I am thrilled to announce that today I became a B5Media blogger! The blog I manage is Leadership Turn.  I will be taking advantage of the 30+ years of business experience I have, and the extreme interest I have had for that long or longer in personal development.

I probably won’t be posting on THIS blog very much. I just don’t have the time. I guess we can just consider–since it has all of my published literary work, my resume, and still links to Giggle Water Review–well, we can consider it my portfolio? My calling card?

Aaaanyway, as Ellen says, I feel very good about managing Leadership Turn. I hope to see you there!

This is a poem I wrote a couple of years ago. It is one of my favorites. I wrote it in a flurry of inspiration one morning while I was watching the birds sitting on a telephone wire outside my office window.

I posted it on a couple of the more elite poetry forums for critique and it didn’t receive very good reviews. The snobs said it was too cutesy. But hey, what do they know? At least you can friggin understand what I am trying to say, unlike so much of THEIR poetry.

Maybe there are some of you out there who will enjoy it.

BIRD CHURCH

 

 

On a long black pew sit our feathered friends,

First giving thanks for a leaf-free view of their God.

 

A loner in the morning mist, hunched down in his gray coat,

steals glances at the rest of the congregation.

 

Communing in the form of respectful silence,

the birds save their singing for a less holy time or for danger.

 

The hierarchy is evident,

even the deacons give reverence to Pastor Bird.

 

The service is a short one, a sermon on patience,

but a few rudely exit while the pastor is still preaching.

 

Closing prayer brings twitters of wish you wells and fly with God,

as the birds soar away to work for Nature and family.

 

Left sitting on the wire, the loner is in no hurry.

He’s a bachelor, free to fly at his leisure.

 

Still, every morning at Bird Church, he prays

to meet the crimson coated bird of his dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was going to write a post about how great it is to be in Texas during the spring, and how much I love it. But then I decided I needed a picture to go along with what I had to say. However, with a picture like this, need I say more?

It has occurred to me a lot lately that I didn’t begin to understand what love really means until the last few years. I am talking about romantic love, not familial love.

I always thought that if I were pretty enough, or sexy enough, or good enough in bed, or I cooked good, was a good housekeeper, a man would love me. I see now that this was me feeling that just being me was not enough.

I have given myself away too many times for love. And after all that has happened, I won’t do it again. I’m not saying that I won’t fall in love again, but it will have to be right. It will have to be with somebody who likes me just the way I am, warts and all.

I feel really good today. That might sound odd to some of you. Feeling good is not that rare an occurrence. But those of you who know me understand, I believe. For those of you who don’t know me, I’ll tell you why feeling good has been the exception for quite some time instead of the rule.

I can’t believe how fast time flies. I woke up very early this morning with a lot of things on my mind. I have been going through some major changes in the past few months, personally and professionally, and I realize that what I need in my life more than anything is balance.

This just goes to show that persistence pays off. The very first essay I wrote three years ago when I started writing full-time was finally accepted. It’s called Dog Day Afternoon and you can read it at apt.

I have created a professional blog on my own domain to focus on helping other writers. A Freelancing Journey the pro version is designed to offer everything the writer needs; markets, telecommuting job leads, helpful articles about the writing business and the publishing industry, links to sites with valuable information, tips and advice–knowledge and information I have amassed over the last three years–plus I will be adding new information and sites as I continue to keep up with what’s going on in the writing world.

I would be grateful if you would add a link to A Writer’s Journey to your website or blogroll and to pass the link along to your writing buddies.

Thanks, Denise

Tonight I started reading Ted Kooser’s ‘The Poetry Home Repair Manual.’ Mr. Kooser is the US Poet Laureate, so of course I thought that the experience of reading this book, which has been recommended to me repeatedly as the best book for beginning poets, would be something on the scale of a root canal.

It is SO not that! I am on chapter one and I am laughing. Ted Kooser is a jewel, a down to earth, genuine, and delightful person. I was so impressed and I’m enjoying this book so much that I decided to stop and make myself a cup of hot tea with lemon and share with you an excerpt from the first chapter.

Speaking of himself as a young poet, Mr. Kooser says, “I let my hair grow longer and tried to grow a beard. I carried big fat books wherever I went–like Adolph Harnack’s ‘Outlines of the History of Dogma’ and Kierkegaard’s ‘Fear and Trembling.’ I couldn’t have understood a word of these books if I’d tried, but they looked really good clenched under my arm.”

Ha! Who of us that have been writing poetry since we were in our teens cannot relate?

Ok, back to reading. :)

After much contemplation and soul searching, I have decided that I have come full circle, back to my poetry roots. In these three years I have been writing, I have spread myself across the spectrum. I’ve written a novel, essays, articles, fiction and poetry, but what makes me happy, what makes my heart sing, is writing poetry.

So that’s what I’m going to do. I will continue to submit the other writing I have and to seek a publisher for my YA novel, and who knows? I could write another YA if the publisher was receptive to the idea. But basically, poetry will be all I concentrate on. I am going to study the craft, truly learn what it all means, the styles and forms, and try to write the best damn poetry I’ve ever written. Hopefully, I can make a name for myself as a poet, get some books of poetry published, but most of all, I will be doing what I love best.

So the scope of my blog will reflect this change, although I will still post articles and markets I run across that I feel will be helpful to my fellow writers.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend, I know I did!