Ciúnas

Words have power… Sometimes more than we realize. Take the title of this post for an example. It is a Gaelic word for silence. Yet, when spoken silence is broken.

Too many times we speak with no regard for those who hear. We react to our own version of things. It is a flaw in how human beings are made. We are tender underneath. We react when we are in pain, and we are not always nice. I, myself, have been guilty of this. If I were honest, the only regrets I have in life were just that. Speaking from a place of my own pain, without consideration for who I may have hurt in the process.

This quote has been popping up in my life a lot lately. Though I don’t know who said it. It has made me think. Yes, I am crazy. The muddled mind of a half mad poet and all…. But I don’t try to be cruel. I make mistakes. I apologize. But I also try to learn. I am trying to practice ciunas. The silence. The pause.

Some days I need to practice it so I don’t hurt me. Your inner voice is just as easily able to harm as your outer voice can. Only there it just adds to the bleeding. I think that is the hard part… Silencing that damn inner voice.

I struggle with mine. I know that my friends see me as better than I see myself. I asked for a gift for my birthday this year. It will be in two weeks on the thirteenth. I asked for my friends and family to tell me what they liked about me and what irked them. I got five comments. One was a joke (I think, with the guy in question it may have been serious) about more “nekkid pics.” Two couldn’t think of an irksome quality. The other two… Well both of them said the only thing that irked them about me was my self doubt. Self doubt is one of any artist’s sharpest blades.

I think that I am going to try to pack mine in the back of the drawer. It is time to be the artist who I was meant to be. I will today tell the inner voice “Ciúnas! ” and I suggest that you do the same.

Poet spotlight

Hi! This is another spotlight on my amazing poet friends. Today I want to introduce Kim D. Bailey.

When I asked her for a poem to use to introduce her to you all she sent me this powerful piece, which she told me had been published in a blog. I was so tickled that she agreed to be introduced to you all. Her work is often powerful and has a strong voice  throughout it.

How To Help

by Kim D. Bailey


When momma cooked supper I washed
the dishes, while my sister dried, caressing


them like a crystal ball, and we saw
our unmapped futures. Unrequited.


Babies are made this way, we clench
our teeth hold our breath hope for more, sometimes


less. We got what we prayed for, more
than we expected. Nonrefundable.


Momma can’t wash the dishes anymore.
We wring our hands, howl at windmills, feel


the earth fall upon our skin; it clings like
molasses until we are face down. Asphyxiated.


I try to help. My words are sucked
away, my breaths are shallow. A


mountain has formed in the curve of
my spine. My chest is gravel. Scatter


me on fields of
cotton, clothe the world.

 

 


Kim D. Bailey is a 2016 Pushcart Nominee for nonfiction, and a 2018 Best of the Net Nominee for poetry. She is published in several online and print journals and in audio, including but not limited to Firefly Magazine, Tuck Magazine, The Scarlet Leaf Review, Writer’s Digest, Anti Heroine Chic, The Song Is, The 52 Men Podcast, and Tupelo Press. Kim was a columnist for Five 2 One Literary Magazine from June 2016 to October 2017, writing to Breaking the Legacy of Silence. She has also held editorial positions with Firefly Magazine and Sick Lit Magazine. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two dogs.

Poetry

Poetry

Following poetry prompts on tumblr and I ran across a prompt… A visit to a grave. This resulted.

Word games

I’m considering adding this to my patreon as a regular segment. How many word games do you know? I know several. Today we will look at my favorite. Most likely I will be doing the others over on patreon.

Not sure when I started playing this game…. I know I would play it as a teenager. The rules are simple…

Pick a letter A-z… I have been known to pick them all…

Using the letter chosen give me a list (without using Google or looking it up any other way.) I usually choose names, but it can be more challenging. (I. E. Verbs, fruits, drinks, authors, vehicles, etc) but everything in that list must begin with the chosen letter and must be of the topic. The goal is to do better than before. My best was two notebook pages front and back filled three names wide.

Not that I want to make it awkward for you to respond…. But I will (mostly as an example) put my “B” names here.

Look below

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Bethany Bryan

Bryant Bellamy

Boris Beulah

Belle Bella

Benjie Beni

Benjamin Boots

Barry Barbara

Barbie Bunyon

Ban Barrack

Bailey Bo

Beau Boa

Benson Bligh

Brenda Brand

Brandi Brandon

Belladonna Brittany

Beth Bryanna

Ok… See how to do it? I can do more but I wanted just to show how. How many words in your list? And what is your list? C’mon, play with me.

Here ye!! here ye!!

PSST! Hey…Hey you! Yeah YOU reading this post! Guess what’s coming??

That’s right, it’s Creative’s Rising EZine time again!!! The Spring issue will be out next month so you NEED to go subscribe and get on this bandwagon!! It will be filled with amazing, talented creatives that you have GOT to see (no, I am not one this time). I am looking forward to seeing this issue!

So get over to this link and subscribe NOW!:
bit.ly/CreativesRisingSubscription You WON’T regret it — I promise!!

Thursday Triple Thud

Three days of insomnia has me Maudlin and Derpy…and oddly enough it has made me more productive. I have been writing more in the last three days than I have a month prior. I feel like my brain is on fire…and it is not necessarily a bad thing. I was starting to worry….2019 has not been seeing much writing from me. I had ideas…folders full. It was not a lack of ability, or ideas. Ability never leaves. Not truely, though we sometimes feel like it has. It is similar to the question of whether you would want to have talent or skill. I have, I think, broached that topic on this blog before.

No, my issue was something broader. I couldn’t seem to create. I was in a fog. I could write, but it was like pouring molasses out in winter. Last year I was writing like a madwoman. Poetry and novel both were going out well. It was colder and felt like winter last year. This year it has been muddy and wet, and I have been feeling it. I am a spring child. I love my cooler temps, but I hate the deep cold of winter. I have not had the winter I was expecting. It feels like I am whining.

So, three days ago I sat in front of my computer. I usually do my writing on my phone. The computer is for editing and layout usually. I just wanted to try something different, hoping to snap myself out of the funk. Routine is often a writer’s best tool…I am the exception to that. I get panicky over routine. I obsess over it. Which takes away productivity. So, I was trying to put some randomness back into my writing. I chose a story that I had barely touched. Something I have less invested in. So if I failed in writing it would not hurt Serena’s Life, Guilt and Undeath. I got a little over a thousand words written. Suddenly, Poetry and stories were flowing.

Then my brain wouldn’t shut down. It was like I had to make up all of the time I had lost. So today I am tired. This wasn’t what I planned to post, but for the life of me, I cannot remember what I did have planned. I hope to sleep tonight, but I will settle for just relaxing today. I will be doing more writing. I think I will put the computer in a rotation to make the writing easier. I use evernote for most of my writing anyway, and I have it on my computer to make things easier.

Nothing I can do about the insomnia, it happens often enough. I can control my writing though, to some extent. I can seek to improve my craft, make it easier for me to do what I need to do.

Fridays, I usually do writing advice on my Blog, Instead I will be posting a couple of word games to give my brain a break. So, I will leave you with a question. What do you do for routines? What can you do to improve your outlook, or your craft?

Wednesday wacko

*image acquired from Google all rights to its owner.

I apologize for missing yesterday… Life hit a little harder than I expected yesterday. Nothing major, just a whole lot of little stuff that knocked me into overload. It happens, probably far more often than it should.

So I wanted to go lighter with my blog today to lighten my own mood. Monday night my boyfriend surprised me with a dozen lovely white roses.

It was just for the smile he knew it would ellict in me. He could have gotten red, but I prefer the more unusual. Yeah, I know white isn’t that unusual but it is not what everyone else would want.

I posted that picture on my Instagram with a poem inspired by it. (go look.) Now I can sit in my dining room enjoying the beautiful smell. I think that I will press one of the flowers.

The winner of the drawing I do with my newsletter gave me an interesting challenge. I have a games section in my Tea party that goes out every Friday. If you at least attempt to play with me via email you get entered in a monthly raffle. The winner is given an option, a handwritten poem or a drawing or a digital art personally done by me. (So if you have a favorite poem by me or want me to draw something specific for you… Join my Tea party and play with me.) You can get up to three entries a month. Anywho, the winner for February asked me for something that I am looking forward to drawing. January also chose a drawing.

I am nervous about an event I am doing on the second. I will be setting up a table at a local community fundraiser to sell my resin and jewelry pieces. The event happens on the first Saturday of each month. People gather and set up tables of wares to sell. The community center sells hot dogs to raise funds to stay open. My nerves were already bad, but the co-ordinator did not help. She told me that there was already two selling jewelry supposed to be there. If this actually pulls off I have been thinking about going to a local flea market and doing a table. I have to convince my nerves not to bolt. Wish me luck.

Well, now that I have been all over the map, what do we do? Oh… Well I guess we can make paper hats…. directions here

And off we go again. Cya tomorrow.

Poetry Monday

Remember when I saw that I know many talented poets? Here is a wonderful poet, D. Gabrielle Jensen.

D. Gabrielle Jensen is an artist of many mediums but words are a life-long passion. A traditional Bachelor’s degree education in English and Creative Writing from Colorado State University-Pueblo led to more than a decade as a freelance web content creator, music reviewer, author, and poet. When she is not writing, she is bringing art to the world through cosmetology, jewelry design, and photography. She loves things that begin with the letter “C” – coffee, cats, conversation, cities, concerts, crowds, chaos – and things that don’t – airports, traveling, other humans, macro photography, urban decay, macro photography of urban decay, the beauty of flaw.

Check her out on her website!

Thursday thud.

I have nothing to offer you today or tomorrow. I am sorry. This week has wiped me out. I have been under the weather for nearly two weeks. Nothing serious… Just generally sick. Then Monday Joe had to get an scope from both sides to see what is going on with his health. My angel has a weird mass in the bone of her left jaw and she was sick last week with the stomach bug that I have been dealing with. She had surgery yesterday to biopsy that mass. All told I am wiped. Add in my grandson being sick and me unable to go see him… And this writer has no words. So please forgive me. Blog will be back Monday, I have another poet spotlight planned.