Looking Skyward Kind of Week
So we spent the a couple of nights this week looking skyward, and am since then nursing a crink in my neck!! You are wondering why, right? I was trying to catch a glimpse of the Comet Neowise that was supposed to be visible with its peak on the 23rd. And the thing is, if we miss it now, there is no way we can catch it on its next journey – that next time is 6800 years away!
Did I see it? Unfortunately no.. looks like we should have driven to a place with less light pollution, but that was going to be a little difficult anyways..
But there is a positive side to this; I ended up looking at other things in the night sky instead. I have been enjoying looking at Jupiter each night (and Saturn sometimes) in the night sky (sans telescope). And according to the sources that are on the WWW, if we stay up late enough or wake up really early, we could also have a look at Mars.
What about you, dear reader? Do you spend time looking skyward? And did you catch any falling stars if you did?!
Poetic Sundays
The Forms so Far
- Eintou
- Pregunta
- Kenning
- Gnomic Poem
- Magic 9
- Balassi Stanza
- Alphacouplet
- Limerick
- The Harrisham Rhyme
- Concrete Poetry and the Loop
- ZaniLa
- Slam Poetry
- Triveni
- The Luc Bat
- Copla de Pie Quebrado
- Sijo
The Quinzaine
A little bit of French flair for you today with the quinzaine!
What is the Quinzaine?
A quinzaine is an unrhymed verse of fifteen syllables. The word comes from the French word quinze, meaning fifteen. The syllables are distributed over three lines so that there are seven syllables in the first line, five in the second line, and three in the third line (7/5/3). The first line makes a statement. The next two lines ask a question relating to that statement.
The quinzaine’s characteristics:
- a tristich (ie a poem/verse of three lines)
- unrhymed
- syllabic: 3 lines in length, 15 syllables overall
- syllable pattern by line: Line 1: seven syllables; Line 2: five syllables; Line 3: three syllables (7/5/3)
- and the lines themselves: Line 1 makes a statement; while lines 2 and 3 ask a question (or two) related to the statement in line one.
So the basic structure of the sijo:
Line 1: 7 syllables (a statement)
Line 2: 5 syllables (question or part of a question related to the statement)
Line 3: 3 syllables (question or part of a question related to the statement)
h/t: ShadowPoetry
My Example
Here is my first draft, inspired by, well, the current times.. (or …)
Frozen in Time
Time waits for no man, they say
Didn’t time just freeze?
Didn’t it?
-vidya (ladyinread)
Last Week On My Blog and Home-front
So I biked this week, after a really long time (don’t ask me how long!) And it was easier than I expected (it turned out to be hotter than expected too!) I started off small and biked about 3.5 miles, and hope to do more each time.
And as I already mentioned, spent time looking skyward and enjoying the night sky.
I did manage to blog everyday again; and did manage to get a non book-review/book-list post in this week with the post about the Gutenberg sculpture I saw at the NYPL last summer.
My Most Recent Posts
My posts from last week:
- Ten Terrific Books Featuring Tigers
- Book Review: Holes
- Travel Thursday – Travels in a Flying Car – Book Review
- A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
- 10 Fun Facts About Books
- Book Review: Someday Is Now
- Sunday Scribblings #40: Looking Forward
Elsewhere
Again, I forgot to bookmark articles this week but these are the ones I recalled first
- Enjoy delightful Lia’s story time in this post about her Reflection Garden
- Check out Cindy’s cool post about those creativity bones each of us has
- And if you love Disney theme park food, Nicole has the solution for you with over 40 Copycat Disney Park Recipes
- I enjoyed visiting these bookstores in Paris with Deb as she took her readers on a literary (literally!) journey with this post
MyPhotoADay
My bookstagram attempts
ONE
TWO
And the others
ONE
TWO
Upcoming
On My Blog and Home-front
For the first time in many weeks, I know which reviews I am going to post for most of the days. The harder part is writing them up on time 🙂
And I will spend some more time looking skyward as we explore the night sky.
This Week’s Celebrations
Let us get the food related ones first, shall we?
- Two of my favorite desserts (that I discovered and grew to totally love as an adult) are having their own celebrations this week. Which means I have to figure out how to include them in my menu 🙂 These two are National Creme Brulee Day on the 27th and National Cheesecake Day on the 30th!!
- Next up, is a standard favorite maybe across the world; it is National Milk Chocolate Day on the 28th of July
- With National Lasagna Day coming up on the 29th of July, I am reminded that it has been a while since we made (and had) lasagna at home.
- And a family as well as California favorite (I guess), it is National Avocado Day on the 31st of July. Our every grocery trip invariably includes this fruit..
And then, the non-food related celebrations:
- Celebrate the fact that Love is Kind on the 27th of July with National Love is Kind Day. Treat others kindly and with love, and expect to be treated with kindness as well.
- National Get Gnarly Day is certainly a unique celebration; and not as negative as it sounds at all. Check out the link for more info and how to celebrate.
- As I mentioned in my previous post, it is International Tiger Day on the 29th of July
- And it is always the day to celebrate friendship, but we also have July 30th which is the International Day of Friendship; this was “proclaimed in 2011 by the UN General Assembly with the idea that friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities. “
Wrapping up my Sunday Scribblings
So dear reader, this was it for my Sunday Scribblings. I would love to hear your comments on my post(s), poems, poetic Sunday section, and anything else. And which of these days do you plan to celebrate (or any other)?
Linking this to the Sunday Post over at the Caffeinated Reviewer and the Sunday Salon.
Linking up to the Ultimate Blog Challenge
For previous posts, click on the links below:
Day_1 Day_2 Day_3 Day_4 Day_5 Day_6 Day_7 Day_8 Day_9 Day_10 Day_11 Day_12 Day_13 Day_14 Day_15 Day_16 Day_17 Day_18 Day_19 Day_20 Day_21 Day_22 Day_23 Day_24 Day_25
I didn’t even try to take a look at the comet. We are getting a lot of Saharan dust coming through here right now, and I was pretty sure it would be an impossible task.
I need to get my bike out. I miss riding.
One of the things I’d like to try baking is cheesecake. I suppose I need to get a springform pan first, though.
You blogged every day last week…now that’s a good week.
There is a great app where if you put your phone up to the sky it tells you what you are seeing (using GPS) , my kids used to love it.
Wishing you a great reading week