Soul Music

I spent a large part of Saturday night listening to music. I’ve always loved music, all genres because songs can appeal to anyone, at any point in life. My belief is that soul music is any music that touches your soul in spite of genre. That’s what inspired this poem.

You pour over me
Digging deep
To the parts
I think are
Untouchable
A soul
Is nothing
Without
Your inspiration
Encouraging me to
Dance, laugh, love
You change me,
Rescue me,
Give me relief
And reprieve
You lick my wounds, let me cry or
Relive a moment
Make me smile, laugh out loud
Believe in love and possibilities

The Importance of Reaching…

“Story first, “writing” second” is a fundamental guiding principle when it comes to writing an effective story. Ignore it at your peril.

One of my personal goals and # 11 on this year’s writing resolutions list is to participate in National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. I am looking forward to crossing this off my list and I hope that it goes well. I’ve wrangled in a few of my writing friends from undergrad and we are all set to tackle this goal. Although another goal was to write 500 words a day and I’ve failed miserably at that. I’ve decided to take my victories and failings in stride and to always keep reaching.

In planning for NaNoWriMo, which I am participating in for the first time this year, I wanted to prepare myself by doing a bit of brushing up on the importance of story. I found the above quote to be particularly inspiring. It reminded me of how I want to approach next month. As I have mentioned before, I have a story that I planned to finish or totally revamp this year and that’s the piece that I’ll be focusing on next month. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words over 30 days; that’s basically 1667 words a day. Which seems like enough time and words to know whether the story is worth salvaging and I am looking forward to digging in. So next month I will probably only feature poems on the blog, some will be pieces from the beginning of the blog and others are new and haven’t appeared yet.

Do any of you have NaNoWriMo goals or plans to participate?

If you’re interested in learning more click here http://nanowrimo.org/

Books and Tea

As it has been well documented on this blog, repeatedly, I love books. And I love tea. Most days I drink at least two mugs of tea. Often chai or a breakfast(English or Irish), sometimes peppermint or a flavored green(jasmine or cherry). And when I say mug, I mean a 16 oz ceramic latte cup, thank you ever so much Natural Life. For me there’s a certain comfort in curling up in bed or in a chair with a steaming mug beside me and a book in my lap. Especially now that it’s autumn.

In spite of my earlier edict regarding my book habit I bought several books from Amazon last night and I ordered some tea from Stash and Adagio. I have decided to just accept my obsessions(this week) instead of trying to curb them.

Where I live there’s a relatively new shop which combines the two, The Garden of Readin’; great idea, ingenious name, cozy shop. I love it, and she has a coconut oolong that I really want to try but every time I go in there I am starving and they don’t serve food. I hope to share more about it soon.

Humanity

The intersecting points of life
are confusing and often messy
but necessary.
We are all floating by
trying to determine
how to be decent, how to live
life in our little corners
and make it.
We were
meant to make deeper,
more serious connections;
to laugh heartily, watch sports and movies,
enjoy food and gain weight.

Still Here

Last autumn,
the season of change
brought more
than I thought
I could
bear.

But…
One year later
here I am

Stronger than I thought,
paying homage
to the seed
I stem from;
reaching for sunlight,
growing and
morphing
into her likeness.

Strategy

This is atypical of my work. There’s no imagery, beautifully turned phrases, or other literary devices. Just simplicity and the title is reflective of the poem (which is not always so with my work). I have been reading a lot of H.D, William Carlos Williams, and Wallace Stevens this week which left little time for my own work but an abundance of inspiration. I am also trying to branch out in my own creative style and while this is not where I want to go it just flowed from the pen and I decided to share it.

Today
is just the
beginning.
If you’re not
happy with who
or
Where you are
or the life you’re
leading then,
Step up.
Change.
Evolve.

The Danger of Books

***This is a bit late. I’d intended to post it during Banned Books Week which was September 22nd- 28th but I hope you enjoy it all the same.

For those who advocate the banning of books I must agree that books are dangerous. They are mysterious, educational and powerful. They are what we’ve been led to believe are impossible; they’re time machines, teleportation devices of the first order. They encourage imagination and belief in great things; look at what J.K. Rowling spawned with Harry Potter. Books let us know that other people feel what we feel; they erase our differences, and make the world wonder filled (I didn’t steal that from Oreo).

Yes, some books are literally dangerous like that How to be a Killer book from years ago or O.J’s potential book but there is no danger at all in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye Ohio State school board or in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man Randolph County, NC. Nor in any other banned or challenged book. Books, especially good ones, are the best of humanity. I think that for every banned book we are challenging the validity and value of someone else’s work and I don’t think that literature should be one big workshop. Let’s leave that to creative writing workshops and literary critics.

I’ve taken a look at the list of banned and challenged books. I don’t agree with any of them. I do encourage you all to look for yourselves and to share your ideas on banned books.