Saturday night was a poetry reading for The Project, the poetry writing group with which I have been a member since 1998. When we began, we all worked at Mosby Publishing (now owned by Elsevier) and called it The Project so we could discuss and email with each other at work and fool the bosses into thinking it was about work.

Now, most of us have gone our separate ways professionally, but we continue to "meet" via email. Every month we send a poem to the group, and a week later, we send notes to each other on the poems. Twice a year we meet in person for a reading. Although some months finding a quiet place in my mind to write a poem is a struggle, most of the time we all manage to turn one in. I know, for myself, having this deadline has kept me writing and is really worthwhile. 

Pictured here is Kirk, at whose home the reading took place. We had wine, poetry, and friends; a winning combination.

This is the last week of National Poetry Month, so I am going to celebrate by sharing one of my own poems.

An office supply salesperson came into ImagineInk Publishing this morning. In the course of a rather strange conversation about how she spends her time, she said, “I’m waiting for the zombie apocalypse.”

 

The minute she left, I googled “zombie apocalypse.” To my surprise, my search brought up a number of sites, including “How to survive a zombie apocalypse.” Step one: Know your zombies. FYI, you need to shoot them in the brain, which is problematic because their brains are small.

 

My point is not to tell you how to protect yourself from an apparently imminent zombie attack, but rather that we can find articles on virtually any subject and can spent a disturbing amount of time reading them. When your subject of interest is broader, like “writing,” you can be bombarded with books, eBooks, articles, blogs, websites, Facebook posts, Twitter tweets, webinars, conferences…the list of information sources seems never-ending. A sampling of topics delivered to me today alone includes “10 Tips for Writing Excellence,” “12 Stages of the Hero’s Journey,” “27 Ways to Promote Your Book,” “5 Ways to Get More Twitter Followers,” and “Don’t Start a Blog Without Reading This.” How can anyone keep up with all we should read and still have time left for writing? The obvious solution would be to stop reading and just write, but keeping up with your field is essential if you want your work to be relevant.

 

I’m thinking the best solution is akin to feeding bananas to a baby. The food keeps getting shoved into our mouths, but we can’t take it all in, so a lot of it oozes out around the edges and is lost. But we keep opening our mouths and swallowing as much as we can because we love it. And that’s all right because at least we get some; enough to nourish us; more than we had before. Maybe we should just relax and enjoy the meal, and work to develop our sense of which articles we should read and which could be skipped, leaving us time to write.

 

Read, write, and enjoy it all. And above all, keep an eye out for those zombies.

Deborah Bowman, MFA

President, ImagineInk Publishing  

April is National Poetry Month. I’ve been writing poetry since I was a child—some good, some bad, mostly in-between. I’ve been asked to speak this Monday about my poetry-writing group and to read some of my poetry to the Wednesday Club, an organization dedicated to the educational, civic, and cultural needs of St. Louis. Aside from asking them the obvious question (Why is the Wednesday Club meeting on Monday?), I’m looking forward to finding out how relevant poetry is in their lives.

I admit to being an impatient reader of poetry. If a poem hits me when I first read it, even if only a phrase hits me, I’ll keep a copy and read it many times. I found a poem by S. Jane Sloat the other day, entitled “Riding Backwards on the Train,” which contains the lines, “But instead of feeling I’ll arrive, the world / appears to pour towards whatever / I’m getting away from.” That’s just delicious! I’ll be keeping that one. But if I don’t immediately understand what the poet is trying to say, I’m quick to toss it aside and never try to read it again. Life is too short. I’m not saying that’s the right attitude, but it’s what I tend to do. Move on, keep pouring toward my goals. But is that good? Probably not.

Recently, I heard someone say she was nostalgic for boredom. That made me think of when I was a child, growing up on a farm, writing stories and poetry, mostly about longing to get away from the farm. But I had time then to quiet myself and listen to my thoughts; to read great authors and listen to their thoughts. Boredom can spark creativity. I, too, am sometimes nostalgic for boredom.

My poetry group is called The Project. When we started, we all worked at Mosby Publishing in St. Louis and met on our lunch hours. We called it The Project so we could (shhh!) talk to each other or email about it at work without anyone realizing it wasn’t work-related. Now several of us have gone on to different companies, but we have continued to “meet” via email, writing and sending each other a poem every month and then sending each person notes on his or her poem. One poem per month is not a lot to ask, but some months, the inspiration just isn’t there. When that happens, I can often find the needed creativity if I turn off all technology and find a quiet place, inside and outside of myself. Turning off the TV is easy. Turning off the thoughts that run foot races through my mind is something else. But if I sit in the quiet long enough, creativity sometimes shows up with its running shoes on.

When my kids were living at home, we often had Oreo writing parties. We would sit on a bed with a pen and a pad of paper and write—poetry, short stories, novels, random thoughts—while munching on Oreo cookies. Sitting with someone else who is writing can inspire—or guilt—you into writing as well. The cookies didn’t hurt, either.

So this is what I’ve learned: Poetry should grab you. Belonging to a writing group can keep you working, even when the inspiration isn’t there. A group called The Wednesday Club can meet on a Monday without serious repercussions. And quiet and Oreos spark creativity. Rules to live by.

I encourage you to share your reactions or thoughts, or to see what others have said, by clicking on “Comments” below. Thanks for reading, and have a happy National Poetry Month!

Deborah Bowman, MFA
President, ImagineInk Publishing

My favorite comic strip shows Peppermint Patty, of Peanuts fame, musing, "I wonder if they have fractions in heaven." Marcie says, "No fractions, Sir...no decimals, either." "How about commas?" asks Patty. Again, Marcie answers: "There have to be commas, Sir...We can't avoid them." Sadly, Patty says, "Eternity's going to be longer than I thought."

This is not an unusual attitude. Punctuation, in fact writing in general, is difficult for many. I have been lucky in my life to have been surrounded by family and teachers who encouraged me to write from the time I could hold a pencil, so I have grown to love writing, as well as reading. I hope that, through this blog, I can encourage any readers I might have to find joy in writing and reading...to develop a love of our language and a desire to use it well for the expression of your ideas.

This week I heard Jean Auel speak at the St. Louis County Library. She is the author of a series of books called Earth's Children, starting with Clan of the Cave Bear. Most recently, she published the sixth in the series, entitled Land of Painted Caves. I believe they said she has sold 46 million books. What I can tell you for certain is that she seemd friendly and down-to-earth. We chatted about her complexion, as she signed my books; she doesn't look 75, and I asked for her secret. I figured that was a conversation that might make her remember me, if I ever meet her again. In case you are wondering, her only secret is "good genes."

Her talk was really interesting; before she wrote Clan of the Cave Bear, she had never written anything except some technical pamphlets. But she was interested in the subject matter of Neanderthals and Cro Magnons and wondered whether she could write a short story. That short story turned book length. When she read what she had written, she realized it was dry and uninteresting, so she started to flesh it out with details...and it turned into six books, all springing from the germ of an idea and a lot of research. I just love it when authors are willing to talk about their writing process.

If you are on Facebook, please become a fan of ImagineInk Publishing's Facebook page. I post a quotation every day, often about writing, and sometimes a comic strip or photo.In fact, you can see a photo of Jean Auel on our FB page.

More later...Keep writing!

Deborah Bowman, MFA
President, ImagineInk Publishing Co.