“In and beyond the writing and publishing industry, the way someone uses social media is often a window into that person’s work attitude and style, and a signpost as to how a potential working relationship will evolve.”
– Aine Greany
Tag: blog
She was not a poet
No one told her she was supposed to taste the lyrics first
That her brain was supposed to decipher the intent of melody
before it escaped her mouth
That her taste buds were supposed to burst forth
before she spit them out
She had no aspiration that we should admire
Never attended a poet’s university
Or danced between the poetic techniques they said would enhance the skill
Did not feel the irony of brilliantly untalented brush upon her skin
Did not notice the personification walk away with simile and metaphor
Did not know what all these terms were for
For
She was not
A
Poet.
Did not understand Dickinson’s Train
Why it lapped the miles,
And licked the valleys up,
And stopped to feed itself at tanks
Or why frost stood still and stopped the sound of feet
No one warned her that imagination was supposed to pass on information
about the sweet, sour, salty and bitter substances of alliterations
and internal rhyme schemes
but she fell head first in love with the way the words moved around in her mouth
with the way her emotions tickled against the backdrop of her heart
with the filled something that racked against the torn cells of her tongue
with the calm that sprayed peace into the air
with the poetry that took her there
so she sang
sang poetry with all of the ignorance stomping around in her stomach
but she sang
did not care about its government name
did not worry about its image
did not care that her words were not professional enough
for she
was not
a
poet…
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Blogging and Writing: The Benefits
I do believe blogging has had an impact on my writing life and that it can do the same for you. While not every blogger is a writer, as a writer I do not separate the two. For me, blogging and writing has a unique relationship. There is something about instant feedback that I believe helps bloggers to improve their writing. Yes, like a critique group of sorts and for bloggers who also happen to be writers, this can only be a good thing. At its core, writing is communication. It is about recording thoughts and while not all bloggers are writers blogging is still a platform that presents people with a unique medium from which to express themselves in writing. To that end, writing improves with practice. Blogging will not make you a better writer, but it can highlight those areas where improvement is necessary. It also helps to highlight those areas of strength. For me, blogging is not the key to authored success or anything like that and it is not something influenced by money. What it does instead is help to increase my interaction with readers which has a natural ability to sharpen my writing skills. When you know people are watching you have no choice but to produce your best, and becoming a better writer holds important benefits for the rest of your life—whether you are writing a book, a presentation, a resume, or a love letter to your spouse.
Because the process of writing includes recording thoughts on paper, the blogging process forces you to think about what you’re going to say before you say it, and encourages you to stop and think deeper. You will delve deeper into the matters of your life and the worldview that shapes them and how to communicate this over to people in a way they can understand it. With immediate feedback by way of Likes and Follows, you’ll get to see how others view your form of writing and gain access to instant critique. Blogging can help you to write more, and in so doing stay focused on your writing goals. Blogging can not only improve and change your writing life; it also changes the life of the reader. As you write, the reader gains and because blogs are free for the audience and open to the public, on many levels, it is an act of giving. It is a selfless act of service to invest your time, energy, and worldview into a piece of writing and then offer it free to anybody who wants to read it. You will find your voice, and others will find inspiration.
Underground
The season premiere of Underground aired this pasted Wednesday, March 9, 2016. The TV series stars Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Aldis Hodge and is about a group of slaves planning to escape a large plantation and will be helped by an abolitionist couple along the way. Underground is short for the Underground railroad, a system of secret routes and safe houses used to help slaves to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. Below is a synopsis of the show:
“Early in the premiere of WGN America’s slave-revolt drama Underground, a captured runaway named Noah (Aldis Hodge) is shoved into a decrepit shed on a plantation in rural Georgia. The year is 1857; the Civil War is still four long years away. The camera whips around 360 degrees from Noah’s point of view, catching glimpses of sick, malnourished black men and women, all of them shivering in makeshift bunks and slumped against unforgiving walls. And though he does not say a word, the sequence immediately establishes Noah as the show’s determined protagonist. At the risk of sounding crass given the historical atrocity the show unflinchingly deals with, it feels like the moment when this slave resolves to be something of a superhero.”
I started looking into this show about a month before its premiere, watching interviews of the actors and the making of the show itself. I also follow Smollett on Twitter and she’s been very excited about it. My opinion of the show? So far so good. The premiere has a nice set up or rather introduction into how the show will play itself out. We can already see who the people are who will help the slaves to escape, those who will possibly create safe houses for them for instance, and those, both black and white, who will be their stumbling block. I love the determination of Noah to recruit others in their attempt to escape the plantation, that he has a plan and that, as he says it, escaping is not just about running but will require the slaves to work together in a strategic way. In short, I am so far enjoying the coming together of the crew and I look forward to the rest of the series.
Why Do People Think Black History Starts With Slavery and Ends With MLK?
Love Poem
Wanted to jump into memory
and photograph pieces
of your smile
the only cracks worth seeing
on someone’s face
Didn’t know dimples ran deeper than wells
but every time you chuckled
my nerves melted underneath my skin
Is this
Is it real?
Could the pull of the wind
be the yearning for your laughter?
That always fell like diamonds at the base of my feet
Could someone tell me how a poor woman
becomes rich again?
For I knelt before history
and shackled your existence to my future
and when you laughed
The moon was missing that night
cuz I held it in your gaze
And the sun dripped hot from the gaps in my fingers
Cupped your chin gently against my palms
And when we kissed
Heaven cracked open its skies
and thunder praised our union
The PBS Blog 