Checking on the Kids

Posted on March 16, 2011 by literarylee

Me: Honey, I dropped by the kids’ dorm to see how they’re doing.
My Wife: Well, at least they had one week on their own without daddy fussing over them.  Honestly, you need to give them a little space.
Me: I s’pose.  They seemed glad to see me, though.  Really, they did.
MW: O.K.  If you say so.  So how were they?
Me: Actually they were o.k.  A few looked a little peaked but most were healthy and happy.
MW: Well that’s a mercy.
Me: No kidding.  I have to say I was a little worried about them.  I think they had a rough week of it.
MW: Really?  What happened?
Me: Well, none of us expected the cold, cruel world to have gotten quite so cold.  They had several very chilly nights this past week. Continue reading →

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Rhymer

Posted on March 15, 2011 by literarylee

A poet I am not my friends
I make no claim to verse,
I simply like to rhyme a bit
Ye gads! It could be worse.

I’ve always thought that rhyming words
Was lots of fun to do,
Perhaps you’d like to write your own,
C’mon and try some too.

And so, dear reader, understand
I’ll write from time to time,
On this august and hallowed page
Some ditties and some rhyme.

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The Life Literary Mission Statement

Posted on March 14, 2011 by literarylee

Visitors to The Life Literary are in for some fun.  TLL readers will have the chance to enjoy words and be ennobled by all things literary.  From essays to word plays, poetry to puns, literary events, daily sentences, narratives, and more, TLL will encourage and model a literary life.  To live literarily is to move toward a life where speaking and reading, listening and looking, eating and playing, and practically all behavior is inspired by words, language, and literature.  The natural result of this movement is a deepened, joyful existence.

The Life Literary is not primarily aimed at the literary professional: writers, journalists, educators, editors.  It is aimed at the literary amateur, like its author, whose day job is doing something else, maybe anything but literary, yet who likes (or wants to like) words and wants ways, simple and complex, to move toward a more literary way of living.

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Writing a Mission Statement

Posted on March 14, 2011 by literarylee

A mission statement is an excellent way for a company, a family, a couple, or even a person to set down on paper what is most important, how he or she or they want to live life or conduct their business.  A mission statement writer or a member of an organization with a mission statement ought to be able to refer to the statement and figure out what actions to take, what to schedule for the day, the month, the year or even longer, based on the statement.  Conversely, you ought to be able to pause before a decision (should I do ___?) and look at the mission statement and recognize, “Yes, what I’m proposing fits the mission and will lead me or us to the goal.”  Further, an outsider ought to be able to look at a group’s mission statement and get a quick and accurate idea of what the group or person is about.

Continue reading →

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Rondure

Posted on March 13, 2011 by literarylee

I discovered this word last summer memorizing a poem (“Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd,” by Walt Whitman) for my middle son’s wedding.  I fell in love with it at first sight.  I still like speaking this silken word: Rondure.  Rondure.  Here it is in the poem:

Behold the great rondure, the cohesion of all, how perfect.

Rondure means roundness, a gracefully rounded object, or as in the poem, the fullness or completeness of things.  I just love the sound of it.  I could speak it again and again.  I wish I could find more ways to use it.

Observe the tomato’s rondure: utter perfection.

The rondure of the table will give us all a place to sit. (nah!)

Honey, I love your shimmering rondure. (umm, this is a family blog, sir)

See what I mean?  Hard to use, but oh so lovely to say.  Maybe having an opportunity to use the word regularly is a reason to memorize the poem.

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Out of the rolling ocean the crowd

Posted on March 13, 2011 by literarylee

Walt Whitman

Out of the rolling ocean the crowd came a drop gently
to me, whispering,
I love you, before long I die,
I have travell’d a long way merely to look on you to touch you,
For I could not die till I once look’d on you,
For I fear’d I might afterward lose you.

Now we have met, we have look’d, we are safe,
Return in peace to the ocean my love,
I too am much of that ocean, my love, we are not so much separated,
Behold the great rondure, the cohesion of all, how perfect!
But as for me, for you, the irresistible sea is to separate us,
As for an hour carrying us diverse, yet cannot carry us diverse forever;
Be not impatient — a little space —
Know you I salute the air, the ocean and the land,
Every day at sundown for your dear sake, my love.

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Odd Little Polygon

Posted on March 12, 2011 by literarylee

In an odd little polygon of a park I pass on my way to work from the bus stop, sits an odd little polygon of a pond.  This morning I saw, floating placidly, paddling lazily back and forth, mallard duck husbands and their wives, and two geese.  The contented company were sipping their morning coffee, reading the paper and chatting together about the day’s prospects.

The park is unremarkable.  Few trees grace its narrow confines nor is there much lawn.  The most notable item on that small triangular block is a very large, very noble statue of Simon Bolivar, the great 19th century liberator of much of Latin America, seated hero-like on a great steed, set on a pedestal on a terrace of stone.  Besides that, its just a few scrubby trees, some grass, and an odd, unattractive little polygon of a pond with some water birds.

Continue reading →

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Experimenting with Nature…

Posted on March 11, 2011 by literarylee

…or at least collaborating with it to grow things

Last year I planted a portion of the spring plants I started from seed, not being sure if they would survive or not.  In retrospect it seemed timid and haphazard.  This year, I conducted a couple of experiments, albeit not carefully planned, that gave me confidence to plant all the plants at once, something I needed to do to make room for starting warm weather plants, like tomatoes and peppers, in the house under the lights.  I had set March 5 was planting day for the plants I started from seed, but on a whim I was later glad for, I set out one lettuce and one broccoli a week before that, still in February.  I felt completely cavalier putting plants out before March, but I thought, if I lose them to cold weather, too bad, but it’s only two plants.  Let’s see what happens.  The weather that week got very cold and very windy.  The temperatures were in the upper twenties several nights.  At the end of the week they were still alive, still growing.  If those two hardy souls could survive such a chilly week, I suspected I was safe planting the rest that Saturday.

March 5 broccoli planting in the front yard garden

Continue reading →

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First Plants in the Garden 2010

Posted on March 11, 2011 by literarylee

(I wrote this last year when I first set out plants.  Note this year I planted them all at once, not just a timid few.  Also, I set them in the ground a full two weeks earlier this year.  I was disappointed last year to get such a late start with tomatoes, plus I’ve learned this region is milder than I thought.  I still act like I’m gardening in Indiana.)

March 21, 2010

What I planted a month ago, tiny seeds hopefully placed in little cells-full of soil while snow still stood on the ground, I actually put in the ground today.  Call me prudent, call me a whimp, but I didn’t plant all them all.  Mostly planted lettuce but also some bok choi and cabbage.  I wanted to set these out and make sure they would be o.k.  What was I worried about?  That it would get too cold?  That winter-starved, newly emerged from hibernation animals would gobble them up?  Honestly, I’ve got to stop holding back, garden-wise, and go for broke.

Ditto writing.

Ditto life.

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Looking for Lines

Posted on March 10, 2011 by literarylee

Doggone it, I’m a word guy, not a graphic artist.  But give some poor writer a blog, and all of a sudden he’s looking for lines.

Actually, what I’m looking for are attractive header shots.  Though the verbiage is the heart and soul of this endeavor, I also want The Life Literary to look good.  I keep an eye cocked while I walk, open wide while I ride in cars, buses, or subway trains (fine lines, subway trains; an idea for a future header?), for things to photograph that would make an elegant and artistic picture across the top of this blog (the header).  Since that skinny space walks the straight and narrow, I’m looking for stretched-out scenes spaced lengthwise.  Give me horizontal!

Here is a sweet diagonal line that disappears into the nether reaches of the picture.  Unfortunately, it’s too high to fit the header nicely.  Needs to be narrower.

Early Line Hunting Attempt - Not Narrow Enough

Continue reading →

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