Couch 198: All the Countries Couch

thanks! i'm also going to do sections in a light purple, light pink, and if i can find some, light yellow too. if not i'll just repeat the pink.

I just read this on the submission guidelines of a literary magazine I was considering sending a story to:



I like their attitude, though I don't think my story is realistic enough for them.

I have never submitted any of my stories to anywhere. Sometimes I think about it. I never have much actual plot.
I fully support the no hallmark poetry thing.

So while my computer was doing an update today, I figured I'd try writing the first poem in my Smash Poetry Journal (thanks for alerting me to that, Art!) It's about therapy...suppose I could type it up on here if anyone's interested.

I thought the therapist usually came to A Bad End, or was the cause of Bad Ends for other people?

They do - but aside from the cartoonish ending - it tends to be the characters' thoughts/observations rather than actions. So the characters' thoughts of hoisting up of the acme anvil, the plot to lure the therapist under the window where the piano movers are going to slip on the newly waxed oak floors etc.
And in second person

I would love to read it.

No title, but the prompt was to write something involving "open." (And this is a first draft!0

I open my soul to you
What comes out--does it stay in that room?
Or do you carry it with you
In your mind, in your heart?
Do you leave it behind
when you walk out the door,
get in your car, drive home?
Or does it linger within you,
the story I set free,
to which you bore witness
as I cried on your couch?
Are my emails unwelcome reminders
of what you locked behind the door,
as you returned to your life,
perhaps grateful you don't have my head?
Or are they just reminders
of what's been floating around--
the care, the concern, the...love?
And once I open my soul--
how do I close it again?
Or is it not possible--
that once I've let the feelings out,
they live and breathe,
but now as part of you, not just me,
and by having you share the burden,
they become more bearable?

There's a forum called Creative Corner on here where you could post poems and get some comments if you want.

So one of our prompts this coming week is to take a walk somewhere meaningful to us and for each block/section of trail start a new stanza. I'm thinking about taking a "walk" through a particular dream.

Oh wasn't aware of that, thanks!

Oh, I love that idea!

Think I like it better with one chunk removed:

I open my soul to you
What comes out--does it stay in that room?
Or do you carry it with you
In your mind, in your heart?
Do you leave it behind
when you walk out the door,
get in your car, drive home?
Or does it linger within you,
the story I set free,
to which you bore witness
as I cried on your couch?

And once I open my soul--
how do I close it again?
Or is it not possible--
that once I've let the feelings out,
they live and breathe,
but now as part of you, not just me,
and by having you share the burden,
they become more bearable?

I always encourage my students to enjoy the editing process.
They are very skeptical.

Wouldn’t that just be like one of your active imaginations except in poetry form?

I love the editing process. I always think of it as chiseling out a statue from a block of marble.

Whatever.

*backs away slowly, hands in the air*

Didn’t mean to offend you.

I love it as well. Editing is the fun part for me.

Thats funny, those are exactly my submission guidelines too!

I won’t woo you with Hallmark cards then!

I am teaching a July summer class and because it’s part of our online-only university, they moved the materials from Blackboard to the new Canvas LMS for me. I just peeked...and yup, they screwed it up.

We've been moved to Canvas also. Spending part of my summer taking online classes on how to use Canvas. It's isn't particularly friendly for English classes (reformats submissions), so trying to figure out work-arounds.

Hi couch. Been trying to relax this weekend but glad it's basically over. Spent Father's Day with H and his family for a few hours. They cooked out which was nice of them, but no one ever talks to me when I'm there. My mother in law asked what I did to my leg (SH scar) but didn't say anything else to me. Kids and I went and bought H a few new shirts that they were excited to pick out and give to him. Got my youngest a much needed haircut yesterday. Maybe TMI or weird for some, but I'm doing a milk bath breastfeeding photo shoot in a few weeks with her. I've been trying to find some hair crowns for us to wear and looking at some lace dresses.

They said they have a collection of lace gowns we can use but I haven't decided what I want. I'm more self conscious about my SH scars on my legs than anything.

I have been making strawberry jam and slicing strawberries for the dehydrator and hulling strawberries for the freezer all. day. long. (And I did laundry and weeded and washed the bajillion dishes that go with jam-making. And made a potato salad.)

In January I'll be glad that I put all this work in. Right now I'm tired from standing all day, and I don't care whether I see another strawberry ever again.

But the jam is delightful. I got a dark soft strawberry variety, lovely flavor. I had some lime juice in the freezer, exactly right to brighten up the strawberry . Summer in a jar.

Canvas to me is like doing fine surgery with a hammer not a scalpel. Blackboard didn’t do everything I wanted it to, but it was much more precise for managing and organizing online courses.

Mood was really bad today I had a headache and I tried to call my exT twice but couldn't say anything somleft strangled noises on his voicemail.