From A Wedding In Hell by Charles Simic.
Sometimes you meet a poem that renders you senseless because that's exactly how you feel. Experienced this in Barnes and Noble the other night. This poem is by Louise Labe. This is to someone who just doesn't know... ..you have made a schedule! Last night I received an e-mail from Columbia College, telling me that I can start registering for classes.
Here are the final results:
The first three are required so I had no choice about that, but the elective matches up to the gist of what I am trying to do with EAT Media. I am excited! My classes are in the evening, Monday through Wednesday so we'll see how everything else works out. It's starting! Whoopie!! Now to pay for school... Till next time, #theycalledherbravenewgirl Good Morning!
Those who are close to me know that pursing my Master's in Arts Management is beneficial to my company and ideas. But I have tons of people who have been asking me, why not your MFA? There are many reasons. First of all, there are many poets who don't go after it. They workshop instead, taking the expense of learning to craft poetry one smaller expense at a time. Second, I am thinking about my future and the future of others. One day I may stop being the artist and just be a supporter. I want to have a solid background for that. Also, no one knows me! I get a degree in Creative Writing/Poetry and then what? No one pays attention enough for me to become a teacher, workshop facilitator, to talk on panels, or to be picked up and published somewhere big. I'm a little fish because I don't go for the norms in the poetry community. I'm shy and awkward and it takes someone special to see who I really am as a poet. I'm not in this to be known to anyone. I just truly love poetry. I'm not saying this to measure my ability or anything. I just know that if I am known for my poetry, let me do it my way, before there were schools and degrees. Not to say that I don't want the MFA. While I probably wouldn't do what half of MFA candidates do with their degrees, I am curious about the courses. Luckily I am going to the same school I would have gotten my MFA from. Hopefully I make a friend or two with a poet when I "accidently" wander to their building and can get an inside scoop. I can always go into more debt and get an MFA after my MAM. And I will always write and read about the craft. But I have bigger fish to fry. Like arts management and self-publishing my first two books.- which you can always donate towards on GoFundMe ;). So there's your answer or at least one version of it - my rationale always changes. Till next time, #theycalledherbravenewgirl
Hello out there! Some of you may know me as The Write Queen (also obvious from how you landed here). Some of you may not know me at all. That's okay. I don't think I know me very well either. I'm someone who is constantly coming up with something and failing half the time. I am trying...and succeeding at that. I am both sides of the coin. My name is Christina Denise Rodriguez. I am a writer, a web designer, an emerging arts manager, and soon to be graduate student. That's right...this soon to be 28-years-old will be pursuing her Masters in Arts Management at the Columbia College of Chicago this Fall. Aren't you from New York? Yes I am! I hail from the amazing borough of Queens, where the streets are numbered and the trains are packed to the gills. I've only lived in Brooklyn briefly before making it back to my safe haven of Queens county. Then why Chicago? Why not Chicago? It's a beautiful city and they have the school with the major I want to study for graduate school. And you couldn't do that...? No I couldn't do that in New York! New York has many wonderful schools and programs, but this school, Columbia College caters to my dream. You see I have a company. A little online company called Establishing Artists for Tomorrow Media Group (aka EAT Media)which deals with the development of individuals/groups in the arts industries through web development, marketing, photography, and consulting services. I run this with a group of friends and we try to help other artists set up their brand. I want to go much further. I want to go beyond the internet. I have a whole wonderfully huge plan in store. But unfortunately, I cannot reveal what that is yet. This is where grad school comes in. Courses that teach me how to bring my ideas into fruition with a wealth of resources. Plus I want to become a better leader. I owe it to myself and everyone around me to become my best, strongest, creative self. So at the end of the summer, I am leaving my full time job, my family and friends and heading off to the Windy City. So what is #theycalledherbravenewgirl? A hashtag I used while taking pictures and visiting Chicago to look at the school. I'm about the hashtag culture. It's fun, clever, and it does help you filter out things in social media. It's a marketing tool in some circles, the bane of existence in others. But for me, since I am a young woman in the new media world, yeah the name of my blog is going to be with a hashtag. I might integrate hashtags in some of my posts. This blog is suppose to document my growth as a writer, arts manager, and woman. It's not going to be focused on one thing like my other blogs. You're going to hear it all! Because I am growing. I am learning, failing, trying, and sometimes succeeding. I'm throwing myself out there. I am a brave new girl. Since I turned 27, my life has been a roller coaster. In addition to all of the adventures I'll be having away from home, I am going to back track a little to some of the amazing (and not so much) things that have happened to get me to this point. So in the meantime, sit back and read my other blogs. The second post will be coming soon! Till next time, #theycalledherbravenewgirl I look at pretty girls
and torture myself with thoughts of your lips on theirs. I find my stomach wrapping tightly around the eyes of your future muses, seeing you love the red of another's mouth. I see a future of trembling hands, clutching another wrinkled love letter, not knowing when to let go even when you push me into moving cars and tell me to get home safe. Hello Write Queeners,
For some reason, others trust me with their work and ideas (what do they think I am, a real writer?). What comes along with this privilege is listening to the stories of doubt and fear. They are writing things that are close to their hearts and they want to convey emotion and craftsmanship, but are scared of the can of worms that will open and if they will fall flat of their expectations. As a writer, whether I am writing a poem, a blog, or other, these feelings are all the time. As writers we choose to lay ourselves open. We are books in constant creation, edit, and rewrite mode. We are in competition with others (in friendly and not so friendly ways), but more importantly with ourselves. It's easy to get caught up in the politics of writing and the writing life. But I am here to tell you a lesson that I've learned, but need to reenforce often. The number one rule to writing anything is one simple thing: GET IT OUT Forget about editing. Forget about censoring. It's great to have concepts/ideas for some of your work, but if you are getting caught up in that more than actually writing, then you are losing raw material. All you have to do is: GET IT OUT Fine-tuning comes later. Just continue with what you have and worry about the details after. If you get it right on the first draft, bless you. You are amazing. Share it with the world. But remember it is okay to take your time with a piece, then share. Hey, you don't have to share it at all if you don't want to. Writing is ours to do what we want with it. You are not going to share everything you write. So remember that no matter that doubts and fears you have, don't let it stop you. All you have to do is: GET IT OUT Seems easy right? It's not. It never will be. BUT you will save yourself some grief if you try to remember this one rule. Till next time, all you have to do is: GET IT OUT! Hello Poets and Readers! In my last post, I talked about a couple of reminders you should repeat to yourself while doing the 30/30 challenge. Now that you have that down pact, you might be wondering how you can keep up the momentum. Well don't worry because I have a few tips! 1. Keep it short! - I know that after writing a few longer pieces, the thought of writing another one tires my soul. That's when I switch gears and look into short forms such as haiku, tanka, lunes, the six-word poem, writing a poem via Twitter and more. Keep it simple, make it fun, or use this opportunity to play around with language under limited constraints. Remember that you don't have to stick to the topics that traditionally go with these forms. Be daring and write about what's true to you. 2. Prompt It! - There are so many prompts out there for poets. I love when I find one that immediately starts a fire in me. Here are a few places that I go to for prompts and some new discoveries: 3. It's All About Form! - Trying different poetry forms are a challenge and is extremely fun (if you are into certain forms of mental torture...I kid, kind of). Some of us are creatures of habit and write about the same themes over and over again, so using different forms of poetry can either force us into another topic (some forms are known for certain themes) or makes it seem like we are changing things up. Here's a couple of starting points for looking into forms: Poets.org and PoetryFoundation.org
4. There's an App for that! - Not the most popular, but poetry apps for your phone or tablet do exist. You won't be creating your most epic poems through apps, but they are fun and can jump start some ideas for more poems. Check out a post from a couple of years ago about a few recommended apps. Look out for a more recent list of poetry apps later on in the month. 5. Reading is Fundamental! - Pick up a poetry book and read! Sometimes the words of others will spark ideas of your own. Take it a step further. Take a random line from a poem in the book and use it as your first line, building from there. Bonus: Here's a post I wrote last year about Mondegreen, when you misinterpret a phrase as a result of near-homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning - using it as a tool to write a poem. Hope these tips help you lovely poets out there. Share some results with me in the comments! Till next time, The Write Queen |
Christina D. RodriguezA Latinx poet and entrepreneur who blogs about poetry, music, writing, and life. Archives
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