easy poem that anyone can write

Writing poems scare people. BUT! I have an idea to make this easier. The new concept, well, not so new, but this century poems are more a stream of consciousness. Forget Shakespeare and Donne and rhyming couplets and stanzas and ABBA formats. Poems do NOT have to rhyme. Poems do NOT have to be long. Poems do NOT have to be mysterious. Poems do NOT have to be so deep as to be un-understandable.

This is a fun poem that you can use to try out writing a poem OR to use as a brain warm up for your writing.

Take a month, any month (there are only 12 options here) and write about what that month means to you.

Example:

June

June is...

June is...

June is...

Allow your mind to flow freely. Sometimes having something as basic as a fill-in-the-blank poem to get started writing takes the intimidation out of the process so that you can be all about the enjoyment of writing. And it's all about the JOY!!!

Here's another idea to take the poem one step further.

Write your "Month" is... poem before the month starts and then revisit it at the end of the month to determine what your month was actually like. You might find that you used stereotypes in your beginning poem and then your after poem was your reality. It can also be a good evaluation of yourself and the world around you. If you were expecting flowers or showers, did the weather deliver? Did you write about running through sprinklers in July? Did you realize that you had not run through a sprinkler the entire summer - leaving that for children's play? Although how much fun would it be to run through a sprinkler on a hot day, no matter how old you are?!!!

Enjoy the creative process. It need not be scary or intimidating. When you start with easy prompts, you often find that you keep writing because you leap frog into the ideas that were waiting there for you in your subconscious, just waiting for you to let them take shape.

Remember: "Leap, and the net will appear!"

Happy writing!!! :-)

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Best Writing Conference Around!

One of the best writing conferences around is the Surrey International Writing Conference. It is held in Surrey, BC (just outside of Vancouver) in Canada. People from all over Canada, the US and even the UK attend. I've been privileged to attend twice and although I'll be missing it this year (new baby!!!), I plan to attend again in the future.

The exciting thing about this conference is that there are editors, agents, and publishers to whom you can actually pitch your idea! This is included with your registration. You can also have your work critiqued at a Blue Pencil Session by a published writer. Those two opportunities can be reason enough to attend!!!

The workshops (more than 70 workshops, panels and special events this year!) are by great authors and you can attend any of them that you like. In addition, there is a trade show where you can purchase writing books by the workshop leaders, other writing books/material and find out about new products/services in the industry.

There's also a writing contest where you could win $1000!!!! (that would cover cost of registration, hotel, food, and travel!). That kind of goes with the theme of a writing conference, doesn't it! It costs $15 per submission.

The 17th annual conference takes place October 23-25, 2009 and registration is open now online. I recommend you at least check out the website :-)

Today only!

I have a painting prompt up at the Creativity Portal that will be up today, Sunday June 14th only, so if you want to see it, you must act now! If you are reading this after the 14th you can see it again... next year! :-)

Also, Molly Anderson-Childers interviewed me and you can read the interview here.

Today was a beautiful summer day. I know the summer solstice has not yet arrived, but today felt truly like summer, what with the bright sun and the +30C!!! It was a day that reminded me of the day I painted the painting above, only the fields are not as green this year.

I went for a walk in the woods, enjoying nature's beauty and the music found therein. Red breasted robins were divebombing in front of me - one so close I heard the flap of its wings too close to my head! It's an awesome sound tho! The tighly woven nest no longer holds the 3 bright azure blue robin eggs. I was happy for them that they were born, but sad for me as the broken egg shells were no where to be found. I had wanted to keep a shell piece; they were such a brilliant blue! Today I looked at the flying birds and those landing on the branches overhead and those looking for worms in the grass, but they all looked to be the same size to my uneducated-in-bird-stages eyes.

As I sat in the woods marveling at all the shades and hues of green and the shadows of the leaves above on the ground at my feet, enjoying the rustle of wind in the leaves high above, I thought of the BC painter/writer Emily Carr and how she used to go for whole summers into the woods on Vancouver Island in her caravan and paint there with her animals. My mind often thinks of her, a lone woman living in the woods with her animals (dogs and a monkey!) a hundred-ish years ago, painting the movement in the landscape, painting ancient First Nations totems. How different the land must have looked, and yet how similar.

Later, I found my mom's blender (from '73!) and made a blueberry/vanilla smoothie. It was delicious. And we didn't even taste the woodchips! (I pushed the wooden spoon down too far, thus hitting the blade which is no worse for the wear... the old wooden spoon on the other hand...!) What's that joke: "if you think I look bad, you should see the other guy!"

I hope you are having a fabulous, restful Sunday.

Hesitation...

I figure it's time to 'fess up. I am scared to try out a new art form!!! I have this growing inkling of a desire to sew a quilt for my baby, but I have no sewing experience. I'm thinking a simple patchwork quilt. However, this is a very girly thing to do and in highschool I purposely chose my electives so that I would NOT have any domestic or girly type ones. Therefore, I never took Home Ec or learned to sew. My Mom has a sewing machine and used to sew us dresses a lot when we were little. My Nana made me quilts as a baby that I still cherish. I think homemade is so special - is that the hormones talking? :-) Making quilts is part of history! Why do I fear that term "girly" or "old-fashioned"? I once received a homemade blanket from a friend for Christmas and thought it was the most unique gift! I celebrated her creativity. Why am I so judgemental against myself?

My desire to create a quilt for my baby is gnawing at me everyday. I've decided to take my own advice and "just go for it"!!! I will be visiting a fabric store on Sunday.... I am looking online for ideas, although I seem to have one in mind already. Serendipity has touched me, for my sister loaned me a baby crafts book that has a quilt layout I can modify, before she knew I was harbouring this secret desire to sew a quilt. I'm thinking "keep the first one simple"!!!

My only experience with sewing is a fabric fiasco with Barbie clothes that I designed. I definitely learned that I maybe should have followed a pattern, although the internet wasn't yet invented and there were no how-to-sew-Barbie-outfits books at the library. I designed them myself and took my Mom's advice to cut them larger, but when they were all sewn, they were too small even for Barbie's tiny waist! Therefore my dream of being a fashion designer ended that summer day when I was ten. Will this fabric fiasco foreshadow a quilting catastrophe?

As I write this post, my baby is getting more active within me. I think she likes this idea. I have expressed my desire and now it is out there - "Leap, and the net will appear!" I will find a way to make this idea a reality. Any quilters out there? Any sewers? Any advice at all?

So the Wild Wednesday Writing Prompt is this: what is the frightening creative something that keeps popping into your mind? Will you join me in defeating it?
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SWAT

My cat is on a SWAT team.
It’s a highly elite one because normally cats aren’t allowed on those types of teams. Cats are non-conformists.

How do I know she’s a member, perhaps even a leader? First off, she dresses in black, with a little tan and white camo thrown in.
Next, she quietly stalks her prey and surprises them when she pounces.
Further, she knows the best hiding spots.
Finally, the scratches on my legs are proof enough.

Butterfly Wanderings

I am sitting in the backyard listening to the wind blow through the newly grown lime green leaves of the silver birch trees. Robins are chirping down near their nest. Cirrus clouds streak across the sky.

This is the beginning of my favourite time of the year here. I love the warmth of the sun and the new life springing forth daily. My absolute favourite though is July (although this year what with the cold weather haunting us even last night when they issued a frost warning on June 1st(!) I’m sure the summer’s glory days will be pushed back to August or September!). That is the time when the new life has blossomed into its radiant splendour. Canola fields wave yellow, the green alfalfa fields are dotted with their purple flowers, the trees are abundant with their new leaves, and flowers bloom in every garden.

A gorgeous yellow and black butterfly (not a Monarch) just flitted past me. As it flew directly in front of me, I had that momentary desire to capture the fleeting moment – you know that temporary few seconds when the butterfly is directly in front of you … there is all this anticipation as you watch it flit closer and then it is beyond you and you are left longing for it to return as it flutters farther and farther away on its erratic journey. I thought of trying to capture the butterfly in my hands so that I could marvel at its beauty.

That got me thinking of butterfly nets and children racing to catch them. Do these nets harm the butterfly? If not, I’d love to buy one for each of my nieces, as there will be three wild acres across which they can chase butterflies in my new home.

I had this dream as a child of having a butterfly net and chasing flitting butterflies through fields of tall grasses in a flowing white dress. It never happened because I grew up in the city and the only place big enough to run wild would have been a city park, which was mowed regularly.

Now that I live in the country, I’ve learned that when walking through a field of tall grasses, hay or alfalfa or wild, you want to be wearing pants as those stems are quite prickly! Not to mention the bugs (gasp)!

I’m reminded of the hiking slogan: “take only pictures, leave only footprints.” I’m sure the best way to capture the beauty is through the lens of a good camera.

…Do any of you know if catching and releasing butterflies in nets is harmful to them? I’d really appreciate your comments.

writing workshop photo & prompt

Tools of the Trade

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Here is the table of visuals I set up at the Writing Workshop I facilitated in Vancouver. I have two of my journals - one for writing, one for art available for preview/inspiration and two examples of the types of journals I keep in my purse/bag for when inspiration strikes. I have my handouts: inspiration and resources to get started as well as a whole sheet of quotes. If you follow my blog, you'll notice that I'm a big believer in collecting quotes and I use them often as writing prompts to get me into a writing mood.

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There's also an eggshell basket of Easter coloured jelly beans 'cuz we all love sugar :-) Of course there are coloured pens, a must for art journaling! The bag at the back is one that my friend Linda made for herself. I'll have to post photso of the one she made for me. It's an art journaling travel bag "Have art, will travel!" There are three pockets large enough for your journal, magazines and little pockets for all the tools of the trade, like pens, markers, scissors, gluestick, pencil sharpener, ruler, etc! This makes packing up your stuff easy for that art trip outside the house, or for when you're traveling.

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Here's a quote prompt for today:

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"If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive."

~ Eleonora Duse

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Writing Prompt:

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How is your soul alive?

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