On Saying "I Love You" too Soon

Hello kiddies - I was talking to a friend the other day who was criticizing her brother for saying "I love you" to his girlfriend "too soon." I've been thinking a lot about that...when is it too soon to know that you feel love? Should a person who's been married forever tell a newlywed couple that they haven't known love because time has not validated it? I personally don't think so. I think love can be felt from the first instance. It grows, for sure, but it is still a true thing, even in those early days.

Anyway...here's the first love poem I've written in a while. There's something about the changing seasons that makes me all sentimental:)

Enjoy!


On Saying "I Love You" too Soon
BY Susan Baba

love is not this static, definite thing
it may start small and dim
it will be tested
it may splinter
and grow torrid or weak
and though it may take time to become what it must
it is still -
from the hearts first flutter,
to the last desperate utterance
it is still -
whether new or ancient
it is still -
a true and beautiful thing

love isn't always magic

This poem popped up on my ipod the other day and I cried. I'm over it now, but I can't tease out the exact word or thought or emotion that set off the waterworks. All I know is that this poem touched my heart in some way...maybe I need you...

Maybe I Need You
BY Andrea Gibson

"But I know now it doesn't matter how well I say grace
if I am sitting at a table where I am offering no bread to eat
So this is my wheat field
you can have every acre love
this is my garden song
this is my fist fight
with that bitter frost
tonight I begged another stage light to become that back alley street lamp that we danced beneath
the night your warm mouth fell on my timid cheek
as i sang "maybe i need you"
off key
but in tune
"maybe i need you" the way that big moon needs that open sea
maybe i didn't even know i was here til i saw you holding me
give me one room to come home to
give me the palm of your hand
every strand of my hair is a kite string
and I have been blue in the face with your sky
crying a flood over iowa so you mother will wake to venice
lover I smashed my glass slipper to build a stained glass window for every wall inside my chest
now my heart is a pressed flower and a tattered bible
it is the one verse you can trust
so I'm putting all of my words in the collection plate
I am setting the table with bread and grace
my knees are bent
like the corner of a page
I am saving your place"

More Andrea

Happy National Punctuation Day!

Guess there's a day for everything now. lol.

Check out the official recipe for Punctuation Meat Loaf. I'm not a big red meat fan, but you gotta give these peeps an A for effort :) Note that you need a "punctuation mark-shaped tin." Man!! I would be so much cooler if I had one of these, but alas...I do not. ::sigh::

:)

2 pounds of ground chuck
1 cup water
1 or 2 eggs
1 box of Stove Top dressing: any flavor
Topping: 1/2 cup ketchup and 1/2 cup
brown sugar.
Take an ice cream scoop and scoop the ground beef mixture into punctuation
mark-shaped tins. Mix 1/2 cup ketchup together with 1/2 cup brown sugar for
topping. Top each filled tin with the topping mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour. A fist-size period makes one serving.

Natalie Merchant sings old poems to life | Video on TED.com

I'm a huge fan of folk music and have a very special place in my heart for Natalie Merchant. Anyone remember her 90's hits - Kind & Generous and Thank You? Yeah. Epic:)

She's working on a new project to revive old poems in the form of music and was recently featured at February's TED conference. Her soft and smooth voice, combined with these beautiful words is such a memorable combination. Here's the video of her performance and a brief description of her project below.

enjoy!

About (via ted.com)
Natalie Merchant sings from her new album, Leave Your Sleep. Lyrics from near-forgotten 19th-century poetry pair with her unmistakable voice for a performance that brought the TED audience to its feet.

ps...There's going to be a TED event in my very own Cincinnati. I can't wait. If you're a fan of the TED Conferences and the subsequent online talks, you do not want to miss this. I'm taking the day off of work to attend:) If you can sneak out of work on October 7th, you should come. More info here.

What the heck is flash fiction anyway!??

After finding out about NPR's Three Minute Fiction Contest, I decided to find out more about this crazy short writing style.

Also known as "sudden fiction, microfiction, micro-story, postcard fiction, prosetry and short short story", flash fiction is a literary style marked by its brevity. Flash fiction is typically anywhere from 300-1,000 words and has been gaining steam since it was established in the early 90's.

I'm nearly always tardy to the party, so I'm not surprised that I'm just getting hip to this. I think I'll enter the contest, though. I'll also be sure to post my entry here, for some peer review.

As you all work on your entries, here are a few tips from PFI Magazine's site on how to write totally kick butt fiction. The post is a few years old, but the tips are still very relevant. Check out their site for the full post.

The Essentials of Micro-Fiction
BB Camille Renshaw

Micro Fiction, by nature, is defiant. It defies length, boundaries, and expectations. But tight, provocative fiction requires analysis and editing. Taking an idea and distilling it into a “micro”- cosm of its original self is challenging. So what are the essentials of Micro Fiction?

1.Length and form obviously matter. The average micro fiction will be less than 400 words, with some exceptions that reach as much as 750 words. The form is strictly prose. If the novel writer is the carpenter who structures a whole house, and a short story writer is the decorator of one of its rooms, then the micro fiction writer is the mailman who looks into the box before dropping in the household’s letters. Readers discover something brief and intimate in a very short space.

2.Be willing to edit and re-edit

3.[Use] Soul-stirring Language

4.[Use] Imagery

5. Make it tight. Use a minimum of words

6. Play against expectations

More

Power of the Pen!

I just wanted to give a random shout out to my peeps at Reading Jr/ Sr High School and the coaches of our Jr. High Power of the Pen team. For some reason, this came to mind today and I was filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude. As an awkward new kid in Cincinnati in 1997, that team gave me a place to belong and really set the foundation for the writer that I am today.

I just felt the need to say thank you, because I don't think I ever thanked these teachers and coaches properly. If you're in Ohio and know of any budding writers who just need that extra push, encourage them to join at their local Jr. High School!

I was a regional qualifier and, though I didn't move on to state, being part of that team taught me so much. It gave me the confidence to strive for that level of achievement in everything I do. It showed me that I could be excellent, if I only had the courage to try.

::gratitude::

Any other former Pen-ers out there?

NPR Wants your Flash Fiction

I was listening to NPR on my way home yesterday (as all good liberals do), when I heard about this cool fiction-writing contest that they're running. The idea is that you write and submit an original work of fiction that can be read on radio in 3 mins or less.


Sounds pretty darn cool. Maybe this will encourage me to get my butt in gear and start on my book. Check out the details below and official rules after the jump! Bonne chance, my friends :)

How to Do it!!
Your story must begin with the following line:

"Some people swore that the house was haunted."

and end with this line:

"Nothing was ever the same again after that."

Including these lines, your story must be 600 words or less. One entry per person. Your deadline is 11:59 p.m., EDT, on Sept. 26.

Official Rules

Opera in a London pub aims to end elitism and high prices

I'm all about the democratization of art and culture, so of course I was love love loving this article about an opera house opening up in a London pub. Think we should get one of these started in Cincy? Think we could? Check out the article below :)


Kings Head theatre pub in Islington, North London
via the Guardian
BY Vanessa Thorpe

Britain is to get an unconventional new opera house – the first to open in London for 40 years – when the King's Head, the capital's first and most famous fringe venue, turns permanently to musical theatre next month under the guidance of illustrious patrons Jonathan Miller, Joanna Lumley, Alan Parker, Tom Stoppard and leading West End actress Janie Dee. Playwright Mark Ravenhill, author of Shopping and Fucking and Mother Clap's Molly House, will be associate director.

Operas staged in an unvarnished and intimate way will attempt to reach out to audiences who would never normally consider this kind of entertainment. The Little Opera House at the former King's Head will also avoid the high prices and expensive overheads that Miller says he believes are "immoral" in these straitened economic times.

"We are living in a completely unfair society," said the renowned 76-year-old director this weekend. "Many people are very underprivileged in this country, while there are these huge ornamental opera productions being staged. There is something immoral about it."

More

nothing in life is ever wasted

I have always been a big fan of Rumi's poems, but after my trip to Turkey a few weeks ago, I'm more in love with him than before!! Turkey was his stomping ground and the order of Whirling Dervishes, that he began, is still active today in Istanbul.

So, in honor of my renewed adoration for this beautiful man, I'm posting his poem "Guest House." It pretty much sums up my thoughts on life right now.

Life is complicated, good people. I know I don't need to tell you that. I'm sure you've experienced this first hand. Life is ephemeral. Relationships are complex. Shit happens. But, nothing in life is ever wasted. That’s my current life motto :) Crazy days will come, but everything is as it was intended to be. Every day moves us closer to who we are supposed to be.

enjoy!

ps...i'll post more about my trip. so much to share, but not quite yet...;)

Guest House
BY Rumi

This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Guess Who's Back!!

Hello my lovelies

Sorry for seriously slacking on the blog. I could make the excuse of boy drama, work drama, and all around life drama, but suffice it to say that I was otherwise preoccupied.

I have finally emerged from the most un-creative five months of my entire life and am ready to hop back into this poetry game:) Even though the first chills of fall are starting, I feel like a plant, freshly budding. it's spring in my mind!

I'm ready to post more stuff that I have written, highlight great stuff that friends have written, and generally share my love of words with the world.

Thanks for the patience as I get back in the swing of things.

much love
sb