Thursday Thirteen

Today, I give you 13 four-letter words.

1. Love. Of course this is the number one favorite four-letter word! What else were you thinking when I wrote "four-letter words," hm? "Love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave." - The Song of Solomon viii. 6

2. Blue. My favorite color. Blue is the sky, it is the water. It is symbolic of the air we breathe. It's the color of eyes and flowers. It describes my mood a lot these days. It's a great word.

3. Pink. Okay, it's another color but it is a nice color. It's the morning sky sometimes, it's baby skin, it's kissable lips, it's my eyes after a bad night's sleep.

4. List. As in a Thursday Thirteen! What would I do without my to-do list? My list of groceries? My list of days.

5. Tear. That's "tear" as in the stuff that falls from your eye, not the ripping of paper. A tear, O! A drop of salt water from the eyes of the one you love brings heartache and compassion. A tear is a cleansing, a symbol, a sign of the soul. How can someone watch another sob and not be moved?

6. Eyes. The soul appears when the eyes are open. Look deeply into my eyes and what do you see there? Maybe nothing at all, maybe the depths of the world. Maybe heartache and toil, maybe laughter and smiles. Maybe, if you look long enough, you will see everything you need to see and you will see me as I truly am.

7. What. Ah, a word that means a question. And questions are the way we learn, the way we grow, the way we know we are thinking. If you aren't questioning the world around you, asking "what?" at every opportunity, then you aren't truly using your noodle. My questions these days include "What if I just read a book, will it be the end of the world?" and "What is wrong with this Congress, why aren't they doing anything that makes any sense?" and "What happened to Tuesday?"

8. Talk. Communication is key, and if we don't talk, we don't learn. We don't understand, we don't get it. Talking is how I listen ... by keeping my mouth shut I learn what you need and desire, want, feel or thin. When I talk I am expressing how I feel, my wants, my needs. Sometimes I talk too much. I am pretty sure I don't talk too little.

9. Feel. The things that the world seems to run on these days, feelings. How I feel about something as opposed to how I think about it. I would rather people thought more and felt less about many things, to be honest; that is how we're in the mess we're in nationwide, too much emotion and not enough thinking. But feelings in personal relationships of course are quite necessary. I wouldn't want to go to bed every night with someone for whom I felt nothing, that is certain. They just don't belong in national debates.

10. Feet. Actually this is not a favorite word; I am not a foot fan. My feet have been ignored most of my life and I think most feet are, well, shall we say, not pretty. Having ignored said feet for 46 years, they now complain daily so they are on my mind more than I would like.

11. Will. Nope, not short for "William," but the will of mankind... of me. The power of my mind over what goes on around me. My intentions, my purpose. Dreams and destiny, maybe. What will be will be... but maybe not.

12. Word. Of course something to do with writing has to be on this list! And where we would be without words? Certainly not reading this blog entry, or talking, or doing anything much. Words make us human, whether those words are spoken or unspoken. Yay for words!

13. Poem. I love poetry though I don't read much of it anymore. There was a time when I thought I might become a poetess, but something instead turned me toward nonfiction. My poetry is good when I work at it, lackluster when I don't. My favorite modern poet is Sharon Olds. One of my favorite poems (which has lots of good four-letter words in it) is:

The Passionate Shepherd to his Love
By C. Marlowe

COME live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

There will I make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull,
Fair linèd slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold.

A belt of straw and ivy buds
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my Love.

Thy silver dishes for thy meat
As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is number 104!