One excuse I haven't been blogging: Kelsey and I do our best rock star imitation at a recent poetry/old time music performance. Tens of thousands of chanting fans not pictured.
So, when I last posted in late April, I really wasn’t planning to take off from blogging for the entire extended summer! But here we are in September, and I find myself with plenty of ideas to share with you. First, though, I’ve realized I should cross-link to some of my posts on the Risk a Day blog, where I did NOT take a summer vacation. Here are several which relate to writing and/or living a creative life:
- A Daily Audacious Goal: Can I Do It? Can You?
Twice in recent months, I’ve heard people mention a commitment to daily goals which struck me as totally audacious. First, my mentor Bill Brown mentioned that he and his friend Jeff Hardin were writing and exchanging a new poem EVERY DAY. That’s my emphasis, not Bill’s. Every day? How in the world? I thought. Read more
- Five Things I Learned from Pursuing My Daily Audacious Goal
On January 4th I set the daily audacious goal of writing or editing a poem 5 days a week until today, February 4th. Meeting my goal would mean I’d have 23 new or revised poems by today. The actual count as of today: 16. You – or I – could look on that as a failure, but I’ve decided it was a resounding success. Read more
- The Grace of Gradual Change
I think we all know that any REAL risk will push our comfort zones, but I’ve realized in the past few weeks that some zones are more uncomfortable than others. Read more
- Be Beautiful in Your Fearless Imperfection
In April I was a guest on River Jordan Live, a program broadcast on Radio Free Nashville and streamed over the web. River, a fellow author, invited me to help her celebrate National Poetry Month, and I was quite eager to do so. I love talking poetry. Read more
- I Risk Feeling Like a Loser – a Nobody!
In early June, NPR aired an engaging tribute to Russian poet Andrei Voznesensky, who had died just a few days before. One part of the story, which was by writer and book critic Alan Cheuse, almost took my breath away. Voznesensky, Cheuse said, filled sports stadiums with tens of thousands of fans. That in itself is amazing, but there was something else: All those fans chanted Voznesensky’s poems with him. Read more
- 18th Century Rules for 21st Century Mentoring
Having my first book published has marked a real threshold in my creative writing life. Not only is it a thrilling accomplishment in itself, but it’s also opened up a lot more opportunities for me to teach and mentor. (In fact, I’m now officially a mentor in The Writer’s Loft low-residency program at Middle Tennessee State University.) I’ve been incredibly blessed to have some wonderful mentors who I’m now attempting to model. But I also decided it was important to establish some rules for myself as a mentor. Read more
I hope one or more of these articles may speak to where you are with your creative life right now. And I must say, if you’ve never tried it before, do consider a daily audacious goal. I’m doing it again this month, I found it so helpful earlier this year!
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