NaPoWriMo Day #2

Day's 2 Poem includes a cool web tool. I headed over to Acronym Attic, typed in the acronym RWP (for Read Write Poem--sponsor of the NaPoWriMo), and used one of the phrases associated with RWP in a poem. My phrase was "Regular White Paper".

Here's today's attempt:

Regular White Paper

I'll take
regular white paper--
no lines,
no colors,
no holes,
no bindings,
no percentage of post-consumer recyclability.
Just regular white paper
to make my
mark.

by Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 2, 2010

NaPoWriMo Day #1

Today is the first day of April, and the first day of my poem-a-day challenge. I am reading the Read Write Poem prompts. Some days I'll try them. Other days, I might just do my own thing.

Today's prompt was to "Shuffle a Poem". You can view the details here, but the gist is that you shuffle your iPod. Write down the first 5 titles that pop up and use them in a poem.

Here's my attempt.

Fellow traveler--
Do you hide behind your
       book,
       earbuds,
       laptop?
So much for my sad song...

Do you miss
      hearing,
      noticing,
      wondering
what might have been if you
let the words escape?

Do you want to
     see,
     connect,
     believe?

Pardon my dust...
You can sit here.
What I've witnessed is
indescribable.

by Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 1, 2010

Playlist:
Fellow Traveler--Ginny Owens
Indescribable--Chris Tomlin
Let the Words Escape--Chris Rice
Pardon My Dust--Chris Rice
So Much for My Sad Song--Chris Rice
(So much for shuffling--3 of them by the same artist--sorry)

Animating the Inanimate

The Miss Rumphius Effect has issued a Monday Poetry Stretch to animate the inanimate.

On Wednesday, my parents will disembark a plane from Thailand and see their two grandsons, now 9 months and 11 months. They are very different boys from when they saw them last at 1 month and 3 months. They will also see their two granddaughters, ages 6 and 5, who have grown a lot too.

Airplane
by Marcie Flinchum Atkins

Airplane,
poses like a great winged bird
who never flaps his wings.
Airplane,
poised for take-off
goes from 0 to 600
quick enough
to make your ears pop
and your sinuses dry out.
Airplane,
closes up
like a Tupperware container,
preserving people
from one destination
to the next.
Airplane,
nose dives and screeches
to a halt,
spitting out people,
stretching and anxious
to hug awaiting necks.

Time Marches On

I realized last summer that if I wanted to write, really write, I was going to just have to make time. No more excuses. See, I have been involved in these wonderful MA and MFA programs of Children's Literature at Hollins Unversity. Every summer, I became a writing maniac. I banged out a lot of writing, but I had a hard time keeping motivated after Hollins. When September hit and school got into full swing, I would taper off.

My life has gotten busier, and since I have two kids, I don't think it will settle down for many, many years. I made a determination. Write. Write. Write. Even if it is only for 15 minutes everyday.

Things I've learned about myself in this process:

1) Deadlines help me. I joined a local critique group. I must turn something into them every month, so I'm accountable.
2) Challenges help me. I did the picture book marathon in February. I have spent much of March rewriting and writing some more. I will be doing a poem-a-day in the month of April.
3) Little bits of time do add up. I write in the evenings after my kids go to bed. I am a morning person, but so is my son. So unless I get up before 4:30am to write, I have to write after he goes to bed at 7:00pm. I always have a journal in my bag so I can write when I have short snippets of time. When my daughter has ballet, I throw Cherrios at my son, and revise my writing. When she has Daisy Scouts, I leave my son with my hubby, and I write in my car while I am waiting for her to come out. It does add up.
4) I really don't need to watch TV that much. The best Christmas present I bought myself is a DVR. I record things I want to watch. I'm not beholden to that stupid TV. I watch it without commercials when I have time on the weekends.
5) Sometimes writing is serendipitous. I feel like ever since I made the commitment, I have found lots of articles about this very idea. Apparently it's a very common thing.
* Kristi Holl at Writer's First Aid talks about using "hidden time" to write.
* Kim Norman talked about "squeezing creativity into an overbooked life" at her talk at the VSRA conference (which I didn't get to go to, but her handout is on their website). She gives a dozen habits to foster creativity.
* Eileen Spinelli talks about this on an e-mail I just received from Highlights Foundation. I couldn't find this online, so I'll quote from the e-mail. Spinelli says, "In terms of 'writing time'—it's not a matter of finding it. It's a matter of making it." She also talks about finding snippets of time in your day.

6) Taking a day off is okay. I have worked 12 out of the last 14 days. I was exhausted, mentally and physically. Yesterday I cleaned my house, took care of two sick kids, and I read a book! I read the last 250 pages of the latest Jodi Picoult novel called House Rules. I was about halfway through yesterday morning and it was already two days overdue.  I never turned my computer on all day. And I don't feel one bit guilty about it.

Now...off to practice what I preach. I will be writing...

Throwing My Hat in the Ring...

Call me a glutton for punishment... or just a person who thrives on deadlines. In any case, I'm joining Read Write Poem's NaPoWriMo for the month of April.

The challenge? Write a poem a day in the month of April.

I recently participated in the Picture Book Marathon in the month of February. It was a struggle, but I eeked out 26 picture books. And I'm still working on them--one by one. It will take me a long time to make my way through them all, but it was worth it. I have a huge folder full of material to work with.

I hope this poetry challenge will be good for me too. I bought a new journal at Michael's for a dollar for all of my little poems to go into.

What do I think will be challenging? It will be spring, so I'll probably want to be outside more than inside. That being said, many of my poems might be about my garden, spring, etc because I'll probably take that journal outside with me.

Also, my parents will be visiting, so I may alter my writing schedule a bit. I don't get to visit with them very often, so I will be taking advantage of getting to spend some time with them.

But...it's a poem a day. Even if I get a draft or two of each poem done, I think that's an accomplishment.

I'll publish a few here, but I might try to work a few into my novel-in-progress which has poems in it.

Eat Your Greens for St. Paddy's Day

The Miss Rumphius Effect issued another Monday Poetry Stretch. Today it was all about flowers in spring. I didn't write about flowers exactly, but I did write about something we discovered this weekend while getting ready to plant our spring veggies.

Greens

Last year’s lettuce
seeded itself,
after July's growth spurt.

Seeds huddled together
under snow
popping up in time


for salad on St. Patrick’s Day.

by Marcie Flinchum Atkins

Writer on the Move

I have been in a good mode lately--writing everyday. I've been writing something, even it's something very small. This weekend, however, didn't work. For the next two Saturdays I have to work my day job. My parents are coming in 3 weeks. They live in Thailand, so when they come to visit, they stay for a couple of months. After my youngest took over the guest room, we've had to move my parents to my office. It gives them some privacy, but I have to relocate my writing location temporarily.

The good?
I cleaned out a LOT of stuff. I pared my writing paraphernalia down to the absolute necessities to bring upstairs. I can always get things out of my office, but I didn't want to clutter up my bedroom with more stuff than needed. I brought up my laptop, my printer, my basket of pens and markers, sticky notes, and two file boxes of books and files. That's it. And when I move back into my office in June, I will be going back to a clean space with little clutter of files, papers, and such.

The bad?
This writer didn't write all weekend. She spent time cleaning out. Fourteen hours to be exact. I didn't spend all of that time in my office, but my office, plus my entire upstairs got a deep clean and reorganization. The downstairs will still hasn't been fully cleaned and decluttered.

I did do some writerly things though. I cleaned up my writing stuff and I went to my writing critique group. So, I have a mission for the week--work on what they suggested.

The second part is that I will have to redo my routine. Normally, kids to bed, then I go down to write in "the cave" (as my hubby calls it). Now, I'll have to write in my room. Change of place, but hopefully my mindset will still be there.