332.366 - 2016 project and writing 2

every day in 2016, write a sentence or a paragraph or a poem that appreciates

writing 2

funny, when I think of me, I don't think of my latest picture, snapshot, or photo; I don't think of a full beard, or 51 years of work (playing) with computers.  I don't usually think of 40 years of riding (20 of riding other motorcycles, and 20 years of riding a Harley).  I think of the actors I am, the agents in my world or universe.  I am a smart-aleck, I am a sketchily knowledgeable informant for anyone who'll listen, I am a silly man who loves to quip or joke or jest.  I am an assistant, or was.  (once upon a time I had more energy, and I threw myself into helping a friend move, or helping a group put on a show, or setup for a poetry reading.)  most often though, I think of myself as a writer.  I write all the time.  well, nearly all the time.  as I drift into sleep, I compose a story.  as I drift among people, I hear and record comments that might begin a story, I listen to the rhythm, the cadence, the inflection, the vocabulary of some speakers.  when I get itchy to do something, what I want to do is write - poems, stories, appreciations, emails, texts, even changing my status on facebook.  I am driven to write, and to share what I write.  now I have to interrupt myself and explain.  I don't mean I'm driven to babble.  in the hospital, I listened in awe as a woman talked to her mother (a patient), her mother's doctor, the nurse, another visitor to another patient.  for damn near four hours, the woman talked about her ills, about her mother's ailments and preferences, about the weather, about her job and the unfair politics that surround it, about which newspaper she reads and why, about her car and her dream car, about her kids and their doings, about what a good politician would do if he or she got elected, about cosmetics and cooking and baking and sewing.  now and then she took a breath to let her listener know she was changing topics; even more rarely, she let her listener speak.  I don't think I do that, not with my talking, not with my writing.  for one thing, I construct my sentences, assemble my paragraphs, cobble my status updates and my texts, my emails, and my stories.  I craft my poems.  I pay attention to my English and to my twists of English, and to the units I send out into the world.  and I'm so damn grateful for the people who make up my audience, thank you.