“Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. When we really listen to people there is an alternating current, and this recharges us so that we never get tired of each other. We are constantly being re-created.” ~ Brenda Ueland
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Kick Starting the New Year
Besides getting up this morning and writing, I went this afternoon to the Writers Place for the 4th Annual Writers Place - New Years Day Celebration Reading. It's a 12 hour Poetry Reading Marathon that Sharon Eiker organized based on the annual Bowery Poetry Club event in New York. So from a creativity standpoint I feel like the year has gotten off to a good start.
I thought now might be a good time to roll out some resources for those writers looking for good start to the year.
- The Artist's Way. This is something I just learned of this past week. Julia Cameron has put together a fascinating program that is geared for artists of all types. The program is a 12 week concentrated effort to spark creativity. If interested, check out the web site here.
- Bob Ragland the non-starving artist~ I heard an NPR story about Bob Ragland - He is an upbeat, energetic fellow that has made a living as an artist and tells other what he has learned that makes it work. The NPR story is here. You can find his web site here. The story mentions a pamphlet of his road to success. It's simple and focused. I'm sure it can be modified to any art venue. The Stuff You Won't Learn In Art School
- readwritepoem poetry prompts
- The Writing Site
There's a few things to get you thinking if your having trouble getting the new year started.
Best wishes to everyone in 2009!
Technorati Tags: Wiriters Place,creativity,NPR,Bob Ragland,The Artist's Way,poetry prompts,things you won't learn in art school
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Always My Favorite Issue
The Jan/Feb issue of Poets & Writers is out. One of my favorite issues - the 12 debut poets for the year. The past couple of years I have known someone on the list. Not so this year. Based however on past experience with this list I need to get busy looking for some of their material. Those selected in the past have generally been a great crop of poets and for the most part they are very good reads.
Also there is a delightful piece that was written by Kim Addonizio titled First Thought, Worst Thought. Kim provides poetry exercises to inspire writers.
I haven't read it cover to cover yet, so there may be more gems awaiting me.
Monday, December 29, 2008
W.S. Merwin featured on PBS News Hour
W.S. Merwin has become one of my favorite poets over the past couple of years. At 81 he is still quite an active writer and has yet another book coming out "The Shadow of Sirius."
PBS has done a profile and featured some of his poems and it can be seen on their web site here. I enjoyed it. I think it's worth taking a look at.
Technorati Tags: W.S.Merwin,PBS
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Seasons Forgiving
Having a glass of Chardonnay and wishing it were morning rather than evening. Daylight has slipped out of sight and in its place is the evening before back to the office.
I ventured out today and shot some pictures along the Missouri River and other places close by. Still a bit of snow lingering here and there but we'll see more of it before long. Winter is yet young.
I pity those poor souls who do not have the ability to experience seasonal changes. Their internal clocks must find the year very long and unforgiving. Having four distinct season is like having four times during the year to feel like there is a fresh start.
The clock we look at to see what time of day it is, is simply a man made arbitrary measurement to time. So is the calendar. But the seasons, they are natures clock.
It's probably a poet thing to prefer natural timing to some artificially contrived medium.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Our Vision of the Muse
Here we have to the left, Polyhymnia the Muse of lyric poetry pictured. I fully understand the mythological creation of the muse of various entities but I am altogether amused by our common day practice of viewing our muse in perhaps an erotic representation. Almost a pornographic implant in the mind as if this is the necessary level in which one must go to the be creative. An arousal if you will. And maybe arousing that something within is what is necessary to move into a creatively fertile mode. Sure, it's fun on some level to suppose that our muse sits at the edge of our desk, long legs exposed, in some flauntingly evil way to attract our attention and impose upon us some grand element of creative juice that sparks our creative libido.[Insert apologies to my female readers who surely have a different image in mind. Or maybe not.]
Our typical vision of the muse calls upon us to look to an external source. I suppose we've all had examples of persons or even inanimate objects that have provided us with a spark of imagination that was the breakthrough of some piece of art. But I feel like deep down inside each of us, that's where the muse really is.
I know that all around us are beautiful, startling, magnificent, frightening, majestic, myopic, shocking and luminescent things that give us pause and allows us to think beyond the moment. But I suspect it is the inner muse within our own minds and not some mythology that takes those things we see and experience and goes outside the box and makes of them something new and allows us to give birth to that which is uniquely ours in a collaborative conception with our inner muse.
Friday, December 26, 2008
San Francisco airport to feature carbon offset kiosks - News- msnbc.com
Here's a positive story for the spaceship earth~!
updated 9:50 a.m. CT, Fri., Dec. 26, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco International Airport is planning to give guilt-ridden travelers a chance to offset the air pollution emitted from their plane rides.
San Francisco airport to feature carbon offset kiosks - News- msnbc.com
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