Star is just ...

So here I am with the sounds of the ocean all around me (360 degrees). Despite a bad stomach thing last night, I am in rare form. I feel so generative here. And yet all the intensity doesn't make me tired. It must be the air, the lighthouse beam swinging past the window, or the clear mind I seem to get here. Coming to Star Island each September is just ... so magical.

Today we were prompted to write a poem about our mothers' kitchens, without actually BEING part of the poem. There needs to be a female relative who enters the kitchen, an oven, something green, something dead. As I tell you this, I realize there is no oven in the poem I've written. Sigh.

But that is what revision's for after all. We are also to bring in some "found object" tomorrow. I have not found anything. Sigh. I wonder about the spider web I discovered on the porch railing this morning. I can't bring it in, but I do have a picture I took of it. I will make it count.

Have I told you about my new portable hot spot? It is so amazing to be able to put this little device on the table and connect wirelessly to the internet, even 10 miles out to sea. I am a bit of a technology diva. I love making use of (practical use of) these new things. It makes life easier all around. But I remember when the biggest boost in tech was the transistor radio. I remember when cell phones were "car phones" that plugged in and resembled a brick with an antenna. I date myself here.

On another note, my middle daughter is turning 40 tomorrow. How is THAT even possible? In what universe? I may write something about her. Why not? I'm on a roll.

So my roomie is sleeping and I ought to switch off the light. It would be so easy just to jump on Facebook for a quick look...

and while I'm otherwise engaged

So it's off to Start Island for a few days, leaving my husband to stoke the home fires and miss me. I hope to be able to blog a bit while there (I have a personal hotspot so I can stay connected). BUT... while I am otherwise engaged, I throw down a challenge prompt (borrowed from another writer)

If you’re not scientific, find a periodic table of elements. Pick a metal (gold, bronze, zinc, lithium, silver, tin) or a gas (helium, krypton), and and write about it for 10 minutes. Likewise, if you’re not musical, pick an instrument you’ve always wanted to play (piano, oboe, accordion, tuba), and write about it for 10 minutes. If you're not a legal professional, pick a legal term and write about it. If you don’t know the right words and terms, make them up. Write with authority. Have fun with it. Try to get 20-28 lines of sustained writing... or do a sonnet or a pantoum or a villanelle. The point is to write. I'd LOVE to see you post some bit of writing from this prompt here on my blog. Just click on "comments" and add it there.

I will do this exercise too, but later.

Enjoy this rainy Thursday and keep writing!