What Do You Want?

author-quote-3Everyone has their own set of ideas about what makes good writing and marketing. But the key to it all, I think, is individuality. No one does a better job at being you than you, and no one knows the intricate details of your story like you. For this reason, it is important to stick to those methods that best fit your vision, values, and taste.

I think the most important question then for a writer is, “What do you want?” Everything else is extra.

The Conscious 70s

You better speak Michael …the conscious 70s, gotta love it. You don’t see truth in TV shows like this no more. A black family living in the projects with a man who ruled his household well and whose wife, while opinionated, still submitted to his authority. JJ was over the top yes, but his sons were not drug dealers and his daughter was not pregnant.That’s saying a lot considering the circumstances of their environment.

I Understand

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As if I had not awakened
from a slumber of lies
baptized in tradition’s rebellion
As if I had not been unplugged
From the matrix of deception intoxicated by the signs of the times
I finally understand
As if you had not left prophecies etched on the calcium of my bones
Like you didn’t leave your footprints in the sand drenched blood
dripping from the curse of our ancestors lips
Like you didn’t carve your every scripture into my very skin
like a big brothers reminder that there is always a rainbow above our father’s head
And above your sister’s head
When it rains
I understand now
You see Endurance
the prominence
comes like a splashing dose of faith
like a car accident that knocks me off my feet
and kills me
I get it
18 years later
The irony
Of life and death
finds itself a home in this house of poetry
scattered somewhere across Yahoshua’s piercing skin and these broken bones
for this I know
somewhere between the compassion of Moses intercession, the call of John’s cry
to the forgiveness of my wretched sins
They mock you more than they did back then
today
Though you chose to wear the bravery of our lustful scars upon your skin
Your narrations written a thousand times greater than the stars
that your faith taught us never to put our trust in
cause milky ways never shed its blood for us
I swear
Of all the times I daydreamed in childhood
I never saw chocolate fall like snowflakes of obedience hammered to nails
Cause Cocoa beans never gave itself for me
But your salvation’s never been a fairytale
But they mock you now
As they did back then
And sell your story for gold encrusted tithes
they don’t know why
or what it’s like for a father to give birth to a son
For salvation to give birth to the sun
You are a millions times braver
Than the best solider and your skin shines brighter
Than the sympathy beating inside the chest of broken legs and wounded body parts
You are far braver than one trillion purple hearts
Or bleeding pens on the white paper of a soldier’s goodbye
deaths footprints on cold caskets
we should be ashamed
cause we value metaphors and similes like the colors of picnic baskets with healthy fruit
but there ain’t enough poems about the day they hung you
the burnished brass of your skin tone and the wooly texture of your hair
centuries before we knew what a lynching was
but at least we understand
that you was, and you are
and you will be
this
I do understand

Blankets vs. Sheets

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“Something on my skin”. That’s my phrase for when I need something to cover me. Not necessarily that I am cold, I just need “something on my skin”. You know, a sheet, a blanket, a comforter, a shawl. Let not my body be exposed to the elements, but encase me in the protection of covering. A heavy blanket is a gigantic hug of therapy stretching its body wide and waiting for me to curl into the center of its longing. I cuddle myself against the warmth of cotton fabric and it accepts my gift, I have chosen it over the others. I dim the lights for a good read or a good movie while throw overs and shawls stand by with stale faces. Their bodies wrinkled with disgust on top the linen closet shelf, or creasing with agony inside bureaus. Word in the closet is that I only visit when I need something and the hangers are too cold at night. But the biggest wars are fought between sheets and blankets. The latter being my favorite pick while the first a last resort. The bigger and fluffier the better, so sheets attempt to stick to itself after washing, hoping for an imbalance of electric charges to create the static electricity it needs to stick around–literally. Like hands holding onto feet for dear life, the layers of my sheets hope too for some chunk of substance, some thickness, but I am not deceived.

“Sorry guys, not this time. But I will need you to guard the corners of my bed, it is after all what you were made for, can you do that?”

Nothing. That’s what I get, silence. This means on the next wash day they’ll command the machine to leave them just dingy enough to get on my nerves. That’s OK though. This is why I prefer blankets over sheets anyway. They are so much more peaceful, and warm too.

Kindle App for i-Phone Users

Great info for readers and authors. And if you don’t have an iPhone, or a phone period, there’s Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac you can download for free.

Lisa W Tetting's avatarLisa W. Tetting

kindleapp

Hi guys,

Just a quick post while Scandal is on commercial break. Ha, ha! Earlier today I found something that should help all of us writers with sales. You may already know about it, but because it is new to me I’m posting about it. Usually I am a girl who needs a hard copy of a book, but I needed to read a book for some research I am doing and it is only available on Amazon as an e-book. My dilemma was I don’t own a tablet.

The Amazon Kindle App for i-Phone was the answer! I decided to go ahead, order the book and worry about how  to read it later. In the past I have downloaded PDF files and a cookbook or two and been was able to view them on an i-Books App so I thought there might be a way to open a Kindle…

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Technical Glitch

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A post came through earlier about Movie Night Friday. Please disregard that post; it was supposed to be for tomorrow (obviously). I have rescheduled it to post tomorrow. My apologies for the inconvenience, but if you click on the one that posted today you will not find it. I have removed it.

Thank you for your patience.

– EC