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Comments? Holler.
miscellany
“Two things: First, from Yusef Komunyakaa: ‘Don’t write what you know. Write what you’re willing to discover.’ Second, from a tall blonde woman: ‘Get over yourself. You’re not so special.’”
“I like to be listening to music as I write, though it’s not a requirement. I’ll start with anything: a snippet of overheard conversation, a particularly resonant lyric, an image from my surroundings or memory, a line from a book I’m reading. I assume that if I write something down it will lead to something else.”
Constellations, by Susan Settlemyre Williams
Back-lit, the shot-up window blizzards out
like a freeze-frame of first light hurtling
to make the universe.
Beautiful as the fireworks a bullet
might set off in the brain, so the instant
of dying is the instant of suns
bursting open. Beautiful as, in some lights,
your scan may be beautiful, dark and starred
with bright particles. Even my migraine
pyrotechnics, the dancing light etched
on my retina through a sleepless night
while I tossed and pictured you, pale
and silenced in the radiology room—glitter
triggered again by the shattered glass
at the church where I have gone
tonight to light candles for your body
slowly being eaten by its stars.
My eyes burn and blur in the dazzle
of so much breaking apart.
“I don’t understand how the body can be burnt
into nothing, this little plume I let go.”
DIAGRAM :: Susan Settlemyre Williams
Read this poem. Feel free to thank me for bringing it to your attention when you’re done.
Reginald Shepherd's Blog »
“Whenever I get the slightest inclination to actually fill out an application (or for that matter, send out a journal submission), I drop whatever else I’m doing and honor the impulse. Even if I’m at work. Even if I’m on deadline. You always have to prioritize the poetry, because no one will do it for you. …”
5 Ways to Battle Creative Blocks - FreelanceSwitch »
“Before you can break a creative block, you need to be consciously aware of why they happen. Here are some of the reasons that I found, below.
- Stress.
- Health.
- Financial concerns.
- Preoccupation with non-work related issues.
- Lack of knowledge of a topic, or concern that you don’t know enough.
- Unclear on what you really want to say
- Directionless: no plan for a specific piece of work.”
Amen, and hallelujah.
Books Actually produces some of my favourite notebooks. Just a damn shame that I can only ever get them when I’m in Singapore. Note to self: check in and see if they fulfill international orders yet…
The Tea Bush (via hellobooksactually)