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This week I decided not to make the interns do my work. Here’s a Linked Up with lots of videos and pictures. (Yippee!)

This is a video of a 3-year-old reciting Billy Collins’ “Litany” from memory and no I’m not kidding. [YouTube]

If bio class made you squeamish… [Make]

Ta-dah: the 10 most followed people on Twitter who aren’t celebrities. [Business Insider]

This is some groundbreaking video work. [Guggenheim]

Wanna see a 150-story hotel built in 2:12 minutes? Of course you do! [Gizmodo]

25 Pictures Of Cats And Dogs Photobombing Each Other [Buzzfeed]

Sigh. City living “can affect the brain’s ability to focus…manage self-control.” [Harvard Med]

A Korean artist is making children’s drawings a reality. [Dumage]

Let’s do the flamingo! [Animal NY]

Cat. Island. [Tofugu]

 

I felt like sharing a Billy Collins poem this morning, and "Picnic, Lightning" won the Poetry Friday lottery. I really love the tiny dark unmoored ship and the ending images of immersing yourself in the now, the ordinary moments that make live so vivid.

Picnic, Lightning

"My very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic, lightning) when I was three." 
                                                                                                               —Lolita

It is possible to be struck by a meteor
or a single-engine plane
while reading in a chair at home.
Safes drop from rooftops
and flatten the odd pedestrian
mostly within the panels of the comics,
but still, we know it is possible,
as well as the flash of summer lightning,
the thermos toppling over,
spilling out onto the grass.

And we know the message
can be delivered from within.
The heart, no valentine,
decides to quit after lunch,
the power shut off like a switch,
or a tiny dark ship is unmoored
into the flow of the body's rivers,
the brain a monastery,
defenseless on the shore.

This is what I think about
when I shovel compost

Read the rest here...

I wonder how it all got started, this business
about seeing your life flash before your eyes
while you drown, as if panic, or the act of submergence,
could startle time into such compression, crushing
decades in the vice of your desperate, final seconds.

After falling off a steamship or being swept away
in a rush of floodwaters, wouldn't you hope
for a more leisurely review, an invisible hand
turning the pages of an album of photographs-
you up on a pony or blowing out candles in a conic hat.

How about a short animated film, a slide presentation?
Your life expressed in an essay, or in one model photograph?
Wouldn't any form be better than this sudden flash?
Your whole existence going off in your face
in an eyebrow-singeing explosion of biography-
nothing like the three large volumes you envisioned.

Survivors would have us believe in a brilliance
here, some bolt of truth forking across the water,
an ultimate Light before all the lights go out,
dawning on you with all its megalithic tonnage.
But if something does flash before your eyes
as you go under, it will probably be a fish,

a quick blur of curved silver darting away,
having nothing to do with your life or your death.
The tide will take you, or the lake will accept it all
as you sink toward the weedy disarray of the bottom,
leaving behind what you have already forgotten,
the surface, now overrun with the high travel of clouds.


~Billy Collins


Poetry Friday roundup at Kelly Polark's

 

I headed to southern Minnesota for two days of school visits, which went great. Part of my presentation involves sharing with kids how I was always reading as a kid, even when my parents insisted I go outside to play and get fresh air. I share a picture of me sitting up in a tree, reading a book.

Now I'm snowed in for an extra day because a ginormous snowstorm hit yesterday when I was supposed to drive home. I was driving on a highway able to see nothing in front of me except white and one dimming pair of red taillights (dimming as they quickly covered with ice). It was terrifying. Couldn't see the road...and meanwhile, as snow was dumping from the sky, it was actually thundering and lightning occasionally too, since I was right near the border of where it switched from thunderstorm to blizzard. It was amazing. And I was much happier once I reached a safe hotel to spend the night!

I pulled out one of the books I brought with me, Ballistics, by Billy Collins. It was a Christmas gift from my husband, Randy. I hadn't had a chance to read yet, and it was a treat to read some of it over the past couple of quiet nights. This poem in particular made me smile in recognition.

Evasive Maneuvers I grew up hiding from the other children. I would break off from the pack on its patrol of the streets every Saturday and end up alone behind a hedge or down a dim hallway in a strange basement. No one ever came looking for me, which only added to the excitement. ... And I hid behind books, usually one of the volumes of the encyclopedia that was kept behind glass in a bookcase, the letters of the alphabet in gold. Before I knew how to read, I sat in an armchair in the living room and turned the pages, without a clue about the worlds that were pressed between D and F, M and O, W and Z. Read the complete poem here.

If you're a vegetarian, please go away.

If you're a rapacious omnivore who'd rather eat a pig than dine with one, toodle-oo.

Just to be on the safe side, if you tend to giggle, guffaw, or snort uncontrollably at the slightest provocation, better go back to your little corner until we're done here.

I simply can't be held responsible for people who like to laugh for no good reason. And, please, in the name of decency, make sure your feet are clean before you read this poem. (Was that a smile? Stop that, immediately!)

THIS LITTLE PIGGY WENT TO MARKET



is the usual thing to say when you begin
pulling on the toes of a small child,
and I have never had a problem with that.
I could easily picture the piggy with his basket
and his trotters kicking up the dust on an imaginary
road.

What always stopped me in my tracks was
the middle toe -- this little piggy ate roast beef.
I mean I enjoy a roast beef sandwich
with lettuce and tomato and a dollop of horseradish,
but I cannot see a pig ordering that in a delicatessen.

I am probably being too literal-minded here --
I am even wondering why it's called "horseradish."
I should just go along with the beautiful nonsense
of the nursery, float downstream on its waters.
After all, Little Jack Horner speaks to me deeply.

I don't want to be the one to ruin the children's party
by asking unnecessary questions about Puss in Boots
or, again, the implications of a pig eating beef.

By the way, I am completely down with going
"Wee wee wee" all the way home,
having done that many times and knowing exactly how
it feels.

~ from BALLISTICS by Billy Collins (Random House, 2008).

Startling Confession #2468: I've never eaten horseradish. Am I missing something?

Please trot on over (and wee all you like) to Adventures in Daily Living for today's Poetical Roundup. 
                                

Bonnie mentioned a Billy Collins Poem, “The Names,” in a comment she left yesterday. While he’s one of my favorite poets (new favorites), I have to admit that I didn’t know about this one. In case you fall into the same category, then here is part of it: The Names Yesterday, I lay awake in [...]

 

For Valentine's Day, my husband gave me a CD of Billy Collins Live, a performance from 2005. He did this even though we don't make a big deal over Valentine's Day (our anniversary is the week before it) and we had agreed to do nothing more than cards. Oh well:>) I happily listened to it on my laptop yesterday for a bit when our power went out. I can't wait to finish it, and I know I'll be listening to it repeatedly.

One of the poems I love that he reads here is "Forgetfulness," a poem that I can totally relate to (even I can't remember it when it's not being read aloud to me!). 

Forgetfulness

by Maurene J. Hinds, Contributing Editor

Whether you write for children or adults, characters are the driving forces of your stories. What happens to your characters and how they solve their problems are the outlines of plot. A plot can be summarized in three simple questions.

1. What does my character want?
2. What is getting in his/her way?
3. How will my character solve or deal with what is getting in the way?

That’s it.

In order to answer these questions in a way that is compelling and leads to an interesting story, however, you need to know your characters well. Once you have an intimate knowledge and understanding of your characters, you can create interesting roadblocks for them while knowing how they are most likely to respond.

How writers choose to learn about their characters varies greatly. Authors’ personalities are as varied as the characters they write about. Here are some of tools and exercises that writers use.

The Profile A character profile is exactly as it sounds. It profiles everything you know about your character. Not all of this information ends up in the story, but the more you know about your character, the more authentic he or she will come through in the story. A profile can and should contain as many details as possible, such as:

* Physical description, including age
* Where he or she lives
* Favorites and preferences (favorite color, food, chocolate or vanilla, etc.)
* Likes and dislikes
* Hobbies
* Sports
* Occupation
* Family and marital status

A profile is similar to those email questionnaires that circulate among your friends every now and then. If you’ve ever received one of those emails, consider answering the questions about your character instead (whether or not you reply with those answers is up to you!).

The Interview This is similar to the profile, but conducted more like an interview than simply writing a profile. Consider it a “getting to know you” interview. You can talk aloud with your character (yes, many writers do this), or you can write the questions and then answer them as your character rather than yourself.

Write from the Character’s Point of View Get into “character mode” and have your character write about him or her. Invite the character to include as many details as possible. Include the types of information that are listed in the profile or conducted in a “getting to know you” interview. What your character writes may surprise you!

Talk to Your Characters Many writers do this. Yes, it means talking aloud, first as yourself, and then as your character. Allow yourself to “channel” the character so that his or her voice can come through as authentically as possible. If this process inhibits you, consider talking to your characters in places such as your car when you’re driving alone, or turn up some music in your room and hold a quiet conversation. The process can be surprisingly fun, and you may be pleasantly surprised at what you learn.