Poetry Challenge #142-You Can Say That Again...
“Play it again, Sam!”
Today is National Repeat Day! (What? Care to repeat that?) Today is National Repeat Day. As if we need an excuse, it’s a day set aside for folks to “seek out activities and experiences” to do over again. Repeating a root canal or Hurricane Katrina are not suggested for this day.
Celebrate by repeating some of the tasks of the day. Wash the dishes twice. Make the same meal for lunch as you do for supper. Watch Groundhog Day twice.
Send duplicate text messages. Or? As the saying goes “If it’s worth doing once; it’s worth doing again,” or if you’d prefer Bogie: “Play it again, Sam!” (Even though, in Casablanca, he never actually said that.)
Poetry Challenge #142
You Can Say That Again! . . . “That”
Repetition can be used in poetry in many ways. You can repeat a sound like a long o sound or an l or t sound.
You can repeat a word several times in the poem like the word “bells” in a famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe.
You can repeat a phrase or a whole line. Or you can repeat a verse like the refrain in a song.
Choose a way to repeat from the list above and write a poem that uses some repetition.
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
just do it! just do it! just do it! just do it! just do it!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge MORE THAN 1500 days ago! (without a miss!!!) We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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Life in the Time of CoVid-Day 12 Lockdown
April 7, 2020-Day 12 of SA Lockdown:
Worldwide: 1,348,628 confirmed CoVid-19 cases; 74, 816 deaths.
Italy: Death Rate has risen to 16, 523; China: No New Deaths for the First Time since January.
One day into the 2nd half of the 21-day SA Lockdown and I’ve hit the what now? place with a the dull thud. (Do not bother asking if we have news regarding evacuation; we have heard zip-ziltch-radio silence from our US Ambassador Lana Marks since Sunday.
And on the 12th Day, Kelly woke feeling like a cast member on The Truman Show* or Ground Hog Day. 7:00 am: Alarm goes off; 7:18 am: dress; 7:22 am Yoga; 7:23-8:59 Check Covid-19 News; 9:00 am: Greet Gloria; Another day in LOCKDOWN. (*& spiraled down rabbit holes like this on 20-years after The Truman Show.)
Cut! . . . and ACTION!
South Africa: 1 686, the death toll rising to 12; Nurses have tested positive sparking fears of increased patient transmissions in the country’s hospitals and clinics.
SA Bride & Groom Arrested Over Lockdown Wedding:
“All 50 wedding guests, the pastor who conducted the ceremony, and the newlyweds themselves were promptly arrested and taken to a police station outside Richards Bay.”—BBC News
USA: 367,758 CoVid-19 cases; 10,981 dead; NY: 130,689 cases; 4,758 dead.
Caregivers, facing contamination, coping with infection, illness & death—personal risk—work on…Citizens blow off the pandemic and carry on…& we click away in our walled castle. No wonder I feel like an extra in an outdated movie rerun.
Our daily routine feels like it’s become habit, parts of which—especially the 3-times-daily Huff & Puff & these Fishbowl post chats—I’m feeling good about and hoping to maintain. Then . . . I googled “How Long Does it Take to Form A Habit"?” Psychology Today shut me right down. Habits, Good & Bad, are not created or broken equally. When it comes to forming a bad habit, 2 days is enough:
“Order a doughnut with your coffee on Monday morning and Tuesday morning, and you’ll probably find it very hard to resist ordering a doughnut on Wednesday.”
Making a good habit, however, takes around 66 days. 66! Please don’t stretch Lockdown to 66 days!
As for Breaking Bad? How many days do you think it takes: 3, 21, 30, 90, 120?
Is Binge Watching Kruger Safari a Good or Bad Habit?
According to my go-tos at curejoy.com it takes between 18 to 254 days to break a bad habit. So maybe and maybe…
Now, in the 2nd half of the 21-day SA Lockdown, the question is, what happens next? Where’s CoVid going to hit and when? Here’s the word from SA Officials:
If you live in an urban area where local health officials initiated early social-distancing orders, the peak of new cases could hit later this month. If you live in a rural area, the coronavirus spread will take longer and stretch limited hospital resources thin.
If, like me, during Life in the Time of CoVid, you are craving Some Good News, check out John Krasinski’s SGN:
Here & below is the link to SGN Episode #2. Ignore the ads—just click skip—and be sure to watch all the way to the dad using a leafblower to push his tot on a swing…and then….wait until you want the…well, watch for yourself!It made me smile, tear up, laugh aloud, share—SGN!