Tag: ideas

poetry, writing exercise

A Small Workshop

carolyncordon

I’m a writer, and like many other writers, I find a variety of ways to go, as a writer, beyond just writing books. I write poems, I write articles and blog posts, such as this one, and I also do writing workshops, sometimes paid ones, other times just for a community group perhaps.

This workshop is one I am going to be presenting at a group that meets regularly in Gawler, a town I spend a lot of time in, even though I don’t live there. Many of my friends live in Gawler, and my writing group meets every week, in a lovely, historic hotel in Gawler.

This workshop is happening at a community centre, not a hotel, but that’s still a good thing. Anyway, this is the Workshop, take a look and give it a go. Feel free to ask any questions you have about it, in the comments section.

 

Workshop – Loved Little Things

Writing simple little poems can be easy, if you scale back what you want to write, and just stick to closely watching one small aspect of something you love, or love doing. It may be a hobby, for instance knitting, and you could write about a favourite item of clothing you’ve knitted in your past.

Or it could be cooking, and you choose cake making as your topic, and perhaps write a poem about a kind of cake you like to make. I used to enjoy making muffins, and I’ve written about vegetable muffins in the past, I think. I was very ‘into’ vegetables, in a former line of volunteer work – I was a Community Foodie, teaching people about healthy eating, and cooking.

Nature is one of my favourite things to write poems about, and the poem I’ve got on my notes here today is about a little part of Nature, the ant. I used rhythm and rhyme in my poem, but that isn’t necessary, it’s up to you to choose your poetic style. Or if you’re not in a poetic mood today, any form of writing will be fine,

You might write a small note about your small thing, or perhaps write a letter to it, or about it. Any kind of writing will be fine. So take that small part of the thing you love, and insert yourself, and your thoughts and wondering into the piece of writing. Think about how you relate to, or gain joy from, your loved thing, and write about that.

This little poem was one I wrote last year, think it was, after seeing a line of ants on our front veranda, and then over the course of a few days, realising there was always a line of ants in exactly the same spot. I thought it was an interesting little thing. I am a poet, and as a poet, I find myself looking, seeing, and finding many little bits of not much, that can broaden out, and become something – a poem.

Make your small piece your own, make it quirky, make it cute, make it something you’re proud of, or something that makes you small to yourself. Just write it!

 

macro photo of five orange ants
Photo by Poranimm Athithawatthee on Pexels.com

Ant March

 

Ants are marching, tramp, tramp, tramp

Ants are busy, gathering food

Ants are climbing, up that ramp

Ants in an adventurous mood

 

Ants on the veranda, ants on the lawn

Ants are spreading all around

Ants near that sheep that’s just been shorn

Ants up a tree, ants on the ground

 

What are they up to, those little ants

Will they bite if they get the chance?

I’m going to keep myself well away,

We’ll meet up again, on another day!

 

My poem is a rhyming poem, with the first two verses using this rhyming scheme: abab, cdcd, with final verse eeff
Can you see what I mean there with the term ‘rhyming scheme’? The letters refer to the rhyming final word in each line, ‘a’ is the words tram and ramp, ‘b’ is the words food and mood. and so on. I hope that makes sense for you. And I hope you get some nice small poems about ‘Loved Little Things’!

 

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn Cordon, writer, poet, blogger, newsletter editor

Philosophy

Thinking About a New Niche

carolyncordon

This year has been a good year for thinking about who I really am, and what I believe, and believe in. Writing always helps me to do this, as does reading things, that are new to me, but set off the bells in my brain, and light up my mind in new and good ways.

One of these new to me things is something that’s been around for more that two thousand, and goes back to Ancient Greek and Roman times. This olden times thing is something that resonates with many of us still, and is something that I want to look into as deeply as I can, and to bring it as completely as possible into my life.

So what is this wonderful thing, and will I make lots and lots of money from it, you may ask, breathlessly. Well, let me be brutally honest here, and deal with the money aspect first. No, I will not make lots and lots of money from it. But the more I adopt this thing, the less the fact of not making all of that money matters.

Money is a tool, a useful too, in this day and age, and of course having the money to pay for all of the bills that keep me fed, and sheltered, these are important things. And being able to move around from place to place is extremely important to me too. So, food, house, car, my current situation easily ticks all of those boxes for me.

And my writing life gives me little bits of money too, at certain times of the year, so that helps to pay for extra non-necessary things. But the thing that is firing up my synapses (metaphorically, and perhaps literally too, maybe …).

To get to the ‘guts’ of this blog post then, the thing that has been exciting me these past months is something many people consider to be a dull and boring thing. Those people though, fail to see the full depths of the idea, I feel. The Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, considered as the last of a line of great Roman emperors, firmly believed in this thing, this thought process, this way to live a good life.

So finally, here it is. The wonderful thing is Stoicism. Being a stoic, is explained well on the website that gave me these words to share with you:

“A brief synopsis and definition on this particular school of Hellenistic philosophy: Stoicism was founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC, but was famously practiced by the likes of Epictetus, Senecaand Marcus Aurelius. The philosophy asserts that virtue (such as wisdom) is happiness and judgment should be based on behavior, rather than words. That we don’t control and cannot rely on external events, only ourselves and our responses.”

If you’d like to read more, the site the above description comes from would be a good one to read. I get emails from this site from time to time, and appreciate the insights I gain from the words I read. This particular part of the site gives some ideas to practise in life, to assist in achieving a more stoic attitude to the things life throws out. I was given a fantastic book for my birthday, and it told me much about how to be a stoic.

20190611_162519This is the book, and I thoroughly recommend anyone interested in Stoicism should get their hands on a copy of the book, and learn more there about it, as seen by the author Massimo Pigliucci. 

So that is what I am, or trying to be, a Stoic. I like ideas, I like philosophy, I like the idea of scaling back the ‘stuff’ in my life, and increasing the valuable things in terms of living a life that meets properly with Stoic ideals. An idea I like a lot, is to think on what it is I want to achieve in the day in the morning, first thing, and then to think on whether these things were achieved, and if not, to think on the reasons why they weren’t achieved. I’m not at that level yet, but I’m trying to get there. In small ways, both Facebook and Twitter prompt me to think on things wished for and actually achieved.

And of course, regular blogging can cover some of these ideas/ideals too, but in a rather slap dash way, I must admit. So my idea is this – to begin a new blog, focusing on Being a Stoic. Do I need to do this? Of course not. But looking at it as a stoic should, I can see this would be of assistance to me, to do regular posts about things I want to do, and then look at what I achieve. Like a diary in fact, but one that has an aspect of honesty, both to myself and others, as I put my thoughts and words up for consideration and comment, by others.

I will talk about this journey on this new blog, considering ideas, giving opinions, thoughts, and other things, always from the point of view of myself, and how I see things as I learn more about stoicism. I have thought about this plan, and can see no obstacles to achieving it.

A note to anyone not certain about the meaning of the word ‘Stoic’ or ‘Stoical’ the dictionary definition below gives clues, but doesn’t say much about the fuller truth of this philosophy:

“STOIC”

 noun
sto·​ic | \ ˈstō-ik  \

Definition of stoic

 (Entry 1 of 2)

1capitalized : a member of a school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium about 300 b.c. holding that the wise man should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submissive to natural law
2: one apparently or professedly indifferent to pleasure or pain

stoic

adjective

sto·​ic | \ ˈstō-ik  \
variants: or stoical \ ˈstō-​i-​kəl  \

Definition of stoic

1 capitalized : of, relating to, or resembling the Stoics or their doctrines Stoic logic
2: not affected by or showing passion or feeling especially : firmly restraining response to pain or distress  – ‘stoic indifference to cold’

So there you are, the word stoic is not only to be indifferent to cold, there is much, much more about it, and I hope you can learn more about it in my new blogsite!

The name of my new Blog will be “My Stoic Life”. When I have set up the new site, I will post a link to it on this post, and on other relevant places online. So please feel free to follow me on this new path in my life. And feel free to comment here, if you have anything to assist me in this journey!