It’s finally warm enough today to have the front door and windows open, the fresh air rushing blissfully in. The cats are outside lazing in sun and stalking arrogant, taunting squirrels.
This week, I’ve definitely shifted into some manner of re-grouping mode, stepping back to take a look at where I stand re: the writing, how I want to go forward and with what renewed attitude, energy, and vigor. All this because I was weary of the way I approach writing in my morning journals. After ten years—and forty spiral notebooks—it felt time for something to change. When book #40 ended last Saturday, it was finally the right time. Rather than continue to feel like I was losing my marbles, I went back and took a long look at the pages and pages of insights I thought I’d gleaned over this time of trying to “live the writing life.” Once again, I surprised myself at how far along this creative journey I’ve come. And how simple, really, it might be to shift things and actually feel like I enjoy, like I want to do this work again.
It’s always so interesting to see where progress has been made as well as where, over and again, I get tripped up and stall. If I ever got a tattoo, it ought to be along my arms where every day I could read statements like:
Trust the mystery. Surrender to process. Pen, breath, and listening and the truth comes forth. Give up perfection. Take the longer-than-daily view. Keep at it and all will be revealed. Pursue fewer hings more deeply. Begin, complete, move on.
Because these are the basic wisdom lessons over and over again for me and now, after ten years, I have no more excuses but to take them to heart, to act. What else? I need homework to generate work. And that’s OK. I need audience and early, reliable readers and that’s OK, too. And it feels good to get some occasional praise and recognition for the work, encouragement to keep going.
From all of this, I’ve come up with a new writing to-do list, a place to start. Time to get cracking…
- Write my own definition of what it means to “get it right.”
- Update my poetry writing and reading aesthetic if needed.
- Comb my writing books and come up with a list of exercises and prompts that speak to me, that I would have fun doing.
- Mine my volumes of source material.
- Find the incomplete, polish, and finish.
Interests: Reading, writing, not arithmetic. The art and craft of poetry. Photography. Vegetable and flower gardening especially heirloom bulbs and dahlias. Movies in real theatres. Theatre on real stages. Art in real galleries. Crossword puzzles and, of course, Wordle. Singer-songwriters like Aimee Mann and Patti Griffin. All kinds of music especially 1930s jazz. Venice, Italy! The Dude abides.
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- Writing in Form: The Prose Poem - May 7, 2024
