How do you define an ebook?

I’ve been reading a lot about ebooks lately, and it’s made me realize that there are really two, entirely separate meanings to the word.

Well, yes, either way, the “e” stands for electronic, as opposed to the “dead tree” edition of books that all of us grew up with.

But as regular usage goes, I’m noticing variations.

Self-Produced eBooks

First, there are PDF, usually self-published texts that people sell on websites and blogs. “How to Make a Million Dollars in 30 Seconds,” “A Mother’s Guide to Crayons,” “101 Steps to Perfect Fingernails.”

These ebooks are usually written and “produced” by the author. That is, the author creates the PDF on her own. (For some ebooks, the word “author” is a word lightly used, too, since some people create theirs from PLR text that they’ve bought and simply reformatted on their own. Though, that’s fine, if you’re into that kind of thing. I’m not here to judge.)

Obviously, the quality varies greatly from book to book. I’ve read some eBooks that were practically works of art in terms of production value, quality of writing, and outright substance of the content. These are usually from “reputable” writers who make a point of giving lots of value for your money. I have a nice collection of them on my harddrive.

I’ve also read truly crappy ebooks. The kind that are written in a 20-point font and have 4″ margins so that they can eke out a few thousand words of text into a “100 pages of vital information!”

These self-produced ebooks–the bad and the sublime–may be available in a variety of ways. Free. Free with purchase. For $5, $220, $50, or even $100. They may promise riches beyond your wildest dreams, or just a few (hundred) great recipes for chicken.

“Published” eBooks

Second, there are the ebooks that you buy to read on your portable electronic devices. (Kindle, anyone?) These are usually electronic versions of published books. John Grisham’s latest novel. Seth Godin’s most recent brainstorm of inspiration. A romance novel to read on your commute to work.

These are (cough) “real” books, and come primarily as text files that you can download and read. Have you heard of Project Gutenberg?

A Little Confusing, no?

Am I the only one who finds the juxtaposition of the same word for two radically different formats/structures confusing?

The most confusing part is that you can’t discuss one type with the people involved with the other. If you start discussing the “future of paper books” with someone who’s just discovered how to upload text of the latest bestseller on their Blackberry, they’re probably not aware of those ebooks people are hawking on their websites. If you write and produce your own (high-quality, content-rich) ebooks, getting your text onto somebody’s Sony Reader is probably the last thing you’re thinking about … assuming it can even handle PDFs.

How fascinating that–for now at least–we can talk about Electronic Books and have two completely different things in mind. Sure, there’s some overlap, but not enough …

Yet.

How long before self-publishing and “professional” publishing are interchangeable, thanks to the electronic age?

Hmmm…

Well, thanks Lillie! Lillie Ammann gave me a Premio Dardos Award.

To quote, “Premio Dardos means ‘prize darts’ in Italian. It is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing.”

The rules are to (1) accept the award by posting it on my blog with thanks to the person who gave it to me, and (2) pass it on to 15 other bloggers, along with a comment to let them know.

So, first, I graciously accept. How very nice of her!

Secondly, well, fifteen people are a lot of people, but I think I can manage. Some will have already be nominated, I’m sure. (In fact I am sure, because a couple were already on Lillie’s list.) But does that really matter?

So … cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted via creative and original writing. Let’s see!

Alphabetically… (and not including Lillie who WOULD have been on the list):

• Amy Derby, Write from Home
• Ann Shayne and Kay Gardiner, Mason-Dixon Knitting
• Brad Shorr, Word Sell
• Jane Brocket, Jane Brocket/Yarnstorm
• Jelly Jules at Thinking About
• Joanna Young, Confident Writing
• Julie Roads, Writing Roads
• Liz Strauss, The Successful Blog
• Melissa Donovan, Writing Forward
• Norma, Now Norma Knits
• Quinn Cummings, The QC Report
• Rosa Say, Joyful Jubilant Learning
• Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Yarn Harlot
• Susan Gibbs, MV Fiber Farm
• Tammy, Precarious Tomato

(And, would it be weird to list my Mom’s blog, too? Just because, well, it’s Mom’s and it’s about one of my favorite places? Joan Boyken, MV Obsession.)

I was just writing a response on a message board, and found myself typing, “In theory, the publisher can…”

Not a shocking phrase, really, except that I used “in theory.” This is a verbal tic that I’m told I use a lot.

I think the reason is that it’s a round-about way of making suggestions without being bossy or strident–just a way of putting the idea out there without being pushy. (“You know, in theory, if you open the lid first, it’s easier to get the peanut butter out.” Or, “In theory, you could just call and ask…“)

But REALLY, it’s a Pet Phrase.

You know the kind I mean. The word or expression that slips out of your mouth every third sentence. “You know,” can be one.” Or constantly using “Dude.” I know that I throw the word “really” into far too many of my own sentences. I can’t quite help myself. It’s a pet.

Like any pet, Pet Phrases are comfortable, familiar, soothing–like scratching your dog’s ears when you’re stressed, or the way your hand automatically reaches for fur when you’re trying to concentrate. Pet phrases can help ease things along, provide comfortable places to end the sentence, like ending a day on the couch with your pet stretched out across your lap. “It’s been a long time since I started this article, you know.” The very fact that your pet is there when you need it makes it nice to have around. Friendly.

Or Lazy. The dangerous thing about having Pet Phrases isn’t that you use them; it’s that you get so comfortable with them that you not only use them too much, but that you’re not using anything else.You become so complacent with how your pet phrase sums everything up  (“yadda yadda yadda”), you stop trying, stop actually working at your writing.

You’re no longer just ending your day on the couch, you’re there all the time.

It’s true that pets like routine. They need regular attention to keep them happy and healthy, to keep them from becoming spoiled monsters. There’s nothing actually wrong with having and using a Pet Phrase (as long as it’s not an objectional one, of course).

What you have to beware is your Pet Phrase becoming the kind of spoiled monster that wreaks havoc when you try to leave it alone in the house, or that makes your guests uncomfortable when they visit.

If I were using “in theory” in every paragraph of this article, it would become obnoxious. It would be drawing attention to itself so that you were paying more attention to IT than you were to what I was trying to say, like a spoiled cat jumping in your lap (even though you’re allergic) with your host not even trying to shoo the cat away.

A well-mannered Pet Phrase can help move things along, and (in theory), makes the visit pleasant for everyone. But an intrusive, ill-mannered, Pet Phrase that’s in your face constantly is just going to make life miserable … and a miserable reader or client is NOT going to come back for more abuse from your Pet Phrase, no matter how cute it is.

Do you want to spend all your time apologizing for your Pet Phrase’s misbehaving?

Of course you don’t! So, get training for your badly behaved Pet Phrases now!

“Sit, In Theory, Sit! Good phrase!“

Fiber Preparation

So … you’ve got your fleece, and you’ve carefully cleaned it (so as not to turn it into felt) … now what? You need to get it ready to spin, which comes with its own set of fun words..

• Cards: You know those dog brushes that are mostly flat but have hundreds of wires to catch loose fur. Imagine them bigger and maybe a little finer, and you’ve got wool cards. These are used to separate the fibers in locks of wool and get them roughly pointing in the same direction. Also used for blending different fibers, different colors together.
• Drum Carder: The mechanical version–basically a big cylinder covered in those fine wires. All the person needs to do is feed in the fiber and turn the handle. Much more practical (though much bigger) than a set of hand cards.
• Charge: The act of putting wool ON the cards.
• Rolag: The cute little roll of combed wool you get when you remove the wool from the cards–made by literally rolling the combed fiber off the card. These are usually used for spinning woolen yarn. (By which I mean the spinning technique, not the fiber, but that’s another vocabulary list.)
• Batt: If, instead of making rolags, you peeled your fiber off (ever so carefully) so that you had one, flat piece of fluffy wool … That’s a batt. It’s also what you get off your drum carder.
• Combs: The rather vicious-looking implements used to prepare wool for spinning worsted yarn. They come in pairs and while they come in different sizes, the teeth are usually at least 4″ long and come in multiple rows. Usually, one comb is clamped to a table and the other is used to comb through the fiber, removing similar length. You do NOT want to get in the way of wool combs when they’re in action and, if you ever plan on writing a murder mystery on a sheep farm? There’s your murder weapon.
• Load: The act of putting wool onto the combs.
• Diz: A disk with a small hole, used for pulling combed fiber through so that you end up with a long strand of totally aligned fibers, ready to spin. (And, is this not a wonderful Scrabble word?)
• Sliver: That narrow strand of fiber you just pulled through your diz? That’s called Sliver (pronounced SLY-ver, a different pronunciation than what you’d call the small piece of cake you eat just “to be polite”).
• Roving: If you take that sliver and add just a little twist along the length of it to hold it together? That’s roving. Generally speaking, most commercially-purchased spinning fiber comes as roving. One long, long, long strand of unspun fiber, just waiting to be turned into yarn.
• Top: The perfectly aligned fiber that comes from combs.

The Actual Spinning

I’ve explained the parts of the wheel, I’ve described where fiber comes from and how you get it ready to spin … now, the spinning itself. (Again, from a vocabulary point of view.) Finally–the fun part!

• Saxony Wheel: This describes a type of spinning wheel, where the drive wheel is placed horizontally to the bobbin and flyer assembly. Just about every picture you’ve ever seen of Sleeping Beauty shows one of these style of wheels.
• Castle Wheel: These wheels work the same as the Saxonys, but are designed vertically. They take up a lot less floor space. Some people think these are a modern invention, but in fact, they go back to when spinning was a cottage industry and, well, cottagers just didn’t have a lot of floor space!
• Charkha Wheel: Invented by Gandhi, who was determined that spinning could provide sustainable skills for India (not to mention being ideal for meditating). The Charkha is designed to fold in half for easy portability, and is best for spinning fine, short fibers like cotton, angora, or dog hair. (Yes, I said dog hair.)
• Draft: So, those large pieces of ready-to-spin fiber you’ve laboriously prepared (or, like me, bought)? Before you can turn them into yarn, you need to spread the fibers out so that you end up with, you know, thread, instead of rope. This process is known as drafting–sliding the fibers along so that the twist only affects a few fibers at a time instead of the whole batch you’re holding in your hand.
• Drafting Triangle: That magical space between the last part of spun yarn and the completely undrafted fibers in your hand … so named because the fibers fan out from the twist out to the unspun fibers, forming a triangle.
• Leader: The starter thread already attached to the bobbin that you attach your unspun yarn to. This is an absolute requirement for spinning wheel spinning, but optional for a spindle.
• Worsted: Yarn spun tightly with completely aligned fibers, making yarn that is strong and relatively smooth and dense. Since this is tougher yarn, this is what you’d use to knit hard-wearing socks, or sturdy sweaters. Or the strong stuff you use to string a loom.
• Woolen: Yarn spun loosely, usually from a rolag, so that the fibers spiral around a core of air, making it warmer and lighter, but also a fuzzier yarn than worsted. Garments made of this yarn usually pill easily, but using it as the weft of a woven blanket makes for a nice, soft blanket.
• Short Draw: Used for spinning worsted yarn, by pulling small bits of fiber at a time into the drafting triangle. Great for beginners, who refer to this as “inch-worming” because you spin one, single inch at a time. Great for control and evenly spun yarn.
• Long Draw: Used for spinning woolen yarn, this is dramatic and fun to watch–this allows the twist itself to draft and pull the fiber into the yarn, so the spinner, while treadling, pulls one arm allllll the way back, while the wheel pulls fiber into the twist. It’s tricky to learn, fun to do, and impressive as anything to watch.
• Cabled: I explained Singles and how twisting two or more of them together made for plied yarn? Well, if you take two or more strands of the plied yarn and twist them together in the reverse direction from which they were plied, you end up with a yarn that looks almost braided and oh, so cool to look at. This is cabled yarn, and it’s even stronger than regular, plied yarn … think about the cables that make up suspension bridges .. those are cabled, too, all made up from single wires grouped into small groups, then bigger, and bigger, groups until they’re exponentially stronger than they could ever be on their own.
• Boucle: Yarn that is plied together under different tensions, so that instead of winding together evenly, one wraps itself around the other, adding texture.

Would it interest you to know that spinning has had a resurgence in popularity, lately? That there are people right now making livings from making spinning wheels and spindles? And not just any, old spinning wheels and spindles. Check out the Golding website and look at the workmanship in his woodwork. They’re masterpieces. (Expensive masterpieces.) Or, the Journey Wheels which are like full-size Charkhas and fold in half for travelling. They are some of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen, and made solely by one person here in the USA. Not to mention some of the other companies that are making beautiful, creative spinning wheels that are in high demand by spinners all over the world. Of my three spinning wheels, one (by Gord Lendrum) is from Canada, one (my Journey Wheel) is from New England, and one (the Majacraft I bought for my 40th birthday) is from New Zealand.

In other words, spinning’s not just for renaissance festivals and historical reenactments, anymore.

Last time, we explored words connected with the equipment used for spinning yarn. Today we’re going to look at some of the words involved with the fiber. And, trust me, they’re unique!

The Plant Fibers

The plant fibers like linen have a long, convoluted process just to get the fiber ready to spin … A ton of work, but it yields such a great list of obscure vocabulary:

• Bast: Fiber from grass-like plants, such as flax, hemp, and bamboo.
• Beet: A bundle of harvested flax, waiting to be turned into linen
• Ripple: Strong, coarse combs used to remove the outer shaft of the flax plant and all the seeds
• Retting: The process of essentially rotting the plant to get to the bast
• Breaking: Crushing the retted stalks to separate the bast (spinnable) fibers from the non-spinnable core.
• Shive: The small pieces of bark left after breaking
• Scutching: The act of removing the shives from the bast.
• Hackling: A combing process to get the bast ready to spin and to separate the longer fibers from the shorter ones.
• Stricks and Tow: The long and short fibers you get after this whole process. (Anyone know the expression “tow-headed” to describe a person with blond hair? This is where THAT word comes from.)

Phew! And then you wonder why good linen can be so expensive. All this makes removing all those tiny seeds from a cotton boll seem easy, huh? (Almost!) (And, did you know that cotton actually comes in natural colors, not just in white? But that we’ve selectively bred for white fibers to make dyeing easier and more consistent?)

Silk

• Bombyx: Cultivated silk from silkworms in the far East
• Tussah: Wild silk from Asia. (I bet you didn’t know there were different kinds of silk, did you?)
• Cocoon: The chrsylis made by the silk worm in preparation of turning into a moth.
• Reeling: The act of peeling off the spun thread off the cocoon into one, long, long piece.
• Silk Hankie or Silk Cap: A cocoon of silk that’s been teased out of its round shape into something (mostly) flat and layered and ready to spin.

Wool and other Animal Fibers

I’m not going into detail about all the animals that provide fiber; the list is too long! (Sheep, goat, llama, alpaca, camel, vicuna, bison, rabbits, musk ox, dogs … and it goes on.)

• Wool: This can be used very loosely to refer to a class of animal fiber, but mostly, it just means the hair that comes off a sheep. (Note: In England, knitting yarn is usually referred to as “wool,” regardless of the fiber content, but I think they’re just trying to make things complicated.) (Yes, that last statement was a joke, but they really do use the word “wool” for “yarn.”)
• Angora: The fur from an Angora Bunny
• Mohair: The fur that comes off an Angora Goat (Although, I hear that the Angora Goat has recently been renamed to avoid confusion, but the idea that we use the word Angora to describe two different species but only one of their fibers just strikes me as deliciously complicated.)
• Fleece: The coat cut off a sheep–imagine getting a haircut that not only shaves your head, but does it in such a way that all your hair comes off in one piece, like peeling an apple in one, long strip. Because, yes, an experiences shearer can remove a sheep’s entire coat in one, big piece, and this is usually done twice a year, in the Spring and the Fall. No, it doesn’t hurt the sheep (barring the occasional small nick from the clippers), and more importantly, the sheep doesn’t have to be killed, making wool a renewable, animal-friendly resource. (Well, with reputable farmers, anyway! Some farms are more “commercial” than others but the fact remains that you do NOT kill the animals to get their fleece, so wearing wool is a GOOD thing for the animals–it’s more economical to keep them alive to shear twice a year than to kill them for meat.)
• Raw: Description of the fleece right after it comes off the sheep–dirty, full of lanolin, bits of straw, grass, and, er, other things.
• In the Grease Some people will spin directly from a raw fleece, so as to keep as much lanolin in the wool as possible for its water-proofing abilities but, um, I can’t say that’s ever appealed to me. Although, you can soak a fleece in plain water, no soap, to remove most of the dirt while leaving the lanolin and at least still end up with cleaner fleece.
• Scour: The act of cleaning a raw fleece. I find this word ironic because, unlike say, scouring a dirty pot, this is must be a gentle process … it just uses really, hot water.
• Felt: The condensed fabric formed when wool fibers are bonded together, usually with hot water and friction … whether done on purpose, or not. (Have you ever accidentally tossed a sweater into the dryer and ended up with something that would fit a 5 year old? Congratulations. You made felt.)
• Full: Some people say that the process I just described as felting is really fulling. I’ll be honest and tell you I’m not entirely clear on the difference, and with most knitters and spinners, the two terms are more or less interchangeable.
• Staple: The length of each individual fiber
• Micron: A unit of size that determines how fine or coarse a given fiber is. The higher the micron count, the softer and finer the fiber.
• Crimp: The number of bends in the wool, like curly hair. The more crimp, the more elastic the fiber. Less crimp means stronger fiber.

Incidentally, did you know that there are vast numbers of sheep breeds? All of which provide completely different kinds of wool in terms of softness, strength, color, luster, and so on? Most sweaters you buy might say “100% Wool” or, if you’re lucky, more specific and say Lambswool, or Merino, or Cashmere (though that’s from goats, not sheep).

But to a spinner, you want to know the KIND of sheep. Cormo? Corriedale? Blue Faced Leicester? Targhee? Merino? Jacob? Ramboulliet? Romney? That list alone could go on for ages and it all matters. Trust me!

Links to the pictures, if you’re interested:
1. here, 2. here, 3. here, 4. here, 5. here, 6. here, 7. here, 8. here, 9. here, 10. here, 11. here, 12. here, 13. here, 14. here, 15. here

Phew! That’s enough vocabulary for one day!

Brad and Joanna have been showing off their specialized, obscure vocabulary lately, so I thought I would share some of the more obscure, specialized words that I know. Brad has focused on Scottish dialect, and, I wanted to share words that only a select group of people know.

Spinners.

Not the athletes pedaling madly away on their exercise bikes. I mean people who spin. Because yes, there are people making their own yarn on their own spinning wheels even as we speak. (And, frankly, if I weren’t in front of my computer talking to you, I would be sitting at one of my wheels.)

When I started spinning in 2004, I was thrilled with how many nifty, fun words there were to learn. (Because, while learning a new skill is good, learning new words is even better.) Some of these you may have heard of; some have different meanings outside the craft; and some are just purely entertaining.

• Spindle: Also known as a Drop Spindle. This hand-held device was used for centuries upon centuries to make yarn and thread. Traditionally a stick with a circular disk or weight of some kind at one end to aid rotation. Until spinning wheels were invented sometime around 1350, every sail on a Viking ship, every bandage on an Egyptian Mummy, every thread in Chinese silk, every length of velvet came from one person sitting (or walking and standing) with a pile of fiber and a spindle.
• Supported Spindle: Not all spindles are dropped. When spinning a particularly fine thread or particularly short or slippery fiber, the weight of a spindle (no matter how light) would break your thread before you could add enough twist to hold everything together. So some spindles are designed to spin while resting inside a bowl, while the spinner pulls the thread upward with a gentle touch, rather than letting the spindle pull it downward with gravity.
• Copp: As you spin on a spindle, you wrap your completed thread around the shaft of the spindle. This bundle of spun fiber is called a copp (while it’s still on the spindle).
• Whorl: The circular disk at the end of the spindle. They can be located at either end (Top-Whorl, Bottom-Whorl), and I’ve even seen them in the middle. Their main function is to add to help the spindle to rotate for as long as possible. It also helps your finished thread stay in place.
• Twist: Obvious, of course, but this is what holds your fiber together. In spinning circles (ha ha), Twist is a noun. (“Be sure to add enough twist to keep the thread from separating.”)
• Singles: No, not unmarried people. When you spin a thread of yarn, that is known as a Single.
• Plies: What you get when you twist two or more singles together. Have you ever looked closely at a piece of yarn, or the nap of a rug? Most yarns are multi-plied for strength and stability. So, a 2-ply yarn is made of up two singles, 4-ply yarn is four singles, 6-ply yarn is six singles, and so on. Plying always join the singles by twisting them in the opposite direction than they were originally spun.
• Lazy Kate: This holds multiple bobbins of singles for plying … they sit on spokes of the lazy kate so that you can feed them evenly as you ply them together.
• Niddy Noddy: How can you not love this name? This is made up of three sticks of wood (usually wood, anyway). It’s one long piece in the center and two crossbars at either end–kind of like a double-ended T-Square, but with the “T”s perpendicular to each other. It’s used to take your spun yarn off of the spindle and into a controllable skein. There’s even a rhyme to help you keep rhythm: “Niddy-noddy, niddy-noddy, Two heads, one body, ‘Tis one, ‘taint one, ‘Twill be one, bye and bye. ‘Tis two, ‘taint two, ‘Twill be two, bye and bye.” Speaking personally, though, I always count the number of wraps as I skein my yarn. Niddy Noddies are usually a specific size so that they make skeins that are a certain number of yards or meters. If you get 100 turns around your 2-yard Niddy Noddy, you’ve got 200 yards of yarn–something I find a lot more useful than the cute little song.
• Skein: A loose hank of yarn, laid out in one long, continuous circle and tied securely to prevent tangling.
• Skeiner: A mechanical device to make skeining easier–it usually looks like a wheel or a cross that rotates like a wheel, gathering up the yarn as it turns.
• Swift: Pretty much the same thing as the skeiner, except it’s used to hold a skein of yarn while you wind OFF into a ball. If you’re lucky, you’ll have one that can do double duty.
• Spindle (wheel): The very first spinning wheels, back during the Renaissance, basically took a standard drop spindle, turned it on its side, and added a drive band so that it could be spun mechanically rather than by manually twirling it every minute or so. The spinning action was remarkably similar, though, and the yarn was wound manually onto the spindle. You can still find these wheels (like Great Wheels), but most spinning wheels these days wind the yarn onto bobbins for you. In other words, generally speaking, every picture you’ve ever seen of Sleeping Beauty touching a spinning wheel before falling into her 100 year’s sleep? She’s almost never really touching a spindle at all. If anything, it’s usually the distaff
• Distaff: Used to hold fiber that’s ready to be spun, so that it’s easy for the spinner to reach for more fiber as needed. It’s really only used for spinning linen (flax) or cotton; it’s not really necessary for wool.
• Flyer: The mechanism on a spinning wheel that lets it automatically wind the yarn onto a bobbin. It “flies,” or rotates, around the bobbin the wheel spins.
• Bobbin: What the yarn winds onto. It rotates at a speed just slower than the flyer and can be easily removed from the wheel when it’s full.
• Maiden: The piece of the spinning wheel that holds the bobbin and flyer in place.
• Mother-of-All: The Mother-of-All holds the Maiden in place.
• Flyer Whorl: The pulley attached to the drive wheel that spins the flyer. Most spinning wheels come with different size whorls which make the flyer go faster or slower and thereby adding more or less twist per each treadle as you spin.
• Drive Wheel, or Fly Wheel: The “big” wheel of a spinning wheel. The yarn being spun does NOT go around the drive wheel (despite what some people think); this is what drives the flyer assembly, where the real work is done.
• Treadle: Where your feet go to make the whole thing work. NOT pedals. The treadles turn the drive wheel which turns the flyer assembly.
• Footman: Instead of a servant standing erect in a hallway, this is the piece(s) that connects the treadles to the drive wheel.
• Orifice: A hole in the Flyer that feeds the yarn …
• Nostepinde: Affectionately known as a “Nosty,” these are usually nicely carved and shaped to fit your hand, but basically look like the top of a broomstick and are used for winding center-pull balls of yarn for ease of use.
• Spinster: One last word–originally, “spinster” identified the person responsible for most of the family’s spinning, which was usually an unmarried woman. Spinning enough linen, cotton, and wool to keep a family clothed was a full-time job and vitally important. If anything, it was an honorable title, not a derrogatory one.

And, folks? This is just the equipment!

So … was this interesting? Or boring? Should I keep going?

In honor of the fourth annual Bloggers’ (Silent) Poetry Reading (which I participated in last year, as well as in 2006, 2007, 2008 over at my knitting blog), this year you get a Very Special Treat.

A poem that I wrote.

This is a rare, rare thing. I like poetry in small doses, but usually don’t feel compelled to write it myself. The only time I do is usually during times of emotion stress–times when prose just isn’t expressive enough. And of those few that I’ve written, there are really only two that I’m proud enough to let anyone see.

Anyway, here’s one of them:

WAITING

By Deb Boyken

Anticipation tingles up my arms,
Dancing with light feet across my skin.

Anticipation plays up my spine,
Producing trills and thrills of a shudder arpeggio.

Anticipation shoots across my face, tiny stars
Burning my features into a taut mask of warmth.

Anticipation spurs my heartbeat,
Trying to hasten the minutes ticking slowly by.

Anticipation runs down my legs,
Racing muscles against tortoise time, crumpling my knees.

Anticipation races through my fingers,
Making them slip and stumble in their regular tasks.

Anticipation clenches my stomach,
Twisting fingers through my gut, pulling me forward.

Anticipation beats in my head,
Booming the rhythm: “not yet, not yet, not . . . ”

Anticipation stirs me, wakes me, numbs me, taunts me, frets me, mocks me.

My friend. My foe.

This morning’s constant companion.

An endless “soon” to live through, and then . . . !