Notices by dogtrax (dogtrax@mastodon.social), page 4

“ … if there’s a beat, make sure your flow fits it like a glove. Flow is the rhythm of the rhymes, and every word, every syllable, affects it. Even the way a word is pronounced can change the flow.”

-- from On The Come Up, by Angie Thomas, page 37

#smallquotes

@Algot perfect ... #smallstories #smallpoems convergence

@Algot

These poem are drenched
in code, words hidden beneath
the veil of freedom

#smallpoems response (but as noted elsewhere, mine is likely far away from yours, since I don't know the context of what you were writing)

My father
reminds me
of something
I forgot

- not long after -

I remind
my son of
something
he forgot

- so this is how it is:

the elder remembering
what the younger
has forgotten -

we each carry
the pebbles of memory
for the other

#smallpoems

I'm eavesdropping in the book store, listening in on two loud clerks at the front counter.

"Someone sent me a dumb emoji," one says.
The other laughs, adds: "I remember when we didn't have emojis."
The first one is quiet. He may not be old enough to remember.
"If you wanted an emoji, you had to make it yourself. You'd type it into place with your thumb, on your phone. Now, it's all done for you."
More silence.
"I miss those days."
"You could still do it."
"I know. But I don't."

#smallstories

“Tell me.”

-- from Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James, page 620

#smallquotes

(Note: these are the last two words of the entire book, which I found intriguing because of the role of storytelling and griots in the sprawling African-mythology-inspired novel, which is set forth as a story being told in the griot format - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griot )

@StuC I'm not sure if ChuckeCheese is still around but I can remember bringing our kids, when younger, to one near Boston, and it was a strange place -- with arcade machines and indoor slides and birthday parties and flashing lights and loud music and shouting voices. Sensory overload. Sort of like the modern Web, but in a storefront. Even our kids thought it was a bit much.

@readsteven 🙂

@Sargoth good luck on this round anyway ... you never know ...

@tellio and yet, still we write .. and thankful for it .... peace, brother

@Algot

I'm patient, merely
waiting, knowing the
time for your rhymes
will arrive -- for you and
your verse always shine
best in couplets
while mine often seem
like a stream of thought,
random and lost for
anchor

#smallpoems response

@flavigula

For want of a spoon,
I dip my finger into
the morning's
cup of coffee, stirring
music no one else
can hear and sipping
possibilities

#smallpoems riff

@dublinux Cats ... always self-sufficient ...

@uschi_the_listener

Where the slippery border
between day and night
begins, and ends, ideas
often tumble their way
into forgetfulness

#smallpoems response

@lauraritchie Yeah, for sleep! Double yeah, for music! Triple yeah, for the weekend!

“We have given up our connection to context. Social media mashes up meaning. Whatever you say will be contextualized and given meaning by the way algorithms, crows, and crowds of fake people who are actually algorithms mash it up with other people say.”

-- from Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, by Jaron Lanier, page 65

#smallquotes

I caught a glimpse of something moving in the darkness. The small window peaks out into our fenced-in yard. I didn't want to put the lights on -- too early -- so I squinted through the glass to look. What I saw was a huge green ball -- left over from a summer graduation party but tucked away for winter -- rolling and bouncing its way back and forth in the gusty winds this morning. It was as if the March wind needed to play, and the big green ball, just too perfect to pass up. #smallstories

All of us spend time
following Desire Lines,
those beaten paths off
the main artery:
informal, collective
trampings --

Not quite lost
Not quite found

-- we go where our feet
tell us, take us -- as our
mind navigates elsewhere,
refusing all manner of
plan

#smallpoems

(Desire Lines are those informal walking paths across Commons, cutting into areas the developers/designers never did intend)