Poetry project

I don't feel that poetry writing is my strong point.  However, I really enjoy it.  And I want to get better!  So I actually made a new years resolution that I really, really want to keep, and that is to write some poetry every day.  It could only be two lines.  The point is to make sure I write SOMETHING!  I have a pretty new notebook, with two pages, from the last two days, filled up already.  And, since I find that posting stuff online can be a tool for keeping me accountable in my personal goals, I'm going to be posting my daily scribblings on my poetry blog.  Now, I hesitated before mentioning it on this blog, because I really feel that most of the poetic stuff I write is crap!  But, well, I finally decided to mention it anyway... 

Now off to bed after a long night spent around lots of people, because I am truly exhausted...

Peace,
Idzie

P.S. While I'm on the subject of blogs, my blog Adventures In The Accumulation of Trash is, as I'm sure you've noticed if you've been over there in the last well, forever, entirely inactive.  I'm not quite ready to delete it, but it looks like it will remain inactive for the foreseeable future.  My book review blog, Frequently Magic has also kind of failed.  I may decide to resurrect it soon, though...  I'll see how I feel.  My photo blog 365 Awkward Angles should have more updates soon, as I attempt to actually complete the 365 photo a day challenge this year!

Poetry blog

My poetry blog now has a brand new layout! I also decided to change my criteria for what I post on it. This message is now on the side of my poetry blog:

"When I first started this blog, I only posted poems I considered to be finished. But lately, I've been writing less, and also being much more critical of my work, and always feeling like my poems need a lot more fixing and fiddling with. So in the interest of actually posting more on this blog, I am deciding to forget about what's polished or not polished. What I'll be posting from now on may be entirely unpolished, may need work, may be unfinished. I'll post bits of poems, lines I may one day turn into a full poem, but I also may not. Basically, anything poetic I write."

I'm hoping I'll actually add posts there regularly now! :-P

Peace,
Idzie

Poetry

I love poetry. I have for a very long time. From the time I was little my mom would read to my sister and I. She'd read EVERYTHING! Fiction, poetry, the newspaper... So before I was even reading books more advanced then readers on my own, I was writing poetry. Soon, I was reading and memorizing poetry. When I was eight or nine I memorized all of The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes, and wowed all of the parents when I recited it at a homeschooling talent show. :-P Last night, my mom and I got talking, and I wondered if I could still recite The Highwayman. I got most of the way through before I stumbled, so pulled out one of my poetry books to see where I was going wrong. And once I had a poetry book in my hands, of course I couldn't read just one! I read all of The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, which in my opinion is a great read aloud poem with a really cool rhythm to it, and The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth. The verse:

"What'er the theme, the maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;
I listened, motionless and still;
And as I mounted up the the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more."

Is truly beautiful, as far as I'm concerned. I also discovered I still know Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening by Robert Frost perfectly. "Whose woods these are I think I know, his house is in the village though"... By the time I got to bed, it was 3:00 am!

I also wrote a new poem last night, which can be found on my poetry blog as usual. When I read the masters, my poetry just looks so awful in comparison...

Oh, and yesterday my mom cleaned out a drawer, and of course my cat thought that the empty hole created by the lack of a drawer was the perfect place to hang out in. Minni is just so darned cute and lovable! :-)



Peace,
Idzie

Music, lovely music

Later last night I decided I was hungry, having eaten a very late lunch and skipped supper, so I made myself some noodles vegetables and tofu in oriental peanut sauce. Next time I make that I'll have to actually measure and post the recipe here...

Today, I discovered some amazing new music. Dear Mr. President by Jason Fisher made me very sad. I listened to it about 5 times though, because it is also very moving, and very pretty. I also really liked Witness by Ember Swift. If you're interested in listening to either of those songs (or a whole bunch of other ones) in full for free, check out this link http://www.vegnews.com/music/. Oh, and all those musical selections are from the July/August issue of Veg News. I finished reading the articles I hadn't gotten to previously, and found myself once again energized and ready to make a difference in the world. I'd advise checking it out, perhaps it can do the same thing for you...

I wrote a new poem today. Quite possibly the most difficult to understand poem I've ever written (at least according to my mom. When I finished it she was the only one around, so I've yet to get other opinions...). Here it is...


Hope is a powerful word

How can you describe
The spirit of an open night
The shadow on the wings of flight

To feel your mind
The taste of summer on your tongue
A glittering expanse of icy tears

Ten thousand souls in laughing song

To smiling relate
A shattered window held by will
An only tree that's growing still

To try-

Yet you can't describe.

The deepest whole
An endless soul

Of night and light and windy skies
Of death and life and hands-held-high

We simply know

With tears of gladness filling
Cupped hands
And hollow hearts


If you would like to read some of my other poems (it would make me very happy if you did. Even happier if you left a comment or two. :-P), check out my poetry blog at: www.art-is-expressions.blogspot.com.

I wrote the start of another poem, but decided I didn't like it so stopped.

Tomorrow, when I'm hopefully more awake, I'm going to write a letter of protest to CBC. I find it disgusting that on one program, they talk about better animal rights laws (Fifth Estate is re-airing an older episode on the abuse of animals in entertainment) yet they air the Calgary Stampede every year, where the animals are hurt and their lives put in danger for the entertainment of the masses. I only wish our culture was evolved enough to no longer find entertainment in something that causes pain to others... Well, that's enough for now.

Listening to today: Witness by Ember Swift, Dear Mr. President by Jason Fisher, Tongue Tied by Faber Drive

Reading: Veg News