Thanks for all the comments and feedback on my blog and for all the wonderful posts I’ve been able to enjoy on WordPress.

May 2012 be a great and successful year for you all.

Peace,

Stephen

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,900 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

How will children know

The sun stretches its arm

Gently coaxing the stars to hide behind the moon

The moon, pride and mutual respect bows gracefully

Raises the curtain for the sun

Glides off to start a night elsewhere

The goal? Whip off the sheets, jump out of bed, start another day

Reality? It’s Saturday, I’ve hit the snooze, pulled the covers over my head, drifted

Working hard to get back to the fading dream, mist evaporating in the morning sun

Minutes pass like seconds and I give in, the sound pushing through

beep, an itch that can’t be scratched

BeeeP, a noise, the source yet to be revealed

BEeEP, a siren, buy why, how, in this dream?

BEEEEP! Wow, ten minutes already?

ok, I get it, I need to wake up

Convincing the clock that I mean it this time I roll out of bed, feet on the floor

The last of the dream, siren and all, fades into the past

Never again to be enjoyed, contemplated, remembered

The smell of coffee pulls me from the room into the hallway

Not that any has been made yet, no

But even in this fading dream state, the brain knows it’s coming

The nose, a fickle friend, deceives at times

Feet work from fuzzy carpet to hardwood floor

Cold, shocking, yet somehow a painful pleasure of life

I yell to the kids “Time to get up”

Wondering how my tones and sounds will be translated in their dreams

A loving father, bellowing giant, siren?

We pull out the cables to jumpstart our day

Glide, shuffle, move, morning, night, morning again

Where is the thread, the bond that pulls you through

Pushes you on

Family, friends, lover

Nature, nurture, spiritual surf washing over

What pulls against

Alcohol, Drugs, abuse

Fear, hate, self-deprecation

Sometimes you choose how you want to lose

You just do it one sip, needle, thought at a time

Slowly shifting your glue to grime

Eventually falling apart

How will you live your day today

Running to this and that avoiding the need inside

Pushing it down with pride

Or will you run, skip, jump, dive into life

Pause along the way and let the day sink in

Breeze through your hair

Kids playing on a swing

Running through parks, grass squishing through toes

Couples on a bench enjoying the slow dance of a sailboat on the ocean

Music, dancing, the thrill of a goal scored or blocked

The soul of someone through their eyes

A meal with conversation or silent contemplation

The scent of a rose or woman walking by

A baby’s cry as it starts its life

How will children know

Spoon for eating or heating

Needle for healing or escaping

Hand for loving or hating

Will you lay tracks with your arms or on them

What example will you show

Of love, laughter, life, ways to ease the troubled mind

The moon shows its face with grace

Closing the curtain on the suns dance, setting the stage for other stars to shine

The Sun, pride and mutual respect

Bows gracefully and welcomes the moon with colored splendor

Presses on to start a day elsewhere

What threads build or bind, how do you weave the fabric of your life… and others

What life will you choose

Stephen Kellogg – 2011

For those that have followed my blog for a bit, you know that occasionally I mention that one day I want to write a novel. Some of you have encouraged me to pursue it. Well, this month I started. As hinted to in earlier posts, I heard about a thing called National Novel Writers Month (NaNoWriMo for short). Toward the end of October, I saw a calendar that someone on WP created for tracking her progress during NaNoWriMo. I read her blog and learned more about it then I hit the site http://www.nanowrimo.org and was hooked.

Basically, you spend the month of November writing on a new novel. The main goal for the month is to write 1667 words a day toward your novel which has you reach a goal of 50,000 words in a month. Everyone who writes 50K or more is considered a winner of NaNoWriMo 2011. I decided the time was now so I dove in. I also decided to set my goal to be 60K words for the month. I did this for two main reasons.

1) I figured if I shot for 60K but fell short a little bit, I would still make the site goal of 50k.

2) 60K worked out to an even 2K words a day which made it much easier for me to track. Multiply the day of the month I’m on times two thousand and that’s where I  should be on your word count.

So in case you didn’t figure it out with my last post, as of last Sunday night, I hit my 60K goal. Very exciting! Now I’ve got to keep it going as I think I”m only about half way through the book.

So there you have it. I’ve finally taken the leap and started a novel! It’s been a lot of fun and… it continues.

Thanks to those who have given support and to those that will continue to do so

I hope to be creating / posting more poetry soon, but this novel will likely consume most of my writing time for a while. I’ll keep you posted!

Peace.

Stephen

I’ll post an update later.

Peace

Thank Our Veterans

Thank
Him / Her
Acknowledge
Necessity
Keep

Our
Uniform
Remembered

Valor
Exceptional
Tenacity
Ever
Ready
Amazing
Nation
Securers

Thank You Vets!

Stephen Kellogg – 2011

Here are some pics of the pumpkins my kids carved…

Unfortunately the pictures don’t do them justice, but you get the idea…

Enjoy!

Stephen

Fire Pit Flames / Faeire Fire

Gazing at the coals
Dark orange, reds and blues shine bright
Pushing back the night

Our friends come to play
Swaying to the songs we sing
Fire dance begins

Dance round fire pit
Where faerie footprints dare tread
Making magic lights

If you were there
There was here
Here was now
Now was me

Me and you would be

Be together to speak
Speak to show feelings
Feelings of love
Love of you

You and me would be

Be together to hold
Hold to express
Express in touch
Touch to excite
Excite, bodies entwined

Entwined we feel

Feel the warmth of heart
Heart in heart, breathe
Breathe in the fragrance
Fragrance of passion
Passion, Desire

Desire that you

You were there
There was here
Here was now
Now was me

Stephen Kellogg – 2011

So, while some of you have seen it, here’s a couple of photos of the back deck area for the rest of you.

Back Deck 01 - Stephen Kellogg

Back Deck 02 - Stephen Kellogg

It’s a little hard to see but in the very back of the yard are 3 very large Oak Trees and a fire pit. I’m really looking forward to “Watching the colors bend and bleed
Coming alive, while dying, before my eyes”

And yes, I’ve fallen asleep more than once lying on one of those benches. If you read my earlier post on grilling ”Saturday Grill Out (as told through 44 haikus :D)“then you’ll know there’s also a grill on the deck now. But more on that later.

This area of the house has already provided a place of fun and laughter, good food, music as well as peace and quite with the subtle roar of wild life while contemplating life.

Looking forward to many more inspiring mornings, afternoons and evenings out there.

Peace,

Stephen

Life, in death, in life

October - Painted by Leslie White

Here…

I sit

Enjoying now
Not fretting about future
Nor pondering the past
Just embracing now

I feel

The sun, warming skin on legs and forearms
Breezes rustling through grass and trees
Caressing little hairs on the back of my neck
Tugging gently on my ball cap
Cooling my thoughts

I listen

An acorn drops from high above
Bouncing its way down the tree
Branches here, leaves there
Then off the ground a time or two

Slowly it continues its way down the little slope
Should it hide under this leaf
Stop at that stick
No, it continues on

Finally coming to rest off to my right
Finding its place to snuggle in for the night
A little hole where it will hide
Resting and waiting for Spring rains
More follow in light of its success

I see

Blades of grass fading out preparing for winters sleep
Leaves exploding in color as they prepare for final decent
The sun smiling down on the acorn with the knowledge of next year

A squirrel, tired from giving chase to another
Scratching her way down and around the massive trunk
Stops, lifting head, twitching tail
One last check

Then on, down to the ground
She scampers a few feet, eyes the acorn, pauses
Thirst drives her on
Will she remember, who’s to say
Who will win

I sit
Arms resting on bent knees
Watching the colors bend and bleed
Coming alive, while dying, before my eyes

Life, in death, in life

I am

Still,
Alive,
At Peace
Stephen Kellogg – 2011