Friday, October 13, 2017

happy bloggiversary to me

Read all about Poetry Friday here.
Yes, poetry fans, this weekend marks the 9th birthday of 

my juicy little universe!  

Next year, for the 10th anniversary, I will do some extravaganza of gratitude like making a lengthy found poem out of your--YOUR--comments over the years. But for 2017, at the end of a weighty and irregular week (and I mean that in the medical sense), I have only enough energy to point you in the direction of my very first post, made before I even learned that there was Poetry Friday.

It was about typing, and the sole commenter was my friend and critipue group partner Robin Galbraith (@RobinGalbraith), now the proud holder of a Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA!  (Speaking of typing, for no discernible reason the KUE key on my computer has stopped working. Now how will I type "kwakwaversal"?)

Speaking further of typing, I have held forever the position that writing by hand (including drafting and doodling and note-taking) has a different character than writing by typing, and my notebooks are very important to me.  But this has been the year that I had to admit that actually getting any writing done seemed to be related to abandoning my notebook and just typing on my laptop.

I'm still pondering why this is--is it a function of my fast-paced intense inside-the-DC-beltway microculture, which makes writing anything by hand feel inefficient?  Is it that my brain, fueled by a constant stream of think-too-much adrenalin, can't wait around for my handwriting to keep up?  Are those two things pretty much exactly the same, and should I try to relax?  Your views welcome.  : )

So here's my own poem about typing, a skill so very much more important now than it was when I took typing in high school in 1979.  (I have a second grader who has taught himself to type rather fast using two fingers on his right hand and his left thumb, and who will be therefore very well prepared for his computer-based assessments next year.)  I found this poem lurking in that very first post...


Keyboard Magic

I go around with 
letters dangling from the tip 
of each finger—

the h, j, and m jangling like charms
from my right index,
the c, d and e each occupying a joint

of the left middle,
the o ringing and ringing
my right ring finger,
a sparking a little flame from
that powerful pinky--

letters and numbers,
punc-punc-punctuation marks
trailing each move of my fingers
like the starry streaks 
that follow the sweep 
of a movie magic wand.

(c) draft HM 2017


The Poetry Friday round-up today is with Irene Thirteen--tippy-tap your way over and see what's popping at Live Your Poem!

16 comments:

  1. Heidi! Happy Happy 9 years of blogging! Sending up balloons for you! And on that powerful pinky... love your typing poem so very much. Thank you! xo

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  2. Happy Blogiversary!! Love the typing poem. Thought back to when I first learned to type in middle school. :)

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  3. I love your poem, too -- those letters jangling like charms! I had to stop and think about the transition from notebooks to typing. Lately I have been ONLY writing in notebooks and now I have a pile of pages I need to type but have been avoiding doing so.
    Your "found poem in the comments" project makes me want to leave interesting phrases in your comments, just in case you'll find them useful later. Attack of the guard butterfly? Poetic ransom?

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  4. Congratulations on your blogoversary! That typing poem is such fun--and does it bring back memories of typing class. We thought we were hot stuff with the new electric typewriters in the classroom! I love the ease of revision that comes with a keyboard and digital files, but I also love to sit with pens and pencils and paper. For me, it depends on what I'm writing as to which I prefer.

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  5. Happy 9th blogoversary! Thanks for the shout-out. I like the typing poem. I also took a typing class in 1979. Who knew in 1979 that typing would be one of the most important classes you could take to prepare for the future!

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  6. Happy blogversary! Oh that typing class...and yes, I took it 1979 too! Don't you just miss the correction tape! I remember upgrading to a word processor...we thought we were in heaven! Fun memories.

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  7. Happy blogiversary, Heidi! Sorry to hear about medical issues and low-energy getting in the way of your celebration. Isn't it funny all the different typing styles kids have today? Seems like no one has the time or desire to learn to type "properly" anymore. But like you, I did in high school, and I'm quite pleased with the letters dangling from each of my fingers.

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  8. PS. I hope SCHOMBURG arrived this week! Consider it your bloggiversary present. :)

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  9. I love the creativity of your poem, Heidi, hope the health stuff goes away fast, and Happy, Happy Blogiversary! Your posts always inspire me to look further at a topic. Yes, I'm a typist, but both my kids refused and have developed their own methods, as do many I guess. I am grateful for my skill, but it was a long year when I learned it.

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  10. First, Happy Blog Birthday! I'm so glad I've met you through Poetry Friday. I always learn something from you. This poem is a delight. I can really picture those letters dripping of fingers like pixie dust. Wonderful poem.

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  11. "the starry streaks of a movie magic wand" Love this comparison as I try to type a little magic every day. Happy Blogiversary! I'm so glad we met through PF!

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  12. Congratulations on nine years! Love your poem!

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  13. I took typing in high school, as it seemed that a bookworm such as myself might someday have a lot to say. And how else to say it than typing. At that point, I never imagined a computer's power. I imagined ink and white out were parts of my future. Yet, I far prefer the delete key, the God-like power of cut and paste, and the save command. Sometimes I wish my dreams had all those things. As I wake, I try to edit my dreams, to save them, but they are ephemeral. Unlike this comment...

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  14. Fun poem Heidi, I like the "powerful pinky." I like writing in a notebook, but then seeing the poem or writing fresh on the computer screen, it gives me some distance and it's cleaner. Sometimes I'd like to move to the computer sooner, but alas I don't have a lap top, so if I'm writing in my lap my notebook will suffice.

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  15. Sorry to have missed saying HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY last week. I had a small window of time carved out for commenting...and blogs were blocked on the school wifi where I was attending an all-day PD!

    Now I'm thinking about all the letters dripping from my fingertips!!

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  16. Your poem affected life?! Yes, you can share your lovely poem and its great "after story" with the world... Submit now on LifePoemsProject.com

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Thanks for joining in the wild rumpus!