Among other things, my china, long ago discontinued:
owls in the distance
hoot hoot, and then hooot-hoot-hoot
give and take, love chatowls in the distance
two hoots then three through the night
early spring love songfar off in darkness
late at night, most are sleeping
owls sending love notes.far off late at night
the air is quiet, dogs sleep,
two owls talk dirty
The best piece of writing advice I ever ignored was to write every day. Boy, did I ignore this advice. I heard it dozens of times, from writers I admired, but I didn’t start doing it until I got to my second or third novel. Writing every day is fantastic, because it habituates you to writing. Habits are things you get for free. — Cory Doctorow
One of the things I love about opening the windows when the weather changes is that you can hear the sounds of the world again, especially at night. The past two nights I’ve heard some peepers down the road and a particularly lyrical bird – do birds sing in their sleep? – and other far off sounds like tractor trailers and locomotives on distant tracks.
Here’s my second take on this notion.
The Universe Whispers
The universe whispers that’s it out there –
listen – with the peepers and sleepy birds
and the distant locomotive whistle
and the dog a couple of roads over.
Can you reset, retune your jaded ears?
When the universe speaks, you should listen.
Hear it? It’s always whispering. Listen!
The universe is rather big, they say.
These messages we are hearing today
might come from a time far away and past.
Wait. I think it’s saying: do the right thing
love each other, try harder, try again.
When the universe whispers in your ear
lean in, listen carefully and say yes.
you should probably listen.
The past few days, every time I ask Siri to shuffle music on my iPhone, up pops “the Tune” that cements the relationship between my two main characters. Awwww. They were headed that way and finally go out and blam! this tune comes (ahem, magically) on the jukebox.
I’d say “and that’s all she wrote” but I know there were a whole lotta words after that point, LOL.
So I guess the universe is telling me to buckle down and get back to work already.
Maxim for the Group of Seven: Never a day without a line.
