It's Your Thing: Blogging Around with Rommy Week 2


There's an amazing feeling when you create something in a medium dear to you that imbues the project with its own special, dare I say it, spark of joy. And what sparks up one person might feel meh to someone else. In which case—don't art that way! Borrowing a little from the oft misunderstood, Marie Kondo, life is too short to spend time creating things that don't thrill, excite or otherwise move you in some way. 


James Norwood Pratt wrote, "Tea is quiet and our thirst for tea is never far from our craving for beauty." I revel in artistry of all types—visual, written, spoken, sang, danced, a blog post about what you love that can be artistic... beauty comes in so many forms, and it isn't in me to try to limit it. 

Make mine starlight
illuminating dusky beauty
and dancing off the awful bright
of a fairy tale forest
with no shortage of terror and ecstasy.

Find more of her gorgeously thrilling images in her Etsy store.


Song Choice: It's Your Thing by the Isley Brothers
The poem is linked to Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads, Tuesday Platform and Poets United Poetry Pantry 437.


So Dear Groovers, tell me in the comments section about things that thrill you creatively (and I'm using thrill in the most expansive way possible—I consider love and horror to be thrilling in their own way). If you have a cyber home where you show off your creative sparks, share the link and tell me how they thrill you. Or just catch me up with what's going on with you. 

60 comments:

  1. Oh yes, beauty comes in so many forms and varieties. And it takes a certain beauty to acknowledge and admire it.
    "no shortage of terror and ecstasy" beautifully captures the enchantment of this forest.

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    1. I've experienced art forms that profoundly moved me, and it is in that emotional shift I find beauty.

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  2. This is absolutely gorgeous, Rommy!💞 I agree we live only once and there is no point doing something we are not passionate about 😊

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    1. Agreed. I have to have that passion in my life and art, or otherwise what's the point?

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  3. Been busy reviving my "thrill of arty stuff" so not done much of my own recently, but was overjoyed to find I had inadvertently bought "Glitter" paint pens!!!! Now my doodling is sooooo sparkly :D XXX

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    1. Squee! Glitter pens! I got a couple for myself to play with in my planner. :D

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  4. I like everything you wrote here, Rommy. Especially about passion. Poetry is what a lot of my passion goes into. The best poetry, to me, reveals someone's passion...for life, love, music, art, or hot fudge sundaes!

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    1. Thanks Timoteo. That reminds me, I haven't had a hot fudge sundae in ages... I should remedy that.

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  5. I had to comment on "our thirst for tea is never far from our craving for beauty"...do you visit itsjustlife.me on Teapot Tuesdays? B.A. Chiles always shares a teapot picture and a poem about tea. Her sponsors pledge money to charity per comment.

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    1. I had not heard of her before! But I'll head over now. Thank you for the heads up. Tea is definitely a passion of mine.

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  6. How I love "the awful bright of a fairy tale forest."

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    1. Sometimes a line just gets everything I need to say out there. I really like that one too.

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  8. I love the way you used the word awful in a way I would more think of something exciting and thrilling...

    of course poetry thrills me
    a good story thrills me
    music art and nature thrills me,
    but maybe all my thrills
    are about escaping now.

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    1. Yay, I had hoped that would come across. An escape, especially if it towards the things that make a heart regard the speed it beats at more serious, can be a delicious thrill too.

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  9. What a great post, full of amazement and beauty. I get dizzy at good dialogue, the kind that cements a character in my mind forever and makes me sad when we say our goodbyes. I love when a writer can be honest with his own characters, story and readers. I like Poetry that peels back the skin and makes me feel like thinking differently about life, love and beauty. I like posts like yours that challenge people to recognize the things that are important and worthwhile. Thanks for posting this, it made my day!

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    1. Gods yes, all of this. When the words just connect with something inside us that make us long to return after we finished with them - it's just a magical thing.

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  10. If you heard an slightly hysterical, "Yes! Oh, yes!" it was me. I love everything about the poem--the honesty of it, its approach to the dark and furious, the way it invites itself to be read in one breath that ends with a satisfied scream. Of the prose, I love the honesty... what it tells us about your poetry and storytelling.

    Here is my bit for this week:

    https://wordsbymagalyguerrero.blogspot.com/2019/01/in-darkness-ive-found-brightest-of-all.html

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    1. I think both of us have some passing familiarity with feeling a certain kind of way about some of the off-beat beauty that can be found in the dark.

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  11. I love the poem. It paints along with the image.

    Here is my bit this week.

    https://photoclark.wordpress.com/2019/01/23/creatively-thrilling/

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    1. The artist is very talented. And she has a lot of images with tea!

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  12. It's true life is too short. Whatever doesn't thrill should be done away with. It's not always easy though when it comes to earning a living.

    I love your poem, those first two lines made me sigh. So much beauty and vivid images in the whole piece. :-)

    Lady Viktoria is a girl after my heart. Beautiful is that Ode to Autumn and goes so well with your poem. I also checked her Etsy store, and fell in love with her art. Pity she doesn’t take commissions.

    Anyway, thanks for another thrilling prompt. Here's my contribution: https://www.khayaronkainen.fi/creating-in-the-wild/

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    1. LOL, too true about the earning a living part. We just have to value our free time all the more then.

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  13. What a grest mixture of trepidation and thrill when entering forbidden territory that remided me of my exploring dark forests in my childhood never knowing who and what we'd meet.

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  14. Words thrill me, their sound, their meanings, their potential. I wrote a post about it today, but I haven't edited it, and I'm too tired now to take care of that chore. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe Friday. Got to recover from a road trip, which is strange, because twenty years ago, I didn't even bother to get tired.

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    1. I would love to see it whenever it's ready. :)

      And boy do I sympathize on the road trip part. I feel like the tin man getting out of the car if I've been sitting more than two hours.

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  15. Beautiful verse, Rommy! As for what motivates my creativity, telling a story that I passionately have to tell! That, and fashioning evocative imagery through language! :)

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    1. Those stories all have to got somewhere. :)

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  16. To be able to recognise beauty is a magnificent gift in itself. Your reference to terror and ecstasy is life...right there. I always pray that I never stop to admire beauty when I see it. An insightful write.

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    1. Little beauties are all around us, waiting to be appreciated.

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  17. How often terror and ecstasy ARE connected! When it happens, it can be beautiful indeed. (as long as terror is not too terrifying - smiles).

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    1. LOL, we always must be mindful of our limits to experience both terror and ecstasy.

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  18. Music thrills me, in all forms, though i have to be the mood sometimes for some of its genres. I live alone and i get up and dance when i feel like. Oh and writing my words into lines and syllables of varied lengths my post-retirement thrill. oh and then there's the 6 year old grand daughter who whispers secrets in my ear well that's a divine thrill

    much love...

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    1. Music is one of the perfect thrills that is so easily accessible. The right notes get me dancing too. And how wonderful to have a grandchild willing to share whispered words.

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  19. Love this! The idea of something bright and terrifying is easy to overlook in terms of fairy tales and seems connected again to awe...I, personally, find that driving and looking at the scenery (although not art, per se) is inspiring...something about being lulled into a state in which you're not quite dreaming but almost. Otherwise, thumbing through art books or watching people sketch or paint.

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    1. We have some gorgeous areas to drive through in Bucks County. The fall especially can be crazy beautiful. I've found myself thrilled and haunted by the beauty.

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  20. I loved the write and the image.

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  21. I get such a kick out of those creative sparks of joy, Rommy – not just my own but those of others. I used to really enjoy drawing, painting and knitting my own patterns, and I sang in a choir until I had problems with my voice. Now I just love writing and reading. I have a cosy study where I can hide away with my imagination – and that of others.
    I thoroughly enjoyed your starlight, the fairy tale forest, terror and ecstasy! I also love the image.

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    1. I loved being in choirs too when I was younger, but there's quite a bit of rust on my pipes now.

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  22. I can especially relate to the last line as one of the things that thrills me the most is a scary movie!

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    1. My daughter is just getting to that age when scary movies are becoming fascinating.

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  23. I love your poem and I love the artist you have introduced us too!
    I think everything thrills me creatively! LOL! It could be a dream, a smile, new paint, a song, the snow, etc. Big Hugs!

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    1. LOL, yeah, I think that creative thrills are sprinkled all over the place. You just need to know where to look. ;)

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  24. A wise and lovely - uttering linger worthy - tanka prose piece. Love it!

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  25. Absolutely loving the form! So well writren

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  26. Make mine starlight- I love that. I see myself staring into the void saying exactly that to the universe!

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  27. Thank you for the invitation, Rommy, and for what you share here. I have been a bit lacking in inspiration for a while – but found a previously-posted haiku to share for Poets United's Poetry Pantry this weekend, one I'm quite pleased with on re-reading ... and then remembered, with a surge of joy, that February is NaHaiWriMo (on facebook). I love attempting haiku, but can't write them constantly or my other poetry starts to become too spare and plain and free of metaphor. But when I get uninspired, it is always good to go back to tiny observations of the natural world.

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    1. Oh, and my link for the haiku I mentioned:
      https://stonesforriver.blogspot.com/2018/02/new-old-haiku.html

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    2. Oh cool! Thanks for the heads up about haiku month too. :)

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  28. “...no shortage of terror and ecstasy...” Wonderful!!

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