Bugle Me A Day©

Thank you, agaglia! It's such fun to see you stopped here. This was one of my earlier hubs, with poetry from many years ago. 'Driftwood' is among my favorites, too. It has much feeling and meaning.

I just visited your fish hub and responded to your writing challenge. hehe.

Thank you, Jodah. If you noticed the prior comments - they're 3 years ago. This was only my 11th poetry hub, in fact. Now there are something like 161 poetry hubs out of my 224 or so total count.

I decided to highlight several of my earliest hubs on my profile page. They have some of my own favorites of my poetry in them, - the poetry I often recopied over the years into little blank books for special friends' gifts, out of literally thousands of my poems. Of course, I picked my favorites for that and they became most familiar to me. I feel most 'at home' in them!

These in this hub have special significance for me, all written at a very 'undone' period of my life, age 40, with major personal losses and wounds. I never like to dwell on pity-partying and I prefer to look clearly at thingsfor the essence of what is happening and to ferret out the growth potential and value in it.

Often oneself is not the only casualty when there are upsets, so it seems wise to get oneself on track as smoothly as possible, without trying to pretend there's nothing amiss or that it's hopeless! haha. Hence, my attitudes: optimistic realist and realistic optimist! :-)

Thank you, Tan! I like that one, too. I'm not good at setting out to write haiku but have tremendous respect for those who can write it well! I appreciate your comment! (and glad you feel free to be selective about which you like best)

Thank you SO much, Slania! I appreciate the way you worded that, too. In poetry it's so much easier for me to economize words. I suppose I trust the reader more to either understand or go on by. In writing prose I seem to tend not to want to leave any stone unturned to try to be very clear, and it probably overdoes it, possibly puts the reader to sleep! LOL.

Thanks again!

Charanjeet - I understand. There is so much good writing to read on Hubpages and among those we follow - and we have hubs we want to write. There are just so many hours a day and we all have other lives to attend to, as well. I try - almost never get it all done - to visit, read and respond to all the hubs I get announcements of, as well as to comments on my own hubs - and I want to follow up on it all after responding - there are usually more followup comments where one has left comments. But it is clear that it can't all be done. We do as much as we can and try to priortize as best we can!

I thank you for making this one of your stops and you'll be welcomed whenever you return!! I appreciate those lovely words of approval more than you know!

Hugs, Maita! Your good opinion means a lot to me! Thanks for the visit and kind words!

MG - I'm honored to receive your complimentary comment! Thank you for visiting!! :->

Joy - thank you so much for those words. I truly appreciate that you felt calmed in reading the poems. Writing poetry has been both calming and comforting like a friend to me over the years. I look forward to seeing you again when you visit!

I understand about reading many things on here - sometimes they "speak" to one's heart or head - and sometimes they barely scratch the surface! ;)

I truly love what i've read of yours and will certainly read more. I'm sorry that you deleted some you had - what - on your computer or just posted to hubs? Mine go way back and were all hand written originally on paper, some even copied from the original notebooks into "blank books" to share with only a few close friends. However, I had a bad situation in which a mean person destroyed some of my earliest poetry and other memorabilia. I learned to hand-write backup copies! LOL (of course, it was prior to word processing and I never liked the way they looked just typed on a typewriter!) I was urged to learn to use the computer, in fact, by my beloved late husband so I could use word processing. Then it took off to be the be-all of almost everything I do - haha. I have an enormous hand-made personal webpage, by the way:

http://nellieanna.com/directory.html is the url to the central directory.

Thanks again for the visit and for enjoying it!

Steve - thanks again for replying. Feeding them was quite a challenge! WOW. It was my eldest granddaughter. She will be 34 this month, poor baby; - she thinks she's getting old! haha. Although having two very precocious teenagers as she does is such a full-time job! They're very good students, very grown-up looking for their ages though still kids at heart, and Aaron knows everything (he thinks - he'll be 15 in a couple of weeks). Bryana is very shy at times and giggles a lot. But they're both about 6 feet tall! So they are impressive presences! Their mom, Carla, and I were like dwarfs among them. Their dad is 6'" though.

Aaron is health conscious for his althetics but eats vast quantities & is still slim.

Instead of increasing wbat I would cook for myself by 4, I needed to increase it by at least 5 & he still ate whatever his mom and sister didn't want, besides double helpings himself!

Fun, though. It was very refreshing to have kids in the house.

Remember, now - these are my GREAT-grandkids!! I have 5 granddaughters, the youngest of whom is only 10! And two toddler great-grands.

Just wait till you have two generatons of grands to enjoy! :)

K9 - I very much appreciate your stopping to read - and your kind comments! It's most pleasant when someone perceives.

no, no - Steve, I didn't think you were criticizing my poetry, but I understand that everyone doesn't just love poetry,. per se. I'm flattered that you are willing to give it a try & give it a thumbs up.

I certainly will vote for your hub! My "Following Other Hubbers" came in 2nd in its category last week.

I'm a bit behind in keeping up with reading all the hubs from folks I follow at present. My granddaughter & 2 strapping teenage great-grandkids are here from Indiana visiting. I'd forgotten how much a 6foot 15-year old boy can eat! haha!! He's in althetics and very aware of his diet, too! His sister is almost as tall as he but eats much less.

Steve - I understand. I confess that it takes very special qualities in others' poetry to attract or satisfy me. Often I sense that the person has simply "decided to write a poem" and the results come across as contrived or stiff - sometimes just silly. One feels like saying "if you wanted to mention a pretty purple flower why didn't you just do that without trying to rhyme the words?" lol Of course, another poem about a pretty purple flower might be like an song and communicating a mutual sense of the beauty of nature and wonderment of life!

Even well known poets sometimes come acrross a bit too contrived.

Anyway - my stuff was simply written down because it demanded to be and I barely had anything to do with deciding about it. I can never write a poem I will really like if I have an assignment or decide I need to write one. When I've tried to, those sound just like the ones I don't care for in others' poems. Flat and lifeless.

But I'm sure I have penned some you might never really especially like. It's OK. Just as you might write about building or fixing something that didn't ring my chimes. (I haven't found any as yet, though!)

Thanks for reading this and I deeply appreciate the honest feedback. I'm thrilled that some of it spoke to you and possibly encouraged your interest in the genre of poetry.

Well Suny, my friend - you must excuse me, (I dislike to play the age card, but sometimes it's necessary) - I don't recall about the promise, but I'd be happy for a memory jog. It sounds like something I'd promise, all right.

Now about giving anyone any message about anyone hating anyone does NOT sound like something I'd do, so that's out. Nor does it sound like me to set up situations to test people's love. But if you say you truly love me, of course I'll be pleased. As the song says, what the world needs now is love!

I'm truly pleased that you like my poetry and that it communicates its meanings to you. They are simple words, but in poetry, I guess I must admit that even though it's simple, not everyone does understand, and it only "rings true" for those with the souls to understand. Otherwise, it's just be so much noise. So I'm glad that they rang true for you - as you say they were eaay to understand!

Thank you especially for bothering to come and read my stuff and leave your comments about it!!

lalesuv-most admired poet yourself - those are thoughtful words and quotations.

One never knows why other's respond or don't. We can only know about our own motives and what we share. Sometimes that may be enough of a challenge!

To know anything I've ventured helped you feel a bit less stuck (though you seem very free to me!) I'm gratified.

Thanks for sharing that with me!

Blackreign. I'm honored. I went to your site and read some of you word. So powerful!! Thanks for the visit, read and kind comment!

Mpg - There are things I can't do for sure, but I try them anyway! I'm a very ordinary musician but I love to play and sing anyway. Thank you for the compliment!

LadyJane -Thank you! That warmed my heart! You're so dear!

raisingme! My goodness - that is lovely that you think so!! Thank you so much!!

howtoguru! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!! Poetry is so personal, isn't it? - Some speaks to one and some doesn't. I have the same experience reading it. Even famous poets sometimes fail to strike a chord. So I truly appreciate that mine spoke to you!

Thank you, hypnodude. That makes two of us. I'm not an expert, either. I just write what comes forth. Sometimes I even like it!! Those are times when I feel like I must be in cahoots with my muse and otherwise all I can write is blah. But I can still feel just what I felt writing Earth Person. I appreciate the positive feedback!!

Oh, RamK - that's most gratifying! Perhaps it depends on where one gets into literature in another language? I'm such an ignoramus when it comes to foreign languages, I can't speak from much experience. Being born and growing up in a border town between the US & Mexico, I was exposed to Spanish all my life. I played with Mexican kids at the ranch and we got along without speaking each others' languages! LOL. I studied Spanish formally all through school, made high scores in it - because I was quick to learn vocabulary, spelling, grammar, etc. But when I took "Conversational Spanish" - uh uh.

I laughed later and said -'well no wonder! I seldom got to speak English either!' You see, I grew up in a home with two very articulate parents and three much older also articulate siblings. So I never got to speak a word during real discussions, - or at least not so it was noticed or acknowledged!

It's surely one reason I learned to write and to express what I had to say in that way!

Anyway - that's my story and I'm sticking to it, as they say. (I did get over my extreme shyness during the second half of my life, by the way, and I learned to speak up, to speak in front of a large audience or wherever. But once the die is cast, one never totally changes, I suppose.)

epigramman - Thank you! Now I'm humbled if this is going to be communicated back to Mars! That's quite a responsibility! I'd better really watch my "Ps and Qs"!!

(or whatever alphabet is appropriate!)

Seriously - I appreciate the approval more than you know. After years of keeping some of these scribblings almost exclusively to myself, it's nice to have them graciously received! I write currently too, but many, many have been tucked away, hand-written on 3-hole notebook paper, dated, but seldom titled & kept in those folders with the metal fasteners so one can add up to several inches of pages.

There are about 10 such volumes, just as written at the time - between 1965 and tapering off in 1985, plus numerous envelops with scraps of paper, real books with blank pages, filled, and I've not been above scribbling on the frontespiece of a real book! Even a few composed on word processing software. I wrote in my earlier years too but most didn't survive conditions later on.

But during the much-writing time, while doing my daily chores, I'd think of poetry, almost already composed, I hardly knew from whence - and run write them down. Or I'd be out walking and some ordinary thing would compose itself into lines.

Some days there would be a lot; some days none or few. I never sat dow "to write" without knowing what & hardly ever revised because doing so resulted in a different poem.

If I shared them at all, I copied them by hand and the only changes might be in the arrangement of the lines. I can seldom repeat one with the same line arrangement! LOL

But I seldom ever showed them to anyone, and then, very selectively.

Perhaps you Martians underatand this process & can explain it to me!

De Greek!! My most revered critic, hub guru and friend! Thank you for such great words of genuine liking this! I'm sure that with encouragement like that, I'll be encouraged to post more of this genre hubs! I wouldn't want to "wear out the welcome" for it though! ;)

Nikki - fellow poet - thank you!!! Big smile of appreciation!

Merlin! wow! That is high praise! As for Hissing Sid, not only won't I insist you apologize to him but if I could find him, I'd insist he apologize to YOU!

Of course - "rote" and "repetition" were the methods used at some of those - - uh - - former times to "teach". I guess it hadn't yet occurred to the educational powers that be that people (especially young people) eagerly absorb & internalize information made interesting & shown to be valuable to them, and it happens almost effortlessly!

For a bunch of us who balk at being forced to do most anything, certainly being forced to "learn" when our nature IS to WANT to learn, forcing it works in reverse!

Thank you much for your very kind and gratifying remarks about my stuff!!

I have read the most recent of your hubs I was notified you'd posted - I'll be sure to see if there are others!

Shalini - - (smile) - - thank you. I guess stuff that pours out of a person is all linked, sometimes pell-mell - but it has the stamp of the person from whom it pours. I've been told & tested and it seems my right and left brains are nearly balanced, with a slight leaning to left, which feels fitting to me. When it's left-brain stuff, it feels natural and connected, so poetry and art are just different ways to express something "in there" that wants to be expressed.

Thanks for your keen observation!! Hope you visit again & again! You always add so much!

warrioRR - Thank you! I went to your site and lo! and Behold - you are a poet! And a countryman of my friend who is a new Hubber, Advisory Tab!

Diana! Yes, yes, yes! If people being newly exposed to poetry are aware of its music, it's so much more visceral to them. Words tend to put people off, and the more emphasis on the technical aspects the less they are to like their finished form the way they simply respond to music! Of course, music too has technique and form - but it communicates to the heart and "innards" - as poetry must do to be appreciated. You must be an outstanding teacher!!

Thanks for sharing the additional thoughts about that!!

Thank you, Tony! Your words "ring true". I truly appreciate it when it's so. Bugle Me A Day was written many years ago and I just felt an urge to share it now. I sense that many of us feel that from time to time.

For me, it was that moment when one has lost sureness but hasn't found wisdom or whatever is produced by that experience I call my "Fertile Flux" time, when I feel uncomfortably out of sync but aware it's in order to become better in sync.

Yes - they were very private thoughts - but aren't most of a person's inner workings like that? Hopefully we learn from those moments of uncertainty that it's ok to be uncertain (and in fact - only during them can we be shown more clarity so that thereafter we are more at ease with our thoughts, even confused ones, being exposed.

Thanks again for visiting & sharing your response, Tony!

Thank you, Margit - you're so keenly perceptive! I've written a lot about writing poetry, perhaps because it was at that time my friend, my confidante, and really my "sky-hook". In fact, one of my "From My Heart" sections in my website has a page with several of my poems about poetry which express my sense of it from various angles and times:

http://nellieanna.com/poetry.html

Hello, BJ! Glad to see you, as I always am! I know what you mean. Seems like if I doze off, by the time I look at my notices again, there will be a slough of new hubs and I want to read them all!

I'm so pleased you found the poems to your liking! Thank you!

ah - Now I understand! In fact, my friend Advisory Tab, who just has joined HP, who happens to be from a neighboring country of yours, has mentioned the same thing. He, too, is extremely articulate in English, though it is not his native language, and is very well-read in it - but he admits to not 'getting' poetry in English.

I suspect it is typical, since poetry tends to rely on "understood" (or not!) imagery which may be part of the early-ingrained & internalized sense of one's native language. It is often quite subtle, and full of personal references employed by a poet which are not always that easily deciphered even if in one's native tongue! One hopes it will strike a familiar or mutual note in someone else with similar experience or feelings.

So you're certainly excused and all is forgiven! I was a bit afraid that either I'd said something offensive or that you really didn't like it a bit! :( I'm relieved!

I might add to more exactly clarify, that much of my own poetry was written decades ago at a time when it was intended just for me, not to share, but almost as a diary to help me hang on to my own being AND to "pass inspection" by a tyrannical husband who tried to dominate my every thought and "own" me. To this day, it's been shared only on limited basis & there are volumes which have never been read by another soul! It was written prolifically over a lengthy period during an 18 year marriage.

He spoke only English but from a shabby background, culturally, with a limited exposure to literature, for sure, so that it wasn't too difficult to say what I needed to record in my poetry for my own purposes and still go waaaaaaaay over his head! He was self-aggrandizied too much to ask & thereby admit he didn't, besides. heh heh. He would, however, occasionally burn my poetry just in case. But that's another story. I did quickly learn to "work around" that eventuality.

FP - I am always honored when you stop by and read my stuff for any reason! I'm curious, of course, why you won't dare to comment, and I could jump to any of several conclusions, but I am not going to try to imagine why because it's totally impossible! Perhaps you'll do me the honor of explaining one of these times? I'm a big girl - I can take it!! :)

Joshua - I've read some of your work and your entrancing profile. Thank you for the visit and very kind comment. I like that it filled a need!

Thank you, Diana!! I appreciate that! I feel I'm a poet, even though I know it may not qualify by traditional standards. But you did me honor, because to me poetry's main identification is its "music" regardless of how it's achieved. Thanks for that! By the way, only the first picture is my INK sketch. The others are just some of my digital art. :)

Kaltopsyd - thank you! I appreciate your good opinion!

Suzie - I love your work too. Your Sounds of Nature - um um! And Cameos too! Thank you so much for visiting here!