Deadlines and Freewrites

          It's a good time of year to be thankful, and I'm thankful today for deadlines. They make me work. There's the end of the month for NaNo, the end of the semester for college, and the end of this week for my creative writing group. I decided to submit a poem, rather than a short story, since I can write them in a shorter amount of time.

          With poems I usually start by free writing. I try a few different themes or descriptive phrases until they come to dead ends or I find one that yields to my shaping. Riding my bike to and from campus almost every day, I've gotten to see fall turning to winter step by step. From the leaves starting to turning red to them getting brown and curling, every change is beautiful, and beauty is the theme of my poem, "Maker." It is a spin off of a very strange, modern Gertrude Stein's prose poem called "Picasso," an excerpt of which you can read here.

To read "Maker" click here.

What are you thankful for today? 

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.