Poems and Ponderings

Are you willing To reach within Into your darkest self To find your soul?

Here is a link on her workshops for anyone interested: http://www.nataliegoldberg.com/workshop.html

Yesterday evening I decided to enter one of my poems into a competition. First time ever! So let's see...  I have also been made aware of the fact that a lot of the competition organizers/publishers request material that has not previously been published, web or otherwise, so in future I might only publish bits and pieces of my poetry.

Natalie Goldberg writes in her book -Writing Down the Bones, Shambahala 1983, page 8 'Go for the jugular' If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it. It probably has lots of energy.... Page 9 ... at the beginning you may feel great emotions and energy that will sweep  you away, but don't stop writing.... I have filled to many journals to count and most of them during my time of grief, when my husband passed away, when my beloved dog passed away, when I went on my 9 months overseas odyssey, filling the pages with my thoughts, my sorrows, my pains, my triumphs and my defeats.  Reading through some of it now I find those pages where heavy tears fell down on them, but I continued writing, there were days when I became so angry I literally threw the book into the next corner, -to much french blood in my veins, lol- but I continued writing. I simply went for the jugular....

Roberta Allen writes in her book ' Fast Fiction' ...Writing is energy, psychic energy. When the desire is really strong, there's a lot of energy in that desire. The more energy the better.... Without energy, writing is dead, it is just words... It's exciting to start something new. It's also scary. It's okay to be scared. In fact, the more scared you are the better. There's a lot of energy in being scared.... So think of your fear as a place to begin. From my own experience I can 100 % support this statement. But take it a bit further, any kind of strong emotion, such as love, loss, grief, anger, any kind of strong emotion will help you to write! Of course we should Freewrite/timed writing, every day, no matter how our emotions are! When I read through my journals and my poems, the strongest writings were when I was in some kind of strong emotional state. Start writing, don't think, sit down and allow your pen/cil to move freely. Write about your love, y

Nandini You felt my pain And made it your own You felt my anger And made it your own Until one day Your time had come to go I felt your pain And knew it was time To let you go on to your last journey Heavy lay your head in my hand You amber eyes looking into mine One last time you trusted me As so often you did before To do the right thing To make you whole again Go in peace my friend Until one day You will great me At the rainbow bridge Guiding me again And I will trust you Following your lead As I had done so many times before Freestyle, 2010 © JSZ, Angelique A farewell to my trusted and beloved Ridgeback Nandini, I helped her into this world on the 8. October 2002 and was with her as she left this world on the 27. February 2010. Nandini I am still missing you!

Today I had time again to go through some of my old journals and came across this little freestyle poem. Eagles are close to my heart, so they will always find their ways into my writings. How do I get my poems, easy actually, I write in FREESTYLE about something that is on my mind or a topic I choose, usually about 4 pages and then I leave it. I don't look at what I have written for a day or two sometimes even longer and then one day whilst reading through it I will pick passages I like, those that - talk - to me and from those I create a poem. Eagles circling high Standing in the open field on a clear crisp morning one of these perfect days Eyes wandering to the distance Eagles circling high  in the sky calling, calling for its mate a sound so lonely so forlorn Watching it circling  high in the sky my heart and soul opens and I am letting go and fly with the winds of life Freestyle, 2008