Thursday, February 21, 2008

Required Academic Writing

Required Academic Writing plagues me these days, gives new meaning to the phrase "rubs me raw". Never ending papers it seems. Three this week alone, not including reading and research. Though I am quite proficient at writing academic papers (literary analysis and analysis of the writing craft, as well as research reports mostly this semester), I much prefer creative writing. I am not much for the rules and imposed structure of academic writing. A rebel with a bit of a stubborn streak I suppose...

So, when I am inexplicably away, it is because I have been sucked into the vortex, chained down, deep in the mire of academic writing. Hopefully a year to a year and a half from now I will have my degree in hand entitling me to freedom from academia for a little while. I hope for now whoever may be following my adventures in writers land will stick with me.

In the absence of new material, a poem inspired by Jane Kenyon's poem "The Shirt":

The Tree

The tree stands tall

and its limbs reach out in every direction

soaking in the sun to feed its core

deep in its trunk that sinks below the surface where

roots splay out in every direction clinging to the

dirt, seeking water, staying alive.

Greedy tree.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Returning

I've been away from the blog due to illness, dental procedures, and school, but I'm back, and hopefully more regularly.
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I seek inspiration for writing from many different sources. I recently heard the song "Falling or Flying" by Grace Potter & The Nocternals. There is a beautiful line:

"the air's so heavy it could drown a butterfly if it flew too high"

It has just stuck with me. What an interesting way to put things, to describe a feeling... I think there is a story in it somewhere if I would only make the time to sit down and write it.
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Lesley University has put together a Writers Conference 2008 to take place Sunday, July 27 - Friday, August 1. I am thinking of submitting an application as frightening as the idea of rejection may be. Sue Miller will be there and Lois Lowry... Just the idea of the possibility of meeting them and learning from them... I have to apply or I'll never know.
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I encountered an extremely talented, beautiful writer. I am a happily married, newlywed woman, but I find myself so drawn to him. It has to be the writer thing. Oddly, I can not imagine being a writer married to a writer. I love the way my logical, stable, grounded husband balances out my creativity, whimsy, and spontaneity and I balance him out as well and through our differences we broaden each others world. Still there is something about other writers, well-known or not, especially when they are talented, that is inspiring and striking.
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Recent warm-up free writing:

"There it was like a light in the dark beckoning them home. She was transfixed by the blue eyes, he her full lips. The cadence of their voices drifted in and out lilting, flowing, weaving together intricate and intoxicating and intimate. Her the melody, he the baseline, together harmony. In the dark a light beckoning. He was her beacon, she his. the point on which they set their sights... Home. Together - Home."

Another:

"The snow fell soft like dust swirling through the air as if someone up above was shaking out the carpets. Like dust it fell and settled on her hat and the curls that spilled out of it. It speckled the breast of her coat like freckles in the summer."
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Glad to be back!