Author: Amy

I love words. And animals. Photography and fedoras. Welcome. And stay awhile.
Time Traveling Up Ahead
daily prompt · Uncategorized · Writing

Time Traveling Up Ahead

Amy15 Comments

If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?

I read the prompt suggestion today, and my reaction was, “Meh.” I scrunched up my face and was underwhelmed. So I’m going to break the rules a little bit and use the prompt to springboard (similar to billboard, but not at all) to something I wrote a while ago, and which ties into yesterday‘s prompt.

I’ve heard people say energies can inhabit a place long after a person has passed. It’s general knowledge in the paranormal community that ghosts/spirits can remain in a place, their energies reliving a certain time of their lives, for whatever reason, their presences seen in the same place, enacting the same scene for…ever (or until they have made their peace and move on). Perhaps these times were overwhelmingly happy or devastatingly sad.

What I question is this: is it possible for us “living right now” people to ingrain a happy memory onto a time and place so that others see or “feel” a presence when they are in these places?

As of today, living and breathing, I often pass places where I’ve created happy memories and wonder if anyone near or in those places now can feel the happiness that I helped create and lived once upon a time. In other words, do our living energies imprint our feelings just as spirits are able to when they pass?

I find myself searching specific areas with my eyes, curious if something akin to “The Time-Traveler’s Wife” is possible (horrible film, by the way, but compelling story).

For now, I don’t know. I feel no differently in these places, I see no out of the ordinary phenomena; it’s just me and my memories.

And I cherish them.

©️2024 itsamyisaid.com, All Rights Reserved.

Van Halen Said It Best
daily prompt · Writing

Van Halen Said It Best

Amy20 Comments

Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?

What’s wrong with staying in the moment, in today? It’s the only day in which I can do anything. If I’m thinking about yesterday or tomorrow, what am I getting done today?

There are a few sayings about this topic. One is: “Don’t look back you’re not going that way.” Another is: “The future is a gift, today is the present.”

Many mental health professionals will tell you to think too much of the past may lead to/can be a sign of depression, and to think into the future may lead to/can be a sign of anxiety.

As a writer, I put myself into a zone which has no knowledge of time. The zone sometimes includes the past, as some of the best material for poetry is mined from the past. I’m not interested in writing about the future, unless I’m working on a fictional piece that involves fictional characters. In my every day life my feet are firmly in the day that I was given.

As soon as I saw this prompt, I thought of Van Halen. I started singing the lyrics, in fact. Below is the verse that my mind went to from the song entitled, “Right Now.”

Hey
It’s your tomorrow
(Right now),
C’mon, it’s everything
(Right now),
Catch a magic moment, do it
Right here and now
It means everything

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Alex Van Halen / Edward Van Halen / Michael Anthony / Sammy Hagar
Right Now (2004 Remaster) lyrics © Capitol CMG Publishing, Royalty Network, Songtrust Ave, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc

Every Day is Play Day
daily prompt · Humor · Writing

Every Day is Play Day

Amy9 Comments

Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?

This prompt question has recently been asked, and you can read my piece on that here.

There was a similar prompt question, which asked how you remain a kid at heart. Read my piece on that here.

I guess it’s pretty obvious from the previous prompts I’ve answered, the fact that Hello Kitty is found throughout my house, and that there was a red nose on my car for Rudolph season, that I am thoroughly invested in play every day.

The key to staying young in mind and heart (and hopefully somewhat in body), is to find the moments of play. And if you can’t find them, create them. Opportunities are all around if you just look.

Below you’ll see photographic evidence of play in every day situations.

What does play look like in your life? Do you make time to play? Do you make the effort to look around you and see the opportunities? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for stopping by!

If you have a white coated tongue, you may have just eaten an Oreo cookie
Watering cans threatening to douse
Rhinosicorn enjoying lazy winter day
Candle with googly eyes, sweater and cap
George is ready for summer
It’s hers

©️2024, itsamyisaid.com, All Rights Reserved

Dirty Feet, et al.
daily prompt · poetry

Dirty Feet, et al.

Amy27 Comments

What are your biggest challenges?

Get your dirty feet out of my new year

It was clean

It didn’t have these bags in it

When I glanced at it yesterday

It was shiny and new

Untouched

Get your dirty bags out of here

Walk backwards

And clean each footprint as you go

Leave the place spotless

As it was yesterday

When I glanced

And saw everything sparkling

Don’t look at my new year again

Don’t touch it

Don’t even ponder what it looks like

Keep your old bags

and your dirty feet

In your own year

©️2024 itsamyisaid.com, All Rights Reserved.

Auld Lang Syne
daily prompt · poetry

Auld Lang Syne

Amy6 Comments

What makes you feel nostalgic?

Life is a time capsule

Set up in increments of five or ten years

Sometimes moments

It takes so long to grow older

And almost no time at all

To realize you’re suddenly old

Nostalgia is memories

Stored as moments

Toys, people, smells, sounds, places

feelings

while in these places

Emotions felt by smelling cotton candy

Or suntan lotion

Or a certain brand of beer

Or hairspray you used when you were sixteen

A pen you used to write your first novel

The heat of a summer

The cold of a winter

If you close your eyes and you think of a time

or times

When you were happiest

Most creative

Most loved

Most loving

And present in the moment

The comfort of nostalgia will envelop you

©️2023 itsamyisaid.com, All Rights Reserved.

And I said, “What About Midnight in Paris?”
Love · poetry

And I said, “What About Midnight in Paris?”

AmyLeave a comment

And he said, “I just watched that film

Again.

And as I recall

I think

You also liked it.”

And I said, “That’s weird. I just watched that film

Again.

And yes I

I did

I really liked it.”

And he said, “Well then

That’s the one thing we had.”

©️2023 itsamyisaid.com, All Rights Reserved.

Inspired by: 

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Song by Deep Blue Something

You'll say we've got nothing in common
No common ground to start from
And we're falling apart
You'll say the world has come between us
Our lives have come between us
Still I know you just don't care

And I said, "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?"
She said, "I think I remember the film
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it"
And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got"

I see you, the only one who knew me
But now your eyes see through me
I guess I was wrong
So what now? It's plain to see we're over
And I hate when things are over
When so much is left undone

And I said, "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?"
She said, "I think I remember the film
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it"
And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got"

You'll say that we've got nothing in common
No common ground to start from
And we're falling apart
You'll say the world has come between us
Our lives have come between us
Still I know you just don't care

And I said, "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?"
She said, "I think I remember the film
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it"
And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got"

Ooh, and I said, "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?"
She said, "I think I remember the film
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it"
And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got"

And I said, "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?"
She said, "I think I remember the film
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it"
And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got"

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Todd David Pipes

Breakfast at Tiffany's lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc
Bert Pinkfoot
daily prompt · Nature · Writing

Bert Pinkfoot

Amy7 Comments

If I started a sports team, it would be racing pigeons, and their mascot would be Bert Pinkfoot.

Bert Pinkfoot was a racing pigeon who absconded a race and somehow ended up in my backyard. I knew he was a racing pigeon because he had green bands on both ankles. He was also rather tame. He arrived several Septembers ago, and I knew he wasn’t from around here, because we don’t have many pigeons where I live. That and the bands, as I mentioned. There are plenty of mourning doves, but no pigeons.

I immediately called the local bird sanctuary, and asked about this racing pigeon in my backyard, who had attracted a local flock of doves. As a matter of fact, all the female doves were quite impressed with Bert and tried to get his attention. Bert was a working man, he was a racing bird, and he was not interested in any female attention (this is when some doves cried).

The woman at the bird sanctuary told me that Bert likely left a race. My understanding is these birds race from point A to point B and back to point A, as pigeons are trained to do. She told me it was likely if I tried to return the bird to its owner, the owner would likely kill the bird because he absconded the race and lost the owner money. She also said that there had been a race about 300 miles north, and that he probably was from that race.

I wasn’t sure what to do with Bert. I had already been feeding and giving water to the “normal” birds, so he had a bit of an all-you- can eat buffet and sanctuary in my backyard. The woman also told me that he’d be likely to be eaten by hawks because he was raised to be a racing pigeon, and had no true exposure to the outside, natural world. At least not while he was trying to sleep.

Bert hung around for several weeks, though he never joined in with the doves. He tolerated his distant cousins, and maybe he found solace with them. We’ll never know why he left the race – whether he was seeking freedom or he got lost – but after about two weeks, Bert was no longer in my backyard. I didn’t see him again. I like to think he found his freedom and flew to a nearby city to be with his brethren city pigeons. I don’t think of the alternative.

Bert Pinkfoot

©️2023 itsamyisaid.com, All Rights Reserved.