1.
Eros — a poem by Sam Bloomfield
From the Community
Eros
Ripe plums, poised to drop delicately
The inner flesh of figs, purple as night
Nature's religious fecundity
Why can't I eat them all?
A quickening, cascade of nippled breasts
My mouth quivering like a babe's
Belly full of the milk of love, full to capacity
Yes! Yet another childish fantasy
Hello again mum, says the man,
Speaking for the boy in me
I too am sorry there wasn't enough
It wasn't your fault, it was a generational anomalie
How entwined they are, the mother and son
The grape and the vine, the man and baby
Sex and the act of creation, prosaically called creativity
Of course, says Mother Nature
Laughing again, so joyfully
That's how you had five of my children!
What a lovely trick I played on you
But didn't it taste good in the making!?
Wasn't it just the best fruit and breast foolery.
- Sam Bloomfield (30.August 2022)
For those of you who are new here (welcome and thank you!), we also featured Sam in the 6th installment of Three Things Weekly:
He was also one of the major contributors to both of Co-Create’s Zine, which you can download as follows: Zine 1 and Zine 2.
I hope you enjoy this poem as much as I did. Sam has a playful and unexpected way of expressing the paradoxical experience of being human.
2.
Building US-China Relationships… by Banjo — a TED Talk by Abigail Washburn
From the Internet
A 6-minute watch and well worth your time, especially if you’re a fan of poetry, language, music, stories, and… international relations.
3.
On Specificity — an idea from Tiago Forte
From the Internet
We’re in the penultimate weekend of January, and then we will all stop feeling obliged to say ‘Happy New Year!’ to everyone because we will well and truly be in 2023. The internet will be going crazy with productivity content. Google churned 625,000,000 results in less than a second. I don’t even know how to say that number.
I don’t want to bombard you with any more… But… I am a productivity geek. So I will share with you just ONE thing from Tiago Forte that I’ve been finding useful for some years now:
When you set aside time to ‘do some work’, be specific about:
What that work actually is, and
The measure by which you will declare said work ‘done’
If you have 15 minutes, instead of saying ‘I’m going to do some emails’, get specific. “I’m going to process (delete, respond or action) 10 things from my inbox.”
If you have 3 hours, instead of saying ‘I’m going to work on my website’, get specific. “I’m going to complete the wireframe for 10 template pages.”
This is one of the most useful things I’ve done to create intention around my actions. It also helps me work out how long things actually take - nearly 8 years in business, but this is still something I’m working on!
For more on this idea, listen to Tiago Forte on ‘Building a Second Brain’ podcast on the widget below.
BONUS
Over the last few months, I’ve been having conversations with many of you who are also writers on Substack in the comments section where I’ve been making references to my dog. So here’s a photo of the beloved Leo, also known as ‘Leo Bops’ and ‘Bambi’.
and this is for you!
Loved the poem. And really enjoyed the banjo talk. Great issue of your newsletter this one!
Cuteness overload!