Ohfer Odd.....

“Ohfer Odd, Ohfer Weird. Why is Ohfer shunned by men and often feared?” – from the musical “How to Talk Minnesotan” based on the book by Howard Mohr.

Today was a weird writing day. I started writing an op-ed piece on Prolife and Prochoice. I used to be Prolife, now I'm Prochoice. How and why will have to wait until I manage to finish the op-ed. There are things that bother me about some of the typical arguments on both sides, but like I said, how and what will have to wait.

So I got emotional. Put a poem up that was on one site and put a copy of it on another. Then I started to get random lines in my head and thought I might write a villanelle. I looked at the form, and it scared me a bit-- at least for what was going through my head. So I looked at some other forms, and saw the ballade, which features three 8 line stanzas with a regulated rhythm/rhyme scheme with a refrain line at the end of each stanza.

Ah ha! I can do that! So I wrote the little pattern on the side of the page. Some of the lines came easy, some were a bit harder, but I managed to wind up with a poem that I actually liked. Off I was to copy and paste from my word processing processing into Associated Content. I went through the motions, got the poem posted. Found it under my account section and opened it to post to Facebook and Tweet, then, like I always do I went to my profile page so I could “feature” it.

Where was my poem? Why couldn't I feature it? I'd struggled a good part of the day to get something I was proud of, and now I couldn't feature it? I hit the forum. Looked for someone with a similar problem, and finally just asked, “Is there a reason why my poem isn't on my profile page?” A few minutes later several articles showed up on my profile page that I didn't even write! Again, “Ohfer weird!” but a few minutes later my poem was where it belonged and the other people's work was gone.

It was a sensitive day, opening old wounds, and I thought that perhaps someone might be messing with me because the poem could be construed as controversial – it's called “Love the Bigot”

I left the house, and have been away from Internet access, so I don't know if I have any feedback on it so far. I suspect it might be all over the place- or not at all. But it's good to take a stand, even when doing so is not popular. Scares me a bit, but part of me thinks, “Ohfer brave,” and I smile. Part of the spirit of NanoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is to write so much that you silence your inner censor. I did that today.

PS. -- Associated Content sent out a notice that new stuff will update to the profile page once an hour. Don't like it, but I'll live.