Tying Up Loose Ends:

October 2024

For my entry at the end of the month I’d like to have an overview of what we’ve been doing:

(1) Quick Recap Questions:

How do you choose yourself as a creative? In what small ways, lately, have you validated yourself? Do you talk about your art? Do you refer to yourself as an artist?

What tools are helping you create? What are you reading? What do you plan to read?

What does your art need from you to thrive?

How are you putting your art into the world in those boring, necessary ways?

(2) Did you try one or both of the free writes I suggested last time? I did—here’s how it went for me:

“Float or Sink”: I struggled with this free write initially because I wanted “swim” added; my brain didn’t seem to be able to write without it, so I added it and ended up writing a piece about my father’s attitude about teaching me to swim (throw her in, she’ll learn right quick), when I actually learned to swim as an adult, and the metaphors of sinking or floating in life. Maybe it will be a poem one day.

“Things you may find hidden in my mouth”: this was fun for me. I began with a dream I always have where my mouth is filled with my teeth or with amethysts and I have to push them out with my tongue; it’s a very interesting image to describe. But suddenly my brain/hand/pen took me on a different journey about the coppery taste of shame. That will definitely become a poem.

(2) My Writing Lately

This week has been filled with researching presses that publish poetry chapbooks. While I have a chapbook coming out in July of next year, from Prolific Pulse Press LLC, I have two others that are looking for a home, and one of them just reached the magic 20%. Meaning, twenty percent of the individual poems included in that chapbook have been published, so now the whole chapbook is eligible for publication. It’s a lovely feeling when I can launch them into the big, wide world.

I have read two poems that speak to me and I’d like to try to run with the feelings they evoke in me and recreate something similar. In “How to Choose Yourself as a Creative” you might recall I mentioned the first poem I wrote was about a monkey and an ant and it was styled after a poem I had read in school—I was ashamed at having copied something and never admitted that had even occurred until I was well into adulthood. Now I’m eradicating that shame by copying those I admire; it’s simply a learning process that has the potential to elevate our writing in ways we might never have imagined.

And I am working on a poem right now that is titled “Exposure” and I am trying to squeeze that metaphor for all its worth: camera lens, exposure therapy, what happens to our bodies when we’re exposed to the elements, what if we are exposed to information too early, etc. Like most poetry, it’s a process of not only word choice and imagery, but of organization and brevity—a miraculous balancing act of pace and lyricism, rhythm and personal struggle. And oh, I’m enjoying it so! I love when you are in the middle of writing something and it occupies those small, silent moments when you are driving or chopping vegetables. When a phrase occurs to you or when you envision a different way of formatting a stanza.

(4) What I’m reading:

I don’t usually buy books—I’m very frugal (my Maine roots, I think). I usually use my library first, friends second. Then, if I think I have a text that is going to serve me well, I purchase it.

Rules are meant to be broken though, right? This month has me purchasing a lot of used, one new, and one pre-order book. I guess I’m readying myself for the upcoming winter season, bundled up on the couch with blankets and cats, cup of tea on the table in front of me? Whatever the reason, here are my recent purchases:

• I pre-ordered “The Body is a Doorway: A Memoir: A Journey Beyond Healing, Hope, and the Human” by Sophie Strand. I am obsessed with this woman; she is a dense, prolific writer who is one of the great intellectuals of our time. Does that sound a bit far-fetched? I swear, it isn’t. I fell in love with her as I was reading her first book, “The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine.” It’s a compilation of essays and I listened to every podcast she was on (I think). Her second book, “The Madonna Secret” is so precious to me and I haven’t even read it in its entirety for a completely ridiculous reason. I don’t want it to end. Do you do this with books? I don’t even usually like fiction. I’m doing what I can to support her—she is such a fabulous thinker and writer; I understand the world around me better because of her. I can see a more hopeful future because of her.

• Janisse Ray’s new Craft and Current: A Manual for Magical Writing is being devoured as you read this. I have loved this woman’s perspective and writing—her memoir, her activism, her down-to-earth devotion to making this world a better place. I loved “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood” and “The Seed Underground” especially. If she has insight into story and writing, I’m a sponge!

• A new-to-me poet, Nin Andrews, has many chapbooks which are wonderful. I chose to purchase “Why God is a Woman” and honestly, I’ve only gotten a few poems in, but I like her style so much.

• Twyla Tharp’s “The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life”

• “Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life” by Ferris Jabr is a lovely look into “the hidden workings of our planetary symphony.” I think this is so rich with information. It was actually recommended by Sophie Strand during one of her recorded talks and so, you know, I had to read it.

(5). Other activities that have been occupying my time: playing with ink and sticks, submitting so many poems to so many journals, baking maple oatmeal bread, eating lots of apples (cooked or baked though, cause I’m allergic), mulching the garden, harvesting the last cucumbers and tomatoes, and preparing to submit my art to journals in 2025.

And that’s this month in a nutshell! I would love for you all to share your book recommendations and/or activities as it pertains to your art/writing. I hope your fall is unfolding just as you need it to!