Words Of Wisdom

If you want to change the world...pick up your pen and write.

                ~Martin Luther 

2014

With 2013 drawing to a close, I have taken steps forward to improving my writing. I love writing and reading poetry. I still write short stories, commentaries, and articles. I am working on a novella, a genre I discovered while doing some research. I googled novellas and discovered that a number of classics are novellas. Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor comes to mind. 

Going into 2014 I have been working on some writing goals. Publishing a chapbook is one. Writing a novella is another. There's so much I hope to accomplish in 2014.

HAPPY  NEW  YEAR!

Current Reading

This is the book I am currently reading. Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) wrote a number of novels, short stores, plays and articles. She was active in the Harlem Renaissance.

Words Of Wisdom

Poems have a different music from ordinary language, and every poem has a different kind of music of necessity, and that's in a way the hardest thing about writing poetry is waiting for that music, and sometimes you never know if it's going to come.

~C.K.Williams

I Love Writing Poems

I started writing poetry only two years ago. Believing that my short story and essay writing had become stale, I decided to tackle a genre that I read little or wrote about. Now I'm absolutely in love with poetry. 

I believe that Edgar Allan Poe may have piqued my interest many years ago. I loved reading his short stories (still do) but it was his classic poem The Raven that may have planted the seed in my heart. Poe is my favorite writer. I have read the work of Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Herman Melville, Theodore Roethke, Gwendolyn Brooks, Rumi and numerous others.

Each of these authors had their own voice. Robinson Jeffers poems were quite different from those of Jack Kerouac. James Weldon Johnson and Lawrence Ferlinghetti were different but had their own distinct voice. I have taking a liking to the spoken word by the young people. Their words are strong and heartfelt. 

I read a lot of poetry which in turn has helped educate me and honed my own particular style. My spouse also writes poetry. Her style is totally different from mine. We have read at open mics and poetry venues and hope to do more reading.

Setting Goals

About this time each year I am creating goals in which I will achieve in the coming year. Besides other goals, I do have writing goals. One is to publish a chapbook of poems. I'm deciding whether or not to self publish.

Setting goals, in my mind, is a more concrete way of achieving them rather than making resolutions. For one thing, when a timetable is set, it puts teeth into those goals.  It's up to me to achieve them.  If adjustments are to be made, then I make them.  

Set a few goals to begin with. When the goal is achieved, set some more. By the end of the year you see that you achieved more than you thought.  

Words Of Wisdom

A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.

~Charles Baudelaire, French Poet (1821-1867)

POEM

Woods in Winter

  by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

When winter winds are piercing chill,
  And through the hawthorn blows the gale,
With solemn feet I tread the hill,
  That overbrows the lonely vale. 

O'er the bare upland, and away
  Through the long reach of desert woods,
The embracing sunbeams chastely play,
  And gladden these deep solitudes. 

Where, twisted round the barren oak,
  The summer vine in beauty clung,
And summer winds the stillness broke,
  The crystal icicle is hung. 

Where, from their frozen urns, mute springs
  Pour out the river's gradual tide,
Shrilly the skater's iron rings,
  And voices fill the woodland side. 

Alas! how changed from the fair scene,
  When birds sang out their mellow lay,
And winds were soft, and woods were green,
  And the song ceased not with the day! 

But still wild music is abroad,
  Pale, desert woods! within your crowd;
And gathering winds, in hoarse accord,
  Amid the vocal reeds pipe loud.
 
Chill airs and wintry winds! my ear
  Has grown familiar with your song;
I hear it in the opening year,
  I listen, and it cheers me long.

1950s Classic

One of the all time classics from the 1950s, Rebel Without A Cause, will be shown at the Film Forum thru December 19th. I watched this movie years ago and I was drawn by the actors who later became stars. James Dean (1931-1955) was a talented actor who died too young. Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo became stars in their own right.

www.filmforum.com

Claude McKay

An early contributor to the Harlem Renaissance, Claude McKay (1889-1948) had an influence on  the major players, most notably Langston Hughes. He wrote of black life in his native Jamaica and in the United States. He wrote of the racism he experienced and his dealings with it. 

When I read his poem If We Must Die, I was touched by the strength of character in his words. His poems are strong and direct. I have read some of McKay's other poems and find them strong and reflecting the many experiences in his life.

If we Must Die

 

If we must die—let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die—oh, let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
Oh, Kinsmen!  We must meet the common foe;
Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

Words Of Wisdom

Learn poetry by heart. If you know a poem by heart, no one can take from you, and you can take advantage of it anytime.

~Raymond Aubrac

A Play by Ishmael Reed

Ishmael Reed's The Final Version will premiere December 12 at the Nuyorican Poet's Café in the East Village. Performances run through January 15th. For info go to:

www.nuyorican.org

PLACES TO GO

The arts calender is very busy during the holiday season. Movies, plays, poetry, opera, recitals and art shows go on. I will list a few each day if anyone is looking for such entertainment.

At the Anthology Film Archives:
DECEMBER 12TH

THE HANGING TREE- 6:45 PM.
A SUMMER PLACE-     9 PM.

DECEMBER 13TH

SPENSER'S MOUNTAIN- 9:15 PM

WEBSITE:  www.anthologyfilmarchives.org

DANCE SPACE PROJECT:
CORI OLINGHOUSE 
GHOST LINES

DECEMBER 12-14TH  @  8 PM

www.dancespaceproject.org

New Year's Day Poetry Marathon

One of my favorite events is attending New York's Day Poetry Marathon at St. Mark's Church in the East Village. I have been attending for about five years and love listening to the many poets who read. There is a diversity of many styles and presentations. For more information go to:

www.poetryproject.org

Books As Gifts

With the Christmas season upon us, it's time to see what kind of books we would like to receive. If I had a wish I would like to receive the following books:

Complete Stories of Edgar Allan Poe

Grimm's Fairy Tales

Anything by Sylvia Plath

Anything by William Shakespeare