What seemingly meaningless things have you done in life that have meant more later? How many such seemingly meaningless things have you done that have meant more later can you count?
Now
If your life story were a jigsaw puzzle, what would it look like?
I wrote a short poem in tanka format about a week ago. In it, I pondered if my life story were a jigsaw puzzle, what would it look like? Now, and what I hope it would look like at the end.
Today, I finally did that “mental exercise” that could also be good for a writing exercise. My answer is below, but if you want to try it yourself, I would suggest you not read further until after you have tried it yourself, so as not to be influenced by ideas. 🙂
I enjoyed the exercise, and I hope you will, too, if you decide to give it a try.
The poem will be on my poetry blog on November 2nd. I have a large back log of short poems so I am sharing one or two per day in chronological sequence among sequences of poems in common collections.
Near Death Quote
Everything Done Quote
Best Songs I Heard for the First Time in 2010
Most people do not hear most of the songs they know for the first time in the year the song was released. If anyone did, I would feel very sorry for them for missing out on all the great songs of the past from before they were born, or even great songs each year they lived they would have missed.
What most people don’t do is reflect each year on the best songs they heard for the first time that year. I’ve blogged some of mine, but not all so this is my entire collection for 2010 which could fit on a CD if I made one.
After several years of discovering a ton of jazz and older music, then tunes from musicals, so that they made up most of the songs in my list for recent years (2009 list), I am back with an eclectic set that reflects my true musical tastes and philanderings across genres. I even have not only one song from the current year, but two! A song from the year of the list was something I didn’t have for several years. I did find newly released songs I liked a lot in those years, but they didn’t compare to a variety of jazz and musicals standards I discovered in those years.
But before I share my list, let me ask you the same question as I answered to write this post. What were the best songs you heard for the first time in 2010?
I’d love to know so please do leave a comment. I can add the links to videos so people can hear what you’re talking about, if you would like. But if you don’t want to do it here, maybe write a blog post like this if you have a blog, or a Facebook note or something like that on a social media platform account you have. It might just be one of the more thoughtful notes to your friends all year.
Here is my list, in no particular order of preference, with videos streaming the songs. You will need to click on the YouTube link for some videos with some weird copyright condition that only allow them to be viewed on YouTube. I hate Grown Up Corporate YouTube that’s become a wussie and lost all its edge.
Digital Citizen 