WRITING GETS PEOPLE TO LISTEN TO YOU

WE NEED OUR LIBRARIES

SAME CITY, DIFFERENT STATE

BEAUFORT- North  Carolina, South Carolina

THE LIBRARY

EVERY DAY

BOOKS

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, Poet (1878-1967)

CREATIVITY

BOOKS TAKES US PLACES

BE YOURSELF

HARD WORK

BE DISCIPLINED

WORDS OF WISDOM

Beauty surrounds us, but usually, we need to be walking in a garden to know it.


~Rumi

WHEN I WRITE

TRAVEL WITHOUT TRAVELING

Let your imagination run wild!

TRUTH

WORDS OF WISDOM

There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness, and truth.


~Leo Tolstoy, Novelist (1828-1910)

JOURNALING

When I was a tutor, I encouraged my students to keep a journal of their feelings and thoughts. One student remarked that it helped him reduce the anxiety he felt about getting his GED. Many authors keep journals of their thoughts and daily doings. It's good to write those fleeting thoughts which may, later on, be fodder for a piece of writing. Journals are also deeply personal, thoughts we may not share with anyone. 

Sylvia Plath kept a journal. I read some of her published journals and it revealed a complex and troubled, young woman. My need is to be consistent in journaling. It may feel like a day is pretty meh but, then again, it's descriptive of what is going on in my life. I shouldn't minimize this because it could serve as a piece for a story or poem.

NO DISTRACTIONS

SO TRUE

There have been numerous times when I read the book and watched the movie. Then I asked myself if I'm reading or watching the same thing.

PART OF ME

WORDS OF WISDOM

I want the poem to be an experience- for both the listener and for myself.


~Anne Waldman

BEAUTY IN STRANGE PLACES

This is why I'm drawn to the outlaws, weirdos, freaks, and outsiders. They make compelling protagonists and antagonists.

SAME CITY, DIFFERENT STATE

BELLINGHAM- Massachusetts, Washington

HOLLAND- Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Texas

FINISH

I have written some horrible stories in my time. I just kept writing until I had time to edit them.

WHY NOT?

POEM OF HOPE AND RESILIENCE

LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING

by James Weldon Johnson

Lift every voice and sing   

Till earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.   

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,

Bitter the chastening rod,

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;   

Yet with a steady beat,

Have not our weary feet

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,

We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,

Out from the gloomy past,   

Till now we stand at last

Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,   

God of our silent tears,

Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;

Thou who hast by Thy might   

Led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,

Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;

Shadowed beneath Thy hand,   

May we forever stand.   

True to our God,

True to our native land.

SAME CITY, DIFFERENT STATE

HILLSBORO- Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia

NEW CASTLE- Delaware, Indiana, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia

PERSON TRAPS WORLD

SAME CITY, DIFFERENT STATE

BOWLING GREEN- Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia

BLUEFIELD- Virginia, West Virginia