reflecting

Ten years ago today, on a whim, I decided to start a blog. A few months earlier, I had launched a blog site for a local poetry contest (the site is still going and now known as The Poetry Department), and had been enjoying the momentum of daily posting.

I didn’t have a clear notion of what I’d post on chocolateisaverb, nor was I very interested in promoting the site, but I hoped that just having a place to put my words might encourage me to write. Somewhat remarkably, it has.

In those ten years, I have posted fragments of my written meanderings, bits of fiction, musings about my family, and thousands (literally) of found poems. I’ve shared my publishing successes and, by way of found poetry, my political, environmental, and cultural concerns. Almost everything has been fresh off the drawing board, without the pause for reflection and editing that any reasonable poet would give their work before putting it out into the world.

But nobody complained. Every day, I am grateful to the readers who find their way here, who leave comments, and click Like, and send texts and emails, and return for more. In this fragile time, it is hard to project much beyond next week, so I make no promises about the future. But for today, and for the last ten years, THANK YOU for being my audience, my community, and my friends.

This is post number 3,067.

The Report

Each year, WordPress provides its bloggers with a state-of-the-blog report that notes highlights of the year just past.
In my report, a couple of things stand out. First, that earlier this week I passed the 1000-post mark without even noticing. Second, that in addition to subscribers and those who find the site by accident or by referral from another site, some people find their way to chocolate is a verb by searching for a particular term, most commonly chocolate is a verb, shoveling dirt, found poem, verbs for chocolate and chocolate verbs. Go figure.
To all of you who find your way here, with or without a shovel: Thank You and Happy New Year!

A QUEST…

found poem © j.i. kleinberg

getting inspired…

I’ve never been to Anne Arundel County, Maryland, but Melanie, who blogs at Beyond Back Creek, takes us there in her reflections on life, craft, cooking, design, chicken coops and much more. Melanie also visits chocolate is a verb and has found these posts worthy of the Very Inspiring Blogger Award, for which I am hugely appreciative.

Acceptance requires the nominee to reveal seven bits of information and then suggest other bloggers for the award. So, herewith:

I’m an only child, but perhaps you guessed that.

As a former scuba instructor and a maker of baskets, I am among the select few who proudly wear the epithet “underwater basket weaver.”

When my big basket (yes, that big basket) was displayed at the Seattle Art Museum, I was surprised and delighted to discover that visitors dropped notes into it, like pennies into a well.

My musical tastes are far-flung and eclectic, but if I had to narrow it down, I’d take the blues. Hmmm, that doesn’t narrow it down much, does it?

I have had two birthdays graced by a total eclipse of the sun that I was able to see in person: February 26, 1979 and February 26, 1998.

I don’t own a television.

Many years ago, I was commissioned to collaborate with a needlepoint expert in the decoration of a 40th-birthday gift: a jockstrap. She stitched the waistband with the words “40 and still growing” and my part consisted of crocheting many dozens of life-size purple grapes, which decorated the business portion of the, ahem, garment.

In addition to chocolate is a verb, I blog daily about poetry and less frequently for Other Mind Press. (I also blog for clients, but that’s another matter.) Your Comments, Likes and subscriptions are very, very meaningful. Thank you.

I visit many blogs. Here are some that I find consistently Very Inspiring:

Alphabet Roadtrip

Talking to Strangers: An Introvert Hits the Streets

Riva Berkovitz

Ranch Notes: stories from this life in the country

The Dad Poet

two

YEARS: 2
POSTS: 641
THANKS: a million

Since that first musing on a dawn sky on November 20, 2010, chocolate is a verb has provided me with focus, opportunity and audience. It has served as the proverbial blank slate on which I discover and explore what’s on my mind.

For each of you who visits, I am deeply grateful. Every day I am encouraged by the little spikes in the bar graph that show me you’ve been here. I am warmed by your “Likes” and moved by your Comments. Through your presence here, you have helped me find and trust my voice — my many voices.

THANK YOU.
. . . . .
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trying to write…

This daily bit of writing is a sort of advent calendar. Nothing to do with Christmas, but a kind of reveal overlaid on the seamless panorama of my life and imagination. Each day, I open the little window, the buttoned pouch, the jewel box, to discover, to describe, the memories, secrets, images and stories that lie within.
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