The Old Ones Deign to Tweet
(With Character Counts)
Immanuel Kant
on the subject of building “platforms” for
blogs, websites, Twitter accounts or Facebook:
. . . the favor of the multitude is seldom got by honest and lawful means.
Seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them. (140)
*
Charles Dickens
on the subject of tweeting, texting , e-mailing, or other social media:
Electric communication will never be a substitute
for the face of someone who with their soul
encourages another person to be brave and true. (140)
*
Mark Twain:
On the subject of those (like me) who resist
tweets, texts and ubiquitous handheld devices:
One who stops learning is old, whether 20 or 80.
One who keeps learning stays young.
The greatest thing you can do is keep your mind young. (140)
*
Me:
And, a further comment about those tweets:
Mind without heart conveys no wisdom.
Where brevity is the only rule,
larger truths may be lost. (96)
We must remember that “character” has two meanings
and count our truths as closely
as we count our keystrokes. (109)
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
These are wonderful. 🙂
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Have you seen “Finding Vivian Maier?” If not, it is a must see…documentary about a photographer…
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Seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them…you have to love Kant 🙂
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♥ ♥ ♥
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Loved this Judy!
I just read today about a poetry form called “poetweet” that combines shadorma form with the 140 character count.
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I’m going to try a shadorma. Had never heard of it. How do they work in the 140 characters? Is it per stanza? I actually love the challenge of poetic forms and can see that you do, too.
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Yes! I love trying new forms as well. I am yet to establish a regular style for my poems and experimenting with these forms is as instructive as it is fun.
The 140 characters is for the entire poem. Here’s a definition: “Poetweet” is a free verse poem constructed with *exactly* 140 characters. That number *includes* punctuation and line breaks.
(I think they can be less than 140 characters of course but it would make the job easier, and who wants that?)
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So I believe I wrote several Poetweets in my poem. Can you send me the link to the place where you found the prompt?
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https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/bjs-shadorma-beyond-poetweet-february-28-2015/
I recently discovered this blog. They put up some very interesting prompts.
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I hated today’s prompt so I used your Shadorma prompt instead..did 5 to remotely connect it to today’s prompt. Thanks for getting me out of a blocked state…Judy
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I just re-read the newsletter and it was asking for a shadorma OR poetweet and not combined! I combined it in my head for unknown reasons and wrote this comment, inadvertently creating a new form: a shatweetorma (which sounds like an Indian curry) or shadotweet (which sounds like a Ninja’s twitter account handle). I don’t know if this is do-able!
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Ha! Is that a challenge, Sam? I think you’ve just invented a form but ya gotta write one to propose one.
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I think it was a challenge to myself. I don’t know if it’s possible. Maybe in 2 stanzas? Let’s see.. 🙂
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Very clever! I like this post a lot.
I avoid social media of all kinds. Blogging is the closest I have come to it. I do have to do some facebook work but it is a miniscule part of my personal life. I’m getting close to signing up for a twitter account because my son is tweeting from a big trip, but I still haven’t gone to the site to see what it takes!
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Have you seen the film, “Chef” Karuna? You should, if you want to investigate the power of the Tweet. But, I agree with you. I haven’t done much tweeting, although I am signed up for it. I guess I’m just not that good at saying what I have to say in 140 characters or less. Thanks for reading and commenting. Judy
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I thought I had but I don’t remember tweeting in it so maybe what I saw is a different movie…. or I just don’t remember that part.
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It is all about tweeting. I loved it.
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