Some guy’s trip to Vegas aka Conversational Poetry

 Sitting in a waiting room, blogging, writing poems, reading poems, etc and this guy (on his laptop) gets a phone call and well talks so loud you can’t help but overhear everything he has said.   He went to Vegas!

The trip was all paid for.  He won $1500 gambling.  He gambled while his wife shopped.  He was there for a wedding.  He gambled with some friends.  He was happy to win because the trip was all paid for and he didn’t have to pay anything for it.  He said he felt like he won 50K instead of 1500 dollars he was so excited!

Besides reading and blogging, I can watch my App and watched a TV show ... I barely had the volume up and read the captions so I wouldn’t disturb the other people in the waiting room.  (Yes, I have ear plugs but I rarely use them because I forget to charge them, lol).  

As I sit here and listen to every detail of his ridiculous trip (Vegas for a wedding during a Pandemic?) I can’t believe I worried about me making too much noise.  But of course observing and listening is how some poets, like me, come up with poems.  

Often if I’m working on a story and get stuck, I may overhear or have a story told to me that helps me to fill in the gaps and/or to help me figure out how to make a bridge of sorts in the plot line to move the story along.

The guy is still talking as  I type completely unaware anyone else is listening to him.  See, there’s another poem/story idea ... how easy is it to “steal” any kind of sensitive information without even trying?  He’s mentioned posts, sources, and names!

Happy listening!

The Creative Process

The creative process.  What’s yours?  

It seems anything different is in this year.  Does that work for creativity?  

I know I need to do different things, visit places, read, etc to spark my creativity.  I haven’t traveled much this year, but I have done many new things like run / walk a 5 k for charity, blaze paths in the woods, hike around a rather muddy lake, take a picture for my new poem novel (“The Blue Eyed Side” published by Cyberwit in Nov 2020 with my cover photo of the Blue Ridge Parkway), learn to cook eggs (I’m a vegetarian, I eat cheese but not eggs), bounce on a trampoline, celebrate Christmas before Thanksgiving, put up an artificial Christmas tree, and so on.  

There’s a way to keep new things happening in your life.  I had a couple of book signings this year - first ones ever wearing a mask.  I also did a live online poetry reading and sold more books from that than from anything else like it I’ve ever done.

Usually at Christmas, I don’t work on anything for any reason.  This year, though, Christmas is different.  I will see how creative I can and want to be.

Here’s hoping your Christmas is all you want it to be and that it’s a safe one.  ~Merry Christmas, LB

Living the Poetical Life aka What is Poetical Success

Hi, I’m LB Sedlacek.  I’ve been publishing “The Poetry Market Ezine” for the past 20 years!  I just decided to end it after 20 years because I need to have more time for other things that have come into my life.  “The Poetry Market Ezine” was a monthly online email subscription newsletter just for poets with poetry markets, contests, and news.  Usually, I would review a poetry book or chapbook too.  I always signed off here and there with “Here’s wishing you poetical success.”  

But what does it mean to be poetical?  What does success in poetry really look like?

I have a friend who used to talk about someone she knew who was an artist and who believed in living your life through art to express art.  Okay, what does that mean?  I believe it indicated supporting other artists and also attending arts events of all kinds - theatre, art shows, poetry readings, concerts, etc.

Wouldn’t you as an artist prefer to be surrounding yourself with other art related activities along with your own?  Yep, there she goes talking about inspiration ... again.

But I digress (and this isn’t a post about inspiration).  I believe in experiences.  I studied acting while living in Washington, DC - I went to a theatre school in Georgetown of all places.  Later on I went to graduate school in theatre and communications.  When studying acting, you learn several techniques.  One is method where the actor believes in really experiencing what the character goes through to play the part.

Experiences to me are key to my life as a poet.  I am inspired daily (not just by gazing off into the sunsets which I often do ... one of the benefits of living in the mountains is that you can see distance for miles hence very pretty skies, stars) by life itself from things I observe to conversations I have to things I read and even by some of my dreams (I have had some vivid dreams!).   I also have other interests, responsibilities and jobs so I am doing many other things besides thinking about poetry all day.  It brings me into contact with other  possibilities that I wouldn’t have without them.

Traveling and Swimming, besides reading, are two of my favorite things to do (can’t do much of either right now with the pandemic, but before that I did them both all the time) and from there I wrote many place poems.  Same with my love of taking pictures and then writing about them (see @poetryinla on Facebook or Instagram) which is pretty much my own version of ekphrastic poetry.

I like to listen to music, too.  I like to draw.  I enjoy the theatre.  It’s all a good blend, it really is.

Your success as a Poet is what you make it.  You have to grow, not be afraid, fly, have writing rituals, envision succeeding, say yes to opportunities, get out an experience art and life, and take off on your second, third or fifth act.  

I may not be publishing my poetry ezine any more, but I will continuing to provide Poem Critiques and I will keep writing.  I’m simply ready to take off in a new direction.  I’m simply ready to find success in a different way.

The Write Read Space

Do you write in one space?  Do you read in another?

I have an office space where I do most of my writing work.  I also have a couple of places where I like to write and post to my blogs.  I could be anywhere, though, when I get an idea.  My Hey Siri Take a Memo memos sometimes turn out to be quite humorous.  Usually I can figure out what I meant.  When I sit down in my writing space, I will translate those memos into notes.

I use a different space for my reading nook.  I have my favorite chair.  A nice lamp.  A pillow.  That’s all I really need for reading.

I do tend to read anywhere I have time, but when I have more than an hour (usually on the weekends) I will take a stack of books to this spot and spend some time with each one of them.  Currently, I’m reading a new age book, a chick lit book, a couple of self-help non-fiction books, and an entertaining book.  Plus, I’m reading some poetry books, too.  

I love to look at pictures of people who have created their perfect writing area or reading area.  My reading area is far neater than my writing area.  I have many things around my writing space.  I keep all my supplies nearby that I might need for mailing a sold book, highlighting a market listing where I want to submit, etc.  I have a box of swag, marketing materials, certain pens I like to use, notepads, etc.  I don’t think I could ever be content with a “clean desk” writing space and just have a notepad and pencils or a laptop on top.  

It’s the same with my writing nook.  Besides, what I listed above that’s in it, I also have many books in it, too.  

I am working on pairing stuff down and have done that quite a bit, so I wouldn’t say I have too much stuff.  I will admit, I do have too many books in my piles to read even with my being more selective about what I keep on hand.  

My writing space and my reading nook will never make it on anyone’s social media pin up boards, lol.  And that’s okay.  Both are unique to me.

I think the most important thing is to make the space your own.  Make sure it is your space with what you need to be productive or to enjoy your time and then the rest will fall into place!

How Many Ways Can Art Help You be a Writer?

I personally believe that all the avenues of the Arts go hand in hand.  My master’s degree is in Theatre and Communications, I worked in Theatre, Arts Admin, etc.  I enjoy drawing or taking pictures and using the for my book covers or writing ekphrastic poems about them.  Sometimes, I like to simply post my pictures.  I like seeing the photos my friends take, especially when they are on local magazine covers - that’s very cool!

Does each facet of the Arts inspire the other?  I believe so.  I hone my observation skills when I’m looking at things, places, taking pictures, etc which often gives me ideas for my stories or poems.

Recently I’ve had a professional musician to record my first audiobook.  It’s called “The Mailbox of the Kindred Spirit.”  He did a great job bringing my characters to life.  He really breathed a life into them I could’ve never imagined had I’d tried to record the audiobook myself.  Music is ever present in my life, and it’s been encouraged forever.  Before I became a writer, I wanted to be a singer so I majored in Voice for a while and wrote hundreds of songs!  Of course, I do believe that music works its magic with words, too.

Just this afternoon I practiced guitar and ukulele.  When I play music, my thoughts go to other places just like when I read magazines, papers or books!

And don’t forget about dancing!  Ah, the Arts!  Such inspiration, all the way around!

Rain Changes Everything

Why oh why does it seem the world comes to a halt when it rains?  Okay, sometimes it’s justified if the weather is very bad.

Me, I love the rain, obliviously!  One of my hobbies is taking pictures, simply for fun, and I enjoy taking water pictures or ones in the rain.  I like getting pictures of water drops.  Needless to say, I do love the water.

Too much rain, flood warnings, turning your yard into a mini lake, well that’s not too much fun.  I’ve traveled in some terrifically bad storms as well.  One time I was on my way to Asheville and I couldn’t see a thing the rain was so bad.  I pulled over at a Mickey D’s - anyone that know me, knows that I never eat there but on that particular night it was the only place I could find to stop and I got a hot chocolate with whipped cream before I continued on.

I think rain is cleansing.  I looked outside this morning and thought everything looks cleaner in the rain.  And here it’s not that clean because it’s fall and leaves are falling so they are absolutely everywhere.  

I just enjoyed a drive down a country road in the rain.  It was sort of a mist.  Leaves are just beginning to turn colors with the fall.  Horses and cows were grazing in the grass as the rain wasn’t too bad to have the cows lying down yet.  No one was outside.  A few other cars passing here and there, drive thru’s were full because no one wants to get out of their cars in the rain unless they must.

Rain is a necessity most of the time.  Rain to me is soothing.  

What a nice way to end a lazy Sunday, with reading, a country road drive, answering some messages, taking a few rain pictures and oh yes typing this post.  Rain is cleansing, after all.

This Writer Doesn’t Retreat

As a writer, often I see places advertised that you can rent, workshops you can attend or contests you can enter to win a writers retreat.  Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?  A place to go and simply be and just write.  No worries except for day to day things you have to do like eat, sleep, bathe, etc.

I do know when I go on vacation, I always take a laptop, and notepad so I can write.  I’m usually quite productive on those trips.

Somehow, though, I don’t think I’d get all that much done if I was at an isolated place for a week or longer.  I don’t think I could check out of my non-writing life long enough to not worry, to not be constantly checking in to make sure everything was ok at home.  And for me, it would be even worse if there was no wifi or internet.  I don’t live on social media, or have to be constantly connected, but I do like the option of having the ability to make a call or send a text on my smart phone if it’s necessary.

Of course, I have never tried a writer’s retreat.  And it probably won’t come as any surprise that I’m not the type to retreat in any sense of the word, or if I do it’s usually long enough to regroup and start again.  

It depends on what I’m working on as to how much quiet and alone time I need.  I have an office space where I live and it’s also where I practice my guitar and ukulele.  I do have the option of closing the door, and sometimes I do, but usually I don’t.  I like to hear what’s going on or at least be aware of it.  Of course, if the dog is barking at the wind, deer or any of the other assorted wild critters that come up in the woods then I may have difficulty tuning that out.  

I am quiet by nature and don’t like a lot of noise or being around people who talk to much (hello, my whole family is mostly made up of extroverts so that takes some adapting) and I actually prefer to be alone.  I would probably enjoy getting away for a day or two or even a week.  I’m not sure if I would be motivated to write and work on my projects simply because it seems I need that every day jab of my every day life to keep me on task.  I write certain hours each weeknight and different hours on the weekends.  What would I possibly do with all that time to simply think and write?  I imagine the ideas that I get during the early morning, during the night that I cannot always address or sadly remember to write down would become works for me.  Maybe a poem or play, or short story.  Who knows?

My writing is only limited by the time I give it.  And while I may not be willing to retreat somewhere to work on it, I have at least carved out a space by a window in my office to write, and a space near a different one to read.  I take time at lunch most days to read as well.  I read by lamp light in my favorite chair.

Some days, I may give up on my writing and want to quit, but it is a part of me and has been since I was very young.  I take heart that I may have to take a break for a while or stop working on a project and start something new sometimes but that I keep going.  

I am a writer.  And this writer, never retreats!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Plans, What plans?

It seems this year has been one of blowing your plans to well wherever you want to say or insert here.  I know we’ve had to cancel trips, family and business, and change quite a bit of how we go about our daily lives.  

I thought today, who’d ever thought I’d be using a coat rack to hang masks on?  Who ever thought a mask would become an accessory?

This weekend is a holiday weekend.  Usually we take a mini trip somewhere every year.  Due to a family life change, we couldn’t even do that.  We had planned to go somewhere with not a lot of people.

I prefer going somewhere with not a lot of people anyway but it made me very sad to have to cancel our family getaway.  Many people, however, are still traveling and some social distance on vacation better than others.

I, though, don’t want to see pictures of other people’s trips or hear about what a great time they are having, social distancing or not.   It’s hard to even think any of this will pass and things will ever be like they were.

I’ve learned, though, to not think of the past and to be more flexible and on the spot or spontaneous - I’m a planner, we don’t do last minute well, not like ever!  That’s a positive in this.  And I’ve learned plans can be made as long as you are willing to adjust them.  

I use what I call light planning now - and more of going with the flow thinking if this slot of time opens up, then perhaps we can do this or get that done, etc.  I know writers are supposed to use outlines and think about what we’re going to say or write, but to me part of the fun of writing is to figure it out as I go along.

I have to apply that to regular life - figure it out as you go along.  And keep plenty of paper, note pads, whatever to make notes just in case.

Why is the Glove you use on your dominant hand always the one that gets a hole in it?

This is the question I get asked as my boys come in from working outside.  I think they were building flower pots or benches or both.  It’s hot, it’s summer in the south, and I had a pressing matter to attend to inside so that’s where I stayed (except to walk the dog).  

How easy it is to go through work gloves, gardening gloves, winter gloves (we have all 4 seasons here), and plastic gloves?  I’ve had to use my share of plastic gloves (please don’t write to me about filling up the land fill, I’ve been eco conscious since before it became a political issue, my use of plastic gloves is for a medical reason (not my own)) lately so it seems we’re all using gloves.

I wear them in the winter.  I have to, I get cold.  I have several pairs.  

When the question, though, about the glove with the holes (a rather sturdy more expensive type of work glove and not from the $1 bin), I say that sounds like the title of a country western or cowboy song likening it to one of my favorite groups, Riders in the Sky.  (Try listening to them and not smiling, just sayin’.). The reply I get back is that it sounds like a poem title.  

Well, probably not for one of mine.  I have written a cowboy poem or two, but not many.  I tend to follow in Whitman’s footsteps and write exclusively in free verse.  I do enjoy writing social or eco poems (not nature, more along the be aware of the environment verse) and science fiction poems.  

I thought perhaps the quandary of the holes in the glove for the dominate hand seemed more suited to a blog post - well, this one, and not a poem.  It seemed to fit.

So many things don’t seem to fit these days, especially for me.  As much as I keep telling myself the only through is through, I don’t really believe it.  

As a result, planning, for me, has somewhat fallen through the holes in the glove.  And like this post, simply unplanned, maybe life, or at least my day, will be all the better for it.

Take time to See What’s out the Window and Imagine what Isn’t

Recently, I was puttering on Insta, looking at pictures, trying to figure out what to post for my own Insta accounts, trying to pick a Book Cover picture to promote my latest book signing (wearing a mask, from 6 feet, of course!) and I came across my own pictures of sunsets.  I also came across other pictures of people outside on beautiful sunny days.

I prefer rainy days, but I enjoy sunny ones as well.  (No, I’m not going to don a dress and start belting songs from “The Sound of Music” anytime soon.).  It occurred to me, that I never open the curtains except for the plants to get sunlight or maybe I open the blinds at breakfast.  I don’t have a window in my office at work or near my desk in my writing room on purpose - yes, here I am another day dreaming reader who would stare out of the window all day long if I could and then I would get ZERO work done!

But windows are not just for the imagination, I thought.  They are for letting in some sunshine, too.  

What an eye opening experience.  I asked myself, I asked my husband why have I not been opening the curtains more often?  

Of course, there was no good answer to that.  It’s almost as if I forget the sun existed except in instances where I sought it out.

When I was a kid in elementary school, I was super quiet and never ever in trouble ... except for one thing - I would always but always stop and stare out of the windows when I would be in the stairwells.  I would be late for class, I would take too long to run a teacher errand, and I would get caught and get in trouble for it. 

It was my 4th grade teacher who ended my getting in trouble because he actually asked me why do you stop and stare out of the windows all the time?  I told him because I like to see what else is out there and to imagine what isn’t.  

After that, no one minded that I took a little longer to walk past the windows.  

What Goes Around Goes Around (aka There Will be Mud)

Yesterday, we went hiking with some friends around a lake in the mountain off the Blue Ridge Parkway.  There are a few different ways to get on the trail, and the lake itself is something you cross while traveling on the Parkway.  So, while we had been by it here and there, we hadn’t actually been on the trail itself in many years.

While preparing to go hiking, I tried to remember what I could of the last time I’d been on the trail.  The only thing I could remember about it was that it was muddy.

While I like being outdoors and spent most of my childhood in a tree, or climbing one, I’m not really a hardcore hiker.   Without going into TMI and too many details, I am not the most surefooted person in the world even with a hiking stick.  

Thinking there would still be mud, after all these years, I still took my hiking stick.  It’s decorative, heavy and large.  (If I keep going on trails, I need to get some of those lighter weight collapsible hiking sticks to use!). 

What else did I pack?  Bottled water, snacks, a notebook in case I wanted to write something, and a small purse (very tiny) with some first aid supplies. 

The walk was 2.5 miles.  There were lots of tree roots and slick spots, hard for me - not so much for everyone else.  We saw a snake!  Actually, I spotted it coiled up, resting and hiding.  I was proud of myself for not screaming!

We saw other families, warning them of the snake sighting or saying “Hi.”  Some wore masks.  Some didn’t.  And there were plenty of dogs.  And there was also plenty of kayaks, canoes and paddle boards on the lake.

It was a beautiful day for a hike.  It was simply a beautiful place to be.

I’m not sure why it took us so many years to come back to this trail - maybe because I’m not so big on hiking or walking trails much due to my lack of balance.  It was my friend who suggested we go hike the lake trail because she likes to hike.  I am glad that we went.  I’m all for new experiences or even trying something we did once again to see what it’s like the second time!

It’s hard sometimes to try something new.  It’s hard sometimes to back off your typical weekly or weekend routine.

It was a good way to kick off our weekend (later that same day we helped my Mom clean our her freezer, and then we did the normal morning chores list later that afternoon when we got home) and get out and about.  You can’t have experiences if you never “experience” anything.

And if the worst thing you encounter is mud (and a snake), you’ll probably be fine.  I kept my white and pink shoes out of the mud by the way, and I traversed even the trickiest of muddied spots without landing in it.

It’s safe to say, in life, there’s always but always gonna be some kind of mud and you’ll be better off for having been in it, around it, or near it!