the act of poetry. the pulse of melodies blown under my fingertips. the beloved's seconds of veraciousness wrapped in kisses shot directly into jarred skin. the husband's unrelenting pilgrimage to remain in hesitant veins. flipping through poured pages that break me into pieces and make me struggle for my next breath. the struggle between scratching of the pen and the breakthrough of rattling syllables. being in a constant state of creation. pillows that allow my head to sink lower than the horizon. bursts of autumn air while looking at sunshine filtered through clouds. steaming mugs of chai tainted with vanilla and memory. the extinct stories of my family tree swinging longing into a knot of the debilitating mind of my grandmother. the laughter of womanhood honeycombed for and against me. meshing the edges of my tongue with the decadence of future decay. the creak of a door opening inside of my head. the silent continuous shift of this cognizance sitting in my skin infinitely. This is what comes out when connecting with others on Facebook and commenting on statuses. Even I am a little surprise of this answer. For now, I will leave this as it is. But I want to play with this in the future. If only time would allow me to really dig deep into some of my writing these days.
For the beloved:
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I hope that the month of September has been treating you well so far. It's back to school for most and back to a regular routine at work for others (don't you miss your Summer allowances already working people?).
Today I have a very grand recommendation to make. I can't even say I recommend just her classes because Caits Meissner herself is a wonderful writer and person. This summer in July, I took a 30-Day intensive writing course called Digging Deep, Facing Self. You may have read many references to this course on my blog over the summer. If you haven't, you can catch up here.
Not only did I have the opportunity to push myself and write pieces I wouldn't have dreamed of writing at this point of my life, I've had the opportunity to work with Caits and a beautiful group of women. Caits is always supportive, creative, and inspiring. She gently pushes and always the mama bear with her wonderful daily messages throughout the course. One of the things I love about her is that she is not afraid to be herself, to make mistakes, and to hear us out despite being the head hancho of the course. Everyone needs the opportunity to work with this wonderful woman!
...Especially when she sets assignments up that lead to pushing you to be brave and speak to your literary heroes. If you are an active reader of this blog, then you know that for the particular assignment that I am talking about, that I ended up speaking with the poet Sonia Sanchez. It was an incredible experience that I carry with me during the rougher days of writing.
I thank Caits so much for being wise and giving us that assignment. If you want to read up on the experience, take a look at these two posts: Open Letter to Sonia Sanchez and The Write Journey: When The Light Shines Back.
The absolute conclusion of that experience came in the mail about two weeks ago. I've been so busy that I haven't had the chance to share, but take a look:
So....what are you waiting for guys? Go sign up for one of Caits' classes today!
Until next time, my loves, be well and write!
Now we know that I am not a fashionista. Give me some leggings, a cute shirt, and comfy shoes and we are all good to go! However, I do have a slight passion for accessories. When your clothes are okay, accessories can make a difference.
I had the pleasure to tag along with my fashionista blog buddy Simone Danielle of FashionRunsTheWorld.com, where we stopped in at the NYFW Accessory Showcase hosted by Untapped PR at The Carlton Hotel and to the one year anniversary event at Christian Siriano's store on Elizabeth Street. Of course I was representing myself and E.A.T. Media, something that Simone is a part of anyway, but this was her day as a fashion blogger to go out there and do her thing!
She did a fantastic job rubbing elbows with the best of accessory kings and queens, fashion bloggers (like Naty of A Love Affair With Fashion - witnessed such a nice moment between them that I almost cried!), and more. I had tons of fun with her and meeting all of these fantastic people.
I definitely give a Write Recommendation to Simone and FashionRunsTheWorld.com, plus to all of the people we met and their goods.
Make sure to read her blog and to keep looking out for her posts on NYFW. She still has a lot of events to go to!
Check out the pictures I took of the night below!
NYFW Accessory Showcase hosted by Untapped PR
One Year Anniversary Event at Christian Siriano
I have some exciting news! The last manuscript, Sweltering Sugar, is 98% complete! Since it's a haiku/short form chapbook, I am a little unsure about format so I want to have a couple of people read it before I can say it's 100% complete. But since that is such a small detail, I can say that it is done.
So that makes manuscript #3. Three manuscripts and a world of possibility. But we all know that I like to make things complicated. What if I decided to combine all the manuscripts together and made a super manuscript? Like when the Power Rangers call all of their zords together and...okay, let's not finish that statement. It dates me. Those familiar get the picture, right?
I want to combine them all and create a full-length poetry collection. I already have a title: Cognition of Her Body.
It was the title of a portfolio I had to make for a poetry class a long time ago. I always loved it and hoped that I could use it one day for something else. Plus since each manuscript shows something different about my body of work, it's also appropriate.
So I can either let Late Night Feelings, Home Sweet Home, and Sweltering Sugar stand on their own or I can combine them and have Cognition of Her Body.
That's a lot to think about. But as I said, we know I am complicated. And I think ahead. I already have the full-length manuscript document put together, just in case.
Also, no change here. Still in the submissions vs. self publishing debate. Either way, now I have a whole new market to look at with the thoughts of a full length collection.
Any thoughts or suggestions about this? Leave a comment below and let me know!
Christina D. Rodriguez
A Latinx poet and entrepreneur who blogs about poetry, music, writing, and life.
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