Adventures in Writing

Today is mostly sunny and warm.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/2/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
 
I've seen a grackle at the hopper feeder.

EDIT 6/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
 
EDIT 6/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I watered plants in the house yard.

EDIT 6/2/26 -- I watered the new picnic table garden.

I walked around the yard a bit.  The purple penstemon from last year is blooming in the wildflower garden with clusters of little white trumpets.  :D

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Fun with Language." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for linguists, translators, interpreters, historians, diplomats, refugees, explorers, partners, teachers, clergy, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, activists, rebels, other people who get into interesting linguistic situations, translating, interpreting, reading, researching, revising theories, conversing, traveling, inventing languages, parenting, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, asking for help and getting it, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, libraries, laboratories, meeting rooms, ruins, liminal zones, trading posts, port cities, schools, churches, supervillain lairs, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where languages mix, alphabets, pictograms and other symbols, lost languages, ancient tomes, mysterious texts, misnomers and mistranslations, recordings, the record that breaks the record player, puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, the buck stops here, trial and error, intercultural entanglements, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

If you speak a language other than English and know untranslatable words from it, by all means share. Some other resources you might find helpful:

20 Awesomely Untranslatable Words From Around the World

45 Beautiful Untranslatable Words That Describe Exactly How You’re Feeling

203 Most Beautiful Untranslatable Words [The Ultimate List: A-Z]

Beautiful Untranslatable Words From Around The World

Eunoia website


Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Hazbin Hotel Fest Bingo Card 6-1-26

Pride Fest Bingo Card 6-1-26


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

The Bear Tunnels features numerous tribal languages.

Clay of Life is Jewish fantasy with occasional bits of Hebrew or Yiddish.

The Daughters of the Apocalypse spans a variety of languages, including a split before Before and After English.

Eloquent Souls presents a setting where soulmarks are common, but they don't always appear in the same language.

Fiorenza the Wisewoman is Italian fantasy with bits of Italian.

Frankenstein's Family features two scientists running a valley in historic Romania, with languages including Dacian, English, French, Hungarian, Romanian, and Latin.

Hart's Farm is a free love community with a few really exotic characters, set in Sweden with occasional tidbits from other languages.

Not Quite Kansas includes demonic and angelic writing.

Peculiar Obligations features a mix of Quakers, pirates, and other people speaking diverse languages.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society. It spans a wide range of languages including Arabic, Dhivehi, English, Esperanto, French, and several tribal ones.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

( Read more... )

We made it to the end of May! \o/ If you have completed some of your short-term goals or subgoals, and/or you're still chugging away at your ongoing goals, then pat yourself on the back. You worked hard for that. We've also passed through of spring. If you're doing seasonal goals, hopefully you have finished the spring one(s), so you can look ahead to the summer batch.

I'm continuing to track goals at the end of each month. So far it seems to be helping, so that's encouraging. I'm looking at my goal list more often and trying to keep ticking off more of them.

These are the previous check in posts:
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 9
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 16
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 23
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 30
New Year's Resolutions Check In February 28
New Year's Resolutions Check In March 31
New Year's Resolutions Check in April 30

( Read more... )

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Poetry Fishbowl Report for May 5, 2026
Unsold Poems for the May 5, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl
Art
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 5-29-26: Music
Education
Wildlife
Birdfeeding
Community Thursdays
Vocabulary: Xenofiction
Recipe: "Pico de Gallo Meatloaf"
Nature
Birdfeeding
Good News

Poem: "Walnut Park" has 46 comments. Early Humans has 22 comments. Philosophical Questions: Pregnancy has 84 comments. Safety has 84 comments.


There will be a Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, June 2 with a theme of "Fun with Language." I hope to see you then!


"Let's Go on This Journey Together" belongs to Polychrome Heroics. It needs $151 to be complete. Linus struggles to deal with a broken arm.

"No Faster or Firmer Friendships" belongs to Polychrome Heroics and needs $35 to be complete. Josué reads a funny poem to Maria-Vera.


The weather has been hot and humid here. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a male cardinal, a starling, and a fox squirrel. I saw a ruby-throated hummingbird outside the living room window. Currently blooming: pansies, violas, sweet alyssum, marigolds, honeysuckle, snapdragons, lantana, million bells, blue lobelia, petunias, portulaca, nemesia, fan flowers, wild chives, columbine, mock orange, Washington hawthorn, blackberries, firecracker plant, privet, pineapple sage. One yucca is sending up a flower stalk. Green fruit: raspberries, blackberries. Ripe fruit: peas, mulberries.

Here is my card for the Hazbin Hotel Fest over in allbingo. The fest runs from June 1-30. (See all my 2026 bingo cards.)

If you'd like to sponsor a particular square, especially if you have an idea for what character, series, or situation it would fit -- talk to me and we'll work something out. I've had a few requests for this and the results have been awesome so far. This is a good opportunity for those of you with favorites that don't always mesh well with the themes of my monthly projects. I may still post some of the fills for free, because I'm using this to attract new readers; but if it brings in money, that means I can do more of it. That's part of why I'm crossing some of the bingo prompts with other projects, such as the Poetry Fishbowl.

Underlined prompts have been filled.


HAZBIN HOTEL FEST BINGO CARD

"Being on your side means telling you the truth"	Emporium	Nothing Is the Same Anymore	"Do me this one simple favour"	Angels
I Need a Freaking Drink	Embassy	Hotel	"Remember that lesson on boundaries?"	"Why are you like this?"
Town	Familiar	WILD CARD	Studio	"I really don’t think this … is a good idea"
"I don't care what happens"	Mood Whiplash	"Sorry starts to lose meaning after a while"	Garden	"It was nice to have that power"
Jerkass Has a Point	Kitchen	Reception	Ambiguous Situation	"Am I doing therapy right?"

Our theme this time was "Older Scenes and Forgotten Characters." I wrote from 11 AM to 3 AM, so about 14 hours, allowing for lunch and supper breaks. I wrote 2 poems on Tuesday plus 5 later in the week.

Participation was down slightly, with 8 comments on LiveJournal and another 39 on Dreamwidth. A total of 12 people sent prompts. There were no new prompters.


Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the May 5, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
"How Great You Really Are"
"Restoring Them to Their Former Glory"
"Where There Is No Respect for Life"
"The Worst Thing in Life"


Buy some poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, see the unsold poetry list from May 5. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available.

This month's donors include: janetmiles and gs_silva . All sponsored poems from this fishbowl have been posted. There are 2 tallies toward a bonus fishbowl.


The Poetry Fishbowl has a landing page.