Words have Wings

Words.

I love words.  I love the way they feel in my mouth, on my tongue, the weight they carry.  The way they can be sweet, or heavy or sometimes just a gossamer whisper slipping over my lips.

Words can heal, but also hurt.  They have wings.  Once they leave your mouth, they fly away, never to return unspent.

Words have to be used carefully.  They carry a responsibility.  God created by means of a word.  He IS a word.  Words are to be treasured.

As a child my father taught me that cussing or swearing was proof of a poor and inadequate vocabulary, and my sister told me to always choose my words the same way that I would pick flowers for a friend, just the most beautiful.  I have passed these truths on to my children.

This post is all about WORDS.

A single word can be a poem by itself, it is loaded with suggestion and meaning.  It can calm the storm or ignite a fire.  It can instantly conjure up a meaning, tell a story or unleash a song.  My children and I often play this game with my husband.  We would say a word and he will sing us a song with that word in it.

I decided that on Mondays I will share posts about words, poetry or any form of writing with you.  It is for all the word artists out there, or anybody interested in the beauty of words and their meaning.  I will share poetry, little literary titbits, quotes, books to read, etc with you on a weekly basis.  Please feel free to share, comment or contribute in some way.

Let your words have wings......

Today I want to share a bit of information about poetry itself.

"Poetry as an art form predates literacy. Some of the earliest poetry is believed to have been orally recited or sung. Following the development writingof, poetry has since developed into increasingly structured forms, though much poetry since the late 20th century has moved away from traditional forms towards the more vaguely defined free verse and prose poem formats.

Poetry was employed as a way of remembering oral history, story (epic poetry), genealogy, and law. Poetry is often closely related to musical traditions, and much of it can be attributed to religious movements. Many of the poems surviving from the ancient world are a form of recorded cultural information about the people of the past, and their poems are prayers or stories about religious subject matter, histories about their politics and wars, and the important organizing myths of their societies.

Poetry as an art form may predate literacy^[1] Thus many ancient works, from the Vedas (1700 - 1200 BC) to the Odyssey (800 - 675 BC), appear to have been composed in poetic form to aid memorization and oral transmission, in prehistoric and ancient societies.^[2] Poetry appears among the earliest records of most literate cultures, with poetic fragments found on early monoliths, runestones and stelae.

The oldest surviving poem is the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor,^[3] writtenin Hieratic and ascribed a date around 4500 B.C.E. Other sources ascribe the earliest written poetry to the Epic of Gilgamesh written in cuneiform; however, it is most likely that The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailorpredates Gilgamesh by half a millennium. The oldest epic poetry besides the Epic of Gilgamesh are the Greek epics Iliad and Odyssey andIndianthe Sanskrit epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. The longest epic poems ever written were the Mahabharata and the Tibetan Epic of King Gesar."

(The above information is courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_poetry )

If you would like to share something with us about poetry, feel free to do so.  I would love to hear from you.

Give Your Love Wings!

With Spring in the air it is as if everyone is filled with a new zest for life.  We are eager to get outside and tend our gardens, start new projects and revamp our homes.  Yet, we sometimes forget all about romance.  Yes, you heard right, romance!  When we are new to a relationship or just married, romance comes so easily, however, soon the everyday chores and running around covering all the bases, nudges romance off to the side and soon out of the door!

However, all is not lost, and with a little bit of imagination and effort we can rekindle those days of romance and roses when we felt giddy with love.  Here are 5 ways to light those fires anew!

1. Each day for the next month, write down a reason why you love your partner.  Put it in his/her lunch box or briefcase or jacket pocket where your partner is sure to find it.

2. Find an old photo of the two of you taken during those first days of being in love, enlarge it, photocopy it and have it laminated.  Use them as placemats for the dinner table.  It will be a constant reminder of the love you share.

3. After supper, when the kids are safely tucked up in bed, go for a moonlit stroll outside in your garden.

4. Once a week turn off the TV, the computers, all the phones, then light some candles and listen to all your old favourite music.

5. Say no to that quick peck on the cheek when you both go your seperate ways for the day.  Instead, make that kiss count.  The thought of it is sure to have him/her thinking about you all day long!

Try these few suggestions and any other wonderful ideas you may come up with for a month and you might just be pleasantly surprised by a renewed feeling of the old familiar "butterflies-in-the-tummy" in-love feeling!!  Come on, give your love wings....

If you flutter by please share with us any of your ideas how to put the romance back into a relationship.  I would love to hear from you!!

Let Your Words Take Flight!!!!

I love words, the way they sound, the way they feel on my tongue, the way a simple word can take my thoughts on a fantasy flight.  I love the rhythm and melody of poetry.  Poetry is like a painting done with one's soul.  Poetry give our thoughts wings. So it is just natural that on my blog there should be a place for poetry.  Every month I will share some poetry with anybody who happens to flutter by, and I will also post a poetry prompt/ challenge for you to take part in and I will give awards to 3 of the participants.   You can enter as many poems as you want, but only one of them will be eligible for the award. The rules are simple: any poetry submitted here for the challenge must be your own, and it must comply with the prompt given.   You have to also comment on at least two other entries.  Remember only positive feedback and constructive critique please. Any poetry you want to share with us that belongs to somebody else must be clearly marked as to who the original author is.
I will also give short discussions about poetry forms, rhyme or interesting titbits.

Do take part, there is a poem within each of us!!  Have fun!!!!

To take part or comment, simply scroll right down to the bottom and click on the words "no comment/ 1 comment" , then write your poem in the white comment box that will appear and click on "publish".

8 March 2013

The poetry challenge for March is "Friendship". 
Any type of poetry, free verse or rhyme. 
Minimum 6 lines, max 20 lines.
You can submit your poem all through March, but the closing date is 31 March 2013. 

I am looking forward to your poems!!

To read my poetry click on the All Poetry link on this page.

On Gossamer Wings

"...once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return...."

-Leonardo Da Vinci

I am a dreamer.  I often catch myself watching the butterflies in summer, flying effortlessly wherever they will, and as I watch they steal my thoughts and take my imagination along on their flight.  My family will often find me like that and with a jolt I will return to the here and now.  More often than not this was the very thing which got me into trouble at school.  Physically I was in the classroom, but my thoughts were miles away soaring on gossamer wings.....

Dreams are beautiful, wonderful, and despite what some people believe, very necessary.  Many extraordinary things have been discovered and invented by dreamers.  However, dreams are like Faith.  Faith is a glorious word, and by itself it is wonderful.  Faith is a gift, but Faith truly begins to mean something when we actively start doing what we confess to believe.  The same with dreams, they only begin to mean something when we start following our dreams. 

Yet, very few of us really, truly have the courage to follow our dreams.  Most of us can't even say our dreams out loud, some amongst us might get as far as writing them down, but only a small percentage will actually grab hold of them and make them real.  Why would that be?  Fear.  A little four letter word.  It should be classified as a swear word it is that ugly a word.  Fear of failure.  Fear that we will be ridiculed.  Fear that others, who are equally afraid to follow their dreams, will point and laugh.  Fear that we may actually succeed and have to face up to the responsibility.

Whatever the reason for our fears, they are dream-stealers.  They condemn us to a flightless life.  They leave behind the bitter taste of "if only".  The best antidote for fear is Faith.  Faith in God, who is the giver of dreams, but also faith in yourself.  If you can dream it, you CAN do it.  It does not matter what the world says about your dreams, what THEIR expectations are of you or your dreams.  It has nothing to do with the world, it has everything to do with you!

Yes, I am a dreamer, and for many years my own fears have kept my dreams in check, but today, right now I AM living my dream, and having the greatest fun while doing it.  It does not matter any longer what the world is saying or even whether the world is taking notice of me and my dreams.  I am soaring on gossamer wings and calling to you to follow me..... 

If you flutter by here, please feel free to share your dreams with me, I would love to dream them with you and encourage you along your way.  Just click on the words "no comment" or "1 comment" and follow the prompts.