Kelly Bennett 1/7/23 Kelly Bennett 1/7/23

What Inspires Me? Woody Guthrie "Keeping the Hoping Machine Going"

Happy Brand New Year! 2023. Time for fresh starts! New beginnings! Resolutions! Did I hear a GROAN????

Call me a hypocrite because every-single-other year I have written a post about making resolutions, their value, how important goals are yada-yada. . . but. . .

I hate making resolutions!

Not because I don’t have resolve. I absolutely do. Along with a mean followthrough…and I am not talking tennis!

**"Hey hey, Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song..." when Bob Dylan was a boy, he went to meet his hero.** ***This PB by Gary Golio and Mark Burkhardt*** tells the story.

The problem is that coming up with that list of resolutions takes so dang long, wheedling it out to the important few, even longer—and when I’m finished my list of resolutions is always soooooo boring.

Which brings me to Woodie Guthrie

You might call it Back to the Future because I am talking the Woodie Guthrie circa January 1943. When he was on the road, seeing America and writing, strumming, singing songs, telling it like it was—with hopes for how it could be.

On January 1st, 1943, Woodie drafted and illustrated a 33-item list of resolutions.

An inspired heartful list with resolutions he felt worth fighting to keep—Number 33 is exactly that:

“Wake up and Fight.”

A few others touched me especially, including:

“Keep Hoping Machine Running”
“Dream Big”
“Write a song a day.”
“Dance Better.”
Don’t take my word for it! Go on and read for yourself (I’ve included the list below along with a link to the Town and Country article in which it was unearthed. Who knows a few items on the list might be just the reminder you need to encourage you to resolve that this will be a great great year!

Keeping our hoping machines running . . . now that’s inspiring!

Here’s to YOU and 2023, too!

And hearty thanks to @clarenashme for bring the article in Town and Country to my attention. Click the hyperlink to read it in its entirety.

Suggestion: And, if you have not yet visited the Woodie Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma—add it to your list. It is amazing! And right next door is the Bob Dylan Center!

Kelly Bennett 1/4/23 Kelly Bennett 1/4/23

Poetry Challenge #277-The Prophet

Today, we celebrate Khalil Gibran (1883-1931). You know the author of that dog-eared bent spined paperback entitled The Prophet? The one so oft quoted at weddings? Who hasn’t read, owned, or at least seen copy? Apparently no one ANYWHERE! Poetry Foundation called Gibran “the best-selling American poet of the twentieth century.”

“He was one of those rare writers who actually transcend the barrier between East and West, and could justifiably call himself – though a Lebanese and a patriot – a citizen of the world.”

— the Kahlil Gibran Collective Inc.

Khalil Gibran (also spelled Kahil) considered himself an artist first, a writer second. He was born Jubran Khalil Jubran on January 6, 1883, in Bsharri, Lebanon. In 1895, when he was 12, Gibran immigrated to the U.S., along with his mother and sibling. Their surname Jubran was Americanized to “Gibran.”

Gibran early works, published in Arabic newspapers, were sketches, short stories, and poems written in a conversational style about Middle Eastern immigrant’s experience in the U.S. Gibran’s work, both art and writing, were not critical successes. Nevertheless, his plain though poetic language style made his work, especially The Prophet, hugely popular--one of the best-selling books of all time it’s been translated into more than 100 languages. Here’s a selection of the “Love” chapter:

Poetry Challenge #277

On the topic of . . .

Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet is really a collection of poetic essays divided into chapters during which “The Prophet” extols “truths” of various topics: love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.

For today’s prompt, as an homage to Gibran, choose a topic, either from the list above or otherwise, and explore its many aspects in a poetic essay. As Gibran did in “Love” and the chapter on “Children” (excerpted below*) include the “dos and do nots” of the topic.

Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes

Start Writing!

**Don’t Think About it, Write It!**

*For inspiration, here is a selection from the chapter on “Children.”

Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2400+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. 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.

Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):

All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .

Kelly Bennett 12/31/22 Kelly Bennett 12/31/22

What Inspires Me? Reading Free

I just celebrated my 4th Anniversary as a Little Free Library Steward. It began selfishly. As a way for me to cull my overflowing book collection. Frankly, in those first several months, I was my best library customer.

Then CoVid shutdown came, and with it library and bookstore closings. During that time, my library was the only book source in town! And, suddenly, instead of dwindling stock, I found myself curating stacks of donations. Sure, a few visitors used it as a dump for raggedy outdated textbooks and computer programing manuals. But most donations were gently read and some even included reviews and notes:

“Read Me! You’ll be glad you did””

— Note included with NOTHING TO SEE HERE by Kevin Wilson

Confession: I judiciously cull my library offering. Yes, I even ban some books from it.

I ban books I think are poorly written.
I ban some books I found boring.
I ban books that BIPOC friends find offensive.
I ban pamphlets.
I ban religious material folks slip in. (Not because I object to said material. More because I’ve made a decision to keep my library non-secular.)
I ban non-PG books.

As we all know—I’m not the only one banning books. And this might sound hypocritical, but this horrifies me. Towns defunding libraries because librarians refuse to ban books. Towns firing or “polietly” shoving out librarians who refuse to take “banned” books off their shelves….McFarland, CA seriously considering shutting the library—and turning it into a police station.

This, I can do something about. And every one of us with a Little Free Library can do something about. Because we are the stewards of our own Little Free Libraries. We can act!

We can stock banned books.

If you’ve got books! It you love books! If you like sharing books! Then there are 2 things you should consider doing:

Support your local library and librarian’s choices to purchase, stock and share books by diverse authors and on diverse subjects.
Steward your own Little Free Library. It’s fun. It’s rewarding. You can stock it with books that are being banned for the wrong reasons…and help keep reading free!

Besides, Little Free Libraries are so flippin’ creative, cute, clever….cool. Here are 36 Cool Little Free Library Designs. See for yourself.

Kelly Bennett 12/29/22 Kelly Bennett 12/29/22

Poetry Challenge #276-Just So Kipling

Rudyard Kipling wrote many books you might recognize: The Jungle Book, Just-So Stories, Captains Courageous.

His playful, imaginative stories belie his miserable childhood. Kipling was born in Mumbai, India on December 30, 1865. When he was barely six, his parents took him to England and left him at a foster home at Southsea. After five years there, he was shipped off to a boarding school, a rough one, with lousy food, teasing, bullying, beating and other cruelties. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

Kipling also wrote lots of poetry: If, Gunga Din, and Mandalay. His poetry often told a story using rhyming couplets and have been set to music many times over the years showing up in jazz, ragtime, swing, pop, folk, and country music. Frank Sinatra adapted and performed the poem Mandalay.

Poetry Challenge #276

Just So Kipling

Write a narrative poem—one that tells a story—using rhyming couplets. Think of a famous person, place, or historical event and tell a story about it.

Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes

Start Writing!

Don’t Think About it, WRITE IT!

Below is your reward—a Video of Frank Sinatra singing Mandalay (the version of which was evidently banned in England because Kipling’s relatives objected to it.

Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2500+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. 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.

Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):

All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .

Kelly Bennett 12/23/22 Kelly Bennett 12/23/22

Fin Pal asks Norman Fishy Christmas Jokes!

Happy Holidays! We have presents for you!