Thank you oh “uninspired” one for such sublime delights for us to savour awhile.
I do agree there are seasonal patterns to our poetic inspiration. Maybe our muses go on a long summer vacation.
I enjoyed reading this posts. Thank you
It mostly the end of Summer to me. August and September are always the worst months of every year, I find. Summers in Portugal start early and are very large, and one gets tired of the same sensory values, temperatures and patterns for six months, and these are essential to creativity.
Most people prefer our Mediterranean weather to most, though, so I shouldn’t complain.
I can very well imagine how the lengthy period of buzzing activity would be draining.
Here in wet and rainy and verdant East Devon UK we have hordes of summer visitors April-September, in the hundreds of thousands, which is a lot for a small area. We are grateful for the wealth they bring to the local economy and we heave a sigh of relief when the last of them depart.
The Mediterranean weather that I have enjoyed, including in beautiful Portugal, is a joy, but can be challenging, with the oppressive unrelenting heat too. Wherever we are there are upsides and down.
Truly. We have influence from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and the Northern African; it’s such a strange little crucible of weather. We can have intensely dry summers and incredibly humid winters.
And we also have a huge tourism culture largely because of this perfect-for-a-week-or-two weather. It only starts to wear you down if you stay here for long.
I hope you enjoyed visiting us!
That’s precisely the term: dryness. Today, even the air is hot in Portugal. Everything feels placid, dry, surviving.
I yearn for Autumn to rend this leeching heat.
We only have October and November as Autumn-proper, but I love it. Live beings to feel like life again, and one starts to leave the haze of warmth and quiescence.
As always, Ellie, it’s equally dream-like to have you here. You’re like a Summer, though not the extenuating kind. The free kind.
Autumn so often feels more like spring to me than spring!!
Thank you João-Maria. I am smiling to hear so. I will contentedly be the free kind of summer. 😊
Cognition is energy, and energy is power, and power is transfiguration. To exist is to change. Goodness, though, is not something I can qualify. I always hope to pass something on: information or inspiration. That’s all the goodness I think that I can aspire.
Yes – I’m okay thanks João-Maria – a bit frazzled but okay! Don’t worry about emailing me! Goodness – I was not expecting it. It would be easier for me to text the odd thing but my cellphone doesn’t have coverage in this (mostly pleasant) landscape hole I live in! Don’t let the long summer wear you too thin. It’s raining here at present and the sound of rain on my roof (in the dark) is most comforting!
I received the translation link and have visited it. Is the dog better now?
And I do envy the pleasantry of your landscape hole. To live somewhat removed is to have an unappreciatable peace.
I’ve received maximum marks on English and near maximum in Literary Criticism (188 out of 200, which isn’t great but isn’t bad). Now I’m just convalescing, of everything, school, work, poetry, literature, friends. Sometimes one needs a break, a recharge.
And I always forget, it’s Winter over there now, right? You Southern Hemispherners have it best.
The dog is creeping towards managing (i hope – thanks). Congrats on those marks! If I got 188 out of 200 for anything I’d have a celebrating meal (pork sausages and ice cream). I’m getting ready for a break too. My posting today is my all-time favourite – I have no idea why! Enjoy doing what Richard III called “a glorious summer”!
Ja, die verse!
Wenn ich direkt schreibe, sehen sie schlecht aus.
You see those verses with a bit of indentation? WordPress doesn’t allow that, for some god forsaken reason. Since I don’t want to put up with the absurd Vordpreß line formatting, I just export as PNG from PDF and that’s that.
What the heck?! You can speak German?! XD
Yeah, especially since they changed it to the Gutenberg editor convenient features have disappeared. But indentation has never been possible here as far as I remember.
I’m learning now, because I’m gonna have it next semester in University, and I’m a bit obsessed with good results.
The thing is, unlike everyone else, I don’t really hate the Block Editor. I just abhor the primitive text editing, that’s it. Everything from indents to fonts to linespaces is just cranky and unnecessary unresponsive.
If it wasn’t for the community, we’d all be better off in some other website platform tbh.
Yeah, I used to hate it, but now got kinda used to it, as with most things lol.
True, but from all the other platforms I’ve tried, WP is still the most responsive and convenient platform. I really don’t understand why people aren’t able to make things properly 🤷♀️ Maybe I should make it XD
Please do!
I think it’s because of this trend of general compatibility. Everything is made with the computer and phone and TV and tablet and VR and Google SpecsTM and Android APIs and whatnot. Ten more years and all our websites will be a simple block of text snapped to the left. Can’t even justify our shit anymore.
Right? Not being able to justify anymore was the first thing that pissed me off when they switched to the Gutenberg editor. Maybe traditional websites won’t even exist anymore in 10 years XD Everything will be apps or something XD
I’ve discovered WordPress doesn’t indent, too. It’s really done a disservice to some of my poems. Loved your first poem. Joao-Maria, do I understand correctly that you are now a student? From our interchanges you strike me as brilliant and learned. Having spent 14 years in post-secondary schools, I commend the way of school. Were the little plastic sincerities from the church?
Salut, David, and excuse the latency.
I am a student, though I’m not much of brilliant and learned. I have excellent grades, of course, but that is mostly diligence and steadfastness rather than brilliance of any kind, though such terms are hard to gauge or measure.
I’m not an academic, however, so I’m not truly in the way of the school yet, and I do not think I’ll be one. I’d like to be a translator of some sort, literary or technical, and hopefully write for the passion.
The church allusion is rather curious: there was this church where I grew up, a small village of 200 or so, and to have some sort of mythologically glamorous “scala santa”, the entire church complex was raised from the ground as to justify a flight of steps in front of it.
In doing that, the back portion of the church had this abrupt ravine right into a small tributary stream that ran by, and when we were kids, we were too bored by the liturgies to spend a lot of time inside, so we would leave and play by that ravine, where sometimes we would lose our toys and plushies into the river.
Later on, when I was a bit bigger, I discovered that some block downwards there was a really small flight of stairs into the rivulet, and the place was full of old, rotten toys, and it sort of a crystal in time. I don’t know if this is of any interest to you, but that little alcove of abandoned toys is a safe space in my mind, I suppose, a shelter from the storm of my mind, sometimes. (It has thus very little to do with the actual church, haha)
I sometimes post as a picture file for this very reason, otherwise it takes forever and often doesn’t save if I want a different layout to the norm. I like calligrams too, I think writers should have freedom beyond the basics as the aesthetics are all part of the art.
Now, WP unfollowed me from you. This is a common outrage I, and a few others, have to deal with. It infuriates me because my memory is very poor and so some time can pass before I notice someone is missing. If I ever appear to have unfollowed you be sure I haven’t, if there was some reason I would do (I can’t imagine what, killing kittens live or something) I’d tell you. I’ve had people very sad thinking I’ve left when I haven’t which is a shame.
It’s interesting to me that your inspiration flees in summer, the monotony of damp drizzle and cold tends to be my Achilles’ heel, but that is likely due to the length of time I have to endure it. The sun is as a God to me, and lightens my whole being, I can fly when I wake up and see its rays beaming down. It is happiness incarnate to Esme, however, autumn is incredibly beautiful and evokes a different kind of inspiration. Spring is vigor. Winter can bugger off. January is terrible like the Dementors from Harry Potter books.
I’d never guess you were feeling dry reading this; 68! That’s my favourite part but it is, as ever quite superb as a whole. The only drawback for me as a commenter is I can’t copy and paste parts I particularly like and go on about them with picture text. I still manage to go on a bit mind, as you can see.
– Esme Cloud not packing her bags anytime soon so far as João-Maria is concerned
Don’t worry, Esme! I cannot keep track of who follows me even if I wanted to. I barely have time to post these days. And I’d never take it poorly, though I would be puzzled.
I do not know whence you hail, though knowing of your vaporous form, the answer is likely to be along the Great Britannic Isles, where rain is day and sun is sanctity. I do not envy you completely, as I do ever so appreciate the sunlight, and my complexion quite requires it. I’m your typical olive-skinned Mediterranean, and without sun, I become the color of a ghost made of wood. A sort of hyalescent brown. Rather odd.
The emeraldrine verdness of your islands, though, and your chalk cliffs and thick, fertile groves and undergrowth, especially those of the North, from about Yorkshire to Sunderland and of course the illimitable beauty of the Scottish Highlands, I love it all. The only place I don’t enjoy is East Anglia. It feels more like a French “plaine” than a part of the isles, especially with the maritime erosion of the last couple of centuries.
Alas, I digress. I find joy in every season; joy and inspiration. But Summers in Portugal can be as long as seven months, as is the case this year, and after a while it’s just… exhausting. The only thing still soothing to me are the cicadas, and that’s only because I love them so.
Thank you for your compliments, dear Esme. It also saddens me a bit that one can’t copy and paste it. I used to include verse numerology for that reason, though people tended not to use it. I suppose everyone will have to laud the entire compositions instead of just parts of it. It’s a price I must pay.
And I’m happy that you’re sticking about, even though I know you only come around once in a while. After all, cloudy days are very rare here in Portugal.
I have to admit though, hot summers do make me yearn for the first frosts. Ah well, it’s this imbalance keeps us going, rolling on. Dissatisfaction as the heart of creativity? Who knows.
Keep yourselves safe.
Thank you, Michael. The rarity of your comments adds to their warming weight. I’m glad I’m not boring to you, though I’d imagine that’s not a quality of many!
And yes, the magical equilibrium. Life brands itself most living in the middles, the co’s and ‘shafts. But poetry, I think, is very antipodal. Expression is force and force is extreme.
Haha, Basilike! I meant in terms of volume. I’m publishing a lot less than I tend to. You know how our Summers are. It can be really tiring just to exist in a dense, hot Mediterranean day (unless it’s by the beach).
Absolutely. That’s the issue, you don’t feel like doing much that is productive, but life is not worse because of it, haha. It’s rather the opposite, I find.
Yes indeed I truly can imagine it. It seems to be similar all around the Mediterranean sea. A challenging part of the world in which to live and work all year round, year in year out. The Saharan heat has migrated as far as here in recent days and folk are struggling, especially with masks being compulsory in many places including places of work. But it must be many times worse where you are. And our milder struggles will soon pass. I hope you all have air conditioning and access to plenty of cool drinking water.
Yes I most certainly did enjoy visiting you. The country is so beautiful. The people are gracious and welcoming. I love the language. The scenery inland and coastal is a delight. The food is delicious, so many mouthwatering fish dishes. The historical sights and churches and cathedrals were wonderful to visit. I’m glad I got there.
Oh, that makes me so happy!
I’m glad you enjoyed our country. I feel that despite our boom in later years concerning tourism, we are still wildly underappreciated (and underdeveloped, or developed in the wrong areas).
Portugal is a beautiful country with a weird history as the “meh” of historical monarchic Europe. Though I think we are unexceptional in many regards, I also believe we are perfect in others, especially our peacefulness, relative isolation and beautiful climate.
I’m very glad that you enjoyed us.
I totally echo these sentiments of yours. Here in the UK the widely held perception is that Portugal is an outstandingly beautiful and interesting place to visit and that the Portuguese people are gracious friendly and welcoming. I have a Portuguese work colleague and friend and you couldn’t wish for a more wonderful person.
Joao-Maria, I didn’t struggle with these fragments, just let them wash over me and enjoyed the flow of the beautifully-turned phrases. I won’t be so lazy next time! I’m just a little overwhelmed. I will limit my blogging interactions in the future. One incident that helped me to decide that it was time is below:
Yesterday, some maniac sent me 75 separate posts of excerpts from a book! They were mingled in with other posts. It was a very interesting book about culture and history and philosophy, but a logistical nightmare for me! I wondered if it was a book checked out from some prison library! Haha. He won’t be returning.
In the US, we call this time of year,” the dog days of summer.” Inspiration will undoubtedly return when it is cooler. All the best! Cheryl
Oh, thank you so much, Cheryl. And I know exactly who sent you those posts. I was lucky enough to have him flagged as spam by WordPress before his emails went through.
I’m all too privy to the need of a break from time to time. Sometimes it isn’t the Art or the Craft, but the people, that can exhaust us a bit, and that’s not something mean-spirited to say; people are very high-energy things. Even when they are just bunches of data on a website.
I hope your limiting of interactions allows you to recharge good-and-well, so you may return an even brighter sun-ray.
Thank you so much for coming by!
Hi Joao-Maria, I don’t know if this reply to your reply to my comment will get through after all this time. I just wanted to say I’m glad the little plastic sincerities are children’s toys and a safe space and not platitudes from the clergy or congregation.
I do not know the reality of clergy or congregation, and though I’m sure it mustn’t be invulnerable to opprobrium, as everything else isn’t, I’m not the right person to launch that sort of light.
Though one must be wary as to not wax all opinions on religion as platitudinal, lest we forget that platitude is one of the pylons of religious dogma, which is why I have compositions on spirituality but none on religion; no absolute texture lends itself to creativity.
(CALIATH) 
Thank you oh “uninspired” one for such sublime delights for us to savour awhile.
I do agree there are seasonal patterns to our poetic inspiration. Maybe our muses go on a long summer vacation.
I enjoyed reading this posts. Thank you
LikeLiked by 4 people
It mostly the end of Summer to me. August and September are always the worst months of every year, I find. Summers in Portugal start early and are very large, and one gets tired of the same sensory values, temperatures and patterns for six months, and these are essential to creativity.
Most people prefer our Mediterranean weather to most, though, so I shouldn’t complain.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can very well imagine how the lengthy period of buzzing activity would be draining.
Here in wet and rainy and verdant East Devon UK we have hordes of summer visitors April-September, in the hundreds of thousands, which is a lot for a small area. We are grateful for the wealth they bring to the local economy and we heave a sigh of relief when the last of them depart.
The Mediterranean weather that I have enjoyed, including in beautiful Portugal, is a joy, but can be challenging, with the oppressive unrelenting heat too. Wherever we are there are upsides and down.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Truly. We have influence from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and the Northern African; it’s such a strange little crucible of weather. We can have intensely dry summers and incredibly humid winters.
And we also have a huge tourism culture largely because of this perfect-for-a-week-or-two weather. It only starts to wear you down if you stay here for long.
I hope you enjoyed visiting us!
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I understand the dryness of this time of the year. It’s like that for me too. Take care 🌷
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That’s precisely the term: dryness. Today, even the air is hot in Portugal. Everything feels placid, dry, surviving.
I yearn for Autumn to rend this leeching heat.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s that way for me too here in Texas. Autumn is by far my favorite season.
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We only have October and November as Autumn-proper, but I love it. Live beings to feel like life again, and one starts to leave the haze of warmth and quiescence.
As always, Ellie, it’s equally dream-like to have you here. You’re like a Summer, though not the extenuating kind. The free kind.
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Autumn so often feels more like spring to me than spring!!
Thank you João-Maria. I am smiling to hear so. I will contentedly be the free kind of summer. 😊
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Poetry. The endurable spirit cartographies.
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Lack of curiosity is lack of life. Willingness is something else entirely.
Thank you, Yuri. I’m happy you that like my little things!
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Thoughts have energy so we must use them for the good of all.
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Cognition is energy, and energy is power, and power is transfiguration. To exist is to change. Goodness, though, is not something I can qualify. I always hope to pass something on: information or inspiration. That’s all the goodness I think that I can aspire.
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Perfectly stated.
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#67 rang the truest and hauntingest for me.
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Nothing is more haunting than a great prospect of nothingness, right?
I’ve been meaning to e-mail you, Bruce. Haven’t been in a bodily mindset. Are you okay?
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Yes – I’m okay thanks João-Maria – a bit frazzled but okay! Don’t worry about emailing me! Goodness – I was not expecting it. It would be easier for me to text the odd thing but my cellphone doesn’t have coverage in this (mostly pleasant) landscape hole I live in! Don’t let the long summer wear you too thin. It’s raining here at present and the sound of rain on my roof (in the dark) is most comforting!
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I received the translation link and have visited it. Is the dog better now?
And I do envy the pleasantry of your landscape hole. To live somewhat removed is to have an unappreciatable peace.
I’ve received maximum marks on English and near maximum in Literary Criticism (188 out of 200, which isn’t great but isn’t bad). Now I’m just convalescing, of everything, school, work, poetry, literature, friends. Sometimes one needs a break, a recharge.
And I always forget, it’s Winter over there now, right? You Southern Hemispherners have it best.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The dog is creeping towards managing (i hope – thanks). Congrats on those marks! If I got 188 out of 200 for anything I’d have a celebrating meal (pork sausages and ice cream). I’m getting ready for a break too. My posting today is my all-time favourite – I have no idea why! Enjoy doing what Richard III called “a glorious summer”!
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Wonderful thoughts and poems. Thank you.
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Thank you, Elizabeth, for reading. Means the world to me. And I hope it’s a sunny day in Dublin!
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The state of being “uninspired” is inspiration looking into itself…no?😊
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Is there a reason why you always post your stuff as pictures?
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Ja, die verse!
Wenn ich direkt schreibe, sehen sie schlecht aus.
You see those verses with a bit of indentation? WordPress doesn’t allow that, for some god forsaken reason. Since I don’t want to put up with the absurd Vordpreß line formatting, I just export as PNG from PDF and that’s that.
LikeLiked by 2 people
What the heck?! You can speak German?! XD
Yeah, especially since they changed it to the Gutenberg editor convenient features have disappeared. But indentation has never been possible here as far as I remember.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m learning now, because I’m gonna have it next semester in University, and I’m a bit obsessed with good results.
The thing is, unlike everyone else, I don’t really hate the Block Editor. I just abhor the primitive text editing, that’s it. Everything from indents to fonts to linespaces is just cranky and unnecessary unresponsive.
If it wasn’t for the community, we’d all be better off in some other website platform tbh.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yeah, I used to hate it, but now got kinda used to it, as with most things lol.
True, but from all the other platforms I’ve tried, WP is still the most responsive and convenient platform. I really don’t understand why people aren’t able to make things properly 🤷♀️ Maybe I should make it XD
LikeLiked by 1 person
Please do!
I think it’s because of this trend of general compatibility. Everything is made with the computer and phone and TV and tablet and VR and Google SpecsTM and Android APIs and whatnot. Ten more years and all our websites will be a simple block of text snapped to the left. Can’t even justify our shit anymore.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right? Not being able to justify anymore was the first thing that pissed me off when they switched to the Gutenberg editor. Maybe traditional websites won’t even exist anymore in 10 years XD Everything will be apps or something XD
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve discovered WordPress doesn’t indent, too. It’s really done a disservice to some of my poems. Loved your first poem. Joao-Maria, do I understand correctly that you are now a student? From our interchanges you strike me as brilliant and learned. Having spent 14 years in post-secondary schools, I commend the way of school. Were the little plastic sincerities from the church?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Salut, David, and excuse the latency.
I am a student, though I’m not much of brilliant and learned. I have excellent grades, of course, but that is mostly diligence and steadfastness rather than brilliance of any kind, though such terms are hard to gauge or measure.
I’m not an academic, however, so I’m not truly in the way of the school yet, and I do not think I’ll be one. I’d like to be a translator of some sort, literary or technical, and hopefully write for the passion.
The church allusion is rather curious: there was this church where I grew up, a small village of 200 or so, and to have some sort of mythologically glamorous “scala santa”, the entire church complex was raised from the ground as to justify a flight of steps in front of it.
In doing that, the back portion of the church had this abrupt ravine right into a small tributary stream that ran by, and when we were kids, we were too bored by the liturgies to spend a lot of time inside, so we would leave and play by that ravine, where sometimes we would lose our toys and plushies into the river.
Later on, when I was a bit bigger, I discovered that some block downwards there was a really small flight of stairs into the rivulet, and the place was full of old, rotten toys, and it sort of a crystal in time. I don’t know if this is of any interest to you, but that little alcove of abandoned toys is a safe space in my mind, I suppose, a shelter from the storm of my mind, sometimes. (It has thus very little to do with the actual church, haha)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I sometimes post as a picture file for this very reason, otherwise it takes forever and often doesn’t save if I want a different layout to the norm. I like calligrams too, I think writers should have freedom beyond the basics as the aesthetics are all part of the art.
Now, WP unfollowed me from you. This is a common outrage I, and a few others, have to deal with. It infuriates me because my memory is very poor and so some time can pass before I notice someone is missing. If I ever appear to have unfollowed you be sure I haven’t, if there was some reason I would do (I can’t imagine what, killing kittens live or something) I’d tell you. I’ve had people very sad thinking I’ve left when I haven’t which is a shame.
It’s interesting to me that your inspiration flees in summer, the monotony of damp drizzle and cold tends to be my Achilles’ heel, but that is likely due to the length of time I have to endure it. The sun is as a God to me, and lightens my whole being, I can fly when I wake up and see its rays beaming down. It is happiness incarnate to Esme, however, autumn is incredibly beautiful and evokes a different kind of inspiration. Spring is vigor. Winter can bugger off. January is terrible like the Dementors from Harry Potter books.
I’d never guess you were feeling dry reading this; 68! That’s my favourite part but it is, as ever quite superb as a whole. The only drawback for me as a commenter is I can’t copy and paste parts I particularly like and go on about them with picture text. I still manage to go on a bit mind, as you can see.
– Esme Cloud not packing her bags anytime soon so far as João-Maria is concerned
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Don’t worry, Esme! I cannot keep track of who follows me even if I wanted to. I barely have time to post these days. And I’d never take it poorly, though I would be puzzled.
I do not know whence you hail, though knowing of your vaporous form, the answer is likely to be along the Great Britannic Isles, where rain is day and sun is sanctity. I do not envy you completely, as I do ever so appreciate the sunlight, and my complexion quite requires it. I’m your typical olive-skinned Mediterranean, and without sun, I become the color of a ghost made of wood. A sort of hyalescent brown. Rather odd.
The emeraldrine verdness of your islands, though, and your chalk cliffs and thick, fertile groves and undergrowth, especially those of the North, from about Yorkshire to Sunderland and of course the illimitable beauty of the Scottish Highlands, I love it all. The only place I don’t enjoy is East Anglia. It feels more like a French “plaine” than a part of the isles, especially with the maritime erosion of the last couple of centuries.
Alas, I digress. I find joy in every season; joy and inspiration. But Summers in Portugal can be as long as seven months, as is the case this year, and after a while it’s just… exhausting. The only thing still soothing to me are the cicadas, and that’s only because I love them so.
Thank you for your compliments, dear Esme. It also saddens me a bit that one can’t copy and paste it. I used to include verse numerology for that reason, though people tended not to use it. I suppose everyone will have to laud the entire compositions instead of just parts of it. It’s a price I must pay.
And I’m happy that you’re sticking about, even though I know you only come around once in a while. After all, cloudy days are very rare here in Portugal.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your writing is always exciting, fear not.
I have to admit though, hot summers do make me yearn for the first frosts. Ah well, it’s this imbalance keeps us going, rolling on. Dissatisfaction as the heart of creativity? Who knows.
Keep yourselves safe.
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Thank you, Michael. The rarity of your comments adds to their warming weight. I’m glad I’m not boring to you, though I’d imagine that’s not a quality of many!
And yes, the magical equilibrium. Life brands itself most living in the middles, the co’s and ‘shafts. But poetry, I think, is very antipodal. Expression is force and force is extreme.
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It would be nice if they had left some cherries along with the bowl.
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Right? Freaking vagroms. Some of them are absolute pricks.
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Uninspired? What will you do when you’re inspired?
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Haha, Basilike! I meant in terms of volume. I’m publishing a lot less than I tend to. You know how our Summers are. It can be really tiring just to exist in a dense, hot Mediterranean day (unless it’s by the beach).
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I know, and I must confess I love it! Between hot and cold I always choose hot. But it’s true it can make you want to go to the beach more than write.
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Absolutely. That’s the issue, you don’t feel like doing much that is productive, but life is not worse because of it, haha. It’s rather the opposite, I find.
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That’s right! They don’t sing Summertime when the living is easy for nothing do they? 🙂
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Yes indeed I truly can imagine it. It seems to be similar all around the Mediterranean sea. A challenging part of the world in which to live and work all year round, year in year out. The Saharan heat has migrated as far as here in recent days and folk are struggling, especially with masks being compulsory in many places including places of work. But it must be many times worse where you are. And our milder struggles will soon pass. I hope you all have air conditioning and access to plenty of cool drinking water.
Yes I most certainly did enjoy visiting you. The country is so beautiful. The people are gracious and welcoming. I love the language. The scenery inland and coastal is a delight. The food is delicious, so many mouthwatering fish dishes. The historical sights and churches and cathedrals were wonderful to visit. I’m glad I got there.
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Oh, that makes me so happy!
I’m glad you enjoyed our country. I feel that despite our boom in later years concerning tourism, we are still wildly underappreciated (and underdeveloped, or developed in the wrong areas).
Portugal is a beautiful country with a weird history as the “meh” of historical monarchic Europe. Though I think we are unexceptional in many regards, I also believe we are perfect in others, especially our peacefulness, relative isolation and beautiful climate.
I’m very glad that you enjoyed us.
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I totally echo these sentiments of yours. Here in the UK the widely held perception is that Portugal is an outstandingly beautiful and interesting place to visit and that the Portuguese people are gracious friendly and welcoming. I have a Portuguese work colleague and friend and you couldn’t wish for a more wonderful person.
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Inspired or not, these are some lovely fragments. I do like number 67, Prospect of nothingness, it unfurls mind-spaces for me, too. Beautifully done.
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Thank you, Cath! 67 seems to be the most popular, though I’m partial to 71. You’re awesome for coming by.
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But there is so much here in imagery and thoughts that it does seem that you’ve been inspired!
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Thank you, Andrea. Sometimes we can’t see what is so clear to others. The humility of our paltry moments of blindness.
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Some of your lines are sublime….The clothesline slits the light, envy the cut of shade.”
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Thanks, Tina! I always loved the little line of shade from empty clotheslines; a divisor, a portal of sorts, I imagine.
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Joao-Maria, I didn’t struggle with these fragments, just let them wash over me and enjoyed the flow of the beautifully-turned phrases. I won’t be so lazy next time! I’m just a little overwhelmed. I will limit my blogging interactions in the future. One incident that helped me to decide that it was time is below:
Yesterday, some maniac sent me 75 separate posts of excerpts from a book! They were mingled in with other posts. It was a very interesting book about culture and history and philosophy, but a logistical nightmare for me! I wondered if it was a book checked out from some prison library! Haha. He won’t be returning.
In the US, we call this time of year,” the dog days of summer.” Inspiration will undoubtedly return when it is cooler. All the best! Cheryl
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Oh, thank you so much, Cheryl. And I know exactly who sent you those posts. I was lucky enough to have him flagged as spam by WordPress before his emails went through.
I’m all too privy to the need of a break from time to time. Sometimes it isn’t the Art or the Craft, but the people, that can exhaust us a bit, and that’s not something mean-spirited to say; people are very high-energy things. Even when they are just bunches of data on a website.
I hope your limiting of interactions allows you to recharge good-and-well, so you may return an even brighter sun-ray.
Thank you so much for coming by!
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Hi Joao-Maria, I don’t know if this reply to your reply to my comment will get through after all this time. I just wanted to say I’m glad the little plastic sincerities are children’s toys and a safe space and not platitudes from the clergy or congregation.
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I do not know the reality of clergy or congregation, and though I’m sure it mustn’t be invulnerable to opprobrium, as everything else isn’t, I’m not the right person to launch that sort of light.
Though one must be wary as to not wax all opinions on religion as platitudinal, lest we forget that platitude is one of the pylons of religious dogma, which is why I have compositions on spirituality but none on religion; no absolute texture lends itself to creativity.
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