Original Poetry: Muse

The following poem is one that I wrote, inspired by an evening storm that was gathering on the horizon and also reflecting on some of my own experiences with emotional distress, taking a cue from the opening verses of Psalm 39, which I used as headings.  This poem could be an example of metaphor and allegory, as discussed in my previous blog about reflection.

Muse

.:I was mute with silence:.
Within the mind span crystal skies
And stars like tiny watchman-eyes
Stare forth upon benighted gray
Twilight, where unpropitious lay
The brooding, crawling mountain-guise.

Without a sound it moves toward
The fledgling watchmen's twinkling ward.
As lightning flares 'neath shadow'd arch,
All living creatures flee the march
Of clouds bellig'rent waging war.

.:I held my peace even from good:.
Still silent-keeping--thunderless
The beast rolls onward merciless.
Expecting rain and benefit
The land instead like tinder lit
Becomes embroiled in distress.

Mounting up with lightning thrown
Upon the dismal landscape strewn
The warring clouds make not a sound.
As thoughts unspoken fall around,
Not one alights from hot breath blown.

.:And my sorrow was stirred up:.
The thoughts are mine, the key bestowed
By right to muted muse-abode,
Where, sad and weary, I descend
Misunderstanding how to send
The storm away from whence it rode.

And in my desp'rate countenance
I stir the clouds to insolence
Beyond e'en what I saw before!
The terror silent spreads the more
Without a thought to recompense.

.:My heart was hot within me:.
Beneath the waves of wild ire
I am compassed in the fire
Of my own creation; Oh
That I had seen before this woe
A means to grasp the bounding-wire!

My heart within me clenches tight
E'en though the fire's heated might
Is tempered now by gray rainfall
I feel the caustic lightning's flight.

.:While I was musing, the fire burned:.
The water's numbing, drenching fall
Becometh my recanting call
When senses thus constrainéd start
To listen to a voice impart
The only sound I've heard at all:

The nightmare was at last just that:
A dream, though thoughts and fears begat
Its temper true into your heart
Where vortices bade fall apart
The peace of meditation flat.

---

May your pen be always at the hand of a ready mind,
- J Cole 

The Ends of Writing: Reflection

Today's blog talks about reflection as a purpose of creative writing.

Writing for Reflection

Have you ever tried writing in order to reflect or meditate?  I find that this can be extremely cathartic, especially if it's a personal topic upon which I compose. 

Below is an excerpt from a short piece I wrote not too long ago, entitled I Am it's Builder. 

Look.  Just look at it.  Impossibility becomes its shape and form.  What hope exists for this convoluted snake?

            It is a road.  By its very existence, a road must lead somewhere, therefore this road is also compelled to follow a direction.  But its body twists, broken and scarred in its decrepit dermis of gray.  Suggestion of straightness is only implied by looking at the whole.  Viewing the monstrosity, the impulse comes to blur the eyes from focus, seeing with relief only the generality of its average.  In this visage the gray creature points east, toward the veiled rising Sun.  But soon the eyes must come back into focus—for one cannot truly impel his own blindness for long ere natural sight breaks free. 

            There is therefore no escape from the shameful stare.  Once gazed upon, now it is as impossible to look away as its disrepair is utterly inexorable.  You cannot divert your sight from its dying cracks, from languishing rips and tears at the corners where clear direction veered by forcible grip.  At every few feet the road buckles upward as if geysers of acid had erupted from the abyss.  Other places are indented and bruised like the imprints of flailed hammer-falls.  The road is stained with blood and rot. 

            What heavy degradation!  What tragic dissolution!  Who?  Who is responsible for this manic abomination?  

The Ends of Writing: Entertainment

Today's blog deals with the purposes of creative writing. 

We all learn in school about exposition, description, persuasion--all purposes for writing, especially in an academic setting.  This of course is only a partial list of writing aims.  When it comes to creative writing, I believe there are lots of different goals for which to write.

Before you write, ask yourself why. 

Why am I writing this (insert writing piece here)?  The answer to this could take many forms, obviously, but the question itself may not be one we readily ask ourselves.  The reader of any piece of writing, whether consciously or not, reads for a purpose.  That which is read should be written with that purpose in mind. 

I read the news to be informed, therefore the articles expose and explain.  I read a poem to reflect, therefore, the poem is savvy and deep.  I read a short novel to be entertained, therefore the novel tells an engaging story.  Et cetera.  (have you ever spelled out "etc."?  It's quite liberating.")

These are extremely non-specific, and there are indeed innumerable reasons for which to read and therefore to write. 

The reason I make this connection is that your aim will affect your shot.  In other words, depending on the purpose for which you sit down and write, your style and approach may differ. 

So, for the rest of this blog, I'll begin to talk about one of these avenues, starting with a basic purpose .

Writing to Entertain

Many sorts of writing fulfill this purpose for the reader.  This, I believe, can be one of the most basic and therefore shallow forms of writing, but nonetheless an important one.  Entertainment can intersect with a lot of different categories of literature, and for many of us we read for this reason all the time. 

Sometimes it keeps us from going insane.

{Before I go on, I submit that telling a story is not in itself a purpose for writing like entertaining is.  As I will point out, story is one method that can be used for many different purposes.  A story always has some ultimate purpose for its composition, otherwise it is without purpose, and if it can be without one so plainly, I don't think one can say that it can be an end in itself.  At least not in the present discussion.  So there.}

To entertain the reader, one must engage their minds just enough so that they take joy in the reading and yet at the end of the day no heavy lifting has been done.  The reader leaves the written material with a smile on his face, or a lightened heart.  This is not to say that you can't mix and match your purposes and methods!

One of the most common methods used to entertain is the story.  A novel is a story.  A comic strip is a story.  A short story is a...yeah.  This is not to say that ALL novels are written for entertainment, nor that all novels are written the same (this applies equally for comic strips and short stories, for that matter).  

I think I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that if you have read all the way to this point and are still interested, you may already have the intelligence to know what a story is.  Therefore, I will leave stories alone.

Entertaining writing essentially stays focused on the point.  This stuff doesn't stray into flowery description or aside comments, off-topic forays, or anything potentially BORING---unless it directly relates to the purpose of entertainment.  An example would be an article that makes a long description an engaging and essential end in itself.  

That in a nutshell is my collected muse on Writing for Entertainment.  More purposes and their corresponding muses later!

May your pen always be at the hand of a ready mind,

- J Cole 

I have returned - and Reflections on the Value of Words

Proud to announce that I'm back!

Yes, after a long hiatus, I have returned to my blog, ready to keep up the work and try to churn out thoughts, reflections, and commentary on a regular basis once again.  I hope you missed me!  But even if you didn't notice that I was gone, I will still submit my thoughts to the vast world of the internet for whatever it's worth.

----     ----     ----

As I sit here in my favorite coffee place (Hail, O haven of the dual-finned mermaid!), the rainy atmosphere behind that sheer wall of glass bids me reflect upon a very enjoyable pastime.

That is, cuddling on the couch with a good book. 

I have been reading one lately, compiled and introduced by Michael Ravitch and Diane Ravitch (a mother and son team) entitled The English Reader: What every literate person needs to know.  It's been a very intriguing read thus far.  Essentially, the Ravitch team has brought together under the shelter of a single cover a brief survey of essential English literature, spanning the period between Queen Elizabeth's speech before the invasion of the Spanish in 1588 and Winston Churchill's speeches before the House of Commons in 1940.  In between, the book offers explorations of poetry, fiction, essays, and more from the most enduring works to come out of England.

It drew my eye as a way to expose myself to more literature without having to pore through entire works.  This way, I can get a sampling of great literature and take notes about the authors and works I really get into to look up later. 

I bring this up because in my reading of this book, I have reflected on the importance of classic literature.  I used to believe that the best books to read were fiction works, because if you live every day in reality, why would you want to read about it too?  But I realize now that this is a flawed outlook on literature.  I was reading an essay by Thomas Hobbes (it was an excerpt from his seventeenth century work Leviathan) the other day.  I read a paragraph and I had to reread it because it was just so deep! 

With these essays and even the poetry of some authors such as Alexander Pope, Thomas Gray, and Oliver Goldsmith, I realized that words have value.  And just like merchandise, values change.  Three and four hundred years ago, writing and publishing were much more difficult and costly than they are today (as evidenced by the ease at which I write and publish this blog presently).  I believe the words that people wrote in the past had more value and weight.  Therefore the works written were perhaps denser than things we may read today.  This could also be a product of today's "skimming" society.  You can't afford to skim over Pope's An Essay on Criticism.  It's very deep, thoughtful, and meaningful writing because it had to be.  Today, we can afford to just type away our thoughts and superficialities.  Paper is ubiquitous, digital media offer unlimited space for writing... in short, it's a different world to write in.

I say this because perhaps we should read the literary classics of our language not only to stimulate our minds and take part in timeless wisdom and commentary, but also to realize the immense value words used to have. 

Do we appreciate our words today?  I submit that we do not.  Think about it.

I close today's post with a fitting quote from Bacon's essay Of Studies, which I found extremely interesting: "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested... Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.  And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know, that he doth not."

May your quills ever be inspired,
J Cole

Leave of Absence

Well, it pains me to say it...


...but I'm typing this from the public library.


Yes, we just moved into a new house, and our phone and internet hookup has been delayed for a while.


So, I'm going to take a leave of absence, so to speak, from blogging until I have more time.  Hopefully it won't be too long!  


Thanks for tuning in, and...

May your quills always be inspired,

J Cole

Things to Watch Out for pt. 2

Today, we're looking at part two of things to watch out for while writing creatively.

Number Two: Varying the Sentence Structure 

This can be a tricky one to really get comfortable with.  I know that in my own experience, it's something that only comes with practice.  So what am I talking about, exactly?

Well, I'm talking about not writing monotonously.  

How does that happen?  

Well, it's easy to do, really.  When I get into the 'groove', that is, when I get into the writing frame of mind, I end up writing without pause.  Spilling ideas on the paper like a child trying to pour a glass of milk, I finally reach a stopping point.  At that time, I go back and read over what I've just written, only to find that it's a bunch of the same sentences!  


What I mean is that they all have the same sentence structure.  It'll be a bunch of 'He did something adverbially with a certain emotion' sentences, like I took different words and stuck them in a mold--a template--and stamped them onto the paper in a neat little row!  How creative is that?  


The important thing, I suppose, is that I got the idea on the paper.  And it is the important thing.  This is, after all, the rough draft.  Polish can always come later.  But something to keep in mind while you're writing is that varying the sentence structure can make for a much better, more imaginative, read.  


One of the best ways to do such a thing is with participial phrases.  For example:


Swinging hilariously from a vine, Rowan flew by the other scientists in a blur.  

He spoke with authority, drawing upon memories from his childhood.


The sentences in green print, which are normal, perfectly fine, complete sentences, would be okay all by their lonesome, I suppose.  But if you have a bunch of this kind of sentence all right next to each other, it becomes very monotonous--kinda like Kevin Costner narrating Dances with Wolves.  

Yeah.  Nobody wants that.  


But if you break it up with participial phrases, which can either go before or after a main clause like those above, then suddenly the reading becomes a little easier and a whole lot more varied.  Little phrases like these are great ways to provide background information, thoughts, bodily reactions, etc. as well.  

One day, I'll perhaps include two things to watch out for in these 'Things to Watch Out for' blogs, but for now, I must end my musings.  You know what that means...

..::WORD OF THE DAY::.. 

Cuesta - [KWES-tuh]

- noun

1.) a long, low ridge with a relatively steep face or escarpment on one side and a long, gentle slope on the other

Example: The travelers crested the hill overlooking the city below, which was shaded now by the face of a grand cuesta formed by hundreds of years of mining.

*um, good luck using that one...*

May your quills always be inspired,

J Cole

Sketching, pt. 1

Today, I'd like to talk a little about sketching ... literarily, that is.  

 (yes, literarily is a word...look it up)

I think it's something that is easy to neglect, but can be a very important tool for any author.  So, what do I mean by sketching?  


Well, lets think about what sketching means in visual art.  The dictionary defines it as "a simply or hastily executed drawing or painting, especially a preliminary one, giving the essential features without the details."  An artist might scrawl a sketch in order to 1.) put a fleeting idea onto paper before he forgets it, 2.) try out a fresh idea for a new, untried concept, 3.) simply draw/paint for the sake of drawing/painting, or 4.) establish the framework for a finished piece to be drawn on top.  


A writer may use a sketch for the exact same reasons!  Because, as I have said before, creative writing is most definitively an art form.  The fourth point up there could be equated to a rough first draft of any work, and I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you know what a rough draft is.  Therefore, we'll take a look at literary sketching from the first three points-of-view.


1.) Those good 'ol fleeting ideas... 

It happens to all of us: something sparks an incredible idea, one that could topple the very foundations of all creative writing--one that could very well affect the fabric of the universe, rending a hole in the space-time continuum and flooding the world in a CREATIVE DELUGE OF PURE AWESOME!!!  


And then the phone rings.  By the time you've impatiently listened to the telemarketer's spiel and said "goodbye" (in terms none too kind), the final click of the phone dashes your world-rending idea to smithereens.  You forget.


I've spoken before about keeping a notebook with you in your pocket/purse/etc. to write down little ideas you get when you're on the go or doing something.  Sometimes, however (that is, once in a blue moon), you'll get an idea at an opportune time.  


Opportune time = I + T + M - P(i) where I=idea, T=a little free time, M=means of writing, P=pestering things and i=infinity.  


Which is to say, an opportune time is when you get an idea while simultaneously having a little time and a way to put it on paper/computer screen...without any distractions.


Of course, this doesn't happen very often (hence the uncreative 'blue moon' reference), but when it does, it can mean it's time to sketch!  


"How do I sketch in words?" you might ask.  Well, I'm glad you did!  

Basically, literary sketching is done without paying too much attention to all the rules.  It's "simply or hastily" put together, remember?  The point is to explore this idea that went through your head, down your nose, skipped off your heart and took the express out your fingers and into the world!  Therefore, rules don't apply as much here.  The point is to get the thought out of your mind!  Your mind is like a teeming jungle continent.  Do you know how easy it is to lose something in a continent?  Pretty easy, I'd say (not that I have a ton of experience in that particular field), not to mention the jungle part.  That's just because I was thinking of James Cameron's Avatar (great movie, by the way).  

Anyway...


Don't worry about cohesiveness, flow or polish.  The idea might be a certain plot line, character or perspective (what am I saying?  It could be anything! ).  Focus on this fresh idea, and mold it.  Play with it.  Explore it.  You're the pioneer, here, and remember that mind of yours?  Yeah, it's a jungle out there.  Bring your machete.  


This turned out to be pretty long, so I'll continue later about the other two sketching perspectives.  For now, I leave you with...

..::WORD OF THE DAY::.. 

Logorrhea - [log-uh-REE-uh]

- noun

1.) pathologically incoherent, repetitious speech

2.) incessant or compulsive talkativeness; wearisome volubility

Example: The governor, bashing the ears of his citizens with his gross logorrhea, nevertheless gained ample support from the elite.  

May your quills always be inspired,

J Cole

Image: Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net