Loose Leaf Notes

1. Hang up or hang out?

2. Tense or intense?

3. Line seen on Facebook: Halloween is my favorite color.

4. Also seen on Facebook: The proper term for senior women should be queenagers.

5. Strand by Strand / her world closes in / By her own design / she hangs by a thread.

6. We were asked to be present to an evening that will never happen again. We were asked not to take photos or video clips at the Nights of Grief and Mystery, so this is for memory.  But it’s a true story and it really happened, as Griefwalker Stephen Jenkinson likes to preface some of his storytelling.  And storyteller he is. In a testament to living language, Stephen’s stories embody no advice, no soundbites, no sugarcoating or preaching, no facts and information, just his human-lived experience told in his own words, words like poetry that hit a human chord of truth and show that more than one reality can exist at the same time, and they don’t cancel each other out. It’s hard to describe what the Nights of Grief and Mystery are. There’s a band, storytelling and readings in an atmosphere of intimacy and honesty. I know I laughed loudly. I know I cried from deep within and danced in my seat a few times.  “Cognitive dissonance, a love letter for grown-ups, the dark road headed out of town,” are a few of the ways that Stephan has described it. – More from THIS STORY IS TRUE AND IT REALLY HAPPENED HERE. 

7. A Frightful Fall: Wrinkled with age / Some cackle as they fall / from broomstick branches / on bony bare limbs / outstretched like arms / that could grab you

8. “A good death is everyone’s right. ​ ​The idea makes no sense in a culture that doesn’t believe in dying at all.​ ​Grief is the radical etiquette needed by a death phobic, grief illiterate time.​ ​Dying is the fulfillment, not the end, of life.” Stephen Jenkinson

9. The Battle of the Bulge is not about a diet. My dad actually fought in it.

10. Here’s a poem from the 1960s by Aram Saroyan:   lighght    Yes, that’s the whole poem. – More HERE.

11. “How reading rewires your brain for greater intelligence and empathy: One 2009 study of 72 children ages eight to ten discovered that reading creates new white matter in the brain, which improves system-wide communication… reading does in fact make us more intelligent. Research shows that reading not only helps with fluid intelligence, but with reading comprehension and emotional intelligence as well. You make smarter decisions about yourself and those around you… All of these benefits require actually reading, which leads to the formation of a philosophy rather than the regurgitation of an agenda…”

12. “Novels consume time and attention. While the benefits are worthwhile, even shorter bursts of prose exhibit profound neurological effects. Poetry elicits strong emotional responses in readers and, as one study shows, listeners. Heart rates, facial expressions, and “movement of their skin and arm hairs” were measured while participants listened to poetry. Forty percent ended up displaying visible goose bumps, as they would while listening to music or watching movies. As for their craniums: Their neurological responses, however, seemed to be unique to poetry: Scans taken during the study showed that listening to the poems activated parts of participants’ brains that, as other studies have shown, are not activated when listening to music or watching films.” More HERE.

13. When your high beams are marigold and zinnia HERE.

_________Thirteen Thursday