from the warmth of the sun upon our faces.  

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

Good Morning, my Lovelies. That silent glow grows on the horizon as our warm friend rises to greet us. Golden arrows shoot towards us over the eastern mountain tops as the sun gains momentum.

Like a body whose beauty is paralyzing and blinding, the radiance emanates from every curve of its landscape and you struggle to take it all in at once. It's easy to parse it up and start at the top of the head sweeping slowly down to the toes, inhaling with your eyes.

Effulgent

The first syllable is like the first half of the word IF, just the ih part. Then the F does the heavy lifting for the stressed second syllable and you know how we do Fs, drag your bottom lip under your front top teeth into the ool, making certain to purse your lips well for the long U sound. And the l should bring your tongue to the roof of your mouth quickly but gently. The final syllable is like the sudden pleasant surprise exclaimed about a rather well-dressed and polite man:  GENT! Except ease the e sound slightly towards a u sound. Not all the way! Just a taste.

adj.-- shining forth brilliantly; radiant

She always was bright...as a matter of fact, she burned my retinas and melted my wings. But I crashed into the ocean with a blind grin on my singed countenance.

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

You know that vision in the back of your brain that seems wonderful but couldn't have been real, there's a dream that you remember so clearly you must have been awake. She held you tightly on top of a mountain and you can still remember the smell of her hair, some sort of faint perfume, soft and flowery with a little grapefruit but also the hint of sweat, heat coming off her freshly exercised body. But did it really happen...

Paramnesia

n.-- a distortion of memory in which fact and fantasy are confused. 



Looking back, it's hard to separate them, the dream and the anticipation from what actually conspired. And then I wonder, does it really even matter? Does she remember the same mixture of desire and destiny? Perhaps none of it occurred. Nothing really matters now that it's over, right? Might as well have been a complete fabrication. She never showed up and you never talked to her. But the imagination has a way of making things lovely nonetheless.

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

Now that the temperatures are rising and the sun lingers in the sky, a movement can be felt from within a body. It's a shimmering vibration that takes hold of your outer limbs and urges movement. If the compulsion for locomotion is not satisfied there is a faint dizziness that can set in.

Vertiginous

The V is delicious as your bottom lip drags under your teeth and the ERT! comes explosively. Then through the short I to the soft G back to the short I in such rapid succession that one might be forgiven for neglecting the transition but we shouldn't ever neglect transitions, darlings. Then the NOUS-ness of a word, giving it properties that are encompassing arrives at the last moment but can drag on as long as you need it as you narrow your eyes and draw up your smile ever so slightly, not giving away too much but inviting a mystery.

adjective 

1.

of, relating to, or having vertigo

2.

producing dizziness

3.    whirling

 





































































4.    changeable; unstable


























































































































 

Some might question the positive nature of the word but I say if you've never been dizzy then you've never been in love, stood at the edge of the world, or done anything worth doing at all, really. 

Sunday Zen

The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. -- Wendell Berry 

Destinations

Surprise Lake at Aniakchak National Monument

I'm often caught reflecting on the beauty of the remote places in the world. To go and see those place that remain almost untouched by our dirty, developing hands surely must be a dream of many and the reality of few. I want to go. But I'm not sure I want to share.

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

Now that is has seriously gotten cold -- I mean, it was cold before but now it's time for lintel soup and hot toddies. There are no two ways about it: The temptation to curl up on the couch with your favourite and wait out the blustery wind, dreaming of warmer days and planning your next outdoor adventure is overwhelming but we all know that being out of doors when the leaves fall heavy and the breeze from the North is relentless can be refreshing to the soul. So go ahead -- well, i'm not insisting but -- shucks, put on your thermals and heavy boots, wrap your scarf tightly -- I am insisting. I'm also practicing my new style of writing.

Anacoluthia 


It requires, well, it's tough to define but easy to see if you -- I could have made this slightly easier to read but, I(it's my fingers' fault, really, since they're shivering a bit from the open window) can't quite focus on just this one thing. My list for today, things to-do, is getting long while I sit here typing.

noun, -- lack of grammatical sequence or coherence, esp. in a sentence.


So go on, my darlings, blame your anacoluthia on the weather but we all know it's the whiskey in your cocoa.

Wednesday's Sexy Word Of The Week

Those clouds today are gently suspended on rays of sunshine, spreading the light out into a glowing, ambient illumination. No sharp points and no wincing at the frightening discovery of things better left in the dark. The whole world is soft. 

Diaphanous 

A soft D is a great start to it. 

adj.-- Of such fine texture as to allow light to pass through; translucent or transparent.


Don't fret, my lovelies, for this week is just one more in our lives and the cool air allows a certain reflection that evades in other times of the year. Reflect on things with a slanted look, sideways glance. Evaluate fully but one piece at a time. 

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

I have a love/hate relationship with the French but, suffice it to say, sometimes they make things sound so good.

Billet-Doux

The important thing about pronouncing foreign words is to say them like you do English words. Which is to say, not perfectly. No one enunciates precisely. So let your mouth warble and wobble as you start with the first BEE syllable. It's stressed but go easy on the B. LAY is the second syllable and it's okay if you barely hear it. Your tongue can be almost an afterthought, getting pulled to back of your mouth as if afraid to go outside. DU or DOO makes your lips pucker as if bidding adieu to your favourite lover and even though the moment is over quickly, you stand with your mouth held in position as the train slowly pulls away from the station. Despite the parting so sweetly, you know that you'll soon smell his cologne on the paper when he sends you that first love letter. And the second. And the third. May the mail be ever your hope for more of his or her words, written, nay, scribbled quickly because the emotion won't be dammed.

n.-- A love letter.

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

M makes the yummy sound...then a short A is cute. The hard C puts a click in your throat. The U is more like YEW, which you pull through your lips. End with a sweet LA but it's more like LUH, a sound like you're out of breath, pushing from the diaphragm.

Macula n.--- a spot or blemish

But not all imperfections are terrible. Some remind us of the love we have for the soft underbelly of emotions, the dark side of the lovely things. Perfect alabaster or marble does not work. It needs movement and motion, landmarks that show us where they're going, where we're going. Maps of beauty, roadways of the aesthetic.

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

The little green monster sneaks up on you again, filling your head with buzzing and fuzzing, your fingers tingle and your toes ache. You don't like this feeling because you know it's not healthy but you cannot control it, cannot squelch it, try as you might to put it down like the silly idea it is. Your days spent in fear of this overwhelming sensation. You probably have Zelophobia. 


Oh, my dear, you know how we love the Zs. It hums at the roof of your mouth. It tickles the tip of your tongue. Its serpentine sensuality arouses.

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

Inflorescence

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

It's not the things we show others that make us special. It's the things we keep to ourselves. Your secrets are the greatest classified folders of information that I try to discover without you knowing. I sit and watch your eyes wriggle as you think and your fingers move gently over each other in the way I want them to move over me.

Clandestine




It's simple but wonderful as your tongue moves from the back of your throat to the front teeth with the KL sound. The A is short but not too much so. Then another fun sound as the N and D meld together. This time your tongue moves from the front the the back then that D pushes off to the ES which gets just a little extra time than one might think. The T is not quite hard but not really soft. The important thing is that the I is long. This makes your mouth move around the vowel in a way that can form your lips into a smile. Then the N is sweet and sweet is always a nice way to end.