Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Planning for the Month Ahead


During this past couple of months I’ve spent most of my spare writing time working on my Wordpress blog, with daily postings related to a central theme. This month’s theme was “Whether.” Nothing else, just “Whether.” I decided, for those who haven’t dropped by one of my other homes yet, to write about aspects of a writer’s life and work.

Each post title begins with the word “Whether” and tries to reflect the heart of the post’s theme. I’m not sure if I succeeded with my final desire. I know that I received more likes from April 1 to April 20 than I’ve ever received in one month before. That’s going some.

What I discovered is that I can suck the life out of a subject and still find something more to write about it. I wonder what else I can find to write about for the next few days before April arrives. Just call me “Vampira.”

Next month is almost a predictable theme. POEM. Since April is National Poetry Month, having this theme makes perfect sense.

Now, let’s look at that scenario before trying for substance on it. Robert Brewer’s Poetic Asides site will have its annual poem-a-day challenge going, with the end result being a chapbook manuscript to be submitted for competition and possible publication.

My friend Marie Elena and her poetic partner in cyberville, Walt, will probably have more goodies lined up on their poetry site, Poetic Bloomings. Several of the other sites dealing in verse will undoubtedly have goings-on that will rival the upcoming Maypole dance.

Which should I go for this coming month? It’s not like I haven’t anything else to do but write poems.

I could do Robert’s challenge prompt each day and also post it on my Claudsy’s Blog and on BlogHer. I think that would be cheating, though, and have to reconsider that to find out if I’m allowed to do that. Either way, I would be writing a lot of poetry throughout those halcyon days of Ares’ month, if I take up either challenge—BlogHer, Poetic Aides, and/or any of the others available.

As my friends know, I have no trouble writing poetry. I enjoy it more than most things, when I allow myself to take the time to produce it. I think what bothers me about it is that revision of it is such a pain. When I write verse, it’s instinctual, immediate.

I don’t what to have to analyze the intimate feelings that brought those particular words to the front of my consciousness and placed them on paper. I want raw emotion, not devised and controlled feeling that insinuates itself into the reader’s mind during the reading process. I want the reader to see and feel it as I did when I wrote it. I want the reader to envision that instant that’s been placed in physical form upon the page.

That need of my own may be the most poetic thing about what I do when I put words on paper for others to read. Visceral response should be the only response, to my way of thinking. That’s what verse is for me. Shakespeare wrote from the gut. Its form of verse tells a story that resonates within the sinuses upon reading aloud. Whitman did the same when he wrote about his take on the world and our place in it, about how we treated each other and ourselves.

There is no thought in my mind of advancing to great acclaim for verse I produce. My only need is to translate personal feelings and perceptions into some concrete form that approximates the echoes of nebulous and insubstantial stimuli.

April, a month of verse, arrives in five days. How many others out there will accept the challenge, is unknown. Would that each could take but a moment to place simple words on a page for the purpose of holding on to that moment in time.

TTFN, all

Claudsy

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