Poetry Sunday~ Letting Go

Letting Go
All rights reserved: copyright © Joni Zipp***
His arms outstretched
like a branch on a tree
Reaching for the sky
the leaf, I see, as me.

Like sap I’m drinking
the strength He bestows
each arm extending
as this little leaf grows.

I’m green from nectar
that has nourished my soul
growing in strength
understanding my role.

I’m dangling while drinking
the knowledge is near
The season will make
each and everything clear.

Autumn arrives
a brisk wind will blow
I hear something whisper
“It’s time to let go.”

I shiver and shake I’ve
all that I need.
I’m not just a leaf,
but a perpetual seed.
All rights reserved: copyright © Joni Zipp

Quotation Saturday~

Give it wings, and it will fly...

How True:
When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.
~Otto von Bismarck

The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense.
~Tom Clancy

Thus, in a real sense, I am constantly writing autobiography, but I have to turn it into fiction in order to give it credibility.
~Katherine Paterson

If you can't annoy somebody, there's little point in writing.
~Kingsley Amis

The future belongs to those who believe in their dreams.
~Eleanor Roosevelt

On the craft of writing:

The writer who cares more about words than about story – characters, action, setting, atmosphere – is unlikely to create a vivid and continuous dream; he gets in his own way too much; in his poetic drunkenness, he can't tell the cart – and its cargo – from the horse.
~John Gardner

It's better to write about things you feel than about things you know about.
~L P. Hartley

Perhaps it would be better not to be a writer, but if you must, then write. If all feels hopeless, if that famous 'inspiration' will not come, write. If you are a genius, you'll make your own rules, but if not - and the odds are against it - go to your desk no matter what your mood, face the icy challenge of the paper - write.
~J. B. Priestly

The philosophy of it all:

The reason for evil in the world is that people are not able to tell their stories.
~Carl Gustav Jung

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.
~Confucius

He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.
~Michel de Montaigne

Sharing our stories can also be a means of healing. Grief and loss may isolate us, and anger may alienate us. Shared with others, these emotions can be powerfully uniting, as we see that we are not alone, and realize that others weep with us.
~Susan Wittig Albert

You are a bundle of mysteries. Finding and conquering yourself is a lifetime task. There are unplumbed depths in you full of the rich ore of personal discovery. Explore yourself! There is power in you - the power to change yourself and to change the world; the power to create plans, projects, movements for the common good; the power to inspire and serve.
~Wilfred Peterson

Poetry Sunday~ The Mirror of Me

The Mirror of Me

I look in the mirror who do I see?
Is the Lord’s luminescence shining through me?
I look through the window and all is clear
Nothing obscured; no lurking fear.

Do we project what we want them to believe
are they in the window trying to retrieve,
the me they see or the one left behind
I want to transmit the me that they find.

Selfless in my pursuit of love
a little push and a lot of shove.
I shatter the false illusion of me
giving the truth that you too, will see.

If you behold light, glory and beauty
Shining is faith, my earthly duty.
Watch the candor of which I bestow
Remember the vein of the Lord does flow.

A river of love is radiance seen
a fluid luminance of a glorious sheen.
I am what I am and what He made,
the perpetual mirror that will never fade.

Quotation Saturday

Words of Wisdom:

I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die.
~Isaac Asimov

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other comes from a strong won't.
~Henry Ward Beecher

If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.
~Edgar Rice Burroughs

The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.
~John W. Campbell

Short stories are designed to deliver their impact in as few pages as possible. A tremendous amount is left out, and a good short story writer learns to include only the most essential information.
~Orson Scott Card

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

From people who know:

Books aren't written, they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it...
~Michael Crichton

As with all other aspects of the narrative art, you will improve with practice, but practice will never make you perfect. Why should it? What fun would that be?
~Stephen King

A Final thought:

A short story can be held in the mind all in one piece. It's less like a building than a fiendish device. Every bit of it must be cunningly made and crafted to fit together perfectly and without waste so it can perform its task with absolute precision. That purpose might be to move the reader to tears or wonder, to awaken the conscience, to console, to
gladden, or to enlighten. But each short story has one chief purpose, and every sentence, phrase, and word is crafted to achieve that end. The ideal short story is like a knife - strongly made, well balanced, and with an absolute minimum of moving parts.
~Michael Swanwick

Poetry Sunday ~ Soul Storm

Soul Storm
All rights reserved: copyright © Joni Zipp
Beyond the tempest storm I see
a rainbow waiting there for me
clouds they merge then pass me by
my eye always on the erupting sky.

The storm boils over without warning
lasting through the mumbled morning
I wait with hope for the sun to win
against this beast the angry kin.

He gnaws and gnashes, biting trees
he shreds the land then heads for seas
Finding joy in causing pain
Unleashing torrential slashing rain

I think destruction is his friend
he takes away the ability to mend.
But does he know you have more power
within your grasp through every hour?

The more he taunts and tries to break
the more you seek the rainbows wake.
You know its there; it’s in your view,
holding hope and all that’s true.

The rays burst out of the hidden shell
Erasing the storms evil spell.
the arc of promise rears its head
the rainbow shows your faith’s been fed.
All rights reserved: copyright © Joni Zipp

A Blind Mans Journey

Drums in the deep....

As many of you may or may not know, my fiancé Steven, has gone blind. It has only been four months since he’s been completely blind and before that it was slowly diminishing. He can no longer partake of the beautiful sunrise, he can no longer see the breathtaking blossoms of spring. All he has, are drums in the deep. Challenges are at our doorstep with every waking day and we endure.

Our lovely government has been of little help in helping us. We have food, for that I am grateful. But the medical help has been a no-show. We’ve applied for assistance of every kind so that this man can become a productive working man in society once again, but our Government would rather have him disabled for two years before they offer him Medicare.

He needs a cornea transplant and a cataract transplant, of which we’ve found help in the Lions Club. They are willing to pay for the operation, but it’s the prior visits and infections and the follow-up treatment that we need help from the government with. I realize now that our government isn’t for the disabled of society and that is truly sad in the “Land of the Free”.

With all of this surrounding us, we have turned to the only thing we know and that is our Lord and Savior. Without our faith, I’m certain we would have been washed up and left on the shores for the crabs to pick at.

Steven has started a blog of his own, which will document his journey into the depths of doom, only to be lifted by spiritual growth that comes from all trials. He’s a pretty good writer if I do say so myself, and his path is one for all of us to admire. He’s strong, brave, and quite the exceptional man, and he’s mine! lol

I do believe everything happens for a reason, and through his blindness, I can see. John 9:39 says: And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

I cannot imagine my sight being taken away, and I think we all take for granted the gift of sight. As an experiment, blindfold yourself for an hour. Just one hour. Through this experiment, you’ll learn that our sight is a gift and one we should treasure. Imagine life where you can only use touch,taste,smell, and sound. Life without the fifth sense would be quite a challenge for any of us.

My journey is far from over and my blogging days have only just begun. As followers of mine, please take a peek at this wonderful new blog, The Drums in the Deep. Leave a comment if you’d like. Support your fellow brother and let him know... he’s not alone on this journey.

John 12: 40 states: He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

Poetry Sunday~ Seek and Find

To Seek is To Find
***

This love is so deep; so overwhelming
it sweeps me off of my feet and I’m
transferred to a loftier place in time.
It’s all mine and all His.

He owns my soul as I melt in the stillness;
I’m forever in awe of His amazing grace.
Dying was not enough for me; He picks
me up off the floor and embraces me.

While in His grasp he dances with me;
we spin in an array of spacious circles
as I'm left floating weightless; comfortably
my head is nestled on His shoulder.

I drink from his overflowing cup of devotion,
lay back against Him and breathe deeply,
feeling his heartbeat in rhythm with my own
in the essence of peace that surrounds Him.

Why has he chosen me to be the love
of His life and I Him, my everlasting affection?
The more intensely I seek...the higher I find.
the further I find...the deeper I love.

Quotation Saturday

"People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff.
I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy ~~
and I keep it in a jar on my desk."
~ Stephen King

One nice thing about putting the thing away for a couple of months before looking at it is that you start appreciate your own wit. Of course, this can be carried too far. But it's kind of cool when you crack up a piece of writing, and then realize you wrote it. I recommend this feeling.
~Steven Brust

Writing wasn’t easy to start. After I finally did it, I realized it was the most direct contact possible with the part of myself I thought I had lost, and which I constantly find new things from. Writing also includes the possibility of living many lives as well as living in any time or world possible. I can satisfy my enthusiasm for research, but jump like a calf outside the strict boundaries of science. I can speak about things that are important to me and somebody listens. It’s wonderful!
~Virpi Hämeen-Anttila

I never had any doubts about my abilities. I knew I could write. I just had to figure out how to eat while doing this.
~Cormac McCarthy

Writing isn't generally a lucrative source of income; only a few, exceptional writers reach the income levels associated with the best-sellers. Rather, most of us write because we can make a modest living, or even supplement our day jobs, doing something about which we feel passionately. Even at the worst of times, when nothing goes right, when the prose is clumsy and the ideas feel stale, at least we're doing something that we genuinely love. There's no other reason to work this hard, except that love.
~Melissa Scott

A word is a bud attempting to become a twig. How can one not dream while writing? It is the pen which dreams. The blank page gives the right to dream.
~Gaston Bachelard

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.
~Buddha

The pen is the tongue of the mind.
~Miguel de Cervantes

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ebb and Flow of Writing

Like waves meeting the shoreline writing comes in, washes over the granules, recedes, all the while leaving a treasure behind, a shell or lost item of the sea. It lies on the shore in wait, for the writer to expose it to the world.

The ebb and flow of writing comes and goes. Sometimes we are pulled to write our hearts out and the words lay on the page like butter and jelly on toast, just waiting for someone to enjoy the delicious taste!

Have you ever had the urge to write? I mean have you ever just been sitting in the morning rays of the sunshine and it calls to you to write something? It happens to me all the time. I’m out here with rows and rows of cornfields, enormous trees, looming barns, wildlife wandering the grounds and boy does a story come to mind.

Writing is a craft that should be honed and nurtured. Something like a new puppy. You’ve found the perfect puppy (your writing) you think it is the best (your writing rocks) then you need to take care of it like a baby. Your writing needs taking care of. The only way to do that is write on a daily basis. You can write 500 words a day, come away feeling satisfied, or walk away feeling like there is unfinished work, then you head back to the keyboard and begin writing another five-hundred words.

I would save editing for the revision stages. If we look over our writing as we write we’re losing precious seconds where a thought or idea might get washed out to sea. Like a buoy it will stay afloat and settle out there, but the words are always calling to you for you to come and find them for fine tuned navigating. Write like there is no end in sight. The sea seems to be endless doesn’t it? So why not write until you can’t write no more. Write endlessly, never to stop.

When we stop... we forget that waves will once again come rushing at us like the waves unleashed in a hurricane. Writing is in us and it calls to us, so why not give in and be led by the sights and sounds of your world.

Inspired Writing

A Double Rainbow!

I’m often asked, “Where do you find the Inspiration to write?”

Well honestly I can say, YOU! It is you who inspires me to write each and every day. Sometimes I’m at a loss for inspiration so I need to search and search hard to find the one inspired topic that will get YOUR fingers tapping also!

Sometimes I do prompts. Prompts are helpful in getting that story started when you’re at a loss for words to come creeping out of the keyboard. Maybe the prompt will say, “Look at this picture of a sunset, flower, drainage ditch, unending highway,etc,” and write a 500 word piece. Oftentimes 500 words can lead into a thousand and before you know it you have a Short Story ready for your friends (in a writing workshop) to review and help with revising.

A prompt can also assist you in putting some muscle behind your muse. It will have you pumping out your writing and you’ll be sitting there wondering how you ever got to 500 words. There’s a really cool link over there to the left, Pumping Your Muse, produced my my dear friend Donna Sunblad, a published author, who herself is pumping out tales like candy on a conveyor belt.

Inspiration can also come from things that are happening throughout your day. Let’s say you go to a fast food restaurant and you are seated behind a bunch of gabby teenagers talking about life. Well, there is a story just waiting to be written. You don’t say that you eavesdropped, you write a story from what you overheard. Be creative and embellish what you heard and you, as a writer are good at embellishing, right? RIGHT!

Now for my poetry I need a different form of inspiration. I write spiritual verse, so I need to look at things from a spiritual perspective. When I see funny shaped clouds it inspires me to write about the beauty of the sky and from whence they came. A rainbow can inspire a multitude of poems, and my inner faith often leads me to the path of writing poetic muse for the soul.

I already have over 50 poems of some of my best spiritual poems together and as soon as I find an editor that accepts poetry, I’ll let you know. I would aim at Epress but they don’t do poetry anymore. I have a lot of respect for the editors and people who run the place so they were my first choice. But one never knows, time can change and things rearrange and maybe they’ll have a change of heart. Until then, you’ll have to dip your fingers into my poetry on here and enjoy the feeling you get from being inspired too.

Get inspired and WRITE RIGHT!