Theme Work

a glistening nugget of gold
burnished and polished
hatching plans and dreams
batching words and ideas into
embroidered and quilted tapestries

“My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue,

an everlasting vision of the ever changing view.”

~ Carole King

An Evening Theme

Truthful branches.
Honest discourse of discovery.
Enthralling topics that fascinate.
Morality wins favour.
Ethics leap over political correctness
Summary ends the day.

“The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.”

~ Socrates

The Stuff of Life

An idea blossoms into multi flowered bouquets
Thought balloons pop with bright colours and shapes.
Brain storming ruffles and shuffles ideas into lines and graphs
A dreamer throws sparklers into the dark night sky of ‘what if’
Ideas and thoughts, brainstorms and dreams gathered and stretched like clouds in the wind
molded and shaped into themes of our own creations.

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on;

and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

~ William Shakespeare

Expansion

Themes

literary or poetic

for parties or galas

face and body of a gathering

ideas and subject woven through and wrapped around

Themes

seldom only one

a single story is limited and limiting

creating stereotypes with false belief

creating stigma and rigid margins.

Themes

fleshed out with meaning

developed with colour and intent

grow the humanity past rigid margins

becoming heart and soul.

“We’re all stories, in the end.”

~  Steven Moffatt

Variations on Theme ~ THEME - Theme for June 2014

Themes - I’ve been using a separate theme each month for quite some time now. However, I  have never really looked at what a theme is or what it needs to be for the writing that I do. So I decided the other day, that I’d really better look at the concept of theme. In general, words I have written, whether poetry, opinion, muse or story, need to be put together in some sort of order so that it may not really be a story, but has some of the quality of story, and while not really an academic piece is solid and informative. So, to develop this concept, this month my theme will be ‘theme’ so that I can find out how much of each to include.

The theme of this day, July 1, 2014, is patriotism and celebration. A birthday celebration for the country of Canada now 147 years old. (Is that the country or the confederation?) This birthday is a holiday for Canadian citizens, and any visitors, decorated in a red and white flag, song, speeches and fireworks. Is another theme, development and growth?

Each of us has a theme to our lives. We may not really be aware of what that theme is, however if we look closely we should see that we go about our lives a certain way. And that there is more than one theme to our lives - our families and how our families function, our communities and the organization of the community, our countries and how our countries stand in relationship to the rest of the world. 

Some of my studies about theme is with this TEDTalk by Andrew Stanton.

Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story - YouTube

“Ultimately, your theme will find you. 

You don’t have to go looking for it.”

~ Richard Russo

Bon Voyage to Self Doubt

Tis time to say farewell, adieu.
To Self Doubt we’ll wave good-bye to this gremlin with a trickster face not much of a pal of mine.

If gremlin with a doubting heart comes knocking at my door, I’ll have to pull the welcome mat away from the front door.

Should the trickster part of self- doubt think to find a door in back
that tricky trickster just may find
a screen door with a latch.

So thank you Gremlin Self Doubt
for this month of words and rhyme
you’re definitely not a need or help 
and you’ve just run out of time!

“Farewell has a sweet sound of reluctance. Good-bye 

is short and final, a word with teeth sharp to bite 

through the string that ties past to future.”

~ John Steinbeck, 

The Winter of Our Discontent

Soul Deep Wisdom

Self-Doubt separates us from ourselves
Our-selves that have wisdom and strength
to balance joys and turmoils of life.

Self-Doubt separates us from family
Our-selves that have met each other in childhood
with childhood fights or playing with toys.

Self-Doubt wears too many faces
with voices that are really our own
but only the face in the mirror 
looks back at the face that we wear.

It takes courage to welcome your heart home
to the eyes that look deep from your soul;
but with the gentle courage of kindness
self doubt will be turned from the door.

“Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and

despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.”

~ Khalil Gibran