I Did It!!!!

Yep, I barely sneaked in under the wire at the last possible second, but I did it!!

I wrote 30,000 words during the month of April for Camp NaNoWriMo. :)

For those of you not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every November, hundreds of thousands of people around the world sign up to encourage each other as they tackle a unique goal: writing 50,000 words during the month of November. I've "won" (met the goal of writing 50,000 words in 31 days) in 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012.

So what happened in 2010 and 2013, you ask? Well, in 2010, I knew I had a crazy-busy November, so instead I chose a different writing goal: The Editor-in-Chief of The Poet's Market, Robert Lee Brewer, hosts a PAD (Poem A Day) Challenge: writing a poem a day following the prompts given on Robert's Writer's Digest blog, Poetic Asides, for the entire month of November (and he offers another PAD Challenge in April). I'm not sure if it was less time-comsuming to write a poem a day or write 1667 words of fiction a day, but I did accomplish the PAD Challenge in November 2010.

In 2013 I had another crazy-busy November ahead of me, so instead of wisely choosing another writing challenge, or more wisely yet, not taken up ANY writing challenge that crazy month, I tried NaNoWriMo...but only made it to just under 12,000 words.

So I promised myself that when I had a break in teaching, I would catch up on NaNoWriMo. And I did, with one of NaNoWriMo's two Camp NaNoWriMo events, held each April and July. We set our own writing goals for this "Writing Camp" and we aren't limited to novels only--any kind of writing qualifies.

So with 30 days in April (including a two-week Easter vacation from homeschooling and a co-op Expository Essay class working feverishly on their MLA Research Essays which means no grading of their essays for me !), I planned to write 30,000 words--1,000 per day. Not too difficult, right? Although April was half-free of the daily routine of home education and I didn't have loads of essays to grade for our co-op Class Days through Heritage Christian School, I was still juggling one of the Brave Writer family workshop classes, namely the Shakespeare FamilyWorkshop. But as this class is fully prepared because I have taught it before, it requires minimal time and effort, mostly just responding to questions and posts from the families.

So I hunkered down and began Camp NaNoWriMo, starting with new chapters for my current novel, Only by Moonlight, and on a story that started as a dream in the novel but took on a life of its own. So the dream turned into 10,000 words of a new novella called An Enchanted Evening. I moved the setting of the novella from the dream taking place in Chicago during World War I in Only by Moonlight to the Regency era in England--London, to be precise--the time period and general location for Jane Austen's books.

It didn't help much that on April 30, the final day of Camp NaNoWriMo and also the deadline for a writing contest on one of the sites where I post my writings, we had the strongest winds we've experienced since moving to this mountain village in 2001. With winds topping 101 mph in Julian, another mountain town, and our own town experiencing winds of 90+ mph, we lost electricity starting at 5:45 AM. And the power wasn't restored until 5:45 PM. Thus out of the final 24 hours of Camp NaNoWriMo, 12 hours were without power.

I used my laptop's battery power to do a final edit on the unposted three parts of An Enchanted Evening, having posted the first three parts of the novella on April 29. Utilizing my smart phone's FoxFi app which provides a WiFi hotspot for getting online (but drains my phone battery very quickly!), I managed to post the final three chapters just before both my phone and my laptop ran out of battery power. Once the power was back up, I continued writing for Camp NaNoWriMo once I had caught up on my neglected e-mail inboxes and responded to the various posts for my online Shakespeare Workshop, but I knew I was cutting it close on completing the 30,000 words I needed to meet my goal.

And I posted precisely 30,001 words at 11:59 on April 30! When I added 11 more words for a total of 30,012 words a few seconds later, I was denied a chance to update; midnight had arrived, and Camp NaNoWriMo for April was over and gone. That's how close I was to NOT completing my writing goal for the second time in four months.

Now that I completed my goal, Camp NaNoWriMo offers some lovely "prizes" for "winning"--and chief among them is a free printed copy of my work--which I'll think about doing if the printed copy of my adventure story/romance is REALLY free as I study the fine print of the offer.

So Camp NaNoWriMo has been a success, and I'm thrilled that I not only have two new chapter to add to Only by Moonlight, but that I also have An Enchanted Evening ready for some final edits and tweaking.

After enjoying such a productive month of writing, I couldn't resist adding two new writing quotations to the Quotation of the Week in my sidebar, and I'll include them here as well:

"I am a galley slave to pen and ink."

~Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)

"Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish."

~John Jakes (1932--)

So now I'm off to start editing my latest chapter of my novel and embark on yet another busy week of teaching writing, squeezing my own writing endeavors into the corners of my busy homeschooling days now that school is back in session and we begin the final week of the Shakespeare Family Workshop with an overview of the Bard's tragedy plays, focusing later on Hamlet in particular.

Have a lovely week!!

Writing with you, 

April Is National Poetry Month!!

Yes, April is National Poetry Month!! 

Did you hear that?

We have an entire month dedicated to reading, writing, and basking in poetry!!

So where do we start?

2014 National Poetry Month Poster

The Academy of American Poets hosts all sorts of poetry fun at their site Poets.org. I worked ahead and ordered one of the free National Poetry Month posters (see image above) for our home school; I hung it up as soon as the clock struck midnight. Here's their page devoted to National Poetry Month. And they even have a National Poetry Month FAQ, so check it out!

It was through Poets.org that I first started reading the Poem-A-Day e-mails which first started as a National Poetry Month treat (yes, only available in April) but has now been expanded to a year-round event. A free service, recipients receive a contemporary poem (usually published within the current year) on weekdays while weekends are reserved for classic poems, a.k.a. "old friends." You may sign up for this amazing gift of starting your day with poetry here: Poem-A-Day. 

In addition, Poets.org started the annual celebration of Poem-in-Your-Pocket Day in which we are encouraged to tuck a favorite poem (written by us or by a favorite poet) into our pocket and share it with at least one other person during the course of our day. Which day? April 24 is the official Poem-in-Your-Pocket Day, so prepare!! More information can be obtained on the page Poem-in-Your-Pocket Day. 

In 2013 as part of National Poetry Month, Poets.org sponsored a Dear Poet Project in which students and teachers could write letters to some of the Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets. More about the project and some of the letters may be viewed here: 2013 Dear Poet Project. Although the project is not being extended to this year's celebration of National Poetry Month, a lesson plan has been designed for students in grades 7-10: Letters to Poets Lesson Plan.

Well, Robert Lee Brewer, editor of Poet's Market on the Writer's Digest website, is hosting the annual PAD (Poem A Day) Challenge in which he'll post a different prompt for each day in April, and everyone tosses their efforts into the ring. I took this challenge in 2010 and really enjoyed the process. This year there are a host of professional judges, plus a book of the best poems (as selected by said judges) will be published by Writer's Market, and a little journal-type books is also available with this year's prompts and "room to add your own" (see above image) is available already. It's a pretty cool opportunity, indeed. Here's the link: PAD Challenge Guidelines. And here's where participants will post their poems on the Writer's Digest site: Poetic Asides: PAD Challenge. 

I'm in an especially poetry-induced euphoria as I've spent the last week teaching poetry through Brave Writer's Playing with Poetry Family Workshop. In this four-week course, I taught the basics of poetry analysis and structure and how to read and truly enjoy poetry. Then we wrote the following types of poems: free verse including autobiographical and "I Am From..." free verse poems; visual poetry including shape poems, concrete poems, and acrostics; cinquains and diamante poems; the Japanese poetry forms of haiku and tanka; conventional poetry, including couplets, tercets (and terza rima), quatrains, and limericks; and finally alternative poetry which encompassed fragmented poems, "After..." poems, kennings, and then various types of "found" poems including black-out poems, highlighted poems, and book spine poems, among others.

While several of my own poems became part of the class, I wrote a new fragmented poem (a poem written entirely in sentence fragments--usually an editor's nightmare!) that I thought I'd share with you in honor of National Poetry Month. This is only a second draft, so I may go back through it later and revise certain lines:

Falling

when the world was newly-burnished,

as the sun ducked behind the rounded hills

suffusing the sky with rose and gold,

the hues ever darkening

before the night falls.

because creation is awash in peaceful activity

the lamb curling up beside the lion,

the rabbit teasing the fox,

nudging bushy tail with wiggling nose.

just before the evening coolness in which He strolls daily

admiring the beauty of His creativity,

no longer alone in the gloaming—

but enjoying the heartbeat of companionship at last.

when the pregnant hush comes,

suspending all in that fearful, frozen moment—

as the woman reaches up

into the forbidden, the deadly,

grasping the delectable fruit,

plucking it, admiring its golden rosiness in her palm--

ruining all as her teeth break the bitter skin.

~copyright 2014 by Susanne Barrett

All rights reserved. 

So I wish you all a wonderful celebration of National Poetry Month!! Please feel free to link to any special poems you've been writing or reading, and I'll share some of my favorite poems this month as well.

Poetically yours,

Publication News!

About a month ago, I received the monthly e-mail I usually receive from Victoria Magazine. One of the things listed there mentioned the writing of a short piece about our favorite winter comfort food.

Right then and there, I drafted a short essay on Keith's amazing tortilla soup...how the Southwest cooking warms us on snowy nights, etc. I quickly proofread the piece and sent it off to Victoria.

And promptly forgot all about it.

Until yesterday.

I received a short e-mail from one of the editors at Victoria, informing me that my piece was chosen to be published in the January/February 2012 edition of Victoria Magazine.

Here's my first written acceptance for publication:

Hi Susanne,

I just wanted to let you know that we have selected your letter about your favorite comfort food to appear in our upcoming Jan/Feb12 issue of Victoria. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. If you would e-mail me your mailing address, I will be happy to send you a couple of comp copies once the issue comes out. Take care, and have a wonderful holiday season!

Anne Garry

Anne Garry
Managing Editor, Victoria
Hoffman Media, LLC

So...YAY!!!

It's just a short little piece that should appear in the "Reader to Reader" section at the beginning of Victoria, one of only two magazines I receive (along with Ruminate, a Christian arts and literature magazine, both gifts from lovely friends. But it's my first acceptance for publication.

And combined with Thursday's feature of my post about the Nov PAD Chapbook Challenge of last year, which included one of my poems, on the homepage of the She Writes website, this week has become quite an outstanding one for publication.

Well, I'm quite behind in NaNoWriMo now at only 12,000 words, so I'll have to write 2000 words every single day for the rest of the month, plus an extra 2000 this weekend. It's doable, but it's going to take some real concentration.

Which may be a bit difficult, given that three of the kids and myself are coming down with colds.

Aah well--that's the writing life.


Writing with you,

Last Year at This Time: Nov PAD Challenge

So this year I've returned to the adventure of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) after taking last year off. After all, fiction writing isn't my thing. My participation in NaNoWriMo in 2008 marked my first foray into fiction writing since college, and somehow, nonfiction writer though I am, I was hooked.

I think it was the freedom of NaNoWriMo that drew me in, hypnotizing me into writing until the wee small hours most nights when the rest of the household slept. I wrote with only a single sheet of notes in front of me: just a class schedule, a few background notes, a few street names. And I just let my fingers roam, typing whatever came to mind as I followed my main character around, describing what she did, what she said, how she felt.

I finished the challenge in 2008, and in 2009 I attempted and succeeded in completing the second half of the 2008 novel. It was a heady feeling for a nonfiction writer usually bound by facts, writing stories straight from my brain with such abandon.

But when 2010 rolled around, too many obligations filled my proverbial plate to consider participating in NaNoWriMo, so I tackled a different challenge that I thought would take less time and less energy.

I was wrong about that last part. My choice for last November's writing challenge was anything but quick and easy. In fact, I'm pretty darn sure that I spent more time on it per day than I did with NaNoWriMo.

Robert Lee Brewer, the editor of Poets Market offered his annual Nov (November) PAD (Poem a Day) Chapbook Challenge on his Poetic Asides blog on the Writers Digest website. In past years I had pounced on the opportunity of NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) in April, but with the main website that hosted it now defunct, Brewer's poem-a-day challenge truly appealed to me.

While I enjoyed the different daily prompts which evoked some very different poems from me than I had composed previously, the major advantage to the Nov PAD Chapbook Challenge was the contest itself: a chapbook of poems composed during the Nov PAD Challenge would be chosen by Brewer (and perhaps be published?).

Plus, with some fairly impressive names in poetry participating, some of my poems received some excellent feedback from contemporary poets. The movers-and-shakers of the American poetry scene were coming to my blog and leaving very helpful comments to help me improve some of my more promising efforts.

Brewer's daily prompts seemed fairly simple on the surface, but when explored more deeply, the possibilities (and thus my imagination) abounded. Over the course of the month, my writing deepened and broadened wonderfully, maturing me both as a writer and a poet. And isn't that what we desire more than anything?

If poets decide to participate in NaNoWriMo, Brewer also hosts a Poem a Day challenge in April as well, his own version of NaPoWriMo. So all is not lost if November is too busy to join the Nov PAD Chapbook Challenge.

Link for the rules for Nov PAD Chapbook Challenge:
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides/2011-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-rules

Link for Brewer's Poetic Asides Blog (the site of the challenge):
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides

Writing with you this month,

Saturday Evening Blog Post for November

Each month we post our best/favorite post of the previous month as part of the Saturday Evening Blog Post at ElizabethEsther.com.

As my regular readers now, I embarked on a poetic journey in November, writing 30 poems in 30 days as part of the November PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge through The Writer's Digest website. I wrote lots of other items, too, but one poem received the greatest number of comments I have received in over four years of blogging. I also sahred it with my little writing group in our small town, and they liked it as well, one member stating that it's the best poem I have written since we started the group five years ago.

And it's this poem I have selected to share with you.

"Do You Remember": November PAD Poem for Day 8

Wishing you all a happy Saturday Evening,

November PAD Poem #30

Photo Attribution

So this poem marks the end of the November PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge on the Writer's Digest website. I'll be working through December to whittle down and edit my poems to 10-20 pages in order to submit my chapbook in early January (January 5th, to be precise). The winner will be announced on Groundhog Day (February 2nd). I have not a hope of winning, but I appreciate the opportunity to wrestle with words and learn a lot about poem-ing and even more about myself during this crazy upside-down month of scribbling pages smothered in the blue ink of my beloved fountain pen.

Our Day 30 Prompt is to write a "lessons-learned" poem, and that's what I've done. I hope that you enjoy it! And I'm sure that those of you who aren't poetry fans will appreciate the lack of daily poetry on my blog...at least until April, which is National Poetry Month and the month of NaPoWriMo!

Words on Safari
My words, they stumble--
tripped by faint, fading images,
faulty and fragile rhyme,
the metrical patterns of Mother Goose.

Mixed and tumbling, they heap
together in an eroding mass,
weathered by the wind, rain, ice--
tunneling through my dessicated veins,
upending my vague sense of reality.

I cannot control these words.
I cannot shape them to my will
or carve them into sharp silhouette
or force them to submit to my vision.

All I can do is quietly live
among them in their native land,
watching them ravenously feed on their prey
while I jot weary observations
into this once-crisp journal,

hoping to learn a thing or two
in the messy, gory process.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

There. I am officially done with the drafting stage. Now it's time for revision, editing--cutting and culling and switching and unswitching. We shall see how it goes....

Setting down my blue pen to take up the red,

Nov PAD Poem Day 29

I meant to post this poem last night, but I was simply too tired. Our challenge for Day 29 was to write a "next steps" poem, possibly a "list poem," but something about future plans. As I pondered the prompt, the ticking of my grandmother's Seth Thomas clock on the mantel insistently reminded me of passing time. So I made the clock the central image. And, yes--that's my grandmother's clock pictured above.

The Hour Chimes
My grandmoter's mantel clock
ticks the minutes, chimes the hours--
murmuring flickers of memory,
glimmerings of possibility:
eyes freezing with anger
.....so well-deserved,
lips stuttering truths
.....I don't want to hear,
nose wrinkling in disdain
.....over some forgotten faux-pas,
fingers reaching, wiping away
.....cascading tears he caused,
arms encircling, holding close
.....to the point of entrapment,
feet finally wandering home
.....after long months of absence.

The hour chimes, groaning thick with decades,
waking me from restless dreams, dreary sleep.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

It's far from a happy poem. I just imagined the Shepherd Girl print hanging on our wall, and a troubled relationship that seems to glare from her resentful eyes....

Only one poem is left for this challenge, then the editing begins!

Writing painstakingly this day,

Nov PAD Poem Day 28

As we near the finish line of the November PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge, I'm posting my response to the Day 28 Challenge: write a "what really happened" poem. I keep thinking of friends of ours who are going through a very rough time, and this prompt reminded me of their struggles. Again, it's very rough, but that's kind of what this challenge is all about. December is for revision, after all....

what really happened
it happened in autumn.
tears freckle her cheeks,
pain-choking sobs, deep and
slow and quiet, bloom forth.
while she rips herself
into papery shreds, he sits
seemingly unaffected,
untouched, whole, rounded.

perhaps he simply acts well,
convincing everyone that
he's got it all together
when he is just as fractured,
creeping forward just as feebly.
yet he keeps smiling while
she continues weeping blood
from wounds too deep to measure.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

I only have two more poems to write for this challenge. Then comes the real challenge of this challenge: what to do with them all! I think I may be seeing a bit of a theme emerge, but all the poems need so much work. Aaaaacccckkkk!

Marching ever forward (I think),

November PAD Poem #27

This is the prompt for Day 27 at the November PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge: write a poem with "Blame the _______" as the title. And with this poem, I am officially caught up! This poem also qualifies for the Carry on Tuesday Prompt #80 for last week, the first line of George MacDonald's extremely long poem "A Book of Dreams," Part III: "A gloomy and a windy day."

Blame the Rain
As it falls so quietly
on this gloomy and windy day,
the chills buffet me--
not from the cold, mind you--
the cold I can handle.
It's something more sinister,
called forth by rain and greyed skies,
the lack of reflection in puddles
in which I am wholly invisible.
Impotent, I ghost through my days
awash in fears I do not fully comprehend.
All I can do is
blame it on the rain.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

Taking a deep breath, so glad to be caught up!

Breathing a bit easier tonight,

Nov PAD Poems #25 and #26

Yesterday I spent the day in Julian, another small mountain town, one much more touristy than ours, with my family before my sister and her family have to return to Montana. We even saw several deer on the way home as we stopped by our old camping area. Since we were gone all day, I wasn't able to write or post any poems yesterday.

So today I'm posting three poems so that I can be totally and absolutely caught up on the November PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge at Writer's Digest. Please keep in mind that these are rough drafts--very rough. Rougher than usual, even....

So I took on the Day 23 Challenge to write a form poem, in this case a tanka.

at the fireplace
the fire's burning,
its warmth trusting, embracing,
a quiet respite
from the fretting, busyness,
and all the stress of this life.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

Part of me wants to tackle a form that I don't already know, so this tanka feels a little like a cop out to me. But I'll challenge myself later. I also picked up the challenge for Day 26 to write an "on the run" poem:

Just for an Hour or Two
There are times when I wish
I could run away,
just for an hour or two
to a quiet place where
I can hold a pen in hand,
allowing it to skitter across
the page as I learn more about
lacing imagery,
weaving metaphor,
whispering hints of
foreshadowed events,
dripping truth
(my truth--and yours too, I hope)
across the page to the music of
a glimmering field of silence.
I will be on the run--
just for an hour or two.
I'll kiss you when I get back.

Copyright 2010 Susanne Barrett

With the poem I post after this one, I will at last be caught up with the Poetry Chapbook Challenge. Whew!

Breathless with catching up,

Nov PAD Poem #24

My parents with our kids at the zoo, three years ago

I'm almost caught up--with two poems tomorrow, I will be. I'm actually posting the Day 25 poem for the November PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge--the day it was given. But it's rough--very rough. I may go back and write some of the prompts I've missed...or I may not. We'll have to see....

Memories
Faded with the years,
the montage of memories
skittered across the TV screen.
Transferred from old Super-8 rolls,
these home movies, shot mostly
by my father, start with my mother's
childhood and encompasses their early
marriage, our birthdays and Christmases,
summers riding horses in the mountains,
winters driving long to see the snow,
ocean shimmering behind our sandcastles,
vacations to DC, San Francisco,
Grand Canyon, and Wyoming--
our childhoods rolling by
as we eat pumpkin pie
with whipped cream
and talk loudly over the music.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

I hope that you all enjoyed your friends and families this Thanksgiving. May God bless you all richly and deeply with His good gifts!

Remembering tonight,

Nov PAD Poem #23

The November PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge prompt for Day 22 was to write a poem that takes a stand. My poem is a rather personal take on this prompt, one I have to deal with many times each day, sometimes more easily than at other times....

Thus I Take a Stand
I take a stand,
a pain-filled one--
a stand elemental
and very, very basic.
From sitting at the dining table,
my hand grasping the crook
of my cane, feverishly white-knuckled--
crazily shaking as if Parkinson's
rather than Rheumatoid Arthritis
grips me, I put weight
on the cane and with
great care and concentration,
I rise to my feet.
This simplest of actions for most
can be the greatest feat of my day--
a miracle of true consequence.
Thus I take a stand.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

Truly, rising from my chair during Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon felt just like this--hand and arm shaking as I sought to rise. Most days it's not this bad, but sometimes it is very difficult to stand--and even more challenging to remain standing.

Taking my stand,

Nov PAD Poem #22

My 22nd poem for the November PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge is from the Nov PAD Day 21 Prompt: write a permission poem. So here is my very rough (very, very rough) attempt:

Permission
I grant myself permission
to be wrong--
praying that I may learn
to admit it with true humility,
not letting it discourage me,
not letting it slay me.

I grant myself permission
to be imperfect--
to lower my defenses,
to allow others into
the place in which
the "real me" dwells,
not caring whether they
like me (or not).

I grant myself permission
to truly be myself--
others may take or leave
this broken child of the Father:
only gracious because of His grace,
only merciful because of His mercy,
only loving because of His love--
His right, perfect Love.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

It's difficult to give myself permission to be wrong, to admit it, to be humble--it's so hard for this broken child who needs His mercy so much, who wraps self in rightness and pride rather than let down my defenses and allow others in. I pray that I can change...with God's help, and with your prayers, which I dearly covet.

Trying to give myself permission,

Nov PAD Poem #21

I'm ever so slowly catching up on the November PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge through Writer's Digest. The poems I'm posting are extremely rough--first drafts really--but they're a start.

So this 21st Poem is the Nov Pad Day 20 Prompt: write a "what's wrong or right" poem. I've been spinning lately around the idea of perfectionism, of needing to be right in my mind and thus in my poems. So here 'tis:

Being Right
I need it--
I don't know why.
But this need to be right-
is harmful, destructive;
pride in its most elemental form.
It's as if my entire world
will crumble into dank nothingness
if I am proven wrong.
I wrap myself in this rightness,
a protective sheathing
that holds me together,
letting nothing in,
allowing nothing out.
It causes me to be alone--
unhurt, untouched, untouchable.
It's pride...and fear:
a stunning fear that
buzzes my brain--
fear of others' opinions,
fear of losing the grip on myself,
fear of not having the answer
when I don't know the question.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

I'm not really sure of what this poem means--I wrote it without thinking consciously, just allowing pen to fill page. I think that sometimes truth is told under these rare circumstances.

Writing the perhaps truth,

Nov PAD Poem #20

The November PAD Poetry Day 19 Challenge was to write a poem with a hole in it. And so I tried it....

The Hole
The hole broadens, widens,
swallowing me whole
in a single, satisfied gulp.
And I let it happen.

I feel helpless against its powers,
unable to put up a fight,
unable to struggle against it,
unable to whisper for help.
And who could help me anyway?

Perfection is a demanding taskmaster,
one to whom I have bowed in obeisance
far too often to resist now.
And so I limply acquiesced,
entering the all-consuming black hole
once again.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

It's been a long month, difficult and busy, but I hope to catch up completely with the Nov PAD Poetry Challenge--I'm only three poems behind now! Yay!

Writing furiously,

Nov PAD Poem #19

In response to the November PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge Day #18--a "lost and/or found poem," I took some thoughts about perfectionism that I read about on a writing blog--about how perfectionism robs our writing of certainty, never been satisfied with "good enough."

Perfection
I think I may have found it,
flinging itself haplessly against
the iron bars of my brain.

It's a nebulous thing,
creeping about with vain stealth,
hiding behind the kitchen door,
peering at me from behind the rocker,
its eyes blinking in flickers of fire,
winking slyly in evening candlelight.

It's something I need to capture,
fluttering its wings in frantic panic
as I cup it with care between my hands,
taking it out the front door,
out onto icy front porch steps,
and releasing it into blank night--
hoping to never see it again.

It's an insidious, deadly thing--
Perfection.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

Trying to slay the Perfection beast,

Nov PAD Poem #18

I'm working with the prompt for Day 17 of the November PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge for Poem #18 out of the thirty poems I hope to write this month and edit into a chapbook. It didn't help that I was watching an exorcism on Paranormal State while I was writing to this prompt of "Tell Me Why______"....

tell me why
tell me why he creeps
ensnaring minds,
entrapping souls,
bent on stolid destruction
of all that is holy and good.

he entered this world made his
through a decision eons ago
when a serpent hissed
into her ear
.....and she listened
.....and acquiesced
.....and tempted another
.....and they blamed one another
.....and they blamed the serpent
.....but never blamed themselves.

he crouches at the door
.....to deface
.....to devour
.....to destroy
.....to enter the weak and
..........swallow them whole,
..........leaving behind not a crumb.

do not succumb.
you may bend, perhaps, but do not break.
you are hedged by the Light
that glimmers in dankest night--
brightening as Grace approaches.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

It's very rough, but it's what was going through my mind as I listened to the exorcism...what they called "deliverance"...with pen in hand. Evil is a real thing, and I tried to make him so without, I hope, being too cartoonish, too cliche.

Writing in the light,

Nov PAD Challenge Poem #17

For my 17th poem for the November PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge, I am tackling Prompt #16 from Poetic Asides at The Writer's Digest: write a stacking or unstacking poem.

Writing
I built this house of cards
with utmost care--
the foundation a solid premise,
the characters intriguing yet slightly-flawed,
the style spare yet oddly enticing,
the plot propelling action seamlessly,
the dialog sharp and wise,
often bordering on real wit,
the organization clear, the allusions deft.

I stack carefully,
one element atop the next,
holding my breath lest
one unconscious sigh
sends all tumbling flat,
leaving a mess to be cleaned up
in the morning.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

As I try something new in the writing arena, this metaphor seems quite apt.

Stacking with care,

Nov PAD Challenge Poem #16

The Nov PAD Challenge Poem #16 comes from the Day 15 prompt: a "just when you thought it was safe" poem. So here's a rough, rough draft:

SAFETY
When logic says "no"
and imagination says "yes"--

When words fly easily,
gliding across page effortlessly
on updrafts of thought--

When characters speak,
carrying wise conversation
and all I have to do
is transcribe their dialog--

When all flows together beautifully,
so beautifully that
one feels blessed to write--

But one thought, one idea, one false step
forces everything to explode,
disintegrating into rubble--
bits of ideas floating gracefully
to earth in the aftermath.

I rise, injured, perhaps mortally,
placing the half-empty kettle
onto the stove to boil for tea.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

So, "just when you thought it was safe," all hell breaks lose....

Pushing the pen forward,

Nov PAD Challenge Poem #15

I wrote the rough draft of this poem yesterday at Victoria House where we meet for Morning Prayer and Holy Communion each Friday as part of Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity. While the strains of J's guitar lesson with Fr. Acker drifts down the stairs, I focused on the beautifully carved wooden crucifix hanging above the fireplace (not the one pictured above--this one hangs in the chapel) as I jotted these thoughts....

It's still very rough, but I have little time today to work on poems, so this is basically still in first-draft form.

The Nov PAD Poetry Challenge prompt for Day 14 was to write a crossroads poem, and somehow the crucifix provided the images for this response:

CROSSROADS
each breath heaves wetly,
each sigh agonizing--
lungs filling, filling,
fluid rising and choking.
pain unspeakable throbbing
in wrists, ankles, head.
blood mingles with cold sweat,
uncontrolled tears wash clean
the bloody face unrecognizable,
the broken jaw.
the beatings, the ridicule--
these were nothing, nothing.

the thorns forced onto head,
piercing scalp and forehead--
the royal robes draped over shoulders
raw with bleeding whipstrikes.
a scepter meant for a king
now all too heavy--
these were nothing, nothing.

unseen pain brought untold agony--
desertion, for the first and only time.
the weight of the entire world's people,
past, present, future--
all laid upon this body,
so thin, broken, bleeding, drowning, dying.
the wrongs, the injustice,
the lying, cheating, stealing,
the hatred, vice, murder--
all these submerged His Spirit
to a suffering never experienced
before or since--
more wrongs, more hate
poured into Him, upon Him, through Him--
he took it all, willingly--
only His final words betraying
the depth of His pain,
pain far beyond mere physical suffering:

"My God, my God...
why have you forsaken me?"

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

Sorry it's so rough--but it's a start.

Sad, thankful, and grateful,