Here we go!

So I’m not going to post my poem after all because I want to try to get it published.  All in all, feedback on it was good.  I just made a few changes and thankfully, retitled it.

But I have good news too!  After 5 months or so of waiting, I found out I was accepted to the LRWG novel course.  I’m definitely going to enroll!  I had such a great experience with their “Breaking Into Print” course that I’m really revved up for this next course.

The only thing?  It starts in November…National Novel Writing Month.  Not sure yet whether I will use the same idea for both, or different ideas.  Thankfully I still have over a month to decide.

A return triumphant

So…this summer I decided to take a break from technology (mostly the net and tv) to see if I could learn to play piano.  The result has been that I have fallen more in love with the instrument than simply from listening.  Of course, it’s been slow-going as I know no other way to aim but high–and have focused on learning pieces by Mozart above all other composers.  Still, it is rewarding.

That said, I am back to posting things online and what not, though do not watch nearly as much tv as I used to (cut it down to a few hours a week ultimately, as opposed to a few per day).  I’m hoping that, in addition to practicing piano, I will be able to write even more!  I wrote a poem today that I will post up tonight or tomorrow–after it undergoes some workshop time at the local poetry group I attend (which meets tonight).

Strange to think I’ve been going to that group for near two years.  I do love it though.  Everyone is so delightfully accepting of my adoration for zombie lit and poetry…though tonight’s poem has nothing to do with zombies, really.  Unless trees shed leaves in autumn that later turn into zombie leaves and…yeah, I got nothin’ there.

So! Signing out for now–but I shall post later.  Over the past few months I’ve been cooking up lots of ideas for short stories and novels alike.

Scene A Day Project On Hold

Okay, that’s pretty obvious.  But I’m officially putting this project on hold for now because most of my time lately has been devoted to finding a new job.  Also probably going to be moving soon, so I don’t know when I’ll try this project again, though I do think it’s a good one.

And because it seems like it’s been so long since I’ve written any poetry…here’s a haiku:

launched by a note

the sonata playing out

reeks of genius

A Scene a Day Continued

Emily opened her eyes. 

“Good, good,” the elder woman in the chair across from her nodded.  “I think that’s a pivotal moment of your childhood, and perhaps it relates to your need to accept risks without considering the consequences.”

Emily didn’t reply.  She wasn’t sure this therapy thing was really for her.  After all, no one in her family ever went to see a therapist.  Of course, her sister had convinced her to jump a rift she clearly couldn’t make, but they were little then.  Finally, she spoke.  “I think that some people are more tolerant of risk.  No risk, no reward, that sort of thing.”

“For some that may be true.  But currently, your arm is in a cast–”

“A bit of cliff jumping,” Emily interjected.

“Your head is wrapped in gauze–”

“Only because there was a rock beneath the waves that I couldn’t see.”  She fidgeted in the vinyl arm chair.  Emily hated hospitals, ever since she broke her leg as a child.

“Emily, you were shot.”

“Well of course I was shot.  They were shooting at me.  That’s why I jumped off of the cliff.”  The only gift, she thought, this therapist has is stating the obvious.

“You were trying to break your sister out of prison.  Do you know you can be imprisoned just for that?  And they weren’t shooting at you…they were aiming for your sister.”

Emily’s face split into a grin.  “But they missed her.  She made it into the water and this time, I told her to swim to freedom.  She’s a political prisoner.”

“No, she stole from leaders around the world and threatened their lives.  She’s an internationally wanted criminal.”

“How do you know,” Emily leaned forward on her knees, “That she isn’t in the C.I.A.?”

The elder woman adjusted her wire-rimmed spectacles.  “Was she?”

“If she was, I couldn’t tell you.  I might not even know.  My point is, you’re trying to blame this on my sister.  Just like my parents blamed my fall on her.  I chose to jump off the cliff, just like I chose to jump back then.  Bones heal, but regrets don’t.  Isn’t there something in  your life you regret, Doctor?”

For a moment, the other woman flinched.  Emily’s smile grew bolder; she’d hit  a nerve.  “I think our time is done here.  If the government wants to imprison me, my sister will set me free.  We keep one another.”  She stood and limped out of the office.  Emily knew that Doctor Gainsburg wouldn’t try to stop her; their session was over for the day anyway.

A Scene a Day Project

“This is too high up.  I can’t jump this.”  Emily stared up at her sister, Samantha, her green eyes wide.

“You mean you won’t jump this.  It’s not that high up, besides, it’s not the height you have to worry about.”  Samatha grinned and backed up a few paces.  “It’s the distance!”  She pushed off of her heel and ran, each step springing off of the dusty rock until she was airborne.

Emily knew she’d never see anything more graceful again in her whole life.  After all, she was already six years old and never witnessed such bravery.  Emily mimicked Samantha’s victory pose–one arm shot up into the air–and then stepped back to where Samantha’s footsteps stopped.

“You can make it Emily!  Be and adventurer!”  Samantha giggled.  She was already twelve years old, and always brought her little sister along on adventures in the desert.

Emily ran as fast as she could, but when she reached the edge, she panicked.  She must have misstepped because, unlike her sister whose steps were in perfect measure for the leap, Emily’s foot caught on the ledge and she toppled four feet down into the miniature ravine.  Before she closed her eyes, Emily saw her sister’s dusty face pop into view from the far ledge. 

“Emily!  Stay there!  I’ll get Mom and Dad!”

Emily closed her eyes, but could hear Samantha running, her sneakers scuffing on the loose dust, to find their parents.  Her head throbbed and white-hot pain shot through her right leg, which folded underneath her at an odd angle.  Even at the young age of six years old, she knew it must have been broken.

MORE TO COME…

(I’ve decided to try to write a story, one scene a day.  Just a little pet project…I will see how it goes.)

I feel a haiku coming on…

cross-cut dishonor

forests cry out for revenge

chopped down paper

Today’s Poem…An unnatural observation

modern masquerade

cherry blossoms pop pink

highlighted with whipped cream petals

cotton candy on chocolate coated cones

bright against saphire skies lean away

from four rush hour lanes

across from

gleaming

neon arches

a modern

masquerade

danced each

sunny day

pretends the  

staggered installations

attempts at beauty

carve away aesthetic agony of commercial-zoned cancer

A poem for the day

Tangled Necklaces

delicate chains of gold

interrupted

by a blast of color

beads wind around

the smaller chain

two king snakes coil

vying for a meal

sometimes the smallest

is the fittest

lifeless jewelry

loses beauty

without instinct

Daily Poetry

Breeze

borders seem so far away

on a lazy raft she drifts

she waits, as ever, for the day

the chance will come to shatter rifts

never risk without reward

she plots a new course

hopes a chance can carry her ship forward

lest she be riddled with remorse

Poem for the day

Panic

silence produced

by inquiry

hesitation

before report

of the problem

frantic scramble

fingers sprint

turning pages

in search of

security