Reflections

I woke up on May first feeling as though I was forgetting something.

Something was missing, there was something I had to do...oh wait, no there wasn't. It wasn't April anymore, and I didn't have to do a mad-dash and type out a bunch of words and prayed that somehow would make sense. Sometimes they did, sometimes I probably just thought they did. Happens.

This was my first year doing the A-Z Challenge.

I honestly don't know why I signed up for it. Perhaps mostly to get into posting more regularly and leave behind the sporadic posting schedule. Additionally, networking was definitely appealing to me. I LOVE meeting other people on the same writing journey as myself coupled with wonderful blogs.

The people I have been privileged to interact with as a result of the A-Z Challenge completely blow me away. I'm so impressed by their talent and dedication. Shout outs to just a few of my new favorite blogs:

• A Writer's Musings 
• Cortney Pearson
• The Faux Fountain Pen
• Write With Fey
• Jay Noel
• Pearson Report

There are so many more, and I hope to share them with you in the coming days.

Going into it, I knew it was going to be hard-to-impossible for me to post on some days. And turns out, it was. Some days got longer posts than others and some even got guest posts (thanks again to Faith, Anna, Becca, Jess, and Jen!) and there was even one that just got a link to a post. But I managed to come out even in the end.

I'm glad that I picked "writing" as my theme. It helped me organize my thoughts pertaining to writing. It provided some awesome self-reflection time for me, and I was able to evaluate my personal writing beliefs. I discovered that I did have a mental list of "rules" (some firm though some flimsy) though I didn't really know it. Furthermore, I discovered things that I subconsciously believe, which was kind of weird.

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, darling readers. Your comments never fail to inspire me and make me smile. I write for myself and it never ceases to amaze me that people like it! You encourage me to keep going, to never give up on my dreams...so thank you.

Around here, you can expect me to be posting two to three times a week. Well, at least, I'm going to see how that schedule works out through the month of May and then reevaluate. I'm planning on doing writing related posts on Mondays, book (and perhaps movie and music) reviews on Wednesdays and posts about my life on Fridays.

Love you guys. Thanks for empowering me, encouraging me, and never failing to make my day better. I can't wait to put each and every one of your names into the acknowledgements page on my book some day.

How was the A-Z for you? If you didn't do it, do you think you might next year?

Poetry

So pleased to be hosting Becca, an amazing writer-friend from my creative writing group! Becca writes fabulous poetry and is such an inspiration. You check out some of her poetry on Pinterest here.

I've been asked about poetry before, what do I write it about, why do I write it, and of course, how do I write it? But my mental response is always how do you not write poetry? How do you release your emotions? How do you get what feels like a hundred pounds of sadness, love, pain, anything off of your chest? 

I write poetry for numerous reasons, because I want to, because I love to, but most of all, because I need to. If I were an artist, I'm sure I would express my feelings by painting or drawing them, but I believe that words are the key. I love words, they can paint anything in your mind, from the sensation of a summer rain on your skin to a knife of pain in your chest to the fluttering feeling of a first kiss. And poetry, in my opinion, is the most beautiful form of words imaginable. 

It could be a rhyme that sounds beautiful in your head or dancing off of your tongue, or the messy, free flow of bottled up emotions of any kind just leaving your mind. It's relatable, it's freeing, and it's amazing. I once read a quote that stuck with me because it was so true. It said, "Poetry is what happens when your mind stops working, and for a moment, all you do is feel." And it's absolutely true, when I'm writing poetry, I don't think about the things I'm writing, I just write. It's as if I'm bleeding from my pen and spilling everything inside of me. No poems are thought out, they're rarely planned, they just happen. 

As the amazing Robin Williams said in Dead Poets Society, "…. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are all noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for." And when you hit the point where writing it is as easy as breathing, you can't help but write. At this point, poetry is just a part of who I am as a person, and I couldn't live without it. I don't write poetry by planning out what I'm going to write, it's not a high school essay. I write what I feel. Did I have a bad day? Then I'll write a poem about what made that day bad, but I'll also write a poem about what makes life beautiful. 

Poetry is truly what I stay alive for, but more than that, it's what keeps me alive.