I've been thinking about transitioning from having my portfolios on blogs to having them on my website. Today, I decided that it will definitely be happening. I discovered through the process of putting my blog entries of my poems into Word Documents that someone copied my work from February 2007 to April 2007. I had clicked on a comment I had gotten and when I looked at the profile, I saw that this person took the majority of what I had in my profile a while back, only modified to fit him. I decided to look around the site and saw that this man from Sweden copied and/or modified 16 of my poems from the time period just mentioned. I am so furious. All I want to do now is fly on a plane and kick this man's butt and then watch him take down all the stuff from his site. In the very near future, you will see my poetry portfolio on here. And trust me, it will be password protected and all.

I have deleted all of my blogs except the poetry one and the Songkiss'd one from Blogger. So if you see some random entries on here, it's because they are from Blogger. I will say that I am a human with a life so I do not care what you see here. Every professional is also a PERSONal. Plus sometimes the best stuff is the real day to day thoughts.

So with that said, let all of the transitions begin. My photography portfolio is now on the site, under Photo Gallery.

Original Post Date: 2007

To be a writer...

is to be the orchestrator of your own fairytale.
You call the shots.
You decide who is good,
who is bad,
when things should be dark and dreary,
and when things should be as lovely as springtime.
It's your show.
Only the most creative can produce tremendous endings
that make you not mind that it wasn't happy.
And a good writer can make every character, every speaker lovable,
even if it's the most evil voice ever created.
To be a writer of any kind is a privilege and a gift.
Because today's world doesn't always praise the art of writing like it should.
The world response to and appreciates visual art more than it does to writing.
But the world doesn't appreciate how visual writing can be,
when done right.
It's easy to look at a painting, collage, a photography and declare it art.
It does not take much to look, make judgments, and interpret with our eyes.
It does take so much more to read, look at the structure and process the words in front of us for it takes so much more brain power.
But either forms of art is felt from the soul but because of laziness, we are not often taught and exposed to appreciate it all.
How many times has someone told you they don't want to read your writing because they don't like reading?
Writing and reading go hand and hand.
Most writers love to read.
But not most people can read or like to if they can.
That's why it's hard to be a writer.
Even a person who can't read can look at visual art and appreciate it.
But how can the illiterate or the lazy pick a book, read and appreciate?
This is why to be a writer is a gift and a curse.
You can be recognized among your peers and those who appreciate the art of writing.
But there is still a greater audience you cannot reach and they are the reason why sometimes there are more books than u can count at a bookstore, waiting to be recognized by the world.

Original Post Date: 2007

I would like to but I need to:

1) Be able to have a place to record
2) Have music (I want music along with my words, it would make everything more powerful)
3) HAVE COURAGE! (the most important of course)

What's a poet to do!

Original Post Date: 2007
I am uninspired. I have a block that makes me uncomfortable because I have stuff to write about. But my mind is blank. Did I crash and burn after a good few months? This makes me nerves about going to school for writing. You can't get blank when your whole focus is based on writing. That's why I haven't called Pratt to see about the spring semester. Because of fear. Of course the first step to solving any problem is admitting you have one, but will I be brave enough to finish solving it? (Hmm nice line, may use that...) I need to get out of my rut and step up my game before I lose what I haven't even started.

Original Post Date: 2007
I feel like my writing is childish. Sometimes I feel like I'm too simple in my language. My emotions reflecting the hints of stubborness, anger and longings of things beyond reach seem childish when I look back. Maybe that's why my work isn't full of complicated metaphors that most people have to look at twice before they get it. I'm not that complicated. Maybe if I was, I would feel like I was writing mature stuff.

Original Post Date: 2007
Being in a major where we all make music, well I don't know why us students don't come together more often and make things happen. I know that some people are going to come back to school and say "I didn't do too much music over the summer, I had no one to work with." Well, I am here! But I know that if I call anyone up, they will be like "Sure I'll let you know, that would be hot..blah blah blah." Then nothing happens. It makes me wonder if it's because my work isn't good enough. That's why I don't reach out much to people when it comes to collaboration. Granted, I have become so much more confident in my ability to write. But old fears will always stand, which is something that will keep me humble most of the time. I'm sure most writers go through this. But being a poet is one thing. Trying to combine that with music is a different one. I found a couple of opportunities on craigslist and I got a response back to one of them. We'll have to see what happens!

Original Post Date: May 30, 2007
 
May 2007 marks eight years that I have been writing. Overall I've written over 600+ poems throughout the years. Which brings me to the other milestone I have passed. As of May 30, 2007, I have 301 poems on the site. I posted the big 3-0-0 (Captive) and then 3-0-1 (Truth) this morning. It feels so good to have that much. I feel accomplished even if I'm the only one that ever looks at the site. One day my work will be appreciated. But for now, this personal feeling of achievement is enough.

Original Post Date: 2007
This article of Amiri Baraka is ridiculously overwritten. I feel like he threw around a lot of words and didn't simplify the text for a general audience. Maybe this article wasn't meant for a general audience and more for an academic one, but I felt like he made it unnecessarily complicated. I was able to understand some points of the article really well. I was even able to agree with him at certain points. For example, I agreed with the point he made when he spoke about receiving chapbooks and magazines of works that promised to be something else with their titles but end up being nothing profound. You can only read so much about the same thing. People are usually telling the same stories in their poetry. You may think no one has ever written about this before. In reality though, there is someone that thinks like you. As I like to say, "The only thing that is unique is the word unique. Everything, everyone has common ground." What makes one poet different from another is the way they say it. It is those who put a new spin to an old idea that stand out from the crowd.

It is also those who dare to say what has never been said or really talked about that stand out. People are taught to play it safe. No one must talk about the nitty gritty of the real world. This is why you see a lot of safe, boring poetry. I got what Baraka was trying to say. It?s hard to explain it in the right words. They are not coming to me now. Because I?m still trying to understand his message behind all the "big" words. But I think I stated a piece of it. I would probably agree with more of his ideas or be able to disagree and argue more if he wrote this article in a way where more people can understand. I am a very intelligent person, but how can I see his view on poetry, if he can't put it in a way everyone can understand? Sometimes less is more.

Original Post Date: 2007
Apparently through the discovery of my own need for self promotion and joining blog directories, I found that I got linked like here:

"And finally, to round out our list tonight the lovely Miss Erin sends me another link, this time to yet another poet living in Queens, a 20 year old college student known only as Uncensored Life who writes The Thoughts That Make You...And Break You: Poetry and Words Strung Together. A hard working poet, UL writes about life's experiences, presumably her own, and what it's like to live with them. I recommend you take in a bit of Uncensored Life for yourselves."

Wow that was nearly a year ago that I discovered that. And I was 21. 20 when they discovered me. Maybe if I kept up to things no one would have copied my work!

Hello Internet World,

I have re-did my resume section of my site. Instead of having the whole thing on there, you now can view it as a PDF. I have my personal and my studio resume up. Hopefully I can one day complete my writing resume so that people can see I am qualified for jobs, but I need to get writing jobs first!

I hope all is well for everyone out there.

Always,

CDR