A to Z 2020 Reflections

This was my fourth year of A to Z challenge and that very much is the reason why April excites me. April has been the only month since my blogging journey where I post at-least 26 posts. I am happy for what April does to me. It kind of seamlessly fits into my schedule like a must-do routine. I feel the month has that vibe and zeal to keep it going, no matter what.

I have always had 8 lines poems for the challenge with different themes over the years. I continued to do so this year too. Like every year, I must say, I loved doing this year’s challenge. My 2020 theme was Metaphors and a 8 line poem for each. Looking for metaphors was definitely a challenge. I did not restrict my domain to a specific kind of metaphors. I have used them from literature, history, songs, movies, paintings etc. On few days, I had to struggle on which one to pick and other days had to pick the only available. Some days was ease and some days I kept staring at my screen.

I did fill up the end survey and collected my winner batch. Here it goes:

I have compiled all of my challenges into a short ebook and is available for free download. Save a copy for yourself too! Yay!

A to Z: A Metaphor for an Alphabet Ebook Download Link 

I would like to thank all of you for being supportive through April. Every blogger needs a supportive community to sustain, survive and thrive. Thank you all for all the love.  Thanks to A to Z team for making it happen every year with growing enthusiasm.

Note:
This year I also did A to Z 6 word lockdown stories on Instagram. My Instagram id: prakash.hegade.

Zanata Stone

Its April of 2020 and Day 26 of A to Z challenge. This year, I am doing Metaphors. Be it a movie, song, painting, book, idiom, etc. I plan to give a perspective to it with an explanation and a 8 line poem.

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Metaphor: Zanata Stone

I am ending with the most cryptic metaphors of all. Zanata Stone, also known as Zenata Stone is a Guanche origin stone with engravings. It is known to be found in 1992 at Mountain of the Flowers in Canary Islands. The engravings on the stone are said to be in Tifinagh scripts. The Zanata Stone seems to have been related to the magical-religious traditional faith of the Guanches (aboriginal inhabitants of the Canary Islands).

Some Guanches of Tenerife (island in Canary Islands) were also known as Zanata or Zenete, or “those with a cut tongue”. That puts together on why the stone is named so. The Zanata Stone is currently in the Archaeological Museum of Tenerife.

Poem:
Your worries, concerns,
Are rats at the mountains.
You opt for the rat?
Or the mountain hat?
While you collect the berries,
Your haters collect the worries,
Are you leaving behind?
Your Zanata stone?

For life is a metaphor and what we seek from it. It’s an quest into enigma and jigsaw puzzle with multiple answers. It’s upon us on how beautiful we fit in the pieces.

You’ve Got Mail

Its April of 2020 and Day 25 of A to Z challenge. This year, I am doing Metaphors. Be it a movie, song, painting, book, idiom, etc. I plan to give a perspective to it with an explanation and a 8 line poem.

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Metaphor: You’ve Got Mail

Who hasn’t loved the movie with the casting of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan? The local bookstore owner who hates the large bookstore chain owner in person, are falling in love over internet with masked identity. He later finds out, still likes her and has to fix it all. The movie released in 1998, has beautifully dealt with mall and internet culture.

Though the movie highlight is more about internet, technology etc., it can always stand for a bigger cause over time. The ‘mail’ here is an opportunity. Have you seen, identified and embraced it? For me, ‘You’ve Got Mail’ is a metaphor for there is love and everyone has got one. For, you see, falling in love without knowing each other’s real identities is something which has been our plot with changing modes and methods over time.

Poem:
There is already enough,
Suffering in the world,
The pain smiles,
The scars draw,
There are enough dying,
For love and hunger.
Opt to be kind,
You’ve got mail.

Did you check the email that asks you to be a little kinder? The email of love? The ‘oops’ moment is when it gets spammed and vanishes after 30 days!  

X&Y

Its April of 2020 and Day 24 of A to Z challenge. This year, I am doing Metaphors. Be it a movie, song, painting, book, idiom, etc. I plan to give a perspective to it with an explanation and a 8 line poem.

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Metaphor: X&Y

I have taken the studio album X&Y from Coldplay for today’s metaphor. X&Y with 8.3 million units sold in 2005 alone, is known to be the best-selling music album released in 2005.  The album has significant history before the release with respect to objectives, preparations, transition etc. The songs focus and question the philosophical view of the world. The recurrent theme with most songs of the album talk about broken, out of place, misplaced and missing things. (Do check out the interesting story behind the cover page coded in Baudot alphabets)

From the main album song X&Y which starts with ‘trying hard to speak’, I like the recurring lines:
You and me are floating on a tidal wave..
Together
You and me are drifting into outer space..

Poem:
You and me,
X&Y, in the plane,
Playing with numbers,
The plan point (0,0),
Alas, infinitely invisible,
Or, opposite and equal,
Or, either one at zero.
Will we ever be? Zero. Zero.

X is me and Y(Why) is you. Though we plan to meet at mid and that was the plan, I don’t know how many broken parts and pieces it takes to unite!

Whistler’s Mother

Its April of 2020 and Day 23 of A to Z challenge. This year, I am doing Metaphors. Be it a movie, song, painting, book, idiom, etc. I plan to give a perspective to it with an explanation and a 8 line poem.

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Metaphor: Whistler’s Mother

Whistler’s mother is an iconic oil painting on canvas by James McNeil Whistler of his mother Anna. The painting done in 1871 is also known as Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1. The painting is in 56.81 x 63.94 inches(That’s huge!) canvas and also known to be Victorian Mona Lisa. The painting is culturally popular. It’s been featured in several movies and my favorite is in Mr. Bean. It’s been used in posters, music, etc. and there has been a stamp a well.

I am inspired by the brilliance of the painting which plays with black, grey and shades of light. The image has been used since the Victorian era as an icon for motherhood, affection for parents, and family values (especially in United States). Paintings are viewed with a varied meanings as per each individual and there is always a personal level connect.

Poem:
A total absence,
Presence,
Presence with absence,
In any other sense,
And every other sense,
– family and values.
But everyone can see,
Whistler’s mother.

Everyone in the world isn’t gifted with the same. Not everyone has learnt the values of family and some never will.

Veg Out

Its April of 2020 and Day 22 of A to Z challenge. This year, I am doing Metaphors. Be it a movie, song, painting, book, idiom, etc. I plan to give a perspective to it with an explanation and a 8 line poem.

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Metaphor: Veg Out

Yes, a metaphor coming out from kitchen. It’s a slang for relaxing without any agenda or to spend time idly, passively.  “Let’s watch old movies all night…we’ll just veg out in front of the TV” from the movie Pretty Woman has caught attention of many. Basically it means to relax like a sloth and in mindless manner.

There is no authentic documentation but has known to be originated in 1970’s. The phrase derives from association of vegetables with mental incapacity; in the way that mentally disabled people are sometimes referred to as vegetables. Do you think ‘Veg Out’ has become one of our common routine now?

Poem:
While you are at it,
Vegging out,
Someone grew a garden,
One got lost in novel,
One fell in love,
Someone made a music,
Another believed marvels,
Made it all happen.

We all Veg out. We are human beings after all. The question is how often? If not me, then who will care for the dreams that I believed to live one fine day?

Unmarked Grave

Its April of 2020 and Day 21 of A to Z challenge. This year, I am doing Metaphors. Be it a movie, song, painting, book, idiom, etc. I plan to give a perspective to it with an explanation and a 8 line poem.

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Metaphor: Unmarked Grave

Like surprisingly, there are really no metaphors with U, apart from ‘Unmarked Grave’ which means something that is not noticed or observed. I find it recursive and applies to U and itself.  An unmarked grave is one, as per its traditional meaning, a grave that lacks a marker, headstone, or nameplate. Unmarked graves have long been used to bury executed criminals as an added degree of disgrace, usually. The reason could also be financial or any other like a celebrity not opting a name to avoid vandalism. Steve Jobs is buried in an unmarked grave.

With all that history, it also has its figure of speech. It has taken the metaphor meaning of consignment to an ignominious end – to be in the state of being unaware or unconscious of what is happening around one.

Poem:
It’s celebrating,
With joy and pomp,
It’s swaying,
In its entirety,
It’s living the fullest,
Nonsense,
Is no more in,
An unmarked grave.

It’s a tricky piece of eight lines. Do not think more. It could be nonsense. But, nonsense isn’t the under nourished anymore. It healthy and wealthy.

Truman Show

Its April of 2020 and Day 20 of A to Z challenge. This year, I am doing Metaphors. Be it a movie, song, painting, book, idiom, etc. I plan to give a perspective to it with an explanation and a 8 line poem. 

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Metaphor: The Truman Show

Truman (Jim Carrey) doesn’t know that everything in his life is a live broadcast ‘The Truman Show’. For him, life is a huge TV set. The hidden cameras are capturing his every moves. Isn’t the plot intriguing? If you haven’t, you got to watch this movie. The ending lines of the movie is quite popular. Truman says – ‘Good morning, and in case I don’t see ya, Good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight’.

The movie has a deeper meaning. The movie talks about the freedom and is the way out. It talks about the media-saturated show-off culture. It talks about how unauthentic our life is. It tries to throw light on how technology and artificial living has masqueraded as reality. It explains how free will and reality are illusions. The movie is about us all. By the way, there have been many noted incidents where people believed that their life was a TV show (delusion disease informally referred to as “Truman syndrome).

Poem
Your ears,
I don’t see them.
No, they are there.
Looks like,
You don’t use them.
I like how you run,
A useless,
The Truman show.

I am sure everyone has encountered a personality who just don’t listen. At. All. They order, command, rule, they don’t listen to anything at all!

Scream

Its April of 2020 and Day 19 of A to Z challenge. This year, I am doing Metaphors. Be it a movie, song, painting, book, idiom, etc. I plan to give a perspective to it with an explanation and a 8 line poem. 

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Metaphor: The Scream

I am using the painting ‘The Scream’ for today’s metaphor. It is a composition from Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. The Norwegian title for the painting done in 1893 is ‘Shriek’. The tormented face in the painting is one of the most iconic images of art symbolizing the anxiety.  Munch says he had been out for a walk at sunset while suddenly the setting sunlight turned the clouds blood red and he could sense an infinite scream passing through nature.

By Edvard Munch – National Gallery of Norway, Public Domain

I feel the image has layers. It has a depth in colors. It could be the nature screaming. It could be the scream of dead. It could be the scream of truth. It could be a scream in apocalypse.

Poem:
I cannot pen a poem,
Put a rhyme,
I cannot do a prose,
Put a personification,
Of course,
I can scream!
I have my notes,
In my own language.

We all have been in that scream. It’s scary not because you scream. It’s scary because no one hears you scream.

Reality is an Enemy

Its April of 2020 and Day 18 of A to Z challenge. This year, I am doing Metaphors. Be it a movie, song, painting, book, idiom, etc. I plan to give a perspective to it with an explanation and a 8 line poem. 

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Metaphor: Reality is an Enemy

Truth is harsh and so is reality. There is no known documented origin for this metaphor, but, and hence, I would like to go philosophical. We all start living in universe that we create a version of, for ourselves. We all build expectations and an image of what we see and what we put into our space. Reality is wonderful. Equally terrifying. Then, there comes a time, when reality shows up!

The thing I like about this metaphor is that it associates reality to an enemy. It means we are all living, with the lost true identities. We never want to see the reality. The policies, procedures, protocols, etc. are mostly away from reality. They are only to please the plastics. And we are plastics.

Poem
The beauty you appreciate,
Is ugly for me,
Ugly you,
Even from the inside,
But why can’t I accept it?
Shout it loud?
Stop the play?
Reality, an enemy.

When you know the truth, when you have to live with it, ugly or not, definitely an enemy. Welcome, reality!