WORDS OF WISDOM

There's plenty to write about. We can use our imagination to create whatever plots and characters we desire.

Bluestockings Bookstore

 

Nestled on the Lower East Side just below Houston Street, I have been visiting this store since 1998. Back then the store was smaller (yeah, you could say a hole-in-the-wall), rustic in appearance, and independent in nature. Bluestockings is bigger and has a loyal following.

Bluestockings is very active,  hosting events almost every night. Topics range from vegan cooking, gender, and prison reform to comedy, radical politics, and feminist musings. The store is run by women who are helpful and pleasant. I'm happy that Bluestockings is there because, despite the constantly changing scene on the Lower East Side, is vital to the community as a source for bring another perspective on the sometimes artificial (my take on it) scene.

I support independent bookstores because, with the chains stores closing some establisments and/going online, they are really needed. 

Revising and Rewritng Old Work

I read some of the stories I've written in past years and see that they could be improved. Some may feel that it's sacrilegious to do this (I would feel this way if say, Romeo and Juliet, was redone) but the idea is to write a story that you feel comfortable with. The other point is that you want to keep the readers engaged.

I'm certainly not famous or rolling in cash and possessions but writing a quality story, article, or poem is important to me. I have evolved and am evolving as a writer. It's not always tangible but I notice the difference. Reading the work of others opens my mind to other styles. I ask what is the author trying to convey to the audience? This is what every writer, I believe, should ask.

I read about a dozen of my old stories and saw that some could be revised or even rewritten. No shame in that. What I have gained is an appreciation for putting out the best quality work that I can. I have a great respect for editing and revision because it can be the difference between engaging the audience and giving them a reason not to continue reading. Something to think about.

WORDS OF WISDOM

Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during the moment.


~Carl Sandburg 

Edgar Allan Poe

I have a personal list of my favorite authors. I have a top five list and Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) may be my favorite. He cultivated my current love for mystery and horror. That love wasn't manifested until many years later. Poe's famous poem, The Raven, opened the door.

Poe wrote many poems but it is his short stories that brought him fame. Two of my favorite stories are Fall of the House of Usher and Murders in the Rue Morgue. Poe is considered the father of the detective story. His stories still sends chills through me.  

Death and loss seem to follow Poe. He was plagued by alcoholism, financial woes, and the loss of meaningful people in his life. Poe was only forty years old when he died.

Lenore
Ah broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever! Let the bell toll!--a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river; And, Guy De Vere, hast thou no tear?--weep now or never more! See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore! Come! let the burial rite be read--the funeral song be sung!-- An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young-- A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young. "Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride, "And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her--that she died! "How shall the ritual, then, be read?--the requiem how be sung "By you--by yours, the evil eye,--by yours, the slanderous tongue "That did to death the innocent that died, and died so young?" Peccavimus; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath song Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel so wrong! The sweet Lenore hath "gone before," with Hope, that flew beside Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy bride-- For her, the fair and debonair, that now so lowly lies, The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes-- The life still there, upon her hair--the death upon her eyes. "Avaunt! to-night my heart is light. No dirge will I upraise, "But waft the angel on her flight with a Pæan of old days! "Let no bell toll!--lest her sweet soul, amid its hallowed mirth, "Should catch the note, as it doth float up from the damnéd Earth. "To friends above, from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven-- "From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven-- "From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven."

Writing Is Still Evolving

I was at my local bookstore and browsed books written by local authors. There are plenty of them here where I live. I have taken particular interest in them since I first came to the Word Up Bookstore two years ago. They may not be famous or wealthy but there is a wealth of talents and gifts and experiences.

As I read their works, I realize how much my own writing has and is still evolving. I don't know if there's any exact science to any style of writing. I believe that experiences and our particular styles dictates some of it. I believe the other is that as our writing matures we are able to present unique styles that may not always be  popular or even accepted by writing literary. It's part of the reason I'm drawn to author who were marginized.

Herman Melville and Edgar Allan Poe were marginized because they didn't write in the style that was popular at the time. Melville thought he was a failure as a novelist but found a second career as poet. Having read couple of his novels I found him very perceptive of his own experiences. He told so much about life on the seas and distant islands. 

To me the local poets and writers share their own gifts about things much closer to home. As I will join their ranks some time later this year, I trust that many budding artists will be inspired and challenged.

Sci-Fi and Horror Films

If you are a science fiction, fantasy, and horror, the Film Forum here in New York City will have classic films from these genre. Films like Psycho and Invasion of the Body Snatchers will be presented in their original form. I am also a big fan of Godzilla.  The summer festival will continue through September 5th.



www.filmforum.com

Poetry at Bryant Park

Red Hen Press at Bryant Park

Poet: Evie Shockley Featured Poets: Evie Shockley, Peggy Shumaker, Tess Taylor, Ron Carlson August 20, 2013, 7:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Bryant Park, 42nd St and 5th Ave., New York, NY Please join Red Hen Press at Bryant Park on August 20 for a reading event featuring Peggy Shumaker, Evie Shockley, Tess Taylor, and Ron Carlson Info: 626.356.4760 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 626.356.4760 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlightingpublicity@redhen.org http://redhen.org

WORDS OF WISDOM

There is creative reading as well as creative writing.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson



p.s- this is my 1200th post.

The Colossus

Sylvia Plath's poems are poignant as well as mystical. I'm reading the above book and I understand her poems much better now than when I first read her work. The raw emotion that I feel when reading them cannot be understated. Plath is one of my favorite poets.

Subway Ride

A girl is sitting in a boy's lap.
The buzz of quiet convesation
Is drowned out by the rumble of train wheels
On steel rails and the conductor's blaring announcement;
'Next stop, 42nd Street!'
Folks read or listen to music on their Ipods. A few doze off.  
Me? I'm sitting in this subway car capturing to all
And writing about it.

Open MIc Tonight

Bring your poems, songs ,and stories to the open mic at Word Up Bookstore at 2113 Amsterdam Avenue (at West 165th Street). It starts at 7pm.

Word Up Bookstore
2113 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY

Subway: C train to 163rd Street
Bus: M10, M2, M3, M5, M100, Bx7

Website: www.wordupbooks.com

Summer Reading

I remember when I was in grade school that I had to read six books for the summer. It was challenge between that, playing softball and basketball, and having fun. I did read the six books and thoroughly enjoyed it.

That summer really stoked my love for reading. Today, I read a least one book per month. My parents were readers and so are my siblings. I enjoy reading non fiction, biographies, history, horror/mystery, prose and poetry.  

Reading is a must for a writer. I have learned much from other authors famous and not so famous. There are published authors here in my own neighborhood and soon hope to join their ranks. The feel of a book in my is one of my pleasures in life. 

My Thoughts About Jim Morrison

 

The 1960s were a great time for musical expression. My mother brought me up listening to all genres of music-jazz, gospel, opera, classical, and rock. The 1960s brought us Motown with acts like the Four Tops, The Supremes, and the Temptations. In rock it was the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and the Doors.  

There were many fascinating characters also. The person who has caaught my interest in recent years has been Jim Morrison (1943-1971), the frontman of the rock group, The Doors. Morrison was a singer, songwriter, filmmaker, and poet. His stage presence was charismatic and charming. He often threw in poetry during the group's sets during concerts. 

Their music was dark and brooding, quite different from the many acts of his time. Jim was wild onstage. Offstage he was quiet and shy. He created his image of 'Lizard King' and 'Mojo Risin' only to later reject it. The more pressures of fame came to him, the more he sought escape through drugs and alcohol.

I read his book of poems,The American Night. Morrison's words were dark, sometimes sexualy explicit, sad, and angry.Though he was one of most popular rock stars at that time, Jim also viewed himself as a poet. He was a rebel, seeking escape from a world he found chafing. He saw the coming of the time when creativity and musical invention would be compromised. I see Jim Morrison as a modern day Hamlet who is caught in between two worlds. He fled toParis, France to recharge and become the poet he felt that he was. He died there in July, 1971 at age twenty-seven.

Jim Morrison was creative, intelligent and sensitive. When high or drunk,  he could be cruel, angry, and vulgar. I watched some of the interviews he had and found him to be reflective and charming. It's sad that he never found the freedom or the peace that he sought so desperately. Along with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin who died months before his demise, lost were creative, talented, sensitive, and sometimes misunderstand people.

One thing can be said about Jim Morrison is that he never compromised his beliefs. His gravestone aptly reads in Greek 'True to his Own Spirit'.  

WORDS OF WISDOM

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.


~Benjamin Franklin

Writing and Editing

I was busy looking at the poems I have written. I made some corrections along the way while adding or subtracting words/sentences. There's one poem that I've been working on for a year or two and still can't get the way I want it. Such is the life of a writer.

I truly enjoy it, though. Keeps the brain sharp and the creativity flowing. One aspect of being a writer is that you have to read, read and read some more. Writing is always a work in progress. We have to evolve or become stale and irrelevant. Irrelevant is something that does not appeal to me at all.

Queens Noir

This is book I'm currently reading. This is the seventh noir book I'm reading. I'm a short story writer and a lover of mystery so the noir books are right up my alley. I've read the three noir books of Brooklyn, the two Manhattan noirs and New Orleans Noir (hope there will be a second one).

MORE WORDS OF WISDOM

Believe that life is worth living and your belief  will help create that fact.


~William James

Writing Should Be A Joy

Writing should never be an exercise in futility but a labor of love. This is true for any career a person may pursue but I find that this aplies to the writer even more. 

I love to write because its something that I truly  believe I can excel at. Developing characters, forming a plot, and creating a story or poem that will touch your audience is challenging but fun. Currently I am putting the finishing touches on a chapbook and have one other in mind. My wife is a story writer and poet so we may collaborate on a book of short stories.

Research is a part of the writer's life. It's fun to research on a particular city, or era in history, or a group of people. If I had my druthers, I would like to live in a particular place I want to write about as to feel the pulse of the city and the people who live there. New Orleans is a city I'm clamoring to visit. It reminds me of Greenwich Village and the East Village in that it has a avant-garde and quirky aspect to it. I'm a little quirky myself so the Big Easy is right up my alley.

Writers, look at research as walking through a particular time in history. Put yourself in that time period and see if you feel a part of it. It will put a bit of you in your story without the audience ever know that you are there.