Tabatha Yeatts of The Opposite of Indifference is our lovely and thoughtful host today for Poetry Friday. She's sharing an original poem giving advice during this challenging time using the most caring words. You will love it!
I have written that during this time I have been, am, scattered. This results in a flitting from thing to thing, asking myself, what next? before I've even finished the current task.
Thus,
a Dictionary online defines ‘scrap’ as “a small piece or amount of something, especially one that is left over after the greater part has been used. You can see from my hasty collage what is taking my time. I've written notes on the wonderful notecards from Robyn Hood Black. I've done a bit of inventory work at the bookstore, carrying along my Clorox wipes. I'm reading from Irene Latham's and Charles Waters' new Dictionary, reading Internment (apt perhaps?), reading Cosy, a bit of joy, enjoying lessons from Peanuts and Tuffy, The Tugboat (read that page), and of course the New Yorker. And I'm walking to find nature's gifts. I'm fortunate that I can be home, but so often wish I was elsewhere!
Scraps – Now That The Greater Part Has Been Used
S o I’m trying hard to find some
C ogent argument to stay on a schedule.
R ealistically, the idiom “all the time in the world”
A t last, seems like a gift, does it not?
P lease don’t expect much production, however.
S cattered motions from task to task only fill hours of empty.
Linda Baie ©
Best of my wishes to each of you during this sad time in our history. There are moments of celebrating humans who are doing good and I am so grateful for them.
Such an interesting collage of scraps, certainly telling of our times. The lines about the idiom "all the time in the world" punctuates what I think we are all feeling and wondering. And of course, I love that quilt as the background! I am sharing this slice I came across earlier this evening because it goes wih your title-scraps, and I know how much you will enjoy this story. https://jpnault.wordpress.com/2020/03/26/a-mothers-legacy/
ReplyDeleteThanks, Leigh Anne, I'll be sure to check out your friend's link! The tablecloth, FYI, is an older one from family, now used as a tablecloth. Best wishes to you & your family!
DeleteYou do make me feel better about the time I feel I have wasted checking things on the internet. And watching funny videos! (Oh there have been some GOOD funny moments going around the internet and don't we need them!) Your acrostic is wonderfully well crafted - but that final line is what really resonates with me. Take care, Linda. And keep collecting scraps. xx
ReplyDeleteYes, I didn't mention the times I've found lots of smiles on the internet, Kat, & some heartwarming ones, too, like orchestras playing "Ode to Joy" - separately but so beautifully together! And I've loved the poems from you on Instagram! Thank you, and best wishes to you!
DeleteYes, I know what you mean, Linda (I mentioned being scattered earlier this week). It's a challenge to focus when part of your brain is always preoccupied. Deadlines, like Poetry Friday or dogs who insist on going out, are helpful!
ReplyDeleteTasks I 'must' do are a help for sure, Tabatha. It might be good to make more of them a 'must'! Thanks!
DeleteWow. You nailed the feeling of it all. Yes....busy....productive? Maybe not so much. I keep thinking tomorrow, I'll follow my schedule. What an acute analysis of this last week in poetry. My fingers are snapping!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Linda, and I agree that the thought of 'tomorrow most likely' comes up often.
DeleteDear Linda -- scraps and scattered... yes! I can relate! Thanks to all this anxiety, grief, uncertainty... and yet we must keep trying because really it is creativity that will help save us. Thank you! And thank you for including DICTIONARY in your scraps, too. xo
ReplyDeleteTurning to a page or two in Dictionary for A Better World has been a respite during the days, Irene. Yes, keep trying to make the moments good is the way to be. Thanks much!
DeleteYes, I know that feeling. It's so hard to focus on anything.
ReplyDeleteI agree, need to slowly get back to one thing at a time! Thanks, Liz!
DeleteYes, totally agree!! Very hard to focus and concentrate on much of anything. Love your collage and poem, Linda -- it's nice to see what you're up to. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jama. Bit by bit, finding things to fill up the time is often good, but the days are long for sure!
DeleteI love this poem and your wonderful collage. You've really captured what my life has been life for the last two weeks without my usual schedule. I keep a puzzle going so when I feel unfocused, I go work on it for a while. The hope is that this will pass - my Kiddo in China no longer lives in her N95 mask.
ReplyDeleteLOL - I voted for Andrew Cuomo because I thought he was better than the alternative. Now, I look forward to his press briefing everyday. Strange how life can be.
Oh Alex, If I knew, I had forgotten that you had a kid in China. I'm glad that you have good news! I have a former student who's been teaching there & was caught in New Zealand on vacation so had to come back here to the U.S. She is so sad. Glad to hear your thoughts on Cuomo. Yes, strange is the way right now! Hoping for better soon! Thanks!
DeleteYou are not alone. I feel scattered. The only given is a morning walk and food, snacking more than usual. And I live for FaceTime with grand babies.
ReplyDeleteI imagine FaceTime is a saving grace for so many right now. I haven't done that, but am seeing the girls from afar, & phone calls. Thanks, Margaret!
DeleteI like being able to peek in on the different books that are sharing your time Linda. In my post I shared one of the books I've been reading, "An American Sunrise" by Joy Harjo, but I've also needed some lighter reading in between and started reading "The Phoenix and the Carpet" by E. Nesbitt, which in addition to the rollicking story has beautifully crafted ink illustrations. I picked it up last summer at the Newberry Library's book sale. Maybe I'll share it next week with another very, very old and special book I got there. There's much more than scraps in your acrostic "Scraps – Now That The Greater Part Has Been Used" poem. Sending hugs and wishes to keep safe, sane, and well, xo.
ReplyDeleteWe should have a book sharing for sure, Michelle! I bookmarked yours, and really am reading others, too, "scraps" from them just like I wrote! Thanks for your loving wishes, it's good to read them & hear from so many today. Best to you as well! And thanks, too.
DeleteOh, I know that scattered feeling, Linda! (It's what keeps me up at night.) It seems like it's been helpful to you to pull those scraps together in a collage and poem. Perhaps I should try that too.
ReplyDeleteYes, focusing on what "must be" does help. It's the other hours that I find somewhat aimless, Michelle. I hope you do write a 'scraps' poem! Thanks & best to you & your family!
DeleteI can relate to that scattered feeling. I've finally come to find peace in not worrying about tackling large projects during this gift of time at home, but just to take each moment as it comes and to enjoy not feeling rushed. I love your creativity in creating something beautiful in your poem from the scraps of your day.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kay, I think each of us needs to find what makes sense to us! I just talked with my brother who said he has re-done a ceiling that has needed it for a while! Maybe a 'scrap' but seems huge to me!
DeleteThank you, Linda, for putting this feeling into words. Scattered is brilliant. I flit from thing to thing, in more of a rush than usual, which is ridiculous. Maybe the sense that we need to be "ready" for something ... something finite and serious... is what is at the base of it. Just a guess. At any rate, I have been doing the same things... read a bit here, clean a bit there, do a little lawnwork, play piano a little. Everything "a little." Two things I could focus on: on a good cool day I pruned some bushes. On Thursday night I put together my blog post. Otherwise, no schedule, just a lot of flitting. But... it's okay. And today, joy of joys, my grands called and we talked for over an hour. Wonderful. Thanks for this lovely post...
ReplyDeleteAnd hearing about your call with the grands is the best, I agree, Karen. I just talked with my brother, a lovely thing to keep in touch via the phone along with sharing on FB or ? You may be right about that "getting ready", "preparing", and the worrying thing is we don't know for what. Thanks, you wise woman!
DeleteLove the Chlorox wipes in the midst of your collage. That is telling, Linda. My husband was so proud when he walked in the door with a package of 5 wipe containers. It is the little things that make us happy these days, isn't it it? A wonderful line for us to ponder and agree with: "Scattered motions from task to task only fill hours of empty." Stay safe, my faraway friend.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Carol, love the proud moment that may never before have happened without this strange time in our lives. Wishing you good health in all your family, Carol.
DeleteI so identify with your phrase "scattered motions." I made a to-do list on Tuesday that I didn't finish until today. But without that list, it would have taken even longer. I like your line: "Please don't expect much production." One project completed this week, maybe I'll just try for one a week. It's definitely a time to offer grace to ourselves and others.
ReplyDeleteWell, you know I agree. Setting too many goals will result in disappointment. It simply isn't going to work, at least in the near future. Best to you & the family, Ramona. Thanks for coming by.
DeleteYes, to echo the many other comments, I'm prone to 'scattered motions' here, too, Linda. We truly all are in this together apart. I love checking in you with and seeing your eclectic passions. You make me smile. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bridget, & I love seeing what's happening with you & yours. Wishing you continuing good health & connecting!
DeleteAmen to the scraps! I am working on my lesson plans for next week, and constantly reminding myself that my students will be similarly distracted and unable to focus. I hope to provide them with some normalcy of routine and work...but not overwhelm them (or me).
ReplyDeleteThe grand-girls have been doing great with their Mom as teacher & start some class interaction this coming week. They are anxious about it, but we'll see if it goes well. I admire you & all the teachers so much. It must be terrible hard to choose what will work with all. Best wishes, Mary Lee!
DeleteWow, Linda, you have really reached into so much truth. I wonder at the end of my day what have I done but I am busy all day long. Lots of catching up, writing, emails, phone calls, connecting and our nightly Skype visits that last a good long time but seem to speed by. Keeping track of groceries so we have enough but not to much. I do online orders now and that is tricky because you never know what they will have in stock when your shopper is at work. But to stay safe and isolated it is what it is. I am grateful for the health of loved ones and friends and devastated for all those who are sick, dying, helping on the front lines, trying to make it all work and pray constantly for help for all of us. We will prevail and learn. It is like having our own old-fashioned time like my mother and aunts and grandmother talke about, maybe yours, too. But now we have better meds when they are available eventually, internet, smart phones and so much more of comfort. But maybe we can find that we can exist with so much less. I find it interesting to see the walkers. There are more of them and that is good. And I think people around me at least are being nicer. My hear breaks though so doing the creative tasks I need to do seem to work for a while and then, well, who knows if I can get it done. ALmost there but not good ending etc. All the lines pretty good except for a couple and I feel stymied. Also sleeping is not great. So SCRAPS.....VIRUS NEWS The worst scare, calculatingly ripping every avenue. Parsing security. But we will prevail. And be stronger and I guess it is akin to what I was told when I retired by a friend who had stopped teaching a few years before. She said it took her two years to adjust to the schedule of her new normal. And we don't know when we are switching back. Sending hugs. Janet Clare F.
ReplyDeleteOh, Janet, yes, I expect that some of this is like our grandmothers except they had those front-porch visits. Everyone is rather neighborly as I go walking, but we do stay apart and here in Colorado we are not supposed to even leave our neighborhood. I'm both glad & sorry that you understand about the "scraps". Our lives are changing & I am not sure they will return to the same, perhaps some things will be better, but for many, heartbreaking to think they will be lost. Thanks much for coming by to read & comment. And keep in touch!
DeleteI am hopelessly in love with scraps, fragments, hints and pieces... of COURSE you are a kindred spirit, my scrappy friend. :0) Thanks for sharing these glimpses into some of your endeavors and for providing comfort in the form of company for many of us feeling a bit unmoored in these unprecedented days.
ReplyDeleteHa! I imagine your studio full of wonderful 'scraps', perhaps artistic ephemera is a better word. You're welcome to the comfort, hoping we all receive goodness in these needful times. Thanks, Robyn!
DeleteThank you for this post, Linda. As many others have said, you've captured exactly how I've been feeling. Trying to navigate the new world of online teaching while trying not to let fear overwhelm me has been challenging. Thank goodness our virtual community can continue to bring comfort and support. Be well!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Catherine, I am most kin to what teachers must be struggling with these strange days, wishing you my best wishes. I'm glad to bring a bit of comfort and I gain it back double-fold every Friday.
DeleteWhat a wonderful idea around which to build a poem, Linda! I think we are all feeling scattered - its just plain hard to focus on even the most simple of tasks. Take good care of yourself.
ReplyDeleteHoping you, too, are taking care, Tara. It felt like a 'needed' poem, my feelings shown. Thanks!
DeleteYou capture how so many of us are feeling. Our normal routines have been scrapped, and we're collaging together what we can to fill our days, keep children learning, and stay safe.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Laura, every day a new day, so much unexpected, is something new to us. I am blessed with being able to stay at home, want to help others as much as I can, those in dire need.
Delete