Forsaking the Rutted Trail

Breaking out of routine both in thought and action has been a lift to my writing life this past month.

Exercise has hurt so good. In spite of sore muscles, my mood is elevated. Exercise seems to activate my creative brain waves, as if they’ve been in couch potato mode, too.

Poetry is currently my main writing focus, and I’m not being slack about it. I go to workshops and critique meetings, and I’ve joined several poetry groups. I’ll soon share a study I’m doing on ”Poetry in the Bible” with fellow members of the Houston Chapter of the Poetry Society of Texas. I also go to poetry readings to glean from other poets and read some of my own poems. I highly recommend the monthly poetry event “First Fridays” in Houston, which Robert Clark has been coordinating since 1975.

Work on my first book as well as a chapbook of poetry continues. These efforts to pull myself out of my unproductive daily rut are helped most by seeking inspiration and a change in thinking from extraordinary achievers. For instance, Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking, says this in Positive Living Day by Day: “You were not made to live a dull life. You were not put into this exquisite world, filled with beauty and fascination, to be less than an interested, excited human being.”

My efforts have been fruitful. As I was running errands recently, my eyes were opened to see extraordinary moments at almost every turn. I’ve never felt more like a writer, as I filled several pages of a small notebook recording those observations before they could escape me. It seems that all of life is poetry to the activated writer.

(published February 2007)