Palabras Como Rosas

As the old saying goes, I’m so far behind I think I’m in first. I’ve bemoaned my hectic week already here, as well as the hectic week to come, so I’ll spare you. I will say that when I wasn’t writing a ghazal, I spent much of the weekend at the business end of a lawn mower….

So I’m finally getting to some sorely neglected blog business, which involves passing on the Palabras Como Rosas Award that Cheryl of the wonderful Lizzy Frizzfrock blog passed along to me last week.

According to Cheryl, “The award is for words that like roses, leave a wonderful perfume, lingering for a while.” I get a feed from 50 (yikes!) blogs in my Google Reader, & all of these blogsprovide me satisfyingly lingering ideas & creations. But I’ll namesome that stand out & which, with one exception (which is appropriate, since Cheryl passed two awards to me recently), haven’t received any of the other awards I’ve passed on ; also I’m not mentioning any blogs to which Cheryl passed the award.

By the way, I know at least one of the blogs I’m mentioning has a policy about not passing along awards (a policy I understand & support in those who choose to follow it), so as usual, this award comes with no strings attached—but do pass it on if you’d like.

In alphabetical order:

Amazing Voyages of the Turtle: When I awarded Sandra Leigh the One Lovely Blog Award, I was kind of shocked that someone who’s been blogging for quite some time & at such a consistently high level had only been picked for one of these. So to remedy that, here’s the Palabras Como Rosas, which richly fits the excellent writing at Amazing Voyages of the Turtle. Sandra also was the creator of Original Poetry Sunday, a grand idea that I believe will attract more folks as time goes by. In addition to my contribution, please check out Sandra’s poem here & René Wing’s poem here; René’s blog Yes is Red is also very much worth repeated visits.

The Gold Puppy: Unlike Blogger, I don’t alphabetize this under “T”; Reya Mellicker of The Gold Puppy is a fantastic photographer & a very deep & interesting thinker. Her daily posts range widely in topic, but they always contain some wisdom about the way we experience the world, & how that experience changes us that give me something to think about thru the day. Reya’s blog is very successful, & deservedly so, with a wide readership, but a visit there still has the feeling of a “smaller” blog, since Ms Mellicker interacts with her many commentors in a friendly & good-humored way. Reya has also been a very staunch supporter of Robert Frost’s Banjo, & I appreciate that a great deal.

Just a Song: The Citizen K. blog has long been a must read for K.’s insightful take on politics, as well as his writing about films, books & music. In fact, K. has a special gift, I think, for writing about music, so it was no surprise that he started Just a Song as a side project. Just a Song features a full review of a given song, with a video showing the song performed & the lyrics. It’s a simple but elegant idea, & K. pulls it off very well both thru his insightful write-ups on the songs, but also thru his song selection—obviously a crucial element in this type of blog. K’s song choices range from numbers by Hank Williams & Leonard Cohen & Paul Robeson & Joan Baez & Merle Haggard & Bob Dylan—an eclectic batch, but each is given a great treatment. Be sure to check this one out.

New England Travels: I have a lot of respect for blogger Jacqueline T. Lynch. She produces three blogs, all with terrific content. I passed an award on to her once for perhaps her most popular production, Another Old Movie Blog, but I want to acknowledge the fine work she does on New England Travels (& Tragedy & Comedy in New England, her live theater blog). New England Travels both is & isn’t exactly what it sounds like; Ms Lynch does take us to any number of noteworthy places throughout New England—many of which were unknown to me, at least, & I did live in New England for almost 28 years, so she does take us off the main drag. But even more importantly, & as is the case in all her blog writing, Ms Lynch is a painstaking & insightful social historian, & she is capable of fleshing out, as she did recently for instance, the history of one street in Springfield, Massachusetts to give a vivid & compelling picture of a town’s history—cultural, commercial & so forth. I recommend all of Ms Lynch’s blogs very highly.

Notes from Lizard Camp: This is an interesting blogger from Missouri with thoughts on everything from politics to quantum physics to the laws of Karma. Randy Watson always succeeds in piquing my interest as he examines various philosophical (in the large sense of the word) concepts as they apply to his own daily existence. Which, of course, is “real” philosophy, as opposed to an intellectual exercise. There are also some photos on Notes from Lizard Camp taken by Randy’s wife Susan. This is a blog that may be flying a bit below the radar right now, but which really deserves a wider readership.

Finally: thanks for your generous consideration, Cheryl & sorry about taking so long to get to this! Now I need to put on my thinking cap about passing on the Kreativ Blogger Award passed on to me by my long-lost cousin several times removed, TotalfeckingEejit. More on that soon!