archive: 9 february 2006: writing goals

I think tonight I am going to get my writing journal and sit down in Ground Effects and try writing, maybe listen to music. I wrote a list about my grandmother Monday evening when sitting in Live Wire. The list are all little visual memories of her, my interaction with her, things she said, etc. I am going to continue working on that list and then I will focus on one or two memories and expand them, create a poem.

Oddly enough, some of my best poetry comes from this technique. Doing this brings me back to the moment of the past, and what I remember feeling, seeing, hearing, and sometimes the tiny details. Of course it is all coated with the present and with hindsight, but that is usually the point. How does the past affect the present? And how does the present affect my perception of the past?

I haven't written any poems about my grandmother, and since she died in November 2004, I haven't really dedicated any time to honoring her in any way. I have been dealing with my father's death (same year, March) and writing about my relationship with him, disappointment, and difference.

I should actively write a series of poems about family and relationships, mine in particular, of course. It could be a personal collection to give to the family I still have.

I could do the same about friends, too. I tried to do that once my senior year, writing poems in sonnet form (not style, mind you) about two specific friends, Jessica and Jordan... but then when I tried to write anyone else's it just didn't work. Actually, those two didn't really work either. Sonnet is so limiting. Those two poems are in year 1996, Jessica and Jordan.
EDIT: I just realized, OMG, that was TEN YEARS AGO!

ok. Back to work, although it is almost lunch time. woo!
OH... and both my alarms did not go off this morning, and I woke at 9, got to work at 9:30. That sucked. Its all because I stayed up till about 3 a.m. watching the "movie" and thinking about it a lot.

I AM going to go write tonight. I am also going to take those two BIG boxes of things to Goodwill. So much, so much to do!