This woman is such a fine poet. Her work has courage and truth. Go check out her site.
Lauren Zuniga reads, “A Working List of Why Today Is 11-1-11.”
Author Archives: Kyle Kimberlin
Sharing A Blessing
One of my favorite poems, of all the countless poems that I have read again and again, is A Blessing by James Wright.
I could feel that way – maybe I have – that joy of a simple moment shared among beings merely ecstatic to be alive.
Love takes us everywhere, makes us everything at once, and we need not remain within ourselves.
Helpful Windows Keyboard Shortcuts
[Keyboard] shortcuts make it easier to manage applications, zoom, control multiple displays, search, and even open multiple instances of a given program. All of these shortcuts are available right now on Windows 7, and could make your life a little easier.
They Buy Why You Do It
Watch this brilliant 18 minute TED presentation by Simon Sinek.
“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
I found it very inspirational. It’s a simple concept, but somehow shifts the way I think about myself in terms of self-promotion on many levels.
Props: The Gnomies mastermind group and Jerry Hobby.
Something to Hold
Here’s a little flash fiction piece I’ve dragged from its slumber in my notebook, to rework it. It imagines the touchstones of our lives and wonders, what if there was something we could find again on the other side, something to hold?
It didn’t hurt at all, you know. In case you’re wondering. He stepped out of his house on a Tuesday morning, with the sky mostly sunny but for a line of light gray clouds over the hills, with a core of darker gray keeping it cool.
He stooped to pick up the Times by the lace begonia in its iron pot, meaning to tuck it under his arm. Instead, his body landed on the brick sidewalk. His nose was crunched and his glasses broken, but by then his spirit was already here in the garden, walking slowly – a little stiff and tentative from the jump – but with a sense of mission.
Everyone arrives here looking for something. A coat, a cup, a bicycle, a ring with a stone of lapis lazuli. A doll. Something that meant the world to them down there. I remember a woman who came and found an orange tree she ate from as a child.
For everyone a totem, a touch stone of the world that fades away becoming bone chips and tree roots. God knows what the thing might be. They hold it a moment to remember, then forget, then they can move on.
Well he moved through the garden, beginning to loosen up and find his pace. I was sitting on a rock, just watching, and thought I would give him a hand. Like the guy in the parking lot after the late movie, who just happens to have jumper cables when your car won’t start.
Morning, I said.
He stopped and looked at me on my rock.
Are you looking for something? I asked.
My box.
Really? Tell me about it.
Well it’s about this big, for holding pencils. But that’s not what I kept in it. My Dad made it for me when I was in fourth grade.
What did you keep in it?
Just junk. Couple of hot wheels cars, Indian head nickel, magnifying glass, a pen to write in four colors, a blue ribbon from the Veterans’ Day parade.
So you’re looking for the box, not the stuff inside?
It had my initials carved in the lid.
Right.
I left the rock and moved to him. I handed him the box. He looked at it, held it, opened it to see that everything was there. He held it and believed.
Something to Hold by Kyle Kimberlin
is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
A Song for the First Day of Spring
I was thinking about this old song earlier today, when I was doing a bit of housework for the first day of spring. Certain members of my family used to sing it when I was small, and it would make me cry. Oh our insatiable sense of humor!
Woody Guthrie actually doesn’t sing it nearly as well as they did. He doesn’t convey much – if any – emotion. But oh, the high drama of those bygone days!
I’m teasing. But it was the first day of spring and the nights will begin to warm now, and so the time had surely come and could not be forestalled, to put my flannel sheets away.
[Video]
Post-its
Sending Large Files to Others
I’ve posted on the topic of file sharing before. It’s one of my pet peeves, and it causes a lot of problems for others as well. On the other hand, getting videos and music from friends and loved ones can be a real pleasure if done properly.
Here’s a fine article on the topic by Sherman E. DeForest at Lockergnome.com, one of the longest-running and most respected sites for geeky insight on the Net.
My personal opinion, which Sherman seems to share in pertinent part, is that Skydrive is your best bet for long term storage and sharing. It works unilaterally; you put your stuff out there where people can get it, and send a link to make it happen.
Dropbox is great for short term sharing (because its capacity is more limited, and you’ll want to free up the space) and bilateral – synchronized – sharing. With Dropbox, both parties sharing the files need to install a bit of software that creates a shared folder for them. Or you can put the file in Dropbox’s Public folder and share a direct and private link.That works great, but only one way.
If you want to share large files with others, you need to find a way to do it that works for you, besides sending the files in emails. As the Lockergnome piece explains, it frequently doesn’t work, and it’s really just bad manners.
Why is it bad? Imagine you answer your doorbell and find a friend standing there, saying he’s brought a little gift for you. You’re happy to see him, right? Now imagine the gift is the size of a football field, and he’s trying to cram it into your house. The unannounced visit just got uncomfortable. It might have been better if he’d left it outside.
I love this video
I wish everyone could see it.
It’s a heartwarming, elegant but fun PSA about Spay-Neuter, made by some good humans in Nashville.
You Write What You Read
I remember once, many years ago, I was watching a filmed staging of Chekov’s Uncle Vanya on TV, when I suddenly got an idea for a poem. I heard a few words of dialog: “We still have the orchards.” I grabbed a notepad, and in time I had a poem. And sometimes I find inspiration for writing in music. Which is nice.
Generally speaking, though, the only way to work and think in a certain art form – or business or technical frame of mind – is to be in the form or frame of mind before I start trying to create anything.
For example, the best way to prepare to write poetry is to read poetry. The best way to write fiction is to read it. And it needs to be in the right genre, don’t you think? If your muse sounds like Robert Frost, don’t be reading Charles Bukowski first. If you want to write something like Anne Tyler, it won’t help to be reading Stephen King.
I need to keep reminding myself what it is I want to do and who the particular writers are who inspire me to do that.
In the case of this poem, I guess it was Chekov. But who are you reading? And what is their relationship to what you’re doing to express yourself? Leave comment, if you like. Or send me an email.
SHINE
Such a lovely autumn.
We have the orchards
and stars
when the clouds are parted;
the stars we pass to
each other
hand to hand,
as if they were warm.
Stars in my mother’s arms,
brother’s eyes, father’s
voice and resting on
the painted water where I
sleep; shining through
the music of my life:
the adagio of any day at dawn.
Stars, eyes, eyelids
shut against the heat
and stroke of time,
smoke and death,
or just the sea
and its terrible salt.
Stars melt, years pass,
as magic lanterns
reflect the firmament
of stars in an endless row
of nights; weeping, shining
in the orbits of our days.
Shine by Kyle Kimberlin is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution
-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Metaphor 