And the Results...

     ...I placed! I'll be reading "Many Are the Masters" at the university literature conference on Saturday (plus two more poems, if I can speed-polish them in time). :D

NaNoWriMo: No More Excuses

      Seems like I'm always writing about the passage of time, but really, November is right around the corner. That means we're only a week away from National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.

     NaNoWriMo begins at midnight on November 1st and ends midnight of the 30th. Those daring souls who embark on this adventure write furiously to meet the daunting word count of 50,000 before the deadline. That's 1666 words, or around 10 pages double-spaced, per day. NaNo isn't about polish or beautiful turns of phrase--it's about getting the words onto the page. Editing can come later.

    The pressure and accountability from NaNoWriMo might just be my ticket. I've made way too many excuses not to write. But as the last October days drop like flies and the time to register grows nearer, I alternately have imaginations of myself half-asleep and squinting at the manuscript on my computer screen in the silence of 2 and 3 a.m., and a less triumphant version in which I'm shamefacedly writing a post about how I just didn't have the time and..."maybe next year."

     I gave myself a test today. I did the writing prompt from a few days ago on The Write Practice, where you lock in and write a complete work in one hour. I ended up with three-fourths of a page of exposition and about a page of outline for a short story. It didn't boost my confidence.
     I'm afraid I'll start half-heartedly and not end up doing it. But that'll be a stinky little excuse when December rolls around and Wynna's story is still trapped in my head.

     How do you commit to big endeavors?

A Vision of Your Own: William Wordsworth

free image of Tweed River
courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

     The Solitary Reaper" is one of my favorite poems. Today I found out it's part of a collection of 16 of Wordsworth's poems inspired by his trip to Scotland in 1803. In that collection I discovered "Yarrow Unvisited," an interesting reflection on the difference between imagination and reality. In it, the speaker and his friends are traveling all over Scotland, and one of them wants to see the famous River Yarrow. But the speaker says toward the end of the poem:

"Let beeves and home-bred kine* partake

The sweets of Burn-mill meadow;

The swan on still St. Mary's Lake

Float double, swan and shadow!

We will not see them; will not go,

To-day, nor yet to-morrow,

Enough if in our hearts we know

There's such a place as Yarrow.

"Be Yarrow stream unseen, unknown!

It must, or we shall rue it:

We have a vision of our own;

Ah! why should we undo it?

The treasured dreams of times long past,

We'll keep them, winsome Marrow!

For when we're there, although 'tis fair,

'Twill be another Yarrow!"

What's  your Yarrow?

*beeves and kine/beef (pl) and cows

Poetry: Many Are the Master of the Beasts

     It almost seems like a trademark of the British romantic poets to have radical theological and philosophical views. I was rather shocked when I met them at the beginning of the semester. And as an English major I feel bad to say so, but most of their work is gibberish to me. I think Wordsworth's in "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" and Shelley in his "Defense of Poetry," are digging too deep and being too analytical.

     Despite my muddled response to 17th century British literature, I hope I will end up taking something meaningful or useful away from it. I did sort of connect with one of Blake's ideas in his poem "London," to which I make an intertextual reference in my latest poem "XX."

     "XX" is posted below. I know it is rather pensive, and I hope to someday be inspired to write the more uplifting counterpart, but until then it stands alone. I ask you to read, reflect, and (in the actual sense of the words) RSVP, répondez s'il vous plaît, answer or respond, if you please. I'm turning this in to the university creative writing contest on the 15th and appreciate your criticism!

free image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

This Time It's a No

     October is here! And the campus-wide literature conference is coming up, which means the deadline for the creative writing contest looms near. Why do I only have one new poem and a mini-story/scene? Not knowing what to write is part of it, but mostly I haven't had time. Really! I think of my homework as a train that picks me up on Monday and rockets through the week to Friday, letting me off at Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday just long enough to go to class and a couple of events like cultural coffeehouse and creative writing club. I could use a little bit less homework and a little more time management.

✥ four of my lovely birthday presents ✥

      In her book I Dare You: Embrace Life With Passion, Joyce Myer says that being busy isn't always the same as being productive. We have to learn to focus our energy on the things that really matter and learn to say no to the things that may be good in and of themselves but, with the time and resources that we have, will weigh us down.