Brady Writes

Day 277

2009-10-04T22:48:00.003-04:00

I blogitty blogged over at that other place. I posted some thoughts about General Conference.

I haven't posted much here lately, but that doesn't mean I'm not writing. I am, not as often as I had planned, but I am. I'm just being lazy about getting it posted up.

Day 236

2009-08-25T08:42:00.001-04:00

I blogged! Actually I threw out a pushups challenge. Can you do it?

Day 246

2009-08-15T22:46:00.000-04:00

Day 217

2009-08-05T22:58:00.001-04:00

I blogged, finally, over there at that other place where I blog (partially about why I've not been blogging.

Day 207

2009-07-26T21:58:00.002-04:00

Day 158

2009-06-07T22:00:00.003-04:00

Yeah, it's been a long long time. May was a bust. June is shaping up to be a bust. Once the half-marathon is over, I'm going to re-evaluate my goals for the remainder of the year. So look out July 1st. I do have some unscanned back catalog kinds of things, which if I ever catch my breath, I'll get on line.

I did post today a recipe for Lemon Lime Surprise over at that other blog I write. It's tasty!

Day 138

2009-05-18T23:21:00.002-04:00

It's something, right. I posted about a particular earworm of mine over at my other blog.

I've been writing, sporadically. I've got some stuff to post, but not a lot. I just have to get some QT with my scanner scheduled.

Day 130

2009-05-10T22:04:00.002-04:00

Yeah, it's been a busy week. Something has to budge, and it will probably be me. But I did go to a baseball game, and ran 9 miles on Saturday, and had a BBQ. Good times. Busy times.

Day 124

2009-05-04T22:18:00.001-04:00

Technically I wrote today. I also went to a baseball game. Oh, right... the writing part. I blogged a bit at lunchtime, trying to drum up participants for a summer vacation. It wasn't much, but it was writing.

Day 123

2009-05-03T22:50:00.001-04:00

My Mother Ate an Elephant

My mother perched on the scaffolds
and asked me,
"How do you eat an elephant?"
I imagined garlic sauteed elephant chops
and ketchup covered elephant loaf
and elephant ears at the carnival
"One bite at a time."
So much simpler.
She turned back and kept painting
that old house that was the perfect size.
And when she'd finish a section, we'd move
the scaffolding
and she would paint another bite of the elephant.

We planted another elephant in the garden
at my great-grandfather's farm.
My mother drew the plans,
cut the wood, nailed the beams and the shingles.
Bite by bite, the new house in the garden grew.

Once, when I was home from school,
she and I wired the three way switch in the hallway,
which for a while, would only turn on
if the light in my sister's soon-to-be closet was also on.
I was up in the rafters, and she would turn the power off
while I twisted and pinched the connectors
and I'd call down that I was ready,
and she'd flip the switch and yell back
if we'd finished that bit of the elephant yet or not.

At nights, she and Dad would plan the next day,
if it would be the tail or the ears or the ribs.
While he was at work, she slowly ate that elephant.
We all touched parts of that house,
but she touched them all.
She built that home.

Day 120

2009-04-30T23:55:00.005-04:00

I've been doing this, or procrastinating doing this for 120 days now? that seems pretty significant. It's about 1/3 of a year, if I'm doing my math is right. Wow.

Tonight I posted a National Poetry Month recap over at my other blog. It's got lots of linky links to click on to read poetry from people whose poetry I read this month. Oohh fancy.

Enjoy!

Update- So my blog won't publish right now, so clicking that linky link there won't get you anywhere. Sorry. I'm hoping it is fixed later today.
Update #2- It seems to be fixed.

Day 116

2009-04-26T23:49:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if this is one poem or two. I'm still thinking about it, and the second stanza is kind of unfinished. But I like them.

Blog updated - finally

2009-04-26T22:43:00.002-04:00

I updated my blog with the scans for April through yesterday. It took me a while, but I got there. Have a look-see!

Bonus National Poetry Month Material!

2009-04-26T21:52:00.002-04:00

I think I scored these contributions to National Poetry Month at Brian Presents earlier this month. The first is from Adam of Fridge For Thought fame. The second is from Evelyn. Apparently, it is from a famous German poem. But I don't know which one, so if you can read it, let me know which one it is.

day 115

2009-04-25T22:23:00.000-04:00

I wanted to revisit the line I had used in March. The line "The wind blew in Detroit today" calls to me as good. I still haven't hit the nail right on the head, though.

Day 114

2009-04-24T22:21:00.000-04:00

Day 111

2009-04-21T22:15:00.001-04:00

I started a creative writing class through Ann Arbor Rec and Ed this week. This was our in-class writing assignment. I didn't manage to get any of the rest of the writing throughout the week done.

Day 110

2009-04-20T23:47:00.002-04:00

Today, I wrote by logging two geocaches I found a few weeks back. Not very exciting, but something that I needed to get done.

Home of the Kuebler-Langford Elves

Bird Hills Cache

Day 109

2009-04-19T23:03:00.002-04:00

I wrote part 1 of a 2 part series explaining Twitter today. You could check it out, if you wanted to, at my other blog. I had originally planned only one post, but I got wordy, and it got late, so I decided to split it into two parts. So two times the fun!

Day 108

2009-04-18T20:47:00.002-04:00

I dance slowly down
the road
One foot, and another, and a third
the cadence of my footfalls
a tiny earthquake

Today I dance alone
although here and there
I see others dancing
to their own symphony
ignored by the crowd who stand
silent and still

As I dance slowly and alone
I see a silver glint
and as I dance
the dance becomes me
and I become the dance
and the road and the earthquake

When I stop the dance it hurts
sharp pains
as if the dance is ripped
from my bones
or am I ripped from the bones
of the dance

Day 107

2009-04-17T22:14:00.000-04:00

Day 104

2009-04-14T22:11:00.000-04:00

Day 103

2009-04-13T23:51:00.003-04:00

I've got some catch up scanning to do. I know. I know.

I wrote today over on my blarg about National Poetry Month. I invited everyone to write poetry this month. Weird, huh?

day 102

2009-04-12T22:00:00.000-04:00

Day 101

2009-04-11T23:37:00.002-04:00

I was surprised at how much there was to hear today. I was early, so I sat down on the newly green grass for a few minutes and just listened. I watched how the light played on the branches of the trees, sharply contrasting shadows. It was good photography light, but there wasn't a lot to take pictures of and I didn't have my camera anyway.

The first thing I heard was the birdsong. There was a lot of it. I picked out at least three different songs. I think there was a bobwhite in there somewhere.

After a while, I focused on the background noises. The hum of airplanes overhead as they approached the nearby airports, the sound of cars on the road nearby. The occasional yell of a kid out enjoying the sun. I wondered what it would be like to not hear those sounds, to truly hear the world as it is, and not how we have made it.

And that's when I heard it. Underneath everything, the birdsong, the airplanes, the children, underneath all of that. At the edge of my hearing, I heard the spring peepers. It had been there all along, and I really can't imagine how there are that many small frogs already with the weather the way its been, but I heard them peeping. Once I heard them, I couldn't hear anything else without hearing the frogs also. I'd heard the birds before, but now it was birds and frogs, cars and frogs, kids and frogs.

I'm sure they had been there all along, but it wasn't until I started separating out the sounds that I found them. I sat for a few more minutes, unnoticed, and just listened.