Tuesday, January 8, 2008

About me...

A couple of years ago, I decided to go back to school and earn a degree in anticipation of retiring from my regular job in 4-5 years. I have a great job and love the university where I work but I have wondered what would I actually like to do if I could pick anything….much like “what do I want to be when I grow up?” I enjoy writing and I do various forms of it in my current position (proposals, speech writing, business writing, etc), so being a writer was my first thought. I doubted, though, that it could be a serious career option.

This past semester , I gave in to my inner voice and took a creative writing class. Simply put…wow! I now know (and can admit) what I want to be when I group up. To say I was overwhelmed but excited is an understatement. I can now actually envision myself with a writing career. So, while a large part of me now seems in a big hurry to learn as much about writing as fast as I can, the rest of me knows that I have plenty of time….and a full time job and part-time education to concentrate on too. The writing course last semester created the habit of writing regularly and simply writing for fun (a very new phenomenon to me!) I’ve started keeping a writing journal and (per a requirement for the course) submitted two pieces of work to a literary magazine…one of which was accepted! So soon I can actually proclaim to be a published writer.

I'm very new at writing poetry--and not very good at it yet. The poem below was part of an assignment for the creative writing class. Obviously it's personal in nature, butI thought very appropriate for my first creative piece posted to the new blog. Enjoy....or at least offer only thoughtful, gentle criticism. I'm still working on my writer's thick skin. :)

(Sorry - I removed the poem I had placed here. I've tweaked it a little and hope to submit it to a literary magazine. Amy - thank you for your feedback!)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, color me impressed – I think “Undecided Soles” is very well done.

The first line “in the middle of the road she stands” tells me (in a poetic manner) that the narrator is at a point where a decision is needed (after all, one doesn’t stand in the middle of any road for very long, lest they get run over). “blindly forward” meaning the future of that path is unknown which can be frightening, risky, the actual destination unknown (looming unknowns). I like the imagery you’ve used – one path (the new and unknown, the risk) is rough and hot, imagine walking on bare feet on such terrain – the other path familiar, cool, which is how our lives can become – cool, comfortable, easy, secure, safe. I’m reminded of when we do tend to go barefoot – we don’t tend to do it in new, risky or unknown situations but do tend to do it when we’re home and comfortable and safe so I think it’s a nice analogy. I like the imagery of “she glances behind” and then “takes a step”.

Very nicely done.

Amy