My favorite is your caption on the photo. I can see the Dipper composing her poem and the long verse left by someone like Coyote along the far shore. Katawasisin! (I'm hoping that's how to say "It is beautiful" in Cree? Please correct if that's not right.) Miigwech Chris!
January 3, 2025. Thank you for teaching the word "Biboonkeonini." Wintermaker.
Very little snow this winter here in the far northwest corner of Western Washington, but it's supposed to snow tomorrow after many nights of temperatures in the 20s. When there is no cloud cover, I look for Biboonkeonini.
Thank you and miigwech for these lines. Mired in year-end minutiae, heartsore and overwhelmed by current events, I had put aside this post and the previous one for a time when I could properly appreciate them. As usual, they did not disappoint.
I will never tire of reading about the antics of the flickers.
A little late to this one for the same reason as 2025_0121 - ugh. Thank you for sharing as always; sounds like you also finally got some snow this dry, dry winter.
Some in return:
2025.1.2 - I’m both surprised and not to find myself frankly comfy in a medical tube emitting radio waves at my protons.
2025.1.3 - I’m not sure how soothed I feel to hear that my fear is rational, even if its magnitude is not.
2025.1.4 - Crystalline ice spikes on an overcast winter day prove that nature creates beauty in bleak times, too.
2025.1.7 - Finally, a fleeting, freezing blanket of snow to soften winter’s dull brown hues.
2025.1.8 - Three hours straight of virtual meetings and I’m a fried potato the rest of the day.
2025.1.11 - At least when the water heater’s broken, dinner can still be a sumptuous roasted chicken.
2025.1.13 - Giddy and grateful to run at dusk, with a rising full moon in the clear, crisp air of winter.
2025.1.18 - A snow day brings the awe of champagne powder, and the anxiety of cabin fever.
2025.1.21 - When real life is stranger than fiction, the body’s needs are surprisingly simple.
2025.1.25 - In the dim light of the fancy gallery, my inner child and I are in awe at the simple, emotive beauty of a lifetime of art.
2025.1.27 - Nothing like singing tunes of resilience in a room of friends and strangers as a sort of group therapy.
2025.1.29 - Sometimes playing the long game means taking easy days.
2025.1.31 - Fresh sopapillas dipped in strong coffee marks the peak of a simple, analog(ish) day.
2025_0203... The obscene political realm is contaminated by money and power. Money and power attract sociopaths, psychopaths and criminals. "We the People" try to live a good and decent life in spite of the creeps and poseurs at the top. There are thousands of unmitigated pricks, schmucks and asshats out there, manipulating and exploiting for personal gain. The upper echelon are not good people. They have no desire to come clean and tell the truth. You know our government is a crime family when there are too many secrets. Just say NO… over and over… just say “NO!”
Thank you for venturing to cabin turned bookstore on such a windy night. If I were a writer I’d find a more interesting way to describe the wind that night and the way it sounded in the trees around the cabin.
2025_0131: After a sleepless night, struggling to embrace my fears and look calmly into the face of dread, I take a sip of coffee and ponder my next feeble but loving and grateful move.
I finally started a one sentence practice at the beginning of the year!
My favourites from January were:
1/15 - By far, the most enjoyable of multiple interruptions to my sleep: the pleasant weight of a cat on my chest - claws and all.
1/17 - My first baby casually losing her first tooth and dropping it into my hand was unexpected on an otherwise ordinary Friday.
1/29 - Fell in love all over again because of a spreadsheet.
This has made me be really intentional when thinking about my day. I still do my some lines a day journal and write out the basics of what happened, but this gives certain moments (good or bad or funny) a bit more space, which I love. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your sentences. I’ve been doing this since October and it’s helped me through everything. The few minutes in the morning when I write about the day before is sometimes the only “my writing” time I get, depending. So it’s been doubly good for me—both having the time and being forced/encouraged to look for flickers (chickadees in my case) and monitor my own reaction.
'Stupendous winds howl beyond the walls of a little cabin-turned-bookstore in rural Montana where an intrepid crowd of poetry enthusiasts have gathered to close out this endless-seeming month in glorious community.' Of all the things...good, bad and ugly...you mention in this month of sentences, I choose to comment on this one. A call to sanity in these insane times. And to relish the thought that I've signed up for an hour workshop with CMarie is this exact place in April! Until then, I'll remember your glorious community of poets and the howling Montana wind!
You accomplished what the Audubon Society could not. I now accept the name American Dipper, though Water Ouzel is a thousand times more fun to say, and matches the joy that their dipping brings.
I've started my own one-sentence practice this month. Thank you for the inspiration! It is a lot harder than it looks! Here are a few of my favourites, hope you enjoy them:
January 11: Panic as my dog catches a fat mouse and won't let go, fading to unease with the lingering memory of its dark gray fur between her teeth, and a slight, burgeoning pride at how well she's taught herself this new skill in her tenth year.
January 12: Reveling in the rightness of two full days alone with my thoughts in my apartment and my sparse routine.
January 14: High rises frame narrow layers of sky: mostly the heavy almost navy blue chinook cloud, thin strip of sky blue in the waning day, variegated pinks, purples, and yellows crowding close to ground.
January 16: A band of black fur on either side of the round white furred expanse rising and falling; the dog has right-angled herself into a nap on the corner of the couch.
January 17: Scaled a mini ice mountain obscuring the curb to climb down into my the cab of my van: monument to the many melt and freeze cycles since winter started.
January 18: Have I never seen the glorious choreography of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill video until now?
January 24: Some alignment of the stars has brought all these people back into my life and my DMs all at once, but I'm not made for this much communication.
January 29: Change is hard on a dog, and I can't even tell her why I'm moving all the furniture around.
I always try to pick a favorite sentence, if only so you know your efforts at sending these are worth it, they are read, they are enjoyed, they are anxiously awaited and savored. It's always so difficult to pick a favorite though because they all induce emotion and which emotion do I wish to highlight? Today I choose humor:
"2025_0123: Addressing the to do list while working from home is a fool’s errand when the chihuahua embraces the role of obnoxious office manager."
Particularly appreciated the 21st! Trying this practice for the month of February.
Good luck and report back!
My favorite is your caption on the photo. I can see the Dipper composing her poem and the long verse left by someone like Coyote along the far shore. Katawasisin! (I'm hoping that's how to say "It is beautiful" in Cree? Please correct if that's not right.) Miigwech Chris!
I don't know much Cree, but in Anishinaabemowin it would be miikawaadad.
https://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu/main-entry/miikawaadad-vii
Oops! Haha ... I had the wrong flavor of Algonquian!
January 3, 2025. Thank you for teaching the word "Biboonkeonini." Wintermaker.
Very little snow this winter here in the far northwest corner of Western Washington, but it's supposed to snow tomorrow after many nights of temperatures in the 20s. When there is no cloud cover, I look for Biboonkeonini.
We are allegedly about to get a pile of snow too.
Thank you and miigwech for these lines. Mired in year-end minutiae, heartsore and overwhelmed by current events, I had put aside this post and the previous one for a time when I could properly appreciate them. As usual, they did not disappoint.
I will never tire of reading about the antics of the flickers.
The 21st also struck a chord with my own yet shared fears and trepidation's
A little late to this one for the same reason as 2025_0121 - ugh. Thank you for sharing as always; sounds like you also finally got some snow this dry, dry winter.
Some in return:
2025.1.2 - I’m both surprised and not to find myself frankly comfy in a medical tube emitting radio waves at my protons.
2025.1.3 - I’m not sure how soothed I feel to hear that my fear is rational, even if its magnitude is not.
2025.1.4 - Crystalline ice spikes on an overcast winter day prove that nature creates beauty in bleak times, too.
2025.1.7 - Finally, a fleeting, freezing blanket of snow to soften winter’s dull brown hues.
2025.1.8 - Three hours straight of virtual meetings and I’m a fried potato the rest of the day.
2025.1.11 - At least when the water heater’s broken, dinner can still be a sumptuous roasted chicken.
2025.1.13 - Giddy and grateful to run at dusk, with a rising full moon in the clear, crisp air of winter.
2025.1.18 - A snow day brings the awe of champagne powder, and the anxiety of cabin fever.
2025.1.21 - When real life is stranger than fiction, the body’s needs are surprisingly simple.
2025.1.25 - In the dim light of the fancy gallery, my inner child and I are in awe at the simple, emotive beauty of a lifetime of art.
2025.1.27 - Nothing like singing tunes of resilience in a room of friends and strangers as a sort of group therapy.
2025.1.29 - Sometimes playing the long game means taking easy days.
2025.1.31 - Fresh sopapillas dipped in strong coffee marks the peak of a simple, analog(ish) day.
As always, I love your contributions.
Thank you, Chris! This practice is so grounding these days.
2025_0203... The obscene political realm is contaminated by money and power. Money and power attract sociopaths, psychopaths and criminals. "We the People" try to live a good and decent life in spite of the creeps and poseurs at the top. There are thousands of unmitigated pricks, schmucks and asshats out there, manipulating and exploiting for personal gain. The upper echelon are not good people. They have no desire to come clean and tell the truth. You know our government is a crime family when there are too many secrets. Just say NO… over and over… just say “NO!”
Thank you for venturing to cabin turned bookstore on such a windy night. If I were a writer I’d find a more interesting way to describe the wind that night and the way it sounded in the trees around the cabin.
I love that place.
2025_0131: After a sleepless night, struggling to embrace my fears and look calmly into the face of dread, I take a sip of coffee and ponder my next feeble but loving and grateful move.
I finally started a one sentence practice at the beginning of the year!
My favourites from January were:
1/15 - By far, the most enjoyable of multiple interruptions to my sleep: the pleasant weight of a cat on my chest - claws and all.
1/17 - My first baby casually losing her first tooth and dropping it into my hand was unexpected on an otherwise ordinary Friday.
1/29 - Fell in love all over again because of a spreadsheet.
This has made me be really intentional when thinking about my day. I still do my some lines a day journal and write out the basics of what happened, but this gives certain moments (good or bad or funny) a bit more space, which I love. Thank you.
So great. Thank you!
Thanks for the inspiration! Much needed.
Miigwech!
Thank you for sharing your sentences. I’ve been doing this since October and it’s helped me through everything. The few minutes in the morning when I write about the day before is sometimes the only “my writing” time I get, depending. So it’s been doubly good for me—both having the time and being forced/encouraged to look for flickers (chickadees in my case) and monitor my own reaction.
Ah, Chickadees. Plenty of them here too.
'Stupendous winds howl beyond the walls of a little cabin-turned-bookstore in rural Montana where an intrepid crowd of poetry enthusiasts have gathered to close out this endless-seeming month in glorious community.' Of all the things...good, bad and ugly...you mention in this month of sentences, I choose to comment on this one. A call to sanity in these insane times. And to relish the thought that I've signed up for an hour workshop with CMarie is this exact place in April! Until then, I'll remember your glorious community of poets and the howling Montana wind!
I envy your event with CMarie! That will be a good one....
You accomplished what the Audubon Society could not. I now accept the name American Dipper, though Water Ouzel is a thousand times more fun to say, and matches the joy that their dipping brings.
I think I learned them as dippers first which is probably why I lean that direction.
I've started my own one-sentence practice this month. Thank you for the inspiration! It is a lot harder than it looks! Here are a few of my favourites, hope you enjoy them:
January 11: Panic as my dog catches a fat mouse and won't let go, fading to unease with the lingering memory of its dark gray fur between her teeth, and a slight, burgeoning pride at how well she's taught herself this new skill in her tenth year.
January 12: Reveling in the rightness of two full days alone with my thoughts in my apartment and my sparse routine.
January 14: High rises frame narrow layers of sky: mostly the heavy almost navy blue chinook cloud, thin strip of sky blue in the waning day, variegated pinks, purples, and yellows crowding close to ground.
January 16: A band of black fur on either side of the round white furred expanse rising and falling; the dog has right-angled herself into a nap on the corner of the couch.
January 17: Scaled a mini ice mountain obscuring the curb to climb down into my the cab of my van: monument to the many melt and freeze cycles since winter started.
January 18: Have I never seen the glorious choreography of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill video until now?
January 24: Some alignment of the stars has brought all these people back into my life and my DMs all at once, but I'm not made for this much communication.
January 29: Change is hard on a dog, and I can't even tell her why I'm moving all the furniture around.
These are perfect!
I always try to pick a favorite sentence, if only so you know your efforts at sending these are worth it, they are read, they are enjoyed, they are anxiously awaited and savored. It's always so difficult to pick a favorite though because they all induce emotion and which emotion do I wish to highlight? Today I choose humor:
"2025_0123: Addressing the to do list while working from home is a fool’s errand when the chihuahua embraces the role of obnoxious office manager."
Thank you for these, Chris.
Thank you for reading, Sunday!