Celebrating National Poetry Month, 30 Quotes and Counting

a bit of poetry outside the window March 2019

April arrives bringing with it once more a month of celebrating poetry (National Poetry Month origin, here). My share in the celebration, along with a goal of reading more poetry this month as well as challenging myself to write 30-haiku-in-30 days again (last year's challenge, here)--is the following compilation of 30 of my favorite quotes on poetry. Each brings its own inspiration, one each day of the month to stir up the imagination toward poetry. Let the celebration begin...

  1. "Poetry is the languages of surprises." --Stephen Taylor Goldsberry
  2. "The poet doesn't invent. He listens." --Jean Cocteau
  3. "Poetry is a packsack of invisible keepsakes." --Carl Sandburg
  4. "Prose is a photography, poetry is a painting in oil colors." --Austin O'Malley
  5. "It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things." --Steven Mallarme
  6. "The poet lights the light and fades away, But the light goes on and on." --Emily Dickinson
  7. "I would define, in brief, the poetry of words is the rhythmical creation of Beauty."-Edgar Allen Poe 
  8. "Poetry is an echo asking a shadow to dance." --Carl Sandburg
  9. "Poetry is a language in which man explores his own amazement." --Christopher Fry
10. "I have never started a poem whose end I knew, writing the poem is discovering."--Robert Frost
11. "Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land wanting to fly in the air." --Carl Sandburg
12. "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry."--Emily Dickinson
13. "Poetry is everywhere; it just needs editing." --James Tate
14. "A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language." --W.H. Auden
15. "The true poem rests between the words." --Vanna Bonta
16. "Poetry is life distilled." --Gwendalyn Brooks
17. "Writing a poem is making music with words and space." --Arnold Adoff
18. "Prose is words in their best order; poetry is the best words in their best order."--Samuel Coleridge
19. "A poem is a spider web, Spun with words of wonder; Woven lace held in place, by whispers made of thunder" --Charles Ghigna
20. "Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words."-Robert Frost
21. "Poetry is a section of river fog and morning boat-lights delivered between bridges and whistles, so one says, 'Oh!' and another, 'How?'" --Carl Sandburg
22. "Some of the greatest poetry is revealing to the reader the beauty in something that was so simple you had taken it for granted." --Neil de Grasse Tyso, astrophysicist
23. "Poetry is the impish attempt to paint the color of the wind." --Maxwell Bodenheim
24. "Poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry." --Mary Oliver
25. "How do poems grow? They grow out of your life." --Robert Penn Warren
26. "Poetry makes life what lights and music do to the stage." --Charles Dickens
27. "Poets don't draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently." --Jean Cocteau
28. "Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings." --W.H. Auden
29. "Poetry has the power to turn words into darts that shoot under your skin."--Penny Ashton
30. "A poet can survive everything but a misprint." --Oscar Wilde

Happy Poetry Month 2019. How does poetry stir your world?

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Post-From-The Past, March Archives

from photo archives, historic Fort Macon, Emerald Isle NC 2017

"Atmosphere is a term used in literature to describe the mood of a piece of writing, which is usually created by how the author describes the setting and background, as well as the characters and events within the story. The author creates his or her atmosphere in order to give the reader subconscious impressions about the narrative." --reference.com

The atmosphere in March sure has its own flavor doesn't it? Milder weather, unfolding leaves, emerging daffodils, and--happy days--the bluebirds are back! We know that atmosphere plays a big part in our stories as well, something I was reminded of when I pulled the following post, first published in March 2013, out of the archives. I'm glad for the refresher. Maybe you'll glean a little something out of it, too.

And so, from March's archives...
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Friday, March 8, 2013
Setting, Landscape, Atmosphere--How Are They Different?

"In every piece of fiction...setting is one of the three major elements--along with characterization and plot--that the writer must weave together to create the narrative." --Connie C. Epstein

Setting

Oh, the fun of setting--imagining where the story takes place, how characters respond to their surroundings, drinking in the sights, sounds, and smells that connect the reader to the written word--it's the world-building side of the writer's craft. I've been immersed in the subject this week as I've brainstormed ideas for my WIP. Along the way I've sought the wisdom of others to help open up that world. Helpful thoughts on the subject:

"There are lots of things you can do with setting. Setting adds color to the story. Setting affects characters. Setting lends authenticity to the narrative, and paints pictures in the imagination of readers." --Nancy Lamb, The Art and Craft of Story Telling.

"Settings..aren't just backdrops. Just by where you have the action happening will tell a lot about the action itself and the people involved." --Ansen Dibell, Plot

"Setting grounds your writing in the reality of place and depicts the theme of your story through powerful metaphor. Without setting, characters are simply there, in a vacuum, with no reason to act and most importantly, no reason to care. Without a place there is no story." --Nina Munteanu, scribophile

Landscape

And yet, expanding on the idea of setting, I came across the concept of landscape, this from Elizabeth George in her book Write Away: "On the surface, it would appear that landscape and setting are the same creatures, identical twins given different names just to confuse the beginning writer. This, however, would not be the truth since setting is where a story takes place--including where each scene takes place--while landscape is much broader than that...Landscape in writing implies much the same as that which is implied by the word when it's used to refer to a location in a country: It is the broad vista into which the writer actually places the individual settings of the novel, sort of like the canvas or other medium onto which a painter has decided to daub color.

"You need to think about the landscape of your book because if you're able to make the landscape of place real, you can make the land itself real, which gives you a leg up on making the entire novel real for the reader."

Atmosphere

But there's more. If the nuanced differences between setting and landscape are not enough, what about the idea of atmosphere? Janet Burroway in her classic, Writing Fiction, a Guide to Narrative Craft, puts it this way: "Your fiction must have an atmosphere because without it your characters will be unable to breathe."

"Like many of the terms that relate to the elements of fiction, 'atmosphere' has more than one meaning," Burroway writes. "Sometimes referring to subject matter, sometimes to technique. Part of the atmosphere of a scene or story is its setting, which includes the locale, period, weather, and time of day. Part of the atmosphere is its 'tone,' an attitude taken by the narrative voice that can be described, not in terms of time and place, but as a quality--sinister, facetious, formal, solemn, wry, and so on...As we need to know a character's gender, race, and age, we need to know in what atmosphere she or he operates to understand the significance of the action."

Setting, landscape, atmosphere. Separate entities yet connected.The first puts you in the action. The second contains the story's broader vista. The third enables the characters to breathe. Had you ever considered the varying distinctions? How so? Will you imagine your setting with a different understanding now?

photos courtesy of sxc.hu

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And now back to the present, an additional source on the subject includes an article titled Creating Atmosphere in Fiction, by Esther Newton (found here). In it, Ms. Newton says, "To be successful a short story or or novel needs to develop a strong sense of atmosphere. This draws your readers into your story so they can imagine this world you are creating. It also sets up expectations for them and gives them information about the characters they're likely to meet in your story." She follows up with six categories for developing that atmosphere. They include: setting, description, five senses, weather, time, and first person viewpoint. Another good refresher resource!

What do you find to be the easiest ways to create atmosphere in your writing? What comes hardest for you?

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Post-From-the-Past, February Archives

winter walk 2019

"In the end, what makes a plot twist effective? It's not difficult to give a friend a present they never would have expected. But one sign of a good friendship is that you can give your friend a present that they never would have expected, perhaps never would have even guessed they wanted, but are still delighted to have. That's the sign of a good plot twist as well." --Dave King, "Playing it Straight with Plot Twists," at davekingedits.com

Pulling again from my archives over the last nine years of blogging, I offer The Unexpected: 5 Tips on Plot Twists. This post first appeared in February 2012 and ranks in the top-10-list of my most viewed posts ever. Maybe you, like me, would like (might even need?) a review. Here goes:

Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The Unexpected: 5 Tips on Plot Twists

"Creativity comes from looking for the unexpected and stepping outside your own experiences."

                                                                                                                                                --Masaru Ibuka

The jolt, when it hit, was palpable. Nothing really big, but a hit all the same.

I was on my morning walk, approaching the turnaround point at the curve. The scene is so familiar at this particular spot--that of an old barn that for years was a picturesque fixture of the landscape. In fact, I often told myself that I should bring my camera and get a picture of it. Admittedly the barn was dilapidated and abandoned, but it had such character built as it was on a stone foundation with weathered boards that had seen many a day. It shouted history--even a story or two. I'd even analyzed the angle from which to take the shots. Yes, one day I would do that.

This time as I approached, I looked up to see a small earth-mover nearby. I couldn't tell if it was parked on the road, and if I'd have to skirt around it. I wondered what project was about to be embarked upon. That's when the surprise hit, and the unexpected registered on my brain.

The barn was gone.

Razed. Obliterated. Kaput. The bulldozer's job had already been done. The landscape was forever changed. What a twist that revelation brought to my morning!

Well, as is so often the case, thoughts went from personal disappointment over a lost photo op to the question of how such an event could be useful in plotting our stories. How can we use the unpredictable, the unexpected, surprises, twists and turns in order to keep our readers reading? And why?

Scanning several sources, I uncovered five tips on plot twists:

1. Predictable to Unpredictable. Barbara Dunlap, autocrit, defines plot twists as: "anytime something unexpected happens in a story that changes its fundamental direction. Where the characters and the plot are moving along in a direction that feels predictable then something happens to alter that predictability, that's a plot twist."

2. But...There's No Formula. Janice Hardy, at The Other Side of the Story, gives great advice about plot twists related to reader expectations. She writes, "We're all looking for a great plot twist, right? Be it in the books we write or the ones we read. That unexpected event or revelation that changes everything we thought we knew and takes it to a whole new level. The things that make us go, 'wow, that was awesome. I never saw that coming.' Trouble is, knowing you want one is a lot easier than coming up with one. There is no formula for devising a great twist, because every plot is different and any number of things can work in a story. My trick for twisting my plot is pretty simple: Reader expectations...You want to give readers what they expect, but not in the way they expect it."

3. Murphy's Law. Ansel Dibell in his book, Plot, suggests we play with Murphy's Law. "Try to think of what, within that fundamental situation, could go surprisingly wrong, yet seem believable and reasonable, within that context, when it happens...Your twist must satisfy and improve upon what it substitutes for, not just change it to something else."

4. Connect the Dots. This from Amanda Hannah, at YA Highway: "Most surprises need to have some roots grounded early in the book--little whispers that could hint at something to come. Things that the reader might not consciously pick up on at first, but once the surprise is discovered, they can connect all the dots together."

5. Multiple Implications. Scott Edelstein, in The Writer's Book of Checklists, amps plot twists up another notch. He says, "Look for events, developments, and twists that work in two or more ways at once, or that have multiple implications, meanings, or consequences. These can be among the most powerful elements in any piece of fiction."

Maybe we won't surprise our readers with a barn in one scene, only to find it unexpectedly leveled in another, but we do want to provide them with the occasional jolt that keeps them reading. What about you? How do you plan for the unexpected in your stories? Any outstanding plot twists you've read and marveled at recently?

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And, now, back to the present: Re-reading this post gave me pause to ask myself, what books have I read recently in whose pages lay memorable plot twists? My list includes:

Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier

Empty Places, by Kathy Cannon Wiechman

Waiting for Augusta, by Jessica Lawson

The Girl in the Torch, by Robert Sharenow

The Unfinished Angel, by Sharon Creech

Other lists, other compilers:

Favorite, Most Shocking Plot Twists, Goodreads

Novels with Best Plot Twists, Goodreads

10 Children's Books with Surprise Endings, thechaosandtheclutter.com

Any books with memorable plot twists you might recommend? What are you currently reading?

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Post-From-the-Past, January Archives

"There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes." --William Makepeace Thackeray

Thackeray's quote resonates with me as I enter my tenth year of blogging. Ten years! And over the years, the number of blog posts--and thousands of thoughts I didn't even know I had--has grown, now numbering 440. So in this, my tenth year, I thought I'd go back in the archives and highlight a post-from-the-past each month. A re-post, yes, a revisit, a re-encounter...

Traveling then back to the records of January 2012:
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Sunday, January 1, 2012

Aim, Shoot, Bull's Eye: Targets for a New Year

 "It's the sheer act of writing, more than anything else, that makes a writer." --John Gardner

Call it semantics, but I've decided to set writing "targets" rather than resolutions for the new year. The "dart board"--what I'm aiming for--is to write every day. No matter how much, how little--my goal is to hit at least one of four targets every day. Each is represented by the graduated concentric circles of a dart board. (I wish I could diagram this, but such design skills aren't in my repertoire yet!) 

The four targets include:

1. The Bull's Eye: Write 1000 words. I hope to hit this mark more often than not in this new year. But that is the real prize, and often hard to attain. So if circumstances--like life's challenges away from the computer--preclude this then I'll aim for...

2. The Inside Ring: Write two pages. Linda Sue Park, author of the 2002 Newbery Medal Winner A Single Shard, in an interview over at Cuppa Jolie, said: "My most valuable tip came from Katherine Paterson, who wrote in an essay about how she tries to finish 2 pages a day. I read that when I was starting work on my first novel, and it was a huge light-bulb moment. I thought, I can do that! I don't know if I can ever write a whole novel, but I sure as heck can write 2 pages a day. I've written every single one of my novels that way, and I'm positive I never would have written even one if I hadn't read that tip." Still and all, though, if time is at a premium on a busy day, I will at least shoot for...

3. The Middle Ring: Write for 15 minutes. Dan Goodwin, at Coach Creative, says: "Create every day and you get used to starting creative sessions quickly and easily. They become a routine, a habit, and you begin before you've had a chance to procrastinate. The less often you create, the harder it becomes to get started, and the more excuses and 'urgent' tasks that have to be done before you create begin to stack up...(so) start today, set aside 15 minutes, make an appointment with your creativity, and write it down. Do the same tomorrow." Yet, being realistic, on days I can't even do that I will at least...

4. The Outer Ring: Write ten words. This from Mary E. Pearson, on a guest post at Dear Editor: "When I feel like I can't move forward, I will do all kinds of things to help me keep going, like...Trick myself. I sit down to write and tell myself I only have to write ten words and then I can get up and do whatever I want guilt-free. TEN. That's all. But I have to do it every day." She says it's amazing how allowing yourself ten simple words more often than not jumpstarts the writing process and you end up writing more than you thought you would.

So there you have it, my targets for 2012. Every day, hit at least one. Now my aim might be poor at the beginning. After all, I haven't been all that consistent in the past. But with practice, who knows what will come. I'm looking forward to finding out.

What are your writing targets for the new year?

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And returning to the present, I recommend an article posted by Mary Carroll Moore: Your Writing Life: The Benefits of an End-of-Year Review. Ms. Moore, whose tag line to her blog is "How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book," poses questions to ask ourselves in review, questions such as what did I want to have happen with my writing life this past year? what steps did I take to bring that about? what was my biggest ah-ha moment? my actual accomplishments? where did I find the most satisfaction or joy? Good reading here, with a proposed review process that I'm now in the middle of. You might want to check it out. 

Happy reviewing, goal-setting, and target shooting in 2019!

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On Laughter, Pick-Up-Sticks, and New Years Resolutions

December 2018

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face." --Victor Hugo

We had a good laugh following Christmas festivities this past week, one sparked by a gift given the children--a box full of games including this vintage one, Pick-Up-Sticks. And the laughter that rang out around the game table was a great pick-me-up in itself, let me tell you. The proclaimed winner was truly dexterous. It was even stated that maybe he had missed his calling--he would have made a great  neurosurgeon!  In reflecting back on the game, and the people around the table, I've tapped the activity as one of my cherished memories of the day.

Laugher--often spontaneous, most likely contagious, and in a lot of ways healing. In the echoes of laughter one often forgets the weightier issues of the day, exchanging them for lighter moments, lifted spirits, and just flat-out fun. We ought to laugh more often.

Thus it is that I set my only resolution for this year: I will open my heart to more laughter. Yes, I will have goals--writing goals, personal goals, goals to help me grow. But resolutions? How many of those do we really follow through on? This is one resolution that is attainable. 

So in the spirit of laughter and its value, I share some of my favorite quotes on the subject (and similar topics):

--- "Earth laughs in flowers." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

--- "As soap is to the body, so laughter is to the soul." --Jewish Proverb

--- "He who laughs, lasts!" --Mary Pettibone Poole 

--- "Humor is the universal solvent against the abrasive elements of life." --former Senator Al Simpson

--- "Joy is the best make-up." --Anne Lamott

--- "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." --Proverbs 17:22

--- "It is bad to suppress laughter. It goes back down and spreads to your hips." --Fred Allen

--- "A good laugh heals a lot of hurts." --Madeleine L'Engle

And speaking of Madeleine L'Engle, I appreciate this story that she tells in her book, A Circle of Quiet, The Crosswicks Journal, Book One: "One of the greatest weapons of all is laughter, a gift for fun, a sense of play which is sadly missing from the grownup world. When one of our children got isolated by a fit of sulks, my husband would say very seriously, 'Look at me. Now, don't laugh Whatever you do, don't laugh.' Nobody could manage to stay long-faced for very long, and communication was reestablished. When Hugh and I are out of sorts with each other, it is always laughter that breaks through the anger and withdrawal...Paradox again: to take ourselves seriously enough to take ourselves lightly."

Do you make resolutions or set goals, or both? How important is laughter to you and your family? Do you have a favorite quote on laughter? What is your favorite table game?

Wishing all who might drop in here a happy new year, with all the pick-me-ups that a good dose of laughter can offer. May laughter visit, lift, and help carry you through any long winter days ahead...

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On Short Stories, O.Henry's Gift of the Magi, and Writing Gifts

courtesy Wikipedia Commons

"One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies..." --from O.Henry's The Gift of the Magi

This time of year brings to mind an all-time favorite short story, O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi. It's a story that planted itself in the heart years ago and took root while other short stories simply faded away.

Familiar with the tale? Young Della with glorious, cascading hair cannot afford what she would like to give her husband for Christmas: a watch chain befitting his most cherished possession, a fine gold pocket watch that had been handed down from grandfather to father to himself. So what does she do? She visits Madame Sofronia and... (I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't read the story! But I offer a link here at American Literature online if you want to read it for yourself.)

At the same time, without Della's knowing, dear husband Jim ("James Dillingham Young") has himself done the unthinkable in order to purchase the one beautiful thing he knows his wife would be pleased with, which was...

Can you fill in the blank? O. Henry, pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), was a master of irony and plot twists (hence The O. Henry Award, an annual American award given for an exceptional short story, first presented in 1918). And although The Gift of the Magi was written in 1905 and in the language of the day, the writing is timeless, enduring, and endearing as well. The title of the story is an allusion to the Christmas story of the Magi bearing gifts for the Christ-child (Matthew 2:9-11 NLT).

Gift-giving. Gift receiving. For writers, the writing gift goes two ways. As author Amy Tan has been quoted as saying, "Writing is an extreme privilege but it's also a gift. It's a gift to yourself, and it's a gift of giving a story to someone."

In a recent entry over at Writer Unboxed,Vaughn Roycroft authors the article, "The Gifts of the Writing Life" (found here) and enumerates a list of gifts he believes a writer receives. Among other things, he includes heightening empathy, broadening outlook, stick-to-it-ive-ness and fortitude. In his concluding remarks, he says: "So regardless of our pub status or sales, regardless of whether we made our word count goals or all of our deadlines this year, let's remember the gifts we are receiving simply by way of doing what we love."

I think O. Henry would agree.

On my list of gifts that I believe a writer receives, I would add:
--a sense of exploration and discovery
--an increased awareness of detail and beauty
--challenge offered, challenge accepted, challenge ongoing!
--great friends

Echoing the question that Mr. Roycroft asks in his article: What gifts has the writing life given to you? I think it's important to occasionally review all the reasons we stay the writing course :-)

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. And happy writing to those who continue to open--and give--the gift of writing.

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Something Told the Wild Geese, by Rachel Field

on November walk 2018

Something Told the Wild Geese

by Rachel Field

Something told the wild geese

It was time to go.

Though the fields lay golden

Something whispered,--"Snow."

Leaves were green and stirring,

Berries, luster-glossed,

But beneath warm feathers

Something cautioned,--"Frost."

All the sagging orchards

Steamed with amber spice,

but each wild breast stiffened

at remembered ice.

Something told the wild geese

It was time to fly,--

Summer sun was on their wings,

Winter in their cry.

Sharing my latest-discovered, and today's-most favorite poem. What a beautiful, evocative example of writing that speaks of this, the autumn-season-heading-into winter. Poet Rachel Field (1894-1942) was also a novelist, children's book author, and playwright. She was the first woman to win the Newbery Award  (1930) for outstanding children's fiction. The award was for her book Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, a story told in the POV of a tiny wooden doll who gets separated from the little girl who owns her and the doll's subsequent travels. I haven't read the book yet but now plan to find a copy, especially after I learned that the doll that inspired Ms. Field's story currently resides at the Stockbridge Library Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Want to hear a beautiful rendition of the poem, Something Told the Wild Geese? You can hear it sung to music by the Von Trapp Children--who themselves come from a storied past, their great-grandparents being none other than the Von Trapp couple that inspired the cherished movie classic, The Sound of Music. The song link can be found here on youtube.

What about you, any favorite fall poems that speak to you this time of year?

(and, if you're a Sound of Music fan like me, you might also like to experience the Von Trapp great-grandkids singing Edelweiss. You can find a beautiful sample of their rendition here.)

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