"Carpet of Wildflowers" - WIX Stock Photo
I’m in the middle of a head-and-chest cold that my husband brought home from work last week. He likes to share with me the germs of the 10-million, international visitors that come to see Granville Island, Vancouver, BC, every year. He manages security on the island, and consequently deals with a lot of people’s ger— uh, problems every day.
Fortunately, I don’t get too many annual colds, but because of his constant exposure to colds and viruses, we both may suffer a bit more often than less-exposed folks.
When I do get sick, though, I really don’t feel like writing much; my brain gets fuzzy and comprehension can be a struggle. I can read a bit, and sometimes a quarter hour puttering in the garden is doable if the weather is mild enough. What I most like to do when I’m sick, though, is play games. So, I figured maybe you all wouldn’t mind taking a little break from serious talk to explore some entertainment.
As this blog focuses on literary topics (mostly — I’ve gotta slip the cookies in now and then), why don’t we goof off with some word or poetry games? Any pursuit of intellectual stimulation benefits our writing skills, in my opinion, so why not chill with me for a time?
Let’s start with a classic. Interactive Magnetic Poetry®, anyone? Play free online, or purchase a kit via the same website for your fridge.
Here’s my attempt from the Nature Kit:
Vivid summer blanket,
you grow moss at my watch,
but intuition, she is a wild wind
at night & I, a tendril,
verdant, fertile vine, after dusk’s rainfall.
Fun! Who knows, maybe I’ll be inspired, once my cold’s gone, to turn that little piece of play into something more verdant. I hope you’ll try it, too.
If you’d like to try something a little faster-paced, check out Kenn Nesbitt’s Wordjack. It’s offered as a “kid’s game,” but let me tell ya, I found it thrillingly challenging. It moves quickly, and so should you. It’s a little like Scrabble® on amphetamines.
If you’re in the mood for something a little more novel-like, how about an esoteric “game” from Nobelprize.org? Have you ever read William Golding’s Lord of the Flies? Of course you have! It may take you a few minutes of exploration to figure out how to play the game. Try moving your cursor slowly over the island map, once it appears. When an “x” marks the spot, click on it. Tip: drag objects over any figures in question.
I scored 3 butterflies out of 5, at the end. Fair, but I admit it’s been — yikes! — about 50 years since I read the book. And I still remembered the gist. So will you have, I suspect.
I hope you had fun dallying with words today. I did. And I even managed to sneak off for a little bit to plant some seeds: cucumbers, cucamelons, yellow wax and royal-purple bush beans, plus an assortment of colorful zucchini varieties. I think it was all the earlier wordplay that gave me the energy to sow some verdant, fertile vines in anticipation of a vivid summer blanket.