Tag: poet

Lies

God is selfish
and this life is nothing but a test.
He loves who loves him
and disregards the rest.

He says everything is him,
and that he is everywhere.
Then I can assume lord,
that life is nothing but a game.

If this is the truth,
then no one is wrong.
If this is your world,
then even the sinner wears the crown.

How do I fall in love?

How do I fall in love?

The love that I had,

i gave it to someone

who lived in the other town,

whose doors were closed and

whose air was thick.

Now with remains of memory

and the love denied,

this heart has taken a leap

beyond this sick world

and crushed itself to a point

where it can’t be undone.

How do I fall in love?

On Mini Series

The mini series of interviews with bloggers has come to end. It was great to meet people and hear them speak about their work. I would love to have another mini series in the near future and I would definitely work on it if lord allows it.

The interviews were published on Mondays and were re-blogged on Thursdays. I published 5 interviews you can read them all here.

https://waitforyourcall.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/interview-with-shawn-l-bird/
https://waitforyourcall.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/interview-with-a-blog-to-regret/
https://waitforyourcall.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/interview-with-himani-b/
https://waitforyourcall.wordpress.com/2014/08/04/interview-with-sc-omovssofa/
https://waitforyourcall.wordpress.com/2014/08/11/interview-with-t-wong-red-gladiola/

xx

Interview With T. Wong (Red Gladiola)

Our today’s guest is T. Wong from redgladiola.wordpress.com. A native new yorker who maintains Red Gladiola as a daily poetry and creative writing journal. 

Here is the interview.

 

Tell us about yourself and your blog?
I’m a native New Yorker. I started Red Gladiola (redgladiola.wordpress.com) a few years ago as a way to share adventures in the city, thoughts, and creative writing. About a year ago, I wanted to narrow its focus, so it became a daily poetry and creative writing journal.

What inspires you to write?
I like to read and often find myself inspired by other people’s writing. Basho and Tang Dynasty poems gave me a love for terse atmospheric poetry. I’m also inspired by everyday observations and have a soft spot for nature.

Your writing process?
For poetry, I usually write spur of the moment and then edit afterwards. I jot down any interesting thoughts or events I have throughout the day and try to incorporate those into my writing. I use an interesting image as a prompt for my writing when I’m struggling to write.

My fiction is still something in progress and reads more like writing exercises. I hope to fashion interesting and coherent short stories one day.

What genres do your writings generally revolve around? Is there any genre you’ve never touched but want to, in the future?
I don’t have any specific genres I write, but I like fiction and haiku. I’ve never done crime or mystery but I’m open to trying in the future.

Your favourite authors?
Anchee Min, Mary Renault, and John Steinbeck.

Last 3 books you have read?
Gregory Maguire – Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Doris Lessing – Adore: A Novella
Italo Calvino – Invisible Cities

Advice for the young writers?
Be bold and experiment. Don’t ever doubt your ability to improve. Also, remember there’s room in the world for all types of writers and their writing styles.

On Interview With Bloggers

I had a book on the history of literature. And it had one page biography of all the famous authors. Some were lawyers who became writers. Some didn’t have any money to publish their work so they published their work for friends and families. Some wrote for fun and ended up becoming full time writers. But all have them had one thing common – Passion for writing. And they always inspired me to look at the world through different perspectives explore the beauty of it.

The same goes for bloggers. I meet beautiful bloggers on WordPress and all of them are inspiring and have discipline to maintain their blogs. I can go and ask them about their writing process and inspiration behind, on their blog through comments but then I thought, why not publish them as interviews. So more people can read it and learn something new. It might inspire someone.

Interview With Himani B

Our today’s guest is super-talented Himani B from http://tenderheartmusings.wordpress.com/ Her poetry is full of love, and words that will always touch your soul.

Here is the interview

 

Tell us about yourself and your blog?
Hello lovely people, I am Himani and I am in my early twenties. A Science student, a lover in love with the Beloved and His creation and a seeker in life more than anything. To strive and be a good person and possibly leave something good and meaningful behind, is what my journey through this world is about. It started with the eternal questions of who I am and what am I here for, that bugged me when I was about 18 years old. I had just started living on my own and in my solitude I started digging beneath the surface of things, searching everywhere, reading books and connecting with people who I felt knew the answers only to discover later that the answers lie in the Universe that pulsates within me. Three things of value that have continued to allure and inspire me besides love are – truth, beauty and light, for they have been my companions on this journey, helping me evolve every single day as a person.

What inspires you to write?
Ah a lot of things! Like I mentioned, big ones being love (both spiritual and human), beauty, pain, art, human experiences, learning that happens form different encounters and sometimes as simple as the rustling sound of the leaves or the symphony of raindrops. Nature and existence speaks to me, through a connectedness that I find hard to put in words.

Your writing process?
You might laugh at me but it really falls into my lap in an inspired moment. 99.9% of the poetry I feel has been the music and I am just a humble instrument receiving the Breath from beyond. I truly feel grateful and blessed. It often takes just a couple minutes for it to flow through in entirety and so I never really have to make time to sit down and write. I just know when I have to grab my journal or when I am away from home, a random piece of paper which has been in the form of an envelope, the empty white corners of newspapers, and even tissue papers from nearby shops. Literally anything onto where it can flow in that inspired moment.

What genres do your writings generally revolve around? Is there any genre you’ve never touched but want to, in the future?
Because I don’t ‘consciously’ write, I have never really followed any rules. I share the writing as it flows, in its raw form. A friend recently asked me to try out different genres for me to expand as a writer but I realized I am not really a writer in the worldly sense. I just share what is given to me and when it is given to me.

Your favourite authors?
Rumi, DreamingBear Baraka Kanaan and Kahlil Gibran

Last 3 books you have read?
Stray Birds by Rabindranath Tagore
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar

Advice for the young writers?
Follow your heart and write about what you genuinely feel and only when you genuinely feel. When something is forced or you write for the sake of it or to please others, it does not get past the ears of the reader. Some of the best poetry I have read is the one where it stirs you inside, and hits you in a way that is inexpressible yet profound and kind of stays with you. Charles Bukowski, one of my favourite writers, wrote something that I truly resonate with –

If it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
Unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut,
don’t do it.
If you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.
If you’re doing it for money or fame,
don’t do it.
If you’re doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don’t do it.
If you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.
If it’s hard work just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.
If you’re trying to write like somebody else,
forget about it.

If you have to wait for it to roar out of you,
then wait patiently.
If it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

If you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you’re not ready.

Don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-love.
The libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to sleep over your kind.
Don’t add to that.
Don’t do it.
Unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it.
Unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don’t do it.

When it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

There is no other way.

Interview With A Blog To Regret

Wait For Your Call

Our today’s guest is 23 year old writer from Netherlands who runs a blog called, A Blog To Regret. She writes flash fiction, short stories and sometimes poetry too.

Here is the interview.

 

Tell us about yourself and your blog?
I am a 23-year-old English graduate from the Netherlands with a passion for dinosaurs, coffee and literature. I started A Blog to Regret a few months ago because I wanted to interact and share my writing with other aspiring writers. On my blog, I post poetry, flash fiction/short stories and sometimes non-fiction.

What inspires you to write?
Music, nature, dreams and other deeply personal experiences.

Your writing process?
I am inspired at random moments (while doing groceries/working/fighting crime at night etc.), so I carry a notebook with me everywhere I go. Usually I just jot down whatever comes up in my head in a short period of time…

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Interview With A Blog To Regret

Our today’s guest is 23 year old writer from Netherlands who runs a blog called, A Blog To Regret. She writes flash fiction, short stories and sometimes poetry too.

Here is the interview.

 

Tell us about yourself and your blog?
I am a 23-year-old English graduate from the Netherlands with a passion for dinosaurs, coffee and literature. I started A Blog to Regret a few months ago because I wanted to interact and share my writing with other aspiring writers. On my blog, I post poetry, flash fiction/short stories and sometimes non-fiction.

What inspires you to write?
Music, nature, dreams and other deeply personal experiences.

Your writing process?
I am inspired at random moments (while doing groceries/working/fighting crime at night etc.), so I carry a notebook with me everywhere I go. Usually I just jot down whatever comes up in my head in a short period of time. If I think whatever I’ve written is decent, I’ll post it on my blog. I try not to edit my writing; I think my raw, unrevised material is usually more genuine and less contrived than, for example, the hiliarously awkward, heavily edited stuff I wrote during my wannabe emo phase in high school (e.g. rhyming ‘shark’ with ‘dark’ and ‘pain’ with ‘blood stain’—you can’t make that shit up).

What genres do your writings generally revolve around? Is there any genre you’ve never touched but want to, in  the future?
Thought-provoking question. I‘ve never given the genres/topics I write about much thought until now. But looking over my blog, I would say I typically write poetry and short stories/flash fiction about identity, social issues, nature and purpose. In the future, I would like focus more on the surreal and writing longer stories.

Your favourite authors?
Victor Hugo, John Milton, Boris Pasternak, Herman Melville, Toni Morisson, Art Spiegelman and Juliet Marillier.

Last 3 books you have read?
Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Watchmen by Alan Moore and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

Advice for the young writers?
Take some time to figure out what kind of writer you want to be. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different techniques, themes, styles, genres and language because the most orginal, heartfelt and compelling art is produced outside the comfort zone. Or, as Mark Twain would put it: “Throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.”

Interview With Shawn L. Bird

Our first guest, Shawn L. Bird, author of the Grace Awakening Series, is a high school teacher, a novelist, a poet, and a blogger.

Here is the interview.

 

Tell us about yourself and your blog?

I am a high school teacher, a novelist, a poet, and a blogger.  I present workshops.  I live in the interior of British Columbia, Canada in a place called the Shuswap.  Shuswap Lake is nestled into mountains and has a thousand kilometers of shoreline.  We enjoy four seasons that inspire poetry, from glorious blue sky days like today where we’re going to hit 37 C (body temperature!), to -20C winter days when we cross country ski in a sparkling, marshmallow coated world, to perfect spring and autumn days.  I was a Rotary Exchange Student and lived abroad for a year after high school.  It was a very profound thing.  I’m now a Rotarian, and enjoy our service in our community and internationally.   I live with my husband, who works for the provincial government in social services.  We have two kids who don’t live with us anymore and two poodles that do.

My blog started out being as eccentric as I am: recipes, commentary, reviews, poetry all jostling for attention.  I was at a workshop that said I needed to pick an area as my focus, but I couldn’t decide.  Eventually it became apparent that the most popular thing was the poetry, so April 2013 I started posting a poem daily, and have been doing so ever since.  I still post other stuff now and then as well, but those are secondary posts, and usually a poem is posted that day, as well.  Since I focused on the poetry, my blog has exploded, such that went from 444 followers to 10,000 followers in 14 months.

What inspires you to write?

I’m a curious person, and I like to figure things out.  I discovered early on that capturing something in words is a wonderful tool to analyse it and one’s thoughts about it.  I also inherited a love of story, and spent my childhood telling stories to myself and my toys. (I was raised an only child).   I like writing poetry that is akin  a good photo: there’s a whole story happening between the lines.

Your writing process?

It’s varies.

For poetry,

I might notice something on the way to work, and ponder it a bit, spinning various phrases until a poem emerges.  I might record it before I get started at work or during my break, or perhaps it will foment all day, or for a couple of days.  Other times, I need to post a poem, and without any plan I open the “new post” form.  In the title box I type: ‘poem-’ and then the next word or phrase that comes to mind.  I’ll type whatever comes in response to the title, and if it feels right, I’ll post it right away, or I’ll let it simmer a bit, then come back to tweak it in an hour. (I always feel free to tweak, even poems that have been up for years).

For novels,

During the school year I don’t settle down to write until 9:00 p.m., or so.  I’ll work until midnight during school days, later on the weekends and holidays.

In the summer, it’s really hot here during the days, and it remains light until after 9:00, so I don’t tend to start writing until closer to midnight.  I write through the night until 3 or 4:00 a.m.

With Grace Awakening Dreams and Power, I ‘quilted’ writing scenes from all over the novel.  I wrote 6000 words a week.  Once I had about  120,000 words, laid it out and figured where everything went, and wrote the filler.

With the next two books in the series, told from Ben’s point of view, since I had the framework already, I just had to expand on what was happening in the Mythical Realm.

I was introduced to Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat last year.  He lays out of a format for plotting a screen play.  With my latest project, I prepped all the key events following that model.  Now I can just flip through the chapter headings  (‘crisis with best friend,’  ‘discover betrayal,’ etc), pick one that appeals, and write it. I’m still writing all over the book, but the structure helps me be efficient with my writing time.  I confess, I sometimes miss the adventure of not knowing where I’m going, even though I don’t plan any of the specifics in the pre-plotting.

What genres do your writings generally revolve around? Is there any genre you’ve never touched but want to in  the future?

I write a lot of poetry which I’ve been using to make sense of my world since I was a kid.   I write Young Adult (YA) novels, which reflect the fact that I’ve never been out of high school.  I have another book in the wings that takes place in the 14th century.  It’s related to the Grace Awakening series.   At some point, I’d like to write a play.  I have some ideas for that, as well.

Your favourite authors?

I adore Diana Gabaldon for her brilliant prose and her skill at creating amazing characters.  Her exhaustive research has taught me so many things about herb lore, battle strategies, and geography.  Her vocabulary is astonishing.  I have a selection on my blog called “Vocabulary Lessons with Diana Gabaldon, just for interesting words from her books.  Beyond that, Diana has been personally supportive, offering me advice or encouragement about various writing projects, including once dedicating her daily lines to me. (See http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rlp46l)  I am so honoured to be on the edge of her sphere.   It inspires me every day.

I love J. K. Rowling for her inciteful analysis of child development.  Every book in the Harry Potter series shows appropriately crafted kids.  Casual Vacancy is powerful and engaging look at social order. 
I read a lot, attend a lot of writing conferences, and rub shoulders with many amazing authors.  There are quite a few other authors I enjoy, but those are the big two.

Last 3 books you have read?

My current read on audio is Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, 90 mins left.  It’s a YA novel about first love.  On paper I’m just over half way through Shakespeare’s Rebel by C. C. Humphreys, a historical novel set in Elizabethan England about Shakespeare’s fight choreographer.  I just finished Written in my Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon, the eighth book in her epic time travelling, historical, adventure, romance Outlander series.

Advice for the young writers?

Read.  Write.  Repeat.

Grace Awakening series books one & two are available at your favorite e-book retailer
Grace Awakening Dreams and Power paperback is available at Amazon.com
Come visit my blog and website: http://www.shawnbird.com
Like on Facebook www.facebook.com/ShawnLBird
Follow on Twitter www.twitter.com/ShawnLBird
Represented by Patricia Ocampo of Transatlantic Agency, Toronto.