Please don’t be offended, but when I’m not feeling well I don’t want your sympathy. I know that I get depressed. But when someone is being sympathetic towards me it does feel rather like he o…
Source: I don’t want your sympathy
Day: December 19, 2016
Surreal
Word of the Year 2016
‘Surreal’ is our 2016 Word of the Year
Surreal is Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year because it was looked up significantly more frequently by users in 2016 than it was in previous years, and because there were multiple occasions on which this word was the one clearly driving people to their dictionary.
Our largest spike in lookups for ‘surreal’ followed the U.S. presidential election in November.
There are essentially two kinds of high-volume lookups that we track: perennial words that are looked up day-in and day-out, and words that spike because of news events, politics, pop culture, or sports. By analyzing these spikes, we can get a sense as to what significant events sent people to the dictionary, and sometimes, what people think about those events.
Surreal had three major spikes in interest that were higher in volume and were sustained for longer periods of time than in past years. In March, the word was used in coverage of the Brussels terror attacks. Then, in July, we saw the word spike again: it was used in descriptions of the coup attempt in Turkey and in coverage of the terrorist attack in Nice. Finally, we saw the largest spike in lookups for surreal following the U.S. election in November.
We define surreal as “marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream.” We also give as its synonyms unbelievable and fantastic. It’s a relatively new word in English, and derives from surrealism, the artistic movement of the early 1900s that attempted to depict the unconscious mind in dreamlike ways as “above” or “beyond” reality. Surreal itself dates to the 1930s, and was first defined in a Merriam-Webster dictionary in 1967.
Surreal is often looked up spontaneously in moments of both tragedy and surprise, whether or not it is used in speech or writing. This is not surprising: we often search for just the right word to help us bring order to abstract thoughts, emotions, or reactions. Surreal seems to be, for 2016, such a word.
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He pinches me in bed
Mary was walking slowly down the street to catch the bus to town;it stopped just round the corner by a red maple tree ,She wore a teal 3/4 length coat with an orange pleated skirt just showing and some teal suede boots from Cooler.
Suddenly the bus went by as the driver did not see her.
Oh,well it’s only 15 minutes to wait, she lied to herself
At the bus stop she sat down by a pretty young woman dressed in the latest green puffa jacket ,tiger print top and skinny jeans
I love your teal coat,she told Mary thoughtlessly.
Thanks, so much, said Mary.I see you like lovely colour too.Do you live near here?
Yes,I am called Susan, the mature yet girlish woman replied.I got married 6 months ago and we got a dear little flat in that new block.Are you married?
My husband decided to move to heaven,Mary told her softly.He was 118.
Maybe you can help me as you are more experienced, Susan said,biting her lips which were coated in orange lipstick by the House of Lairds and Lauders.
My husband was very kind when wooing me,but since we got married he has changed.
Oh,dear,Mary sighed.
I wrote poems before we got married.He said he loved them but now he criticises anything I write quite viciously.It began right after our honeymoon.He tells me I am probably below average in intelligence.
Did he get you to take a test? Mary asked curiously
No, he says he can tell just by looking at me, the dear woman responded tearfully
What a shame he has changed like this.It seems to me he must be insecure and is trying to lord it over you.
And do you write for a living? asked Mary.
No,said Susan,I work at Mensa headquarters devising new IQ tests,Her green eyes were full of unshed tears.
It’s a bit boring really.I’d rather study quantum theory or music.
There you are said Mary.Though I think IQ tests are not that good,if you write them you must be way above average
The thing is, you being so bright, he cannot bear the comparison.Or can one even know someone is more intelligent than yourself?
He also pinches me in bed and bites my ears before hitting me with a pillow and sucking my toes.
He sounds like an animal,Mary cried.Have you not complained?
No,said Susan.I will keep imagining he’ll get better in his manners after a few months.Shall I bite him back,do you think?
No, he may get even worse.I think you should consider that biting people and pinching them are criminal offences if the person is unwilling.Some people might enjoy it, but it seems as if he is cruel in his words too
I am puzzled.Susan said.He was so charming while we were engaged.And I still love him.He worshipped me and adored me before.Now he hides that side of himself.
If I were you I’d leave him and buy a cat.He is cruel,unkind and dominating and even says rude things about your poetry instead of helping you with positive criticism.But don’t take my word.Go to Relate.See if he will come with you.
If he has had bad times growing up he might be afraid of real intimacy.Or he feels he owns you.Do you want him to be the father of your childen
No,thank you,said Susan.That clarifies things
You can rent my spare room if need be,Mary replied.I am happy to share the kitchen within reason.And I have two toilets.
Wow, that’so kind of you, Susan said.Here’s the bus.Her face looked less pale.
What a lot to tell me, Mary told Emile when she got home.Stan was never cruel but some women found him too intelligent and preferred a dimmer, more foolish kind of man,
Mioaw, cried Emile.I want a pilchard for my dinner.I want Susan here near me.I want to sleep by her in my basket.
And so say all of us.
Alas, the basket is too small for all my readers.We must fantasise!
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Can we become virtuous by exercising our will?
I’m writing a column on morals in the Haily Mail
Is that Catholic?
It certainly caters for all.
So what do you know about morals?
There’s usually a moral in a story so maybe I’ll do it metaphorically.
Quicker to come straight out with it.
That’s once you know what it is
Well,by now you ought to.
There,see, you assume that being old means we have developed some morals or at least ideas about them.
So the old are more moral?
It depends if knowing is enough.
In fact it’s not,is it?
Can we be virtuous by exercising our will?
Or our won’t?
I don’t think so except in a negative way.By avoiding places or people who lead you into sin
That’s not as simple as it appears.
Why not?
Because in our human fashion we believe priests,vicars,rabbis or Popes are good people.So we mix with them freely.Yet is that not the disguise that Satan would adopt?
Yes, one might be better off mixing with prostitutes and thieves as at least you know what they might offer you.
Well sex workers are not immoral.
Because in our system some women can’t earn enough?
Some high class tarts might enjoy it being taken to the best clubs,theatres and so on. I’m merely recalling an old Morse story.But the other ones must be afraid and might be in pain.
Thieves might break the law but that may not be a sin.
That’s a relief,I just stole a breath!
Only God knows whether a bad tempered old codger who kicks the dog is sinful or merely being too wise to kick his wife.
And what is legal may be a sin.Like dodging tax when we are all suffering from the cuts to the NHS.
Everything is upside down.The low and the petty criminals may be quite holy and the priests and rabbis may be wicked,at least a good many may be
Yes, it’s wise to be on your guard with those who frequently mention their religion,God, the Bible, and so on.For the good do their works in secret.And no not boast of it.After all,what are their motives?
I’ve had a few knocks from the religious here on the Web but the lowly have never harmed me.And I hope I’ve not harmed them.
Amen
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Rabbi Lionel Blue just died
“He never pretended that life was easy, or that religion solved everything; instead, he shared his own failings and foibles, and showed how to get through the rest of the day.
“Through the popularity of his broadcasts and books, he made rabbis more human, Judaism more understandable, and faith in general more user-friendly.
“It was a tribute to the way he bridged religious differences that it was often quipped that Rabbi Blue would have been a wonderful choice as the next archbishop of Canterbury.
“Without doubt, Lionel Blue was God’s best PR man in Britain.”
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This is so funny.A nightclub bouncer!
One of Israel’s most outspokenly hawkish and divisive political figures, the ultranationalist politician Avigdor Lieberman, has been offered the post of defence minister.
Lieberman, a former nightclub bouncer from Moldova with little military experience, has advocated for policies including the bombing of Egypt’s Aswan dam.
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Flying out:Transitions
I know now that's how death will come,
Suddenly flying into another orbit
when you are photographing flowers.
It's not a gentle transition.
No-one will know where you've gone.
One step wrong and you're.
off the high wire
And plunging into the no safety net.
Flying for a while;
Jumping into hyperspace,spinning electrons
Startle your grey eyes.
Transiting the new black sun
You're on a double gold helix,
Spider on your web,
Knitting furiously
Into the future heaven on gossamer wings.
Butterfly goodbye,I'm off to see the stars.
And the black holes.Noone will come with me.
I'm shaking off,evaporating into mist.
I'm a flying saucer on a circus mission.
I can't say no to a new invitation.
Make it fast and break with tradition.
Time is passing smoothly till that break
In the music,I've been transmuted into a different key
someone else will play me on their violin
I'm a tune,
I'm a thought,
I'm a whisper in your vision.
Goodbye,darling.I'm under orders
Ready to leave for my performance
On the electric carpet.
Death dancing to a tune on a violoncello,
Arpeggionne sonata
i'm playing your words upside down
In a new foreign translation,
Accompanied by solo artists,ice cracking
I'm going in.It's too sudden.
I'm flying.
Spinning faster to amuse the clowns,
too many ups and no downs.
I'm going right out of orbit
I've broken the pull of gravity,
And fly with pure equanimity
Into my future life,
I'm off at some moment,
An instant ,a crack,a loud smack.
That was me passing.
How/Why I wrote this.
I wrote this the week of the terrible riots in 2011 after I fell down some steps.
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Get started with free verse
Photo by Mike Flemming 2016.Copyright
http://www.webexhibits.org/poetry/explore_famous_free_make.html
First things first.
At first glance, free verse is one of the easiest forms of poetry to write. It certainly is among the most enjoyable and free-flowing. You just sit down and throw your soul and observations onto a piece of paper, breaking lines at random…right?
Not so fast. Like the practice of freedom itself, free verse can be challenging. The key is to correlate the rhythm of your subject with the rhythm of your natural voice. A natural poetic voice is lyrical and metrical, with accents and pauses that are as prevalent as those written into the strictest of classic verse forms. While the cadence, line counts, stanzas, and syllables per line are not mandated by tradition, the actual presentation of the poem is deliberate.
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I shall be renewed
When seven years come round again My self is liquified. My skin becomes a holding shell For my old self has died. As I dissolve I feel great fear And yet I trust my soul. So in the sea I lose my form, And with the waves I roll. I am at one with all the world, And yet I am nothing. My inner waters rise and fall What will the high tide bring? After my drowning I shall rise And I shall be renewed. I must submit to that strange Life With which I am imbued. I am not mistress of myself, I am this moment’s flower. In the deep waters I must trust To take me to the shore. Oh hang my arms with grasses green And dissolve me in your sea. Thus when the time comes for rebirth Regenerated I shall be.
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My family in NZ
How my heart sings 