Tag Archives: inspirational blogger

Inquiring Minds, Poetry/Quote of the Week

Courage – A quote for the Year, Month, Day, or hour whatever it takes….

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CowardlyLion

“Courage! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the “ape” in apricot? What have they got that I ain’t got?” 

“Courage!”

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First of all give yourself a break from what you didn’t accomplish last year….and then give yourself a pat on the back for all the things big or small that you did accomplish this year.

NOW…find the courage to do it all over again….I’m not talking about resolutions….just the courage to try….if you fail in that trying then you tried in that failing…yeah yeah I know you heard it all before….but have the courage to fail…..or even the courage to succeed…

Stick your neck out….ask that girl/guy out that you have been eyeballing,  write something of substance, jog down that street, lift that weight,  deny yourself that donut (at least for this week or month), join a cause that’s been prickling you, express an opinion or participate in a constructive dialogue with another, travel near or far to a new place you have never been.  Give someone needed encouragement…be less selfish (I do need the occasional back rub…:) .  Be kind to yourself and don’t beat yourself up over your failings…guess what, your human.

Perfection is relative  but the world likes uniqueness so find the uniqueness in you and share it with others  and exploit yourself…in a good way I’m saying …I’m also good at sex but I’m not gonna be a Gigolo..or maybe I can be…:)

I found the perfect thing while I was shopping this weekend to help me get to that place this year….it called out to me from the store shopping shelf like a clarion call on the battlefield….read the label carefully below.

oldSPICEFRONT

Who wouldn’t want to smell like COURAGE!…Well I tried it and it smells good…..I’m not sure what real Courage smells like…but its a good start for the year..My wife likes it, so that’s good enough for me!

So go out and find your courage….:)

Inquiring Minds

A Calvin and Hobbes Christmas

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The following is needed to clear my brain and palate of the week that was…I hope you enjoy…

CalvinHobbesSnowmanA

CalvinHobbesSnowmanB

CalvinHobbesSnowmanC

CalvinHobbesSnowmanD

CalvinHobbesSnowmanF

CalvinHobbesSnowmanK

CalvinHobbesSnowmanM

CalvinHobbesSnowmanN

CalvinHobbesSnowmanP

Inquiring Minds, Poetry/Quote of the Week

My NOW PHILisophy…

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The NOW only happens once, seize the NOW before it goes away never to return.

If you miss that NOW, know that a new NOW may  present itself but you must be ready and spring upon it with claws extended because you are pushing the odds my friend.

If you find yourself in a NOW moment, slow down, taste it, relish it and remember it wholly wrapping yourself up in it like a blanket.

Don’t be afraid of the NOW; embrace it like all challenges that life flings at you  wrapped in that loathsome word called fear.

Above all, NOW is in you  whether you know it or not. You just have to let it come out and play…:)

by Philip Wardlow

 

Inquiring Minds, Poetry Work

If I could Climb Inside – A Poem

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I grab your head tight in a vice as you sleep sedated,

I make multiple cuts deep; past skin, past bone.

I pull back the flaps and climb inside.

Amidst a tangled mess I stand,

wires frayed and disconnected,

terminals cracked and decayed with

gears full of gunk and stuck tight

not moving.

A frown comes to my face, for this

cannot be all there is to you.

You seem to be dead inside, no lights

flicker on the walls to indicate an energy has

ever lived here…but yet I sense something.

A weak rhythmic hum travels into my feet,

as transient electrons skip through you

from somewhere buried deep.

I smile for I see there is hope yet to be had

Something yet lingers.

I set my tool bag slowly down

upon the floor and begin my work.

By Philip Wardlow

Inquiring Minds, Poetry Work

My Climb – A poem

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My Climb

The cold bites into my

hands as I reach for

the rocky outcrop in

my climb to the top.

The blowing wind plays with

me as it shifts from east to west

trying to fool me into shifting

my weight to the wrong position.

The sun shadows my every

move but I give it a smile and

a scowl.

I say fuck you to the elements,

I say fuck you to the gravity

that wants to pull me back

to Mother Earth.

I may be a student to this life I lead,

but you are not my master.

No one claims me.

No one drives me but

myself up this mountain

I climb.

If I ‘m going to fall,

It’s going to be because

I chose to jump.

and fly

free.

By Philip Wardlow

Inquiring Minds, Poetry/Quote of the Week

Never Give up….

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Inquiring Minds, Poetry/Quote of the Week

Inspiration – It Could strike at any moment – Quote of the week

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The difference between the right word and  the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning  bug.
Mark  Twain

Inquiring Minds

The World – Commentary on Writing and Connecting

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credit for graphic – Christel Steinvorth

I see you World…and I know you see me “write” back. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the stories I run into out here with the bits and bytes that float by from point A to point B. They just floor me.  They either entertain me, touch me, inspire me, teach me, piss me off, or just plain give me a since of camaraderie to the world at large.

Some critics think it’s a colder world socially we live in because its become impersonal, or too sterile in the way we socialize with all the texting, blogging,facebooking, and twittering we do.

I have met people from just around the corner to halfway around the world that I would never have met without this little invention called the computer.

The current population of the world is approximately at 7 Billion and climbing at a net growth of 200,000 new people per day on this Earth…I say those numbers alone could make it a pretty impersonal world to start with.  Now imagine if we didnt have computers to connect in some way to those 7 Billion. Imagine if the word computer wasn’t in the dictionary, and that  this wonderous machine I’m now typing on didn’t exist.

I wouldn’t have met  a funny witty honest little girl named Amna, from Pakistan who showed me the best and brightest is yet to be for the younger generation just now starting to take hold in this world

OR a guy named Seth from PA, USA who has faced adversity from the moment he was born which he continues to struggle with to this day but can still smile and find humor in life and inject that same feeling just by his very spirit and vitality into all his blogs on entertainment, life and love.

There is a woman who lives in Tasmania, who’s never known anything but her small little isolated world on a small island just south of Australia. She’s a writer named Megan Sayer who plans on fulfillng her lifelong dream of taking a trip to the United States and  visit a dear friend that she met online through her blogging. She has many spoken and unspoken fears but she’s learning to face them head on and  challenge herself on an almost daily basis.

There  is a woman , a writer who blogs who goes by the name Stella Marr….who lives in New York City , who was stuck in a world of prostitution, violence, and outright slavery for ten years who climbed  out and turned a corner in her life where so few don’t or can’t in that life. Now she inspires, informs, and sets the record straight  about the misconceptions of sex trafficking of girls and women all across the world.

Then there’s Christian Mihai,  a young writer in Romania,  a young man with a passion and intelligence for all things. He’s driven, he’s creative, he’s inquisitive, he’s profound, he’s inspiring.  He fuels me to be better, to think. Throw away my vanity and just be a student of life and learn my craft as a writer.

Finally, there’s Goregirl, what can I say about her. She knows what she loves and pursues it. An officiando on everything Horror if you couldn’te tell by her blog name. She’s a workhorse for her blogspost…constant, thorough, steadfast, and committed to her followers and her reviews. She has focus. Like an arrow being shot from a bow to hit dead center.

Stories of hardships,abuse,triumphant,being steadfast or driven in anything you love and believe in, showing courage against overwhelming odds. These are stories, these are lives which I recognize. These are people I wish to know. These are people I wish to be. These are people I admire. These are people I wish to write about.

Inquiring Minds, Poetry Work

My Beautiful Dead Girl – A Poem

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Haunted eyes

wrapped in misery.

You are already dead,

so why should you feel pain?

 

Pain is your purgatory

little girl, a grand gift

from scales that can never

be balanced in your favor.

 

Haunted eyes they may be,

but I see defiance, strength,

lingering deep, always

ready to rise to the surface.

 

Never did death look so beautiful

A perfection in form chiseled

from stone beaten up and torn

down by the elements.

 

You wear your cloak well,

dark and tear stained, wrapped

tight around a body that

still flies free.

 

You are my beautiful dead girl.

with cold hands clenching tight around

a warm heart

that beats just for you.

by Philip Wardlow

Inquiring Minds

Who am I….know yourself before you write.

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I wanted to expand a little bit on the previous  blog I wrote,regarding Write what you know. Yes, writer what you know of course…how could you not…

If you don’t it’s  a pretty short fall to people, your readers,  realizing you don’t know what the hell your talking about.  BUT even if you have that base covered and you know what your talking about then you actually have to make what you say interesting.  You can’t  just spout the right words in the right order and make a sentence and hope that person on the receiving end of it all is interested in what your saying. Hey slap that kid in the back he’s dozing off.  SLAP..thanks

I found out  when I went to back to college and started studying literature and creative writing that people just dont know how boring they are to listen to when it comes to the written word.( it can carry over to normal conversation as well but not always)  I can’t tell you how many times I sat around in a huddle with my writing group and we’d all take turns reading a particular writer’s story and then proceed to give our own critique of it.

I always hated critiquing people’s work because I have this thing in my mind that likes to leap out and wreak havoc on the poor soul who wrote it.  Basically, that creature inside my head is honesty.  What made it worst for me was that the three people before me, giving the guy their own opinion , who read the  same exact boring  going nowhere piece of crap  story that I did, didn’t have the balls to step up and say “Hey buddy, see this part right here, yeah,   I don’t get it..or could you be a  little more descriptive..this isn’t a grocery list your writing here, hell a grocery list would have been more exciting…and look what you did there…what were you  thinking?”     SEE WHAT I DID? ..I totally just bombed this whole guy’s story and he thinks I’m a jerk.

Raise your hand if you have ever seen Amercian Idol, or some version of  such a show.  Stop me if I’m wrong but of the 70,000+ entrants maybe 200 have actual talent to go further. The rest of the 69,800 just have one thing…..courage.  Now where do they get that courage from?  From the same people like in my writing group who don’t know how to give an honest critique but instead pump them full of misguided praise, misinformation, or worse yet..just silence, leading the writer to think whatever hell they want to think. (which is usually oh I must be kinda good)

NOW here’s my point to all this blah blahing above. If those 69,800  others really really really really took a look at themseleves.  Reviewed their talent in all the clarity of a microscope, you would see would them BE BETTER. Some might not be Idol material but they would BE better when they went up to that mic. Because they would KNOW themselves.  KNOW what they need to work on, come prepared,  work at their craft. But they delude themselves and will continue to delude while someone pats their hands and tells them what they want to hear.

I soooooo  want people to tell me whats wrong with my work it hurts. (yes I occasionally  would like adulation from my adoring fans…bring it)

I want to get better…but I want to get better. For real better.

So as a writer I will always try to be true, to myself  and not short change myself. I  will do my best not to lie to myself…the truth will set you free they say. (will somebody get me out of this straight jacket)