Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 9:52AMThankful Thursday: tinywords
Because appreciation increases joy, it's Thankful Thursday.
What are you thankful for today? A person, a place, a thing? A story, a song, a poem? Please join me for Thankful Thursday. I'd love to hear what makes you smile. Share yourself — with a comment below, or with a posting on your blog (please link back to this page so we can share in your thankfulness).
I've found the more I appreciate, the more I see to appreciate. Joy expands and contracts in direct relation to our sense of gratitude. Tell me, what makes your world expand?
• • •
Today I am grateful for tinywords. With a clean design, tinywords is an elegantly simple online journal offering a daily dose of micropoetry. Each day a new short poem stands in distilled light. Words, when pared, shine.
"Poetry is language under compression," explains D.F. Tweney, founder/editor of tinywords, in an online interview. "And there's no more compressed form than the very short poem."
Sharpie Poems
Inspired by Austin Kleon's Newspaper Blackout Poems, and desperate for a creative jolt, I got out the Sharpie and made poems of elimination.
Have you tried Blackout Poems? They are fun, sometimes easy, and a great way to exercise the poetic muscle. Some poems struggle to make sense while others emerge unexpectedly meaningful. Either way, it's good fun — and better than hours on the couch dazed and glazed over Say Yes to the Dress.
The Lost Voice
After the rain,
friends wanted to hear him sing
In a thrift store, the research began.
Flipping through vinyl, he learned
almost anything is worth 25 cents.
Signs
There may be consequences
Make necessary concessions
Every bump could loom large
You may cling to the past
Move forward
Write your imagination
Thankful Thursday: Summer Skirts
It's Thankful Thursday. Let the gratitude begin!
Is there anything better than the summer skirt?
Cotton, linen, silk
A-line, pencil, fitted, flared
Dressed up or knocked down
My love of the flutter-in-the-breeze summer skirt is only matched by my love of the summer sandal, which is only trumped by my favorite place to find these fashionable goods: the resale shop!
I'm not new to the resale revolution. My thrifting affinity started in high school (trench coats and men's blazers from Value Village, circa 1980s) and later evolved into vintage sweaters and dresses (from Denver's Barbareeba, circa late 1990s). While my fashion tastes have changed, my frugal ways remain. And the summer skirt — a symbol of carefree, sunshiney days — is always my favorite find.
In the last few weeks, I have scored unusually great goods at:
Second Glance, and its little sister store, the Annex, in Corvallis, Oregon
A consignment shop that 'revolves' clothes (rather than resells, a distinction I appreciate for its creative semantics). Hip, funky and fun, Second Glance is geared to the female adult, while the Annex has a steady college-age following.
Goodwill on 10th, in Portland, Oregon
Described by one shopper as a thrift store for "better heeled bargain hunters." Store managers carefully 'edit' donations and sell gently-used clothes with mid to high-end labels.
Thank you, resale shops, for being a low-cost purveyor of (affordable & fashionable) summer joy!