Someday -- A Poem About Dreams by Charlene Groves

Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash

Late yesterday I learned it was National Poetry Day. To honor the day, belatedly, I share this poem by Charlene Groves.

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I met Charlene Groves at a coffeehouse sometime in mid-to-late 1974, a blind writer and poet from Martinsville, New Jersey. Though I’d written some stories in college — a couple of which to this day I regret having lost — I had not yet determined to pursue a career as a writer.

Charlene was roughly 30 at that time. In addition to fixing music boxes, she was a prolific author, having produced numerous short stories and countless poems. She also had two or three novel manuscripts under her belt, in the sci-fi genre.

Over the decades we've stayed in touch, she being one of the many special people that have inspired me in various ways. This is a poem she wrote called Someday, sometime in the 60s or early 70s. I love the way she plays with language to produce imagery that is unexpected.

Someday

I spend my days shooting darts at dinosaurs, 

Fighting fire-breathing dragons with a wooden sword;

I take time to allow toy men and animals the chance to live

For a while in the real world of make believe. 

I spend my days searching for the beginning of a new poem, 

Dribbling letters on paper to form words. 

Dreaming of when we can do handstands on moonbeams, 

But there's always a teacher somewhere

Pulling me back into the darkness of the classroom, 

That I might be enlightened. 

I can feel the sun sometimes, 

Even when it's raining, 

And taste peanut butter without the actual having. 

But someday I'll be part of the earth again, 

One day, suitcase in hand, 

I'll put my feet on the open road, 

And walk towards the sun, 

Eating a box of chocolate covered raisins. 

Then I'll build a house, 

And maybe write another book, 

Before the world ends. 

Maybe I'll be a kite in a tree, 

Or a snowflake caught in a snowman's ear. 

Someday maybe I'll learn to give with my whole being, 

Because I want to, 

Because I need, 

And feel good about the giving, 

Not just talk. 

And maybe, 

Just maybe, 

Someday, I'll stop saying maybe, 

And be.

Copyright Charlene Groves

* * * 

Check out Charlene's wonderful poem The Hermit.

Why Do We Ask Questions? And What Does It Mean When We Stop?

"Children are the research & development division of the human species"--Patt Olivieri

Paquita. A girl at the orphanage
where we were in Mexico, 1981.

It's been a while since my children were little, but now that I'm a grandfather to a couple youngsters under five I'm remembering how sparkling and alive their developing minds were. What an amazing experience to be young explorers with no preconceived notions about this colorful, magical world we're born into and their endless inquisitiveness.

inquisitive: adj. -- curious or inquiring

Some of the synonyms for inquisitive have negative implications. Nosy, snooping, meddlesome and prying, for example, imply that inquisitive people don't respect boundaries.

And it's true. When we're young, we have no way of understanding a concept like boundaries until we're actually told, or scolded, for violating one of the unwritten rules of social engagement.

On the other hand, who doesn't love the innocence of a young inquiring mind? 

As I thought about these things I pondered as to why older people eventually stop asking questions. My first thought in that regard possibly has to do with our penchant for already having answers to everything. What I mean here is that after youngsters head off to school, it seems like the next many years are focused on answering questions, not asking them. Quizzes, tests and the like get graded based on our answers. How often are we rewarded for good questions? (OK, there are definitely teachers who enjoy seeing those young minds engaged and inquisitive.)

Peer pressure can also cause us to clam up for fear of coming across as stupid or ignorant. Asking a question that everyone already knows the answer to makes us feel stupid. It's embarrassing.

When I was in sixth grade my family moved to New Jersey. As the newby I was made to feel embarrassed and made to feel stupid more than a few times. On one occasion a classmate came up to me and said that there was a rumor going around that I was pregnant and they wanted to know if it were true. I had no idea what the word pregnant meant. Nevertheless I felt obligated to give a reply, so I said yes.

I immediately snuck off to the library to find a dictionary.  As I remember it, the dictionary was about six inches thick, lying open atop a pedestal and though I could read the words I wasn't fully grasping them.

Fear of humiliation may be one reason we stifle our questions in public. I've certain seen it in the workplace where co-workers may use acronyms in a manner that suggests they are common knowledge. If you stop the meeting to ask what AML means, will you be glared at for being so dense? So you bite your tongue. The problem is, others may have the same question so that there has actually been no communication taking place because the meaning was lost.

Which brings me back to the beautiful innocence we find in the uninhibited inquiries of children. Here are a few questions my son asked when he was little.

Where did all the dinosaurs go?
Do dinosaurs eat worms?
Where are all the astronauts? 
Why don't we see them walking on the streets?
Do ants have fire trucks? (no.) What do they do when their houses catch on fire?      (EdNote: See my poem The Ants: A Tale)

* * * 

A week or two ago I came across a story on Medium by Adelina Vasile about her three-year-old son. It was titled Smile-Stealing Small Talk With a Little Boy. Medium as a blogging platform brings writers and readers together from all over the world. I find it a rather amazing time in history when ordinary people can write stories that people all over the world can read and respond to. 

Next I noticed that Adelina was from Romania, a country many Americans probably don't know that much about. I remember becoming aware of that nation during the 1976 Olympics when gymnast Nadia Comaneci won a gold medal and became the first gymnast to score a perfect 10. In 2010, the memory of that event triggered a blog post titled Nine Things You Maybe Didn't Know About Romania.

It was against this backdrop that I decided to reach out and learn what kinds of questions a Romanian boy might ask. As it turns out, Ms. Vasile was open to going along with it. The next thing I knew, I had the following list of questions in my inbox. Her son's name is Matthew, so I will title this list of questions Matthew's World. It's interesting how wildly imaginative children's minds are all over the world.

Matthew's World

Matthew searching for answers inside
a toy he took apart.

What are microbes?

Why can’t we see microbes?
If I look through a “miboscobe” will I see microbes?

Did the dinosaurs purr? (Like cats…)
What dinosaurs lived on our street when that big rock fell from the sky?
What do you mean our street didn’t exist when the dinosaurs died?
Not even our house?
Not even our neighbors?

Will a crocodile eat us if we meet with him?
Will a tiger eat us?
The tiger is a bigger cat?
Will a penguin eat us?
Why do penguins eat fish?

What is an Eskimos?
Do Eskimos live at the North Pole?
What is the Arctic region?
Are there any Eskimos at the South Pole?
When will we go to the North Pole?

When I’ll grow up I will be allowed to drink wine?
Will the police let me drive too?
What if the police will catch me flying at high speed? (he was talking about flying a plane)
If you’re in a helicopter without a seatbelt, will the police give you a fine? 

Is it true that monsters don’t exist?
What is an ogre?
If ghosts were real, what would they look like?
How does a baby ghost look like?

How did grandpa die?
When will grandpa be alive again?
What is grandpa doing now? (the deceased grandpa)
When will we die?
Can I eat this until I die? (strawberry jam)
Will you cry if I die?

Daddy, what did you see interesting at work today?
How did you sleep last night?
What did you buy me?
Is there any surprise for me in this package?

What are the eyes that we see through?
What is inside my belly?
What happens if my penis breaks?
What happens if I lose all my blood?
Will I grow big muscles if I eat these 3 chickpeas?
Can I have 8 plums? Are 8 plums a lot?

* * * 

The headline for this blog post promises to answer the question "What does it mean when we stop asking questions?" When I asked Quora, I found some pretty thoughtful replies. You can find those answers here.

Thanks for dropping by. And if you have young ones, what kinds of questions are they asking? Would you share them in the comments?

Related Links

When Kids Smack You in the Head With Some Philosophical Idea

Follow Adelina on Medium

Are You Protopian, Utopian or Dystopian?

T Rex Generations: A Brief Review

If Halloween is a holiday for children (and adults who want to remain children forever), I'm pretty sure dinosaurs fall into a similar category. Nothing stimulates the imagination in a child's mind like the dinosaur section of a natural history museum. I remember well the visits we took to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History when I was a boy. And later, when my own children were growing, visiting the Museum of Natural History in New York was equally exhilarating.

For Christmas, when we were kids, my father would plop a Sears Catalog onto our laps and suggest the pages we might want to look at for our Santa lists. One year, it was the set of molded plastic dinosaurs that conquered my mind. I can still visualize the Tyrannosaurus Rex from that set. He was the color of cobalt and had that striking stance that probably terrified the prehistoric world.

We'd read about the dinosaurs in books and learned the names: triceratops, brontosaurus, ankylosaurus, and all the other strange creatures of that era. 

This built-in fascination with dinosaurs is undoubtedly what made the film Jurassic Park such a success. Special effects and a great storyline didn't hurt any, either. Spielberg knew how to touch a nerve by putting the children in such danger when all havoc broke loose.

* * * *

Last week I acquired a copy of T. Rex Generations, a graphic novel by author/illustrator Ted Rechlin. As an artist he began drawing professionally at age 19 for DC Comics. What a great opportunity for any young artist, to learn the ropes as regards the practical mechanics of story telling in imagery. He has now been working freelance for more than a decade, contributing work to museums, zoos and several publishing companies. His special interest seems to be natural history, hence T Rex Generations.

The storyline follows a family of Tyrannosaurus Rexes who live in Hell Creek, Montana, 66 million years ago during the late Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era. Ma and pa T Rex, Cobalt and Sierra, have just hatched four baby T Rexes. It's a story of survival in a very dangerous world where one wrong move could turn a little one into another creature's dinner or result in a cracked skull.

Ankylosaurus carries a club on his tail.

Rechlin knows how to make the little ones lovable and the parents caring, but his approach is also to deliver an accurate impression of the life of dinosaurs. It's a graphic novel where the details are embedded into the fabric of the story, not intrusive. The illustrations are lush, and the action dramatic. His other books include a book on sharks and another on the end of the ice age.

The little ones meet a Triceratops. Be careful, kids. 

This book is published by Rexroth Studios and is available on Amazon. As the story ends, we see that two of the little ones, Nova and Orion, will be stars of the next generation of T Rexes in this series.

EdNote: I am not part of the Amazon Affiliate program and receive no remuneration if you purchase this book. 

How Long Should A Blog Post Be?

BLOGGING BUZZ

There are two kinds of people in the world:
those who like to define everything and those who resist it.

This morning I saw an article in the paper that said many dinosaurs have been incorrectly classified. A British study now claims that the family trees of certain dinosaur lines have been mis-classified.

A couple years ago scientists declared that Pluto was no longer a planet. This verdict, however. is not held universally, and the battle still rages.

Nevertheless, it seems an innate human tendency to name things, define things, and to create definitive rules about every aspect of life. How many hours should we sleep? How far apart should our children be in age? How long should our babies breastfeed?

All this to say that I've been noticing a lot of pundits attempting to make rules about blogging and even tweeting. One expert stated that even though a tweet is only 144 characters, the "ideal tweet" for effectiveness is 100 characters.*

Really?

It seems like I've been reading a lot of discussion about blogging lately. The chief questions revolve around how often we should blog and how long our blog posts should be. This blog post will be my attempt to answer the latter of these two questions.

How long should a blog post be?

There are plenty of folks declaring that longer is better. Marieke van de Rakt at Yoast states that it takes 300 words to get ranked in search engines. Over 1000 words will improve your ranking and 2500 is better.

Seth Godin endorses shorter posts.

I remember when USA Today came out and was criticized for revamping newspaper journalism to accommodate people with short attention spans. Articles were on average 400 words. Yet the newspaper survived. If you need more depth, you still have the New York Times.

John Rampton answers this question in a longer post that lays out the case for both short and long blog posts. You'll find his answer at Forbes. In the end he concludes that there's no right or wrong answer. I agree.

According to this article at Snap, the ideal blog length used to be 500-700 words, but is longer now by a factor of three. Part of the reason blog posts are getting longer is because so-called experts are telling everyone that blog posts need to be longer. People without experience feel comforted when experts tell them what to do. "Pluto is not a planet."

In another place we read that people only read 20-28% of the blog post. Could this be because the blog posts are too long now and people are in a hurry?

Yet we still find more advocacy for longgggg posts. This Copypress story begins with a headline that the ideal "average word count" for top-ranked searches is 2416. When I read something like this I can imagine a draconian boss somewhere declaring, "I want 2416 words on every blog post. No more, no less."

At least Neil Patel, who has become a self-styled Marshall Dillon of the Blogging Universe, has the sense to ask what the purpose of your blog is. Why are you blogging in the first place? Business blogging is the only kind of blogging that matters to some people. But there are plenty of other reasons to blog. Some write to inform, others to persuade, others to entertain and still others just to have a soapbox. Some write simply to practice writing. Some write to test their beliefs in the wider marketplace of ideas. Some write for social engagement. Some write to work out their angst.

When I started this blog ten years ago I did it simply to see what blogging was all about. I wondered if it would have value for the company I worked for (and it did.) And as I went along it began having other meanings for me.

A couple years after my this initial blog (Ennyman's Territory) I decided to also start a second blog devoted to sharing my art called The Many Faces of Ennyman. The word count on average has been roughly 30 words, and sometimes less. How does that fit with all these definitions and regulations?

Again, it's all a matter of purpose.

Having been a writer for more than three decades I half think the answer to word length ought not to be based on some arbitrary rules from on high. If you're telling a story, the right length is dictated by the story, not some set of rules. Hemingway's stories range from a few pages to book length. The right length depends on the story that needs to be told.

I would apply these same criteria to blogging.

As people we're all different. Some people need concrete definitions more than others. Others dislike straightjackets. When it's in my power I prefer a little freedom over form, hence this blog post about coloring outside the lines.

The best way to learn is by doing. Remember that what's "in" today may be out tomorrow. Wide ties, miniskirts, bellbottoms. What's fashionable today may be gone tomorrow.

18 years ago I wrote an article about thinking for yourself called Who Are Your Experts?  Upon reviewing it again I see it as still relevant. Social media and blogging didn't exist yet in their current form, but the principles of engagement are really nothing new. And feel free to let me know what you think.


* Kevan Lee, The Ideal Length of Everything Online (Backed By Research.)