So, yesterday, Sunday 12 July 2026, was the 5th annual Ekphrastic Review Marathon, boy dowdy, did I discover just how out of shape I am! A normal marathon is 26.2 miles. Yesterday’s marathon was 8 hours plus!
We received our .pdf packet at 0630 hours in the morning, and had 30 minutes to read it, and look over the art work, and choose the art we’d write about. Or thought we’d write about, then, at 0700 we set the time and had 30 minutes to write our first draft. At the end of that 30 minutes we started on our second, and so on and so forth. There was an hour in there we could take a break, from 1100-noon, and then back at it. The goal was to turn of our internal editor, and in seven hours of writing, end up with 14 first drafts. Not everyone did, but that’s okay. The art we had to choose from was varied by style and artist. I wrote about a Diego Rivera painting, Two Women, then a peat bog, a young black girl, a First Nation transformation mask, ending up with one I set in a gasthaus in Switzerland. Then we had a zoom meeting to celebrate our participation, I stayed for an hour then moved to a different zoom meeting for an open mic.
All in all, I spent 11 hours at my desk, computer, and zoom. And loved every minute of it. Can’t wait until next year’s!! Yes, I think I got some publishable poems out of yesterday, with some edits, of course. If you’d like to read some good ekphrastic poetry, please the The Ekphrastic Review at https://www.ekphrastic.net. They are the ones who sponsored the marathon, and put out a fantastic ezine.
Today’s excitement
Today, I saw my favorite PCP and she said she’s happy with my health, gave me a couple of ideas, and said she’ll see me in 6 months. (We’re tracking my red/white blood cells. They go up a bit, down a bit and she’s not concerned, I’m not concerned, and the chief hematologist at the hospital isn’t even a wee bit interested! Says when the white goes waaaay down, then he’ll become interested. I’m delighted my PCP and the Chief have their boundaries for worry, one less thing I need to worry about.
Bears at Brooks Falls – Katmai NP AK
In the meantime, I’m keeping the Bears at Brooks Falls—Katmai NP AK, as my background. Mostly I just hear the water going over the falls, but every so often I hear growls and look up to see a couple of them snarling and cuffing. Not sure what the problem is, there are plenty of fish! Right now there are about 12 bears in view, as the camera moves, more or less show up. Mama bears and the cubs are down river a wee bit in the riffles, away from the ill mannered boars at the falls. There may be some sows at the falls, too, but no cubs. If you would like to watch them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ZrIDvqlic&list=TLPQMTMwNzIwMjbwoTyMakr5vQ&index=10
Talk about fresh sushi!
Some of this bears have pretty bare looking back sides where they’ve rubbed their winter fur off. Wonder if they are colder because of it?
There is also an underwater salmon cam you can watch. And now and then see a bear underwater, and hear them snarling at each other above water. Sometimes they dive and nose the camera. The salmon are at: https://explore.org/livecams/brown-bears/underwater-bear-cam-brown-bear-salmon-cams
Sammy Brave Dog
Sammy has changed a bit in the last couple of weeks. Don’t know if it was the 4th and the explosions, but he is spending a lot more time in my office than he used to. He comes in, curls up and sleeps, or just curls and day dreams? I dunno. I wonder if his union rep came by and told him what his job truly is, to stay by me????
Keeping mostly one eye on my safety in my office.