N+ Sonnet⤴

from

Today’s Daily Create asks us to share a poem in celebration of National Poetry Day, with this year’s theme being counting. I chose a Shakespeare Sonnet:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
   So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

And used a N+ generator to remix it. Here’s the N+8 version:

Shall I competition thee to a summer’s deadline?
Thou artist more lovely and more temperate:
Routine windpipes do shampoo the date buffers of May,
And summer’s lectureship hath all too short a daze;
Sometime too hot the eyepiece of heed shines,
And often is his goner composition dimm’d;
And every falcon from falcon sometime deductions,
By chant or nature’s changing courtyard untrimm’d;
But thy eternal sunbeam shall not fade,
Nor lose postcode of that falcon thou ow’st;
Nor shall debt branch thou wander’st in his shallot,
When in eternal linguists to tin thou grow’st:
So long as mandolins can breathe or eyepieces can see,
So long lives this, and this gives lift to thee.

My Values⤴

from

I’ve been asked to contribute to a collective statement about our teams values. Sigh. I know how these things go. First everybody takes time to come up with a set of values they believe in, then everybody talks as a group to come to a consensus. The result is a set of generic values that could have been found by quick internet search. Then the list is put to one side and never consulted again. So, as you can guess, I’m not going to spend much time on this. I did suggest that we take the UofG values and show how we embody those as a team, but I’m not going to get off that lightly. So here’s an exercise from Brene Brown that I think is worthwhile doing as an individual. She suggests that we start with her list of 50 values (and add your own if you want), circle those that you think are the most important and whittle them down to two core values. As she says, this is HARD – I can get to a shortish list, but choosing the final two takes time. Anyway, here’s my initial list:

  • Transparency/openness
  • Accountability
  • Responsibility
  • Integrity
  • Authenticity
  • Honesty
  • Reliability
  • Collaboration
  • Ethics
  • Reflection

When I look over my list, most of them can be summed up by one value: authenticity. I’ll choose collaboration as my second value.

Vanishing thoughts⤴

from

Where do some ideas go to? Yesterday I walked up the road to Uni, my head filled with an idea for a blog post. I remember that it was something I’d been thinking about for a while without having a firm idea of how to approach it, and as I walked I found my angle. I crafted sentences as I walked in the sun, watching the world as I walked and enjoying the autumn day. No need to write this all down, I thought – it was such a familiar topic that it would be clear to me later.

Then a meeting, and another, and then some news that held my attention for the rest of the day. When I sat down later to write I realised that my idea had gone – it had softly and silently vanished away. Was it a Boojum, or will my Snark return?

The Hunting of the Snark (cover)

Lewis Carroll (author), Henry Holiday (illustrator), Macmillan (publishers), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Listen with mother⤴

from @ lenabellina

Recently I have been chatting a lot to friends and colleagues about the “state of things”.
We talk of not enough support, not enough money, not enough resource.

Except.
We’ve been here before. This is new and not new. This is unique and universal.
This is Shakespeare and Swift.

We have all the answers we need, if only we can combine the energy and enthusiasm of youth with the experience and wisdom of seniority.

A poem.
Listen With Mother.
(To clarify. If you don’t understand the context of the title, last line and reference to listening and mother, it’s an age thing and not sexist.)

When did it become

That the wisdom of mum

And dad and their folks

Attracted the jokes

Of all the young ones,

When biting of thumbs 

Or worse

At the elders

Began?

The stories we’d share

If they’d listen and care

For all that we are and we know

Could help them to see

That they’re like you and me

Who have so much to teach

And to show.

For things they have changed 

Since when we were young

Different dances are danced

Other melodies sung

But love in our hearts 

And truth in our words

Will still save the day

And our world.

Will free us from peddling

Of lies all around 

Of shaming and blame of the other

So please, take some time, child

Before it’s too late

To hear the Earth stories of mother. 

For my little bird⤴

from @ lenabellina

You have deep inside you

All that you need

To heal and recover

And hear and take heed

Of the wisdom and knowledge 

Of what makes you you

So that you can flourish 

In all that you do

In all that you are

Full of good

Full of love

Full of peace and compassion 

A beautiful dove.

So fly now, my darling 

And spread your wings wide

But know that forever

I fly by your side.