One I did last night -- I posted it on its own in this forum, but I want to keep our Writer's Workshop going, so I'll post it here, too.

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Fortress (Defended)

You've hurt me for the last time --
The scars persist;
Solid, jagged, tracing a line
Back through so many years

Now the shield is raised,
The armor in place
The gates have been locked
The windows secured
The guards on alert
Defense as a "shell"

And it seems so strange
That it's come to this
(Just a short time ago
All the walls were down)

But I've learned a few things --
People; true colors
Lies built on more lies.
Neither you, nor your ilk,
Shall ever see inside
This damaged fortress again.

LF 12/21/08

Brilliantly written Lex!

Well thank you for contributing to it. I hope you can share more of your wisdom, experience, and if possible some short stories here for us.

I like the answers you gave for the 10 questions. You certainly have experienced much in your writing career. My hats off to you

My question for the day.

What methods would you suggest if one wanted to try to write poetry?

Read it. Get a book on forms. Take a class on the net somewhere, or join a poetry club or group. And last but not least, write.

As for getting ideas, well, if you are a writer, you may all ready have ideas on where to get some inspiration. Reading poetry is a good tool, if a certain phrase or group of words sticks to your mind, you may have the beginnings of a poem at work all ready. When it hits, have something to write on and a good pen or whatever you use. Explore everything, take a walk, notice colors, or shapes or perhaps how a bird reacts as you walk closer to it slowly, or perhaps make a journal full of words and phrases you would like to write a poem or peice about someday.

You could do what I did for fun, get a thesaurus and choose random words from it. Write them down on a notebook, make a big list. Then cut the words out of the page, one by one keeping the words whole. Than you put them in a bowl or whatever you want, and mix them up, than pic five words, or four words or more words, or if you want you can use them all. And write a poem or short story with it. Plus it is fun looking up the words in your thesaurus and dictionary to see what they mean. It is always good to write a words dictionary meaning beside it so you can get a better idea on how to use it.

Hope that helped, I have a ton of ways to get inspirations and ideas, I used to teach a poetry class. smiles

Also, pictures are great for inspiration for writing a poem. Or you can join a group on the net that can help you learn to write poetry. Or go to Poetry.org to look up lots of classics and new stuff

Methods....sheesh...

Is letting the insides, outside, a method?

Is letting go of form, of discipline and all the structure of this life a method?

To me and for me, poetry is soul expression...and requires no method, it's sharing the sense, the taste, the immersion of emotion, and freedom.


How does one instruct another on the taste of wind?

With 900 million or so words for water...who needs methodology?

This is very true, I agree on this point, you are such a fluid writer. I admire your attitude, very cool. I understand what you mean by methodology, one day I will tell you the story about a man I helped to write a poem for his dying wife. As for now, I think I am too raw today and it is late, my thoughts are not so organized. You rock Jess.

I finally finished my poetry books. A back to Back collection of poetry. The first is called, 'The Pathos Collection' the second is called, 'A Naked Dream Exposed'. I feel so good right now, I looked up to my hearts heaven and said when I finished placing them together, "Mama, I did it." I hug you all right now.

Well...

...I think of myself semi-retired, as of age 40... and I am 46 now. I don't live within the parameters of the society I live in. I do not punch a time clock, I do not work a regular job, and I am not independently wealthy.

I am a college student.

I teach guitar lessons for some money, but I only have 2 students at this time.

Guitar and electric guitars are one of my passions.

I suppose that is enough about me. It gets rather boring after that, it is more interesting to write about other stuff... like my adventures...


Jim

Where is it written that a writer must love to read?

I hate reading.

I love writing.

When I first heard about unabridged audio books, I thought to myself "THERE IS A GOD..." (I have 11 DVDs worth of audio books on mp3....) (probably in the neighborhood of 500+ audiobooks...)

If someone gets too wordy or blah blah blah with one of their posts, I will be the first one to skip it and go on to something else. I am usually the first to get too wordy and blah blah blah with my posts.

LOL.

OK, here goes... (brainstormed in no particular order)

Ursula K. Le Guin
- "The Earthsea Trilogy"
- "The Dispossessed"


J.R.R. Tolkien
- "The Hobbit"
- "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy"
- anything by Tolkien...


Thomas Freidman
- "The World is Flat" (I'll let you know if he stays on my list after I finish the book... if I ever finish the book... I hate to read...LOL))
- any other of his books pertaining to globalization (on the shelf waiting to be read)


H.G. Wells
- "The War of the Worlds" (30 years BEFORE it was a fugging Tom Cruise movie) (I hate Tom Cruise, I NEVER went to see the movie... by the trilaers it looked like the title could have been "Run, White Boy, Run...")


Ray Bradbury
- "Fahrenheit 451
- "The Martian Chronicles"


B.B. King
- his autobiography... read it cover to cover in 2 days... could NOT put it down (but then again, I love the blues)


George Orwell
- "1984" (I listened to the entire unabridged book on mp3 audio files... the most best better thing since sliced bread)


Franklin W. Dixon (a.k.a. Leslie McFarlane, et al)
- author of "The Hardy Boys" (when I was younger I did actually read...)


Stan Lee
- "The Amazing Spiderman" comic book. (I once owned every issue from # 30 To # 328, and was only lacking 12 of the first 30...) LONG before it was a movie... I am Spidey's biggest fan.
- "Fantastic Four" comic book
- "Ironman" comic book
- "Thor" comic book
- "The Incredible Hulk" comic book
- STAN LEE ROCKS !!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Lee


Screen Writers
- All the folks who write all the cool movie scripts... because I'd much rather watch a movie than read a book... LOL. I hate reading..... but I LOVE LOVE LOVE to write.

Great answers! Keep this workshop interesting by asking questions yourself if you can. If no questions are needed then please share your poetry or short writings if you may.

1. Who are your favorite authors and why do you like reading their books?
i like too many too list but michael chricton,stephen king,aristotle..
2. Why do you enjoy writing?
i have always loved to write, it expresses what im feeling inside and i think i have a keen sense of expressing them through words.

3. What are your goals concerning writing? Are you planning to write a novel? What kind of novel?
so far no novel...i have dabbled in music, song writing
4. What critical advice would you give someone if they asked you about how to start a novel?
imagination is the key to the world..

5. Do you get writer’s block and if so explain how do you resolve the problem?
most of the time no, but if i do i rely on the good ol web of ideas that i learned back in grade school.

6. What websites can you offer to people that can help find more information on writing?
to be honest i have no idea...search for it on google. lol

7. What is your favorite word?
way way too many to list

8. If you had a chance to learn from a professional writer (author), who would it be?
stephen king....i just think his creativity and intellegence is amazing.

9. At what time of the day do you get ideas for your writing projects?
randomly throughout the day.

10. Do you type on your computer or do you write it out on paper first?
on the computer, most the time when im typing i just think as i type, that way i can express exactly what i am thinking at that time.

It is a way to tap into my mind and bring forth thoughts and emotions through the English language. I like to touch people with the langauge.

The things I like to write about vary, I could best put them into some kind of a list in no particular order.

- The oddities of the social structure we live in.

- I love to write poetry

- I love writing research papers (thus, my desire to become a college professor)

- I like writing about the gear that musicians use to create live and recorded music.

- I like to write about Shaolin Kung Fu and traditional martial arts.

- Politics without arguing about politics.

- Religions, without arguing about religion.

- The cognitive mind and the deep thinking philosophical man.

- I like to discuss military small arms, rifles, pistols, and shotguns used for self defense, without arguing gun rioghts or anti-gun rights crap.

- I hate arguing of any kind no matter the topic.

- I find historical references fascinating and often twine them into other writings of mine.

- I love to write about my personal adventures in life. I have seen so much, done so many things, and I have many interesting stories to tell. If there was one novel I would like to write, it would be my own auto-biography of adventures.

I plan to have another research paper published in the next few weeks. I plan to continue to have papers published all the rest of the way through grad school. I should be ready to give my dissertation for my Ph.D. in 2015....

I would like to write a novel, or an auto-biography about my life's travels.

Wow you have alot going for you TelephoneMan. I hope you can share some of your experiences when you can and keep up the good work in getting that Ph.D! Very impressive!

Question for today:

Has anyone ever participated in a Writer's Conference of anykind or taken any Writing Classes in the past.

If so can you share your experience as it was in a classroom environment and what you had learned the most out of the time you spent in it.

I have taken two creative writing classes and two poetry classes. I have taught a class and hope to teach another. My take on the poetry class or creative writing class thing is, just have fun, socialize, be wild in your writings, just loosen up, experiment all you want. It will help loosen your writing tongue and you never know what you will discover about yourself, you may discover, you have writtne haiku all your life, but your darn good at writing sonnets too. smiles. Its all about fun.

and oh yeah, I took a childrens writing course but decided at the end of it i wanted to write for adults, not children, I discovered I had a knack for it. smiles

Thank you for sharing your suggestions. I am sure some will find it beneficial. It in the long run have fun writing and let your imagination go wild. I agree