I woke up this morning not wanting to get out of bed. I set my alarm for 5 am so I could get up and write and only just managed to get out of bed at 6:50 am. Blah!
Friday night met up with my writing group. It was a small circle of three but the feedback I received from my peers was right on. I could see where the work needed to be tightened and what lines fell flat but they also told me what lines were strong and what really worked. I’m in good shape. I’m pulling together a grant application and I need 15 pages of poetry. Yes, I can recycle some of my older work and I’ll have about 5 pages worth of that lot BUT I also want to put forth newer work. My writing is changing. It’s a natural process as I spend more time putting words onto a page and I want the work to reflect that development.
Let’s see what else? I managed to pack five more boxes for my impending move (some time in the next couple of weeks). I’m stacking them up in the living room and Mami is not happy with the prospect of boxes stacked in the corner. Good lord! She expects me to keep them in my room and that’s not really going to work. So I continue to stack them anyway. Hell, it is what it is.
Also more research for my next novel and jotting down notes. I’ll probably get started on putting some word count into it tonight. I seem to be constructing long passages but I don’t quite have a sense of what I’m writing about yet.
And if I procrastinate on this work, I’ll be putting time into the grant application. I have to write an artist statement talking about my writing process. I always find that I make this kind of thing harder on myself than it needs to be. After all, I write more and more about the process and should be getting much needed practice on that element, right? But nooooooo, instead I hem and haw in front of the page completely blank as to what to write. This time I’m writing it first. In fact, I found an essay I wrote several years ago about why I write poetry. Who knew I had something to say on the subject. It’s good material to draw from. So much to do, so little time.
Peace,
L~
All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2011 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
The memorial for Akilah Oliver was terribly sad and beautiful. Her family told stories about the woman that they knew as sister and aunt. Then her friends honored her in poetry and song. The words, the verses broke my heart open and I cried through the better part of the memorial. The tears were necessary and cathartic and I woke up this morning feeling lighter than I have in almost two months. That is not to say that I won’t miss Akilah a great deal, but allowing myself the space to grieve in a community loosened up the emotions I had been trying to tamp down this past week. The verses read soothed my spirit and the tears lightened me up. Some folks read her words out loud and all I can say is I wish I had known her better. The writing community lost a brilliant intellectual, poet and teacher.
Nandai:
Since time began
the dead alone know peace.
Life is but melting snow.
All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2011 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.
Nandai:
Since time began
the dead alone know peace.
Life is but melting snow.
All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2011 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Two poems, journal entry and a blog entry
Today, I wrote two poems and a 630-word journal entry and now this blog entry. No, I did not get up early this morning. I couldn’t pry my eyes open. I even contemplated taking a sick day from work but with my upcoming move up to the boogie-down Bronx…I need every penny I can scrape up.
It feels decadent to be able to work on my writing. The office is quiet enough to let the words bubble up. Each piece takes me at least an hour because there are phone and people interruptions. But poetry becomes almost a meditative practice as I read and re-read the lines over and over again. I’m listening for the music of the piece. There is a certain rhythm structure that underlies each one. I also play with language and look up words in the dictionary and thesaurus to find better flavors to give a poem a different color. Both pieces are pretty rough and I’ll work on smoothing down the edges when I get home tonight. I just need a couple of hours to distance myself enough from the piece to look at it with fresh eyes tonight. So far I have 4 out of 5 pieces for tomorrow’s writing group.
I am cold and achy; they’ve turned up the air in the office. I know they do this to circulate the otherwise stale air but it doesn’t help my cold much.
Tonight, I’m going to Akilah Oliver’s memorial service. My stomach is tied up in knots at the prospect of attending but…it may help me come to terms with her death. I’m afraid my pragmatic nature has escaped me in this instance. I looked up to her. She was an amazing poet with a steady, critical eye. She had a way of making me feel competent with the whole writing poetry thing. She treated me like a peer. When I took her class at L.I.U., I felt capable of getting better at the craft and my work flourished. I’m so grateful for the semester that I had her as a professor.
Peace
L~
All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2011 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.
It feels decadent to be able to work on my writing. The office is quiet enough to let the words bubble up. Each piece takes me at least an hour because there are phone and people interruptions. But poetry becomes almost a meditative practice as I read and re-read the lines over and over again. I’m listening for the music of the piece. There is a certain rhythm structure that underlies each one. I also play with language and look up words in the dictionary and thesaurus to find better flavors to give a poem a different color. Both pieces are pretty rough and I’ll work on smoothing down the edges when I get home tonight. I just need a couple of hours to distance myself enough from the piece to look at it with fresh eyes tonight. So far I have 4 out of 5 pieces for tomorrow’s writing group.
I am cold and achy; they’ve turned up the air in the office. I know they do this to circulate the otherwise stale air but it doesn’t help my cold much.
Tonight, I’m going to Akilah Oliver’s memorial service. My stomach is tied up in knots at the prospect of attending but…it may help me come to terms with her death. I’m afraid my pragmatic nature has escaped me in this instance. I looked up to her. She was an amazing poet with a steady, critical eye. She had a way of making me feel competent with the whole writing poetry thing. She treated me like a peer. When I took her class at L.I.U., I felt capable of getting better at the craft and my work flourished. I’m so grateful for the semester that I had her as a professor.
Peace
L~
All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2011 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.
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