Days 176 & 177: Packed; Missing Spots

Once again inspiration struck when I didn’t have my notebook on me and I had to resort to writing yesterday’s poem on scrap paper. I transcribed it into my poetry notebook this morning before writing today’s poem.

Yesterday I left my bride and my dog in Houston. Nobody’s especially thrilled about it, least of all my puppy. He’s a rescue and has severe anxiety attacks every time he sees a suitcase being packed. He knows it means a trip and that it’s not going to be a quick ride in the car. He gets both desperate and excited and it’s him that inspired yesterday’s poem. Kind of hurt to write it out. I’m missing him and my bride today.

Packed

This morning’s poem comes from my ever frenetic attempts at organization and prioritizing. There’s always more to do. And now after that. Beauty of life. When it runs out, there’s no life left. Even so, I feel like I’m sending my brain spiraling around inside my own skull sometimes.

Missing Spots

Day 175: Obstacles Made Offerings

Wow, day 175. We’re almost halfway through the year.

Definitely purging a little bit today, perhaps using my poetry to process my own life’s journey. This theme may be a tad redundant but writing this poem definitely helped me with my mindset and perspective going forward today. Here’s hoping someone else will get something similar out of it.

Obstacles Made Offerings

Days 162 & 163: Untitled; Living a Story

Confession. I hate yesterday’s poem. I’m sure I’m not alone as a poet who occasionally produces something he or she is unhappy with. I kept waiting for inspiration to strike me with something better and it never came. Lesson learned: push forward anyway. Momentum is more important than perfection. I’m beginning to suspect that I’m a rather dense student because this lesson seems somewhat familiar by this point.

In that spirit of moving forward, here are the poems for both 162 and 163.

I wanted to write about prosperity and this is what came out…

Untitled

I was contemplating the nature of control this morning and realized that I have several personal hangups surrounding it that I need to work on. One of which is the struggle with the idea that I am not the author of my own life, but rather the protagonist in my own story. It’s an interesting reframing that’s given me much to think on and at the same time is more than a little freeing.

Living a Story

Day 161: Untitled

Another Untitled piece because for the life of me I couldn’t come up with one. I’m open to suggestions if you have any.

This morning finds me thinking on the buildup before a big decision. Sometimes the decision is yours. Sometimes it is someone else’s. Sometimes they are very big decisions and sometimes they are small but significant decisions and sometimes there is more than one occurring at once.

Untitled

Day 160: Baseline

I had an interesting conversation with my bride about expressions we each thought of as synonymous yet which each of us understood differently. In particular our standard responses to the common question “How was your day?” provided the inspiration for today’s poem.

Baseline

Days 157-159: Enough for the Stories; Free the Fear; Sniping for Success

I’ve got a bit of backlog again. I’ve been writing but not publishing my writing as I should. I’d intended to spread out several of these backed up poems out over the course of the day but the day had other plans. So did the next. And it has been brought to my attention that when a backlog such as this occurs, that those following his blog do not like being suddenly inundated with multiple updates. So, here is my attempt at compromise. One post. Three poems. Today’s own post will follow shortly.

Day 157: Enough for the Stories

This poem was written in an effort to recapture the loss of the poem, Creative’s Career, which I started in a moment of inspiration that was cut short and the scrap of paper I’d written it down on was thought lost. While the opening is very similar, It ultimately became its own thing. Every time I finish a book, my mind is overwhelmed with ideas. Many of them for entirely new projects or for things I’ve set aside to do later when often what I need to do most is push forward onto the next book in whatever series I’ve started. So many ideas. So many stories to tell. It’s a little overwhelming.

Enough for the Stories

Day 158: Free the Fear

I have been my own worst enemy with my writing. I’ve said before that part of the reason I use pennames is because they give me permission to fail. Permission to simply write. In essence, when I go into a piece knowing that I am going to publicly claim it as my own, I am writing from a place of fear and I think it is undermining my efforts. That got me thinking about the nature of fear and courage and what is required of me with regards to both if I am to succeed as a professional creative. Perhaps what is required of many of us going forward.

Free the Fear

Day 159: Sniping for Success

There is a principle in professional investing that is difficult for many to wrap their heads around, let alone embrace, and which I feel applies to many areas of life. Diversify your investments. Bleed money. Aim wide. The idea is that you’re waiting for something called a “black swan,” which is to say the rare and unpredictable success. Something is going to do well eventually and it all boils down to a test of endurance. Waiting for that single critical moment to strike, the build off of. Then repeating the process over again.

Sniping for Success

Day 156: Creative’s Career

Inspiration struck the other day when I didn’t have my notebook on me. I scribbled the beginning of this poem as fast as I could on a scrap of paper before being interrupted–life tends to do that–and then lost the paper. The feel of it stuck with me so hard though that it carried over into Day 157, which I completed late last night, and which became its own poem. Then this morning, as I sat down to do today’s poem, I found the missing scrap of paper and found myself able to complete Day 156’s poem.

It is so strange how we can get fixated upon things. I could have written another poem for Day 156, there’s no real reason I couldn’t have, yet this poem was meant to be today’s and in my mind replacing it somehow seemed to disrespect the original creation, absurd as that is. Which in and of itself is a feeling worth exploring as this poem is basically a rant at my passion and the process by which I must produce. So. Many. Ideas. And they all need to be done now now now. Not just because my muses are screaming at me, but because that is the professional creative climate in which I find myself.

I believe some re-evaluation of the best kind may be in order.

Creative’s Career

Day 154: Overload

Everyone and everything has an opinion, it seems. Most of them are good and valid. What’s frustrating is when they are unsolicited and come from places, such as your own body and mind, that cannot be denied or ignored, and worse still when they are also opposed. Today has been a day of conflicting opinions and information. At this point, I’m over analyzing and optimization and ready to simply make things happen.

Overload

Day 152: Golden Problems

There has always been a division in my life that amuses me to think on. Half the people dear to me think me a pessimist and the other half think me an optimist. The last few days have felt a little like a less dramatic Three Stooges skit. This morning I ran into another hiccup almost right out of the gate. But it occurred to me how lucky I am to have to deal with this particular hiccup. In fact, most, of not all of my problems ultimately stem from leading a truly blessed life. It’s not that my problems aren’t real or don’t hold weight, only that, now that I dwell on them, it is as if they are written in liquid gold.

Golden Problems

Day 148: Ants in a Rat Race

I’ve been really caught up in work lately. My part time job, my novels, the audiobook production, trying to do everything in a day. I just about burned myself out. This weekend I took a big step back and let myself rest. I am rethinking my approach.

I have a truly blessed life. My problems are all great problems to have. I need to slow it down and enjoy my amazing present and the process.

Ants in a Rat Race