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#ROW80 Literary Liaisons
March 11, 2015
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ROW80
Writers make good company in person or long distance. In our 80 days together writing about writing I have made the acquaintance of interesting and talented people. Like social exchanges in person we represent a very diverse set of interests and geographic situations. The faithful participants check in twice weekly to report progress on goals which range from studying story architecture to editing novels to posting on twitter. At the same time I have been joining my on line colleagues I have been hanging out at least once a week with poets. One of my goals at the start of the 80 days was to become a regular at the U of A Poetry Center. This goal had been an unstated wish for over a year, and yet I had not worked it into my routine. Now that I made it a conscious part of my practice as a writer I am really happy. Being present for the readings and taking in the atmosphere of the crowds who attend the poetry events is a blast. All this free entertainment that is right up my alley has been waiting for me right around the corner from my home. I am glad I have made it a habit to go because it is a remarkable resource. I will probably work up to taking a workshop eventually.
Although I set no number of books, poems or poets to read during the challenge I have been very active absorbing poetry in print and by app. The Poetry Foundation app and others keep me busy finding new writers from all periods of history. I have developed some favorites in this short time of sampling different kinds of poetic work. Translated poetry is interesting to me. I like hearing it in the original language then in English, to hear the sound before the meaning. Haiku is written by all kinds of people in many languages around the world a great app to learn more about those is The Haiku Foundation’s Haiku app. Shake your iPhone and a new (not your grandfather’s) haiku appears ready to tweet or read. In general I like short pithy poems, but am also fond of epic stories if they contain humor. I am on a general exploratory venture into every poem and all poets. I have thought a lot about the relationship between poetry and music, and how they shape popular culture. I am reading Dorothy Parker Drank Here, a novel about the ghost of the great witty woman. Dorothy Meister presents a funny set of circumstances at the Algonquin Hotel in New York where Mrs. Parker is a haunting the bar as a way of telling about her life and personality. I am enjoying the read, and also noticing what a great device a ghost is to frame a story about anyone in history. I am planning to try it with some of my dead ancestors.
Dorothy Parker Drank Here
My poetry is chugging along, which I think is an accomplishment. I write almost every day, and expand my subject matter horizons. When I began this adventure I wanted to warm up and work on poetry for a better outcome in this year’s Poetry Month, NaPoWriMo challenge. I feel ready and able to write a poem every day in April, and I am now in the practice of illustrating what I post. I am proud to have developed this habit. It has no unwanted side effects, and I think I can only improve as I practice. Sometimes the inspiration comes from what I am thinking or doing in life, and other times it comes from some distant part of the universe. It always feels good to hit publish. To be in the company of writers is a honor and a privilege I appreciate. Check out my fellow writers and their adventures here.
#ROW80 Lunar Power
February 23, 2015
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ROW80
When I began the #ROW80 journey with fellow writers I had an expectation that I would become a poet by grinding out a poem a day for 80 days. 54 days of this trip are now water under the bridge. I am happy to report that I have not only established a habit and practice of writing poetry, but have learned a lot about creating better, richer written work. Both my plain brown paper wordpress blog and my illustrated poems on Tumblr need new perspectives, interesting characters, and dazzling descriptions of scenes to be more compelling. I am grateful to other writers who have shared works in progress and personal creative systems. I have been too eager to finish and move on to another brief encounter with poetry to spend a proper amount of time revising and refining my first drafts. I have rushed as if I had a quota of quickie poems to write, and then I would start creating more meticulous work. I see the folly in this speed system. I can only become meticulous by practicing specifically to choose each word above all other words for effect and artfulness. I am practicing taking more time and trying on subjects I have not used in the past. So far, so good. I am going for quality, not quantity.
Lunar cycles are central to agriculture and other businesses that need to work with nature. I observe the new moon each month with a clean slate for new intentions and projects. I keep a bundle of marjoram in each of the four corners of my home. This little charm grown in our garden is used to protect our home from harm, both physical and psychic. I empty the old herbs and replace them with freshly picked marjoram that smells delightful. The picking of the herbs includes a little ritual, and I treat the old plant material as depleted magic waste. I return it to the earth as compost or as mulch in my back yard. By refreshing these four sachets on the new moon I remind myself to start again on stalled projects, or refresh commitment to ongoing goals. We have had two new moons during the 80 day challenge. I do notice a difference in my willingness to write creatively. The first new moon found me enjoying the poetry discovery, but not personally applying myself very much to improve. This second new moon that just passed last week was a commitment to the poetry writing goal, but with a shift in attitude. The unexpected consequence of meeting writers and learning about their processes and goals is a much higher standard for my finished product. I have a big realization that bursts of zen poetic flashes are just not sufficient. The first shot is rarely good, so I need to go back to enhance my initial inspiration, work with my muses, and labor a bit.
Next month the new moon will include a solar eclipse on 20 Mar, 2015. This event has symbolic implications beyond the normal new moon. The shadow of the moon is cast on the earth, blocking the sun. The solar eclipse is a time to turn within and come to terms with any unfinished personal business from the past. Our 80 day written program will conclude just after this auspicious occasion in March. I believe this exercise will benefit me long after we stop our check ins. I think the next new moon will bring unexpected gifts. We have only to find them and put them to use.
full moon
Stories or Scenes? #ROW80
February 9, 2015
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ROW80
My poetic week was full of images of the deep south and history. I studied ancestors from Alabama who moved to Texas after the Civil War, which conjured up all kinds of images. There are descriptive written accounts of the places and events, especially the battles. The river flood plain where my people settled was deadly with cholera and disease. This may be the reason the father of the family died so young, but there is no evidence. I become very wrapped up in the general as well as the specific information I find about my ancestors. I imagine daily life as well as how the big events must have taken place. After their town became a ghost town my mother’s family loaded up ox carts and moved to Texas. There is a lot of water and low land on their route, and roads were not established everywhere. Elizabeth Langley must have been full of stories by the time she died at age 96. I have no pictures of her, but her image is forming in my imagination. She was no stranger to mosquitos, and she must have had a strong constitution. She is one of these people in my family tree who perfectly represents a certain time in history. She has the makings of a very interesting character in a story. I have decided to follow my fellow writers and make a draft of a story. I am not ready to outline, but for once I plan to draft, edit, edit, and add, rather than finish and publish whatever this will be. It may be a short story, or I might be able to make it rhyme…like Evangeline. I thank you all for showing me that I could use some extra steps to create better written works. I have faith that this will work.
Elizabeth Langley, Texas
Scarlet O’Hara she clearly was not,
Her life was difficult, tragic, and hot
My range of subjects has been narrow but evolving, which is all I expect of my budding poetic voice. I have a new feeling about the poems, which is kind of a documentation of my progress as a writer. The worse they sound now, the more potential there is to see them improve over time. Sometimes I think of truly terrible rhymes, and hope to start using them instead of the trite kind of thing I do at this moment. I play around with bad rhymes in the pool, and later when I am dry they have gone to the place where bad rhymes hide. I need to work on this. I plan to write the daily poetry to keep the practice going while I write scenes or descriptions of Elizabeth Langley’s life. It was so long I may need to pick a short period to cover in the story. I might choose reaction to the end of the Civil War, which was a big deal for all involved.
I believe the best thing I have discovered through this challenge is poetry written by others. I listen and read poetry daily now, and think that alone is a wonderful upgrade to my life. Some work makes me laugh, and some brings out curiosity. I am thrilled to see so many different forms used to express poetic thoughts. It is liberating to find so many free style as well as highly formatted ways to go about painting with words. There is no right or wrong, but some have more impact than others. This week the UA Poetry Center will offer two readings I plan to attend, one in house and another next Saturday at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. The Valentine reading at the gardens is on birds. We will receive a packet of poems about birds, and they will be read and discussed. They have designed the perfect valentine for me!!!
Character Development #ROW80
February 1, 2015
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ROW80
By joining the Round of Words in 80 Days writers I have been given the opportunity to peek into the process used by different people. Initially revealing goals, and now following the theme for 80 days of pursuit of those goals, we let each other know how our lives are proceeding. Some have chosen more personal ideals, and others are achieving astonishing numbers of words/outlines/rewrites and characters developed. I am impressed with all of the participants, and have started to think more about character development. I have not done this, but am now seeing the merit of telling stories of well-developed characters. From fairy tales to murder mysteries the characters hold our attention, and in some cases can bring about new stories or a series of tales. I live tweeted Downton Abbey last week and find it highly amusing to see how emotional the audience is about the characters. I also noticed that my own poetry is void of any characters. I make it all about the cosmos, memory, psyche, all very general and without personality. I need to work on this aspect of my poems.
There are three levels of character development I can identify in this challenge:
- Public commitment as well as confession of failures. This unifying act makes us responsible to our goals and the shared experience. This builds character of the core personal kind. It is needed to build a foundation of discipline and high standards.
- Players in a fictional story, or historical figures in biography must be “fleshed out” in order to hold the interest of the gentle reader. I think it is also helpful to imagine the gentle reader as a character to encourage a bond between the two. This kind of development is needed to give writing more substance, dimension and detail.
- The genre in which one creates has a character that is distinct from others. I notice some writers in this group write in more than one genre, which I admire. Expanding beyond one to another is a creative stretch that requires practice and consideration. I am, and have been, in the scribe mode, writing just the facts. Now that I am making poetry I need to add emotional and artistic value to it. I need to develop the character of my poems.
These three have all been at work in my life this week. I have been reading about Dorothy Parker, her life and times. Her character has been made larger than life since the internet. It dawned on me that Mrs Parker was a feminist in the early 20th century. She was a contemporary of my grandmother Olga, who got a masters in education and taught shorthand and typing. I was thinking about how odd it must have been to have no vote and be better educated than your husband. I wondered if Olga read Dorothy in Vanity Fair. I still prefer Mrs. Parker as my muse in poetry, but I must admit my grandmother was a feminist in a different part of the country. They were both strong characters, but I have real memories of Olga. I did write a poem about my grandmother, although it is short and sweet. This whole process has brought me to think it is very wise for me to use these characters in my family tree about whom I know so much. They inhabit my dreams and imagination, so I might as well use them as characters in my poems. I have written plenty about the facts in their lives, but I could focus on a more essential theme.
I gave myself two poetry days off this week, which I regret. I took a birthday holiday. This aspect goes back to number one on the list above, discipline and character. It is actually pleasurable to write a poem each day. The mindset that tells me I deserve a day off from this grueling task is quite bogus. I don’t plan to make up in penance for the lapse, or enhance guilt over this. I do notice that some silly side of my psyche wants to claim that poetry is hard and working on it is, oh my, such a burden on my important schedule. This is obviously rubbish made by some shadow character. I reject the claims of this looser. That character will not be developed. I will write about this poetic couple on the left in the photo below:
My grandparents on a double date
Poets and Education
April 15, 2014
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From the time we learned our first Dr Seuss rhyme we were being educated by poets. Nursery rhymes and fairy tales are used to teach morals and ethics to children. There is value in the use of language to enchant and stick in the memory. Poets are feeding the artistic as well as the language skills of readers. Our own stories can only be told by our own voice. To develop a voice as a writer or a poet one simply needs to start. Children are ready to rhyme and laugh at almost any word. Adults often loose enthusiasm for word play as they grow older. Since poetry stimulates creativity, and is a tool to jog the memory it makes sense to read and write poems. Often hidden meaning can be found in song and story, as it is in Calypso. Political protest can be carried out in a rhyme using allegory to mask the obvious. Some of our nursery rhymes today were once hot treason against authorities. What kind of symbolic words would you use to write a poetic protest today?
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