30 Day Journal Challenge, Day 3: "That said..."

Okay, yesterday was confession time. Today it's examination time; self-examination, that is. But Lisa doesn't suggest sitting down and looking into onesself intentionally at this point. Rather she encourages journalers to 'just write' and see what comes out on the page; that, over time, certain images/themes/(and may I add, styles) will repeat themselves.  These, then, will be what to examine further at some later date.  Don't try so hard to analyze what you're writing as you go along.
She also suggests visualizing a tree, every part of a tree, and choose which part of 'my tree' seems most significant at this time. (This assumes that we can 'own' her version of visualizing our own lives as trees.)
(Oops, that WAS a bit of analyzing wasn't it. Furthermore, it illustrates what may already be a theme of
scattered, or shared, perspective. In the foregoing paragraphs I veer from Lisa to the omniscient 'we' to
myself.  Hmmm...)
But, to take Lilsa's suggested image, and her prompt, vis  :If I committed to tending the roots of my experience by journalling for 30 days, then...   I must expect, there will emerge themes and  constructions that are my particular 'style.'  Whee, what a boon this will be for the obligatory 'author bio' statements expected by magazines and public reading venues.  I would be more productive at my desk, besides being freed to write freely, elsewhere.  I could be modelling the fun of writing for my grade school children. And my habit of writing would become more relevent.

30 Day Journal Challenge, Day 2: I, Shirley Smith Franklin, do take this challenge.

Day 2, August 2, 2014

Recognizing the value of making a commitment (it increases productivity and promotes persistence), Lisa today challenges journalers to make and/or respond to the idea of, an intentional commitment to the month-long-journal project.  (Ooh, that was a mouthful...)

How do I feel about making a commitment to this 30-Day Journalling Challenge?  I must admit that there
is some trepidation.  What's in it for me?  Will I spend to much time on it every day?  Who is Lisa, anyway?
Is this just a ploy to attract more subscriber/readers for her blog?  Will the practice actually help me become a better, more poersistent, regular, and productive author?  What if I just give it a shot, and if I don't get around to it, or like it, I can quit?

Ah, there you go...quit before you don't succeed.  How's that for avoidance??

No, I will continue to honor a new year's resolution I made two and a half years ago: to follow through and carry out stated intentions.  This is my intention, and this is my commitment.  I will write every day.  Whenever possible (!!There you go again)...I will answer one prompt every day, early in the day, to the best of my then ability.

That said, Lisa quotes,  

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.”

W. H. Murray said that. (In his book, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition)

I believe, and have experienced that to be true, a version of  " give and it, and it shall be given unto you, full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall be poured into your lap." (That's from the Bible...I promise to look it up and duly record the reference.  OK, here it is:  Luke 6:38)

Yesterday I asked why do I delay.  Lisa challenges me/us to name the obstacles.  I do...and the list disappears into cyberspace.  Let me try again, in a rapid replay:  other people and priorities, not journaling first thing in the morning, household tasks, compulsive reading rather than writing, forgetting or fear of forgetting a 'gem' I want to record, wondering whether journaling is going to be worth it anyway (I have decades of journals on a shelf, more unfiled...will I or anyone else ever get around to reading them?), eating, correspondence on paper or email or messaging with friends and family, the phone (eschew it, yet am unable to stem the flow of an overpowering, frequent, caller), in a word, distractability.  Need to nap, tired eyes...Or is it just lack of commitment.  Very puzzling that I can often be so laggardly at doing the very thing I want to do, even though in the Bible, too, St. Paul puzzles the same way...

Lisa, I appreciate your efforts, and those of other friends, to keep trying.  And so, Lordwilling, I will.  I should be glad for the luxury, really, of having such distractions.  May I offer up this month of dedicated jounaling as an offering of thanks!  

Here we are again! 30 Day Journal Challenge, Day 1

Day One, August 1, 2014

Welcome back to walk along with Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, friends in a thoughtful, slow, and hopefully enjoyable month-long blog focused on journalling.  This month I'm going to share my responses to at least one a day of  Lisa Sonora's ROOTS: 30-Day Journal Challenge prompts.  She's encouraging people to take up the journalling practice; I'm dedicate this month to greater discipline in my writing habits.  You can just write along on your own, or join the challenge at http://www.lisasonora.com/30-day-journal-project You need to subscribe to her blog to get the emails...and can unsubscribe if you decide to discontinue after August.  Note:  It is free, and the commitment to do it is voluntary.

The first day's prompt challenges us to think about beginnings.  You might write about a specific 'beginning' in your life.  I have enough to say about beginning per se.

I am better at most beginnings than endings.  I may procrastinate indefinitely before choosing a class, leaving the house for church or any other reason, or some mornings, simply getting dressed and presentable for the day, unless I have definite idea for how/where it's going to go.  Once I do, then, watch out:  I will enthuse about a new class, buy new materials even though there are plenty of unclaimed folders etc at home, collect new friends at a party or event, collect and set out ingredients hours and days before I actually get around to making dates to meet, or baking something.

It's follow-through I'm concerned about.  Why do I lollygag along the way?  Why do I sign up and/or start
more classes and projects (making paper, paper cutting art, sending birthday cards, buying and saving clothes for just that bit of tailoring that will make them fit, promise get-togethers with neighbors, elderly and/or newly met international women than I can actually carry out?   Why do I have years of notes and intentions for poems, stories, and a play without getting around to publishing or staging them?

Slowly but surely, I'm learning ways to 'move off the dime.'  Not the least of which is responding to challenges, like this, which nudge me along in the right direction:, toward completion and closure. Another help is enlisting several friends as an 'accountability group.'

Let the challenge begin.
 .

Napowrimo Day 29--What a challenge!

From the Napowrimo website:  "And now our prompt (optional, as always). This may remind you a bit of the “New York School” recipe, but this prompt has been around for a long time. I remember using it in a college poetry class, and loving the result. It really forces you into details, and to work on “conducting” the poem as it grows, instead of trying to force the poem to be one thing or another in particular. The prompt is called the “Twenty Little Poetry Projects,” and was originally developed by Jim Simmerman. And here are the twenty little projects themselves — the challenge is to use them all in one poem:"

1. Begin the poem with a metaphor.
2. Say something specific but utterly preposterous.
3. Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in succession or scattered randomly throughout the poem.
4. Use one example of synesthesia (mixing the senses).
5. Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.
6. Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.
7. Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.
8. Use a word (slang?) you’ve never seen in a poem.
9. Use an example of false cause-effect logic.
10. Use a piece of talk you’ve actually heard (preferably in dialect and/or which you don’t understand).
11. Create a metaphor using the following construction: “The (adjective) (concrete noun) of (abstract noun) . . .”
12. Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associative qualities.
13. Make the persona or character in the poem do something he or she could not do in “real life.”
14. Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person.
15. Write in the future tense, such that part of the poem seems to be a prediction.
16. Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.
17. Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense.
18. Use a phrase from a language other than English.
19. Make a non-human object say or do something human (personification).
20. Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement, but that “echoes” an image from earlier in the poem.

What does this mean?

I've subtitled  my blog "poetry, music, and travelogue which, as Pooh would put it, all turn out to be about the same thing."  Let's see how we're doing, shall we? (Poor word choice:  what it you should decide to respond with a no? Or wonder who in the heck "we" are.)  Anyway.  A quick review:  National Poetry Writing Month is over.  I'm done with that, unless an unexpected poem wanders in between now and next April.  There may or may not be thirty poems here, from  this year's challenge.  When I saved some as drafts to work on at later dates...well into May...I lost track.  Sorry about that.

Music.  Hmm, well, I could muse in words, which I occasionally do.  But unless I learn that and how there is a way to include audio here, those musings will be relatively unmusical.  I would love to be able to share a video of playable music developed from an image of birds sitting on a wire (You can find it at http://vimeo.com/6428069), which left me speechless.  What order and symmetry is yet to be discovered, all around and within us?!

Which is a nice segue into another emphasis of "The Last Page...", that of travelogue.  But that will wait until I travel again...Lordwilling in the fall and/or winter.

When and where are you going?

Here we go again!

Pooh is about to take up a new challenge.  Starting August first, I will join a 30 day challenge of responding to daily prompts for journalling.  Oh, I already keep a random journal of 'a number of things' (thank you Robert), but this will be a concerted effort to make, share, and celebrate journal writing with other journalers around the world.

Please see the description of the challenge at:
http://www.lisasonora.com/30-day-journal-project/
and consider joining us!

In defense of The Last Page's recent hiatus, friends and readers (and I hope you are both), physical therapy can be a full time job.  After the April poetry challenge, The Last Page took a break while I ramped up physical therapy for both shoulder (broken at the end of February) and knee (replaced last September). Renewed activity periodically provokes bursitis, requiring its own stretching and resting, on the opposite side. I can't imagine how enervating it can be to rebuild strength and mobility after more serious injuries/surgeries. Rest (read: naps) took priority over writing since May, but, lordwilling, and with the encouragement of writing peers, I'm baaaackkk...

Meanwhile, my writing goal will be editing poems to submit to the League of Minnesota Poets'
annual contest,  and begin work on a new chapbook, as well as attend writing practice, critique sessions, and readings with other poets and writers.  We give each other new energy to go back and sit alone at our desks...and WRITE!.

Napowrimo Day Twenty Three: Children's Poem

Napowrimo 2014 Day twenty two,and we are challenged to write a poem for a child...nursery rhyme or whatever.  Having a one year old granddaughter at the writing, I think of writing one involving an early learning concept: colors, letters, everyday science, and/or self concept.

Counting My family

I fall asleep counting my family:
One is Mommy, two is Daddy,
three and four are
Grampa and Grammy,
five and six are brother and me,
number seven is my kitty,
nearest and dearest of all to me.
Oh, my cousins are eight, nine, ten.
I yawn as I start all over again,
counting my family as I fall aslee....

                   --Shirley Smith Franklin