Remember that scene in “The Sixth Sense,” where the kid whispers his secret: “I see dead people”? I’m going to whisper my secret to you: I see words. Everywhere. All the time. When I’m having a conversation with someone, every word they say runs across my brain like a news crawl—complete with punctuation and quote marks. It’s as real as if a little man in my brain is manically typing each word as it is said and then displaying it on a TV screen only I can see. When I read, I see the words on the page; a microsecond later, the little man in my brain types and displays them. I’m not exaggerating when I say that every single word I hear or see scrolls across my brain.
I don’t just see the words. My brain insists on playing with them. I’m constantly scrambling letters around, making new words. Taking a sentence apart and rearranging it. Searching my mental files for rhymes. Reading words backwards to see what they spell. My brain does this with every word and letter I hear or see: on cereal boxes. License plates. Street signs. The news crawl on “Good Morning, America.” Movie subtitles. They’re all fair game for that little man in my brain to play with. No wonder I have migraines.
I suppose this could be annoying, but I’ve lived with it my whole life, so I’m used to it. And I’ve found ways to make it work for me—crossword puzzles. Word searches. Writing of any kind. And poetry. When I discovered poetry, my brain lit up as if it had met its soulmate—I’d found a medium where I could play around with words in any way I wanted. And I do. I keep the little man in my brain quite busy typing and displaying limericks, haikus, sonnets, free verse—it’s an endless playground. I still remember the magical day when I first paid attention to rap and realized that it was poetry set to music: I saw the opening credits to “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” with Will Smith rapping about how his character in the show ended up in Bel-Air. I don’t remember watching the show, but I must have watched these credits hundreds of times:
After my last blog post about my life with Monty in the city, I had a few people ask me how Monty and I ended up here, in this town on the prairie. The little man in my brain started playing with words, crafting this answer, with respect to Will Smith:
Now this is a story about God’s grace—
About the twists and turns that led us to this place.
So go ahead, listen; pull up a chair
And I’ll tell you how we came to live way out here.
In east Ft. Collins I was born and raised
Hangin’ with Monty was the best of those days.
We dated, then married; settled into our nest
Monty got his dream job—at HP, no less.
I stayed at home, wanting to write
But instead I got in trouble all day and all night.
One day, my dad called—his message was clear:
“We’ve got a job for Monty if you move out here.”
So we prayed and we talked, unsure what to do
We chose to hit the road; we had nothing to lose.
We rolled up in this town—our new life had begun,
But adjusting was hard: “What have we done?”
Five years later, every day is like Christmas—
We both have jobs with our family business.
We have everything we wanted: an answer to prayer
God’s grace brought us home, to our life out here.
Here’s the instrumental version of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” in case you want to play around and write your own rap. Monty tells me that no one besides me will find this fun, and he’s probably right. But here it is anyway:
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Comments 12
Love it!!!
Yay!! Thank you, Frister dear!
This was so much fun. It’s also fun for me to say words in different tones and volume and then ask how you pictured them in your head. 🙂 I love starting my days on your blog days!
What’s that? Fun? Hee hee. How many years have you been asking me what the words in my head look like?! Thank you for your last sentence–that makes me so happy. ❤
Creative and fun to read. I must admit I tried to sing it too, it was fun.
Personally, I am not into rap–especially because of some of the negative language within some of the rap music, although I have heard some super creative ones over the years that I did truly enjoy.
In the Netherlands it is custom to rhyme for special occasions, especially at Saint Nicolaas. We make a rhyme, kind of make fun about the person who the present that accompanies the rhyme is for and it is hilarious–we are often in stitches. I did it every year for my ex husband and children on a scroll which they had to read out before they could open their present at Christmas. I have done them for birthdays and special occasions and have done a number of them for family occasions. The idea is always to take highlights out of the person’s life and make them into some rhythmic flow of words or to a tune!
I must admit I like the idea of poetry to music and Rod McKuen comes to mind, he did a record called ” The Sea” and one called ” The Sky”–however it is not rap. I prefer a more poetic music, one that makes me want to dream??
Thanks for sharing with us and making me smile for today!
Klara–I’m glad it made you smile. I love the Dutch tradition you talked about–rhymes with presents! I should institute that tradition at the Phillips household. Monty would find it torturous, though. Love to you. ❤
He just maybe in stitches with what you come up with??
Knowing Monty, he probably would. ❤
THAT WAS CREATIVE!!!!! I just rapped the song to Lonnie….stop laughing because I know you are but he said he liked my rapping. Love you!!!!
Ummm. . . has Lonnie ever heard rap? Because if that’s all he hears of it, he’s not really getting a fair representation. And yes, I’m laughing! I would love for Lonnie to send me a video of this, by the way.
Good morning Renee. You certainly have a ‘Gift of Words”.It is so apparent when I read your Blogs. Your read your Blogs. Your “ode” to how you arrived in Fort Collins, supervcreative, catchy, brilliant. My Gift, So to speak, is music, lyrics, melodies, I feel I a, a walking jukebox,able to sing,hum, think, dance around, If the spirit moves me, and it does, to Debbie’s chagrin, sometimes. In our house, grocery store, “Jukebox Hal”. My specialty, 50’s ,60’s,70’s. Also, lots of Praise Hymns. Your rap version of Fresh Vision, Loved It. Right now, we are gearing up, for ou4 Hill Country weekend.But, dur8ng my quiet time, probably Monday p.m., I will write down, “Harold’s Rap” on his life. It will be a shortene$ version, but will”hit the highlights”.As I have written before, you4 writ8bg @bility, love of the written word, “comes shiningthrough” in every Blo* you write. It is a “Gift From God”. So again I say, Sparrow, “keep on blogging”. ❤️TexGen,.
Good morning to you, TexGen. You ARE a walking jukebox! You have so many songs in your head–and I love that you use that gift of music with your seniors. Oh, I hope you do write “Harold’s Rap” about your life. Despite what Monty says, I think you’ll find it fun. ? Thank you for your encouragement and kind words. I will keep blogging, General.