Unsold Poems for the August 4, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl

The following poems from the August 4, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl are currently available. Poems may be sponsored via PayPal -- there's a permanent donation button on my Dreamwidth profile page -- or you can write to me and discuss other methods. There are still verses left in the linkback poems "Mysterious and Impermanent," "Greater Than the Sum," "A Lively Feast," "Always Carry Your Goodness," "Crossroads on the Hero's Journey," "Gökotta," "The Arc of the Mental Universe," "So Often Alone," "An Iron Fist," "The Bushfire Shawl," "Petrichor," "Putting Everything in Its Place," "Everything That Blooms," "Two Ends of a Spectrum," and "In the Shade of the Mighty Oak."


"The Duty of the Living"
During Carl Bernhardt's trial, the topic of centaur clothing comes up.
482 lines, Buy It Now = $241

Turq was beyond nervous.

The case against Carl Bernhardt
had been building for months,
from the scraps of evidence used
to track him down to everything
uncovered in the course of the raid.


"A Link to the Handmade Past"
When Saxon feels overwhelmed by mental voices, Drew crafts a solution.
167 lines, Buy It Now = $84

Several days had passed
since the soul scream incident,
and Saraphina still clung like a burr
to Aidan or Drew or anyone else
she was attached to. Mostly Aidan.


"To Give Suffering a Location"
A wipeout on a skateboard ramp leads to an intimate discussion of trauma between Hefty and a college student.
1129 lines, Buy It Now = $565

Despite the beautiful late-summer day,
the Seymour Smith Skatepark was
all but deserted, most people having
gone to The Bay in Lincoln for
the tournament there.

With new college classes
to handle, Stefan had stayed
behind, but allowed himself
a few hours at the park so
he could clear his head.


"The War That Was Won..."
When war breaks out between the Hoplarchy of Ledes and the Hamarchy of Helgi, the hetaerae take an unexpected approach toward making peace.
82 lines, Buy It Now = $41

A war sprang up between
the Hoplarchy of Ledes and
the Hamarchy of Helgi.

It started over an iron mine
and trade rights, but rapidly
expanded from there.


"When I Was Born an Orange"
Shiv finds a use for Daevin's unusual talents.
199 lines, Buy It Now = $100

Shiv was cleaning tables out front
when he heard the argument start.

Well, not an angry-and-yelling argument,
more of a desperate-and-pleading one.

Poem: "In the Shade of the Mighty Oak"

This was the linkback perk poem for the August 4, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was originally hosted by Dreamwidth user Dialecticdreamer.  It came out of the May 2020 Creative Jam.

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Birdfeeding

Today is sunny and warm.

I fed the birds.

I raked up the remaining sticks in the firepit to form the core of a new fire.

EDIT 8/14/20 -- I picked up sticks on the way to the ritual meadow.

Something purple is blooming in the wildflower garden, possibly penstemon, though the leaves look narrower.

I may have glimpsed an owl -- something large in the trees.

EDIT 8/14/20 -- I picked up sticks under Home Base.

I saw a bat!  :D  Eat many bugs, cousin.

Poetry Fishbowl Report for August 4, 2020

Our theme this month was "Unconventional Problem-Solving." I wrote from 12:30 PM to 6:30 AM, so about 16 hours allowing for lunch and supper breaks. I wrote 4 poems on Tuesday and another 6 later.

Participation was similar, with 11 comments on LiveJournal and another 54 on Dreamwidth. A total of 16 people sent prompts. There were no new prompters.


Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the August 4, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
"The Best Understanding of Their Differences"
"In the Face of Complacency and Cowardice"
"Plugging the Pipe"
"Take Down the Master's House"

"In the Shade of the Mighty Oak" (standalone, May Creative Jam, 2020) (linkback perk)
"The Blue People" (Polychrome Heroics, July 21, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl) (free epic)
"Targets for Their Own Self-Hatred" (Polychrome Heroics: Officer Pink, July 7, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl)


Buy some poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, see the unsold poetry list from August 4. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available. All sponsored poems have been posted. This month's donors include: ng_moonmoth, janetmiles, and Anthony & Shirley Barrette. There were no new donors. There is 1 tally toward a bonus fishbowl.


The Poetry Fishbowl also has a permanent landing page.

Poem: "The Cutting of the Gem"

This is a birthday gift for dialecticdreamer. It is spillover from the July 2, 2019 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from zianuray and also fills the "Art" square in my 6-1-19 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

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Notes for "The Cutting of the Gem"

These are the notes for "The Cutting of the Gem."

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20-minute Neighborhoods

The idea is that, like a traditional neighborhood, most of what people need should be within 20 minutes of walking, biking, or public transit from home.  Doing this decreases driving and traffic, because people would rather get what they can locally than waste half the day going crosstown if they don't have to.  It increases jobs, because those goods and services need someone to provide them.

This is how you fix suburbs.  Find a good center and put useful things in it.  Add accessory dwelling units to improve density.  Is there room for a small (4-12 units) apartment building in a similar style as nearby houses?  Or can a large corner house be expanded into a sharehouse or apartment split?  Is there an old parking lot or empty lot that could become a food truck park, farmer's market, flea market, or other open commerce space?  Is all the greenspace parkland or is some of it just sort of there?  If the latter, add a community garden, wildlife refuge, stormwater garden, etc.  Create centers, and let some of the in-between places depopulate if they're too expensive to maintain in a shifting economy.  It's a lot cheaper to run municipal infrastructure in a small area than spread all over everywhere.

Some of these changes can be done for little or no money.  It costs nothing to change zoning so people can add ADUs, run a home business, or turn an empty house into a resale boutique if they want.  It also costs nothing to cut the requirement that everyone be "on the grid."  Indeed, if some houses go back to using a septic tank, a well, or convert to solar panels then it will reduce the need for extending municipal supplies through low-density areas.  That doesn't mean abandon poor or rural people, it means offer more options than everyone being stuck with  municipal systems.  It costs little to make the area more friendly to walking, biking, or public transit.  Add trees, benches, shelters, etc.  Unpaved trails cost nothing but letting people tramp them down.  Putting extensions on buildings is a lot cheaper than building whole new ones.  In the middle price range, cut connections from dead ends to nearby streets to make something closer to a grid.  Increasing mass-transit service or building a new strip mall costs more, so do that later.

Similarly, where you have a road bracketed by large far-flung businesses, it gets more expensive to support those the farther out they are.  Meanwhile the older buildings closer to town, still serviceable, often stand empty.  One very straightforward way to save money is to cut off the end of the line and reuse buildings farther in.  That lets you decommission a lot of infrastructure such as streetlights, electrical lines, city water, sewers, etc. -- maybe even the road itself if it doesn't go anywhere vital.  This is the route of "good enough urbanism."  Use what you have, just use it better.

If you're looking for a place to put some affordable housing, this area can be a viable option if you upgrade the walkability enough to make it feasible for low-income residents.  Plus it should have a lot less resistance because it is not, in fact, in anyone's backyard.  Say you have a health clinic out there.  If your shift of businesses places a remainder bookstore and some sort of eatery nearby, you have a cluster that's convenient to live near.  Pop in an apartment building or two, and maybe a small business strip.  Now the businesses have a supply of customers and the people have a few places to go.  Later development can build on that.