Hummingbird Tales

I saw it all from my green sky.

I had no more alphabet

that the swallows in their courses,

the tiny shining water

of the small bird on fire

which dances out of the pollen. 

- Pablo Neruda

If we consider possibility that dinosaurs evolved into birds, imagine Brontosaurus Rex shrink into a hummingbird body. What a change had to occur from a bulky creature who walked on thick legs and shook the earth with each step? 

An amazement of technology, a hummingbird can fly upside down and backwards while dipping its beak and tongue into flower nectar.

Where did the jewel of glitter first open its eyes? In Peru and other South American countries a variety of hummingbirds exist. They went to the rain forest and the high peaks of the Andes. They arrived in Argentina and Mexico. One species even made it to Alaska.

The Quechan people of present-day Ecuador tell stories of how the hummingbird represents a variety of attributes such as wisdom, optimism and agility. One story tells of a fire in a forest where many animals live. The hummingbird carries single drops of water back and forth from the pond to try to put out the firs. When the other animals ask why, the bird replies, "I am doing what I can."

Creative Write: What story could you craft today about an animal "doing what it can?"

Enrich writing with additions and deletions.

Do you depend on one sense in your writing and forget to use a variety of sights, sounds and scents to enrich the text?

Experiment with substracting elements from a descriptive passage.  Select paragraphs from your favorite writer or a piece of your own writing.  Notice what sense prevails.  What if it's removed?

Observe the use of adjectives and adverbs.  Use a metaphor or action verb replace them to expand meaning.

How would you describe a garden without the use of color?  Reveal music without sound, a meal without taste, or a sunset without sight.  Show the scent of a rose in metaphor.

Write about the process of adding and subtracting elements in your writing.

The Sense of Home

Home is where one starts.  As we grow older the world becomes stranger,
the pattern more complicated  . . .

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
                                                            - T.S. Eliot

The sense of home revolves around experiences and emotions.  Nostalgia comes from the latin, "nostos algos,"  the agony to return home.  The ideal of home often becomes a place to run away from when the time comes.  Individuals want to run back sometimes as well.

What does home represent?

 - where one resides: a shelter, house, castle, tent
 - one's native land
-  another human being or group
-  a place in the mind

Write about your sense of home. Does it relate to the above dimensions?