"So is your judgment shown..."

Do Not!
BY Stevie Smith

Do not despair of man, and do not scold him,
Who are you that you should so lightly hold him?
Are you not also a man, and in your heart
Are there not warlike thoughts and fear and smart?
Are you not also afraid and in fear cruel,
Do you not think of yourself as usual,
Faint for ambition, desire to be loved,
Prick at a virtuous thought by beauty moved?
You love your wife, you hold your children dear,
Then say not that Man is vile, but say they are.
But they are not. So is your judgment shown
Presumptuous, false, quite vain, merely your own
Sadness for failed ambition set outside,
Made a philosophy of, prinked, beautified
In noble dress and into the world sent out
To run with the ill it most pretends to rout.
Oh know your own heart, that heart's not wholly evil,
And from the particular judge the general,
If judge you must, but with compassion see life,
Or else, of yourself despairing, flee strife.

Stevie Smith, “Do Not!” from New Selected Poems. Copyright © 1972 by Stevie Smith.

Deaths of Flowers

This poem reminds me of autumn...the death of all things flowering and green. The bleak promise that spring will come again soon. It's hard to believe, when everything is frost and barrenness, that spring will come again, but it will. It always does :)

Thanks to Alan for sharing this poem. Beautiful!

Deaths of Flowers
BY Edith Joy Scovell.

I would if I could choose
Age and die outwards as a tulip does;
Not as this iris drawing in, in-coiling
Its complex strange taut inflorescence, willing
Itself a bud again - though all achieved is
No more than a clenched sadness,

The tears of gum not flowing.
I would choose the tulips reckless way of going;
Whose petals answer light, altering by fractions
From closed to wide, from one through many perfections,
Til wreched, flamboyant, strayed beyond recall,
Like flakes of fire they piecemeal fall.

From TED: A Love Poem in Emoticons

A Story of Mixed Emoticons
BY Rives

About the Artist (via TED)
Flat pages can't contain Rives' storytelling, even when paper is his medium. The pop-up books he creates for children unfold with surprise: The Christmas Pop-Up Present expands to reveal moving parts, hidden areas and miniature booklets inside. On stage, his poems burst in many directions, too, exposing multiple layers and unexpected treats: childhood memories, grown-up humor, notions of love and lust, of what is lost forever and of what's still out there waiting to unfold.
On his Bravo special, Ironic Iconic America, he and costar Bar Rafaeli tour the United States looking for wonderfulness, on "A Roller Coaster Ride Through the Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture."
"This was great. He spoke like I imagine a good prophet would. Epic win!"
- Joshua Mullen on TED.com

Not Really A Writer...Just Play One on TV

14 days into National Novel Writing Month, and I've totally hit a wall. Blah!!!!!!!!

Everything I write is crap. Honestly..It is really not good...but, instead of quitting (which I really really really want to do), I've decided to take a step back and put together an outline of my novel. I'm not sure if it's a violation of the NaNoWriMo rules or anything, but I simply can't write another word without figuring out where the heck this novel is going.


Anyone else having similar issues? I found a bunch websites with tips on how to outline chapters and plan out character bios. Hope this helps...:)

One

Two

Three

Happy noveling, my sweets!

Speckled Poets Rock!!

Hello good people

Hope you don't mind if I get all touchy feely for just a bit!!

I have to talk about the awesome community of poets I got to hang out with last night. I was asked to read a few of my pieces and some poems written by other artists at the Speckled Bird Cafe's Monthly Poetry Night and it was an absolute treat! I got to hang out with some truly talented poets, soak up the creative energy and bask in the good vibrations.

Honestly, it was one of the most fun nights I've had in a while. Thanks to the entire Speckled Bird crew for being gracious enough to let me share my work. We artists are pretty "sensitive about our ish," :) but the crowd was great. I discovered some new poets, who I'm sure will be fast favorites, and even read a few of my new to the world pieces...thankfully, no one boo-ed...whew!!

:)

Check out one of the new poems I read below. It shows how much of a hopeless romantic I really am. Ha!! Also, if you're interested in finding out what other hopping events are happening at this Cafe, find them on Facebook or Wordpress!! You won't be disappointed. I promise!!

Love Riot
BY Susan Baba

He only loves me loudly
If there were a mountain,
he would shout his love a million times from its highest peak
If there were a water tower,
He would deface it in my name
With my face
Adorn it anew with words of adoration

But in this city of concrete and glass, there is neither mountain nor water tower in sight
So he settled for the subway station
Taps the man sitting beside him sheepishly and points
“that’s my woman”
With the sincerity and gentleness of a man overwhelmed by his good fortune

Sometimes, if I am lucky,
Only if I am lucky
My eyes will catch him first,
His pursed lips prepared to shout “I love you” at full force
And my kiss will intercede
Capture his words like a willing prisoner
Breathe deep his elation
His giddy innocence

I always play shy and surprised when I don’t catch him in time
I nuzzle into him and shield my sly giggles from the disapproving faces of our fellow passengers

I love you
I love you
I love you
He whispers into my ear
Lifts my face to look into it
And although I already know,
It’s always nice to hear
those words
again

How To Be Alone

Alone is what I need to be for the next 30 day so that I can work on this freaking novel for NaNoWriMo...but alas...I've already booked myself with events and such clear through mid-December. lol.

I love this poem about being along anyway. It reminds me that I probably need to schedule some alone time and to create more quite in my life. It would probably help to clear my head...

Thanks to my bud Brad for sending this to me!

enjoy!!

How to be Alone
Poem BY Tanya Davis
Video BY Andrea Dorfman

Society is afraid of alone, though
Like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements
Like people must have problems
If, after a while nobody is dating them
But lonely is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless
And lonely is healing, if you make it

"The First Love of My Life Never Saw Me Naked"

Private Parts
BY Sarah Kay

"I made up for them
by handing over
all the private parts of me
there was no secret I didn't tell him
there was no moment I didn't share

we didn't grow up, we grew in
like ivy
wrapping
molding eachother like perfect yings and yangs

we kissed with mouths open
breathing his exhale into my inhale,
we could have survived under water
or outerspace
living only off the breath we traded
we spelled love
G-I-V-E"

Best. Quote. Ever! :)

"There are few things, apparently, more helpful to a writer than having once been a weird little kid."

-Katherine Paterson

:)

Got this from the "Advice for Writers" Twitter account. If you're on Twitter and want some daily nuggets of awesome, follow him!!

Surviving Tyler Perry's "For Colored Girls"

So, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf holds a sacred place in my heart. I first read the book in high school. I'm not sure why my tiny all-white high school had it and I'm certain I was the first one to check it out in over 20 years, but when I read Ntozake Shange's words...man!!

It was like I was transported to another place...another home where there was pain and sorrow, but where the women who were hurting chose to overcome. The book was tragic and hopeful at the same time and, as the angst-ridden teen that I was, I felt a sisterhood with the characters that has lived on to the present day. I must admit (because I never have before) that I stole the book from the library (teeheehee). Not exactly stole, I guess. I just never returned it to the library. I reported it as lost and kept the book in my secret box of things. Please forgive me:) I'm sure I paid some sort of re-stocking fee...

Anyway...

So, no, I was not excited to see that Tyler Perry was adapting it for screen. Though I did enjoy Why Did I get Married 1 and 2, Perry's best known works (Madea 1, 2, and 3) were worst than horrible. The thought of him getting his blacksploitation hands on Shange's work seemed somehow sacrilegious. When the announcement of the film happened months ago, I steeled myself and decided that I would never set foot in that theatre.

Now, fast forward to today. It's been in theatres for weeks and it's the only thing my friends want to talk about. The reviews are mostly positive and Tyler Perry is working the media rounds like a pro. ::Sigh:: I have to admit, my interest has been piqued.

If you're like me, you're gonna need a bit of extra coaxing to get through this film. Check out Bassey Ikpi's hilarious "For Colored Girls" survival guide below.

I think I'm gonna see it this Saturday. Jesus take the wheel.

:)

For Colored Girls Who Need Motivation When the Oprah Endorsement Ain't Enough
BY Bassey Ikpi
via Huffington Post

1. Watch every single Tyler Perry movie before this one. All of them, from Diary of A Mad Black Woman to Madea Saves Christmas. This way, you'll be familiar with all of Perry's work and there will be no surprises. And then remember that For Colored Girls will be better than any of those movies. It has to be.

2. Don't read Ntozake Shange's play before you see the movie. This is not her play. This is something else. Something different. You know how Starbursts have real fruit juice in them but it isn't fruit? Think of For Colored Girls as Starbursts and FCGWHCSWRiE as fruit. This makes sense, trust me.

3. Go with friends. Go with as many friends as you can round up. Sit in the same row. Hold hands. Say a quick prayer and just lean on the person next to you when the melodrama ain't enough.

4. Remember that it could be worse. He could have cast himself as Lady in Wig. Madea could have been in this movie. She is not. This is good news.

5. Though I'm still hesitant, I do know that Tyler Perry is a marketing genius. If this is successful, maybe -- just maybe -- more movies that tell our stories in better ways can be made. Maybe, if this is successful, Tyler Perry will understand the need for black women to tell their own stories and start putting his billions of dollars into producing and assisting female directors creating meaningful, smart projects. If this is successful, this is a real possibility.

Or he will make For Colored Girls II: Still Colored and Sad.

Tonight, Let's Get Drunk on Poetry

Straight cranberry juice on the rocks is usually my preferred Saturday night libation, but tonight, maybe I'll get "drunk" on poetry, instead :)

Hope you had a fab weekend!!

Be Drunk
BY Charles Baudelaire

You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it—it's the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk.
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But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk.

And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything that is speaking. . .ask what time it is and wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you: "It is time to be drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish."

On Children

BY Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Ever Hear of 2nd-Person Narrative?

...Neither had I before I read a short story written in that literary form. I mean...I'm sure that some teacher or someone in my life mentioned it at some time...maybe...?

2nd-person narrative is essentially when the author refers to one of the characters as "you", giving the reader the sense that he or she is a actually "in" the story.

Here's some more info about this form from the all-knowing Wiki.

Perhaps the most prominent example of this mode in contemporary literature is Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City. In this novel, the second-person point of view is intended to create an intense sense of intimacy between the narrator and the reader, causing the reader to feel implicit in and powerless against a plot that leads him, blindly, through his (the reader’s and the narrator’s) own destruction and redemption:

"You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy. You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head. The club is either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge. All might become clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more Bolivian Marching Powder. Then again, it might not. A small voice inside you insists that this epidemic lack of clarity is a result of too much of that already."

It's a pretty refreshing style. It's not very popular (probably because it's difficult to do in a compelling way), but it might be cool to explore in my own writing. It changes the reader from spectator to character, in a slightly unnerving way. You open a book, expecting to see someone else's life unfolding on the pages, but instead, that person is you... Love it!

I'm actually thinking about changing my novel to make it all 2nd person!

Thoughts?

Feeling a Bit Nostalgic Tonight

This song came on my ipod tonight and all I could do was ::sigh::

Oh memories...

Whenever I hear it, it takes me all the way back to him.

Hope you enjoy it.

Chasing Strange
BY Lizz Wright

It´s just three digits
but I´m far from home
Fallen, nobody cares
I twist three keys and I´m all alone
There´s a party upstairs
It´s not the first time I´ve been lied to
I knew nothing about you

I am chasing a strange
And I will rearrange
To be a part with every change that you make

Breaking shadows every time that I run
Under a love I can´t share
The liquid daughters and the liquid son disappear in thin air
Every single breath, every single sight
Is all the earth
And it needs to be...

Dear November, Besides Thanksgiving, You Suck!

So, I'm not a fan of cold weather. Yes, I love to trot around in my cute boots and sweaters, but it's not worth freezing my fingers off...especially on days like today, when the cold pairs with icky rain, for a wet and messy afternoon.

They say it might snow this weekend. Bleh. Bleh. BLEH! I want to just cuddle up under blanket with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate. But, alas, I have over-booked myself once again. Tonight I have errands, band practice, writing, and blah blah blah. Ah November...

Check out an excerpt from Linda Pastan's poem The Months and let the Turkey-Day countdown begin!



November
by Linda Pastan

These anonymous
leaves, their wet
bodies pressed
against the window

or falling past—
I count them
in my sleep,
absolving gravity,

absolving even death
who knows as I do
the imperatives
of the season.

Ok...Let's Try This Again - NaNoWriMo

Last year, I made a sad and sorry attempt at participating in National Novel Writing Month, but I failed terribly...pretty much tuckered out before I left the gate. This year, I'm gonna take this challenge seriously and hopefully complete something by the end of the month. Apparently, that means writing about 8,000 words/ week. EEEK!! Wish me luck!!

Anyone else interested in taking on this ridiculous challenge? Sign up at www.nanowrimo.org

Here's some info from the most recent newsletter, with tips on how to survive the first two weeks.

Ready...

Set.....

GO!!!!!

October 31: Kiss the dog, unplug your cable box, and email your family and friends to let them know that you’re about to enter the zone. The NaNoWriMo zone.


November 1: Watch the first video pep talk on NaNoWriMo.org, and then write your first 1,667 words. You can also update your word count in the box in the top right-hand corner of the website (or, of course, in your Author Profile).

November 3: Discover that what you’re writing so far wasn’t necessarily what you were planning to write. Realize that is okay—great, even—and keep writing in anticipation of what will come next.

November 4: Receive the first guest pep talk from Mercedes Lackey.

November 5: Go into the first weekend of November having written 8,335 words. If you’re not there yet, don’t worry! That’s what weekends are for. Aim for 11,669 words by Sunday night and you’ll be golden.

November 8: Get ready for one super-inspirational week! You’ll be receiving three pep talks: one from me and two from guest pep talk authors. The pep talks will continue at this pace throughout the month, and will include words of wisdom from more of your favorite published authors. (If you miss a pep talk email, don’t worry! They’ll be posted on the Pep Talks page throughout the month.)

November 11: Admit that you’ve grown attached to your characters and miss them when you’re not writing.