Writing Workshop: Writing Prompt --> “aluminium siding will be it”

“‘Aluminium siding’ will be it.”

“Be what?”

“The death of us all.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

 “What I’m talking about, my friend, is the continued wanton perversion of the English language, and your leading role in it. I’m telling you. Remember when we used to say “nuclear?” No more. Now it’s “nucular.” I mean, people say “for all intensive purposes,” on television. I swear it. We are getting dumber by the day. It’s ridiculous. I mean, the word “literally” now can be used to mean “figuratively. Literally the silliest thing ever. And I do mean it literally. Under the old meaning.”

 “Christ, I meant ‘aluminum.’ Can you ease up a bit with the grammar police drama? I was just looking for your thoughts on whether to go with aluminum or vinyl on the house. Not an English lesson.”

“Irregardless, my point, nonetheless, was that it’s a slippery slope. Once you begin accepting these small shifts, they gain acceptance. It’s insidious. But that’s how it happens, you know.”

“Wait. Did you seriously just say ‘irregardless.’ That’s not even a word.”

“Yes. Well. Yes – of course – it is. Anyway, back to the point of the matter, I’d go with the vinyl.”

"I Believe..." (In The Style of Crash Davis and Neil Gaiman)

I believe in premarital sex. And in waiting until you're married.

I believe in the X Files and in vast government conspiracies to cover up alien invasions. I believe in Gillian Anderson, Mr. T, and Bryce Harper. I believe baseball should be fun and we should hold fast to old school traditions.

I believe in books being made into epic movies. And I also believe that you shouldn't make books into movies... because the book is always (always) better. 


I believe in saying inherently contradictory things in the same sentence. Or in two sentences that are right next to each other. I believe it's a literary device and I also believe it's truth. And I can believe that truth is stranger than fiction, but that fiction contains life's truths....

And I believe I forgot what I was going to say next...

Stories Are Essential and Choosing The Stories We Tell is Power

"Stories are essential. Don’t believe me? In a year where politicians traffic in anti-immigrant rhetoric, there is also a Broadway musical reminding us that a broke, orphan immigrant from the West indies built our financial system, a story that reminds us that since the beginning of the great unfinished symphony that is our American experiment, time and time again immigrants get the job done. My dear terrified graduates, you are about to enter the most uncertain and thrilling period of your lives. The stories you are about to live are the ones you will be telling your children, and grandchildren, and therapists.” 


-  Lin-Manuel Miranda (Commencement Speech at University of Pennsylvania, 2016)

Rise (A Haiku)

Split apart, lying
A heap of useless pieces
Before the rebirth

On Our Way There

"We're going to a place where sad washes out cleanly with just a bit of soap and warm water. 

Where joy bursts in brightly and then settles in for the long haul."

Poetry - The Ultimate Meeting Place

"It is said — here, now — that one of the great markers of spiritual kinship is a love for the same poetry. For if two souls are equally moved by the same pulsating constellation of metaphor and meaning, they are not only bound by a common language and a shared sensibility but also exist in the same dimension of truth and possibility. Poetry, after all, is the ultimate meeting place."

      -- Maria Popova (BrainPickings)

Like a Big Umbrella

"Now everyday that we spend together
Like a ruby from a sunken treasure
I wander aimless, when she's not around me
I thank the heavens, that my baby found me"

                   -- Jonah Smith, Big Umbrella

Wintry Mix

The plows come. The salt is laid.
Puddles of quicksand slush gather at the curb.

More Gaiman, On Writing

"The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter."

                                        --- Neil Gaiman, Eight Rules of Writing

Still Winter

"This is my winter song to you. 
The storm is coming soon, 
it rolls in from the sea . . . 
Is love alive? Is love alive? 
Is love?" -
                                        - Sarah Bareilles, Winter Song