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About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write.
Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground.
 
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Everyday Canvas
"Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself."
CHARLIE CHAPLIN
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.
David Whyte
This is my supplementary blog in which I will post entries written for prompts.
October 31, 2018 at 10:57pm October 31, 2018 at 10:57pm
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Prompt: The Elephant In The Room. What was your elephant in the room and how did you resolve it?
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I have an elephant in the room, right now. It is called NaNo or November jitters. Yet one more year, I am thinking of how in the world, with all the distractions I get throughout the day, I’ll be able to write 50 K words and finish the d&*! thing.
Yet, I’ve done this before and several times over. So I think back and give myself a pat on the back and tell me, “You can do it again!”
Okay, so appeased, I’ll go about my day, performing my daily routine and any crazy stuff that springs at me as usual. Still, my mind is going to be on that elephant in the room.
“Why are you mumbling to yourself?” my hubby will ask, and I’ll say, “Nothing!” But I’ll know within me that what I called “nothing” is the elephant in the room, which is the novel that will invade my thoughts every single minute.
What else can be my elephant in the room? Mediocrity, of course. Now the fear is what if my novel is mediocre or less? “So what?” I say to me. “Just enjoy the ride. This is what it is. Just a ride.”
This means I will be ignoring the elephant, and instead, talking about kittens or cockroaches. They all are animals, aren’t they? Unless, I keep tripping over that huge thing in the room…
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October 24, 2018 at 9:07am October 24, 2018 at 9:07am
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Prompt: The new normal. You have something devastating happen to you and you have to get your life back to normal. Have you ever had a new normal?
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Yes, since I’ve lived for quite some time, I’ve had quite a few new normals, but the newest normal just happened yesterday, although it doesn’t affect me directly.
I went for an eye check-up yesterday and found out from his sister that my eye-doctor had adrenal cancer. He is the doctor we have been seeing for almost three decades, and he is rather young to be so sick. The office is in the process of changing hands, and the new doctor I liked very much, but I so feel sad about what has been happening to this doctor, his family, and the office he has build so ambitiously and so charitably.
I recall when he had newly opened the office, on Fridays, he was seeing for free those patients who didn't have any insurance. Later on, he lifted the Friday clause, but I suspect he still did see poor people at a reduced rate or for free. He is a very nice man, and I feel really upset over this, but it is life and things like this happens. We have to go on.
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October 6, 2018 at 12:17am October 6, 2018 at 12:17am
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Prompt: When you were first beginning writing, who were your literary inspirations? What did you learn from their writing? Are they still as inspiring?
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In the very beginning when I was far too young, a set of children’s books by Comtesse de Segur were read to me, to teach me how to behave. There were several children in those books, but Sophie was the one I felt a certain kinship to because she always got in trouble although her ways were understandable, at least by me.
As soon as I learned to read, The Little Prince was the book to impress me greatly. I am sure it inspired me in some way, but I can’t say which.
After I wrote my first poem at eight--- it was about a violet, the wild flower-- other authors and poets began to have an effect on me.
Of my middle to high school years, my true inspiration came from Rumi and Dostoevsky, both introduced to me by a lit teacher.
Rumi opened my eyes to a feeling, a certain feeling of love for the divine and behavior because of it, something lofty that I hadn’t noticed in religion or in any other superficial spirituality. Since I refrain from talking about belief-related things in this blog, this is as much as I am going to say about Rumi.
Coming to Dostoevsky, I adored him, and still do. His work, especially the Idiot, showed me the innocence of a true human being, his ability to forgive, to accept people as they are, and to be as one is.
Dostoevsky’s novels point to a world of mystery and wonder. His characters live in a parallel reality with depth of internal dynamics and give-and-take of ideas – not the reality that is around them, although the real world around them exists and they live and survive within it. Then, at the drop of a hat, the author turns, deftly, villains into heroes and vice versa.
Even the dialogues in his works have an experimental, introspective quality, with questions and answers reminding one of the Socratic method, and yet, turning the interactions among characters into very lively exchanges.
Yes, Dostoevsky and Rumi are still inspirational for me.
Prompt: What are your writing goals for this fall? Are you doing NaNoWriMo? Entering contests? Blogging?
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I am now doing NaNo Prep. I don’t know how it will come out, but I’ll try for NaNo, as I have been doing almost every year. My blogging may suffer a bit, but I’ll try to write in my blog at least once in a while.
I don’t know about contests. Sometimes, an idea strikes and I do, but I am not much of a contest person, in general. Usually, I like to write what I want to write in one of my book items on the site.
Above all, my favorite type of writing is free-flow in a notebook with a pen, whenever I fine the extra time.
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October 4, 2018 at 12:27pm October 4, 2018 at 12:27pm
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Prompt: "Time unfolds beauty, wonder and mystery to reveal the auspicious tapestry of life." What are your thoughts on this?
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Life weaves its tapestry by interlacing good and bad threads. The good and the bad has to do with our thinking more so than what the events or actions may be in their absolute realities. As such, something good may evolve from something bad, and there’s always the hint of the bad in what we consider to be good.
Consequently, it is possible to face our fears without giving in to them, to keep our focus on what we need to be grateful for, and to recognize the ins and outs of life as parts of our experience on earth. Challenges may not be our destination, but they let us gain personality and character, make our living more interesting, and fill our journeys on this planet with insight.
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October 2, 2018 at 10:51pm October 2, 2018 at 10:51pm
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Prompt: "The true painter strives to paint what can only be seen through his world." Andre Malraux Do you think this applies to writers and words as well as painters? Write anything you want about this.
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That is true. The quote does apply, but it also applies to our imagination’s sight and insight.
If I am writing something fictional, I can only write what I can see, feel, and imagine. I think that is why most of us writers have as their main character in a story, a writer or someone who is working in a vocation similar to the day-job they have. Or else an enormous amount of extensive research is waiting for them with dubious results.
If I am a writer of realistic fiction, don’t ask me to write about a brain surgeon, and astronomer, or a computer geek. I can still write stories about those people, but I’ll either need help from people in those jobs or I’ll imagine their life and omit a lot of important facts.
I can also see in my imagination’s sight other realms, universes, or fantastic beings, but still, into them, I’ll reflect my ideas, feelings, and experiences.
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