Posts Tagged ‘poetry’

The Woods Are Lovely Dark and Deep…

Monday, July 15th, 2013

The Woods Are Lovely Dark and Deep ~Robert Frost

Nature drives us, when we revel in its mysteries. Earth, water and sky surround and inspire and guide and cloak. We build walls and roofs and pave over the dirt and install artificial climate and run electronic entertainment that drowns out a lot. But it’s there: the woods waiting for us to explore. The lovely, dark and deep surprises of living…

woods flowers sunrise

In between the distractions,  life insists that we focus. We’re so lucky that it does.

My life has insisted for the last couple of months. Attention had to be paid. I’m climbing back to the surface of all that’s “other.” Not the least of which because Three Days on Mimosa Lane launches next Tuesday, July 23rd.

In it, was supposed to be a collection of my favorite Robert Frost poems about the living that finds us when we least expect it. Hence the quote above, and the blogging I’ll be doing regularly again. Look for the Pinterest album that will collect them all as I chat about them. Come back and share what your favorites mean to you. I suspect I’m not the only RF fan out there.

The poems were removed from the final draft of the novel (one of the many surprises), because of copyright issues. But inspiration cannot be silenced. So let’s talk about the woods.

woods green flowers

For me, they are full of wind and song and company, even when I’m there alone. Teaming with life and history and dreams and premonition, sometimes when I’m hiking interior to a waterfall or just a beautiful meadow someone’s told me about, I’m where I’ve always belonged, even though I’ve never been.

We don’t belong to the stress and the chaos and distractions of our every days. They are our days and we survive them, but they’re not our living. Our living is when we explore. (more…)

Fighters fight… But where do they hope and love?

Sunday, July 7th, 2013

When you’re a fighter, you fight. When others would fail or give up or collapse under the pressure, you fight. When you WANT to fail or give up or collapse under the pressure, you fight. You’re you’re own hero, when you desperately want someone else to step in and take over for a while. Sometimes, you refuse to relinquish that desperately controlling place, even when someone does step in. Because if you stop fighting, who will you become, what will you be, and will you survive the fall when the other person isn’t actually there the way you need them to be.

be your own hero

That’s what I write about in my Mimosa Lane series. Christmas on Mimosa Lane and my July release Three Days on Mimosa Lane are all about that, for my heroines. And Love on Mimosa Lane, which has kept me offline for a month and is currently now wrestling sleep and energy and courage out of me, so I can rewrite through my first round of developmental edits, is all about that. Most every heroine I’ve ever created has been all about that in their own unique ways. And, yeah, in very personal ways I’ll likely never share directly with anyone but those closest to me, I’m all about that. Otherwise, why would this be one of my recurring themes?

What keeps us from healing from past losses? And even more importantly, what do we deprive ourselves from having, if we never take that leap of faith and truly believe that someone besides ourselves can be there for us in the most intimate and meaningful ways we need them? These are the questions and messages that paint themselves all over the pages of my imagination.

trust hand

I’ve needed a new hero these last few months, while challenges and conflict invaded my ordered, productive work world and mucked things up to the point that I’m now scrambling to complete edits for a book that should already be in production. I’ve found I couldn’t be that savior for myself this time. The closed fist hammering through adversity until it’s tamed simply wouldn’t work. I’ve found myself leaning on others in ways that scare me to death. Just like my heroines who are terrified to try again, I’ve reached my “eventually,” where I haven’t had any other choice.

So many people have stepped in to help, to believe in me, and to want me to succeed. I’m so lucky, and still so scared. And so I still fight, but this time not alone. I still write, but I’m not hammering through the work as if it’s all I have. And I still doubt, but myself more than others now. Because I want this success and promise and tomorrow so many have rushed to my side to promise I can have. Only…the real person in my journey who’s been most prepared to let me down all along, has been me.

trust broken

If I can’t heal from this past that follows me and this present that scares me, the person who’s broken trust with me…is me. (more…)

The Soul of the Matter: Poetry is when you feel…

Thursday, May 9th, 2013

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” ~~Robert Frost

That’s the poem that inspired my Three Days on Mimosa Lane. Because it’s another book about family and emotional journeys and finding your way through difficulty that mostly no one else knows you’re going through. And that’s poetry to me. I’ve never ceased to be amazed by what the human spirit can survive and conquer and thrive in the midst of. And I never forget, despite my own rocky journey as a child, what family and friendship and love can mean, when you allow the poetry of them into your life.

poetry ink blotI don’t write poetry. Not professionally. But I do see emotion and feelings and how a writer, any writer, portrays them on the page as a unique form of poetry that changes from voice to voice.

I see the same thing in everyday life, as I observe everyday people and families.

How we create happiness and peace, or how we destroy both, is poetry personified.

We choose our path. We choose our reaction to the world. And our choices affect so much more than our own experience. The emotions we invite into our reality echo into others, and we either build up or we destroy the positive energy around us. We add to and give back to the world, despite its challenges, or we merely take, and we take for granted all the good beyond our struggles. We value every moment, and we help others do the same, or we declare that we don’t deserve better–and we limit those we love to the same meager existence.

family heart

I write about family, always have, always will. (more…)